You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy. Leviticus 20:26
The topic was Leviticus, and I had a confession to make. “I skipped a lot of the reading,” I told my Bible study group. “I’m not reading about skin diseases again.”
That’s when my friend Dave spoke up. “I know a guy who believed in Jesus because of that passage,” he said. Dave explained that his friend—a doctor—had been an atheist. He decided that before he completely rejected the Bible, he’d better read it for himself. The section on skin diseases in Leviticus fascinated him. It contained surprising details about contagious and noncontagious sores (13:1–46) and how to treat them (14:8–9). He knew this far surpassed the medical knowledge of that day—yet there it was in Leviticus. There’s no way Moses could have known all this, he thought. The doctor began to consider that Moses really did receive his information from God. Eventually he put his faith in Jesus.
If parts of the Bible bore you, well, I’m with you. But everything it says is there for a reason. Leviticus was written so the Israelites would know how to live for and with God. As we learn more about this relationship between God and His people, we learn about God Himself.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” wrote the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 3:16). Let’s read on. Even Leviticus.
What sections of the Bible bore you or seem irrelevant? How can you learn to recognize their value?
Father, teach me how to appreciate the Bible. Let every part speak to me.
INSIGHT
The book of Leviticus gives the account of events that took place after God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt and describes how His people could live in His presence. At that time, Israel’s priests were entrusted with great responsibility in guiding the Israelites in how to live. In chapter 13, we find this includes taking great care regarding those with infectious skin diseases. The priests were trained how to recognize contagious conditions and to require those with such diseases to isolate themselves until there was evidence of healing (vv. 4, 8). Minor, noncontagious skin conditions wouldn’t require being quarantined (vv. 7, 11).