In a sobering interchange between the Messiah and one of His closest students during a pinnacle Pesakh (Passover) celebration, Yeshua challenged Simon Peter to truly become a key shepherd, foretold by prophet Zechariah, by becoming such a friend of God that he wouldn’t fear being persecuted to death.
The descendants of Israel had been in bondage in Egypt for 400 years. That’s not simply being slaves in Mitsraim (Egypt) but also being surrounded by Egyptian morals and cultural norms for all that time. After that long of a period of time, many were culturally Egyptian — assimilated — even though they were treated horribly by the Egyptians. And that is something that God caused to happen.
In this chapter, we have the first time that a pagan deity is specifically mentioned by name, but it’s a name with profound meaning.
Leviticus 17 is one of the most difficult chapters in that book to understand. One of the main phrases that people question in this chapter is the phrase “that man [person] shall be cut off from among his people.” This chapter is not about how people were to slaughter animals for their daily meal. It is about God’s instructions about sacrifices and how sacrifices were not to be made by the people themselves, but they were to be brought to the priests so the different sacrifices were performed properly under priestly supervision.
Is Yeshua’s “new commandment” in John 13:34-35 really new? An answer is taught through God’s appointed times of Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), Shmittah (sabbatical year) and Yobel (Jubilee year).
Leviticus 16, describing Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), is a beautiful picture of God’s making us clean and the multifaceted role of the Messiah in that cleansing.
In 2nd Kings 12, we read how king Yehoash (Joash) cleaned the house of God. This is a picture of God’s cleaning His house — His people — through the work of His Spirit and the Messiah.
Leviticus 10-16, which includes the teaching on Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), teach God’s view of “holiness” and “cleanliness” before Him and how God makes us holy and clean.
Lev. 15:1-15 discusses what to do if a person has a discharge, such a bout of diarrhea, this text tells us what to do to take care of the one with the discharge as well as how the caretaker(s) take care of themselves that they do not catch the uncleanness.