Leviticus 1-3

Leviticus opens like this: “Then the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying…” This makes it clear that it is continuing the story revealed in Exodus. Exodus ended like this: 40:34 -35 - Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

So while Leviticus is a separate book in our bibles, it’s still the same story. Leviticus records events that happen immediately after the tabernacle was set up… and it provides teaching related to worship, ritual purity, and holiness all because God is now living in their midst in the tabernacle.

The situation is this… God, the holy King of heaven and of Israel, has come to live right the middle of their camp in his own sacred, royal tent. His glory filled the tabernacle and no one can enter, not even Moses.

Leviticus picks up at this point and it’s going to provide instructions on what Israel needs to do to be able to draw near to God at the tabernacle: atonement will be need; ritual purity must be attended to; and holiness in all of life must also be attended to.

This is where we’re at in the story and this is what Leviticus is all about.

So, Leviticus 1-7 begins those instructions by providing instructions for the various sacrifices. There are 5 main sacrifices (with occasional variations on some of them). But 5 main ones:

Burnt offering
Grain offering
Peace or Fellowship offerings
Sin/Purification offering
Guilt/reparation offerings

Leviticus 1-3 provides instructions for the first three sacrifices.

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