On Leviticus 25-27

The Lord told Moses that not only the people but also the land must keep the Sabbath. For six years the people were to sow and harvest, but in the seventh year the people were not to sow anything and were to let the fields grow wild. The Lord also gave instructions for a jubilee every fifty years. The Lord then told Moses instructions for redemption of land and people and explained that poor people should be treated well.

This chapter deals a lot with slavery. Just like the sex laws and the prohibitions on disabled priests, I’m sure there’s some kind of justification for it at the time of Moses. However, none of these things are relevant to today. In fact, as Christians, we are not to follow any part of Mosaic tradition. Galatians Chapter 5, verse 1 explains, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” The slavery is in reference to the laws that Moses gave the former slaves of Egypt, which became the laws of Israel, or Mosaic Law. The next few verses go so far as to say even circumcision is unnecessary, (Galatians 5:6) “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” So even though parts of Mosaic Law are horrendous and unjustifiable, there is no reason that Christians, especially modern Christians, should follow these laws.

The Lord said that those who followed His laws would be greatly rewarded, but those who didn’t follow His laws would be punished again and again for refusing to follow His commands. However, the Lord would grant forgiveness for those who confessed their iniquities.

I think this chapter would be better applied to a spiritual as opposed to a physical realm. Christians believe that loving Jesus and following God’s word will lead to happiness and a better life after we have died. In his prayer, St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that, “…it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” So Christians have something to look forward to in the next life if we are good and loving. However, if we ignore God and hate our neighbor we will be punished for our sins. There are different interpretations about what hell is, but I think a great interpretation is that we create our own hell. With all of our sins, we create a wall that increases with each sin and keeps us from God. If only we ask for forgiveness and genuinely repent, we can escape from our hell and join a peaceful eternal life.

The Lord told Moses about the valuation of people, animals and land when concerning vows. Also, the Lord reminded Moses that the people were expected to pay a tithe for the Lord

In making a vow, the people were promising service to God. However, since only the Levites could work in the temple, the non-Levites had to pay instead of rendering services in the temple. In the list of values, the women have to pay less than the men. There is no clear explanation as to why women pay less, but I find it interesting that women are even given a value seeing as women, even Levite women, couldn’t perform services in the temple.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 25-27. And this is the last entry for the book of Leviticus.

On Leviticus 22-24

The Lord told Moses that Aaron and his sons could not eat the holy things that Israel dedicated to God. Also, lay people could not eat the holy food for the priests. The Lord gave further details about what was allowed for offerings. The Lord then told Moses about the appointed feasts which included the Sabbath, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks (Pentacost), the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Booths. These were all holy celebrations that Israel was expected to keep.

Most of the commands discussed in these chapters have already been said previously, so I don’t have any comment to add in addition to what I’ve already said.

The Lord reminded Moses to keep oil burning in the tabernacle and to place twelve loaves of bread on the table. Then there was a story of the son of an Israelite woman and Egyptian man. The boy cursed the name of the Lord and was held in custody until the judgment was decided. The Lord said the boy should be stone, because anyone who cursed the name of the Lord, whether Israeli or sojourner, should be punished. The Lord went on to say that equal retribution should be given as punishment, eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

The first part of this chapter again repeats traditions that have already been established. The second part of the chapter tells a story. It seems the people don’t know what to do with the boy who cursed the name of the Lord since the punishment hasn’t yet been stated by God. So God tells them to stone the boy for his crime. God goes on to say that the punishment should equal the crime, so I don’t understand why the boy’s punishment is death. The boy didn’t kill God. In fact, the boy was only hurting himself in committing sin and damaging his relationship with God. So I don’t think the boy’s punishment was equal to his crime. On another note, God says the laws apply to both Israeli and sojourner, so this is an example of the importance of cultural awareness. It would be terrible to be traveling through Israel, stub your toe, curse God for the pain and then get stoned to death for it!

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 22-24.

On Leviticus 19-21

The Lord told Moses various laws for keeping holy. Israel was expected to be holy since they were the chosen ones of the holy Lord. The Lord made provisions for the poor and the sojourner. He repeated many of the Ten Commandments. He also mentioned fairness in courts and loving your neighbor as yourself. The Lord said that two kinds of animal, seed or material shouldn’t be mixed and made further explanations of previously mentioned rules.

Many of these rules are a more detailed explanation of what is stated in the Ten Commandments. Something people usually reference as being absurd is the command to not mix different breeds of animals, seeds or materials. Of course, in a modern world we no longer need to observe this, but at the time it was meant to highlight separation. Israel was made separate from all the other nations because they were God’s chosen people, therefore they were responsible for keeping all things separated. Yet when Jesus came, he came for both Jews and Gentiles, so the separation is no longer relevant.

The Lord told Moses the punishment for child sacrifice, adultery, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, sex during menstruation and necromancers. In most cases, death by stoning was the punishment for these actions. The Lord also reminded Moses to keep the clean animals separated from the unclean animals.

In my two previous posts I’ve addressed the reasoning for the sexual laws at the time of Moses and why they are no longer relevant to modern society. I will only further say that death seems to be a severe punishment for these activities. However, if Israel was expected to be holy and they purposefully broke with the laws of God, then God would probably see that as good reason to have them killed just as He destroyed human at the time of Noah and He destroyed Sodom. The punishment for not following God’s law in the Old Testament is death, which is illustrated time and again.

The Lord told Moses the rules for Aaron and his sons and all priests to follow. There were different rules for regular priests and for chief priests. A regular priest could only participate in the funerals of his close family, but a chief priest couldn’t participate in any funerals. A regular priest couldn’t marry a prostitute or a divorced woman, but a chief priest could only marry a virgin. Also, nobody with a physical blemish, such as being deaf or blind, could be a priest.

Once again, I don’t think these rules can really apply to modern ideals, especially when we think of equality. There is no reason for any group of people to be treated second rate and being physically disabled does not make a person any less of a person. So often, parts of the Old Testament are quoted as God’s law, but I should hope nobody in today’s world would treat those who are deaf or blind as any less than the rest of us. And I don’t think that’s what Jesus would do.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 19-21.

On Leviticus 16-18

The Lord told Moses to tell Aaron not to enter into the Holy Place inside the veil like Aaron’s sons did, otherwise Aaron would be killed like his sons. Then the Lord gave instructions for an offering that Aaron had to make for himself and for the people of Israel. At the end of the chapter, the Lord says every year there shall be a day of atonement, as described, when certain sacrifices are made.

This chapter explains the origin of a ‘scapegoat’. Aaron is to bring two goats, one is chosen for God as a sin offering and one is chosen to be put in the wilderness. It seems the goat for the wilderness carries the sins of the people and is therefore cast out, just as a scapegoat today bears the burden of blame and is usually made an outcast in society.

The Lord told Moses the proper way to deal with the blood of animals. Blood was seen as life, so blood was very important. It was important that blood was not used to worship goat demons nor could it be drunk. If someone drank blood, that person would be cut off from the people. The Lord reminded Moses that Israel should not worship the way of the pagans, but should instead follow the laws of God. The Lord went on to explain sexual activity that was considered unclean. These activities included incest, sex during menstruation, adultery, male homosexuality and bestiality.

Chapter 18 of Leviticus is quite controversial and is quoted very often in today’s society. It’s the reason some Christians are against equal marriage and the reason some LGBT people are against Christianity. Before I address homosexuality in this chapter, I want to start with common ground. I think most people would agree that bestiality isn’t a good thing to do. There’s no way that a dog, horse or any other animal can agree to consensual intercourse, so it is actually a form of rape, which is wrong. On the other hand, many women have sex during menstruation and don’t view it as wrong. Some people might feel uncomfortable dealing with blood, and those people don’t have sex during menstruation. Neither one is really viewed as morally superior nor inferior, it’s just about a comfort factor. Moving to incest, in the modern Western world most people don’t agree with incest and there are usually laws against it. However, just a few hundred years ago incest was rampant especially among royalty. When modern science discovered the medical dangers of incest it started to become unacceptable. Honestly, the issues with incest can bring us closer to understanding the issues with every other sexual act mentioned.

Incest causes so many birth defects, which means it is hard to create viable progeny. At the time of Moses, they didn’t know the dangers of incest, but it could perhaps be argued that they wouldn’t be able to create as large of an amount of offspring if they stuck to relatives only. Women who are menstruating cannot reproduce and bestiality doesn’t produce offspring. Adultery could produce a child, but that child would belong to someone different from the woman’s husband and therefore the line of the husband couldn’t be continued. And finally, without the miracles of modern science, homosexuality cannot produce children. When looking at the Old Testament, it has to be understood that God wanted Israel to go forth and multiply. They wouldn’t be able to do that if they were all homosexual, or only having sex during menstruation or having sex with animals. The reason homosexuality is seen as wrong in the Old Testament is because it didn’t produce children. In modern society, procreation is no longer the sole purpose of marriage, especially since the world is so overpopulated, so equal marriage should no longer be an issue.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 16-18.

On Leviticus 14-15

The Lord told Moses how to make a person clean after having suffered from a leprous disease. There are different laws for poor people who cannot afford the regular sacrifice. The Lord also told Moses how to make a house, which has suffered from a leprous disease, clean.

Once again, a leprous disease could have been a range of different things involving the skin, but at that time and location they did not actually have leprosy. As for a leprous house, it could be a house with mold, mildew or any other condition that affects the appearance of the house. Even though I find all the animal sacrifice a bit disturbing, it makes me happy that God gives consideration to the poor. It would be better if there was no poverty among his chosen people because I think they should all be helping each other, but I guess there have always been people who don’t understand money management. So, it’s good that God thinks of them.

The Lord told Moses and Aaron the laws concerning bodily discharge for men and women. If a man had a discharge or discharged semen, he would be unclean. If a woman had a discharge of blood that was her menstrual impurity or any other discharge she was unclean. Whoever was exposed to an object after the unclean man or woman was exposed to the same object would also be unclean.

