Lifeway’s Explore the Bible series continues after Exodus with Leviticus, “Design for Right Living.” I’ve decided to continue through Leviticus and see if the response to these posts continues to be good. Lifeway’s outline for Leviticus is:
Unit 3: Design for Right Living
- Do Right When You Do Wrong (Leviticus 1:1-16:34)
- Stay Away from Perverted Practices (Leviticus 17:1-22:33)
- Show Others Godly Grace (Leviticus 23:1-27:34)
Lifeway continues its vigorous pace to test students and, more so, teachers with enormous sections of Scripture to digest. As always, the best thing for both groups to do is read and re-read and re-read the Bible.
The best background to Leviticus is Exodus. On my first introduction to Exodus I added links to all the Exodus lessons. I hope to post a few brief comments tonight or tomorrow morning though I may leave out the outline because of the sheer mass of Scripture being presented.
A few introductory thoughts I’ll include here in hopes you find time to introduce Leviticus to your class. Leviticus is named Leviticus because it is mostly the instruction for the Levites on their duties. It continues the Law of God so we have to be careful when applying it. None of us live in a theocracy (a government which God has promised to lead, protect, and provide for). So when we apply this part of the Bible we need to keep in mind that the judicial rulings give us good lessons on what pleases God but not on what we should do when we encounter things that displease God. A good example is Leviticus 18:8, “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.” And the consequence was leaving the person to die, “cut off from among their people” (Leviticus 18:29). But Paul interprets it differently by removing the person from the church and disassociate with them (1 Corinthians 5) but with a more specific purpose (1 Corinthians 5:5). So our applications must follow Paul. The Israel of today is the church, not a nation. So our applications are centered on the church, its health, and the health of its members.
