3/08/11
Leviticus 19-21
Leviticus 19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 Speak 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. 3 You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. 4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.
5 When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable in your behalf. 6 It 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. 7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. 8 All 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.
9 When 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. 10 You 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.
11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 You 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. 16 You 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.
17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18 You 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.
19 You 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.
20 If 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; 21 but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram as guilt offering. 22 And 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.
23 When 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. 24 In the fourth year all their fruit shall be set apart for rejoicing in the Lord. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their yield may be increased for you: I am the Lord your God.
26 You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. 28 You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity. 30 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 You shall rise before the aged, and defer to the old; and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34 The 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.
35 You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. 36 You 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. 37 You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 20:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Say 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. 3 I 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. 4 And 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, 5 I 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.
6 If 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. 7 Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the Lord; I sanctify you. 9 All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.
10 If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. 11 The 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. 12 If 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. 13 If 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. 14 If 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. 15 If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal. 16 If 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.
17 If 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. 18 If 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. 19 You 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. 20 If 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. 21 If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
22 You 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. 23 You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24 But 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. 25 You 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. 26 You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.
27 A 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.
Leviticus 21:1 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, 2 except for his nearest kin: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother; 3 likewise, for a virgin sister, close to him because she has had no husband, he may defile himself for her. 4 But he shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself. 5 They shall not make bald spots upon their heads, or shave off the edges of their beards, or make any gashes in their flesh. 6 They 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. 7 They 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, 8 and 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. 9 When the daughter of a priest profanes herself through prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned to death.
10 The 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. 11 He shall not go where there is a dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother. 12 He 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. 13 He shall marry only a woman who is a virgin. 14 A 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, 15 that he may not profane his offspring among his kin; for I am the Lord; I sanctify him.
16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17 Speak 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. 18 For 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, 19 or one who has a broken foot or a broken hand, 20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a blemish in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. 21 No 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. 22 He may eat the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy. 23 But 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. 24 Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
Known as THE GREAT DISSENTER because of his unconventional opinions, he served for thirty years on the Supreme Court. Who was he? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., born this day, March 8, 1841. A Union soldier during the Civil War, he went on to become a Harvard Law School Professor. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served to a more advanced age than other justice. On his 90th birthday, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., replied to a reporter: “Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered I was not God.”
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
Food obtained by fraud may taste good,
but later the mouth is full of gravel.
After consultation, plans succeed;
so take wise advice when waging war.
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
The relinquished life
I am crucified with Christ. --- Gal. 2:20.
No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretence. What Our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavour, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us. And what does He give in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness. But we must relinquish all pretence of being anything, all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration.
Then the Spirit of God will show us what further there is to relinquish. There will have to be the relinquishing of my claim to my right to myself in every phase. Am I willing to relinquish my hold on all I possess, my hold on my affections, and on everything, and to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?
There is always a sharp painful disillusionment to go through before we do relinquish. When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not the abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he sees himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.
If you are up against the question of relinquishing, go through the crisis, relinquish all, and God will make you fit for all that He requires of you.
Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
Coming of Age
He grew up into an emptiness
he was on terms with. The duplicity
of language that could name
what was not there was accepted
by him. He was content, remembering
the unseen writing of Christ
on the ground, to interpret
it in its own way. Adultery
of the flesh has the divine
pardon. It is the mind
catching itself in the act
of unfaithfulness that must cast no stone.
R.S. Thomas - Selected Poems (Penguin Modern Classics)
Berakhot 25b
Rabbi Yosé’s words, “Don’t give Satan an opening,” are often used in modern speech to mean “Don’t tempt fate,” that is, if you say something bad, it might just happen. We do not believe in Satan, but we do know the evil that surrounds us, all the bad things Satan symbolizes. Speaking of bad things may just make them happen! Several years ago, an editorial cartoon pictured a public school principal speaking to a group of parents. He told them, “Teen pregnancy could be reduced if society wasn’t too embarrassed to talk about you know what with you know who before they end up you know how.”
If we believe that just speaking about a bad thing can make it happen, isn’t the converse true, that saying something good can help to bring it about? Aren’t there also self-fulfilling prophecies for good? A famous study in the 1960s proved that when we expect good from people, we often find just that. Psychologists gave students in an elementary school an “intelligence test,” later informing teachers that five students in each class had done exceptionally well and were likely to excel in school that year. In actuality, the students had been chosen at random. Nonetheless, by the end of that school year, those students had done significantly better. Based on the study’s name, psychologists dubbed this “the Pygmalion effect.” Teachers saw students who were labeled as “likely to succeed” and helped them—unconsciously and subtly—achieve these gains.
