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.

In today’s passage the priests are instructed to be very careful not to bring shame on God’s name.  As I was reading this I was struck by the fact that the end of the second verse of today’s passage reads to me like it should be translated, “…so they do not bring shame on my holy name, I am the Lord.”  It seems to me that the phrase, “I am the Lord” is God’s name, which is the reason why Jewish tradition is to avoid saying God’s name.  If we speak God’s name it becomes a short step to believing that His name applies to us.  

Later in this passage it describes the various festivals which God commanded the people of Israel to keep.  These festivals were designed to unite the people of Israel and to focus that unity on worshiping God.  Finding a way to unify the people is a challenge which faces every nation.  The effort of a nation’s political leaders to unify the people of that nation behind themselves presents a challenge to those who choose to worship God (and those who worship God present a challenge to those political leaders).  A study of history shows that, no matter how hard people try to avoid it, all attempts to instill political unity become idolatrous.  Sooner or later, political necessity comes into conflict with being faithful to God.  

I want to add at the end here that the title I gave today’s study, “Political Unity is Idolatry”, is not accurate.  More accurate is to say that unity, political or otherwise, quickly replaces serving God as our goal.  Time and again when people strive for unity they set aside being faithful to God to achieve it.  Or, to be more precise, they call on others to set aside being faithful to God in the name of unity.