The first five Books of the Bible (known as the Pentateuch) have a unifying Theme. “How to know God, how to dwell in His Presence!”

And to know Him in this way … there is a very specific Path to follow, into the very Throne Room of Glory. And it deals with blood … blood which ultimately points to Jesus Christ’s victorious Death on the old rugged Cross!

Leviticus, our Text for this Bible Study Series, pursues that Theme. Accenting WORSHIP in the Presence of the Lord.

So this question nearly asks itself … the point/focus of today’s Lesson … “What is the Central Theme/ Holy Spirit Highlighted Message of Leviticus?”

And the answer is “THE DAY OF ATONMENT!” That’s the Center of the Book, of Leviticus!

True, Chapter 16 (the “Day of Atonement” chapter) is not the mathematical center of Leviticus. But it is the structural center! It is the theological center. If so, that Event (the Day of Atonement) is automatically the “center” of the whole Pentateuch! (Since Leviticus is the very center Book of the Pentateuch, as we saw in our previous Lesson.)

Let me show you two or three ways that Bible Teachers (through the years) have arrived at the conviction of Leviticus 16’s Centrality.

One posits this. The Book alternates between God giving His LAW, and the NARRATIVE that precedes or follows that giving of the Law. Thus we have a sevenfold division of Leviticus … LAW, NARRATIVE, LAW, NARRATIVE, LAW, NARRATIVE, LAW. And (obviously) the center of that litany is the middle NARRATIVE I have underlined … which equates to Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement Story!

Another writer (a Leviticus scholar) counts 37 “Speeches” of God in the Book. With 18 being one either side of Leviticus 16 … with God’s Words there (in chapter 16) being the Center Speech of them all. Again emphasizing the necessity of the DAY OF ATONMENT! Bloodshed … necessary in knowing/fellowshipping with God!

Yet a third Bible Preacher suggests this similar Pattern. Leviticus chapters 1-7 and 23-27 both contain “Sanctuary Laws.” Then Leviticus chapters 8-10 and 21-22 contain “Priestly Laws.” Then chapters 11-15 and 17-20 contain “Personal Laws.” (Indeed they do.) All that leaves is then Leviticus chapter 16 … at the Center of the whole Corpus! And again … that is the Day of Atonement Chapter!

It is central!

Jesus’ Cross … His shed Blood … His vicarious Death being placed in the Foreground … beginning with the Bible’s first Five Books! Granted: in Type and Symbol and Shadow and Word Pictures … but it is the CROSS OF CALVARY nonetheless!

Wow!

More about the Day of Atonement in a later Lesson, but at least now we are aware of its overarching Influence in both Leviticus and the entire Pentateuch.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I am amazed!

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I never dreamed that such an integral relationship existed among the first five Books of the Bible! They are arranged concentrically. Like a chiasm, in fact. The theologians diagram it like this: A B C B A … with each letter representing one of the sequential Books of the Pentateuch.

By that I mean Genesis and Deuteronomy “match,” covering much of the same material, the same themes. So do Exodus and Numbers, the journeys of Israel being the focus of both.

And that leaves Leviticus standing “alone,” in the middle. But definitely as a complement (a completer) to the other four, the other two “sets.”

Here’s another way to say this:

Genesis … Prologue

Exodus … Leaving Egypt and building the Tabernacle.

Leviticus … THE TABERNACLE SERVICE, WORSHIP!

Numbers … Dedicating the Tabernacle and (preparatory) entering Canaan.

Deuteronomy … Epilogue

I trust you immediately see the “symmetry” involved in this beautiful Literary Achievement. The Holy Spirit is not only a Perfect Author, but the Ideal Arranger/Editor of Scripture too!

This clearly means that the Book of Leviticus CENTERS ON the Tabernacle.

Exodus ends with the Tabernacle built.

Numbers begins with the Tabernacle being dedicated.

And in Leviticus God teaches and legislates from the heart of the Tabernacle!

Wow!

Verses about the Tabernacle seem to “frame” (serving as “bookends”) the entire Leviticus Corpus, too.

Exodus 40:17, from the Book’s last chapter … “And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.” (Using both dates and a mention of the Tabernacle)

Then the very first verse after Leviticus has ended, Numbers 1:1 … “And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying …”(Also using dates and a mention of the Tabernacle)

Wow again!

This is a significant use of “inclusio” to show us how important the Tabernacle (“the tent of Meeting”) is to the Book of Leviticus.

It’s all about properly worshipping, approaching Almighty God!

Amazing!

Fellowshipping with God, the very point of all Scripture! Being “saved” by God’s Grace!

(I think we are going to enjoy this study of Leviticus.)

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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With 27 chapters, the Book of Leviticus is a daunting study. Yet it is a delightful study as well!

In my on-line writings, through the years, I (back in June of 2004) penned a Series of Bible Studies comparing the New Testament Book of James to the Old Testament Book of Leviticus. (These are still archived and readable if you will visit and search our “Bible Study Pages Archive.”)

