Leviticus: not such an interesting book (and I can't say I'm looking forward to Numbers). But the value of it is in learning about what God's holiness requires of sinful people in order for them to connect with God: blood. Each person needed to redeem their own life with the life of an animal. This of course sets the stage for the life of God's own son Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice and the last one ever needed in exchange for everyone's life.
How's that for succinct? Should fit nicely in any nutshell.
I couldn't have said it any better. It is interesting to see how those early Hebrews lived their lives, filled with rituals and laws and daily struggles. Are we any better?
ReplyDeleteA couple interesting things I got out of Leviticus: L 19:28 don't mark up your bodies with tattoos. I have a tattoo so where does that leave me?
ReplyDeleteL 16: 20-26 Is this where we get the common day scapegoat? Very interesting
The other thing is I was interested in all the feasts that they talk about: Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of the Tabernacle, The Sabbath Year and The Year of Jubilee, are any of these celebrated or acknowledged anymore? I tried looking up Year of Jubilee and just got a defintion from the Bible. Just curious.
ReplyDeleteRe: tattoos - I'd say if you don't want to go to hell you'd better get that thing removed. Only kidding. Those rules were for the Israelites. You're not a Jew, so no worries. I believe the reason for the rule was separate them from pagan rituals at the time which had to do with marking their bodies with tattoos.
ReplyDeleteI thought the scapegoat thing was interesting too.
I don't know if they still celebrate all those feasts. I would think there has to be some hard-core Jewish sects out there that still keep all the rules as literally as possible, including the feasts. Like the hasidic Jews in NY that don't clip the ends of their beards or trim the hair at their temples, as instructed in Leviticus.
I just had one more comment on Leviticus before we let it go: L 18:21, I think this is the first reference to any other idol named specifically. Molech, it was an idol used by the Ammonites I think, and if you recall Indiana Jones and the movie where they tear the guys heart out, I am pretty sure the idol they worship is molech. Also I cannot not say anything about L 18:22. I think this is the first reference to same sex relations. I just deleted about a paragraph worth of stuff, I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on that as well or would we not like to comment until we get to New Testament?
ReplyDeleteThe antagonist in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol called himself Molech I believe. But I'm not sure if that was after a pagan god. Kali was the god they were worshiping in Temple of Doom according to wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteHad to bring up the homosexuals didn't you? I think the only other mentions of same sex relations are in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah back in Genesis and then in Romans 1:27. The weird thing is that Christians in America seem to elevate this sin above almost all others and pile a lot of abuse on gays, even though very little space is given it in the Bible. And here I thought Jesus was all about accepting people no matter what state of sin they happen to be in.