Charles Simeon and boring bloody Leviticus
People who mock the Bible as boring or outdated generally haven't read it. But when they do read it, they love to turn to Leviticus and quote the laws there as an example of how stellar your dullness and outdatedness must be if you take this word seriously. Such an attack usually also has Christians in the rifle sights. It doesn't often seem to occur to such people that an attack on Israel's Old Testament laws would more naturally be construed as anti-Semitic.
However, if we take seriously the notion that it's a mark of fools that they “despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov 1:7, 22), it is almost certain that we will gain a great blessing by paying close attention to the target of this foolish mockery. On this principle, we ought to test whether the Bible is boring by reading it. Most especially, even if at first sight the book of Leviticus seems to conform to the stereotype, we ought to give it a second glance to discover whether it's as bad as all those people who've never read it suggest.
One man who had huge reason to thank God for the book of Leviticus was Charles Simeon. He was the 18th and 19th century preacher who mentored many generations of students at Cambridge University and founded, among other things, the Church Missionary Society. He was not himself, however, a believer in the gospel in 1779, the year he arrived in Cambridge as an undergraduate.
Now, amongst the allegedly tedious bits of the book of Leviticus are the detailed descriptions of many animal sacrifices. Leviticus 16:20-22 describes that part of the Day of Atonement where the High Priest of Israel, Aaron, is to lay both his hands “on the head of the live goat”, and “confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins.” The goat (called a “scapegoat” in the old Authorised Version of the Bible) is sent off into the wilderness, in a marvellous piece of symbolism. “The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area”, says God in verse 22.
In Leviticus, this is the most explicit linkage between the “laying on of hands” and the carrying away of human sin, but there are plenty of related sin-sacrifices right through this bloody book. They frequently involve a similar laying on of hands (bulls in Leviticus 1, 3 and 4, a lamb and another goat in Leviticus 3). It's a book that is drenched in blood. It reminds the reader that the priest was more like my friend Sam the butcher than someone in a collar who eats cucumber sandwiches at tea parties. In a crucial and revealing verse, God says that “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Lev 17:11).
Simeon, unbeliever that he was, was thoroughly churchified, and knew all about these sacrifices, and verses like Leviticus 17:11 that explained them. Here, then, is his own account of how he was converted. Notice the centrality of the knowledge he came across by reading the book of Leviticus:
In Passion Week [the week up to and including Easter], as I was reading Bishop Wilson on the Lord's Supper, I met with an expression to this effect—“That the Jews knew what they did, when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering.” The thought came into my mind, What, may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an Offering for me, that I may lay my sins on His head? Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Accordingly I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus; and on the Wednesday began to have a hope of mercy; on the Thursday that hope increased; on the Friday and Saturday it became more strong; and on the Sunday morning, Easter-day, April 4, I awoke early with those words upon my heart and lips, “Jesus Christ is risen to-day! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” From that hour peace flowed in rich abundance into my soul; and at the Lord's Table in our Chapel I had the sweetest access to God through my blessed Saviour.” (H.C.G. Moule, Charles Simeon, London: InterVarsity, 1948, p. 25f.)
When we understand the book of Leviticus and its fulfilment in Christ, we have enough information to be set free from all our sin and guilt and shame. A less boring or outdated idea it is hard to imagine.
By the way, Moule's out-of-print biography of Charles Simeon is well worth hunting down. And, if you want to understand more about those bloody sacrifices, get your hands on Leon Morris's wonderful work, The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1983, now also sadly out of print). Leviticus, however, is not out of print. Have a go at reading Leviticus carefully, and discover that it is the exact opposite of boring.