Sermon Recap: March 2 2014

First note: I am learning a new video editing software, and tried it out for Sunday Night. And promptly wrecked the video and the source video. Audio will have to do.

Second note: This coming Sunday (March 9) we will join with Providence Missionary Baptist Church. I will record audio but I am uncertain if I will record video.

Morning Sermon:  We wrapped up Leviticus by looking at Leviticus 26:44 and Leviticus 27:34.

Audio is here

Video:
March 3 AM: Leviticus from Doug Hibbard on Vimeo.

Evening Audio is here

Additional Notes:

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Curses, foiled again: Numbers 22

Numbers 22 very well might be the inspiration for a certain furry movie character, but I’m going to fade a little bit away from talking donkeys. I do not doubt that all things are possible through the power of God, including the occasional talking animal, and see no point in bickering that out. If there is an omnipotent God, then talking donkeys are no big deal, just like any other miracle. On those issues, we should discuss the root and not the branch: is the God of the Bible the God of the Universe, as described, or is He not? If He is, then talking donkeys and parted seas are merely outcroppings, not real issues to debate.

Instead, I would have you take a look at the broader situation in Numbers 22. Balaam has been hired to put a curse on the people of Israel. So far, the Israelites have put a major beatdown on every enemy they have encountered. This includes wrapping up Numbers 21 by defeating Sihon and Og. These two kings attempted to capture Israel as they passed through their territory, rather than allowing them to pass by.

The king of Moab decided that he would not attempt to face Israel in straight-up battle. Instead, Balak sends for a prophet to put a curse on Israel. He finds a man named Balaam. We do not know a lot about Balaam, and there is no evidence of his FaceScroll Carving advertising himself as a spiritualist. The best we can do is infer that he was some sort of religious celebrity, known well enough that the Moabites send out to the land around the Euphrates to hire him.

I think it is one possibility that Balaam gets this call because the Moabites know the connection between the horde of Israelites they see and that wanderer from the land around the Euphrates 400 years ago, Abraham. This could represent an effort to find someone who has a line to the tribal deity of Abraham’s family, and have that person perform a curse ritual. I do not find much in support of this, but we are looking at the Moabites traveling several weeks to hire Balaam. There has to be a reason.

Balaam comes, and is called upon to curse the people of Israel. He does inform Balak that he can only say what God gives him to say, and then he is sent out to pronounce his curses.

Except God puts these words into Balaam: blessings and prophecies of God’s favor.

Now, much of this builds on Numbers 23 and 24 as well, but I think we should hit this at the beginning:

Blessing and cursing are in the hand of the power of God.

Not in anything else. Not in anyone else.

Only in God’s hands.

Why does this matter?

Because we do not need to walk through this world fearing that we might pick up an accidental curse here or there. Or that we might have been born with one, did not know it, and that’s what has wrecked our lives all this time. If only we had known…

There is no spiritual power that exists at the level of God. Are there other spiritual forces? Yes. Do any of them equal the One True God? No. Nothing is greater than He.

If there is a curse, it is permitted by Him, and Scripture supports, from cover to cover, that curses come from a person’s willful participation in sin. Especially on this side of the Cross, where the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus has made atonement for sin.

So lose the fear. I recognize that there are powers, but the powers of darkness run from the light. Put your effort into following the Light and back away from the fear of darkness. You don’t live there anymore.

And hired guns out to curse you for money, curse you for following God, curse you for the good God has done for you?

They are powerless. Unless you give them your fears to work with.

Today’s Nerd Note:

Dig a little into the identity of the Angel of YHWH. Some call this individual a theophany, or a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus on earth. That’s typically based in a few of the passages in Genesis. It is difficult to nail down—there are non-angelic behaviors, like accepting worship, that the Angel of YHWH does in the Old Testament.

It is also possible that this angel is just an angel, and the Old Testament author is more concerned with the power behind the messenger—the God who the angel works for—than with the angel. Much like you likely don’t remember the name of your UPS driver but you do know where the boxes come from.

This is, certainly, a point worth remembering. We can chase rabbits all day, but it’s about God, not about anyone else.

What are you worth? Leviticus 27

We come to the end of Leviticus. It’s taken a long time, both because there are some dragging parts and because I’ve been a bit slack in writing about it. However, here we are. Leviticus ends with this verse:

These are the commandments which the Lord (Yahweh) commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai. (NASB with clarification added)

That’s the summary of the whole book: God’s commands. This last chapter can be a bit troubling, though, as we look at how it applies. Take a look at the easy part first, though:

The closing verses, 30-33, are the easiest to grab hold of: when it came time to set apart the tithe of the land, there was to be no picking and choosing of what was tithed. For example, when going through the herd to tithe, every tenth sheep was to be given as holy to Yahweh. This is the one case in the Law of the Old Testament where bad, diseased, or good animals are all acceptable: the giving of tithes. Likewise, you get the idea that the grains and fruits offered in the tithe were simply to be one-tenth, perhaps decided as every tenth basket.

Most of us are completely okay with this: we don’t have to guarantee the good of the gift, and might manage to have the prize sheep ninth in line instead of tenth. Then we could keep it! If you want the symbolism on that, I would lean towards suggesting that there are times that we give out of obedience and trust God to make good with what we give, be it good or bad.

It is truly the front end of the chapter that causes some of us to have some difficulties in understanding. Throughout the opening 8 verses, the Law establishes valuations for people. And if this does not offend our modern sensibilities enough, men are valued more than women, middle aged more than senior adults, and so forth.

If we are not careful, we will take the wrong message here and either become oppressors of people or feel trodden-down when no one has actually tread upon us. This is not about the value of an individual to society. Let’s go over that again: while a quick read through this seems to say the opposite, this is not about the value of an individual to society.

You have to put this into its context: pre-monarchal Israel, starting while still in the Wilderness before taking the Promised Land. There are thirteen tribes of people working and living together with, ideally, God alone as their King. Through the course of the Exodus, God selects one tribe, the Levites, to serve as His priests. (Exodus 32)

This differentiated the Israelites from many of the other nations around them: for an Israelite, one was either born eligible to be a priest or one was not. That did not stop, however, the people from doing things such as making vows about giving their life over to God in certain circumstances.

You know the type of promise: “God, if you just get me out of the this one…..I’ll serve you forever.” Maybe you have made that promise, maybe you have not…but people did and do.

What happens, then, when a person is unable to fulfill that obligation? What can a man give in place of his life?

Leviticus 27 gives us that answer: if that man is between 20 and 60, he can give fifty shekels. The various other amounts are applied to women, other age groups, and especially children—which would fall under the heading of “what the parents have to pay for vowing” since a 3-month old tends not to make vows.

These are the payments to allow you to cover for that vow you made without falsifying your words. Whether the vow was made in a heated moment or an excited one, whether it was that the Levites would not let you help or you realized that you just could not do it, then this payment allowed you to walk away with your honor intact.

Now, as to the differences in valuation? Well, most of the resources I have on hand indicate that in the non-monetary economy of the time, most typical workers would have done well to put back a shekel a month. The usual situation was a strong level of subsistence farming, but that was life. It was an agrarian society and people did not keep much cash laying about. By nature of the economy, though, a man would have had more access to monetary equivalents than a woman would have.

So the expectation is higher. If you read this as “men were worth more” you miss the point: the point is “God’s grace provided in an unequal society.”

Which is, overall, a good thing.

When we make promises and vows, we ought to keep them. If we cannot, we fall on God’s grace, but we need to see there is a cost. And that cost should keep us mindful not to make rash vows again.

Today’s Nerd Note: Leviticus 27:29 gives us an interesting situation. It speaks to people under the ban or devoted to destruction and states that there is no redemption for them.

What causes that? Well, obviously the people of Jericho and many of the cities of Canaan were in that situation: no amount of payoff was to be taken to spare their lives. An Israelite would find himself in that situation by deliberate covenant defiance. Oh, and oathbreaking would have gotten him there as well.

Walking in His Way: Leviticus 26

I am hesitant to post this for today. In light of the bombing in Boston yesterday, I expect that anyone reading this may misinterpret it in a couple of ways. The first way is that I am trying to capitalize on human suffering, which I certainly am not. One thing I have found as a series-type preacher is that current events weave their way into the story and cannot always be run away from. So, I will go ahead and engage the passage and the situation.

The second misinterpretation will develop as we go through this. I hope you see it, and do not jump onto that train. It goes only in circles.

