The Final Word From the Mountain Text: Leviticus 27:34
Introduction: The Un-editable Word
We have come to the end of the book of Leviticus. For the modern reader, and let's be honest, for many a modern Christian, this is a moment of some relief. We have waded through detailed instructions on sacrifices, skin diseases, bodily discharges, and complex regulations about vows and tithes. The temptation is to wipe our brow, close the book, and say, "Well, that was interesting, but I'm glad we're in the New Testament now." But to do this is to profoundly misunderstand what this book is, and what this final verse is telling us.
We live in an age that treats all authority as suspect, and all ancient texts as play-doh, to be molded and reshaped by our superior modern sensibilities. We want a god of our own making, a religion of our own choosing, and a law of our own editing. We like to think of God's Word as a collection of helpful suggestions, a spiritual buffet from which we can pick the sweet desserts of grace and leave behind the tough, sinewy meat of the law. We are all editors now, with our red pens out, ready to strike through anything that offends our democratic palates. We want to put God's commands to a vote. We want to form a committee to review the statutes from Sinai.
But the book of Leviticus, and this final, thunderous verse in particular, slams the door on all such relativistic nonsense. This is not a rough draft. This is not a series of suggestions from a divine focus group. This is not Moses' best effort at codifying ancient Near Eastern customs. This final verse is a seal, a stamp of divine authority, a final declaration that what has been written is not up for debate. It is not a conversation starter; it is the final word. And how we respond to this final word determines everything.
The Text
These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai.
(Leviticus 27:34 LSB)
The Source of All Authority
Let us break this down. The first thing to notice is the origin of these commandments. Who is speaking here?
"These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded..."
This is not the wisdom of Moses. This is not the consensus of the elders of Israel. This is not a collection of tribal traditions. The source is Yahweh, the covenant God, the self-existent one, the Creator of heaven and earth. The authority of these laws is grounded in the character of God Himself. Because He is holy, the law is holy. Because He is just, the law is just. Because He is good, the law is good (Rom. 7:12).
Our entire civilization is currently in the process of committing suicide because it has rejected this foundational premise. We believe law is a human construct, a social contract, the will of the majority, or the decree of the powerful. As a result, our laws have become arbitrary, fluid, and tyrannical. What is legal today was an abomination yesterday, and what is mandatory tomorrow was unthinkable the day before. When you detach law from the unchanging character of Yahweh, you do not get freedom. You get chaos, followed by the iron fist of the tyrant who promises to restore order. This verse reminds us that true law is not invented by man; it is revealed by God.
The word is "commanded." This is not "suggested" or "recommended." The Hebrew word is tsavah, which carries the sense of a direct, binding order from a superior to a subordinate. This is military language. This is the language of a king. God does not negotiate with us. He does not ask for our input. He commands. And His commands create reality. This is the same God who commanded, "Let there be light," and there was light. His Word is performative. It does not merely describe what is; it defines what must be.
The Chain of Command
Next, notice the clear, divinely established hierarchy. God does not speak to everyone in a chaotic, individualistic free-for-all. He establishes order.
"...which Yahweh commanded Moses for the sons of Israel..."
God is the source. Moses is the mediator. The sons of Israel are the recipients. This is a covenantal structure. God speaks through His chosen representative. In the Old Covenant, that mediator was Moses. The law was given through him. This is crucial. It establishes the principle of mediated authority. God has ordained that His rule on earth be administered through delegated authorities, whether in the family, the church, or the civil realm.
Of course, Moses was a sinful man. He was a type, a foreshadowing, of the one perfect Mediator who was to come. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that we have a better mediator, Jesus, the mediator of a new and better covenant (Heb. 8:6). But the principle remains. God's authority is not delivered to us in a mystical haze; it comes through the preached Word, through the elders of the church, through the structure He has ordained. To reject God's ordained structure is to reject God's authority.
And for whom were these commandments? "For the sons of Israel." This was God's covenant people, the church in its minority. These laws were not just for the priests or the rulers; they were for all the people. They defined every aspect of their lives: their worship, their food, their clothing, their property, their marriages, their sanitation. This was a totalizing vision for a holy people set apart for God. This demolishes the sacred/secular distinction that has so neutered the modern church. For Israel, there was no area of life that was outside the jurisdiction of God's law. And for us, the same is true. "All of Christ for all of life" is not a clever slogan; it is the necessary implication of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The Place of Revelation
Finally, the verse anchors this entire book to a specific, historical event at a specific, geographical location.
"...at Mount Sinai."
This is not mythology. This is not "once upon a time." This is history. This is geography. God descended upon a real mountain in the wilderness, a mountain that smoked and quaked at His presence, and He spoke. This is a brute fact of history. Our faith is not grounded in abstract principles or philosophical ideas. It is grounded in the mighty acts of God in time and space. He spoke at Sinai. He was born in Bethlehem. He died on Calvary. He rose from a tomb in Jerusalem.
Sinai represents the terror and the glory of the law. The people could not approach the mountain lest they die (Heb. 12:18-21). The law, in its unmediated glory, reveals our sin and condemns us. It shows us the perfect standard of God's righteousness, a standard we have all failed to meet. In this sense, as Paul argues in Galatians, Sinai corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is, which is in slavery with her children (Gal. 4:25). To seek to be justified by the works of the law is to remain at the foot of the smoking mountain, terrified and condemned.
From Sinai to Zion
So, what are we to do with this? Are we to simply dismiss this book as the record of an obsolete covenant? God forbid. This final verse forces us to ask the right question: what is the relationship between Sinai and us?
The writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer. "For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind... But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:18, 22).
We are no longer at Sinai. We have come to another mountain, Mount Zion. We have come to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant. Does this mean the law given at Sinai is abolished? No, a thousand times no. Jesus Himself said that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). The moral law of God, summarized in the Ten Commandments and woven throughout books like Leviticus, is an eternal transcript of His character. It is still binding. The ceremonial laws, the sacrifices and rituals, have been fulfilled in Christ. He is our perfect sacrifice, our great High Priest. We no longer offer bulls and goats because the Lamb of God has been offered once for all. The civil laws given to the nation of Israel have expired with that particular state, but their underlying principles of justice, what our fathers called their "general equity," still instruct our magistrates today.
The difference between Sinai and Zion is not that law has been replaced by a lawless grace. The difference is in the mediator and the power. At Sinai, the law was written on tablets of stone, external to the people. At Zion, through the New Covenant, God writes His law on our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:33). The law is no longer a burden that condemns us, but a delight that guides us. We are not saved by our law-keeping, but we are saved for law-keeping. We are saved for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
This final verse of Leviticus is therefore not a relic of a bygone era. It is a declaration of the foundation of all reality. God has spoken. He has commanded. His word is not negotiable. For those who are in Adam, who remain at the foot of Sinai, that word is a word of condemnation and death. It is a ministry of death, written and engraved on stones (2 Cor. 3:7).
But for those of us who have fled from Sinai to Zion, for those of us who are in Christ, this same law is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It is the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). Because Christ has fulfilled all its demands on our behalf, and because the Spirit now empowers us to obey from the heart, the commandments of God are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). They are the architecture of human flourishing. They are the instructions from our Maker on how to live. And they are as authoritative today as they were the day Yahweh commanded them to Moses on Mount Sinai.