The Book of Leviticus is about God gathering mankind unto Himself! The Biblical Tower of Babel Account is about God scattering mankind across the face of the earth!

Polar opposites, it seems!

The former (Leviticus) is about the forgiveness of sin … the latter (Tower of Babel) about the growth, the promulgation of sin!

In Eden man overstepped his God-given bounds.

At the Tower man overstepped his God-given bounds as well.

Man being banned/scattered from the Presence of God!

Leviticus, on the other hand … calls man back into the Presence of God!

The first eleven chapters of Genesis (1-11) has thus seen man go from Eden to Babylon … form Paradise to Confusion!

Cain (the first murderer), when he was rightly expelled from God’s Presence, built a city and named it for his son. “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a CITY, and called the NAME of the city, after the NAME of his son, Enoch.” Genesis 4:17

At the Tower of Babel … mankind also built a city (and a tower) with a view of making a name for themselves! “And they said, Go to, let us build us a CITY and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a NAME, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4

Mankind trying for immortality (a perpetual “name” for himself) apart from God. Having been banished from God … because of blatant sin!

Both in Cain’s building project and that of the citizens of Babel … humanity separated from God. (Not even mentioning the horrendous debacle of Adam and Eve back in Eden, that expulsion.)

With the Book of Leviticus (the center of the Pentateuch) and its noble goal of bringing God and man back together again!

“Babylon” meant (in the native language of those people) “the gate of god!” But the Lord God of Heaven and earth changed that meaning to “City of Confusion!”

Babel … man’s attempt to get to God without dealing with his load of sin! “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto HEAVEN ….” Again, Genesis 11:4.

From Eden to Babel … looks to me like sin has become progressively (retrogressively) worse, more rebellious, more open and aggressive against God!

And in Leviticus chapters 1-7 … God gives remedies to that awful (deadly) sin … the Five Offerings of Israel, mostly involving Blood Atonement!

I have been so impressed in this current Leviticus Series … how the whole Bible ties together with a central Message … “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” As Isaiah 1:18 expresses man’s dilemma and God’s amazing Solution!

God DESIRES to commune with us!

Oh, wonder of wonders!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Similarities between Noah’s Ark and the Tabernacle, where man can fellowship with God (Leviticus’ Main Theme), abound in Scripture. Genesis chapters 6-8 being the “seedbed” of the Ark data.

In fact, the only two buildings/structures described in the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are the Ark and the Tabernacle!

Both Units place great emphasis on the doors of the respective entities. Think of Jesus, “I am the Door!” (John 10:7)

The plans and dimensions/measurements of both the Ark and the Tabernacle were given by God! God being the Designer, then!

As the Tabernacle had three courts (outer court, Holy Place and Most Holy Place) so did the Ark have three divisions, three levels, three stories! (So does the created earth, also made as a place of communion between God and man, have three tiers … fish living underneath, mankind on the surface, and birds in the air!

The Ark is finally said “to rest” on Mount Ararat, the end of the Flood Story … as the end of the Creation story is capped by God’s being at REST! (Creation, the existing world, being … as we have already seen … a foreshadowing of the Tabernacle!)

Then too the Ark rested near the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers … somewhere (it is believed) around the location of the Garden of Eden!

The Ark encounter ends with Noah offering blood sacrifice … as did the sad Garden of Eden Story. Point being … atonement in both locations beinging a measure of peace and rest to humankind.

Other parallels exist, I am sure.

Wow!

Creation … God wanting to make an earth where He could fellowship with his people.

The Tabernacle … same idea!

Now the Ark of Noah … ditto!

Plus, the Subject of our present Series … the Book of Leviticus shows man/woman God’s precise instructions on HOW to commune with Him!

GOD IS THAT HUNGRY FOR THE LOVE AND COMPANIONSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP AND ADORATIN OF HIS CREATION!

And this is, in microcosm, the Plot of the whole Bible!

John was right … “GOD IS LOVE!”

1st John 4:15 … “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The dominant Theme (by far) in the Book of Leviticus is “fellowship” with the Lord God!

And so far we have basically been tracing this Paradigm/Motif or Principle/Doctrine throughout the Bible Books prior to Leviticus.

Today … the worldwide flood that destroyed mankind (all except one man and his family) comes under consideration. (Genesis chapters 6-9, inclusively.)

