People who see Leviticus as only a surface text (my guess is that this is you) see the surface text of Leviticus as a series of outmoded and irrelevant instructions, most of which seem to have little to do with modern society or with one's modern life. If those persons looking at the surface text knew what the underlying interpretation of the surface text actually is, and if those persons were born anew in God, then they would not find Leviticus irrelevant at all. You see, unbeknownst to many, the Bible (including Leviticus) is written in parable form, such that the surface text has an underlying meaning that is actually the real meaning of the text. This is what I mean when I say that the Bible is written in parable form. The underlying meaning usually revolves around God's salvation plan. We read about the law of God (the Bible) being a parable in Psalm 78, for example: "Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable ". Again, the Bible clues us in to the fact that it is written in parable form in Mark 4: "But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples."
Let's consider Leviticus instructions for healing a leper. Until we interpret the verses, the healing sounds almost like a voodoo ritual: "This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field."
A leper is a parable picture of an unsaved person. These verses show an unsaved person (leper) being cleansed (saved). The physical disease is a Bible lingo picture of spiritual disease, and an actual leper today is not necessarily unsaved. The Bible uses the idea of a person being clean, meaning clean from the spiritual stain and penalty of sin. In describing saved persons in the New Testament, Jesus uses the same lingo: "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you". Clean from the stain and penalty of sin. The unsaved person is brought to the priest. The priest is a parable picture of Jesus. The priest has to go outside the camp (meaning Jesus has to go to the cross) to save the unsaved person. If the person is seen to be truly saved, then a description is given as to how. A bird, representing Christ, is killed in an earthen vessel, meaning Christ came in a physical body as a substitute to take the penalty of sin upon himself. This is associated with running water, meaning the word of God, the gospel is running and working as concerns the sacrifice. Cedar is a picture of righteousness in the Bible and this shows that the righteousness of Christ is given (imputed) to the believer, who is now in Christ as the second bird, the living bird, by the living Spirit. The living bird is now free to go with the gospel in Christ's spirit to the world (the field). Seven times is mentioned for the cleansing to occur because seven (as with the sabbath) is a picture of how God did all the work of saving us, an we only rest in that sense.
So, you see (I hope), that Leviticus is perfectly suited to be read these days by true believers, but it is a parable that must be interpreted to get at its meaning. It is not to be taken as a literal surface text commanding us to get a couple literal birds and an old earthen pot and so forth.