Leviticus 26 is our passage for today. This is, in a way, the closing argument of the Levitical Law. There is one chapter left in the book, and it reads more like an appendix of details. This one summarizes why the Law matters and the consequences for violating that Law.

The consequences are dire: defeat by enemies; climate change; crop failures; wild beasts that kill cattle and children; destruction to the point of cannibalism; fear; terror; conquest; deportation; refugees for life….

It’s a bad list. Horrible things will happen to the people of Israel for neglecting God’s Law.

Why?

Because He is their God. He brought them out of Egypt. He provided their land, their food, all that they need. Having done so, He also established the laws of the land regarding morality, business dealings, and worship—and if you think those three things can be separated without damaging all of them, you’ve missed the point of Leviticus.

Now we come down to today. Every disaster that we face, be it an attack by our enemies or a natural disaster, someone wants to step up and explain why it happened. And generally that starts with the declaration that this happened because of specific sins committed by people.

Planet getting too hot? (Or too hot so that we have weird winters and bigger hurricanes and snow storms and such?) The sins of the industrialized nations, visited upon us all.

Storms here or there? God is striking down evil people. Or, conversely, proof that there is no God because random disasters happen.

Violent attacks by evil people? God removing the protection of America because of sin. Or, again, proof that there is no God since evil people do evil things. Or our own sins revisited upon us as a nation because of how we treated people: maybe this was religious terrorism on behalf of oppressed people, since we backed the other side. Maybe this is the fruit of years of sexual repression or racial oppression or….

And it goes on.

Too many people wanting to pick up the prophet’s mantle and tell us exactly how the modern events fit with what they have been saying for years. Or fits how they plan to make a living or why we should vote for them or back their laws or….

The real issue, though, is that we live in a world filled with people, and some of those people are willing to do all sorts of evil. They may not even have a reason for it: often, evil is done simply because evil is in the heart. There may be claims of purpose, but really they are a smokescreen.

What do we do, then, when these things happen? I will speak to this question the only way I know how: as a Christian minister. If that means you do not think it will be helpful, I am truly sorry. Here it is:

1. Pray. What should go without saying should not go unremembered. God alone can heal hearts. There are hurting families and hurting people and unless you’re a trauma nurse, surgeon, or other medical person in Boston (for the current one), you cannot really fix that. So pray.

2. Hug your kids. Your spouse. Someone that needs it. At current count, three people will never get home from a marathon. Every day many more step out of this life. Why not alleviate the loneliness as best you can?

3. Listen more. There will be lots of shouting in the coming days, as there always is. Shouting for various new laws. Shouting against alleged perpetrators, then against probably perpetrators. Your voice yelling may not help with anything, really. Listen more to the people around you.

4. Find something else to talk about. No, it does not mean you are forgetting, but the odd thing about any disaster is that life keeps going on. Oil pipeline rupture? Does not stop everyone’s life. Bombings? Fires? Hurricanes? It is an odd reality, but if we all stop for everything, we will never start again. Dwelling on it does not help you or those in the midst of it. We may all be in solidarity, but this will always be different for the people who walk that street every day than it will be for me.

5. Find something else to talk about. Why twice? Because there is something else here: eventually, the children in your life will lose their naïveté and realize that the world is a terribly scary place with evil people. Do they have to know that now? Does your four-year-old need to fear the crowd at her T-ball game? Let children be children. (This includes you: supposedly family-friendly radio. Got it?)

6. This is practical and seems counter to the above, but seriously: consider your situations. Where are the threat areas for your life? One news commentator said something that struck me as dumb about Boston: “Nobody thought of this.” Really? Nobody thought that a crowd of people in an age of terrorism could be targeted? People shoot up elementary schools. Evil is real. Think. Be aware of your surroundings. Don’t lock down and be agoraphobic, but think.

7. Skip forwarding that conspiracy or political post. Until you see the government trying to link this to you in guilt by association, let it go. (Yes, I know CNN already leaned that way, but let’s give it a few days before we go nutty about that.) Until there is proof that this was stage 3 of someone’s plan, let it rest.

8. Resist the urge to over-interpret. I am not saying that there is no sin in America or that God does not judge anyone anymore. I am saying this: Biblically speaking, almost all of the instances of nation-wide judgment are Old Testament or in the true midst of the End Times. And if you go jumping into that water, you risk some major problems, because if you’re wrong, you are toast.

One cannot assume to know exactly why these things occur, and we only embarrass ourselves when we make those proclamations. Was this because of God’s judgment on our nation? Or was it because evil people are free to do evil, even though no one likes that? I would posit the latter.

I know that we cannot say definitively one way or the other, but we know this: Modern America is not Old Testament Israel. Our need for God has certainly never been less than theirs, but His covenant is with people here, not with the government of this nation. And looking at that, we would be wiser to see an opportunity to demonstrate the love of God and proclaim His faithfulness in tough times than to grab hold and proclaim His judgment.

There is a time for that, but it is not now.

Take a Year Off! Leviticus 25

At this present moment, according to my employee statement, I have exactly enough money saved in my retirement account to go four months without working. After that, I’ve got nothing. It’s all gone in less than half a year. So, you can imagine, I’m not particularly convinced that I could take off every seventh year for the rest of my life.

However, when you take a look in Leviticus 25, that is precisely the command of God for the people of Israel. They are to work for six years, then let the fields, cattle, and vines have a year off. Alongside this, of course, there would be a substantial amount of rest for the people, their servants, and those unfortunate to have been slaves in Israel at the time.

The people were not even to go out and glean what grew wild that year—it was to sit, be food for the cattle and wild animals. That was it: no agricultural work was to be done. (Now, keep in mind, the original economic pattern for Israel was agriculture-focused. Everybody farmed or supported farming. If someone was a support-worker, like a blacksmith, they would still be off this year: no implements to sharpen or tools to make. Generally speaking, though, there was not quite the specialization of economy in that culture. Yet.)

This was a command from God to be obeyed. What would they do with the year off? Well, Deuteronomy 31 informs us that the Sabbath years were when the whole Law was to be read to the people during the Feast of Booths (note: not the same as the Bones TV Marathon). It was intended to be a time of rest and reflection, of faith and fulfillment.

Then, every Sabbath of Sabbaths, the next year was the Year of Jubilee. What happened then? At the blast of a trumpet on the Day of Atonement, slaves were set free, debts were cancelled (the two were very related), and land reverted to its clan ownership. It was a “reset” button for the economy.

And that was a good thing.

Why?

1. Because slavery is bad, and this prevented a permanent development of slave-based economics in Israel. Slavery develops for power and convenience, but this kept slave-holding from entrenching in Israel. Imagine for a moment what would have been different in America if the US Constitution had established a system like this. 20 years prior to the Civil War, all the slaves would have been freed, and at that point, maybe some sense would have kicked in and slavery would have just been ended. Without a war.

2. Because debts accrue, oftentimes with a small bad decision, and become something monstrous. By 50 years, it’s time to release children and grandchildren from the cumulative effect of heritage mistakes.

2a. Because debts accrue and lenders become able to live without working, and the moral value of work is not to be denied. Too often the moral/ethical collapse of families and societies can be traced to too many people not having to work. Run the history, but you’ll see it in Rome, Athens, Sparta, and others.

3. Because the land was truly Yahweh’s, not Israel’s, and He told them what to do with it. The Year of Jubilee was a reminder that God’s grace was to all and not just to those whose parents had done well. This was not to negate the need for work—but it allowed for restoration if things went wrong. It also allowed for that most important of doctrinal concepts: grace. A new start.

The rest of the chapter addresses how to run the economy in light of the Jubilee years. Sell the land based on crop years remaining, treat slaves as temporary slaves, and plan to set them free—and don’t let anyone, even foreigners dwelling in the land, overlook that law.

Why?

Because it’s God’s land, and God’s people, and there is to be no nonsense about mistreating either.

How does this apply today?

We might do well to remember that it’s God’s land, God’s people by right of Creation, and some are also God’s people by right of redemption, and there is to be no nonsense about mistreating or misusing any of the above. Except, of course, we cannot seem to come to an agreement that this is actually true.

Which is to our shame and disaster. Consider this simple promise in Leviticus 25:18-22 that God will provide more than enough if His Law is followed. Not that bad times do not hit, but the bad does not hold on if we cling to Him. I commend that line of thinking to you.

