What I learned about Leviticus: A Personal Reflection (and class teaser)

I still remember the yellow notebook that I took notes in.

I remember the crazy scribbles I made trying to capture everything. I remember a lot of confusion lifting and finally understanding the book of Leviticus for the first time. This was in 2009. And to this day, I'm thankful for the time I spent learning Leviticus from Professor Garner.

Sacrifices scared me. I had the idea that God was so disgusted with me that he needed the blood of an animal just to be around me. In my mind, sacrifice was about God devising a way of putting up with me.

Then I learned that the heart of the sacrificial system was that God wanted for me to know him more; He wanted me to draw close to him.

I remember professor Garner talking about this idea of "drawing close." He used the analogy that the more you know someone, the closer you will let them be to your house. There is a difference between talking with someone at your fence, talking with someone at your door, and then finally letting them into your home. As you grow in trust and friendship, you let them draw near.

But this still bothered me a bit. Why doesn't God just fling the door open and let people come in. Why does he keep people at a distance in the first place?

Professor Garner explained that when you let someone into your home, people associate you with that person.

If they go out and do terrible things, then that doesn't reflect on you well. Increased closeness to God meant an increased responsibility to represent God well. That's why God had to put them through a process by which they could learn who he was and what he wanted. This takes time.

This was the key! God wanted to be close to me, but I had to truly know him, not just bank on whatever idea I had of him (like the idea that he was disgusted with me). He had graciously provided the people of Israel a way of getting to know him, so that they could represent him well.

You sometimes see people who get enthusiastic about God, and then, because they don't really know him, do foolish things and suffer some really bad consequences from that. I saw that God, gracious and loving as always, wanted to protect me from that.

It's been more than a decade since I took Reading the TaNaK at The Institute, but I'll never forget the exhilaration of finally making sense of Leviticus. My hope is that our students today have some wonderful moments of clarity in this class. Believe me, they will change your life.

Institute course lectures are available to students via video and podcast and are coupled with in-person workshops where students meet face-to-face with instructors and work through material in dynamic activities.