Torah: Leviticus 16:1–18:30
PROPHETS: Ezekiel 22:1–16 
APOSTOLIC WRITINGS: 1 Corinthians 6:9–20  

The devotional below is designed to help you dive deeper into God’s heart by exploring Torah as the gateway into transformational Bible reading.

SUNDAY

Torah 1 & 2

Torah 1: 
Purifying God’s House
Leviticus 16:1–17

Torah 2:
Purifying God’s People
Leviticus 16:18–24  

Yom Kippur is like a once a year “spring cleaning” (though it is actually in the fall).

Purifying God’s house involves using the sacred blood of both chatat offerings (“purification” or “sin” offerings) to cleanse the Most Holy Place (v. 16), Holy Place (v. 16) and the outer Altar (vv. 18–19, bronze altar of burnt offering) from the defiling effects of disobedience.  

Purifying God’s people (on whose behalf the “house” needed purification in order for a holy God to continue to dwell amidst an unholy people) involves transferring the people’s sin onto the second goat (“Azazel” is Hebrew for “scapegoat”) and banishing it permanently from the community (vv. 20–22).  

MONDAY

Torah 3 & 4

Torah 3: 
Centralized Worship 
Leviticus 16:25–34

Torah 4:
Sanctified Blood
Leviticus 17:1–7  

Compare Leviticus 16:27 with Leviticus 6:30 and Hebrews 13:11–13. Where is “outside the camp” for you in your life? Where is God calling you outside your comfort zone to “bear disgrace” for His glory? While in Egypt, the Israelites had grown accustomed to worshipping false gods (remember the recent golden calf incident in Exodus 32:1–6). God, therefore, called them to worship Him alone by bringing their sacrifices to the centralized Tabernacle (cf. Deuteronomy 12:1–14). He also teaches them that blood represents the essence of life and is thus to be set apart as sacred and never consumed (cf. Leviticus 3:17; 7:26–27; Deuteronomy 12:23–28).

Read John 6:53–63. Why were Yeshua’s words so offensive to the Jews? What was the spiritual point? (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14)

TUESDAY

torah 5 & 6

Torah 5: 
Remain Set Apart
Leviticus 17:8–18:5

Torah 6: 
Remain Undefiled
Leviticus 18:6–21

Read v. 3. Where were they coming from and where were they going? God was calling them to “put off” the ways of the nations and “put on” His ways. Sexual purity is central to holy living and upholding God’s holiness. How does stepping outside the “bounds” of sexual purity affect the individual who sins (both physically and spiritually, cf. 2 Corinthians 7:1)? The entire community (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26)? The relationship between God and His “set apart” people (cf. Ezekiel 8:6)? Why does God call us to remain “set apart” (“in the world but not of it”) and “undefiled” as new covenant kohanim (“priests”)? (cf. 1 Peter 2:12)