There was blood

I started reading Leviticus (Latin for "about Levites") yesterday. It's not a book I'd choose to read on my own, but one of the advantages of following a Bible reading plan is that it forces you to read things you wouldn't otherwise. There are some wonderful things in this obscure book of the Bible! A good way to find this out would be to read Leviticus in conjunction with Hebrews. There's a sense in which Hebrews is a commentary on and fulfillment of Leviticus. A word that theologians often use to describe the things found in Leviticus is "typology". For instance, the priestly ministry of Aaron and his sons was a "type" of the ministry of Yeshua, the Great High Priest and Lamb of God. Perhaps more than any other book, Leviticus also shows us something of the holiness of God and the holiness he expects of his people. Also, some might be surprised to know that "The Second Commandment" cited by Jesus is found in Lev. 19:18 ("you shall love your neighbor as yourself"). Jesus quoted often from this book.

Leviticus is graphic and bloody. Despite the wonderful things in it, I thank God I live on this side of the great events it points to. It's here that we get the fullest picture of the system of animal sacrifice handed down by God to Moses at Sinai. It's stomach-turning, but perhaps the ancient Jews had an advantage over us in this way. They must have had a daily, sensory, existential reminder of the horror of sin that we don't have. Some have the misconception that animal sacrifice was only done periodically, and only by priests. Actually, it was a daily part of the life of any God-fearing Israelite. Try to imagine placing your hand on the head of a goat or lamb that your family had raised. Then imagine taking a knife and slitting it's throat, watching the blood and life drain out.

Or try to imagine this particular passage: Lev. 4:4-12. There must have been rivers of blood flowing, and fires burning, night and day. Think of the priest carrying "the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung" on the long walk "outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap" where he would "burn it up on a fire of wood." I picture him carrying the load in a crude wagon or in a large pot with handles. With every step, the stench must have been a reminder of how God perceived sin.

Francis Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War classic Apocalypse Now (loosely based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness) has an atonement motif running thoughout. In the climactic scene, the mad Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) recounts to Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) the atrocities he's been a part of. Kurtz knows that Willard has been sent upriver to "terminate" his command. Kurtz seemingly offers himself up as a willing victim to Willard, and as he lays dying mutters to no one in particular "the horror, the horror". Meanwhile, outside a bull is ceremonially slaughtered by a group of natives. I'm not sure what exactly Coppola had in mind here, but it shows how the concepts of atonement and blood sacrifice are an inextricably linked part of our primal wiring.

Of course, blood sacrifice seems barbaric and strange to most of us, but the Bible says "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Heb. 9:22) And the primal need for atonement is still there if you dig deeply enough -- part of God's law written on our hearts. (Rom. 2:15) I'm very glad I don't have to seek atonement for sin in the way Leviticus describes! I find the thought of killing an animal (and all that went with it) repulsive and the sight of blood makes me faint. I don't have to because Jesus "entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." (Heb. 9:12) Lord, give me a fresh sense of the horror and costliness of your atonement for my sins!

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Robert Lowry, Nothing but the Blood