Today, I am reading and commenting on   Leviticus 8-9.

Reading today’s passage about the ordination of Aaron as high priest when I came to Moses anointing Aaron it brought to mind the stories in the Gospels about a woman anointing Jesus.  One of the questions I have always had regarding those accounts was why all four Gospel writers thought it was so important.  Reading this today it struck me that the woman’s (women? the differences between the way the Gospels tell the story suggests that it may have happened more than once) anointing of Jesus represented His ordination as High Priest, which was completed by His offering of Himself as a sacrifice on the cross.  So, the Gospel writers were invoking the symbolism of the anointment portion of the priestly ordination when they wrote about the woman anointing Jesus.  So, while I see a connection, it is a connection of symbolism, not of ceremony.   Anointing someone represents setting them apart to serve God in a special way.  Here Moses anointed Aaron to set him aside to serve as high priest.  The woman who anointed Jesus was symbolically setting Him aside to serve God in ways which were probably unclear to her.  She may not have even been aware that she was doing so.  Perhaps I will explore that connection a little further when I get to those passages later in the year.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 5-7.

The first point I want to focus on out of this passage is the fact that one can sin unintentionally and unknowingly.  In fact this passage is about holding people accountable for sins they unintentionally, and/or unknowingly, committed.  There are really two points here. We are still guilty of committing sin, even if we did not realize that our action was a sin.  We are also still guilty of committing sin, even if we were unaware of committing the action which was a sin.  This applies to both things we have done against God and things which we have done against our fellow man.   When we discover that we have done that wrong regarding God or our fellow man, we should seek to make amends for our action.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 1-4.

There are three types of animal offerings described in this passage: burnt offering, fellowship offering, and sin offering.  In addition, Moses describes the process for making grain offerings.  The animal offerings were to be a representative of their type (cattle, sheep, or goat) which was without defect.  I want to note the significance of which offerings were explicitly to be male and which were to be female.  Since the animals eligible for offering were all herd animals, those who owned the animals could more readily spare a male animal to a female animal (with herd animals a single male breads with multiple females).  Which leads me to a thought that does not come directly out of this passage: a polygamous society values most men as less than fully human.  A polygamous society considers most men to be superfluous.  In such a society, men who have failed to obtain wives are considered disposable, and of less value than those who have wives.  This breaks down the order which the Bible teaches us is God’s intent, that all people were created by God to have value.  Not really when this passage is about, but the thought which the passage inspired in me.

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 26-27.

We can learn a lot about what it means to be faithful to God’s commands by seeing how the blessings for being obedient correspond to the curses for disobedience.  If we faithfully obey God, the land will be productive and produce more than enough food to feed us.  If we break God’s commands, the land will become ever more unproductive and famine will come upon us.  If we faithfully obey God, we will live in peace, even the wildlife will leave us in peace.  If we refuse to be faithful, we will beset by wild beasts and then by foreign enemies.  As we are faithful to God, the environment around us will become more and more hospitable to us.  As we rebel against Him, the opposite will happen.  At any time, if we confess our sins, turn to God, and make amends for our wrongdoing, God will reverse the trend of destruction which He began visiting upon us for our sin.  It is never too late for people to turn to God.

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 24-25.

The instructions for the Sabbath Year make good sense and are easily workable.  On the other hand, I am not sure how the Jubilee Year would work., even in the circumstance of the Children of Israel entering the Promised Land.  That being said, if they had practiced it from the beginning of their entry into the Promised Land, I can see how it might have worked (and because God had commanded it, I believe that it would have worked). Despite that, the idea of giving everyone a fresh start every 49 years has real merit.  Giving those whose parents, or grandparents, had made decisions which left them impoverished the chance to get out from under that crushing burden does wonders for a society.  In many ways, the Year of Jubilee was designed to institutionalize the idea that everyone should rise, or fall, based on their own ability, not have their lot in life be determined by who their parents were.  This idea serves society well, and abandoning it leads to the gradual, or not so gradual, decline of a society.

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 22-23.

The passage begins with a continuation of the instructions regarding priests who become ceremonially  unclean.  For the most part this restates the laws regarding ceremonial uncleanness specifically applied to priests.  I take away from this that the same rules that apply to everyone else apply to the priests, the leaders of the people (there are other places where laws which apply to leaders who are not priests are laid out in a similar manner), plus a few more.   This is the exact opposite of how most of our rulers and religious leaders act today.

Then the passage goes on to lay out seven festivals throughout the year.  We should take special note that one of the high festivals laid out here is the weekly Sabbath.  The other festivals only occurred once a year.  I want to highlight the importance of the people gathering to celebrate these festivals.  The festivals establish common practices among the people and help unite them.  Each of the festivals established certain values which the people were to share.

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 19-21.

At the beginning of this list of laws which God gave the Children of Israel, He says, “Be holy because I am holy.”  This was not, “Be holy because that will make you better than other people.”  Nor was it, “Be holy because you are better than other people.”  No, this was a call to be like God, because God had made us in His image.  This was a call for everyone, because everyone has been made in God’s image.

Thinking about the call to be more like God because we are made in His image puts the command not to sacrifice children to Molech (or any other god) in a whole new light.  When we kill anyone, but especially a child, we are destroying the image of God.  To me, this understanding just cements my belief that abortion falls under this command.  This verse talks about how when a man sacrifices one of his children he profanes God’s name.   Further, it tells us that if the community looks the other way when someone sacrifices their child, God will intervene and cut that person off from their people.  It really puts the disconnectedness of our society in a new light.

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 14-15.

The idea that many of the sacrifices were consumed as celebratory feasts makes sense out of the offerings made for being declared clean after having a skin disease.  The offering was a celebration of healing.  Those who could afford it gave a lamb to the priests and celebrated with a second lamb.  Those who were two poor for that celebrated with a lamb which they split with the priest.  But in both cases they celebrated God’s goodness in providing them with healing.

I have seen Chapter 15 be misinterpreted in several ways.  It seems obvious that Chapter 15 reflects the risks of spreading infection that being exposed to someone else’s bodily fluids entails.  In recent times we have seen a few diseases which became serious threats to public health because of promiscuous sharing of bodily fluids between near strangers.