Living Out Leviticus

Eight Bethel Seminary students took Old Testament study to a new level by living out Levitical laws.

Volume 22 No 2 | Spring 2009

Eight Bethel Seminary students took Old Testament study to a new level during fall semester. Students in the course Genesis-Ruth, a required four-credit class, not only studied the various laws God gave to the Israelites in Leviticus, including animal sacrifice and strict grooming guidelines; but they also lived out these laws for 30 days.

The idea was sparked when Associate Professor of Old Testament Peter Vogt read an article in Christianity Today called “The 30-Day Leviticus Challenge.” The article followed a Boston church congregation that accepted their pastor’s challenge to see the relevance of Leviticus for today by living out Levitical laws.

The laws issued in the Old Testament are meant to be a “handbook on holiness,” said Vogt. “The rationale for the assignment was to help students come to understand how Leviticus works. How does it help us become aware of who we are in our relationship with God, and how do we live out a sense of holiness?”

To the students’ relief, Vogt didn’t require them to make animal sacrifices, but rather allowed them to adjust the project for modern Christian living. “We weren’t trying to be Jewish; we were trying to be distinctly Christian,” Vogt said. He participated in the challenge by abstaining from meat and growing out his hair and beard. “The idea was that it would be a personal thing for students. What was God inviting them to do differently? What were the areas in which they’d conformed to culture?”

Senior Michael Howard initially wasn’t excited about the assignment, even if it was contextualized. One area Howard chose to focus on was the Year of the Jubilee by returning borrowed items to owners. “To return everything to its original owner and cancel all debts is an absolutely foreign concept to my American mind. I probably fall better in line with Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean in thinking, ‘Take what you can; give nothing back!’” Howard said. He also applied Leviticus in the areas of traffic law, recognizing the Sabbath, and abstaining from impure media.

Both Vogt and Howard were surprised by how difficult the assignment turned out to be, but what they gained was greater than the challenges. “It is a process that I think I will repeat from time to time throughout my life to help remind me that as a Christian I am set apart, and as a pastor I need to help people see how God’s timeless truths are applicable to them in their setting,” Howard mentioned.

Living out the law wasn’t meant to be legalistic, Vogt concluded, but rather meant to show other ways Christians can live out their relationship with God. “There’s no moment when God says, ‘I don’t really care what you do.’ We’re called to be the people of God. The Leviticus challenge brought that home.”