This is part 2 of 4, in The City Church's journey through Leviticus.

• General Intro to Leviticus here
• Discussion Guide for part two here

• See part 1 here (ch.1-7)
  
• See part 3 here (ch.11-16)
• Part 4 coming soon (ch.17-27)
  

Chapters 1-7 of Leviticus, which foreshadowed Jesus through commanding various sacrifices, did so through that: they simply outlined the offerings. We learned God’s law concerning sacrifices – but no action took place in these first seven chapters. No sacrifices were made; no offerings were offered; no animals were consumed by fire; no priests actually ate their portion. Nothing that was prescribed actually took place in those first chapters. Why? Because God had not yet installed a High Priest or official priesthood. Priests, as we saw, played a vital role in every sacrifice – so without priests, offerings could not be made!

Part Two of Leviticus, chapters 8-10, solves that issue. In these brief weeks, we’ll see God explain his priesthood and install his first-ever priests, and we’ll see the first-ever sacrifice made by Israel.

You might recall that the Bible declares Jesus to be the truest, best High Priest. In just one of many examples, the author of Hebrews writes, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest… he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:11-12). In Leviticus 8-10, we’ll see this theme again. But it’s equally-important to these chapters to realize that like Jesus, YOU are a priest of God too. Every follower of Jesus is inherently declared part of “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9, italics added).

In Hebrew scripture, priests represented man to God: they asked forgiveness and prayed for others, and offered sacrifices on others’ behalf. But priests also represented God to man: they heard confessions, pronounced blessings, and accepted sacrifices on God’s behalf. “New Testament priests” (that’s us!) do some of the same things: according to Peter’s words above, we “proclaim the excellencies of” God to others. Paul calls us “ambassadors of Christ,” and says that we join God in “reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). The simple, weighty truth is that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a priest, with a high calling to represent God – and equally simple and weighty is that you live out your priesthood with others: look above at the texts that speak of God’s priesthood – they’re all communal! The truth is that in the gospel, we’re a “family of priests.”

What’s it look like to live as God’s priest together? Not everything from Leviticus 8-10 relates to you (for example, you don’t get to wear an ephod. Sorry). But by looking at God’s calling, installation, grace, and sobering standard of holiness toward his first-ever priests, found in these 4000-year-old words, we learn much about how we live our lives today, as God’s family, God’s priesthood.