Today’s Nerd Note: I lack the resources at hand to properly cite for you the history of agriculture and the introduction of leaving fields fallow and how that leads into crop rotation, which is necessary for longevity in location-attached farming. The basic idea is this: a farmer is wise to not always plant all the land. The nutrients leach out of the soil into the crops (no real fertilizers, remember?) and the soil is less productive. Letting a portion go unplanted allows it to rest, then plowing whatever grew back into it helps provide nutrients. That the Sabbath and Jubilee Years allowed domestic and wild animals to roam through normal agriculture lands to munch also helped (manure, anyone?) replenish the soil.

Now, there is evidence of various forms of using fallow fields in the Roman Empire and other evidences from Asia, but what’s in the middle of these? Israel, a culture that pre-dated the countries I can find mentioned. Eventually, fallow-fielding leads to crop rotation, where one plants rice this year and soybeans next year to replenish and use different fertilizers, but still there are times when the land just needs to rest.

Interesting, though, how Israel might just have been ahead of their time in agriculture development. Well, had they obeyed, that is.

Holistic Worship: Leviticus 24

Leviticus is fast nearing its end, but there are some hurdles to clear as we wrap this up. Leviticus 24 continues the overall theme of the third book of Moses: how to live all of life in obedient worship of the One True God.

Leviticus 24 gives us a paired set of worship instructions. Opening with the directions on the weekly bread to be placed in the sanctuary area and connecting that with the oil that is to be kept burning in the area, Moses speaks to the idea of a sacred space for the Israelites. The idea of “sacred space” is not exclusive to the Judaic heritage of Leviticus, nor only to the Christian ethos that develops from it. In reality, nearly every religion has a component that suggests designating areas that are places for worship. Even atheists have places that they gather to remind and reinforce their beliefs.

It is of value, perhaps more so now than ever before. Consider how much life encroaches on every square inch of us these days. There’s mail stacked here, the phone is ringing over there, and the noise of music, TV, games, and so forth just piles up. Marking out a spot on the map that is intentionally set aside for worship is a way of maintaining sanity. It is a place where we can pull back into amidst chaos and mayhem. A place to be reminded of the provider of the basic needs of life, light and food being two of them.

However, one cannot stop at Sabbath set-asides and sanctuary spaces. To do so is to fail to incorporate all of the testimony and command of Scripture. In the same area that we have the commands regarding light and Sabbaths and bread, we also have the reminder of the justice statutes of the time. These rules are often considered old-fashioned and heavy-handed, yet that heritage is due more to the breach than to the observance.

Considering the classic of “an eye for an eye” one must consider that this is as much a limitation as it is a command. One cannot take a life for an eye—only as much harm as we done may be reflected in the punishment. Further, the idea here was not that individuals would go about blinding one another but that these were guidelines for the judicial system. Much more should be said about seeing a justice system that follows the guidelines of Leviticus: restorative to the wronged, punitive to the transgressor, and equally applied to all strata of society. If taken together, this would have been a deterrent in many ways to further crime—allowing the religion of the Israelites to work on the hearts of people to be more like God while the law constrained their actions from harming their neighbors.

Yet the final component above, the equal application of law to all strata of society, is the one that is crucial in the concept of worship. Participating in injustice, depriving people of proper treatment under the law and their Creator-endowed rights, is certainly out for the people of God. You cannot oppress your fellow human beings Monday-Friday and go worship on Sunday. Contrary to any historic or artistic depictions of the great dictators of the world also going to church on Sundays, it just does not work.

The people of God, however, cannot sit idly by Monday-Saturday and then show up in church on Sunday to pray for good things to happen. The Levitical Law commanded that the people set up the societal structures that made justice happen. This is part of being able to worship with the redeemed in our sacred spaces: a commitment to justice in all of life.

One must remember that this is justice based on God’s standard, God’s Word—not human ideas or the winds of politics. Still, that commitment has often lacked in our lives as followers of Christ, at least historically. We need to address this, but address it starting from the text and working out, not starting with the polls and twisting the text to get tehre.

Holistic worship is not merely worship that involves all the voices in the room or all the ages in the building. It’s worship that reflects throughout all of our lives. It starts in our sacred spaces, but it refuses to stay there.

Today’s Nerd Note: A couple of things:

1. Did you see what Leviticus 24:7 puts on the bread that is sitting on a gold table? Frankincense. Gold, frankincense, and the priest’s anointing oil has myrrh in it. (Exodus 30:23) All of these, together with bread? John 6:48, anyone? While I do not think that Moses would have seen Jesus looking at the table in the first place, if we do not see Jesus looking back at the table, our glasses are perhaps a little dirty.

2. The middle story of Leviticus 24 is somewhat peculiar. You have two men in a fight. One of them blasphemes God. He is then detained, the Law consulted, God Himself is consulted, and then the man is executed.

The story, though, gives us more info: the fight is between a man who is 100% Israelite and a man who is 50/50 Egyptian and Israelite. Well, biologically, but his father was the Egyptian, meaning he would have been counted as an Egyptian. His father would have done his teaching, and his knowledge of Israel’s God would have been slimmer than the other man’s knowledge.

The law calls for his execution just the same. Why? Because the law applies to all who are in/among the people of Israel. They are not to be harsher with outsiders, nor to be more lenient. The Law is what it is, and if you are going to live and share the blessings of the covenant, then the rules apply as well.

Now, how exactly does one live that principle into the modern era? That is more delicate: we ought not execute people over religion or even religious offenses. Nor should we use the civil authority to enforce religious conformity or preference. There remain implications, and those should be considered and defined as we go forward into a future that will not be religiously supportive.

Take the Rest of the Day Off: Leviticus 23

The end of Leviticus is in sight, but there are a few things to clear up. While Leviticus gets a fairly well-deserved reputation as a book of rules, we do not need to miss some of the points that are rules, but have a bit of a different flavor to them.

Leviticus 23 is one of those chapters. The primary focus here are religious feasts and festivals, starting with the frequent weekly and moving to the regular annual observances for the Israelites.

Without attempting to deal with the Christological significance of the Day of Atonement here, because that is better handled by others and a major feature of most Christian commentaries on Leviticus, let’s look at the whole situation. First, you have the weekly Sabbaths decreed by God. Then you see various annual feasts, festivals, and observances prescribed. These include the Passover, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths.

It may be tempting to argue that the Passover and the Day of Atonement are more important, because more effort is given to their description and instruction. However, I would suggest that this would be an error. There are multiple ways to communicate importance, and length is one of them. Priority of place is also a communicator of importance—and the Sabbath itself is mentioned first. The better decision here is to see all of these as important in the religious life of theocratic Israel.

What lesson is there for us, then? Does the applicability here wait until the New Jerusalem?

Hardly. Let us consider a few things:

1. There are days that have a more important feel to them in the Christian life. Christmas. Easter. Mother’s Day. (Ok, that one just gets more people to church.) These days have significance. We mark important historically real events on these days, just as Passover marks the actual event of the Exodus or Hanukkah marks the actual rededication of the Temple in the Maccabean Revolt. While there are some who argue for the flattening of every event in the church and not treating any day as greater than the other, I do not feel that is the correct response.

2. There are days that we think are just not that important. The first Sunday after the time changes…the Sunday duck season comes in. Those are not that important. After all, we can do what we need on those days…as long as we show up for the big ones, right?

Actually, falling off the cliff in either of those directions is not helpful for us. We can take from this passage in Leviticus that there can be days of highlight in the worship of the One True God, but that we cannot neglect the frequent gathering of believers. That gathering is important—imagine a married couple that only really thought about being married on their anniversary, or a parent that only noticed their child on a birthday. That would be a little on the foolish side, would it not?

Yet we can also see the foolishness in acting like every day is just the same, and forgetting the important moments. Think that’s not the case? Tell your mother that after you skip over Mother’s Day this year. I dare you.

The worship of Israel at this time is instructed to be regularly occurring, and to not be neglected on the weekly basis of Sabbaths. Yet the highlight days are to be remembered as well, no matter when they fall.

What constituted worship on those days? First and foremost was “rest.” A cessation of the normal activities of life: if your “worship” days look just like every other day, then you’re missing the point. Then there were prescriptions of gathering or sacrifice, depending on the day.

In all, though, worship was about making God and His grace, mercy, holiness, righteousness, and justice the focus of your day. Not your crops, your animals, or your business. Not yourself. Resting from self-centeredness is a good thought for worship days. Perhaps it could stick all week afterwards.

Today’s Nerd Note: Take a look at Leviticus 23:22. What do we have here?

A restatement of the Law of Gleaning, the Israelite form of community support of the poor.

It’s right here, in the midst of worship days. Why?

Because you cannot worship and neglect the needy. Obviously, the focus here is on the needy of the community, but the idea can certainly apply more broadly.

