Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Recap: Catching Up After Rest (Lev. 8-25)


After I fell behind on reports from Leviticus, I tried to catch up on the material. No dice. Let's get back on track by highlighting a few interesting things from this book of the Scriptures. Among those interesting tidbits is that old Garfield (pictured above) is listed as an unclean animal. See below.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.
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Temple Priests The book of Leviticus places much higher expectations on Priests than it does on normal people. From one's choice of a wife to the last day of service, all of the Priest's life was laid down for them by this book. God holds leaders to a higher standard.

Cuddly Is Unclean From chapter 11.27: 'All that walk on their paws among all the creatures that walk on all fours are unclean to you.' That means our furry canine and feline companions are unclean animals - Garfield is an unclean animal.

Gender Inequality? The Leviticus 12, a mother is unclean for twice as long after birth if the resulting baby is a girl rather than a boy. It seems like God is really creating a masculine-led culture rather than just allowing for one here.

Cleanliness Next to Godliness? It is not true that 'cleanliness is next to godliness,' but Leviticus treats outward cleanliness as something which symbolizes a deeper reality - a cleanliness of heart, mind, and spirit. For this reason, the cleanliness and purity laws are pretty intricately laid out.

The Nation of Festivals Out of every year, 2/3rds of the festivals are reminders to Israel: The Passover would remind them of their exodus from Egypt; The Festival of Tents would remind them of their stay in the wilderness. There were also Sabbath years which would be nice to practice today. How do Jews practice the Year of Jubilee these days? They don't all quit their jobs do they?

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!



2 comments:

  1. As I was cuddling with my new puppy he must have somehow distracted me during the reading of Leviticus 11:27. I will go with a cat being unclean but not my dog! OK...I'm just being selfish. Great post!

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  2. Thanks Kelly! I am glad that God has made "a new covenant, not like the covenant that He made with Israel," though (Jeremiah 31:31). I rather enjoy owning a dog, eating lobster, and barbecuing pork. Couldn't do any of those according to Old Testament law.

    *I quoted Jeremiah because he's actually in the Old Testament. Jesus didn't just pop onto the scene and change things arbitrarily; Jesus' changing of the law was something the Prophets talked about long before He came.

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