Leviticus 19:19-36 English Standard Version You Shall Keep My Statutes 19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. 20 “If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; 21 but he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed. 23 “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. 24 And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God. 26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes. 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. 28 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord. 29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. 30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. 31 “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God. 32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. 33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 35 “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. 36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. We have more assorted laws here that may not seem to be connected to anything other than our primary focus here that God is calling us to be holy because He is holy and He has ordained through His covenant to make a people that is a holy priesthood unto himself. If we are all priests in this holy priesthood, then the book of Leviticus that was instructions to the priests on how to be priests should be important to all of us, not just those who are Jewish and of the tribe of Levi--specifically the ones who are descendants of Aaron the High Priest.
The first laws here are straightforward and while they have some applications to them, there seems to be very little that would be "moral" about these first few laws to not allow animals of different kinds to mate, to not plant multiple types of crops in the same field and to not wear clothes that are made out of two different kinds of fabric (probably what we could polyester blends today). We'll see a consistent them in many of these laws about not "mixing" and I think it's a cultural reference as much as anything else that all these rules were there to help them remember that they were called to be pure and not to be intermixed or hybridized or amalgamated with the other cultures, especially the Canaanites, that they were about to encounter--nor were they to bring the culture of the Egyptians with them either. I don't pretend to understand the next law other than to say that it is still wrong. In no way is God saying that it is right for the woman who is a slave to be forced into a sexual encounter or even that it's right for her to have sex with anyone other than the one she is married to--this passaged doesn't say that. It clearly calls the act here sin and requires a sacrifice and atonement to be made, but the man does not pay for this sin with his life like he would if it was a man caught in adultery or fornication with a free woman. Again, I can't explain why this was other than there clearly was a difference culturally between free men and slaves that was and is different than how we regard the word "slave" today, but it doesn't mean that there weren't distinctions in the law. Next God tells the Israelites that when they plant fruit trees in the new land that they should let them grow for three years before harvesting any fruit to eat from them. This allows the tree time to mature and for its fruit to be allowed to feed the animals and let the seeds be used to be reproductive, but it also probably is a way to make sure that if the ground was polluted in any way that it was given some time to work itself out before they ate of the fruit that might also be polluted if they ate too early. In the fourth year the entire harvest of fruit belongs to the LORD (probably meaning that a portion of it was given on the altar, but that nearly all of it was given to the priests and their families). After that, the tree could be eaten of, but they would still be required to offer their offerings of firstfruits every year. God even says here that his reasoning it to increase the yield (how fruitful) of their harvest from these trees. We know some of this fruitfulness is probably basic horticulture that God understands, but God directly blesses the people with fruitful harvests in proportion to their obedience--it's something we will continue to see throughout the Old Testament. When the people are obedient, the land bears much fruit and the people get to keep it (though they are usually generous with it if they are being obedient to God). When they start to become disobedient and worship the fertility gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, God brings famine and drought to show them that the blessing does not come from these false gods or He allows invaders to come into the land and steal or burn their crops and maybe even to take away their land and God makes the land be less fruitful. God repeats the prohibition to eat anything with blood in it. This has been a command to all the nations since the Noahic covenant in Genesis 9, specifically Genesis 9:4. God also prohibits the use of mediums and fortune tellers among His people. Mediums and fortune tellers claim special knowledge from the spirit realm that God says does not come from Him--it is from the demons that pretend to be gods and the voices of people from beyond the grave. God speaks directly to HIs people through His prophets, through the high priest (who would cast lots as necessary to discern the will of the LORD), and in modern times through the Word of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirt so that we no longer need to try to divine the will of the LORD any more because we have all that we need for life and godliness in His Word and the Spirit guides our steps each and