JESUS CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
JESUS CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
February 4, 2025
I overstated my teaching ability to cover the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Book of Leviticus in one message. It is much too wide, deep, high and rich to be covered in 100 sermons. I do have on the website sermons on the offerings, priesthood, and feasts. Let us enjoy today and celebrate the glorious revealing of Christ Jesus in Leviticus.
In Geneses we saw man ruined. In Exodus, we saw man redeemed. Now in Leviticus, we see man worshiping. In Geneses we saw the man of worship. In Exodus we saw the place of worship. In Leviticus we see the manner of worship. For only those whom the Lord calls does He seek to worship Him (Jn. 4:23-24; Psa. 65:4).
An access of worship is revealed which brings the child of God into the liberty of the Year of Jubilee. Those who make their journey through Leviticus will break forth into their Year of Jubilee regardless of their age, or the calendar year.
In Exodus the Tabernacle is described and constructed while in Leviticus the prescribed offerings and the ministry of the priesthood is introduced and outlined. Next the laws and regulations governing every area of the life of the people and priests are given.
In the Old Testament, the priesthood had no earthly inheritance as the Lord Himself was their portion.
Heb. 6: 19-20: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil; Where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
He has gone in and he hasn’t come out. He won’t come out until His Body, the Church, goes in and stays in with Him. Then when He comes out, He will come out with His brethren in the more excellent ministry and every eye shall see Him. Do you desire to be part of such priesthood? Then ask the Lord to open your eyes to see the hope of His calling.
Leviticus means “that which pertains to Levi”, (the priestly tribe). It is called the Book of Worship and The Book of Approach.
Leviticus was written by Moses. Together with Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, these are called “The law of Moses” (Lk. 24:27; 44; Acts 28:23), and “The Book of Moses” (Mk. 12:26). The book of Leviticus covers approximately one month: the first month of the second year after Israel came out of Egypt.
The purpose of the book is to give to Israel their proper approach to God; to instruct the priests concerning their ministry of offerings sacrifices or oblations and to give distinction between the clean and unclean.
In this book, God reveals that He is Holy, and His Presence with man demands man’s obedience to Him. Man must approach God on God’s terms. There is a Divine order. A pattern is laid before the Israelites of five major offerings and three major feasts. The offerings detailed different aspects of the nature of the One Who is the True Sacrifice. The feasts parallel with the process involved in seeking after God and His principles, renewing the mind, and being progressively changed into His image.
Jesus Christ is seen in the Book of Leviticus as:
1. The Sacrifice and Oblation. (Heb. 10:12)
2. The Holy High Priest who makes Atonement with His blood. (Heb. 9:14).
3. The Way of Approach unto God. (Heb. 7:25)
4. The Burnt Offering (Lev. 1; Jn. 8:29)
5. The Meal Offering. (Lev. 2; Jn. 8:29)
6. The Peace offering. (Lev. 3; 11 Cor. 5:17-21)
7. The Sin offering. (Lev. 4; Heb. 9-10)
8. The Trespass Offering. (Lev. 5; Heb. 9-10)
9. The Wave Offering. (Lev. 10:14; Jn. 1:8)
10. The Heave Offering. (Lev. 10:14; Isa. 6-7)
11. The Priest Who cleanses the Leper. (Lev. 13; Mt. 8:2)
12. The Little Bird who was killed over running water. (Lev. 14:5; Isa. 53).
13. The Lord’s (Jehovah’s) Goat. (16:8; Heb. 9:14).
14. The Scapegoat (Lev. 16:8; Isa. 53:6)
15. The Bread of God (Lev. 21:8, 21; Jn. 6:48)
16. The Feasts of Jehovah:
(a) The Passover Lamb --Lev. 23: 4-5 – 1 Cor. 5:7
(b) The Unleavened Bread Lev. 23: 6-8; 1 Cor. 5:8
© The Sheaf of the Firstfruits Lev.23: 9-14; 1 Cor. 15:20
(d) The New Meat Offering of Pentecost. Lev.23: 15-22; Gal. 4:6
(e) The Priest Who blows the Trumpet. 23: 23-25; Mk. 1: 14-15
(f) The Atonement Lev. 23:26-32; Heb. 9-10
(g) The Tabernacle of the Fullness of God. 23: 33-44; Co. 2:9
17. The Pure Olive Oil. (Lev. 24:2; Acts 10:38)
18. The Pure Candlestick (Lev. 24:8)
19. The Jubilee (Lev. 25:10; Lk. 4:18)
20. The Tithe. (Lev. 27:32; Isa. 6:13; Heb. 7:26)
The message of the Book of Leviticus:
