Pastor's explaination

I zipped Pastor an email regarding my last post, here is his response:

Just a quick reply for now - I’ve got to get to work studying my sermon – we can talk more later.  In the Old Testament there was the moral law (Ten Commandments), political law (state law of the Israelites) and ceremonial law (all these rules and regulations concerning worship, etc. that you are now reading about).  The moral law certainly still applies to us today, but the ceremonial law had meaning only until Christ came.  I’m going to quote a commentary because others say and explain things so much better than I can.  “The laws and restrictions of these chapters were given to keep Israel separate from the nations as the people from whom the Savior of the world would come.  These regulations were not intended to apply forever (Jesus makes that point indirectly in your reading from Mark); they do not apply to us today (just like we no longer make animal sacrifices during worship – that too was commanded in the Old Testament), there are nevertheless good reasons for studying them carefully.” 

Basically, Leviticus describes the worship of the Old Testament people of God.  As it does so, it looks forward to Christ.  Another quote: “The rituals, rules, and regulations (nice alliteration!) of Leviticus were God’s way of teaching His people about the importance of holiness in their lives.  They learned that sin was a barrier between them and God, that this barrier would have to be done away with, and that atonement was necessary for them to stand before God and live in communion with Him.”  Christ, of course, was that atonement.  He removed that barrier.  By the way, Jesus didn’t undo God’s command to Moses.  Jesus is God.  Jesus was the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament people of God looked forward to.  The Old Testament Israelites were God’s chosen people from whom the Savior would come.  God gave them special commands, laws, regulations, whatever, because of their situation and to teach them to rely on Him, and again to look to the coming of Christ.  Christ has come.  Worship is still very important to us today (reading Leviticus helps us understand the importance of worship) but we are not under those same ceremonial laws that God gave Israel .