every day. Don't ask me why, but God even tells the people the right way to cut their hair and trim their beards. My only idea here is that this again is to keep them from trying to copy the fads of the culture around them. His people are to have their own "look" and culture that is distinctive and holy, even if it is "square" and "old-school" and "outdated" or whatever else people may call it. God made sure there were some ways for the people of God to be identified on sight, both so that they could identify each other and so that they could be easily identified by the world. Christians should also be able to recognize each other and be recognized by the world though maybe we are not called to have a "dress code" quite like this. I'm not saying dress codes are bad or outdated, just simply that in most cases what we choose to wear and how we choose to cut or style our hair is amoral unless we are specifically doing something to be rebellious of be promiscuous or to associate ourselves with the world in some way. Ask yourself this--is the way your dress and look showing people that you are "In the world, but not of the world?" God also gives a prohibition against cutting oneself. This was usually associated with idol worship of the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, but also had something to do with "marking yourself for the dead" that had to do with other occult practices. Whether this is complete prohibition on any kind of tattooing has been hotly contested over the years, but know that if you have a tattoo that does not prohibit you from becoming saved. I am more against tattoos than for them as in general tattoos are a very permanent way of marking yourself with something that may feel permanent but is not and associating yourself with some kind of identity that people have to see on the outside that shouldn't be necessary because everyone should know that you belong to Christ by the way that you act--"By their fruits you will know them." There shouldn't be a need for any other kind of "tell" or "mark" for a Christian--we shouldn't need a cross or a crown of thorns or an ichthus fish or anything else, but we also shouldn't be trying to do anything of these things to connect with the sprit realm which I think is consistent with the prohibitions here, nor should we be mutilating ourselves in ways that are consistent with those who we see in the Bible that are demonized or worshiping false gods. While that may not be the reason today that most people feel like they are cutting themselves, I think it is still often the work of demons playing with people's minds through various forms of depression, anxiety, and the like. If you know someone who is cutting themselves, or you are cutting yourself, it is not a good thing. That person needs to not only seek help from medical professionals and seek counseling, but probably also needs to hear the truth of God's Word about who He is, who they are and what He says about them--depending on if they are saved or not saved (don't be the kind of person that superimposes God's promises for his children over every human, even those who are in rebellion against Him), and then come to a place where they believe and receive His promises and His identity that He has for that person in and through Christ. As we see here, a lot of these commands have to do with where an how the person is establishing and how they are communicating their identity and who or what they are identifying with. Prostitution is also prohibited here for women--specifically the exploitation of children by their parents to use them as sexual objects for money or other such favors as it is a command to the fathers to not prostitute their daughters. This is the kind of wickedness that the Canaanites were involved in as they saw their children as something to be exploited and even sacrificed to their gods (we'll talk about that in the next blog). Next God orders the people to keep His Sabbaths (we've talked about this already that this is all of the holy days, not just the weekly Sabbath on the seventh day, though it doesn't exclude those either). God also commands the people to revere and treat His sanctuary (the Tabernacle or Temple) as holy for His sake because He is the Lord. Today, it is our bodies as Christians that are tabernacles or temples of the Holy Spirit and we are to treat our bodies with a special regard at this time not because they are special in any other way other than that they are containers for the Holy Spirit and that which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit is holy. So in some of the same ways that we've been talking about here, we should look different and act different because we are different. Everything about us on the inside and the outside should be different. As if once wasn't enough, God again prohibits the people from seeking out mediums and necromancers. This is probably a slightly different prohibition than before. Where the last prohibition was more about divination and fortune telling, this one probably has to do with those who would call themselves witches, warlocks, sorcerers, and so on that claim to be able to cast hexes and spells. They claim to not just connect and get information from the spiritual realm, but to have some power over it and to use it to curse or bless as they see fit and to bend it to their will. The people of God are to have nothing to do with such people that study the "dark arts" and such people will be commanded to be put to death as will be anyone who consults with them. There is no place for the occult among God's people. Not even something like tarot cards or Ouija boards that you think are innocent. Don't buy the repackaged "Christianized" versions