Leviticus and Law in Post-Culture War America

As the pool of candidates narrowed in the 2008 Presidential Election primaries, pundits noticed a peculiar strength in eventual victor, Barack Obama. The 47-year-old African American was perceived by many as a peacemaker who would bring an end to the so-called “Culture Wars” which had dominated American politics since the Vietnam War. Laying aside whether or not one believes this really was Obama’s intention—and to what extent he has been successful—it is remarkable that our country has reached a juncture where such a perceived intent could be a political strength.

The factors contributing to this change of public heart are diverse and disputed, but at least one underlying cause is shifting views on the nature of personal morality and societal ethics—especially amongst those voting for the first time in the 21st century. Reflecting from within the Judeo-Christian tradition, I believe we can find a fresh relevance for our ancient texts in this environment of cultural redefinition. In particular, the portrait of Holiness as defined by ritual purity, individual behavior and social justice as found in the Law passages of Exodus and Leviticus offer a unique moral vision to the upcoming post-culture war generation.

The command from God to Moses in Leviticus 19:2 “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy,” presupposes two audacious ideas:

1) that the personal decisions of an individual has lingering effects on the Holiness of the community, and
2) no amount of personal Holiness can cleanse the stain of an individual who participates in an unjust system.

These two ideas—often held as conflicting by both sides in the culture wars—demand we revisit our definition of “Holiness.” What contemporary implications exist for a text which discusses premeditated murder in the same language as the unrestrained slaughter of created animals (Lev. 17:6) or a holiness code which equates the consequences of sexual immorality (Lev. 18) with those of defrauding the poor (Lev. 19)? Is the idea of a Jubilee year—and the specific notions of Sabbath and debt forgiveness—pertinent to a society of runaway resource exploitation and restless consumption?

Obviously, one cannot lift a context-less English translation from a printed page and call it a “relevant ethic” any easier than one can create a papier-mâché rod from its pages and demand he be called “Moses.” Yet, we do the text, our traditions and ourselves a great disservice when we delegate the messages of these Pentateuchal passages merely to the realms of ancient cult or antiquated superstition. As our societies revisit the entrenched battles and political labels of previous generations, the ancient law of the Pentateuch can provide us with refreshing perspective on ageless questions.

votive candles

Leviticus 27:1 – 34   (NRSV)

Votive Offerings

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votive:

1. Given or dedicated in fulfillment of a vow or pledge: a votive offering.
2. Expressing or symbolizing a wish, desire, or vow: a votive prayer; votive candles.

–The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

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27)  The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When a person makes an explicit vow to the Lord concerning the equivalent for a human being, ³the equivalent for a male shall be: from twenty to sixty years of age the equivalent shall be fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary shekel. ⁴If the person is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. ⁵If the age is from five to twenty years of age, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. ⁶If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and for a female the equivalent is three shekels of silver. ⁷And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the equivalent for a male is fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. ⁸If any cannot afford the equivalent, they shall be brought before the priest and the priest shall assess them; the priest shall assess them according to what each one making a vow can afford.

⁹If it concerns an animal that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any such that may be given to the Lord shall be holy. ¹⁰Another shall not be exchanged or substituted for it, either good for bad or bad for good; and if one animal is substituted for another, both that one and its substitute shall be holy. ¹¹If it concerns any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal shall be presented before the priest. ¹²The priest shall assess it: whether good or bad, according to the assessment of the priest, so it shall be. ¹³But if it is to be redeemed, one-fifth must be added to the assessment.

¹⁴If a person consecrates a house to the Lord, the priest shall assess it: whether good or bad, as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand. ¹⁵And if the one who consecrates the house wishes to redeem it, one-fifth shall be added to its assessed value, and it shall revert to the original owner.

¹⁶If a person consecrates to the Lord any inherited landholding, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirements: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. ¹⁷If the person consecrates the field as of the year of jubilee, that assessment shall stand; ¹⁸but if the field is consecrated after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price for it according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and the assessment shall be reduced. ¹⁹And if the one who consecrates the field wishes to redeem it, then one-fifth shall be added to its assessed value, and it shall revert to the original owner; ²⁰but if the field is not redeemed, or if it has been sold to someone else, it shall no longer be redeemable. ²¹But when the field is released in the jubilee, it shall be holy to the Lord as a devoted field; it becomes the priest’s holding.

²²If someone consecrates to the Lord a field that has been purchased, which is not a part of the inherited landholding, ²³the priest shall compute for it the proportionate assessment up to the year of jubilee, and the assessment shall be paid as of that day, a sacred donation to the Lord. ²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. ²⁵All assessments shall be by the sanctuary shekel: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.

²⁶A firstling of animals, however, which as a firstling belongs to the Lord, cannot be consecrated by anyone; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷If it is an unclean animal, it shall be ransomed at its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment.

²⁸Nothing that a person owns that has been devoted to destruction for the Lord, be it human or animal, or inherited landholding, may be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord.

²⁹No human beings who have been devoted to destruction can be ransomed; they shall be put to death.

³⁰All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord.

Malachi 3:10 (New International Version)

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

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³¹If persons wish to redeem any of their tithes, they must add one-fifth to them. ³²All tithes of herd and flock, every tenth one that passes under the shepherd’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. ³³Let no one inquire whether it is good or bad, or make substitution for it; if one makes substitution for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy and cannot be redeemed.

³⁴These are the commandments that the Lord gave to Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.

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YOU HAVE MADE IT! — all the way to the end of Leviticus!  Congratulations!  I hope you have learned something through these chapters about God’s love for his people and his concern for holiness in every detail in our lives.  The song “You Are Mine” speaks to us in our current daily situations, but note the echoes of Leviticus as you listen.

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

votive candles.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/galleries/prayeraids/images/1.jpg

human value chart.  http://www.jerrypettit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/humanvalue.png

animals.  http://images.replacements.com/images/images5/china/C/department_56_little_town_of_bethlehem_no_box_P0000149993S0207T2.jpg

house.  http://media.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/real_estate/s_monopoly-house.jpg

field of grain in Russia.  http://www.admlr.lipetsk.ru/rus/g/vyst/004.jpg

10%.    http://duplexchick.com/files/2009/04/10-percent.jpg

Leviticus 26:12

Leviticus 26:1 – 46   (NRSV)

Rewards for Obedience

26)  You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them; for I am the Lord your God.

²You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, ⁴I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land.

⁶And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land.

Psalm 29:11 (King James Version)

The LORD will give strength unto his people;
the LORD will bless his people with peace.

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⁷You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ⁸Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

⁹I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. ¹⁰You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. ¹¹I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. ¹²And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

Mark 2:17 (New Living Translation)

Jesus told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

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¹³I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Psalm 3:3 (New American Standard Bible)

But You, O LORD, are a shield about me,
My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

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Music:

“It Is You”  –  words and music by Australian musician Peter Furler, of the Newsboys, a Christian pop rock band.

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Penalties for Disobedience

¹⁴But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, ¹⁵if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, ¹⁶I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you.

¹⁸And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. ¹⁹I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper.

"Iron Earth-Copper Sky" photograph by Eren Ozkapici, 2005.

²⁰Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

²¹If you continue hostile to me, and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. ²²I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.

²³If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me, but continue hostile to me, ²⁴then I too will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁵I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. ²⁶When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight; and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.

²⁷But if, despite this, you disobey me, and continue hostile to me, ²⁸I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. ²⁹You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you. ³¹I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors.

Psalm 74:3-7 (New International Version)

Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,
all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.

Your foes roared in the place where you met with us;
they set up their standards as signs.

They behaved like men wielding axes
to cut through a thicket of trees.

They smashed all the carved paneling
with their axes and hatchets.

They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.

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³²I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it. ³³And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste. ³⁴Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years. ³⁵As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it.

³⁶And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues. ³⁷They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies. ³⁸You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. ³⁹And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; also they shall languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (English Standard Version)

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

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⁴⁰But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me— ⁴¹so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, ⁴²then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³For the land shall be deserted by them, and enjoy its sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God; ⁴⁵but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.

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Reflection:

We make our decisions, and then our decisions turn around and make us.
–R. W. Boreham

What a choice put before the Israelites:  to obey or not to obey.  What decision could you make today that would help you grow more and more into the person God wants you to be?

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⁴⁶These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the Lord established between himself and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses.

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Resources:

See a portion of this chapter of Leviticus  (vs. 3-9, 33-37)  from the Dead Sea Scrolls!

http://www.schoyencollection.com/HebrewAramaic_files/ms4611.jpg

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

verse 12.  http://www.harrydesign.com/imagis/typo/leviticus26.gif

“A Peaceful Kingdom” by Florida artist Maryanne Jacobsen.  http://www.maryannejacobsen.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/peaceful_kingdom.jpg

Good Shepherd Hospital in Swaziland.  http://steganography.tripod.com/africa/gsh/gsh.jpg

mom holding baby’s head.  http://www.babyphotospictures.com/thumb/mummy-holding-a-baby.jpg

Ozkapici.  http://gallery.photo.net/photo/3202167-md.jpg

Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum — the lampstand may have been taken from Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem.  http://www.ebibleteacher.com/images/ArchofTitusTempleTreasurestbn011901.jpg

praying man.  http://rcf.renewalchurch.org/cutenews/data/upimages/praying_man.jpg

kitten sees lion.  http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/askville/5880747_9088679_mywrite/kitty.jpg

archaeology pottery.  http://www.archaeology.org.il/Upload/news/images/pottery.jpg

Of course this echoes the words of Jesus who claimed this and “love the Lord your God with all Your heart,” as the two greatest commandments. “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these.” He said . To note, many people claim that when Jesus said that if you hate someone it is equal to murder that he brought a new dimension to the law. Jesus brought a new life to it, but to our unchanging God there was always concern for the inner man even in the law as indicated with “do not..bear a grudge….”

"Year of Jubilee" by Debora Colquohon

Leviticus 25:1 – 55   (NRSV)

The Sabbatical Year

25)  The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: ²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. ³Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; ⁴but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; ⁷for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

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Psalm 24:1  (New International Version)

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.

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Music:

“The Sabbath Song,”  by Loretta Weinberger.  Have a blessed and peaceful Sabbath — every seven days and every seven years!

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The Year of Jubilee

Sound the trumpet!

⁸You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. ⁹Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land.

"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the Land unto All the Inhabitants thereof" -- Leviticus 25:10 (on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia)

¹⁰And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. ¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

¹³In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.

¹⁴When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. ¹⁵When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. ¹⁶If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. ¹⁷You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

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Proverbs 12:3 (English Standard Version)

No one is established by wickedness,
but the root of the righteous will never be moved.

