3/11/11
Leviticus 24-25
Leviticus 24:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. 3 Aaron 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. 4 He shall set up the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.
The Bread for the Tabernacle(Mk 6.53—56)
5 You shall take choice flour, and bake twelve loaves of it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. 6 You shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the table of pure gold. 7 You shall put pure frankincense with each row, to be a token offering for the bread, as an offering by fire to the Lord. 8 Every sabbath day Aaron shall set them in order before the Lord regularly as a commitment of the people of Israel, as a covenant forever. 9 They 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.
Blasphemy and Its Punishment
10 A 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. 11 The 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— 12 and they put him in custody, until the decision of the Lord should be made clear to them.
13 The Lord said to Moses, saying: 14 Take 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. 15 And speak to the people of Israel, saying: Anyone who curses God shall bear the sin. 16 One 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. 17 Anyone who kills a human being shall be put to death. Today a victim is a victim twice; once at the hands of the attacker and once at the hands of a liberal justice system. Leviticus appears harsh by today's standards, but what has our concern to protect the criminal accomplished? The same crime is committed over and over again by the same person. A life sentence means seven years and parole. Prisons are over-crowded and periodically inmates are released due to lack of space. It may be unpopular, archaic and uncivilized, but the point of this passage in Leviticus was so people could live peaceably together. Have we accomplished that with our good intentions? I watched the News report on a man who ran over and killed a two year old boy. He stopped, looked at the boy and drove off. He had been drinking, but this was not his first 'driving while intoxicated' or his second. This lack of respect for life is growing with our culture's growing sensitivity to protect the insensitive. 18 Anyone who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. What do you think of this word restitution? It is another unpopular word. We prefer to say, "Sorry," and get on with whatever we were doing. God is all about restoration, reconciliation, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, but should we forget God is also all about justice and restitution? Another unpopular word is holy. Holiness should not be confused with self-righteousness. I think the frog is boiling in the pan. 19 Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. 21 One who kills an animal shall make restitution for it; but one who kills a human being shall be put to death. 22 You shall have one law for the alien and for the citizen: for I am the Lord your God. 23 Moses 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.
Leviticus 25:1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2 Speak 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. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4 but 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. 5 You 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. 6 You 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; 7 for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
8 You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. 9 Then 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. 10 And 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. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
13 In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. 15 When 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. 16 If 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. 17 You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
18 You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. 20 Should you ask, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?” 21 I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years. 22 When 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. 23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. 24 Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.
25 If 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. 26 If the person has no one to redeem it, but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so, 27 the 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. 28 But if there are 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.
29 If 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. 30 If 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. 31 But 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. 32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them. 33 Such 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. 34 But the open land around their cities may not be sold; for that is their possession for all time.
35 If 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. 36 Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. 37 You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit. 38 I 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.
39 If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. 40 They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then 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. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. 43 You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God. 44 As 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. 45 You 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. 46 You 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.
47 If 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, 48 after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, 49 or 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. 50 They 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. 51 If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price; 52 and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. 53 As 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. 54 And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year. 55 For 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.
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
His outspoken stand against slavery resulted in a Congressman from Carolina violently beating him on the head with a cane while he was sitting at his desk on the Senate Floor, the injuries from which he never fully recovered. Who was he? Senator Charles Sumner, who died this day, March 11, 1874. A founder of the Republican Party, Charles Sumner declared: “That great story of redemption, when God raised up the slave-born Moses to deliver His chosen people from bondage, and… that sublimer story where our Saviour died a cruel death that all men, without distinction of race, might be saved, makes slavery impossible.”
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
ADONAI detests a double standard in weights,
and false scales are not good.
A man’s steps are ordered by ADONAI,
so how can a person understand his own ways?
Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.
by Oswald Chambers
Vision
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. --- Acts 26:19.
If we lose the vision, we alone are responsible, and the way we lose the vision is by spiritual leakage. If we do not run our belief about God into practical issues, it is all up with the vision God has given. The only way to be obedient to the heavenly vision is to give our utmost for God’s highest, and this can only be done by continually and resolutely recalling the vision. The test is the sixty seconds of every minute, and the sixty minutes of every hour, not our times of prayer and devotional meetings.
“Though it tarry, wait for it.” We cannot attain to a vision, we must live in the inspiration of it until it accomplishes itself. We get so practical that we forget the vision. At the beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it; we rushed off into practical work, and when the vision was fulfilled, we did not see it. Waiting for the vision that tarries is the test of our loyalty to God. It is at the peril of our soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical work and miss the fulfilment of the vision.
Watch God’s cyclones. The only way God sows His saints is by His whirlwind. Are you going to prove an empty pod? It will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of what you have seen. Let God fling you out, and do not go until He does. If you select your own spot, you will prove an empty pod. If God sows you, you will bring forth fruit.
It is essential to practise the walk of the feet in the light of the vision.
Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
The Boy's Tale
Skipper wouldn't pay him off,
Never married her;
Came home by Port Said
To a Welsh valley;
Took a girl from the tip,
Sheer coal dust
The blue in her veins.
Every time I go now
Through black sunlight,
I see her scratch his name
On the pane of her breath.
Caught him in her thin hair,
Couldn't hold him -
Voices from the ports
Of the stars, pavilions
Of unstable water.
She went fishing in him;
I was the bait
That became cargo,
Shortening his trips,
Waiting on the bone's wharf.
Her tongue ruled the tides.
R.S. Thomas The Poems of R.S. Thomas
Berakhot 44a, 45a
A parent says to a child: “Maybe you didn’t see that lady’s toes when you drove the shopping cart over them. I think that she deserves an apology.” More often than not, the child mumbles “Sorry.” Is that enough? To a certain degree, it depends on the emotions used in the apology. The child’s “Sorry” may or may not reflect sincere regret. The words themselves are only an opportunity to express true feelings. Most of us would agree that saying “I’m sorry” is insufficient without the genuine emotions and sentiments that go with the words.
Every “Sorry” and “I love you” is a formula, an opportunity for expressing what we truly feel. We need not delete such expressions from our language simply because some are perfunctory. On the contrary: They are the opportunity to express our sincerest sentiments. The words which reflect our innermost feelings will touch not only others but ourselves as well.
This means not only that we have to offer our prayers with tears. We also have to be moved by the tears of others, as they cry, appeal to us, seek understanding and compassion from us. Only if we respond to others’ tears can we expect God to be touched by ours.
The great medieval Hebrew poet Moshe ibn Ezra said: “Words that come from the heart enter another heart.” If we expect others to be moved, we must be moved, beyond words to our very heart and soul. If we want others to listen, we must first listen, in the fullest sense of the word. If we ask God not to disregard our appeal but to answer our prayers, then we have to respond to them ourselves by being moved by them, even moved to tears.
Go and see what the people are doing.
Text / Mishnah (6:8): One who drinks water to quench his thirst recites the blessing “… by whose word all things come into being.” Rabbi Tarfon says: “… Who creates many beings and their needs.”
Gemara: “Rabbi Tarfon says: ‘… Who creates many beings and their needs.’ ” Rava bar Rav Ḥanan said to Abaye—but some say to Rav Yosef: “What is the law?” He said to him: “Go and see what the people are doing.”
Context / Today, the laws regarding which berakhah to say over which food are well established. The first opinion, that of the anonymous teacher, is now the accepted practice: Before drinks like water and fruit juices, one recites shehakol nihyeh bidvaro, “by whose word all things come into being.” However, Rabbi Tarfon’s formula has been incorporated into the tradition, even if his opinion of when to recite it was rejected. Rather than being recited before drinks, it is recited after eating or drinking anything that requires the berakhah shehakol nihyeh bidvaro, “by whose word all things come into being.”
Over most fruits, vegetables, and all other things which are not grown in the ground, the concluding berakhah is “… borei nefashot rabbot (Who creates many beings and their needs).” (Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim 207)
In the Mishnah, there is a disagreement over which berakhah, or blessing, is recited by a person before drinking water. The first opinion is to recite “… shehakol nihyeh bidvaro,” or “[Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe] by whose word all things come into being.” The view of Rabbi Tarfon is that a different berakhah, “… borei nefashot,” or “[Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe] Who creates many beings and their needs,” is recited.
