A Pleasing Aroma of the Lord
Open Your Bible
Leviticus 1:1-17, Leviticus 2:1-16, Leviticus 3:1-17, Exodus 20:24, 1 Peter 1:18-19
BY Tameshia Williams
Growing up, Tuesday was the designated cleaning day at our small church. Every week, a group of members would arrive at the familiar brick building, greeting each other with “Praise the Lord!” “Good to see you,” and “How’s your week going?” The sound of gospel music filled every room as we cleaned and bopped our heads, singing along with John P. Kee, Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, and other voices rotating through the radio station’s playlist.
I didn’t understand as a kid, but as an adult, I’ve realized the significance of what we were doing. There was something almost holy, priestly even, about our routine of care for that space where our close-knit community of believers would gather to worship God. Aged, wooden pews were polished with lemon PledgeⓇ. Dining room floors were mopped with Pine-SolⓇ, its distinct and invigorating smell permeating the church. Those fond memories from my childhood began to resurface as our team curated passages and drafted content for this reading plan.
The book of Leviticus is about God preparing His people for His presence. It shows us how God made it possible for His people to come near Him without compromising His holiness and excusing Israel’s sin. The instructions He gave and the systems and processes He established are key to understanding how God frees us from sin and keeps us free—through sacrifice and atonement.
It’s this context, this language of atonement, that the New Testament writers used to describe who Jesus is and what He has done for us. He is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) and our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:15). Leviticus connects us to this imagery; without it, the full significance of these metaphors and analogies is lost to us.
I pray that each day of this reading plan you will hear the promise to God’s people: they will be forgiven. May it cause you to cling to the hope we have in Jesus: in Him, we are forgiven. We are free. And we are invited into His presence—forever.
137 thoughts on "A Pleasing Aroma of the Lord"
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❤️
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The ultimate gift is to have access to God through Christ.
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The atonement to me signifies how God is making us perfect in the time for his presence. I am thankful there is another way to receive God through the live atonement through Jesus Christ.
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Right! The perfect atonement without blemish for all this trouble. God is indeed good!
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Thank You Jesus For Your Sacrifice
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Preparing us for Christ, it all points to Jesus. So many instructions & details of what they had to do but now we have Jesus who was the perfect & complete sacrifice.
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I’m excited to dive into Leviticus. I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything from it. So reading the first three chapters was kind of eye opening. Can you imagine if these sacrifices still needed to be done today?
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