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¹⁸You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. ¹⁹The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. ²⁰Should you ask, What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop? ²¹I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years. ²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.

²³The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. ²⁴Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold.

Ruth 2:19-20 (New Living Translation)

“Where did you gather all this grain today?” Naomi asked. “Where did you work? May the Lord bless the one who helped you!”

So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”

“May the Lord bless him!” Naomi told her daughter-in-law. “He is showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers.”

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²⁶If the person has no one to redeem it, but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so, ²⁷the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference shall be refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned. ²⁸But if there is not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.

²⁹If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year. ³⁰If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. ³¹But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.

³²As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them. ³³Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites—houses sold in a city belonging to them—shall be released in the jubilee; because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. ³⁴But the open land around their cities may not be sold; for that is their possession for all time.

³⁵If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. ³⁶Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you.

A photographic print by Atlanta artist Mark Lawrence, titled "Leviticus 25:36."

³⁷You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit. ³⁸I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.

³⁹If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. ⁴⁰They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. ⁴¹Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property. ⁴²For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. ⁴³You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God.

⁴⁴As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves.

verse 44: I'll bet the Canadians don't read Leviticus that way!

⁴⁵You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. ⁴⁶You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.

⁴⁷If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family, ⁴⁸after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, ⁴⁹or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves. ⁵⁰They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer. ⁵¹If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price; ⁵²and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. ⁵³As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight.

⁵⁴And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year. ⁵⁵For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

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Music:

A song about victory in the Year of Jubilee!  Paul Wilbur sings “The Shout of El Shaddai.”

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Colquohon.  http://www.insideartshow.com/gallery/2004/Colquohon_Debora/Year_of_Jubilee.jpg

sounding the trumpet.  http://www.shalomsouthwest.com/images/RoshHashanah/B473-JU-RO-Styled-.jpg

Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.   http://onward.justia.com/seo-images/1005_libertybell.jpg

Boaz gives grain to Ruth.  http://www.preceptaustin.org/Ruth%203%20Boaz%20gives%20wheat%20to%20Ruth.jpg

Lawrence.    http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/18/1899/T8H9D00Z/mark-lawrence-leviticus-2536.jpg

Uncle Leviticus mug.  http://rlv.zcache.com/leviticus_25_44_mug-p168894257436200659qzje_400.jpg

Both mother and father are spoken of with a togetherness that indicates the need to respect or honor both. It also indicates they are together in a constant relationship with each other as well as with the children who are being told that they should continue that respect. The child is not meant to make a choice between the two, but to carry out that respect and honor in some form that is within the realm of possibility at various times of life’s history. The word “honor” was carefully chosen instead of the word “obey,” which is how many people interpret the commandment. Sometimes a parent may be evil, or demand evil things. Obedience, then is not required. The honorable thing then, for example, in the case of an abusive parent is to have the parent locked up to get help. That is not dishonoring them if the charge against them is legitemate.
Respect of persons is looking with favor upon persons with respect to their external priveleges without any real concern about their internal state. Jude had this in mind when he said, “…having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage” (Jude 16). It is not good to have respect of persons in judgement. There is a tendency in all ranks–the wealhy, socially influential, and politically advanced wicked men–to overlook one’s wickedness for the sake of personal advantage.This respect of persons is condemned (James 2:1-9). It was forbidden in the Mosaic law, particularly in judicial decisions (Deut. 1:17; Lev. 19:15). All respect of persons is not sinful. If it were there would be no place for authority in the local church or in civil government.

There’s no low that’s too low for me to stoop to, darlings. I’m childish, petty, not v nice, and basically absolutely all right with that. Especially when I’m convinced I’m right.

And I usually am.

1. This is just not natural.

Gay penguins.  Moar gay penguins. Apparently, penguins are really gay. Gay-marriedly gay.

A very gay penguin with his gay family, gaily posing for a gay picture of him and his gay family, The photographs might have been gay, too. The camera sure was a lesbian. I have gaydar. I can tell.

In fact, so many animals are pushing the gay agenda that Wikipedia had to make an entire list of them. And the Bonobos, who are so human-like, heh heh heh, are evil filthy lesbians.

This fascinating article from the SEED magazine provides us with many valuable trolling opportunities:

Male big horn sheep live in what are often called “homosexual societies.” They bond through genital licking and anal intercourse, which often ends in ejaculation. If a male sheep chooses to not have gay sex, it becomes a social outcast. Ironically, scientists call such straight-laced males “effeminate.”

Giraffes have all-male orgies. So do bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, gray whales, and West Indian manatees. Japanese macaques, on the other hand, are ardent lesbians; the females enthusiastically mount each other. Bonobos, one of our closest primate relatives, are similar, except that their lesbian sexual encounters occur every two hours. Male bonobos engage in “penis fencing,” which leads, surprisingly enough, to ejaculation. They also give each other genital massages.

As this list of activities suggests, having homosexual sex is the biological equivalent of apple pie: Everybody likes it. At last count, over 450 different vertebrate species could be beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

Do I hear the bigots hetero-panicking yet? Mmmm(1).

Also, a list of gay animals with their gay photos.

2. There’s no gay gene.

There’s no stupid gene, either. And yet!

3. Gays are desperate, hopeless, sad, lonely, miserable people.

Possible replies:

a) And you’re so not helping.

b) Ask about how many gay friends the bigot has, and consequently, how they can tell.

c) Tell them to fuck themselves with a coat hanger.

d) Shove the statistics (with explanation) down the bigot’s bigoted throat.

d”) Mention suicidal children.

d””) Say it’s all the bigot’s fault. Make it personal. They will start feeling uncomfortable sooner or later. Stoop as low as possible. Actually, there’s no stooping too low when you’re talking to a person who believes you’re not really human at all, anyway.

4. Oh, and they’re really slutty too.

And yet they would never want to have sex with the bigot.

Bonus: point out that it’s a but bizarre how they keep bringing up the gay sex all the time. Ask them about repression. Mention internalised homophobia. Point out that homophobic males are sort of totally turned on by gay porn.

5. I LOVE gay people, but I just don’t like what they do.

This one’s fairly straightforward. Proceed from a) to b).

a) Take them at face value first. Ask them what is it that they dislike. Do they have issues with your crocheting? Or is it your choice of books? They will become exasperated, and also

b) This way you proved that you’re human. They might suffer from cognitive dissonance now. Hopefully. Proceed to point out nobody is forcing them to have gay sex, and it’s none of their business what other people do. They might have trouble dehumanising you again, because in a) you showed that your resemblance to a real person is uncanny, and you do not look much like the evil child-rapist and fire-breathing demon they pictured you to be.

6. Anal sex causes AIDS/STDs/cancer.

This why fundie kids like it so much, right?

Bonus: all sex causes all sorts of trouble if it’s not safe sex.

7. Gays can change, therefore they should.

Black people can change skin colour — I mean, look at Michael Jackson – therefore, they should.

(Shamelessly stolen from eliwurman)

8. Gay parenting harms children.

a) Ask the bigot whether the parenting of their parents was gay, because it sure harmed them.

b) Get personal. Tell them the bigot’s parenting, as a result of which more hateful homophobic might be brought up, is much moar harmful anything a pair of clueless gays could ever accomplish. They had it coming.

9. The gays already have equal rights, they want special rights!

a) Point out that the right to marry, adopt children, and not have bigoted fuckwits disrupting your life at every opportunity is not in fact a privilege.

b) Or just inform them that while eating Xian children is in fact a bit further down the gay agenda than such basics as gay marriage, you will of course do everything in your power to get your hands on the government-subsidised foetus sushi(2) that you’re clearly entitled to.

10. The bible is crystal-clear on the subject of homosexuality.

Yes. Yes it is.

(The anti-gay arguments used in this post come from the anti-gay bingo card)

(Still 15 to go)

(But you can start trolling now)

(1) Roughgarden’s theory sounds pretty interesting. Will have to pick up the book when I’m less busy.

(2) With salmon and wasabi.

신명기의 제사관련 내용은 성경에서 가장 지루하고 별로 생각할 것 없는 무미건조한 내용이라고 생각해왔는데, 사실 그 내용을 잘 살펴보면 굉장한 의미가 있고 감동적인 내용을 담고 있다는 것을 알 수 있다.

5장까지 내용을 보면 5가지 종류의 명확히 구분되는 제사가 나온다.

• 1장 – Burnt Offering (번제)
• 2장 – Grain Offering/Meal Offering (곡식제)
• 3장 – Fellowship/Peace Offering(화목제)
• 4장 – Sin Offering(속제죄)
• 5장 – Repayment/Guilt/Trespassing Offering(속건제)

Wiersbe의 설명에 따르면 각각 Christ’s Complete Dedication(Burnt), Christ’s Perfection(Meal), Christ Our Peace(Peace), Christ Made Sin For Us(Sin), Christ Paying Sin’s Dept(Trespassing)이라는 의미를 가진다. 모두 그리스도를 상징하는 것이다. 하나님의 경륜으로 보자면 그분이 하나님께 consecrated되어(burnt) deliverance를 위해 준비되어지는 것으로 시작할 수 있다. 인간 입장에서 보자면 각각의 죄를 깨닫고(guilt), 인간이 죄인임을 깨닫고(sin), 예수님으로 인한 하나님과의 화목을 알게되고(fellowship), 예수님의 완전함을 알게되고(grain), 결국 하나님이 이 예수님을 영원전부터 준비하셨음을 알게된다(burnt)

Hebrew 10:14는 예수님이 이 모든 제사를 단번에 완벽하게 끝내셨음을 설명한다.

For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrew 10:14

제사의 기본 아이디어는 sacrifice이다. 예수님은 그것을 단번에 완전히 그리고 영원히 이루셨다. 이스라엘은 제사장의 나라로서 철저하게 그 상징을 위해서 존재했던 것이다. 인생의 모든 원리가 다 그렇다. 인생은 상징으로 가득 차 있으며 그것이 나타내는 영원한 의미를 위해 그것을 지키려고 노력하는 것이다.

BEXAR COUNTY, TEXAS

“He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in the woolen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire.” Leviticus 13: 52

In 1931, a little-known leper colony in Bexar County, Texas caught fire. The fire was on purpose. Abandoned for several years, the county, the owner of the property, decided to demolish it by flame.

The tiny settlement, tucked away at the county’s poor farm, consisted of a five-room “box” house, a barn, and a hen house –- a self-sufficient community.

The county offered the buildings to anyone who would take them, but people were “afraid to go near them,” thinking they held, deep in their grain, the dreaded disease.

With not takers, the buildings were ripped from their foundations and dragged to a flat area where they were heaped together in a circle.

Doused with gas, a county farm worker set them ablaze, and dashed to his car for cover. Fire did its duty, burning away the flesh-eating scourge.

###

Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado

Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado

This post is about him but is also an attempt to bring some balance to what some may find to be a gay-hostile position on hate crime legislation regarding the GLBT community.

Earlier this month, gay 19-year-old Jorge (hor-hay) was brutally attacked and killed by a gay-hating individual, Juan A. Martinez Matos, 26.  The incident occurred in Puerto Rico.  Juan not only killed Jorge, but he also beheaded him, dismembered him, and burned the body.  Afterwards, the body was dumped along an interior road on the island.

There is no excuse for such an action and while Juan claims he acted in self-defense, one has to admit that the word “overkill” applies here and then some.  In an interview with the Spanish-language Telemundo, Juan claims “What happened happened because I defended myself. I cut him and beheaded him and I accept it as a man.”

It’s clear from the rest of the CNN article, as reported, that this is doubtless a hate crime against Jorge due to his sexuality.  There is no level of self-defense that could call for what happened to this young man.

So back to the title of this post.  One hate crime is two too many.

Yes, I can count.  But here’s the point.  Whether this was a hate-based crime or not, the killing of another person is crime enough.  To then decapitate, dismember, and burn the body is a whole other matter.  For law enforcement to add “hate” as a crime or motive does little other than to give those in the GLBT community a false sense of justice.

This crime should never have happened.  Jorge should still be alive today and free to live as he wishes without the threat of physical harm from haters.  That’s not up for argument here nor are his choices.  His choices are his and his alone to make.

No, but for clarification of the point, what I argued a while back is that adding hate crime protection does not “protect” anything or anybody.  It only gives law enforcement one more book to throw at the perpetrator.  It provided nothing for Jorge and can only give the GLBT community a sense of justice-having-been-served if and when Juan is convicted and sentenced.

My problem with it is that if I were in charge of Juan’s sentencing, he would probably spend the next 50 years or so in prison for what he did.  Being able to give him another 5 or 10 years because it was hate motivated would mean little in the overall picture.

Sadly, once in prison, Juan could be held up as a hero for the killing.  On the other hand, he may find himself in need of protection—turning to another inmate who has tired of his current “girlfriend”.

My heartfelt condolences to the Mercado family!

May justice be served and peace come to your family.

MORE:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/19/puerto.rico.gay.slaying/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/18/puerto.rico.gay.teen.slain/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/22/hate.crimes/index.html

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/11/19/man-charged-with-murder-of-gay-puerto-rico-teen/

Additional Note:

In balancing points, let’s recap a few of my views.  First, Castity/Chaz Bono is NOT a celebrity and her/his gender reassignment is not newsworthy.  I felt it was comment worthy because of the lack of news value it has.  I also felt it was worthy of comment because the actions taken seem to belie the point Chaz made about gender being between the ears, not between the legs.

As for Ian McKellan, consider the uproar if a straight person started defacing books containing a gay perspective—especially if these books were in a public space such as a hotel room where the books are clearly not the personal property of the room’s occupant.  There is no doubt that this expression of dissent with the publish view would be seen as a hate crime or homophobic.  Yet Sir Ian does so apparently with impunity and boasts of it in the news.  There is a double standard here between the straight and non-straight communities!

If he disagrees with the Book, have it removed before he arrives—as the article suggests hoteliers do in his case.

I may not agree with the Mormon faith but when I’m at a Marriott, I still respect the items in the room including the Book of Mormon as NOT MINE.  I leave it alone.  And if I ever get to the point that I feel it’s too objectionable, I will either ask that it be removed or I can stay elsewhere.

Respect!

This article is unlike the other articles in obvious regards and perhaps needs some preface. It is a response to the recent development out of the University of Pennsylvania, wherein scientists have been able to create a silicon-silk based device that could be affixed with LEDs, effectively turning the skin into a screen. A tattoo capable of being changed or turned off, capable of functionally displaying information from medical monitors or connectivity devices: it holds some amazing implications for the coming generation. The position of this article, due to my upbringing, takes the Judaic perspective, which has traditionally forbidden tattooing. Due to the nature of this article, which is somewhat academic in a very niche sort of way (though attempted to be accessible and meant for lay-theologian-types), I include this preface and suggest perhaps a different article if biblical exegesis isn’t your thing.

After the jump, for your consideration, is the piece in its entirety.

“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” – Leviticus 19:28

The Judaic Law against tattooing was formulated by this source sentiment, written at a time when the act was exclusively a cultist rite of passage that indelibly associated itself with a particular clan/deity; the statement affirming the first Commandment given to the Hebrews (completely ignoring for the moment the utilization of ritual scarification via the Commandment of circumcision). Makkot 20a[1] discusses the semantics of this statement: the sages of the Mishna differentiate between scarification and the application of ink into wounds, claiming that if one is done but not the other, then the person with the markings is not culpable for punishment. Rabbi Simeon son of Judah proclaimed in the name of a former rabbi, Simeon, that the only culpable act for tattooing is printing the name of God.[2] There continue discussions as to whether that includes the true names of God or if the names of idols would also cull punishment[3], which seems somewhat circular when the passage is pretty clear in referencing the 10 Commandments (e.g. “You shall have no other gods before Me”) and putting another god’s name on you would seem sort of…well, heretical.

What might amy of this this have to do with the technology tag? Well, it has everything to do with technology. As Phillips will soon introduce to the world, tattooing will take on an entirely different dimension when LEDs are placed sub-dermally, allowing one to toggle one’s tattoo into different designs or entirely off at a whim. Sure, applying this device purely for cosmetic purposes would undoubtedly deal some halakhic questions, but then there are other applications for this technology, beyond being the coolest tattoo ever.

These devices are silicon and silk implants, physical objects surgically inserted into the body, initially being used for medical applications. And the text of Leviticus reads “You shall not make any cuttings for the dead,” but one can do anything to save a life[5] and how many lives would be saved by a digital registry implanted in the skin of one’s medical records, of a built-in glucose meter, a display for respiration, of temperature, of blood pressure. The ramifications for good are too great to be denied, these will be a great boon to health maintenance (for everyone who can afford one).

But what about the commercial applications? Is it okay for the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish communities to use such devices? Once implanted for the medical application – it could surely could be utilized for the latter purpose too; is this a violation of the ancient code that speaks of printing and markings for the dead? Would even the Name of God be considered “in print,” when it can be argued that a digital representation of anything is not considered “written?”[4]

To imprecisely transcribe Maimonides in Misneh Torah, The Laws of Idolatry, 12:11, regardless of the intent (speaking of the former practice exclusively for idolatry, and even if it is fashionable {or life-saving?}), it is forbidden for a Torah Observant Jew to have markings on the skin. Would not the trivialities that could be produced from this subcutaneous transplant be accountable to this position? Just because it is possible, does that mean that it should be done? The Orthodox Union released this announcement in 2002 in regards to cloning, which could definitively be applied to stem cells, and presumably this issue:

The Torah commands us to treat and cure the ill and to defeat disease wherever possible; to do this is to be the Creator’s partner in safeguarding the created. The traditional Jewish perspective thus emphasizes that maximizing the potential to save and heal human lives is an integral part of valuing human life.[...] [I]f cloning technology research advances our ability to heal humans with greater success, it ought to be pursued [...][6]

I suppose the real questions I’m really trying to ask is whether or not I could show it to my mother (may she rest in peace) or would it have killed her? Would she have ever known? Could this device have saved her life if she had it measuring her blood’s potassium level?

Undoubtedly there is much to be considered here from the the Torah Observant Jew’s perspective, and there are sure to be opinions on both side of the spectrum. Personally, I am of the opinion that the subcutaneous Electronic Tattoo will be a major benefit to health care, both personally and to practitioners, and when they become available, I intend to get one.

[1]Babylonian Talmud, trans. MICHAEL L. RODKINSON; Chapter III, Pg. 47
[2](sic)
[3]Torah Academy of Bergen County, Student Publication
[4]Rabbi Reuven Ibragimov, discussion 2005.
[5]Leviticus 19:16, King James Version
[6]CLONING RESEARCH, JEWISH TRADITION & PUBLIC POLICY; A JOINT STATEMENT by the UNION of ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS of AMERICA and the RABBINICAL COUNCIL of AMERICA, OU.org

Bread and incense before the Lord

Leviticus 24:1-23   (NRSV)

The Lamp

24)  The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. ³Aaron shall set it up in the tent of meeting, outside the curtain of the covenant, to burn from evening to morning before the Lord regularly; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴He shall set up the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.

Jesus said . . .

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Music:

“Burn in Me”  by Paul Wilbur.

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The Bread for the Tabernacle

⁵You shall take choice flour, and bake twelve loaves of it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. ⁶You shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the table of pure gold. ⁷You shall put pure frankincense with each row, to be a token offering for the bread, as an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁸Every sabbath day Aaron shall set them in order before the Lord regularly as a commitment of the people of Israel, as a covenant forever. ⁹They shall be for Aaron and his descendants, who shall eat them in a holy place, for they are most holy portions for him from the offerings by fire to the Lord, a perpetual due.

Jesus said . . .

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Matthew 12:1-7 (Contemporary English Version)

One Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some wheat fields.  His disciples were hungry and began picking and eating grains of wheat.  Some Pharisees noticed this and said to Jesus, “Why are your disciples picking grain on the Sabbath? They are not supposed to do that!”

Jesus answered:   You surely must have read what David did when he and his followers were hungry.  He went into the house of God, and then they ate the sacred loaves of bread that only priests are supposed to eat. Haven’t you read in the Law of Moses that the priests are allowed to work in the temple on the Sabbath?  But no one says that they are guilty of breaking the law of the Sabbath.  I tell you that there is something here greater than the temple.  Don’t you know what the Scriptures mean when they say, “Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others”?  If you knew what this means, you would not condemn these innocent disciples of mine.

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Blasphemy and Its Punishment

¹⁰A man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian came out among the people of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and a certain Israelite began fighting in the camp. ¹¹The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name in a curse. And they brought him to Moses—now his mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan— ¹²and they put him in custody, until the decision of the Lord should be made clear to them.

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Psalm 138:2 (New International Version)

I will bow down toward your holy temple
and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.

_________________________

¹³The Lord said to Moses, saying: ¹⁴Take the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who were within hearing lay their hands on his head, and let the whole congregation stone him. ¹⁵And speak to the people of Israel, saying: Anyone who curses God shall bear the sin. ¹⁶One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer. Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death.

Mark 14:61-64 (New Living Translation)

But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses?  You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?”

“Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”

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¹⁷Anyone who kills a human being shall be put to death. ¹⁸Anyone who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. ¹⁹Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: ²⁰fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. ²¹One who kills an animal shall make restitution for it; but one who kills a human being shall be put to death.

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Lex Talionis

One of the purposes of the law is to provide an equitable retaliation for an injured party.  The extent must be defined and restricted.  These verses, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” give us the principle of a punishment equal to, or fitting for,  the crime.  The Latin phrase lex talionis is often used to refer to this principle.

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²²You shall have one law for the alien and for the citizen: for I am the Lord your God.

²³Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel; and they took the blasphemer outside the camp, and stoned him to death.

The people of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

bread on the table before the Lord.  http://www.mishkanministries.org/images/TableofShewbread2.jpg

light of the world.  http://dimlamp.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/i-am2.jpg

bread of life.  http://dimlamp.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/i-am1.jpg

“Jesus is Lord.”   http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xO-dVZY1Xk8/RhsVXuUzu2I/AAAAAAAAAPc/sNgzL2Ot1zE/s400/Jesus-Is-Lord.jpg

“Christ before the High Priest”  by Gerrit van Honthorst, 1617 (National Gallery, London).  http://www.lib-art.com/imgpainting/4/6/12464-christ-before-the-high-priest-gerrit-van-honthorst.jpg

stoning.  http://www.missiontoisrael.org/images/capital.jpg

Gandhi quote.  http://www.carryabigsticker.com/images/btn_eye_eye_275.gif

Coming from a tradition that emphasizes scriptural (sort of) dress codes for women, I was struck by how easily the men of the denomination explained away the scriptural view of beards. “It’s just cultural,” they said, meaning not moral. Beards are a shame in modern America.

Teeheehee.

This video makes me smile. The speaker poses a question we should all ask ourselves when we find ourselves making excuses for ourselves.

He asks, “By the way, who is your God?”

Leviticus 23:1 – 44   (NRSV)

Appointed Festivals

23)  The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed festivals.

The Sabbath

³Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a sabbath to the Lord throughout your settlements.

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Hebrews 4:9-10 (New International Version)

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

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The Passover and Unleavened Bread

⁴These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. ⁵In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to the Lord, ⁶and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. ⁸For seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall not work at your occupations.

The Offering of First Fruits

"Sheaves of Wheat" by Vincent Van Gogh

⁹The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁰Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹He shall raise the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall raise it. ¹²On the day when you raise the sheaf, you shall offer a lamb a year old, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³And the grain offering with it shall be two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. ¹⁴You shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements.

The Festival of Weeks

¹⁵And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. ¹⁶You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

Acts 2:1-4 (New Living Translation)

On the day of Pentecost^[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place.  Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.  Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.  And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

a.  The Festival of Pentecost came 50 days after Passover (when Jesus was crucified).

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¹⁷You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering, each made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of choice flour, baked with leaven, as first fruits to the Lord. ¹⁸You shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, along with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord. ¹⁹You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of well-being. ²⁰The priest shall raise them with the bread of the first fruits as an elevation offering before the Lord, together with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹On that same day you shall make proclamation; you shall hold a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a statute forever in all your settlements throughout your generations.

²²When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.

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The Festival of Trumpets

shofar: a ritual instrument often made from a ram's horn -- used to call an assembly or to signal sacrifice

²³The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. ²⁵You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall present the Lord’s offering by fire.

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Matthew 24:31 (English Standard Version)

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

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Music:

Hear the sound of the shofar!

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The Day of Atonement

²⁶The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷Now, the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you: you shall deny yourselves and present the Lord’s offering by fire; ²⁸and you shall do no work during that entire day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. ²⁹For anyone who does not practice self-denial during that entire day shall be cut off from the people. ³⁰And anyone who does any work during that entire day, such a one I will destroy from the midst of the people. ³¹You shall do no work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements. ³²It shall be to you a sabbath of complete rest, and you shall deny yourselves; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath.

The Day of Atonement

This day is so important that a whole chapter of Leviticus is devoted to it — remember chapter 16?  And Hebrews chapter 9 clearly explains how this day points to Jesus Christ and the work he did on the cross.

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The Festival of Booths

³³The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ³⁴Speak to the people of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and lasting seven days, there shall be the festival of booths to the Lord.

³⁵The first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. ³⁶Seven days you shall present the Lord’s offerings by fire; on the eighth day you shall observe a holy convocation and present the Lord’s offerings by fire; it is a solemn assembly; you shall not work at your occupations.

³⁷These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you shall celebrate as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord offerings by fire—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day— ³⁸apart from the sabbaths of the Lord, and apart from your gifts, and apart from all your votive offerings, and apart from all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

³⁹Now, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the festival of the Lord, lasting seven days; a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹You shall keep it as a festival to the Lord seven days in the year; you shall keep it in the seventh month as a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴²You shall live in booths for seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths, ⁴³so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Nehemiah 8:13-17 (New International Version)

On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the Law.  They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month  and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: “Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make booths”-as it is written.

So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.

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⁴⁴Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed festivals of the Lord.

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–by Robert C. “Dag” Johnson in Stones of Remembrance

God in His gracious wisdom has always encouraged His people to celebrate the significant events of their lives.  He consistently nudges us to remember our experiences and accomplishments in relation to His sovereign grace.  These nudges may come at unexpected times or in our more reflective hours.  Each seeks to focus our attention on His loving provision.  How often the children of Israel were reminded to establish markers of remembrance in their historic journey.

Celebrations are some of the most important events in our passage through life.  Without them the true meaning of our days here on earth is obscured.  We can diminish life to mere existence, living in a world without a true sense of color or dimension.  Celebrations are essential to our understanding and appreciation of one’s value and worth.  They fuel our dreams and aspirations–they memorialize our commitments and achievements.  They may be personal or cultural, provincial or universal, prosaic or profound, but all are to be enjoyed, relished, and remembered.  Births, marriages, graduations, reunions–all are reminders to celebrate.  Remembering is the avenue for our realization that celebration is one of God’s greatest gifts to us.

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Music:

A perfect song for every celebration — and every day is a gift to celebrate!   “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.”  Sung by Fernando Ortega.

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Book of Jewish Festivals.  http://www.judaicadepot.com/images/book2lg.jpg

Van Gogh. http://www.tfsimon.com/vincent-van-gogh-sheaves-of-wheat.jpg

Pentecost.  http://calvarylutheran.info/Pentecost.jpg

Prayer Pups cartoon.  http://www.prayerpups.com/comics/2008-09-04-aliens.jpg

blowing the ram’s horn trumpet (shofar).  http://www.helperin.com/images/300dpi/press_shofar_300dpi.jpg

Jesus on the cross.  http://motorcyclingintheusa.com/PhotoGallery/Inspirational/Jesus%20on%20the%20Cross.jpg

booth.  http://subversiveinfluence.com/images/blogposts/sukkah.gif

“Celebrate!” 41-cent stamp.    http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007stamps/definitives/downloads/2007celebrate41_600.jpg

The book of Leviticus gives us a glimpse of who Jesus is in the Old Testament (O.T).

This is the time of the laws and offerings and for those of us who have resolved to read the entire Bible in a year, we often find the book of Leviticus to be the Biblical speedbump. But there is so much truth hidden in this difficult to read book. There are six offerings mandated, five of which are recorded in the first seven chapters of this book and one offering is recorded in the book of Numbers.

The five offerings are  

1. Burnt Offering
   In the burnt offering, the sacrificed animal’s blood was sprinkled and the animal was burnt as an aroma to God. Jesus’ sacrifice was a sweetsmeeling savor acceptable to God (Ephesians 5:2). The Bible states that states that life is in the blood (Genesis 9:4).Eternal life is only by the blood of Jesus Christ that washes away all sin. Jesus is the burnt offering.
2. Meat Offering
   Jesus said, this is my body (flesh/meat) given for you (Luke 22:19) before the day that he was crucified. Jesus is the perfect meat offering.
3. Peace Offering
   For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus is the Peace offering.
4. Sin Offering
   Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed (1 Peter 2:24). He who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we may become the righteousness of God. Jesus is the sin offering.
5. Trespass/Guilt Offering
   Jesus taught us to pray – Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against all (Matthew 6:12) and his first saying from the Cross when he was crucified was “Father, forgive them their trespasses (guilt) for they do not know” (Luke 23:34). Jesus not only taught us to forgive but became the guilt offering unto God for us, so that God the Father may withhold his wrath from us.

In Leviticus, Jesus is typified in the offerings, the perfect and pleasing offering acceptable to God and He is our sanctification.

Psalm 96:8 -- "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts."

Leviticus 22:1 – 33   (NRSV)

The Use of Holy Offerings

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“We Give Thee But Thine Own”
by William W. How, 1823-1897

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our first-fruits give!

To comfort and to bless,
To find a balm for woe,
To tend the lone and fatherless,
Is angels’ work below.

The captive to release,
To God the lost to bring,
To teach the way of life and peace,
It is a Christlike thing.

And we believe Thy Word,
Though dim our faith may be:
Whate’er for Thine we do, O Lord,
We do it unto Thee.

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22)   The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Direct Aaron and his sons to deal carefully with the sacred donations of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they may not profane my holy name; I am the Lord.

³Say to them: If anyone among all your offspring throughout your generations comes near the sacred donations, which the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he is in a state of uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord.

⁴No one of Aaron’s offspring who has a leprous disease or suffers a discharge may eat of the sacred donations until he is clean. Whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse or a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵and whoever touches any swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or any human being by whom he may be made unclean—whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶the person who touches any such shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat of the sacred donations unless he has washed his body in water. ⁷When the sun sets he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the sacred donations, for they are his food. ⁸That which died or was torn by wild animals he shall not eat, becoming unclean by it: I am the Lord.

⁹They shall keep my charge, so that they may not incur guilt and die in the sanctuary for having profaned it: I am the Lord; I sanctify them.

¹⁰No lay person shall eat of the sacred donations. No bound or hired servant of the priest shall eat of the sacred donations; ¹¹but if a priest acquires anyone by purchase, the person may eat of them; and those that are born in his house may eat of his food. ¹²If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the offering of the sacred donations; ¹³but if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced, without offspring, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No lay person shall eat of it.

¹⁴If a man eats of the sacred donation unintentionally, he shall add one-fifth of its value to it, and give the sacred donation to the priest. ¹⁵No one shall profane the sacred donations of the people of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶causing them to bear guilt requiring a guilt offering, by eating their sacred donations: for I am the Lord; I sanctify them.