1. God is Holy.
2. Approach to God is only through a mediating priest (Jesus Christ offering a blood-sacrifice for atonement).
3. A worshipper must be separated unto the Lord.
4. God demands holy living.
5. A holy nation must have a holy lifestyle.
6. Leviticus reveals the dealings of God in sanctification and purification.
7. It took God one night to get Israel out of Egypt. It took forty years to bring Egypt out of Israel.
8. This book teaches us much about Jesus Christ through the use of types, for He is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system and priestly mediation.
9. Get right with God and keep right with God.
10. Sacrifice is the way of approach (The Hebrew word Korban means “to draw near or approach.”). It has been my experience that the anointing is magnified through obedience and sacrifice. That which we give the Lord sacrificially is a burnt offering unto him.
11. The five offerings point to the various aspects of Jesus The Offering, and also to the five-fold ministry of Eph. 4:11.
12. The three Feasts broken down into seven feasts reveal a pattern of the development and growth of the believer which can be paralleled to the history of the Church from Luther to the present.
13. The Garments of the High Priest also reveal a pattern of the believer’s development which can be paralled to the study of the Tabernacle of Moses.
14. Aaron and his four sons are a type of the five-fold ministry of Eph. 4:11.
15. The sons of Aaron speak of the royal priesthood of 1 Pet. 2: 9-10.
16. The realm of the Kingdom is the Holy of Holies (Ez. 43: 10-12).
Sue Baird, Teacher at Praise Tabernacle separated this into six sections of study:
Under the six headings, there are four scripture references:
1. A verse from the Old Testament book of Leviticus.
2. A verse from the New Testament.
3. A verse pertaining to the Pattern Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. A verse pertaining to the Kingdom people who are made in His image.
1. COVENANT PRINCIPLE: WORSHIP
(a) You shall make no idols nor graven image…and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.(Lev. 26:1, 11-12)
(b) …You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you Serve… (Mt. 4: 8-10)
(c) “God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth.” (Jn. 4:24).
(d) For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. (Phil. 3:3).
2. COVENANT NATION: SEPARATED
(a) …I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other People…” (Lev. 20:24).
(b) According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Eph. 1:4).
(c) I have given them your word; and the world has hated them. Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (Jn. 17:4).
(d) Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Cor. 2:12; 11 Tim 2:20-21).
3. COVENANT PEOPLE: TAUGHT.
(a) After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, shall you not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, shall you not do: neither shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do my judgments and keep my ordinances…I am the Lord your God. (Lev. 18: 3-4),
(b) …forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before… (Phil. 3:13).
(c) And they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto me. (Jn. 6:4-5).
(d) If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits…set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. (Col. 3: 1-2).
4. GOD’S WAYS: HOLY
(a) For I am the Lord that brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 11: 4-5).
(b) …great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways. You King of saints. (Rev. 15:3).
(c) And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him (Heb. 5:9).
(d) Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (11 Cor. 7:1).
5. GOD’S WORKS: SANCTIFIER.
(a) And you shall keep my statutes and do them: I am the Lord which sanctifies you. (Lev. 20:8).
(b) By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb. 10:10).
(c) Sanctify them through your truth: Your word is truth. (Jn. 17:17)
(d) And such were some of you; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:11)
6. GOD’S WORD: “BE HOLY”
(a) Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, you shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. (Lev. 19:2).
(b) Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy: for all nations shall come and worship before you; for your judgments are made manifest. (Rev. 15:4)
(c) Be you perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Mt. 5:48).
(d) I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God…But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now has obtained mercy. (Rom 12: 1-2; 1 Pet. 2: 9-10).
Chapter One begins with the importance of the offerings. These truths were communicated by Jehovah through Moses as revelatory truth from the Mind of God.
