Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 16-18.

I am going to do something I almost never do today.  My first thought when I read the prohibition against eating blood this morning was of the communion service we had Sunday morning during our worship service.  In particular, one man stood up afterwards and shared that he had never before that morning made the connection between communion, eating the symbolic representation of Christ’s body and blood, and the priest’s eating the meat of the sacrificed animals as described here in Leviticus.  Christ was the ultimate Passover Lamb and when we partake of communion we are partaking of His body and blood, much as the Israelites partook of the body of the Passover lamb.  So, as I read today’s passage I was struck by the fact that we partake of Christ’s blood of sacrifice, while the Israelites were forbidden from eating the blood of their sacrifices.  Here God told them that they must not eat the blood because the life of the being (animal or human) is in its blood.  So, when we drink Christ’s blood as part of communion, and thus partake in the sacrifice He made on the Cross, we are drinking His life.  And through drinking His life we join ourselves with His life.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 16-18.

I want to spend a little time today looking at the Hebrew word translated as “scape goat” in chapter sixteen verse 8.  The same word is used again, twice, in verse 10, and finally in verse 26.  These four occurrences are the only time this word, azazel, appears in the Hebrew Bible.  Further, all of the other writings we have where this Hebrew word is used appear to base its meaning on that writer’s understanding of what it means here.   Some have concluded that azazel is the proper name of something, and later tradition has made this some thing to be a demon.  The basis for this conclusion is that lots were cast between the goats.  One lot was “for Yahweh”, the other lot was “for azazel”.  This can be problematic because it suggests the Israelites had been commanded to make a sacrifice to a demon (there are other problems for orthodox theology with this interpretation as well).  So, despite not being a Hebrew scholar, or even particularly knowledgeable about Hebrew, I decided to see if I could determine the meaning of the Hebrew words from which azazel is derived.   One possibility is that azazel derives from the Hebrew words “el”, which means god (often times referring to God, but not always), and “azaz”, which means strong.  That would mean that azazel means something along the lines of “God is strong”, or “strength of God”.  In this interpretation, azazel might be a proper name, Azazel,  similar to Gabriel and Michael, two of God’s messengers who appear elsewhere in the Bible, although if that were the case I would expect it to be Azaziah, because that is the form used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible.   Or, it might just be a descriptive term making the passage read something like this:

He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the strength of God. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the strength of God shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as the strength of God.

That does not seem to me like it fits the context of the rest of this passage.  Another possible derivation for azazel is from the word “ez”, which means female goat, and the word “azal”, which means go away.  This interpretation results in something very close to the translations which we currently possess.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 16-18.

Immediately after the death of Aaron’s sons, which happened during their ordination period, God gave Aaron additional instructions regarding entering His presence in the Tabernacle.  These instructions also contain the sacrifices for the Day of Atonement for the entire nation of Israel.  It is not clear to me if these instructions meant that the only time Aaron was to enter into the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle was on the Day of Atonement, or if he was not to enter until after the Day of Atonement (which would apply to his successors as high priest, they were not to enter the Most Holy Place until after they had first made the Day of Atonement sacrifices).  In any case, this passage is where the idea of a scapegoat comes from.  The scapegoat as described here is one who bears the blame for the sin of others, sin of which they are not guilty, specifically, it is a goat which is incapable of being guilty of the sins it bears.  The symbolism of the scapegoat here involves carrying the sins away from us.  The New Testament presents Jesus as filling the role of both goats in this passage.  He was sacrificed on the cross for our sins, and He carried those sins away from us despite being entirely innocent of them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 16-18.

A couple of days ago we read about how two of Aaron’s sons were struck down because they used the wrong sort of fire in their incense burners in the Tabernacle, or, at least that is how it is explained there.  Today we get a little more information about what happened.  We learn that the two had approached the Lord inappropriately.  In today’s passage it lays out what Aaron, his successors as High Priest, must do before they approach the Lord.  What I want to point out here is that only Aaron could approach the Lord, no one else (until his death when someone else took his place), but even Aaron had to go through a complex ritual of sacrifices before he entered God’s presence.  Jesus changed all that.  He became both our High Priest before God, and the sacrifice for entering into His presence.  However, we should remember the effort which Aaron had to go through to cleanse himself to enter into God’s presence and not casually approach God.  We have the right and ability to enter God’s presence, but we must do so reverentially.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 16-18 .

In today’s passage God gave Moses the instructions for the Day of Atonement.  The first thought I had about this passage was curiosity about where the “wilderness of Azazel” was.  As I suspected, the place being referred to is ambiguous.  In fact, some translations say that the goat should be driven into the “wilderness for Azazel”.  In fact, there are Jewish legends which say that Azazel was a demon, whom the goat was intended to appease.  That would essentially make the goat an offering to a demon, which seems to me to be inconsistent with the commands against idolatry.  A little further research on my part revealed that the Hebrew word “azazel” is composed of the Hebrew word for rugged, “azaz”, and a generic word for God, “el”. (note: “el” in the Bible usually, and perhaps always, applies to God, but was used by the people of that area for other gods as well, even in some of their names for their gods).  All of which suggests to me that the original writer of this passage would have understood the phrase to mean that the goat would be driven into a rugged wilderness dedicated to God (perhaps so dedicated by its use for this purpose?).  I want to add that it is from this passage that we get the term “scapegoat”, which is sometimes misspoken as “escape goat”.  Interestingly enough, the “scape” in “scapegoat” is almost certainly a shortening of the word escape.  The importance of all of this is that words change meaning over time and Ancient Hebrew was a language which, at least the written form, contained many words whose meanings changed significantly depending on context.  

Later in today’s passage, in chapter 18, there are a series of prohibited sexual practices.  When Christians refer to these prohibitions as guidelines, some people ask why they do not also follow kosher food rules.  There is a relatively simple answer to that question of which most Christians fail to be aware.  When the Jerusalem Council, recorded in Acts, sent out a letter instructing Gentile believers on the issue of following Jewish “Law”, they specifically said that Gentile believers only needed to follow three elements of Jewish Law.  Those elements were: do not worship idols by taking part in their feasts (eating food offered to idols), do not eat/drink blood, do not commit fornication.  These instructions contained here would have been more or less what they were thinking of by fornication.