Why that focus in the middle of this?

Worship, at its core, is about centering our attention on God. In Biblically appropriate ways, certainly, but moving our focus off of ourselves and onto the Holy One. And this is not possible if we are working throughout the intervening times to profit ourselves and neglect those who are made in God’s image.

It just does not work.

Leaders of the People: Leviticus 22

There’s not really a better time to put this out there, so I’ll connect it all with Leviticus 22. First, remember what Leviticus is about: if a holy God is going to dwell among unrighteous people, then certain issues need to be dealt with. Sin must be avoided as much as possible and atoned for when it cannot be avoided. Otherwise, the overwhelming holiness of God will destroy the people.

Throughout these explanations, the Law has referred to a group of people who are supposed to aide the people with their obedience. These people are responsible for offering sacrifices, teaching the people, and verifying infectious diseases. They are the priests.

When we get into Leviticus 22, we see some important information about the qualifications of those priests. It was clear then that a priest must live a life focused on holiness, even at the cost of being a part of some of the normal life and behavior of the people of Israel. It was also clear that, at times, priests fell short and needed to offer the same sacrifices as anyone else.

Given that we do not live in Old Testament Theocratic Israel, how does this apply to us?

Put simply, we ought to apply this to our religious leaders. Not that we should be overly particular about what funerals they attend or whether or not they eat shrimp. Instead, our focus should be on the principle at stake in the chapter in Leviticus: do our religious leaders reflect the holiness of God?

First contemplation: is that leader in a relationship with God in the first place? This ought to be a given, but somehow we miss this one at times. There should be evidence and testimony that an individual actually has faith in God before we account them as a religious leader. You think we don’t? Take a look at how often churches borrow from business or entertainment without considering the difference. How many modern churches have undertaken new projects based on the latest movie? How many churches have reorganized their administrative issues based on the latest business advice?

Religious leadership can gather wisdom from outside the spiritual realm, but must ultimately find its guidance from a relationship with God.

Second contemplation: is that leader striving to live righteously in their relationship? There is almost no end to the stories these days of people taking the pulpits and teaching lecterns of Christianity and spreading lies. Now, at the moment the lies of false teaching are not exactly in view—a growing disciple should be catching some of these based on their own knowledge and growth. These are the lies of self-aggrandizement which have no place in religious leadership. These are the times when people lie to make themselves seem like more than they are.

Whether it’s a lie of background or behavior, it is wrong. And should be the end of someone’s pulpit career. At the very least, until there is a public statement of repentance that matches the publicity of the lies. That is, simply, mandatory.

The third contemplation: does the person who claims leadership use it for their sake or for the glory of God? As an auxiliary question, do they seek their benefit or that of the people they serve? The priests of Leviticus were entitled to certain benefits, but those were to enable them to focus on service. Not to enable a life of luxury or superiority.

Now, the further issue in this case is not only those who ought not be religious leaders, but those who enable them. Working through restorative efforts for one who is repentant is not the same as enabling. However, the problem arises when one allows, or worse, encourages a known charlatan into a position of influence.

That is just plain wrong. If we want to see the judgment of God on the churches in our life, then we should continue feeding a steady stream of liars, cheats, and deceivers into the pulpits and lecterns around us. Those who are lesser leaders should guard zealously the charge we have, as well as the influences over our own leadership.

And the body as a whole must guard itself. There are fakers and crooks out there, and we must, together, refuse to give them an audience. Refuse to buy the books, the movies, the podcasts…whatever it takes to cut it out. Ultimately, we are responsible for this and the negative impact it has on our efforts to show forth the Kingdom of God.

Quasimodo Need Not Apply: Leviticus 21

I have really struggled with this chapter of Leviticus. Leviticus 21 provides the regulations regarding the priesthood in Israel, and there are some logical aspects in these rules. Then there are some that just boggle my mind.

First, let’s look at the logical ones. The chapter opens with regulations on the behavior of priests. Who they can marry, who they can defile themselves for, and how they can shave. Take the middle one first: being in the presence of death brought ceremonial uncleanness. The priests were to only be present for immediate family, not for just anyone who died. This likely was not meant to address being in the place of someone who just suddenly dropped dead.

This is meant to help prevent any of the priests spending all their time at funerals or hauling body parts around and instituting creepy behavior. Or even instituting an inappropriate level of ancestor veneration. Both were to be avoided. The other two are more about public demonstration of righteousness, to the point of being a little bit over-the-top just to create the stand-out effect. They are a little odd, certainly, but not too bad.

It’s the second half of the chapter that bugs me. Throughout this section, there is a list that is best described as disqualifying disabilities. As someone who was turned down from doing what I wanted to do in life due to a disqualifying disability, I am not a fan of the idea to start with. That someone simply looks at a piece of paper and says “No, you can’t do this” based solely on a medical report bothers me. Especially when the condition is not self-caused.

Honestly, if you cut off your own arm with a chainsaw when you were drunk, then being disqualified from two-armed jobs is really your own fault. If you were born with only one arm, though, and told you couldn’t be a bank teller for lacking one, that would be wrong, would it not?

Yet that is what this section essentially provides for: certain people are not allowed to serve as priests, simply because of physical deformities, including those not their own fault. This also includes anyone who has eczema at the time, or a broken arm, but those will heal and are not permanent.

The hunchback, though? Or the, ahem, crushed testicles? (Leviticus 21:21 ?)

This sounds unfair. It is, seemingly, unfair. God is supposed to be merciful and loving, but God is threatened by the approach of Quasimodo? That does not follow. However, if we look at the Law in general, we find a couple of general principles that run under Old Testament Law. Old Testament law, typically, either:

Is for the benefit of those who live under the Law. or,

Is for the benefit of those outside of the Law that they may know the One True God of Israel.

Really, that sums it up. Either loving Yahweh your God with everything, which averts judgment, or loving your neighbor, which spreads the knowledge of the Yahweh, your God.

So to what benefit is the prohibition on Quasimodo in the Holy of Holies? It is hard to find one, but I would present this to you: the prohibition is against certain duties, but Leviticus 21:22-23 show that the injured or deformed are still to be counted among the priests. They are still to be fed by the people, and they may still teach of the ways of God.

What they cannot do is be left to handle the religious duties while the more physically robust go out and supplement their incomes doing other things, like ramping up the field production. The handsome men must stay connected to the sanctuary area as well, and cannot abandon their responsibilities. I think there is something here related to that idea: it is not so much about God being intimidated by dwarves as it is about people pushing dwarves to the margin of society and ignoring them. It would we all to easy to leave the “unfit” at the sanctuary and head off, form another sanctuary, and split the religion in twain.

That would be unacceptable.

That is the best I can do with this portion. It makes me uncomfortable, but I see very little to clarify this any better. We know from the whole counsel of God that He is merciful and loving. We also know that He is healer and there is unexplained suffering in this world.

And we know that He Himself bore our sins and our shame, that we never need bear it ourselves again. That is where we go: when we need wisdom, to the One who gives it, and to the One does right, no matter what we think.

The Bible: Inigo’s Conundrum Leviticus 20

We have been fighting through Leviticus for quite some time now, and the end is a few weeks away. I want to take a minor break from picking and choosing various laws and attempting to explain them and apply them in a New Covenant context. As we look in Leviticus 20 (link) today, I want to point you to an important reality of Bible interpretation.

Take a look at the last verse of the chapter, Leviticus 20:27. The commandment here regards putting to death mediums and spiritists. Without getting into the overall question of whether or not one should put to death anyone over religious beliefs in this day, which we’ll hit at the end of the post, look at the first group to be put to death in Ancient Israel: Mediums.

Mediums. Not smalls, not larges, but mediums. Right? Oh, wait, not mediums. Mediums.

We have to be cautious when we look at words in Scripture and be certain that these words mean what we think they mean. If the word is medium how do we know if we are talking about size or spirituality?

Context.

A good dictionary helps, but context is the key. In no sense do we see the Bible ever condemning anyone based on size. One might, perhaps, see that Eglon in Judges 3 had a problem due to size, but his evil brought his condemnation. His size provided the opportunity.

Instead, we know from studying the whole of Scripture that the command here relates to those who attempt to be intermediaries between the dead and the living. That is a behavior not permissible in the Kingdom of God—shirt sizes are not on the list.

This is, certainly, one of the sillier examples. This supports what we need to be careful about, though, as we read the text of Scripture: be certain that the word means what you think it means. This is true whether your are super-Bible-Woman and are working off the Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic words or if you’re like me and just reading the English translations.

