Consolation in the name of Jesus—that’s what Valerius Herberger delivers in Part Seven of his meditations on Scripture. Much like Augustine’s Confessions, this devotional commentary teaches and exhorts, convicts and comforts the Christian through a running prayer to the Father, through the Son, with the Holy Spirit. Every page richly orders all of Leviticus towards Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us. Yet, as Herberger sees Jesus in the covenant to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he’s never willing to leave us as the baptized out either. It’s always looking back and forward, and always from the cross of Christ. The breadth of Scriptural knowledge and citation, along with hymns and classical poets, makes this series of meditations through Leviticus a true nourishment of the soul; and Matthew Carver’s translation allows one to feed without interruption! That is, the book that causes most of us to stumble while reading through the Scriptures—Leviticus—comes to us through Herberger’s insight and Carver’s translation as a book of Christ. Herberger shows how profitably and clearly Leviticus “explains how the Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the world (Rev. 13:8). From the beginning of the world, His bloody death was always seen in the sacrifices of the people of God; and from the beginning of the world, the power of His merit has also availed for all believing hearts” (25). Everything points to Jesus: the sacrifice of cattle to his strength; the corners of the altar to the corners of his cross; the sheep to his gentleness and innocence; the goats and kids to his authority and boldness; the doves to his humility; and every burnt offering to Christ the crucified (31, 33). On and on it goes—here in Leviticus the shadow, there in Christ the truth itself—“This is all full of mystery” (72). With Herberger as your guide, the “Mosaic shell” of Leviticus cracks and gives forth “the precious, delectable nut” of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (79). And not just Leviticus alone, Herberger claims, but “how utterly the whole course of [Christ’s] life is wrapped up in the Old Testament!” (165). So, “Rouse yourself, devout heart, and ponder this. You will discover it in truth” (123).
Geoffrey R. Boyle
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN