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.
Reflections of a Christian 