Then later (in July of 2013) I published (here on the Website) a brief (15 Lessons) Survey of Leviticus. Again, this is accessible on our “Archives” page. In fact, Debbie told me recently you can just use a search engine and find it as well!

But in the weeks ahead I yearn to write more about this third Book of the Bible. We can all be “learners” together in this new endeavor!

Yes, focusing on Leviticus!

“The Center of the Pentateuch” I’ve heard it called! (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy!) The “third” of “five.”

I’d like to tie the Book (its main teachings) into the overall scope of the Genesis-Deuteronomy continuum. Then compare it to the New Testament Book of Hebrews as well. (Many believe that large Blocks of Hebrews are in reality a Commentary on Portions of Leviticus, anyway.)

That’s my desire for a while …“Leviticus.” I mean for our morning Bible Lessons here.

It is going to be exciting to see how the Lord, the Holy Spirit, leads us. Psalm 119:96 calls God’s Word “exceeding broad.” I think we are soon to learn that fact anew!

Anyone excited?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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It’s the subtitle of a Book I own (and am planning to read.) “Jesus Ascended,” with this line underneath “The Meaning of Christ’s Continuing Incarnation.”

That last Clause has caught my attention, if not my heart. “Christ’s continuing Incarnation.”

God the Son (Jesus) became “flesh” (the very meaning of the Latin noun “incarnate”) over two thousand years ago. At the Event we call the “Virgin Birth.”

Then Jesus lived a little over 33 years “incarnate,” in a human Body. In fact, He was crucified in that Body. Buried in it, too! And … glory to God … arose from the grave in the same Body, but Bloodless and Glorified!

He ascended (40 days after His Resurrection) in that Body as well! And is, some day, coming again … in the very same Body! I use Acts 1:11 to prove this point: “Two men in white apparel (angels) … which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? THIS SAME JESUS, which is taken up (His Ascension) from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

Thus, very logically, Jesus is in Heaven right now … in that Body! Consequently the phrase “His Continuing Incarnation!”

And what is He doing in Heaven right now?

Wow, what a list comes to mind!

First, He is being worshipped! (Hebrews 1:6 … “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”)

Second, He is praying for you and me, dear Christian Friends! (Hebrews 7:25 … “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing HE EVER LIVETH TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR THEM.”)

Third, He is awaiting the Day His Father … “makes His enemies His footstool!” (Psalm 110:1, where David writes … “The LORD – God the Father – said unto my Lord, – God the Son – Sit thou at my right hand, UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES THY FOOTSTOOL.”)

Forth, He is preparing to come again! (Jesus Himself in John 14:2-3, makes such a Promise! “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And IF I GO and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”)

Wow!

And I am sure today that I have merely “scratched the surface” of our Lord’s innumerable Accomplishments in Glory! As a Result of His Obedience to God’s Will, of His vicarious Death on the old rugged Cross!

Yes, I must read that Book. There well may be a whole Series of Sermons nestled in its thoughts, thoughts about our victorious Saviour!

“He is Risen!”

And too, “He is Ascended!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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As an evangelist, one travels. Needless to say. As the years progress, Debbie and I find ourselves in an ever widening circle of Revival Meetings. Even back to Minnesota, northwest of Minneapolis, next Summer, the Lord willing. And yesterday, an email about preaching in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay area. And we’ve just returned from Indiana, with Revivals upcoming in both the Carolinas.

As I pondered these evidences of God “enlarging our coast,” my mind drifted back two thousand years … to the Apostle Paul and his travels. How many miles, I wondered?

I found this data, from a reliable source. Best I can tell, anyway. This is appalling, in a day when all travel was rather precarious.

On Paul’s first missionary journey, he and Barnabas covered around 1,580 miles. Then on his second preaching mission, with Silas, they logged 3,050 miles! And his third journey … add another 3,300 miles! And this does not yet count his long voyage to Rome! Another 2,300 miles at least.

Wow!

Over 10,000 miles!

Walking a lot of that distance, and aboard ship much of the remaining time.

And, if my sources are correct, each tour became more expensive. Yet obviously God provided!

Remember the times God miraculously directed Paul’s steps? Told him where NOT to go, as well as which way to point his compass? Yes, in Acts 16:6-9 the story is related: “Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.”

Exciting!

And Paul himself hints at some of his adventures, on the road or (for that mater) at sea. In his autobiography in 2 Corinthians 11:25 … “Thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep.” Verse 26 reveals even more: “In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.”

Wow!

Paul and his travels.

Think today of some Christian worker you know, one who travels for the sake of the Lord, and pray for him or her.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

And if no one comes to mind … may I suggest praying for Evangelist Mike Bagwell and his Wife Debbie?

If you seriously willing to do so, text me (770-844-7627) and we’ll send you a prayer card, simply as a daily reminder to lift us up before the Lord.

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