Leviticus 1:1

In Exodus 19:3, God called Moses "out of the mountain," but here in Leviticus it is "out of the tabernacle." The first time, God was speaking as a ruler; here He is speaking in grace. His people had failed when He spoke from the mountain. So God brought in a system that worked through a mediator, one that could meet that failure and let Him stay with His people in the dwelling.

The tabernacle was God's dwelling place, in grace. He could make His home there, because everything around Him showed clearly the ground of His relationship with the people. Suppose He had come among them in the full display of the character He revealed on Mount Sinai. It could only have been to "consume them in a moment," for they were a stiff-necked people. But He withdrew behind the veil — a picture of Christ's flesh (Heb. 10:20) — and took His place on the mercy seat. There the blood of atonement, and not the stubbornness of Israel, met His view and satisfied the claims of His nature.

Until God settled His people in the rest of the kingdom, a tent was all He would use; but that was the tent of meeting — not merely where Israel was to meet, but where God was to meet them. It was also called the tabernacle of testimony. In its innermost room lay the ark, holding the tablets that bore witness to what God required from man.

We can see how rightly Leviticus has been called "the priest's instruction-book." So this is not the solemn voice of God from Sinai. Instead, "Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." He is among a people already recognised as His, and He is telling them the proper way to approach Him.

The first verse is significant of the character of the whole book of Leviticus. The Lord speaks to Moses from the tabernacle, His place of dwelling among the people. If we are to approach Him, it must be where He is, and on His terms.

Notice, too, where God begins. He does not begin with what touches the sinner's need most closely. He begins with the display of perfection that satisfied His own heart: Jesus giving Himself, at all cost, to God's will, to death, even the death of the cross. In other words, whatever blessing may come to the sinner, God begins with His Son giving Himself up without spot, so that God might be glorified.

The opening verses of Leviticus solemnly declare that the words contained in this book are the very words of Jehovah… No other book of the Bible puts such stress on Jehovah speaking, and nowhere else do we find it repeated so often. Twenty-four times comes the divine command, "speak to the children of Israel" — "speak to Aaron." The phrase "the LORD spoke" appears thirty-six times. Twenty-one times the One speaking says, "I am the LORD."

From the New Testament house, the Spirit speaks in the same way, as soon as He has entered it. Through the vessels which He had now filled, He speaks — as the Lord God of old had spoken from the tabernacle of the congregation. But here is the contrast. He speaks of "the wonderful works of God." It is not again about what God required of man, either as a worshipper or a confessor, as when the Lord had spoken from the former house. It is about what God had already done for man.