Leviticus
There's a number of
people I've met who have made the excellent resolution to read the entire
Bible. With determination in their hearts, they sit down and start reading
Genesis, "In the beginning...." After quickly reading the fifty
exciting and involved chapters of that first book of the Bible, they hunger for
more, and turn at once to Exodus, the second book. Here too, they find
themselves on pretty familiar holy ground: the life of Moses, and the
liberation of the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt, the 10 commandments, and
many other precepts of the Torah.
And yet, after awhile,
a bit past the midway point of the 40 chapters of Exodus, many readers find the
wheels of their enthusiasm clogged by the tedious details recounting obsolete
case law and outmoded liturgical practices. Upon reaching the end of Exodus,
and the beginning of Leviticus, readers are thrown into a panic as they find
themselves hurled into the midst of a flooding sea (27 chapters!) of such
minutia, with no clear way out! And so all too often, that noble intention of
reading the whole Bible gets drowned and lamentably lost in the Book of
Leviticus.
Yes, Leviticus, I will
admit, right offhand, is one of the hardest biblical books to read. It presents
excessively detailed laws about even the smallest little things that touch upon
cultic worship and daily life for the Jewish people way back then, about 33
hundred years ago, so naturally, it's rather difficult for us to relate now to
so many of those things. Does that mean we shouldn't read the book of Leviticus
at all? Well, if it's going to cover and wash away all the forces of your
enthusiasm for reading scripture, then we'd have to admit you probably should
"let it go," and pass over the book of Leviticus.
On the other hand, if nothing
else, at least the verse from Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor as
yourself!" is affirmed by Jesus as one of the greatest commandments (cf.
Matthew 22:39), and so, if you figure there's got to be some good reason that
the book of Leviticus was included in Sacred Scripture, then I invite you to
come closer, stretch out your hand, and open your Bible to the book of
Leviticus, and then do not fear to march into the midst of this third book, and
see how the Lord will part the sea of our difficulties, with every tedium like
a wall to our left and our right....