Thank you for your efforts to teach, reprove, correct, and train us through scripture. I’m studying the book of Leviticus on my own now, and I would appreciate some guidance in a few passages. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve been studying with the following premises: Leprosy seems to be symbolic of sin. Blood has redeeming value. Oil represents the Holy Spirit, I think. The animal used for the sin offering is symbolic of Christ.
After reading various passages, such as Lev. 14:1-7 (the procedure to declare a person clean of the infection of leprosy), and I think somewhere in the NT, there was also a passage dealing with the testimony of water and blood. I’ve been noticing throughout the book of Leviticus, that water seems to take on special significance in many of the protocols.
What does water signify? When it is mentioned, many times, it is mentioned as “running water.”
The concept of an innocent’s blood covering over the sins of another…is the very basis of Jesus’ message. Though I know that blood is the requirement and basis of redemption in the offerings, but why does God require such a violent shedding of life and blood? Why should such burnt offerings be a “soothing aroma”?
I’m not doubting God in the least. He is God. Even if I don’t understand everything, it doesn’t change the fact that I want to know more about them.
Running water was called living water because it encourages and sustains life whereas stagnant water brings death. In John 7:37-38 Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “streams of living water”. So living water is associated with the life giving properties of the Holy Spirit.
The animal sacrifice was meant to be a repulsive act to show us the way God views our sins. The reason He described the burnt offerings as a soothing aroma was that they restored peace between man and God, quieting His wrath.