Be aware of the shifts of meanings in words. Be aware of cultural contexts and theological words. Be aware of the progressive nature of God’s revelation and the varied ways by which God worked across the centuries through to the time of Christ.

One reality to recognize in this manner is the shift in the concept of the Kingdom of God. For the Old Testament, the Kingdom is understood by most as the nation of Israel—theocratic, ruled through judges, prophets, and kings by Yahweh Himself as the ruler. In this view of the Kingdom, it is fully appropriate to execute traitors and defeat enemies in battle. The execute the offender for this, stone the offender for that, and cut off the offender for the other fits well in that concept.

Yet under the fulfillment of the Kingdom, the ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King in Jesus, we see a shift in the understanding. No longer do we see people put to death for their beliefs: instead, we seek to draw all people to Christ, that they may die to themselves and yet live through Him. Galatians 2:20 speaks well to this: we all die for our sins: some are crucified with Christ and He lives within us; others die in their sins and carry that weight into eternity.

So, the shift is apparent, and those who miss it do great harm to the cause of the Kingdom in these days. Rather than expand the awareness of the King who lives forevermore, they act like God is weak. Which Leviticus 20:1-5 makes clear for us: if we do not bring the discipline of God, He will do it.

This is a promise that we can rest in these days: God will judge sin. The Cross, though, stands between mankind and judgment. God alone has the right and ability to determine who will leave their judgment there and who will carry it forward. That is not for us to determine. Our place is to take the Cross and proclaim Him who died for us.

Today’s Nerd Note: I really think we cannot get past the concept of “Do not be like the nations before you” that echoes throughout the Law. I know that the New Testament Believer lives by the Spirit, but there is something to the idea that we are supposed to live according to the holiness of God and that this should be different from the world around us. Either the world that has gone before us or the world that rejects the Gospel around us now.

It is high time that we realize that when the world insists on acting contrary to God’s law, that this increases our opportunities to testify to His greatness and His holiness. Not for us to throw increasing fits or bigger pity parties, but to show forth what it means to live in the community of faith. This is the example of history in many cases and the testimony of Scripture: the people of God, living like the people of God, results in people wanting to know God.

If we want the world to see Jesus, then He has to look like Himself.

No Leftovers for You! Leviticus 19

Leviticus continues to be an interesting hodge-podge of laws and regulations. If you could imagine mixing Federal and State laws, the Tax Codes of the Several States, and the Baptist Faith and Message, you can picture what Leviticus is. Of course, life was perhaps a bit simpler 3500 years ago, allowing for a shorter collection of items.

Leviticus 19 (link) is a good example. First, we have a combination food safety/religious worship law. Then we have welfare/unemployment regulations, followed by interpersonal relationship guidelines, immigration law, judicial regulations, and child welfare regulations. If that does not give you some weirdness, I do not know what will!

Taking the first one: food safety/religious worship. Have you ever considered these two things together? Many people have not. I actually have. Honestly, ever considered the church potluck and whether you would eat a restaurant that set up like that? Anyway…

The opening verses of the chapter are actually straightforward. These are nearly restatements of the Ten Commandments: reverence mother and father, keep the sabbath, no idols.

It’s what you get starting in verse 5 that I find interesting. That section has a reference to the peace offerings that are prescribed earlier in the book (Leviticus 3) and those offerings included the fire-cooking of a meal. This chapter commands that any portion of that meal not eaten the first day could be eaten the second, but none could be eaten the third.

In short: you can have leftovers the next day, but not the day after that. Why would God give a command like that?

It fits, as many of God’s commands do, with a two-fold purpose.

First it is immensely practical: we are talking about grilled meat here. Grilled meat that will not be refrigerated between meals and that is breaking down as it sits there, gathering bacteria and other issues. So, should it be eaten on the third day? Not bloomin’ likely. Really.

Gather this: God cares about your health and well-being. None of His commands support a pointless destruction of your life: He may command that you stand firm and face the anger of the world, and surrender your life. He may command that in spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, you eat questionable foods. But not pointlessly, not in a manner that does not draw people forward to Him.

Second, though, the law is illustrative of the ways of God. This takes a stretch, but consider this: how many days does today’s listening to God hold you for? If tomorrow is really crazy, it might carry you through tomorrow, but by the next day you need to take at least a half-second and reconnect. (probably more, honestly) Why? Because the stale leftovers of last Sunday’s religion will not feed your soul or nourish your spirit. Instead, they begin to get dangerous: dangerous if they are not well-preserved; dangerous if they are not well-reheated. And boring, if there is nothing to add with them.

Consider this: God speaks clearly through the Word every day. Why take the old reruns when you can have the fresh Word each time?

Now, skipping ahead a bit: we have the law governing gleaning. Essentially, it is a command of God to the wealthy to not be so stingy they leave nothing for others. It is a command of God to those in need that they take an active hand in providing for their own needs. We have no idea how well it was actually obeyed by the people. What we can know is this: we cannot ignore the needs of others, nor can we force one to work so another does not have to.

Examine this: God is clear that we should joyfully help those in need, yet the text never connects willful idleness with “need.” What, then, is our best response?

The remainder of the chapter, coupled with these three little highlights comes back to the second verse:

You shall be holy, for I Yahweh your God am holy.

Holiness encompasses every aspect of life.

Today’s Nerd note: Don’t overlook the end of the chapter: Leviticus 19:31-34 have four great commands in a row: stay away from false spiritualists, honor the old, be nice to immigrants, and and really, be nice to immigrants.

Scripture makes a hard distinction between invaders and those who want to come in and learn the ways of God’s people.

Out of bounds: Leviticus 18

One thing that cannot be said of Scripture, especially the book of Leviticus, is that it leaves things unsaid. Take our chapter for today: Leviticus 18 (link) as an example. Here we see a long list of people you can and cannot have sex with. Let’s cut this to the chase: this is about sexual behavior, both that which is acceptable and that which is not.

Getting into this chapter is a journey, partially, into disgusting territory. For most of us, the idea of “approaching a blood relative to uncover nakedness” is something that we not only would not consider, it’s a little bit of an appetite suppressant to think about. Then there are the other aspects discussed: people who are related not by blood but by “law:” cousins, step-siblings, father’s new wives, etc…

Suffice it to say that a strict adherence to Leviticus 18 would spoil every soap opera you have ever known.

Yet there are items not prohibited in Leviticus that many of us would argue should be. Polygamy is not out-of-bounds here, though there are limitations on who you can and cannot pluralize your marriage with. There are no proscriptions on behavior, at least here, between unmarried and unrelated people. Both of these, though, a typical Judeo-Christian ethic speak to.

Why is that? Because Leviticus 18 is not the only place where God speaks to our relationships. That topic echoes through Scripture—polygamy is right out based in original Creation and in the New Testament picture of Christ and the Church. Other Scripture keeps the passions of love contained in marriage. Is this because God is a out to suck the fun out of life? Too often, church people have acted as if this is the case.

Instead, though, I would suggest that we view this a little differently. The passions of sex and romance are powerful. There is an interaction there that builds a bond that is not easily broken.

As an aside: this is a place where atheistic evolutionists, theistic evolutionists, young earth creationists, and that alien-dude from the History Channel all agree. For different reasons, but you find a general agreement that human sexuality bonds relationships. More than the humans partaking intend to. One odd thing to me: our national morality flies in the face of reality in this. We act, morally, as if this does not happen. And practically every worldview, even those in major conflict with each other, agrees that it does. i

In this, sexual behavior bonds relationships like locomotives move heavy things. If you run it on the track, you get where you are going and it’s good. Run it off the track? Well, there’s derailments that need minor adjustments, derailments that cause major damage, and derailments that require miles of evacuations and lots of hazmat cleanup. Need me to walk you through the whole metaphor?

The larger issue of this chapter is found in the opening verses. Leviticus 18:2-5 address the reason behind these laws. The purpose behind God declaring that certain relationships are out-of-bounds. Why, at the end of the chapter, one was not to sacrifice children and call it religion.

Why?

Because God’s people are supposed to behave differently from the people around them. They were not to act like the nature-focused worshippers of Egypt nor the man-centered worshippers of Canaan. They were to be different. They were to worship God as God commanded, not as they wanted to.

And that worship extended to their every day lives. It extended to the foods they ate and the way they cooked them. It extended even to who they slept with and who they did not sleep with. Everything about life was part of their worship.

So what about us?

Do we, living as we do under a different covenant and in a different time, true, come anywhere near that exhaustive of a worship? I think it is worth considering: we want to make people comfortable around us, which is valuable, but we cannot do so by contradicting God’s law.

