ABOUT THIS SERIES

Leviticus: “God in Search of Us”

September 2016 – January 2017

There’s an idea that is prevalent in the human consciousness. We hear people talk about it all the time. People regularly speak of “finding” God. Like a lost child in a super-market? Like a ten-dollar bill in an old pair of jeans? Like a dog that wandered too far from home? When you consider us, in all our humanness, finding God, in all of his wonder, and you put it into terms like this, it seems a bit ironic, doesn’t it? Could it be that we don’t find God, but that He finds us? And wouldn’t that explain a bit more of our journey toward Him? Wouldn’t that even help us to see the human pursuit of God a bit differently? Small shifts in perspective like this one cause the most confusing and mundane of Biblical texts to come to life, as we discover God, searching for us. Amidst that search, we discover an uncensored, passionate account of people experiencing God. We encounter people wrestling with, arguing with, and reconciling with, God. The ancient Hebrews describe the Scriptures like a gem with 70 faces. With each turn, a new facet is revealed.

That brings us to Leviticus.

It could be jokingly said of Leviticus, that it is “the place where Bible reading plans go to die.” It is an entire book dedicated to rites, rituals, and sacrifice. Some of the most obscure, often misquoted, verses in Scripture are pulled from the pages of Leviticus. It is strane, foreign, and bloody. It’s why some people perceive the Bible as obsolete, or Christianity as archaic. But what if this seemingly irrelevant text is actually revolutionary and alive still today?

This is a story about a God who is searching for us. And nothing about that story is cold or dead. This book opens up entirely new ways of understanding who God is. It challenges. It changes. It breathes new life. Which is why, for the next several weeks, we will be diving into its depths here at Summit.