We have, in the Flood Episode … an expulsion from God due to sin. (Literally, a world of inhabitants drowned! That “sons of God” and “daughters of men” thing.)

We have, furthermore, a man who found “Grace” in the eyes of the Lord. A Prophet/Priest to the people, then to his family. Noah, of course, whose name in Hebrew means “rest!” (As in resting in the Arms of the Lord, in Communion with the Almighty!)

It is interesting to me that Noah is described in the exact terms that Psalm 15:1-2 uses of a Priest/Worshipper approaching God (in complete harmony and communion) … “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that WALKETH (halak) UPRIGHTLY (tamiym), and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.”

Now Noah … “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and PERFECT (tamiym) in his generations, and Noah WALKED (halak) WITH GOD.” Genesis 9:6

Wow, both Texts use the same verb, in Hebrew “halak,” and the same modifier, “tamiym.” That’s clear Bible “linkage, association.”

And furthermore … the Ark came to rest … where?

On a Mountain … “a holy hill!” (Notice Psalm 15 again!) Also as in Psalm 48:1 … “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the MOUNTAIN OF HIS HOLINESS.”

Astounding!

By the way, Mount “Ararat” means “the curse reversed!” (That’s exactly what my Lexicon says, anyway!)

The whole Flood Story … a harbinger (or microcosm) of the Plot of the Book of Leviticus!

(This is no way negates the historicity of the Flood, either! It just intensifies its meaning and application!)

Praise the Lord for the UNITY of Scripture!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

We truly do serve a God Who longs for fellowship with His creatures! As we should long to “know” Him too!

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I just read (in a little Leviticus Commentary, less than 300 pages of text) the expression “God’s third expulsion!”

Adam and Eve sinned (thus breaking fellowship with God, the very Idea behind Creation) and were forcibly removed from the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:24 … Genesis 3:24 … “So He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Note: “Garash” (the Hebrew verb translated “drove”) means “to expel, to cast out,” even “to thrust away!” That was the “first” expulsion of which the author spoke.

Then secondly, Cain was even further removed from Eden, from the entire area! Due to sin, murder, fratricide! Even Cain himself said God had “driven him out” (still “garash”) from the “face of the earth.” (Genesis 4:14) “And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.” Genesis 4:16

Next, the “third” expulsion, forced separation … “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7, an “alienation” due to something that happened between the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men,” an egregiously rebellious act against Almighty God.

Wow!

Sin drives a wedge between man and God!

And the Book of Leviticus is filled with instructions on how to remove that wedge! How to renew fellowship! How to commune with the Lord, worshipping Him properly!

Let’s continue … tomorrow.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The whole Book of Leviticus gives instructions on “approaching” God! On “entering into His Gates” properly! (Though the words “gate” or “gates” never appear in the Book, in the King James Version. The whole “concept/principle” is prevalent, for sure.)

This Idea of meeting God at the “Gate,” so frequently illustrated in the Old Testament Tabernacle, also became a main feature of Post Exile (Expulsion) Eden! After Adam and Eve sinned … “Therefore the LORD God sent him (Adam) forth FROM the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So (God) he DROVE OUT the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 3:23-24

Anytime thereafter that man met God … it was at this “Gate,” or one like it! This Edenic Gate becomes, Biblically speaking, a “picture/symbol/type” of the Holy of Holies (later in the Tabernacle and still later in the Temple). This Gate east of Eden is likely where Can and Abel came to offer those now famed sacrifices! See Genesis 4:7. It is too the place Adam would have worshipped God for the next few centuries of his life!

The only other place in the entire Pentateuch these “Cherubims” appear … is at the Tabernacle, at the Most Holy Place! At God’s Dwelling Place!

Here we again have Genesis (its early chapters) laying the foundation for the Book of Leviticus, its “fellowshipping” with God Motif!

Meeting God “at the Gate.”

This is parallel to us today “meeting God at Calvary!” At the Place of Bloodshed! Which is indeed the Place of Communion!

For more Gate Theology …

“LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” Psalm 15:1, meeting God at the Gate!

“Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart.” Psalm 24:3

Wow!

How thankful we should be. That God deigned to meet us, longed to meet us … to love and fellowship and commune with His creation!

Oh, enjoy some time with Him today!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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