Acceptable Offerings

¹⁷The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁸Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them: When anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing in Israel presents an offering, whether in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering that is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering, ¹⁹to be acceptable in your behalf it shall be a male without blemish, of the cattle or the sheep or the goats. ²⁰You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable in your behalf. ²¹When anyone offers a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, in fulfillment of a vow or as a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, to be acceptable it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. ²²Anything blind, or injured, or maimed, or having a discharge or an itch or scabs—these you shall not offer to the Lord or put any of them on the altar as offerings by fire to the Lord. ²³An ox or a lamb that has a limb too long or too short you may present for a freewill offering; but it will not be accepted for a vow.

Animals with physical anomalies, such as this three-legged goat . . .

²⁴Any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the Lord; such you shall not do within your land, ²⁵nor shall you accept any such animals from a foreigner to offer as food to your God; since they are mutilated, with a blemish in them, they shall not be accepted in your behalf.

. . . or animals which had been castrated, such as the steers pictured above, were useful for food or for service in agricultural areas, but were not acceptable for sacrifice to God.

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²⁶The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as the Lord’s offering by fire. ²⁸But you shall not slaughter, from the herd or the flock, an animal with its young on the same day.

²⁹When you sacrifice a thanksgiving offering to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that it may be acceptable in your behalf.

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Psalm 107:22 (New International Version)

Let them sacrifice thank offerings
and tell of his works with songs of joy.

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³⁰It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall not leave any of it until morning: I am the Lord.

³¹Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the Lord. ³²You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the Lord; I sanctify you, ³³I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.

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Music:

“You Are Lord.”  Written and sung by Micah Stampley.

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

offering watercolor picture.  http://redbooks.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/00000000000000000.jpg

offering plate.  http://growingyourchurch.com/images/offering-plate-with-money.jpg

goat.  http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/2534114695_a2f1e74aea.jpg?v=1212097513

Anhay Hereford steers.  http://www.anhay.com/userimages/steers.jpg

 Leviticus 11 with Mk.7 Sermon #4

INTRODUCTION

When I was studying law a number of my class-mates were Jews.  None of them were particularly religious.  They observed the Jewish holidays just as most Scots observe Christmas—more out of tradition than religious conviction.  There was nothing about them that marked them out as different from the rest of us.  They didn’t dress differently, they didn’t speak differently, they didn’t  look any different either.

However, there was one thing that distinguished them from the rest of the class.  At parties they were very particular about what they ate.  They would want to know what exactly was in the sandwiches.  A platter of meat would be scrutinised and questions asked. 

Most of us know that Jews won’t eat pork.  You may also be aware that they won’t eat any kind of shellfish either.  Even many secular Jews won’t compromise on this.

When we turn our noses up at certain foods its usually a matter of taste.  It’s certainly not because of our religion.  We find it strange that food and drink can be part of one’s faith.  The idea is foreign to Christianity.  The Lord Jesus specifically said Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean?  (Mk.7:18). 

Mark makes a point of telling us that in so saying our Lord declared all foods clean. 

Therefore, it’s not easy for us to appreciate why other religions make such a big deal about food.  It’s not easy for us to listen patiently to the lists of clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11.  How can one animal be “clean” and another “unclean”?  Why is it all right to eat a sheep but not a pig or a camel or a rabbit?  What’s wrong with prawns and oysters? 

And here’s the million dollar question: what possible relevance does all this have to us?  What bearing does any of this have on us as Christians.  The Lord Jesus declared all foods clean; surely this is one part of the Bible we can ignore.

RECAP

Over the past few weeks since we began looking at Leviticus we’ve been thinking about sacrifice and the priests who offer the sacrifices.  The overarching lesson I’ve been trying to communicate is this: that God has not changed, and his requirements have not changed.

If we are to worship Almighty God as he wants to be worshipped; if we are to be reconciled to him, at peace with him, then he still requires us to bring a sacrifice.  And we still need a high priest to offer it on our behalf.

The requirement has not changed.  What has changed is that in the Lord Jesus Christ we have a better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats and lambs.  Heb.9:26 says  But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Christ Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  He is the spotless lamb who, to use Peter’s words, has redeemed us from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers.  (1Pet.1:18). 

More than that, not only is he a better sacrifice, he is a better high priest than Aaron or any of his successors.  To quote from Hebrews again: but because Jesus lives for ever he has a permanent priesthood.  Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. (7:24,25)

Aaron wore a breastplate studded with twelve jewels representing the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolic of him carrying the nation close to his heart.  So the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, carries his beloved ones close to his heart, praying to the Father for us without ceasing.

CONTEXT

With Leviticus 11 the work of the priests begins.  There was more to being a priest than just officiating at the tabernacle or temple—just as there is more to being a minister than preaching sermons on a Sunday!  Another important job was teaching the people God’s law.  They had to teach the people what God expected of them.  And they themselves were to living examples of what they taught.

Chapter 10 tells us of what happened when they failed in that regard.  Aaron’s two eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered what 10:1 calls unauthorised fire before the Lord, contrary to his command.  The fire for their censers should have come from the altar.  For some reason they took fire from elsewhere.  Given the instruction in v.9 banning the priests from drinking alcohol while on duty there is a suggestion that they might have been drunk and that’s what led to their negligence.

The point is, they offered unauthorised, literally strange or alien fire.  And as a result the Lord consumed them with fire. 

Look at 10:10, for this is the nub of the matter.  The Lord says to Aaron: You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean. 

Nadab and Abihu had failed to do that: as far as they were concerned fire from any source would do.  After all, fire is fire.  But they were wrong.  Fire involved in worship had to come from a holy source, the altar. 

So what follows now are instructions on how to distinguish between the holy and the common, the unclean and the clean.  Chapter 11 deals with animals (which can be eaten and which can’t), and what happens if you touch a carcass. Chapter 12 is about the after effects of child-birth; chapters 13 &14 with infections, both of humans and of objects (after all, mildew on your clothes looks like an infection).  Chapter 15 concerns bodily functions. 

The long and the short of it is, there are certain things and states of being which render a person “unclean”.  When one is unclean one must physically remove oneself from the community in case you contaminate somebody else.  One must do one’s best to avoid becoming unclean, but sometimes it can’t be helped.  It’s going to happen at some point or another.  So provision is made for becoming clean again. 

Underlying all this is the need to be holy.  Please don’t miss this.  At the end of chapter 11, at v.44, the Lord says:

I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.  Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.  I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy because I am holy.

There is a connection between the exodus and these instructions.  There is a connection between God liberating his people from slavery in Egypt and these dietary regulations.  There is a connection between being holy and what they eat. 

That may seem strange to us, and therefore a point that’s easily missed.  There’s nothing arbitrary about these food laws.  There is a very specific purpose behind him.  And that purpose is holiness.  

CHAPTER 11

Summary

Before we go any further, let me summarise chapter 11 for you.  v.3 states that any animal that has a split hoof which is completely divided and chews the cud may be eaten.  So that would be cattle and sheep.  Other animals, which either chew the cud but don’t have split hooves; or have split hooves but don’t chew the cud are to be regarded as unclean. 

Fish with scales and fins can be eaten; but no other water creatures.  Birds of prey are out of bounds too.  So are flying insects, except those that hop, like crickets and grasshoppers.  Animals that swarm or scurry, like mice and lizards are also unclean. 

The chapter also states that you make yourself unclean if you touch a carcass, regardless of whether the animal is clean or unclean.  If you find yourself in that situation, you wait till evening, you wash, and then you are clean again. 

And it’s not just people who can be made unclean by a carcass.  v.32 says that anything coming into contact with death—be it made of wood, cloth, hide, or sackcloth—had to be washed in water.  v.33 says that if you took the lid off a pot to check how the stew was doing and found a dead mouse floating inside you had to throw out the food and the pot. 

The only exception to this rule was a spring or cistern (v.36).  This is where they got their water from, not just for drinking but for ritual purification too. So if a dead animal was found there, the water, which was flowing constantly, was not regarded as unclean.  A source of purity cannot be defiled. 

Explanation

Scholars and commentators have puzzled over these regulations for centuries, trying to make sense of them, trying to find a pattern, a rationale behind why some animals are considered clean and others not. 

The health and hygiene theory has become very popular in recent years; but that says more about modern concerns than about ancient beliefs. Almost anything can be eaten safely if it’s cooked thoroughly.  And anyway, if hygiene were the rationale, that would still be relevant.  So why did the Lord Jesus declare all foods clean? 

The best explanation in my opinion comes from an anthropologist called Mary Douglas.  She points out that creation divides the animal kingdom into three areas of activity—the land, the air, and the sea. 

Each area has a particular motion or action associated with it—land animals have hooves for walking and running; birds have feathers for flying; and fish have fins and scales for swimming. 

Those animals which are fully true to type are clean; those which deviate in some way are unclean.  Take land animals.  Cattle and sheep have hooves and they chew the cud.  That is being fully true to type.  All other animals deviate from this pattern somehow.  Either they don’t chew the cud or they don’t have hooves. 

Water creatures that don’t have both fins and scales, like dolphins and shellfish, deviate from type.  They are unclean.

Little scurrying animals make a similar point.  Creation is about order, not chaos; and their movements are, to our eyes, chaotic.  Birds of prey feed on carrion, and their association with death, the ultimate chaos, render them unclean.  It’s the same with people: any contact with death renders a person unclean. 

So this whole business of clean and unclean animals was a way of using nature as a giant object lesson to God’s people.  The Lord was saying to them: you are to be true to type.  I rescued you from Egypt for a reason.  You are my chosen people; chosen to be holy; chosen to be a light to the world; chosen to be a kingdom of priests.  You must conform to type.  You must not be like the pagan nations around you.  You must be what you are called to be. 

Every time they made the distinction between an animal that was clean and one that was unclean, they were also making a distinction between themselves and the Gentile world.  Every time they themselves became unclean by touching something dead, and thus had to separate themselves from everybody else, they were reminded of the tremendous privilege that was theirs—of not being cut off from the Living God, but enjoying is constant presence. 

APPLICATION

In 1Pet.1:15, 16 the apostle quotes Leviticus saying: But just as he who called you is holy so be holy in all you do, for it is written, Be holy because I am holy. 

The principle that God’s people are to be a holy people, distinguishing them from the unbelieving world, remains as true today as it ever was.  We too are a liberated people—liberated from the power of sin and death.  We too are called to be a royal priesthood.  We are to be different from the world, attractively different.  We are still called to be true to type.  What has changed is how we demonstrate that are a holy people belonging to God. 

The Jews demonstrated their distinctiveness through outward practices like observing the Levitical food laws.  Indeed, these laws became what could be called a badge of identity for them.  You knew your next door neighbours were Jews because of what they ate and didn’t eat.

In time this became a problem.  As often happens with religious people, the Jews became more concerned with the outward practice than with the inner spiritual reality.  Their attitude was, so long as you observe the rules, you’ll be “clean”, your relationship with God and the community will be fine. 