In our day and age, we see self-fulfilling prophecies at work all the time. We know that it is not because of Satan or fate, but because of the Pygmalion effect: what we see in others is what we get from them. A youngster labeled “problem child” will likely become one, fulfilling the prophecy, whether or not the child has the ability to change and become a better person. Does that student fail because of fate, character—or because of living up to the label we have given the youngster?
Conversely, when we see potential good in people, we may find these qualities. How often has it happened that we have achieved more because a parent, teacher, or friend saw the good (or potential good) in us and said “You have the ability to do more”? We may not have believed it at the time, but that person helped us believe in ourselves and thus achieve more. The Rabbis of the Talmud were not so much superstitious as psychologically astute: More often than not, what we expect is what we get.
The Torah was not given to the ministering angels.
The Rabbis taught: “In clear water, he sits in it up to his neck and recites [the Sh’ma].” Some say: “He stirs it with his foot.” According to the first teacher, his heart sees his nakedness! He [the first teacher] thinks: “His heart seeing his nakedness is permitted.” But his heel sees his nakedness! He thinks: “His heel seeing his nakedness is permitted.” It is taught: “His heel seeing his nakedness is permitted.” Touching—Abaye said it is prohibited, while Rava said it is permitted. This is how Rav Zevid taught it. But Rav Ḥin’na son of Rav Ikka taught it this way: “Touching—everyone agrees that it is forbidden. Seeing—Abaye said it is forbidden, while Rava said it is permitted: The Torah was not given to the ministering angels.” And the law is: Touching is forbidden, seeing is permitted.
Context / Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4–9)
The Talmud’s teaching about the Sh’ma is based on people’s experiences. Those who recite the Sh’ma religiously, morning and evening, every day of the year, will eventually be in a situation where the time for Sh’ma arrives and they are unprepared or unfit for it. This is the case being discussed in this Gemara: It is early morning and a man, taking a pre-dawn bath, has not yet recited the morning Sh’ma which, according to one opinion, must be recited before sunrise. Normally, a person would recite the Sh’ma fully dressed, as a sign of respect. However, in our case, he will not have time to get out of the water and get dressed before the time for reciting the Sh’ma has passed. What should this man do?
The Rabbis teach that he covers himself with water up to his neck, using the water as a “garment,” and recites the Sh’ma. There is another opinion, though: (“Some say”) that the man should muddy the waters with his foot so that he does not see his own nudity while reciting the Sh’ma. But, asks the Gemara, as long as he is still nude, isn’t this still disrespectful (“his heart sees his nakedness”)? The Tanna Kamma, or unnamed first teacher, holds that being naked is permitted (and is preferable to allowing the time for the Sh’ma to elapse). The Gemara then says: “But his heel sees his nakedness,” that is, his own body, crouched down in the water, is touching skin to skin and is aware of his nudity. Certainly this is improper, disrespectful, and distracting. No, answers the Gemara; the Tanna Kamma holds that “his heel seeing his nakedness,” that is, his body crouched in the water and close to itself, is permitted.
Yet, this is only seeing his nakedness, that is, being nude without touching skin to skin. With regard to touching one body part to another while covered with water, Abaye holds that this is not allowed, while Rava says it is allowed. However, Rav Ḥin’na has a different tradition. He learned that everyone believes that touching body part to body part while under water is forbidden. The questionable action is seeing his own nudity (and, presumably, being distracted while reciting the Sh’ma). According to Rav Ḥin’na, there is no argument that touching is prohibited. Abaye and Rava argue over a man seeing himself in the water while reciting the Sh’ma, Abaye holding that it is not allowed, Rava that it is.
Rava’s reasoning is that “the Torah was not given to the ministering angels”; in other words, only angels would be able to live under the stringencies that Abaye expects of a person reciting the Sh’ma in water. In Rava’s mind, it is enough to expect a man quickly to cover himself up to his neck with water and recite the Sh’ma before the time has passed. In so doing, he should not touch his heel to his genitals. Expecting this man not to be able to see himself in the water is virtuous and exemplary but practically impossible for human beings.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. --- Psalm 103:13
How the compassion of a father comes out to his child in the matter of pain! With what exquisite tenderness a child’s pains are soothed by a parent! It is very hard to stand by the bedside and see a dear child suffer. Haven’t some of you felt that you would gladly take your children’s pains if they might be restored? You have one dear one at home now, the tear is in your eye as I mention it—a life of suffering she has. Well, it may be others of you have children who have mental troubles; the body is healthy, but the little one has a fret and a worry. I hope you sometimes have seen your children weeping because of sin; it is a blessed grief, and the sooner it comes the better. In such a grief as that, as indeed in all others, I am quite sure you feel compassion for your children. So ever does your Father feel compassion for you.