Another portion that we must consider is this: God’s people dwelt amidst people whose morality was shaped and driven by other deities. It is truly no different now: God’s people dwell among people of different moralities, shaped by different deities. We choose between options here: should we force others to come to our morality or live out our morality and let it stand in contrast? (of course, the latter assumes being extended the right to live as we please being defended by others who live as they pleased, which is actually pretty unlikely. Few deities brook competition, and modern ones no less so than ancient ones.)

We must steel our nerves to live as God commands. This was the call on the Israelites then. It was the call on the Early Church of Acts. It is the call on the Church of the Free now: prepare yourselves to live as strangers in the midst. Live that way. Let others join by the draw of the Holy, not by the smack of the saved.

Today’s Nerd Note: Maybe just a one-more step application: there is a simple line here about the land not tolerating the sin of the people. Ever looked at history and seen that many major empires collapsed at the height of their decadence? That’s fairly true. It’s also true that many of these collapses were accelerated by natural disaster: famine, earthquake, volcano, and so forth.

Draw your own conclusions.

Aliens Included: Leviticus 17

Aliens? Yes, aliens. Read Leviticus 17 (link) in the New American Standard Bible, and you’ll see it. Of course, the clearer, less giggle-inducing, translation is “foreigner” as you see in the New Living Translation and a few others, but for me, I like aliens. The connotation works better than a mere foreigners for us.

Why? Here is a spot that we Americans, especially, have difficulties with is understanding just how deep national divisions run. Imagine the cultural divisions, language divisions, and more that separate Arkansas from New York. Now amplify that by at least an order of magnitude. Add in a mix of general hostility that is tempered only with times of apathy. As in: when a disaster strikes, you hope the neighboring nation sends no one rather than sending an invading, plundering horde.

Now, that is the normal state of affairs for those times. And do not forget that we’re not dealing with aliens with a universal translator or a TARDIS. You can’t understand each other. I’ve heard it said, though I have no clear evidence, that the words for “stranger” and “enemy” often have the same root words. May not be true, but it’s unsurprising if it is.

One of the critical dividing lines between countries and cultures at the time was religion. Not only were they lightly different, like Southern Baptists and Missionary Baptists, but they were majorly different. Think more of the difference between Islam and Christianity, or Hinduism and Judaism. The distance was not one of minor squabbles. Rather it was woven into the warp and woof of life: foods, manners, everything was different.

Alien seems to put the right force behind that difference. We’re talking about Klingons, Vulcans, and Humans, not Russians, Mexicans, and Americans.

Two responses existed for this situation. The first excluded any foreigners from participation in the local religion. It was only for the indigenous people, no matter the desires of others. The other response ran the other way: mandated participation for everyone, no matter what.

Old Testament religion was a mix of both: there are texts that exclude foreigners from certain practices, and then this one that mandates participation in these rituals. It’s a hard mix.

Yet if we dig into it, one thing we find is this: the Israelite religion of Leviticus allowed, even demanded, that all people—including the aliens—participate in the sacrifices for the atonement of sin. A passing alien could not join into the fellowship of worship, but could call out to God for forgiveness of sin.

This became the entry-point for joining in that fellowship of worship. One could participate in those sacrifices, participate in the celebration of redemption and in due time become part of the covenant people of God. Joyfully, the time is drastically shortened this side of the Cross of Christ:

It is instant when one comes to faith in Christ. How so? How can those previously banned be so readily admitted?

Because we can be adopted as the children of the Father. (1 John 3:1)

And that’s a good thing.

Nerdiness: There is so much to the theology and covenantal significance of this passage that you really ought to read an expert.

Let us, instead, address a foolishness that is often based on this passage: “The blood is the life.”

#1: Yes, we should understand that to mean blood is important to life and that human life is impossible without blood. We know that, don’t we?

#2: No, we should NOT understand that to mean that we cannot share blood when medically necessary and properly done. That’s not the point here. Except for this: giving blood gives life at times. So reconsider that, ok?

Scapegoats: Leviticus 16

Leviticus. The summary of this book is this: if the One True Holy God is going to dwell among people, then those people must be holy, and holy is not something we get to make up as we go. Instead, there are guidelines to follow.

The secondary line of Leviticus is this reality: people never can live up to any form of rules or guidelines. This is the secondary theme of the whole of the Pentateuch, really: mankind cannot hold to one law and so ends up needing more and more. If the heart is not changed, then no increasing laws will fix the problem. Genesis starts with one law, then it expands. By the time you get through Deuteronomy, you have hundreds of laws for life.

Still, those laws are not well followed by anyone. There is sin. There are intentional sins and unintentional sins. There are times of spiritual nearness and spiritual weakness. It is good and bad out there, and more than that, it’s good and bad inside our hearts.

Leviticus 16 (link) provides an image of the solution to the problem. It is not actually the solution to the problem. Let’s take a look at this, shall we?

First, why do I call it an image? Because the solution is the work of God, and as a Christian, I see the ultimate solution in the finished work of Christ at Calvary. However, we see in the Law and the Prophets an image of what is to come.

Second, what is this image? It is a two-part image:

A. The image is first of the cost of sin. Everywhere in the Law and Prophets we see sin and death connected, and no more so than we do here: the death of the lamb for atonement. Death is the cost of sin. There is no other option.

B. The second image is of the scapegoat or of the “Goat for Azazel.” Now, there is a great deal of extended discussion about just what the words mean here. We’ll cover that in a few minutes. The basic idea is that death covers the prior sins, but the propensity to sin must be sent away.

Yes, this is also the origin of our term scapegoat. In this usage, the goat is sent out into the wilderness as a picture of sending sin out away from the people, while now our term means the one who is blamed, though without fault of their own.

The image? Sin is always among us, and we must actively try and chase it away. It matters not whether we imagine that sin being sent  into the wilderness or being handed over to an evil demigod.

The point is downplayed if we focus on where the sin was going—the point is that sin has to be sent away. Our effort must go into getting it out.

Now, what do we do with these images? How do they impact us?

First, our understanding begins with seeing that Jesus made the perfect atonement for our sins. His death means no more sheep deaths. It also means no more do we have to bear the death penalty ourselves.

We should borrow the idea of sending sin away, though. Isolate ourselves from sinful habits, sinful behavior in ourselves, and sinful attitudes. We should cut them loose and never look back.

Now, on to the whole Scapegoat/Goat for Azazel discussion: this hinges around a word in Hebrew that exists in the Old Testament only in this chapter. That makes it somewhat difficult to translate, as there is no additional context for the word.

It is either a proper name or an abstract concept. Does it make a difference? Probably not. It is an issue for discussion and that strengthens our understanding, but not one that should impact our faith destructively.

ICK! Leviticus 15

Note: due to author squeamishness, today’s Through the Whole Bible post will be somewhat vague and unclear. Why? It’s Leviticus 15 (link). Read through it. If the subject headers of “Instructions about Bodily Discharges” are not evidence enough, read the whole chapter. There’s plenty of icky here, not for the squeamish types.

These are the passages that you need to either ask your own pastor about or pick up a good commentary on Leviticus. I will not be going into details here, except to highlight that one possible interpretation of the first half of the chapter relates the situation to venereal diseases (STDs) and would have quarantined a person from interaction in the community and stopped disease spread. That’s uncertain, but possible.

The second half addresses the impurity that comes monthly for women. The major note here is that it is seen as separate from impurity that comes from sin. Those impurities are addressed elsewhere: here is simply the fact that a lady who is discharging blood must be counted as unclean. The post-menstrual offerings are the offering of birds that were obtainable for all, and the reference to one as a sin offering should be seen as an offering related to all as sinners, not that she sinned by having that time of the month.

One can get bogged down here, and so I want to turn your attention to one of the New Testament incidents that highlights the effect of these laws. If you click in your Bibles (or tap!) around Mark 5:25-34, Matthew 9:20-22, or Luke 8:43-48, you will find the story of a woman who has been suffering with a discharge for twelve years of her life. That is, she has been unclean and unable to join with the religious and social life of her community for twelve years. Additionally, all of her possessions, everything she touched was all counted unclean.

It is entirely likely that, had she any relationships at all, those relationships were weak and distant. Or that they were only in contact when those women were “unclean,” but it’s likely she was avoided all the more in those times in case her condition was contagious. She is alone, isolated, and financially devastated.

