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Commentary INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS Click Here to Listen to This Chapter |
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TRoach Comment:
Leviticus is one of the books of the bible that, in my opinion, tends to cause most people to stop reading the bible for it is mostly the laws, ritual and ceremonies practiced in those days. Thus, it is much like reading one of today’s law books, it is just not overly exciting reading. However, once one is up to reading the book it does make understanding many of the events and actions of people in the Old and New Testament much easier. For these were the laws many of the Leaders, Priests and People mentioned in the Bible tried to follow.
When one is up to reading Leviticus, it does help to learn a little about what living in those days was like. As well as remembering that today due to better health standards in food and many other areas, not to mention the many, many improvements in medical science and the understanding of diseases many things are now considered safe that would have been very dangerous to a person in those days. Thus by today’s standards many of the things done in those days would be considered strange or even cruel. However, when one considers that most of the things we have today were not available and in most cases had not even been invented, many of the rules make a lot more sense. Though I will admit there are some of the statements that, even now, I wonder why something would be done that way.
But, to be honest, I wonder the same thing about some of the laws that are being passed by our governments today.
Commentary from:
Matthew Henry's Commentary of the Bible
Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714)
Leviticus:
An Exposition, with Practical Observations,
of The Third Book of Moses, Called Leviticus
There is nothing historical in all this book of Leviticus except the account which it gives us of the consecration of the priesthood (chapters 8-9), of the punishment of Nadab and Abihu, by the hand of God, for offering strange fire (chapter 10), and of Shelomith's son, by the hand of the magistrate, for blasphemy (chapter 24). All the rest of the book is taken up with the laws, chiefly the ecclesiastical laws, which God gave to Israel by Moses, concerning their sacrifices and offerings, their meats and drinks, and divers washings, and the other peculiarities by which God set that people apart for himself, and distinguished them from other nations, all which were shadows of good things to come, which are realized and superseded by the gospel of Christ.
We call the book Leviticus, from the Septuagint, because it contains the laws and ordinances of the levitical priesthood (as it is called, Hebrews 7:11), and the ministrations of it. The Levites were principally charged with these institutions, both to do their part and to teach the people theirs. We read, in the close of the foregoing book, of the setting up of the tabernacle, which was to be the place of worship; and, as that was framed according to the pattern, so must the ordinances of worship be, which were there to be administered. In these the divine appointment was as particular as in the former, and must be as punctually observed. The remaining record of these abrogated laws is of use to us, for the strengthening of our faith in Jesus Christ, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and for the increase of our thankfulness to God, that by him we are freed from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and live in the times of reformation.