Broken heart, God’s heart is longing to heal you. Weeping for your transgressions, the Father longs to clasp you to his bosom. Tried child of God, you who are often despondent and always ailing, God would not send this to you if there were not a necessity for it, and in sending it he shares it as far as this text goes, and it goes blessedly far, for he feels compassion for you. Sometimes hardhearted persons do not pity those who suffer, and some forms of suffering do not awaken sympathy, but all the sufferings of God’s people touch the heart of Jesus, and sympathy comes to them at once.
I know some of you say, “I am quite alone in the world, and I have much sorrow.” Please revise that hard saying! You are like your Master, of whom it is written that he said, “You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me” (John 16:32). Your Father is with you. I wish you had some Christian friend to speak with you as a companion, but in the absence of such a social confidant “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24), and there is One above who is a Father to you. Believe it; there is no poverty, there is no reproach, there is no sorrow of heart, there is no pain of body in this world among those who fear God but what the Lord sees it and knows all about it and has compassion on those who endure it. --- C. H. Spurgeon
Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers
The Holy
To understand the importance of some of the regulations that we are about to look at in Leviticus, we need an understanding of the Old Testament concept of holiness. The following discussion of the Old Testament concept of holiness is quoted from the author’s Zondervan Expository Dictionary of Bible Words
The root of the words translated “holy” and “holiness” is qadas. The verb means “to be consecrated,” “to be dedicated,” “to be holy.” Anything that is holy is set apart. It is removed from the realm of the common and moved to the sphere of the sacred.
The focus of the sacred realm is God Himself, Israel’s Holy One (2 Kings 19:22; Job 6:10; Pss. 16:10; 22:3; 71:22, etc.). “Holy” becomes a technical religious term used of persons, places, times, and things that were considered sacred because they were associated with and consecrated to God. The seventh day was holy, to be reserved for worship and rest (Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12). Mount Sinai was holy, for God appeared there in fire to give the Ten Commandments (Ex. 19:23). The priests of Israel were holy (Lev. 21:7), and everything associated with worship and sacrifice was to be considered holy. In a very significant sense Israel itself was considered holy, for this people was chosen by God to be His own special possession (Deut. 7:6; 14:2, 21).
It is important to realize that great stress is placed in the Old Testament on maintaining the distinction between what is sacred and what is secular. The holy must never be used in a common or profane way. That which was consecrated to God must be for His use alone—forever.
Ritual holiness. The religion of Israel was both cultic and moral. The cultic element established religious ritual and many aspects of the lifestyle of God’s people. A person was in a state of holiness when he observed cultic restrictions. It was a responsibility of the priests to “distinguish between the holy and the profane, between the unclean and the clean, and [they were required to] teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord [had] given them through Moses” (Lev. 10:10–11). Both essential and nonmoral practices, such as not cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk (Ex. 34:26), and religious ceremonies were aspects of ritual uncleanness.
Moral holiness. Two aspects of God’s nature are associated with holiness in the Old Testament. One is His essential power and splendor. When two of Aaron’s sons violated the ritual regulations governing worship, God, as quoted by Moses, announced: “Among those who approach Me I will show Myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” (Lev. 10:3). Fire flared from the Lord on that occasion and consumed the men who had treated Him with contempt by ignoring His commands. God’s holiness was displayed in this exercise of awesome power.
Leviticus 19:2 displays a moral dimension to God’s holiness. “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel,” the Lord told Moses, “and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’ ”
The commands that follow this statement are not cultic but are moral in character. They deal with theft, idolatry, lying, fraud, slander, revenge, etc., and include the command to love one’s neighbor. These commands are punctuated regularly by the reminder, “I am the Lord.”
In this Old Testament passage and many others, God’s holiness is directly linked with His own moral character. That holiness is displayed in His moral perfection and His faithful commitment to good and in His judgment on those who desert the way of goodness for sin. “The Lord Almighty will be exalted by His justice, and the Holy God will show Himself holy by His righteousness” (Isa. 5:16). When Israel was set apart to God by God’s sovereign choice, both the ritual and the moral aspects of obedience to God were essential in their life of holiness.
Because God is a holy God, those who are associated with Him are to be holy in all they do.
Richards, L., & Richards, L. O. (1987). The Teacher's Commentary
Wind by Notes From The Journey
Video on Worship House Media
The Greatest Commandment by Visual Reality
Video on Worship House Media
The Devil by Visual Reality
Video on Worship House Media
The Book by Visual Reality
Video on Worship House Media