And then she up and violates Leviticus 15:27, too, because she touches Jesus. Had He been any other man, He would have panicked. Here was ceremonial defilement, hitting Him in a crowd. Here was a ban from the Temple. Here was ritual trouble.

Except the point of the Law was typically this: uncleanness spreads from one to another, just as darkness fills the areas around dim lights.

And Jesus was no dim light.

In Him the fullness of God was found in human form. In Him was Light, Light that shines in a darkness that can neither overcome it nor even comprehend it!

Instead of uncleanness coming to Christ, clean healing flowed out from Him to the lady in need. She was healed. Lifted out of the isolation of life.

And here we find the use of the Law and its value to us:

The Law shows us where we are in need, but coming to Christ in faith brings us the healing from those needs. Whether the need is because of our willful sin or just the ordinary accumulation of life, we need His healing.

Grab it. As best you can.

Clean this place up! Leviticus 14

Leviticus has baffled for years, and I think it will continue to baffle for years to come. One benefit of its inclusion in the Christian Bible, though, is that it serves as evidence that the Word was not simply made up by people looking for an easy religion. What nut would spend two chapters going on about infectious skin diseases? Especially in a world where the habit already existed to banish lepers and leave them banished?

However, that just reinforces my own personal presuppositions. I personally hold that Leviticus was written down in the time of Moses, was intended as part of the theocratic rule of Israel, and should be interpreted based on that assumption. In other words, what did a group of Late Bronze Age nomads take Leviticus 14 (link) to mean?

Here are a few highlights:

1. They would have understood that disease would be a lasting problem for them, no matter where they lived. Perhaps leprosy and other infectious skin diseases were actually not that prevalent for them in their nomadic days—we know from modern medicine that one culture may struggle with diseases that another culture has long since beaten, and vice-versa. Whatever the slice on it, the people would have seen clearly here that God knew that disease would be with them, even in the promised land.

Keep in mind: even when you are right where God has placed you, bad things can still happen. Some of those bad things are horrid, like leprosy.

2. They would have seen the forward promise of living in houses. You and I may not catch this, but keep in mind that the people receiving this instruction are living in tents. Not stone houses, certainly not houses that have been plastered over nicely. Inherent in the latter half of the chapter, where the instructions for cleansing a house are given, is the promise of living in a house.

Recognize the blessing promised alongside the instructions about life. This takes knowing the Word and living life.

3. They would have known that there were no quick fixes for their medical issues. Take a look through the whole chapter again. There are waiting periods plus the times of work needed: think it wouldn’t take time to rip out plaster and rock work? Right.

Realize that many of our problems in life do not have quick fixes. They take time and work to repair.

It is really on this last point that I think we need to spend some time. We live in an instant world, where we expect to have everything as quickly as possible. We want diseases immunized against, and cured with a single pill if we actually catch them. We want our wars won in a week, and purchases provided immediately.

And we’re even worse about mental, psychological, or spiritual matters. Our learning should be on a defined, quick schedule: all children should know X by a certain age; all employees will memorize these 7 things for tomorrow; all students will fully grasp the 27 usages of the Greek genitive case this week (and the vocal shewas from Hebrew, too!). We want our depression gone immediately or our anger resolved overnight.

Spiritually, we want God to insta-zap our shortcomings off of us the moment we say “Amen” to end our prayer. To heal our fractured relationships as soon as we know they are fractured.

Life does not work that way, though. We may be able to transfer money in an instant, but we cannot transfer skills that quickly. We cannot transfer ourselves to holiness that quickly.

It takes time. It takes the time to rip out the old, diseased parts. Time to haul them away and dump them. Time to replace the structural works, and then time to be make everything look pretty again.

Time. Because God is working in you for eternity, not for next week.

What areas are you wanting a quick fix in? There is really only one quick fix: the moment of salvation, where a sinner is saved for eternity. Yet after that, it’s a time taking, effort using process.

Can you wait? Can you hope? Can you endure?

Today’s Nerd Note: One should not take Leviticus as specifically binding in practice for Gentiles, unless the principle or practice is specifically reinforced in the New Testament, but one can take guidance from the text.

For example, this passage gives us a very definite, practical step. It’s called the garbage dump. Really, Leviticus 14:40 and the other verses that refer to the “place outside the city.” Here we have a very practical principle: biomedical hazardous waste should not be just piled outside your door.

It is principles and ideas just like this one that lead to what is called “Redemption and Lift.” Those terms go together to describe some of the natural outworkings of the Gospel entering a culture. Those who adopt the process of getting hazardous waste far from their homes, among other cleanliness guidelines from the Old Testament, will tend to live healthier lives than their neighbors.

That health translates to more wealth, longer lifespans, and better educational options. In turn, more wealth, longer lifespans, and better education leads to better health. Then, in time, those same Christians are able to return and serve their neighbors, because God has blessed them with the material and physical ability to do so, and the Gospel remains proclaimed in those areas.

Unless, of course, a whole nation profits from those effects and then decides to hold on to the public health ideas while abandoning the Gospel. But no one would do that, right? We would never forget how we got where we are and Who it was that helped us get there, would we?

You get under my skin: Leviticus 13

When you are starting a society from scratch, everything has to be dealt with. Not only must property laws and morality laws be presented, but personal protection must be addressed. Additionally, laws and practices for public health have to be put in place. After all, you are taking a diverse lot of people that have lived semi-isolated lives and now they have to live together.

This is an important part of the context of Leviticus 13 (link). The people of Israel have been living in Egypt, and the truth is we do not know for certain the conditions they have lived with. We know that the conditions of their slavery were less than pleasant, but that does not clue us in for their life situation. It is also likely that the Egyptians handled enforcement of public health in their kingdom: sometimes by exile, sometimes by execution.

Coming back to the text, what is present here are the instructions of how to deal with infectious skin disease in the community. While some people will find a great many spiritual applications and parallels in this passage, I think this is a point where we need to remember one of the fundamental keys of Biblical interpretation:

The text does not have a meaning that it has never had.

When you consider what a text might possibly mean in the Scriptures, you must consider how the original recipients of it would have taken it. Would the original Israelite audience have thought of spiritual parallels or allegories for sin?

Not likely. They would have read it as directions for how to deal with literal people with literal illnesses, facing literal separation from their families and communities unless they got better from their illness. Which, given the situation, was not that likely.

Since we are looking at the health code of an ancient society, what do we do with it? Do we establish our religious leaders as health inspectors? (Speaking as a religious leader, I’ll pass on that.)

Instead, I would propose these ideas:

1. We should take infectious diseases seriously. In all honesty, there are times that we do not. We, instead, take habit, tradition, or custom more seriously. Take your responsibility not to share your diseases with others seriously.

2. Wash your dishes. And your clothes. That’s the ending segment of the chapter: keep clean stuff, so that you don’t get sick.

3. Get a professional opinion. This is the recurring theme of the chapter: the person who has the disease does not decide if it’s bad. A third-party person makes that call. Don’t assume you are lethal or safe. Get someone who knows.

These are just basic health tips. And those are worth knowing. Keep in mind that the Christian life is lived in the midst of the practical, physical world. It is not just about spiritual elements and heavenly considerations, but about the whole of existence.

Oh boy. Leviticus 12

Apologies for the long silence. There are just times when the words don’t flow. And times when the words don’t flow and the next writing task is a big challenge.

Working through the whole Bible, we come to one of those odd passages. Actually, one of the oddest passages outside of prophetic visions in the Old Testament. It’s Leviticus 12 (link), where the rules of purification after childbirth are given.

This is an odd situation. There are a few things to hold to as we look at this:

1. Do not confuse the need for “purification” with the need for “forgiveness.” While there are overlaps in the vocabulary, not everything in the Old Testament that needed purified meant that sin had occurred. This passage should not be taken to indicate that childbirth is sinful.

2. Then we get to the real touchy part of the chapter. Why in the world are the purification rites different for a son than for a daughter? Let’s break this down:

A. The first option is the view that sons are more valuable than daughters or more approved or that it’s more sinful to have a daughter. This view must be rejected outright. One can find in Scripture support for differing views on roles and responsibilities for men and women, but no place can be found that devalues one gender in contrast to another.

B. The second option is a view that looks at the partnership between purification of the mother and purification of the child. Old Testament law held circumcision of male children as a component of their purification. Since the male child could be circumcised, he went through part of the purification and the mother does the rest. Daughters did not undergo a similar rite (anatomy forbids it—there is no cause or justification for the wickedness that is practiced against women/girls in some places in this world) and so the mother thereby had to spend the whole time of purification. Overall, this view may have some value.

