Leviticus is the center of the Torah, Pentateuch in Greek, the first five books of the Bible. Sometimes called the Books of Moses because he is the main character in all but one of them, a very recent tradition attributes the writing of these books to Moses, but they were almost certainly comprised of a number of oral traditions handed down through the generations, embellished or edited according to the current context, and finally written down during the Babylonian Exile as an explanation of “how we got where we are, the hope we have in a future out of exile, and how to keep this from happening again.” That was a really long sentence.

Genesis is the foundation narrative that details the beginnings of the people who would come to be called Israel: the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the key figure of Joseph, and the relocation of the people to Exodus. 

Exodus begins the saga of Moses and his leadership of the people as they escape from Egypt and begin life as a covenant people under YHWH. The book includes not just the escape from Egyptian slavery, but also a lengthy encampment at Mount Sinai (somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula) in which the covenant with YHWH is organized under a tribal structure with formal religious ritual for maintaining that covenant. 

At the end of Exodus, the people have constructed the Tabernacle and are ready to embark on the journey out of the wilderness into the Promised Land where they will become their own nation. The book of Numbers begins there, with the organization of the tribes as they are to travel and camp on that journey. Leviticus breaks that story line and is largely a collection of assorted laws and rituals written as instructions for going forward. However, it is clear from the way these laws and rituals are written that they were composed centuries later during exile more as explanations of “why we do the things we do” and “what we did wrong that got us into this pickle”. Leviticus is placed after Exodus as additional laws handed down on Mt. Sinai.  

Hear me: I’m not saying that this was made up out of whole cloth during the Babylonian Exile. But a people in a dire situation will look back and apply hindsight to seek reasons for their current circumstances. We do it all the time. “I’m in a lousy X situation because I didn’t see Y but looking back it should have been clear.” The Israelites having been conquered and driven from their Promised Land had to come to terms with how their God let this happen. Clearly, they must have done something wrong. 

To read the Bible as a history textbook is not only to misinterpret it, it is also to do a disservice to the Bible, to the people called Israel, to God, and to ourselves. This was not written to record a factual history, but to tell a faith story – the relationship between a people and their God, good bad and ugly. This People was comprised of millions spread over hundreds of square miles with differing traditions. There were, therefore, a number of different story-lines and explanations. As one tiny example, one tradition places the Tabernacle outside of the camp while another places it in the center of the camp. The precise location of the Tabernacle (as well as the exact roles and rituals which also differ somewhat from one tradition to another) is far less important than its role of contact with the Divine. Likewise, the exact individual laws are of far less importance than the overarching theme of Covenantal Love of God and Love of Neighbor that is interwoven throughout the narrative. Worshiping only YHWH and not idols. Keeping the Sabbaths. Honoring family, neighbors, and strangers. Being fair and just. And why those things are important to maintain that Covenant. 

We do tend to get distracted by individual leaves (laws) and miss the entire forest (Covenant). We focus on the leaves of a single tree (i.e. sex) and completely ignore other trees entirely (i.e. diet, community, rest). We forget that the Christian perspective on the Old Testament is much different from the Jewish. We forget to apply what Jesus said and did to these laws: he focused on that overarching theme of Love of God and Love of Neighbor. We forget the example of the early  Church, for instance Peter’s vision in Acts 8 in which all things previously unclean are  now clean, with animals being symbolic. We misinterpret individual stories written within and for a particular context and try to apply them to our current context, for instance Paul’s railing against pagan practices (temple prostitution in particular) in ways that were as clear as glass to his original audience but are less so to today’s. 
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We need to read these stories, and stories they are, for what they can teach us about our faith history and about God’s desire for relationship. In the beginning God created humankind as companions. That purpose has not changed. By giving us the freedom to make choices, God allows us to choose to be divine companions … or not. God’s expectations and requirements are simple: Love God. Love neighbor. Period. There is no room in this covenant relationship for hate.