Leviticus - Front Matter

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BethP

SERIES DEDICATION

Dedicated to Adrian Rogers and John Piper. They have taught us to love the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, to pastor the church for which our Savior died, and to have a passion to see all nations gladly worship the Lamb.

—David Platt, Tony Merida, and Danny Akin

March 2013

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Several people deserve my profound gratitude for their help in the production of this book. First, my wife Sharon supports me in every endeavor, every day. Her life and ministry have always been the perfect complements to mine, and I am thankful that God gave such an amazing gift to me. Second, I am grateful to Drs. Danny Akin and Tony Merida for their invitation to write this volume in the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series. Though I do not know what motivated the invitation, when I accepted, something G. K. Chesterton once wrote came to mind—“Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel” (Chesterton, Heretics/Orthodoxy, 169). So I accepted, and readers may judge whether my aim has been true or off the mark. Third, I am grateful to the staff and elders at Christ Baptist Church. Their faithful service for God and constant attention to the flock allowed me to devote the time necessary to teach, preach, and write. I am especially thankful for the staff members, who worked every day to complete tasks made necessary by the part-time status of their pastor. Special gratitude is due to Carrie Kelly and Jade Thomas, two very bright and capable people who gave assistance as I completed the manuscript.

As for the progress in my thinking about Leviticus, I am indebted to many. I have learned much from the authors cited in this commentary. I always encourage students and pastors to use as many good resources as possible in sermon preparation. The “Works Cited” section at the end of this book reflects my own effort to learn from a wide range of sources, and I hope students of Leviticus will use this book as one of at least several volumes. I have also learned from my colleagues and students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Interaction with Doctor of Ministry students about interpreting Old Testament law has been especially helpful. For several years I have been exploring ways the church should think about and apply the law. Working through Leviticus was helpful in that project, and I hope my understanding will continue to grow.

This book is dedicated to Christ Baptist Church. Your encouragement as we journeyed through Leviticus was another reminder that you are the most wonderful church family in the world. Preaching God’s Word each week to you has been an immeasurable source of joy for me, and preaching from Leviticus was no different.

Finally, I am grateful for Jeremy Howard, David Stabnow, and the team at B&H Publishing Group. Thank you for your encouragement and assistance in bringing this volume to completion and publication. It is a privilege for me to participate in what you are doing for the good of the church and to the glory of God.

SERIES INTRODUCTION

Augustine said, “Where Scripture speaks, God speaks.” The editors of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series believe that where God speaks, the pastor must speak. God speaks through His written Word. We must speak from that Word. We believe the Bible is God breathed, authoritative, inerrant, sufficient, understandable, necessary, and timeless. We also affirm that the Bible is a Christ-centered book; that is, it contains a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero. Because of this Christ-centered trajectory that runs from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, we believe the Bible has a corresponding global-missions thrust. From beginning to end, we see God’s mission as one of making worshipers of Christ from every tribe and tongue worked out through this redemptive drama in Scripture. To that end we must preach the Word.

In addition to these distinct convictions, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has some distinguishing characteristics. First, this series seeks to display exegetical accuracy. What the Bible says is what we want to say. While not every volume in the series will be a verse-by-verse commentary, we nevertheless desire to handle the text carefully and explain it rightly. Those who teach and preach bear the heavy responsibility of saying what God has said in His Word and declaring what God has done in Christ. We desire to handle God’s Word faithfully, knowing that we must give an account for how we have fulfilled this holy calling (Jas 3:1).

Second, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has pastors in view. While we hope others, such as parents, teachers, small-group leaders, and student ministers, will read this series, we desire to provide a commentary busy pastors will use for weekly preparation of biblically faithful and gospel-saturated sermons. This series is not academic in nature. Our aim is to present a readable and pastoral style of commentaries. We believe this aim will serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, we want the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series to be known for the inclusion of helpful illustrations and theologically driven applications. Many commentaries offer no help in illustrations, and few offer any kind of help in application. Often those that do offer illustrative material and application unfortunately give little serious attention to the text. While giving ourselves primarily to explanation, we also hope to serve readers by providing inspiring and illuminating illustrations coupled with timely and timeless application.

Finally, as the name suggests, the editors seek to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible. In saying this, we are not commending wild allegory or fanciful typology. We certainly believe we must be constrained to the meaning intended by the divine Author Himself, the Holy Spirit of God. However, we also believe the Bible has a messianic focus, and our hope is that the individual authors will exalt Christ from particular texts. Luke 24:25-27,44-47 and John 5:39,46 inform both our hermeneutics and our homiletics. Not every author will do this the same way or have the same degree of Christ-centered emphasis. That is fine with us. We believe faithful exposition that is Christ centered is not monolithic. We do believe, however, that we must read the whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Therefore, our aim is both to honor the historical particularity of each biblical passage and to highlight its intrinsic connection to the Redeemer.

The editors are indebted to the contributors of each volume. The reader will detect a unique style from each writer, and we celebrate these unique gifts and traits. While distinctive in their approaches, the authors share a common characteristic in that they are pastoral theologians. They love the church, and they regularly preach and teach God’s Word to God’s people. Further, many of these contributors are younger voices. We think these new, fresh voices can serve the church well, especially among a rising generation that has the task of proclaiming the Word of Christ and the Christ of the Word to the lost world.

We hope and pray this series will serve the body of Christ well in these ways until our Savior returns in glory. If it does, we will have succeeded in our assignment.

David Platt

Daniel L. Akin

Tony Merida

Series Editors

February 2013