 No wonder the Pharisees were furious when our Lord Jesus turned the whole idea on its head: Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him.  Rather it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.

Don’t misunderstand.  Our Lord wasn’t criticising the Old Testament law.  What he was doing was bringing out its real meaning.  To be fair, Old Testament believers who saw beyond the superficial, had always understood that the real source of impurity was sin. 

Ps.51, King David’s prayer of confession, repeatedly asks for spiritual cleansing: Wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin (v.2)  Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow (v.7)

David realized that by committing adultery with Bathsheba he had not been true to type—he had not behaved as a married man should, nor as an anointed king of Israel. 

What comes out of man, says the Lord Jesus, is what makes him unclean...evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 

These are what make us unclean in God’s sight.  They are not worthy of his people.  They belong to the sphere of rebellion and death.  When we allow such attitudes to take up residence in our hearts and minds; when they begin to dictate our behaviour, we are acting contrary to type.  There is nothing to distinguish us from unbelievers. 

And therefore we must do all we can to avoid contact with anything that would encourage such an inconsistency. 

We can’t remove ourselves from the real world; we’re going to be tempted, we’re going to pick up some dirt along the way—it’s inevitable.  But all the more reason for not putting ourselves in the situation where unclean thoughts and actions become irresistible. 

The Lord Jesus was quite ruthless.  He said: If your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out and throw it away…And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  (Mt.6:29,30)

What’s he talking about?  He’s talking about taking drastic action to remove ourselves from anything that would stunt our growth in holiness; anything that would promote that which truly renders us unclean in God’s sight. 

Think about the company you keep.  Are there certain people in your life, who, when you are with them, somehow manage to dim the light of Christ that otherwise shines brightly from you?  It’s not just that they are not Christians.  It’s that they actively, deliberately dampen your faith.  When you are with them it’s like being separated from the Lord.  You become more like them, and less like the Saviour you love. 

You become unclean.

Think about some of the TV programmes or films you watch, or books and magazines you read.  What influence are they having on you?  What thoughts linger in your mind afterwards? What impression do they leave behind?  By God’s grace you have been dying to sin, but exposing yourself to such material is like giving water to a thirsty man–the old sinful self is revived and refreshed. 

You make yourself unclean. 

Be holy as I am holy, says the Lord.  And that means doing all we can to avoid that which pollutes our souls as well as doing all we can to promote and encourage Christ-likeness. 

The Apostle Paul says to the Philippians (4:8): whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. 

 And what if we do sully ourselves?  It’s a horrible feeling, knowing that we have sinned, knowing that we have allowed ourselves to be led into temptation and quite brazenly feasted on that which is unclean.  Guilt clings to us like cigarette smoke on our clothes.  Like King David our only prayer is: Wash me, cleanse me, purify me. 

 The ancient Israelites washed in water, they waited, and then they were clean.  They were accepted back into the community.

 What about us?  For if the contamination is inward and spiritual, then no amount of washing in water will help.  Where can we go to be made clean?

Leviticus 11 offers us some help.  Do you remember I mentioned the one exception to the rule that death contaminates?  v.36 says: A spring, however, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean

Since a spring or cistern is a source of water, and therefore the source of purity, it cannot be defiled. 

How could the Lord Jesus touch the leper without becoming unclean himself?

How could the woman with the haemorrhage touch him without contaminating him?

How could he take Jairus’ dead daughter by the hand and yet remain spiritual clean?

Because, my friends, the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of purity.  He is the one who makes us clean.  He is the living water, the source of the water of life.  When we come to him in faith we are washing ourselves clean, spiritually clean.  We are washing away all the dirt, all the grime, that stains our souls. 

CONCLUSION

Are you a Christian who in someway has not been acting according to type?  You have asked Christ Jesus to be your Saviour and Lord, yet there is something in your life which is directly contradicting that profession of faith.  You have failed to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. 

Now is the time to get right with God again. Now is the time to return to the source of spiritual purity. 

And perhaps there is someone here today for whom religion has been all about outward signs of respectability.  You think it’s about being a good person, observing the rules, playing the game. 

 Friend, true religion has never been limited to the outward show, to rules and regulations.  You too must go to the source of purity, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who will wash away the sin that otherwise will keep you out of heaven.  Rev.21:27 tells us: Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

The old hymn puts it like this:

What can wash away my stain? Nothing but the blood of Jesus

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow

No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Priests on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem. The tower in the background is the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.

Leviticus 21:1 – 24   (NRSV)

The Holiness of Priests

21) The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his relatives, ²except for his nearest kin: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother; ³likewise, for a virgin sister, close to him because she has had no husband, he may defile himself for her. ⁴But he shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself.

⁵They shall not make bald spots upon their heads, or shave off the edges of their beards, or make any gashes in their flesh. ⁶They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the Lord’s offerings by fire, the food of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

⁷They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God, ⁸and you shall treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, I who sanctify you, am holy.

"Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life." --Proverbs 6:25-26

⁹When the daughter of a priest profanes herself through prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned to death.

¹⁰The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the vestments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his vestments. ¹¹He shall not go where there is a dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother. ¹²He shall not go outside the sanctuary and thus profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord.

¹³He shall marry only a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, a prostitute, these he shall not marry. He shall marry a virgin of his own kin, ¹⁵that he may not profane his offspring among his kin; for I am the Lord; I sanctify him.

¹⁶The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁷Speak to Aaron and say: No one of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. ¹⁸For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, one who is blind or lame,

or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, ¹⁹or one who has a broken foot or a broken hand, ²⁰or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a blemish in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. ²¹No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the food of his God. ²²He may eat the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy. ²³But he shall not come near the curtain or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the Lord; I sanctify them.

²⁴Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

_________________________

Music:

What are you learning about the need for personal holiness as you are reading through Leviticus?

The priests of Israel were to be, in every detail of their lives, “holy to the Lord.”  Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9 (Amplified Bible) –

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, God’s own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

So through Christ, all of us are priests — all of us are called to be “Living for Your Glory.”  This song is by Tim Hughes, who is the Director of Worship in an Anglican church in London.

_________________________

THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

priests.   http://highlight.co.il/upload/Christian%20priest%20in%20religous%20ceremony,%20Via%20Dolorosa,%20Jerusalem.JPG

San Francisco red light district.   http://images.askmen.com/blogs/news/san-francisco-red-light-district.jpg

cartoon.  http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mba/lowres/mban120l.jpg

and He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists,

and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,

to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs

to the fullness of Christ.

Bluster Fest 2009

… even though no one has lost any religious freedoms.  The Hate The Christians Act™  and the Homosexual Terrorist Coalition™ are manufactured crises behind the Big Bluster Fest, also called the Rally For Religious Freedom being held today at 1:30 in Washington, D.C. to “raise alarm” — people won’t send in money if they aren’t scared and alarmed:

The Rally for Religious Freedom is meant to raise alarm over the nation’s new Federal “hate crimes” law just passed by Congress and signed last month by President Obama. The intention of the rally is to assert the freedom of speech of ministers and Christians in general to declare biblical truth in the public square. The Rally will also expose the unconstitutional nature of the hate law.

Ministers from various denominations will preach from the Bible, especially those parts that speak to the sin of homosexuality. This will serve to reassure ministers and Christians that they are free to do the same.

A letter from Matt Staver of Liberty Council will be presented to Attorney General Eric Holder that expresses our concerns about the many unconstitutional aspects of the hate crime bill. Specific legal challenges also may be announced then.

The Rally for Religious Freedom in front of the Department of Justice (click here for map) is intended to force Holder to enforce the law as he interprets it, which he has said he was eager to do. Will he protect the right of ministers and Christians to proclaim God’s Word or not?

(continued below the fold)

While no one has lost any freedoms to preach from the Bible, they’ve been actively spreading that lie.  What these “peaceful” pastors very much intend to do is stir up fear and hatred towards homos, as they’ve been actively spreading the lie that homos want to do violence towards christians.  Sorry, we don’t.  We just want them to stay the hell out of everyone’s private lives.  It is a manufactured alert to get the cash flowing in.  Nothing, it seems, scares people more than frothing, demonic, homos; it’s quite the gig to get into these days.

Also, tantamount in their arguments is the redefinition of several English words to bolster their propaganda, words like “sexual orientation”, words that their ignorant target audience will just take their word for.  After all, these are Men of God™ and those are just dirty queers — the idea that preachers would lie would be preposterous.  ”Sexual orientation” is now defined by these crackpots for Christ as “30+” orientations and they even go so far as to lie about what the APA says; and of course, they don’t provide links and their readers are going to trust them at their word.

These people would love nothing more than to “rid the Sodomites from the land”.  The Army of God (their Homo News Page), Dr. Pastor Gary Cass, Mike Heath, Peter LaBarbera, Matt Barber, Scott Lively, Matt Staver … the list goes on and on.  They are sensationalists and alarmists and their full intent is to stir up fear and panic among gullible christians who will fall for anything.

Read on JMG (Joe’s in blue), and the threats of violence from these nutjobs:

A sample comment from Barber’s Townhall piece:

“Don’t push this too far, gay men. There’s a reason why gay men were brutally repressed in every society until the Western Societies of the past 20 years — the potential forces of violence arrayed against you are infinitely greater than anything you can muster. Everything you enjoy now is “dependent on the kindness of strangers” Stay tolerant to get tolerance. You may have pushed things as far as they can go. If so, live with it. If you break down religion you may also break down the institutions that restrain violence being visited on you.”

My goodness, that’s at least as “terroristic” as JMG reader Fritz’s now famous worry. Call the FBI!

RELATED: Among Townhall’s commenters on Barber’s post is notorious Rev. Steve Anderson (as Anderson659), who famously has some real problems with the FBI after announcing that he was praying for the death of President Obama.

Matt Barber, of the Liberty Council, is the one who called the FBI over comments made in jest on JMG and then he and his people *somebody* planted comments that were obvious fakes.

These christianist scumbags are liars.  Gotta love ‘em, though.

John 14:15 -- Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

Leviticus 20:1 – 27   (NRSV)

Penalties for Violations of Holiness

20)  The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Say further to the people of Israel: Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death. ³I myself will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people, because they have given of their offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. ⁴And if the people of the land should ever close their eyes to them, when they give of their offspring to Molech, and do not put them to death, ⁵I myself will set my face against them and against their family, and will cut them off from among their people, them and all who follow them in prostituting themselves to Molech.

Psalm 72:4 (New International Version)

He will save the children.

_________________________

⁶If any turn to mediums and wizards, prostituting themselves to them, I will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people.

⁷Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. ⁸Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the Lord; I sanctify you.