In the time of the Mishnah and Gemara, these rules were still quite fluid (even when dealing with water!). Here, we see the process of debating what the law should actually be. A century after the Mishnah, the law had not yet been fixed, and Rava was still attempting to understand which opinion of the Mishnah to follow. The answer of Abaye is: Either opinion could be legitimate. We follow what people are doing. One genuine way of knowing which of the two legitimate positions has become the law is to go and see how people actually observe.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. --- Psalm 52:8 KJV
Mercy as an attribute of God is not to be confounded with mere goodness. Goodness may demand the exercise of justice. Mercy asks that justice be set aside. Mercy pardons the guilty. Justice treats all according to their deserts. Desert is never the rule that guides mercy, while it is precisely the rule of justice. Thus, mercy is exercised only where there is guilt.
Mercy can be exercised no farther than one deserves punishment. If great punishment is deserved, great mercy can be shown; if endless punishment is due, there is then scope for infinite mercy.
None can properly be said to trust in the mercy of God unless they have committed crimes and are conscious of this fact. Justice protects the innocent, and they may appeal to it. But for the guilty, nothing remains but to trust in mercy. Trusting in mercy implies a heartfelt conviction of personal guilt.
Trust in mercy implies understanding what mercy is. Many confuse mercy with grace, considered as mere favor to the undeserving. Grace may be shown where there is no mercy, the term mercy being applied to the pardon of crime. We all know that God shows grace to all on earth. He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends his rain on the unrighteous as well as on the righteous. But to trust in this general favor is not trusting in the mercy of God. Mercy is pardon for the crimes of the guilty.
Trust in God’s mercy implies a belief that he is merciful. We could not trust him if we had no such belief. This belief must lie at the foundation of trust. Faith, or belief, includes a committal of the soul to God and a trust in him.
Trusting in the mercy of God forever implies a conviction of deserving endless punishment. When therefore the psalmist trusts in the mercy of God forever he renounces all hope of being ever received to favor on the score of justice.
Trusting in mercy implies a cessation from all excuse making. The moment you trust in mercy, you give up all excuses, for these imply a reliance on God’s justice. An excuse is nothing more nor less that an appeal to justice, a plea designed to justify our conduct. Trusting in mercy forever implies that we have ceased from all excuses forever. --- Charles G. Finney
Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers
Regulations for Priests: Leviticus 21–22
Regulations concerning Festivals:
Leviticus 23–24
The priesthood, set aside for service to God, was regarded as specially holy. Priests lived under more restrictions than the rest of the people. This was particularly true of whom a priest was allowed to marry: “The woman he marries must be a virgin. He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin from his own people” (Leviticus 21:13–14). God established a religious year for Israel, broken into patterned celebrations which permitted Israel to relive its heritage annually. Three of the annual feasts were “pilgrim festivals,” during which families were to journey to a central place of worship, later established in Jerusalem. These were times of special joy and celebration, linked with the agricultural seasons, but intended to help Israel relive salvation history and reaffirm commitment to God. The three pilgrim festivals were Passover, including the week-long Feasts of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 13:3–10; Lev. 23:4–8; Deut. 16:1–8), Firstfruits (also called the Feast of Weeks and Pentecost) (Lev. 23:9–21; Deut. 16:9–11), and Tabernacles (also called the Feast of Booths) (Ex. 23:16; Lev. 23:33–43; Deut. 16:13). During this last festival the people lived outside in rough shelters, commemorating the years of travel from Sinai to the Promised Land. A vital principle underlying this religious system helps us understand how we can better communicate our own faith. The principle is expressed in a Hebrew term, zikkaron, which is often translated as “memorial” and means “a reminder” or “a remembrance.” It is used of objects or actions that help Israel identify with some particular religious truth. For instance, the pile of stones beside the River Jordan that commemorated Israel passing through on dry ground is one such memorial (Josh. 4:7). What was the zikkaron intended to do? It was intended to help individuals who saw or participated in it sense his or her identity with what God had done in the past. In essence the festivals of Israel were designed to help each new generation relive God’s great and wonderful acts for His people. In the festivals that annually reminded Israel of what God had done for them, the people were intended to sense their own identity with their forefathers, and to realize that God had worked His wonders for each one of them!
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