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.

    The book of Leviticus ends by telling us the consequences of obedience and of disobedience. Obeying God’s laws will lead to peace and prosperity. Disobeying His laws will lead to calamity. This is one of those passage which has both a literal meaning and a figurative meaning. It speaks of God blessing us for doing right and punishing us for doing wrong. This is true, God will intervene in our favor if we do right and He will punish us when we do wrong in order to teach us to do right. However, it is also true that blessings are a natural consequence of doing right and doing wrong will result in unpleasant consequences without God intervening. Doing right or wrong is an individual decision, each one of us must decide on their own to do right or to do wrong. This passage discusses what happens when the majority of the people do right or do wrong. Our decision to do right or wrong can, and will, have consequences for the people around us. If I choose to do what is wrong, it is not only I who will suffer, those around me will also suffer, especially those I care most about.

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.

    Today’s passage speaks of the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee. The Sabbath Year encourages the people to allow the land to lie fallow every seventh year. This practice keeps farmers from draining all of the nutrients out of the soil, although there is more to it than just good land management. It is from this that we get the idea of the sabbatical, where certain types of professionals are encouraged to take a year off to “recharge” every seven years.

    The Year of Jubilee lays out a rule for maintaining social justice in a society. The biblical record suggests that the Israelites never truly implemented this law and I am not sure how you could do so in an established society. Nevertheless these rules lay out a principle of allowing people to recover from their economic mistakes over time. Slavery was not permanent (I am aware that these laws only applied to those who were Israelites to begin with). Selling your land was not permanent. In the Year of Jubilee, land would return to its original owners, or their heirs, and slaves would be freed. In between the Years of Jubilee, those who sold their land would have the right to buy it back at any time if they could raise the funds, relatives would have the right to buy the freedom of those who had become enslaved. In addition, there were instructions to the people of Israel to aid their brethren who had fallen into poverty and could not care for themselves. Those of us with the means should provide what we can to our fellow believers in need.

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.

    Today’s passage starts with a detailed account of who may eat the priestly portion of the offerings of the people of Israel. The gist of it is that they must be a member of the household of a priest’s family and they must be ceremonially clean. As part of the instructions on this there is a re-listing of some of the things which cause a person to be ceremonially unclean reminding the reader of these regulations. This is followed by a recap of the types of animals to be offered for the various types of sacrifice. This recap occurs to remind the people of Israel that their sacrifices must be without defect. Every time I read this I am reminded that the things we offer to the Lord must be without blemish. An important lesson I take from this is that giving my cast-offs, or otherwise used goods, to charitable organizations does not count as an offering the Lord (that does not mean that it is wrong to pass on things I no longer want which others may be able to use). Everything we have was a gift from god, let us be willing to give from the best we have received to show how much we appreciate what He has given us.

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.

    Today’s passage contains many miscellaneous rules. Some of them I do not understand why they were given, some I do not consider to apply to those who are followers of Christ, but some contain principles which teach us how we should behave. Several of them deal with social justice and making provision for the poor. The law regarding harvesting is a great example of how we should provide for the poor. The instruction is clear that we should run our businesses in a way which leaves room for the poor to provide for their needs. The instruction is to leave the grain, or grapes, which would require extra effort to gather for the less fortunate to gather. There are two separate aspects to this. The first, and more important aspect, is that it allows the poor to provide for themselves by making an effort. The second is about how this is accomplished. We are not to every last penny from our business transactions, leave opportunities for others to make, or save, money. There is a second command which relates to this as well. It concerns paying your workers promptly. I believe that this verse is a condemnation of the practice of large businesses delaying when they will pay their smaller suppliers in order to maximize the interest they can earn on the money involved (it also applies in the obvious way to employees as well).
    There is one other verse which strikes me. It is a verse against twisting justice. There it warns against favoring the poor over the rich before it tells us not to be partial to the rich. I think it presents it in this manner because the latter is somewhat obvious to anyone who reads the Bible. However, it is easy to make the mistake of siding with the poor in a conflict with the rich because, “Well, they are so poor, and he can afford it.” We are not to favor the poor over the wealthy, nor are we to allow the wealthy to buy our favor. We should judge a dispute between the rich and the poor on the merits, not on the economic status of those in the dispute.

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.

    Only Moses and Aaron were allowed to enter the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, later that would be only the high priest who was allowed to enter (NOTE: this suggests that when Gabriel announced the coming birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah, Zechariah was functioning as the high priest). However, Aaron, and later his successors, were not allowed to enter the Most Holy Place at just any time. They were only allowed to do so after offering the sacrifices described in this passage: a bull as a sin offering for the high priest, and two goats as a sin offering for the people, one goat to be sacrificed and one goat to be driven into the wilderness (I am curious how that was accomplished once the Temple was built in Jerusalem). As part of the sacrifices there was a complex ritual which the high priest was to perform. My reading of this passage suggests that this sacrifice of atonement could be performed at any time, but was required to be performed at least once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
    There is an aspect of this ritual which has entered into our culture (although most people have completely lost knowledge of the reference). As part of the ritual the high priest would lay his hands upon the head of the goat which was to be driven into the wilderness and confess over it all of the sins of the people. This goat was referred to as “the scape goat”. All of the sins of the people were laid upon it and it was driven into the wilderness. The idea being that the people drove their sins away from themselves. While we no longer follow this ritual, we should do what it symbolizes. We should seek to catalog our sins and drive them away from ourselves.