Leviticus gets the short end of the stick.
Pastors rarely exhort congregants to start their Bible reading in Leviticus. Adjectives for the book abound: boring, dense, antiquated, dull.
To most, it is a list of rules for an ancient people who weren’t able to keep them.
But David found treasure in the book of Leviticus. In his Psalms, he wrote, “Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
Leviticus is central to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. They were most likely all the Scripture David would have known. What did he see in God’s law that made him love it?
Buried deep in Leviticus, there is this: “I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid…I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be My people.”
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul… I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
David was able to extract the sweetness of Psalm 23 from the aridity of Leviticus because he knew that the Lord was able to cause streams to flow even in the desert. He was on the hunt, not for rules to follow that would bring him closer to God, but on truths about how God invites us to draw nearer to Him.
I have been visiting my parents, and their pastor shared an illustration about a man who had fallen in a river. He was rushing toward a towering waterfall, and he had a choice to make. He could either grab on to a large log floating beside him or cling to a rope someone threw from shore.
The Pastor explained that the log is all our good works, all of our law keeping. Eventually, even that sturdy log will also plummet over the precipice of the cataract. However, the rope was securely linked to safe ground and would save the man, if only he had faith enough to let go of his sinking works to grab hold.
Once Jesus brings us safely to shore, He changes us so that we no longer act like drowning men. His Holy Spirit helps us live holy lives, not because we are law-keepers but because we belong to the Law Giver.
David knew this secret. He wrote, “Great peace have those who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble.”
We can love Leviticus because we love the Lord who spoke the words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”
Freedom indeed.
Sarah Dixon Young 