When Was the Last Time You Heard a Sermon on Leviticus?

Leviticus focuses on relationships--a relationship with God through worship and relationships with other people through holiness. Throughout the book, the priests and the Levites receive special responsibilities to help Israel in both these spheres. Authors Michael A. Harbin and Mark C. Biehl show how Leviticus lays out three related practices that would hold these relationships together for the nation of Israel: corporate worship; personal and collective holiness; and righteous living as a covenant community. Harbin and Biehl suggest bridges to our own culture by discussing what the Israelites at Sinai would have understood about the reasons behind what Leviticus prescribes. Just as the Israelites' complex relationships with family and neighbors formed a foundation for both cultural and personal well-being, the church today is called to pursue wholistic shalom in its own time and place. Each volume uniquely combines the insights of an experienced Bible exegete (trained in interpretation) and a homiletician (trained in preaching). These two authors work together to explain the essential message for the original listeners or readers, unpack its timeless truth, and then provide a contemporary restatement and communication insights for the key biblical concept. Every book is a resource designed and written with the real needs of the pastor and teacher always in view, providing many ways to creatively express the principal thought in a biblical passage. Based on the Big Idea preaching model, Kerux enhances the reader's ability to deliver a message that is biblical, cohesive, and dynamic. Michael A. Harbin (ThD in Old Testament and Semitic Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary) is professor emeritus of biblical studies at Taylor University with thirty years of teaching experience. Mark C. Biehl (DVM, University of Illinois) serves as lead pastor of Upland Community Church, bringing a unique background with twenty-two years in veterinary medicine. He graduated from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed a ministry residency at College Church in Wheaton.