1 Peter 1:13-16 (New International Version)

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

_________________________

from Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit, by Paul Chilcote:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal.
–Philippians 3:12

God of Perfect Love,

You call me to be perfect even as you are perfect.  That is a monumental claim upon my life.  Despite the fact that this call to be completely conformed to the image of Christ–to be absolutely Christlike in my life–is offensive to many, I will strive to open my life to the transforming power of your perfecting love.  My prayer is that I might become daily more and more like Jesus, your Son.

The perfection to which you call me certainly does not mean that I will ever be free from ignorance or mistakes or infirmities or temptation; neither is it a call to absolute perfection, for only your unconditional love is perfect in this sense.

Rather you call me quite simply to develop such a close and loving relationship with you that I would never want to do anything to separate myself from that love or withhold it from anyone else.  You call me to be loving as Christ was loving, in every relationship and at all times.  And if I live by your grace in this way, then I will always be able to look you in the face without fear and with love in my eyes.

So I pray sincerely that the blood of Christ might cleanse me from all sin.  I know that you are ready to forgive all the darkness of my past and that you are able to fill my heart with your life-transforming Spirit.  I know that Jesus is my advocate, a liberator who frees me from the bondage of my past and sets my course for a future filled with reconciling and liberating love.  Purify me from pride, from self-will, and from anger.

Grant me courage to press on toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Jesus Christ, not because I can make it my own, but because you have made me your own.   Amen.

_________________________

⁹All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

Reflections on adultery:

“The evils of the body are, murder, theft, and adultery; of the tongue, lying, slander, abuse, and idle talk; of the mind, covetousness, hatred, and error.”
–Buddha

“You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.”
–William Somerset Maugham

“He and I had an office so tiny that an inch smaller and it would have been adultery.”
–Dorothy Parker

“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak, and love.  And Mother.  And God.”
–Johnny Cash

“Sin cannot tear you away from Christ, even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders.”
–Martin Luther

_________________________

¹¹The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed perversion, their blood is upon them.

¹³If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁴If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is depravity; they shall be burned to death, both he and they, that there may be no depravity among you.

–Hard to believe they needed a command to say, “Don’t marry your mother-in-law”!

_________________________

¹⁵If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal. ¹⁶If a woman approaches any animal and has sexual relations with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.

¹⁷If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall be subject to punishment.

¹⁸If a man lies with a woman having her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow and she has laid bare her flow of blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people.

¹⁹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to lay bare one’s own flesh; they shall be subject to punishment. ²⁰If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall be subject to punishment; they shall die childless. ²¹If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

²²You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them, so that the land to which I bring you to settle in may not vomit you out. ²³You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. ²⁴But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God; I have separated you from the peoples.

²⁵You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ²⁶You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.

_________________________

Music:

The hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” was written in 1826 by Reginald Heber, a bishop in the north of India for the Church of England and a prolific hymn writer.  It is a true classic — sung  here by Hillsong United.

_________________________

²⁷A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death, their blood is upon them.

Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp in Florida

_________________________

THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

obedience training.  http://www.animalmotel.net/images/hmpg2.jpg

Zulu children.  http://www.figo2009.org.za/photogallery/Culture/ZuluChildren.jpg

this little light.  http://media.photobucket.com/image/be%20%20holy/TCocuzzo/zzinspi1h.gif

lipstick on collar.   http://clippernolan.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/10-songs-about-cheating/

mother-in-law cartoon.  http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/awh/lowres/awhn204l.jpg

Cassadaga.   http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/cassadaga6_thumb.jpg

"Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." -- Leviticus 19:2

Leviticus 19:1 – 37   (NRSV)

Ritual and Moral Holiness

19)   The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

³You shall each revere your mother and father,

Exodus 20:12 (English Standard Version)

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

_________________________

and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

Exodus 20:8 (English Standard Version)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

_________________________

⁴Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.

Exodus 20:4 (English Standard Version)

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

_________________________

⁵When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable on your behalf. ⁶It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire. ⁷If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. ⁸All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the Lord; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.

⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.

Ruth 2:2 (New Living Translation)

One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”

Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead.”

_________________________

¹¹You shall not steal;

Exodus 20:15 (English Standard Version)

“You shall not steal.”

_________________________

you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.

¹²And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Exodus 20:7 (English Standard Version)

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

_________________________

¹³You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.

¹⁴You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

Luke 14:13-14 (New International Version)

“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

_________________________

¹⁵You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.

1 Timothy 5:21 (New International Version)

I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.

_________________________

¹⁶You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

Psalm 15:1-5 (New International Version)

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?

He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart

and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman.

_________________________

¹⁷You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.

Galatians 6:1 (The Message)

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

_________________________

¹⁸You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

¹⁹You shall keep my statutes.

You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.

"Treat yourself to a spot of everyday luxury with this handsome, luxurious ‘casual’ shirt cut from a fine blend of 45% silk and 55% cotton."

²⁰If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave, designated for another man but not ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, since she has not been freed; ²¹but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram as guilt offering. ²²And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he committed; and the sin he committed shall be forgiven him.

²³When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall regard their fruit as forbidden; three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year all their fruit shall be set apart for rejoicing in the Lord. ²⁵But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their yield may be increased for you: I am the Lord your God.

²⁶You shall not eat anything with its blood.

You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.

²⁷You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.

²⁸You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.

But I want a tattoo like this!!!

²⁹Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity.

³⁰You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³¹Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

Do not enter.

John 6:68 (New International Version)

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

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³²You shall rise before the aged, and defer to the old; and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

Proverbs 16:31 (Contemporary English Version)

Gray hair is a glorious crown

worn by those

who have lived right.

_________________________

³³When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. ³⁴The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Philippians 3:20 (New International Version)

But our citizenship is in heaven.

_________________________

³⁵You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. ³⁶You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the Lord.

_________________________

Music:

Psalm 51:10-12 (New King James Version)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

“Lord, Make Me Pure in Heart”  by Lenny LeBlanc.  Click on the link below to hear it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZx0×9ETFYg&feature=player_embedded

_________________________

THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

Holiness.   http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xO-dVZY1Xk8/R_l_iTW1VbI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/s5aLcz86p1Y/s400/Holiness1.jpg

Ten Commandments tablet.  http://www.fotosearch.com/bthumb/SUE/SUE108/FRCL0263.jpg

Ruth gathering grain.   http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/Pictures/Standard%20Bible%20Story%20Readers,%20Book%20Four/images/scan0016.jpg

parking sign.  http://www.myparkingsign.com/MPS/images/ada_symbol.gif

shirt.   http://www.savilerowco.com/content/products/2/2/8/228nag_a_p.jpg

tattoo.  http://lh5.ggpht.com/likethisfree/R5NkB6uOwSI/AAAAAAAAASI/tHnboniE-wI/s1600/Full%20Body%20Tattoos3.jpg

psychic sign.    http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_36/1135876254WLqc05.jpg

older couple.   http://blondedays.com/Websites/karangleddie/Images/couple.jpg

Statue of Liberty.  http://wirednewyork.com/landmarks/liberty/images/liberty.jpg

I am an atheist, although I sometimes waver between atheism and agnosticism.  I can entertain the notion of a god.  It is possible, after all, that there is more to the universe than what can be detected through observation and measurement and what can be deduced from those observations.  However, I see no point in trying to know God insofar as I don’t believe he/she/it is real.  If God were real I don’t think he/she/it would care if I made the effort.  I also believe that if God were real he/she/it would be put off by people who worship some simplistic and misguided notion of him/her/it.

I was raised as a Catholic, and most of my family is still quite religious.  I also have a number of friends who are religious.  I don’t have a beef with religion the way someone like Richard Dawkins does.  He’s quite militant in his atheism.  I, on the other hand, can tolerate it well enough if people don’t try to push it on me.  When my mom visits, I even attend mass with her, mostly to keep her company, but also to think about where I have been and where I am going.  Just because I don’t believe in God doesn’t mean I’m not on some sort of spiritual journey.

Where I do find my tolerance has a limit is with dogmatism and a literal reading of any holy books.  I really have a problem with people foregoing their own reasoning for what some authority tells them they should think or believe.  In my last post I set out to show how a literal reading of the bible is intellectually indefensible.  I quoted a passage from Leviticus where God ostensibly instructed the Israelites on who they could keep as slaves.  I then invited a number of people to respond to some questions I asked regarding the passage.  I specifically invited people who are active in the blogosphere who I perceive to probably believe a literal reading is the correct reading.

I could see from my page hits that the people I invited were probably having a look.  But no one was responding.  I should have expected that since the passage I quoted and the questions I asked were meant to put them between a rock and a hard place.  DavidC99 was game enough to play.  I figured someone would try to defend a literal reading of the bible.  But, I was hoping that people would be willing to agree that slavery was morally indefensible.

DavidC99, or David, decided to give a defense of a literal reading of the bible.  He answered my questions by stating that slavery is justifiable because God said so in the bible.  Even though I was expecting someone to defend a literal reading of the bible, I was dumbstruck by how upfront he was about this.  I expected that potential responders would be torn between believing in their god, and admitting that the passage in the bible has their god condoning something evil.  Not Dave.  By his reasoning, his god cannot condone evil, so anything his god said or did in the bible is therefore not evil!

I actually wanted to verify this further, because I figured I might be misinterpreting how he defended slavery.  After all, he wasn’t providing much in the way of reasoning.  He basically said it was OK because God condoned it in the bible.  So I quoted a passage from Deuteronomy where God ostensibly told the Israelites to kill all of the Amorites.  The Israelites then obliged their god, who led them into battle.  The Israelites destroyed 60 cities and killed every man, woman, and child.  David said this murder and genocide was again moral because God said so!

What I found irritating about his responses were that his answers seemed defensive.  David wasn’t saying much in answering my questions besides “yes” and “no”.  I was hoping to engage him in a more lively debate.  But, our dialogue seemed to be rather dead.  Then it dawned on me that perhaps the lack of a debate was the result of the lack of reasoning behind his positions.  And it got me wondering whether there might be a correlation between religious fundamentalism and a lack of moral reasoning.  In fact, is it possible that beyond a correlation there might be an actual causation?  In other words, is it possible that religious fundamentalism causes a stunted faculty for moral reasoning? Or perhaps religious fundamentalism is a magnet for people who suffer some sort of moral retardation?