C. The third option is this: in many societies, especially those with a more primitive lifestyle, males are more valued than females. Now, a qualifier: primitive is not intended as insulting here. It simply means not advanced. As in places where life is a hardcore struggle for survival and one kills and grows all of your own food, not shops for most of it.

In those societies, it is tempting to provide baby girls less care than baby boys. The first few months of life are crucial, especially in those more primitive situations. Left to our own devices, we tend to focus on providing for those who can do for us, provide for us.

By mandating that a mother spend eighty days in purification for a daughter instead of the forty for a son, the Law establishes a pattern that provides an extra measure to insure care for daughters. Rather than being an “anti-woman” type of measure, this is actually very “pro-woman.” This is another possibility of how to interpret this passage.

So, what do we do with it?

We could make an argument for longer maternity leaves based on it. I’m not sure that’s the valid Biblical viewpoint here, but it is a potentially viable idea. We certainly do not live in the theocratic society of the time, and so cannot make it the law. Nor would we want to--

How does this work for us?

I think the key is in the third option above. Even if that’s theologically tenuous, we should see here a passage of Scripture that reminds us that all life is valuable. Boys and girls. Men and women. We must fight the tendency in any society to pick and choose our favorites and degrade others. That must cut back across gender lines, racial lines, ethnic lines, cultural lines…the Gospel of Jesus Christ is radically incompatible with prejudice. Radically incompatible with foolish judgment. Radically incompatible with a culture that kills off the inconvenient.

Mission Minded Munching: Leviticus 11

Just as an observation: taking a quick read at “The Gospel for Shrimp” would not hurt you going in to this chapter. Why? We’re coming strongly into the parts of Leviticus that must be considered in the context of the fullness of Scripture and not just line-by-line.

That is one of the major issues facing the modern reader of Scripture: we do not read enough. Actually, it’s more that we do not comprehend in long enough blocks. Either because we learned to read so that we could answer nit-pick quiz questions or to hit page requirements, our reading abilities tend to fail us on comprehension of large blocks of text.

You can see it away from Scripture in the bumper stickers that quote J.R.R. Tolkien as saying “Not all who wander are lost.” It’s an accurate quote. Usually, though, it is applied as a “Do your own thing” anthem. The whole context of Lord of the Rings? The quote applies to Aragorn, son of Arathorn. It’s attached to him when he is protecting the wide lands of the North as a Ranger. He’s not aimlessly wandering: it is part of the heritage of his family and part of his path to the throne of the kingdom. In all of his “wandering” he remains faithful to the truth as it is known in Middle-Earth. In short—it’s a lousy quote in context if you want to validate a life of mushy detachment from objective truth.

Coming back to the point of Scripture: Leviticus 11 (link) starts us into the list of details of life for theocratic Israel in the Iron Age. We start with the famous dietary laws. Does it divide the hoof and chew the cud? Does it have scales or skin? Is it a bat? A locust or a grasshopper? Owls or ducks?

Check it according to the principle and the list before you decide to eat it. Check it before you sacrifice it. Avoid the unclean stuff for either purpose and everything will go alright.

Why?

Get through the list to the end of the chapter to Leviticus 11:45. The exact reasons, though they are interesting to contemplate, are unclear beyond this one: this is about obeying God and upholding His holiness. Were there particular reasons for the no-pig rule?

Maybe it was just about making the Israelites look odd to the world around them. Maybe it was just about making dining amidst unbelievers a little bit of a problem. Maybe it was just about making all of life stand apart from the world at-large.

When you place the whole of the Bible together, that is what you really see starting to happen here. The people of Israel were called out to be the Royal Priesthood of God—one of their purposes was to declare God’s glory among the nations (Psalm 96:3). This took more than just a different Temple than everyone else had.

It took a different lifestyle. One that evidence obedience to God about things that otherwise would not matter. A lifestyle that stood separate from the world and was visibly different to the people that were not in agreement theologically and spiritually.

So how does this work for us?

Understanding that Israel was Israel and the Church is the Church, and the two are not exactly identical, there are still things here for the believer in Jesus. What we need to understand is this:

1. We are going to be surrounded by cultures that are different from us in principle and in practice. Israel was. We are.

2. Our religious practices are going to be automatically different: worship that looks identical to a different religion is, well, not Christian. It’s either syncretism of two religions or completely the other one.

3. Differing religious practices are not enough. When’s the last time you dropped in an Odin service just to compare systems? You don’t do it. Why would those we want to come to Christ just drop by?

4. Our lifestyle has to be visibly different in every day life if we are going to truly reflect the God we serve.

5. Down to the meals we eat, our lives should be mission minded.

Not saying we follow the exact dietary laws, but we consider the principle: Why?

And we act based on that.

Today’s Nerd Note: An important add-in consideration of the passage is this: God gives not only a list of clean/unclean but the principle to apply to new animals not known to the Israelites.

What does that mean?Zoology is pretty clear that local flora and fauna are pretty consistent: God could have specified for Israel based on the food choices available there. After all, the Promised Land was where the people were headed.

Instead, the principle is given and then local possibilities were used to illustrate it. What does this tell us?

It was never God’s intention that the people who worshiped Him to be restricted only to the Syro-Palestine area. Even in the Law we find the expectation that people will need to determine what should and should not be eaten in areas not yet explored, animals not yet named.

Think about what that means for you.

Strangers in the Fire: Leviticus 10

The hardest time to make a decision is when things are going very badly. The hardest time to make a good decision is when things are going well. Woe be unto the one who makes a decision while things are going well shortly after things have been going badly…

The people of Israel have been through a stretch in the recent months—in fact, one thing that is critical to remember when looking at the Old Testament narrative is that a lot of chapters in the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy) cover a short period of time. Well, to be more specific: the second half of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and a decent chunk of Number really fit in under a year. Contrast that with Genesis which covers all of prehistoric times or 1-2 Kings which covers about five centuries, you have a lot of text for a small number of calendar pages.

This is important to remember as we look at Leviticus 10 (link). Here we start with the story of Nadab and Abihu who are struck dead by God Almighty for offering what is called, cryptically, “strange fire” on the altar before Yahweh. The story is one of those slightly odd ones. We have the actions of Nadab and Abihu, which we do not fully know. We have the response of God Almighty. We have the command not to mourn them. Then we have the emphasis on priests not having any intoxicant affecting them while on duty.

What to make of all of this?

1. The identity of ‘strange fire’ is curious, but almost irrelevant. The first chapters of Leviticus, the second half of Exodus, all had addressed aspects of the how-to of performing the duties of priests in the Tabernacle. Nadab and Abihu knew what “acceptable fire” was and had no excuse to offer anything “strange” in its place. When God has been clear about what is appropriate, there is no point in haggling over whether something not in-bounds is a little out-of-bounds or a lot out-of-bounds. Christians are free by Christ in the Spirit to worship God and serve man. There are certain clearly instructed realities in Scripture: if it runs counter, it’s out. Whether out by inches or by miles, does it matter?

2. The power of God. Compare back to Leviticus 9 and see where God shows His approval of the process, through that point, by sending fire to consume the sacrifice. Here He shows the same behavior: the justice and righteousness of the Lord God will be upheld. The power of His own hand is enough to do so. There are times when people ought to influence the behavior of others but we can remember that God can (and will) deal with all behaviors. Letting God handle the timing is most appropriate: who knows but that you might act when repentance was near at hand?

3. We mourn over those we love, but there will be times when we must acknowledge that God has acted to address sin. In those cases, our mourning must look different. Note the end of the chapter: Aaron chooses to adjust portions of what he does based on the events of the day. Acknowledge those moments when seeing the judgment of God brings grief, but continue to focus on doing that which He has commanded you.

4. Clarity of thought is a helpful reality for all the servants of the Living God. Why we think that we should lose our minds before we act in service to the Lord is a mystery—and how we think we can worship without having prepared ourselves for the interaction with the Holy One is an even bigger mystery. It is our responsibility to be guided and controlled by the Spirit of God and not by any other concern in our worship.

Subpoint 4: Man can be intoxicated by many things. If a man be intoxicated by power, than he best NOT dare think he will lead the people of God in anything. Far better to lay out a day and get sobered up about grace than to face the wrath of the Almighty.

Today’s Nerd Note: This chapter gives us a one-off event in Scripture: we do not see God handle sinful worship the same way again, unless we count Ananias and Sapphira in that group. Even so, what I think this gives us evidence for is that beginning rightly is important: mistakes are going to be made, but when the direction is clear and you are starting off the foundation, be certain to get it right.