Have you ever really taken the time to read through the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament? Have you done so recently?

A lot of the time, when I encourage people to read the Bible, they begin with Genesis. That’s a great place to start, and it has a lot of incredible and foundational history laid out through its pages. Once they finish with Genesis, they move on to Exodus. Again, there is a tremendous amount of history found here.

But then they hit Leviticus and Numbers. These books are filled with tedious information about Jewish feasts and festivals, sacrifices and censuses, the tabernacle and the distribution of the Promised Land.

It is easy to get bogged down and lost in these books, and feel discouraged about continuing to read through the Bible.

I encourage people to not give up. There is a lot of incredible information found in the books of Leviticus and Numbers!

At our church, we are studying through the Bible, one book at a time, during our Wednesday evening programming. We just finished Leviticus and have moved into Numbers. But what we discovered as we studied Leviticus, and are finding as we go through Numbers, has been nothing short of amazing.

Leviticus is really all about worship. It spells out how the Hebrews were to worship, and where, and what they were to use in doing so. But hidden between the lines of these instructions, you can find Jesus.

The book of Leviticus is really all about Jesus. Everything that Moses spells out in Leviticus for the worship of the Jewish people is a foreshadowing of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, centuries later.

Every single bit of it points forward to Jesus.

The same thing is true with the book of Numbers. While much of the book is centered around two different censuses, and the distribution of the Promised Land among the twelve tribes, it is full of great information as well.

The nation of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years, and much of this is covered in Numbers. And even though the people complained and grumbled over and over, God never left them. He continued to guide them, and he continued to give them his presence.

Again, this is all a foreshadowing of what was to come. God still guides and leads his people. He is still present among his children. But instead of dwelling in a physical tabernacle, built by hands, he chooses to dwell in us. We are his tabernacle. And he guides us and leads us through the Holy Spirit living in us, and through the Word that he has given to us.

So my encouragement to you is to pick up your Bible and spend some time in Leviticus and Numbers. Look for the picture within the picture. Look for the foreshadowing of Jesus and the church in these pages of history. It’s there if you have the eyes to see it.

Don’t read these books and get bogged down in the details of Jewish worship or censuses. Look for the revealing of what God was going to do, even then, through his Son.

And then, move on to Deuteronomy. And when you are there, look for the promises God makes that apply universally, to us today as well as the people of Israel. You might just be amazed at what you find.

There are truly gems of great worth to be found in these books of history.

I encourage you to look for them.

Question: When was the last time you read through Leviticus or Numbers? Why don’t you set aside some time and do it this week? You can leave a comment by clicking here.