Lawrence Kohlberg was a psychologist who developed a theory about the development of moral reasoning in human beings.  He expanded on some theories originally laid out by Piaget.  Piaget divided moral reasoning in human beings into two stages.  Children younger than 10 or 11 years think about moral dilemmas one way; older children consider them differently. Kohlberg built on Piaget’s theory.  But, Kohlberg broke the development of moral reasoning into six stages.  I would encourage you to read the article to get a better idea of his theory.  What follows are some pertinent quotes from the article by W. C. Crain:

Stage 1. Obedience and Punishment Orientation. Kohlberg’s stage 1 is similar to Piaget’s first stage of moral thought. The child assumes that powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules which he or she must unquestioningly obey.  …When asked to elaborate, the child usually responds in terms of the consequences involved, explaining that stealing is bad “because you’ll get punished” (Kohlberg, 1958b)…

Stage 2. Individualism and Exchange. At this stage children recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Different individuals have different viewpoints. … Since everything is relative, each person is free to pursue his or her individual interests….

…You might have noticed that children at both stages 1 and 2 talk about punishment. However, they perceive it differently. At stage 1 punishment is tied up in the child’s mind with wrongness; punishment “proves” that disobedience is wrong. At stage 2, in contrast, punishment is simply a risk that one naturally wants to avoid.

…Respondents at stage 2 are still said to reason at the preconventional level because they speak as isolated individuals rather than as members of society. They see individuals exchanging favors, but there is still no identification with the values of the family or community.

Level II. Conventional Morality

Stage 3. Good Interpersonal Relationships. At this stage children–who are by now usually entering their teens–see morality as more than simple deals. They believe that people should live up to the expectations of the family and community and behave in “good” ways. Good behavior means having good motives and interpersonal feelings such as love, empathy, trust, and concern for others….

Stage 4. Maintaining the Social Order. Stage 3 reasoning works best in two-person relationships with family members or close friends, where one can make a real effort to get to know the other’s feelings and needs and try to help. At stage 4, in contrast, the respondent becomes more broadly concerned with society as a whole. Now the emphasis is on obeying laws, respecting authority, and performing one’s duties so that the social order is maintained….

Because stage 4, subjects make moral decisions from the perspective of society as a whole, they think from a full-fledged member-of-society perspective (Colby and Kohlberg, 1983, p. 27)….

Level III. Postconventional Morality

Stage 5. Social Contract and Individual Rights. At stage 4, people want to keep society functioning. However, a smoothly functioning society is not necessarily a good one. A totalitarian society might be well-organized, but it is hardly the moral ideal. At stage 5, people begin to ask, “What makes for a good society?” They begin to think about society in a very theoretical way, stepping back from their own society and considering the rights and values that a society ought to uphold. They then evaluate existing societies in terms of these prior considerations. They are said to take a “prior-to-society” perspective (Colby and Kohlberg, 1983, p. 22)….

Stage 6: Universal Principles. Stage 5 respondents are working toward a conception of the good society. They suggest that we need to (a) protect certain individual rights and (b) settle disputes through democratic processes. However, democratic processes alone do not always result in outcomes that we intuitively sense are just. A majority, for example, may vote for a law that hinders a minority. Thus, Kohlberg believes that there must be a higher stage–stage 6–which defines the principles by which we achieve justice….

My reason for quoting at length from the article about Kohlberg’s theory is that I wanted to place some of my observations in the context of that theory.  What I observed was that David seemed to be reasoning at a stage 1 level.  This it the earliest stage of moral reasoning exhibited by very young children.

“The child assumes that powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules which he or she must unquestioningly obey.”  David assumes that God, a powerful authority indeed, hands down fixed rules which he must unquestioningly obey.

I asked:

Is slavery justifiable now?  If not, when did it stop being justifiable?  Was it ever justified by the book of Leviticus?  If so, how so?

David responded:

1) Is slavery justifiable now? Yes.
2) If not, when did it stop being justifiable? N/A; see previous answer.
3) Was it ever justified by the book of Leviticus? Yes.
4) If so, how so? See Leviticus 25:44-46; God said so.

I asked: “Were the Isrealites justified in killing every man, woman, and child?”

David responded: “Yes.”

I replied, “Murder and genocide are not defensible under any circumstances, even in warfare. …”

David responded,

First of all, murder is never usually defined as being any type of killing. It does not include sanctioned killings.

The wiping out of the people of the land of Canaan was ordered by God, because of the people’s wickedness. They had ample time to repent, and they did not heed the call. An exception to this was Rahab, who actually did repent, and not surprisingly, was spared. …

David concluded with:

1) I am supporting these things because I believe God supports them, all in context.
2) You are condemning these things because you think they should be condemned based on some unknown standard of morality that you hold.

My standard of morality might be unknown to David because it is based on reasoning, and a concern for the well-being of all human beings.  I don’t accept unquestioningly the statements and directives of any authority figure.  I certainly don’t accept what people or books say to me about the thoughts and motives of some imaginary authority figure that I can’t detect, but which they say is all around me.

I don’t think David is reasoning even at Kohlberg’s level 2.

At this stage children recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Different individuals have different viewpoints…

According to David, there isn’t anyone’s view except God’s.

He’s certainly not reasoning at level 3:

Good behavior means having good motives and interpersonal feelings such as love, empathy, trust, and concern for others….

But, when confronted with the wholesale butchery of the Amorites, including even children down to infants, he exhibited no interpersonal feelings.  He seemed incapable of feeling empathy.  He only showed a fear of the almighty.

Dave is definitely not at level 4:  “At stage 4, in contrast, the respondent becomes more broadly concerned with society as a whole.”  It’s hard to argue that anyone condoning genocide is concerned with society in any way.

It’s impossible that he is reasoning at level 5:

A totalitarian society might be well-organized, but it is hardly the moral ideal. At stage 5, people begin to ask, “What makes for a good society?” They begin to think about society in a very theoretical way, stepping back from their own society and considering the rights and values that a society ought to uphold.

Believe me, the concept of rights and values hasn’t yet entered into an orbit around Dave’s head, let alone penetrated his skull.

Level 6 reasoning?  Please…

Kohlberg’s conception of justice follows that of the philosophers Kant and Rawls, as well as great moral leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. According to these people, the principles of justice require us to treat the claims of all parties in an impartial manner, respecting the basic dignity, of all people as individuals. The principles of justice are therefore universal; they apply to all. Thus, for example, we would not vote for a law that aids some people but hurts others. The principles of justice guide us toward decisions based on an equal respect for all.

There are no principles of justice in his reasoning.

Is it possible that David is not reasoning beyond Kohlberg’s level 1 because his faith never challenges him to do so?

In describing how moral reasoning develops, Crain says:

The stages emerge… from our own thinking about moral problems. Social experiences do promote development, but they do so by stimulating our mental processes. As we get into discussions and debates with others, we find our views questioned and challenged and are therefore motivated to come up with new, more comprehensive positions. New stages reflect these broader viewpoints (Kohlberg et al., 1975).

We might imagine, for example, a young man and woman discussing a new law. The man says that everyone should obey it, like it or not, because laws are vital to social organization (stage 4). The woman notes, however, that some well-organized societies, such as Nazi Germany, were not particularly moral. The man therefore sees that some evidence contradicts his view. He experiences some cognitive conflict and is motivated to think about the matter more fully, perhaps moving a bit toward stage 5.

Perhaps, sitting in church and hearing the pastor quote the bible, “God says this, and God says that”, David is never challenged to think about moral dilemmas.  And so his viewpoint doesn’t even acknowledge them.  It’s God’s way, or the highway to hell.

Or, is it possible that David, being cognitively helpless, is drawn to church because it provides simplistic explanations that his mind can grasp?

This is a matter for science.  But, if I were to wager, I would suggest that a fundamentalist viewpoint has a way of numbing the faculties.  Ultimately, both factors might be in play.

Now, to be fair to David, I have to acknowledge that he was sporting enough to come to my blog and respond, knowing that I would try to beat him up.  He might say that I am not reasoning with him, but just slamming him and insinuating that he is some sort of moral retard.  And, to be honest, I am insinuating that in a good-natured way while also trying to reason with him.  I am also hoping that I have misjudged David.  I hope that he is willing to think for himself.  I really hope that by doing so he might come to accept that slavery, murder, genocide, along with rape, incest and a host of other despicable behaviors are unacceptable, even if God supposedly “sanctioned” them.

I am optimistic that David will develop to the level of his peers.  After all, he has come to the internet to share his views and be challenged.

Cain says this about developing moral reasoning:

Whatever the interactions are specifically like, they work best, Kohlberg says, when they are open and democratic. The less children feel pressured simply to conform to authority, the freer they are to settle their own differences and formulate their own ideas. We will discuss Kohlberg’s efforts to induce developmental change in the section on implications for education.

The internet is a very democratic place.  And, by and large, there is little if any pressure here to conform to authority.  David will be free to settle his differences with other bloggers and formulate his own ideas.  I think the prognosis for David is quite good.

The fundamental issue behind all these prohibitions is the concern to honor God's procreational commission to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28).

Leviticus 18:1 – 30   (NRSV)

Sexual Relations

18)   The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God. ³You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes. ⁴My ordinances you shall observe and my statutes you shall keep, following them: I am the Lord your God. ⁵You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the Lord.

⁶None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness: I am the Lord.

All these people you cannot marry! "To uncover nakedness" is a euphemism for sexual relations.

⁷You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.

⁸You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is the nakedness of your father.

⁹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad.

¹⁰You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.

¹¹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister.

¹²You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh.

¹³You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s flesh.

¹⁴You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.

¹⁵You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.

¹⁶You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

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Music:

All these complicated rules — but they prevent even more more complicated family relations!  Ray Stevens sings “I’m My Own Grandpa.”

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¹⁷You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, and you shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your flesh; it is depravity.

¹⁸And you shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.

¹⁹You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.

²⁰You shall not have sexual relations with your kinsman’s wife, and defile yourself with her.

²¹You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Psalm 72:4 (New International Version)

He will save the children.

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²²You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

This verse has been cited for thousands of years in the Judeo-Christian tradition to support the view that homosexual activity is sin.

²³You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion.

²⁴Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves. ²⁵Thus the land became defiled; and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you ²⁷(for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled); ²⁸otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

²⁹For whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people. ³⁰So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you, and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God.

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Ephesians 3:14-19 (New International Version)

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

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THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW.   ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER AN APPROPRIATE LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of:

gender symbols.  http://www.justenoughblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/1069414_gender_symbols.jpg

marriage chart.   http://www.evangelical.us/images/leviticus-18-22-nlt.jpg

children of the Philippines, photo by Jasper Llanderal.  http://i.pbase.com/u42/jllanderal/upload/27615818.ChildrenSmiling.jpg

two guys.  http://www.merinews.com/upload/thumbimage/1223032715981_homosexuals_t.JPG

cross with heart, made by the Benedictine Monks of the Weston Priory in Vermont.   http://www.westonpriory.org/esales/images/WC01-400.jpg