I think it is important to note that unclean is not the same as evil or sinful. Unclean is simply unfit for worship. Evil is something inherently bad and sinful is breaking the laws of God. A natural bodily process isn’t breaking God’s law.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 14-15.

On Leviticus 11-13

The Lord explained to Moses and Aaron which animals were clean and which animals were unclean. The Lord included every beast and bird and the animals of the waters and the animals that swarmed the ground. Moses and Aaron were told that they were only allowed to eat clean animals and couldn’t eat unclean animals including pigs, shellfish, snakes and many more.

This chapter contains the dietary restrictions that modern day Jews follow. It made me curious as to why Christians don’t follow dietary restrictions, but I found the answer in the book of Acts, chapter 10. Basically, God told Simon Peter that there should no longer be a distinction between Jew and Gentile. Although in the Old Testament the Jews are the chosen people of God, the New Testament sees with Jesus that all people are welcomed to God. Therefore, the Jews no longer have to separate themselves by dietary restrictions. Of course, modern day Jews would still follow the restrictions because they don’t recognize the news of the New Testament.

The Lord told Moses rules for women who had given birth. After childbirth, a woman was considered unclean for a certain number of days depending on the gender of the child. The woman then had to wait an additional number of days and before bringing a sacrifice in order to be made clean.

This chapter seems to say that giving birth to a daughter makes a woman more unclean that giving birth to a son. However, it doesn’t explain why daughters are considered more unclean. The good thing about these instructions is that it gives the woman some time to recover before being forced to have another child.

The Lord told Moses and Aaron rules for determining whether someone with leprous skin was clean or unclean. Also, they were told what to do with a person who had leprous skin. Finally, they were told how to determine if garments of clothing were leprous and what to do with them.

In this chapter, leprous skin is used to refer to a large number of skin conditions. However, leprosy itself was apparently unknown at that time and location. Declaring a person to be unclean doesn’t seem very nice, but I think God’s main concern was ensuring the health and success of His chosen people. Therefore, they had to protect themselves from any possible diseases.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 11-13.

On Leviticus 8-10

Moses took Aaron and his sons and did everything the Lord had instructed in order to ordain them as priests. Aaron performed many offerings in preparation for the coming of the Lord. When Aaron and Moses had blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared as fire. Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered an unauthorized fire before the Lord and were killed for it. Aaron was not allowed to mourn his sons’ death since they had broken the commands of God. Aaron’s younger sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, became priests and the Lord spoke directly to Aaron to explain what was expected of priests. Eleazar and Ithamar were commanded by Moses concerning offerings, but they didn’t follow what Moses said. Moses was angry, but Aaron intervened and explained it was difficult to follow the commands since Nadab and Abihu had so recently been killed.

In chapter 10, when Nadab and Abihu are killed, it is a lesson that even priests are not immune from punishment for breaking the commands of God. So often there are stories of Christians going out and living a sinful life six days a week, but then going to church on Sunday and expecting everything to be okay. The problem with that situation is that in order to be forgiven, we must humbly repent and be truly sorry for our sins. If we treat religion as a joke, a status symbol or generally as something it’s not, then our soul will have the same fate as Nadab and Abihu. Of course nobody is perfect, especially humans. However, we must try, and if we fail, we must recognize our mistakes to be forgiven. And we will be forgiven, because God is mercy, grace and love.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 8-10.

On Leviticus 5-7

The Lord gave Moses more rules for different kinds of offerings. In the end, the Lord had told Moses the laws for burnt offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, ordination offerings and peace offerings.

I don’t have very much to say on these chapters. They are a bit tedious to read and have little bearing on modern-day society. I have to keep reminding myself that all this is leading to something more, something great. All these stories are the background for the greatest Christian story, the story of Jesus.

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 5-7.

On Leviticus 1-4

The Lord told Moses the expectations for a burnt offering. The burnt offering could be a bull, a sheep or a bird and it had to come from the livestock of the person offering. The Lord also told Moses the expectations for a grain offering, which was a memorial portion. Next, the Lord gives instructions for a peace offering. This sacrifice could be made with a bull or cow, a male or female sheep or a goat. In all cases, the fat of the animal should be offered to the Lord. Finally, the Lord tells Moses the expectations for an offering for sin committed unintentionally. The ritual was different for priests, the whole congregation, a leader and a commoner.

There are many different reasons the Hebrews needed to offer sacrifices, but the ‘why’ isn’t the focus of these chapters, rather the ‘how’. For a modern audience, all this animal sacrifice may make us a bit uncomfortable. For Christians, it is important to remember why we no longer need to perform these sacrifices. Our good news is that Jesus came to die on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice. His blood on the cross was the offering to atone for our sins, to make peace with God, to bring us closer to our heavenly father. We are no longer expected to make sacrifices, because the greatest sacrifice was made. We only need to recognize that sacrifice was made for us, for all of us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son.”

These are my thoughts on Leviticus 1-4.