The institution (first act) of sacrifice was an act performed by God for the purpose of relieving the conscience from its sense of guilt and shame. (Gen. 3:21). The provision of covering for the bodies of our first parents was a provision for the covering of man’s sins and for mending the break of the fellowship between God and man caused by sin. Faith in this Divine principle secured Abel’s acceptance with God. Lack of this faith resulted in Cain’s rejection.
Since the life of the flesh is in the Blood, blood must be shed for the atonement of life. Man is doomed as a sinner and God purposes to save him. The life has been forfeited because of sin, and, as a debt due justice, should be returned to Him that gave it (man should die). But God provides a way of escape and appoints a substitute. A life is given for the life of man. The way to life is through death. The only way of approach to God is by means of sacrifice and Blood. Therefore, the sacrifices of the Tabernacle were the pivotal point around which the whole service revolved. Everything centers in and about the Person of the Lord Jesus, for He is the LAMB without blemish and without spot.
The efficacy of the animal sacrifice was limited. They covered sin but could not take it away. An animal could not provide a perfect atonement.
What gave animal sacrifices their efficacy, their power to cover sin, was the Perfect Sacrifice (Jesus Christ) foreordained before the foundation of the world. These sacrifices looked forward to the CROSS. Thus, illuminated in faith, Israelites would look to the heavenly pattern given to Moses on the mount and look forward to the coming of the perfect sacrifice of which the animal sacrifices were but a type.
There were five offerings because five is the number of Grace. (Lev. 1-5). The offerings as a whole present man’s access to the Father through the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one offering could adequately or fully express Calvary’s work, so there are five offerings which together bring out a complete picture of Christ in His atoning work.
I have a teaching on all five offerings on the website.
I have several teachings on the Priesthood. It was one of the early deep studies I did. These are the Garments. Sermon “Aaron’s Garments,” “The Priesthood.”
The Aaronic priesthood continued until the death of Christ in the days of Caiaphas, the High Priest. Then it ended, for Christ passed within the veil and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high as the Great High Priest and took upon Himself the ministry of intercession for the whole Church of God.
While the Aaronic priesthood was God-ordained and sufficient for the times, it was by no means perfect because it was functioned by men who knew sin and, therefore, were subjected to death. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law.” (Gal. 4:4).
The Apostle in the Book of Hebrews takes up the subject of Melchisedec and shows him to be a more perfect priest than any of the Aaronic family, finally declaring that Christ was not only after the order of Melchisedec but that He superseded all, for He opened a “new and living way” by His Death so that we could “draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.
In the Old Testament Priesthood, a priest was chosen of God, the property of God, Holy unto God, offered gifts and sacrifices unto God, took gifts from God, taught the people about God, and prayed for the people of God (Heb. 5:1-4).
When Jesus came to earth to establish His Kingdom. There was a transition of one order of ministry to another (from Aaronic to Melchisedec, from in-part to fullness. (Heb. 7)
The Feast days are given in Lev. 23, which were and are occasions when Israel kept Divine appointments; times when they assembled before the Lord; times of gladness and joy; times of festivity. All their worship centered around these three major religious festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. This is the number of the Godhead and also a complete or perfect testimony or witness. In Passover we meet the Son. In Pentecost we meet the Holy Spirit, and in Tabernacles we meet the Father. (a complete salvation of Spirit, soul, and body).
Lev. 25, takes us to the Year of Jubilee.
On the Day of Jubilee, Liberty was proclaimed throughout the land to all the inhabitants as men were set free and prison doors were opened. Holiness marked this year which was also a Sabbath year for the land. No sowing or reaping was to be done. The land was to rest.
The Jubilee is prophetic of the Lord Jesus, who came to deliver the beggar, brokenhearted, bound, blind and bruised and to proclaim the acceptable year (Jubilee) of the Lord, which he proclaimed to be fulfilled at the beginning of His earthly ministry.
In the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, He came to Nazareth. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. There was delivered to Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the minister, and sat down. The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began to say to them, “this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” The word is “scripture is fulfilled”.
Lev. 26 is the principles of obedience and disobedience. It is magnificent in its promises and frightful in warnings. It is one of the great chapters of the Bible.
Lev. 27 is the principle of vows and tithes.
Lev. 27:28-34: : No devoted offering that a man may devote to the LORD of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the LORD….all the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD. If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX
Scripture from K.J.V. and N.K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Principles of Present Truth on Leviticus by Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Dr. Varner.