There are many daily Bible reading plans that will take you through the entire Bible in one year. This year I’m going straight through from Genesis through The Revelation, which means that right now I’m in Leviticus. A dear lady in my SS class, who loves and faithfully studies the Bible, is reading in Leviticus and Numbers and commented on how burdensome and boring these two books can be.

Genesis is God’s way of taking us back to our beginnings to show us how He planned, created and orchestrated all of this for all of us. Here He first teaches us of the gloriousness of His plan for us; He reveals as much as we can understand of why He created us. God also shows us how He is always at work in the lives of people, especially the ones He has chosen to carry on His work. Genesis shows us that nothing ever occurs to God; He’s known all of it from forever.

Exodus is the exciting picture of God showing off His glory to a heathen people and to another people who would be His own. It’s a story of millions who would be released from bondage if they would only believe that I AM had come to save them. It would be about brave souls who stepped onto the floor of the Red Sea with a wall of water on the left and another rising on the right. (It makes me laugh to think of the fish that bumped their snouts into the invisible barrier that was God’s Breath holding that water back. ~grins) Exodus is a story of people who wanted to be free, but had trouble putting God’s commandments into practice. An exciting page-turner if ever there was one.

Then we stumble up on Leviticus. There’s a strange feel to this book; it tells of customs and cultures most of us have no knowledge of. Blood sacrifices are abhorrent to our culture, and we wonder at a God Who would give so many laws governing so many different aspects of life. Lots of what God deals with has to do with the health of His people – protecting them from possible infections that could be passed around in a deadly way, teaching them which foods would be healthy for them to eat. And He wanted His people to be different; to look different and act different, to be set apart (holy).

But we do tend to get hung up on the blood sacrifice. There’s blood on the altar, on the mercy seat, and on the priests’ clothes. It’s hard for us to see what the lesson is for us in these passages. Then a verse in the middle of many takes us by surprise. Several years ago I read this verse, did a double take, read it again and ever since it has been very important to what I know about what God did for me.

‘For the life [soul] of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ Leviticus 17:11 (NASB) [emphasis mine}

God stopped right here in the middle of all the blood and gore and told us about Jesus Christ. You see, it wasn’t just any lifeblood; it was "the blood by reason of the life.” The blood of bulls and goats and lambs would have to be shed over and over again in a never-ending ritual. The same is true if any other human being had tried to sacrifice their lifeblood since none are perfect (spotless, unblemished). But because Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life, His Blood would suffice once for all - "the blood by reason of the life." (Rom 3:25; Eph 1:7, Heb 9; 1Pe 1:19)

Jesus appears numerous times in the Old Testament – never by His earthly name. This is just one of those times that we might miss if we’re not careful. The whole of the Holy Writ is important and can speak volumes to us today. Are you reading God's Word every day? (Psalm 119:105)