Month: February 2017

The Bible in a Year – 3-5 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

3-5 February. Leviticus chapters 8-15

I have combined three days’ readings here as they form a consistent block. Before going on, I should perhaps point out that I am using two short commentaries to aid my own understanding of this part of the Bible – Martin Goldsmith’s study notes on Leviticus and Deuteronomy from the Christian Literature Crusade, and David Edward’s helpful overview “A Key to the Old Testament” (Collins, 1989).

 

Like most of this book these chapters consist of rituals and regulations that were actually written long after the time of Moses and reflect the more settled nature of life in the writer’s age (hence the references to stone houses rather than tents, for example). And like most of the book, its rituals, especially those of sacrifice, seem arcane to us. But if we remember that the whole point of “The Law” was to keep the Jewish people in covenant with God, it may help us to see the point of them.

 

In the story of Abihu and Nadab, two of Aaron’s four sons who were killed by “fire from the Lord” for using unauthorised religious ritual, we see a rare touch of humanity, as Aaron in his grief is unable to speak, until later he refers to “such things as have befallen me”.  Even God’s anointed high priest has feelings, and cannot ignore human tragedy on his doorstep. I deliberately use that last phrase as a Christian priest I know recently found an abandoned baby left on his own doorstep; the baby did not live, and the mother has not been found. It has been a shock to the whole community, and not least the man of God who found it.

 

The many dietary laws and other provisions here do seem (mostly!) to have a sensible origin in terms of hygiene, safe eating and avoidance of contagious disease spreading.  And interestingly, they are to be administered by priests – there is no separate reference to doctors (let alone food inspectors!), and the priests, as among the only literate people in the community, had the welfare of the people as much of their role as performing religious rituals.

The Bible in a Year – 2 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

2 February. Leviticus chapters 5-7

There were many kinds of “offering” (animal or grain sacrifices) in this Levitical law.  Mainly the sin and guilt offerings (seemingly two different things, perhaps depending on whether the sin was deliberate or not).  For those the priest “made atonement” and could assure the guilty person of God’s forgiveness – although that did not mean they had no other obligations, for if there was any actual loss that could be put right or given a monetary value, the guilty person had to pay it to the wronged party with an additional one fifth. In modern law that would be described as both compensation to the victim and a fine. The ritual law of religion is not intended to replace a secular liability, but is additional to it and might just help the guilty to “go straight” in future.

 

But the passage also lists other kinds of offering: votive, freewill and the “thanksgiving offering for well-being”.  These could presumably be offered at any time rather than as an obligation. We tend to forget that.  God is not only a lawgiver who demands that someone makes atonement for sin and puts wrongs right, he is also the source of all goodness and deserving of our genuinely voluntary thanks, backed up by gifts of money or possessions.  As a well known Christian song puts it, “Freely, freely, you have received: Freely, freely give”.

 

Today is the Christian celebration of Candlemas when we remember Jesus being ceremonially “redeemed” by his parents by way of a small sacrifice of two turtle doves (as mentioned in today’s reading). This was because all firstborn sons were considered to belong to God and had to be “bought back”.  But it could also be seen as an act of thanksgiving for the child. Mary and Joseph made an offering on behalf of Jesus, who would go on to become an offering for us all. Thank God!

The Bible in a Year – 1 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

1 February. Leviticus chapters 1-4

These detailed regulations concern animal and grain offerings. Although such matters are of no direct concern to our religion (Christianity) which has moved beyond making sacrifices in this sense, there are a couple of points worth noting:

 

One is that the offering always has to be an animal “without blemish” or the “first fruits” of the grain. The principle is that we give God the best – of our time, talents, income and possessions.

 

The other is that any grain offerings (flour or bread of whatever kind) are to be without leaven (yeast). That ties in with the ‘festival of unleavened bread’ at Passover, a reminder that the Israelites had to leave Egypt in a hurry with no time for their bread to rise. When God calls, sometimes we need to drop everything to respond, and quickly offer him whatever we have.