of these things either. Tarot cards are still tarot cards even if people call them "angel cards" and Ouija boards are still Ouija boards even if people call them "angel boards" or something similar. The only angles that are going to try to speak to you this way are the fall angels known as demons. Hopefully you never experience something where an angel of God needs to speak with you to get your attention, but if it happens, the angel is always going to speak clearly without any need for spells, tools or divination and will speak in a way that is clear that he is a messenger of God and that God is to be feared and worshiped and He alone gets the glory. However, there is now little need for this at this time at we said before, because the Word of God contains all that we need for life and godliness. We should only be expecting those without the Word of God (or some who are rebellious and are refusing the read the Word of God) to continue to need to hear directly from angels or from the voice of God Himself in these supernatural ways--if we're listening to the words that He's given us through the prophets, Jesus and the apostles, then why are we seeking a "new word" and a new revelation when that is expressly forbidden in both the Old Testament and the New Testament? Get far away from those who claim to have a "new word" or a "new prophecy" or a "new revelation" or a "new teaching" that they have learned. There is nothing new about these teaching usually--they are usually very old lies from the devil that have been around from the Tower of Babel and before--some as early as the Fall and the first temptation to impart special wisdom and knowledge and make us like gods. Do not be tricked by this--God will give you all the knowledge that you need through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If anyone lacks wisdom, He is to pray to God directly who gives it in great abundance. James 1:5-8 English Standard Version5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. God commands the younger people to show honor and respect to those who are older. Stand up when they enter the room and look them in the eye when they speak to you. Listen to what they have to say and speak to them and about them in a way that is respectful--this goes beyond the fifth commandment of children honoring parents. However, this does not mean that someone younger is forced to take the advice of someone older or that the older person can boss them around and expect them to obey. God has given that special commandment for children to obey their parents, and God shows us throughout the Bible that while it is more common for young men to be foolish and older men to be wise, it is quite possible for some men in their old age to be foolish--especially if those men have turned away from God or never knew Him to begin with. There are still ways to be kind and honoring to such a person without feeling that you have to obey them when they want to teach you something in opposition to what God's Word says. You may even honor them in some way by reading the Word of God to them so that they can be exposed to God's truth and get their wisdom from the true source of all wisdom who is God alone. God tells His people to take care of and not to mistreat the people that sojourning (migrating, traveling through, making a pilgrimage, or maybe are "between homes," etc) that are not "permanent residents." They have no citizenship and they don't know anyone, so it would be easy to take advantage of them, and that's exactly the way that the Canaanites would treat such people. God says they should remember that they too were sojourners at a time when Abraham sojourned in Canaan and then also when the people sojourned among the Egyptians for over 400 years, and even now the people are sojourning through the wilderness as they head back to the land of Canaan to finally take possession of it. God tells them to treat all these people as they would want to be treated. Treat them fair and impartially and give them all the same protections as any citizen, but God also requires even the sojourners travelling through the land to keep at least certain laws--such as keeping the Sabbath and observing the holy days. We'll see that God's people were very hospitable people in general and Christians are also told to be hospitable and that we never know when we may be "entertaining angels" like when Abraham and Sarah did when they were told of the birth of Isaac right before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah--in fact, they even entertained God (probably God the Son since we see that all of the travelers in that story appeared to be men) there. God tells His people to use fair weights and measures and to be honest in all of their dealings in the marketplace and in measuring out their sacrifices that they are to bring to the LORD. They should not be trying to cheat each other or cheat God. This would be a consistent problem with the people throughout history, but we'll see it mentioned over and over again that they would use dishonest scales or would mix in bad product with good product on purpose and sell it for the price of the good product or would shave a little off before taking their offering to the LORD, or would try and mix in some of the old harvest that wasn't as good with their offerings for firstfruits (we'll see a specific command about this later). We should not to be deceptive nor should we lack integrity or honesty in anything. If we are the people of God, we should reflect the nature of the one who is Just and Righteous and True in all that He is and does.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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