The Book of Leviticus: An Exposition. By Charles R. Erdman. New York. Fleming H. Revell Company, London and Glasgow, 1951. 138 Pages
I read The Book of Leviticus. This book is an in-depth explanation of the book of Leviticus. This book is divided into three parts: The Provision for Worship, The Requisite for Worship, and The Times for Worship.
In the part “The Provision for Worship”, it explains all of the offerings that were required of the Israelites. The Burnt Offering expressed dedication. The Peace Offering used fellowship. The Sin Offering expressed expiation, or repentance. The Trespass Offering symbolized satisfaction, or restitution. These are just some examples of what the book describes to help people understand the reasons behind so many offerings. Others that the book describes are Priesthood and The Inauguration of the Tabernacle Service. One of the more interesting parts of the first part of this book was when it talks about the sin of Nadab and Abihu. Nadab and Abihu were two of the four sons of Aaron. Aaron and his sons were chosen to bring up the line of priests. It says in Leviticus chapter 10: “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put unholy fire before the Lord, such as He had not commanded them. And fire came forth from the presence of the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Nadab and Abihu disobeyed the Lord because He had not instructed them to bring fire into the Holy of Holies. They weren’t even allowed to go into the Holy of Holies; only the High Priest, who was Aaron, could do that and only on the Day of Atonement. While the actual sin that they did is not definitely known, some say that Nadab and Abihu were mocking the Lord and brought in incense from the neighboring cultures. At this time, Israelites were sinning because they did not listen to the Lord when He said not to mingle with the neighboring cultures because they would be lured away from the Lord. Some believe Nadab and Abihu were lured into those cultures and began to worship other gods and they used the incense from the cultures in the Tabernacle. Nadab and Abihu were devoured by the fire from the presence of the Lord because of their sin.
The second part of this book, “The Requisite for Worship”, deals with ceremonial holiness. It describes ceremonial holiness (i.e. Clean and Unclean Foods, Purification after Childbirth, The Cleansing of Leprosy, The Cleansing of Bodily Issues, etc.) and moral holiness (Holiness in Eating, Chastity, Percepts and Prohibitions, Penalties, etc.). It says that ceremonial and moral holiness were required of the Israelites. They contain instruction for the followers of Christ.
In the story of Mary and Joseph, the poverty was evident. Not because of the fact that Joseph was a carpenter or that there was no room in the inn for them. It was evident because in the laws of Purification, it says that when the days of the mother’s purification are fulfilled, she must bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering. If she cannot bring a lamb, she must bring two turtledoves. Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb, so they brought two turtledoves when they took Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord forty days after His birth. This shows that laws of Purification that Moses told the Israelites was still in effect in the time of Jesus’ birth.
In the third section, “The Times for Worship”, the book describes feasts that were for the people of the Lord to come together and rejoice and revere the Deliverer who brought them out of Egypt and had given them laws at Mount Sinai. The people acclaimed the Lord as their King. Such feasts were The Seventh Day, The Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Pentecost, The Day of Atonement, The Feast of Trumpets, and others.
The strengths of this book were that it was very detailed and had a lot of information that explained everything very well. I did think that it could have had explanations to words that the author used because he used a lot of big words that translated from Hebrew and they weren’t explained. In conclusion, I think that this was a great book. I would suggest everyone who is interested in the Bible to read this because it was a great book that helped me understand why there were so many ceremonies and laws that the Israelites had to follow. All of them were some form of dedication, expiation, and fellowship that brought the people of the Lord together.