CHAPTER I. ISRAEL HOLY TO JEHOVAH. Lev. xvii. 1-9. THE great day of atonement occupies the entire chap. xvi. of this book. We see its relation to the feasts of Jehovah in chap. xxiii. 26-32. But it also claims a distinct place, as Jehovah gave a special revelation with ample detail because of its independent importance, not more central in the book of Leviticus than in the ways of God, as shadowing that work of Christ on which, for a lost world as well as a people, all blessing depends, for Jews or Greeks or the church of God, for earth and heaven, for time and eternity. Having already sought to expound that chapter by itself, however imperfectly but at least with simplicity and for practical use, I may now turn to the scriptures which follow, up to chap. xxiii., which may well call for a separate but briefer treatment. Each of these six chapters is devoted to divinely given regulations, to preserve the priests and the people of Israel from defilements to which they were exposed. It is not the offerings, as in Lev. i.-vii., nor the priests duly established and failing (Lev. B |