Key Scriptures
11:1-45 The Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: “Teach the Israelites that among all the animals living on the land, they may only eat animals with split hoofs completely divided in two that also chew the cud; but you must avoid animals that only have a divided hoof or that only chew the cud. …Among sea and fresh water dwelling creatures, those with fins and scales are permitted. If, however, they lack either fins or scales…you are to loathe them as food. …Similarly, there are birds you are to loathe and never eat. They are the eagle, the buzzard, the raven… Every insect that walks on four legs is unclean for food. But among insects you may eat some of those with jointed legs that allow them to hop along the ground. This includes the locust… [and] grasshopper. …Among ground dwelling creatures, the weasel, rat, lizard, skink, and chameleon are all unclean. …Crawling creatures are all unclean as food and never to be eaten. Should you do so, it will defile you completely. I, the Lord, have brought you out of Egypt to be present among you as your personal God. Because I am holy, you too must be holy.”
12:2-7 “Any pregnant woman who bears a son is ritually unclean for the seven days that follow, just as when she has her period. The son is to be circumcised on the eight day after conception. Afterward, the woman must wait for a full thirty-three days to be purified from the blood and afterbirth. …If a girl is born, there is a fourteen day period of ritual uncleanness…followed by a sixty-six day wait to be purified from the blood and afterbirth. At the end of the purification period…the woman is to bring to the priest both a burnt offering and a sin offering. The priest presents the offering to the Lord and then the woman is clean once again.”
13:1-46 “When a person has a rash, white shiny spot, or swollen area on the skin…he or she must be presented to a priest—Aaron or one his sons. After examination, if the priest determines it is a serious infection, the person will be declared unclean. After seven days of being quarantined the priest will again examine the infection to determine if it is healed. If so, he will declare the person clean; if not, the person remains unclean. …Anyone who is unclean due to an infection is to only wear tattered clothing, remain in an unkempt state, put a veil over his or her mouth, and call out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ to anyone approaching. As long as the skin infection remains unhealed, that person is to remain isolated, living outside the camp.”
13:47-58 “If mildew grows on any type of clothing—whether it be woven or knitted, made of wool, linen, or leather—it must be taken to the priest to examine. He will determine if it is mildew and, if so, set aside the material for the next seven days. On day seven, the priest will again examine the material and if he determines the mildew has spread…he will declare the material unclean and burn it. …If the mildew has not spread…the material can be washed and isolated for another seven days. On the seventh day if he again examines it and the mildew has not spread, then the priest will tear out the mildewed area…order it washed again and declare it clean.”
14:3-9 “When a serious infection heals, the priest is to go meet the person outside the camp and perform an examination. If indeed the infection has fully healed, the priest will call for two ceremonially clean birds to be brought along with cedar wood, hyssop and a thread of scarlet. To perform the ritual cleansing, the priest must sacrifice one bird over a pot of clean water. The second bird, along with the cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet thread will be dipped in the sacrificed bird’s blood, which is then sprinkled on the healed person seven times before he or she is declared clean. The living bird will then be set free away from the camp. The person who has been cleaned must then cut off his hair and wash himself completely. He is then free to return to the camp. However, for the next seven days he must not enter his tent but live outside it. On day seven, he is to again cut his hair and shave off all facial hair, wash his clothing and himself completely. At that point he is clean and able to resume normal life.”
15:1-31 “When a man has a discharge of semen, it is unclean and everywhere he sits or lies also becomes unclean. ...The man with the discharge must wash his hands with water, otherwise whoever he touches becomes unclean until dusk and must wash both himself and his clothing in water. …If a woman discharges blood, such as during her period, she remains unclean for seven days. Whomever she touches becomes unclean until dusk of that day. …You must insure that the Israelites stay away from all that makes them unclean because an unclean state jeopardizes their lives; for I am holy and in my holiness I dwell among them.”
18:3-29 “Do not follow the ways of the people of Egypt, the land in which you used to live; and do not follow the ways of the people of Canaan, the land into which I am now leading you. You must not follow their way of life, no matter how enticing. Rather, you are to obey the laws and regulations I give you. …No one is to have sexual relations with a close relative. …A man must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. …Sexual relations with a neighbor’s wife are forbidden. …Sexual relations between men is forbidden. It is repugnant. Sexual acts with animals are forbidden…they are polluting…and detestable. …You must not defile yourselves by doing any of these things; for the nations of Canaan have defiled themselves with such behavior and that is why I will drive them away before you. …Those Israelites who disobey these commands must be exiled from among their people.”
19:9-34 “When you harvest your fields, leave the edges unharvested and the gleanings untouched. And when you harvest your vineyards, do not make a second pass or pick up the gleanings that have fallen. They are to be left for the poor and for immigrants. …No one is to deceive another person. …Never pervert justice by showing favoritism to either rich or poor. Be fair to all. Do not disparage or slander one another. Do not remain idle when your neighbor’s life is in jeopardy; for I am the Lord your God. …Hold no hatred or malice in your heart toward your neighbor. If your neighbor has done something wrong, confront him honestly lest you be implicated in his guilt. You are not to harbor resentment or seek out revenge against one another. Rather, you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself. …Do not get involved with the occult or confer with witches and mediums. It is defiling and will lead you astray. …Show deference to those advanced in age and honor the elderly. …Never exploit the immigrant among you, but treat him or her just as you would one of your own people. Love the immigrant as though that person was an Israelite, remembering that you yourselves were immigrants and aliens in the land of Egypt.”
20:1-22:33 “Instruct the Israelites that anyone, whether native or immigrant, who sacrifices his own child to Molech must be punished with death. The community in which he lives is to stone such a person. And if they fail to fulfill their duty toward the perpetrator, I myself will deal with him, his family, and all who join in such practices when I cast them out from among my people. I will also cast out all who practice the occult and confer with mediums, polluting themselves with the demonic. You are to consecrate yourselves for a holy life because I the Lord your God am holy. …Acknowledge me as your holy God. It is I alone who make you holy; I who brought you out of Egypt to be present among you in my holiness.”
Basic Message
God gave specific rules concerning which animals the Israelites could eat: those that chewed the cud and had fully-split hoofs. All others were ritually unclean and defiling. Creatures in the water that were permitted to be eaten were only those with both scales and fins. God gave a list of unclean birds and creatures that crawl on the ground that had to be avoided. No flying insects were to be eaten except those that had jointed legs on which they hopped, such as the grasshopper. The people were instructed to avoid eating ritually unclean animals in order to remain holy before their holy God.
Moses and Aaron declared that a woman who had a child was unclean due to her blood flow. She was to remain isolated in her home for a prescribed length of time, after which she was to make offerings to the priest who would then declare her clean again. Those with infectious skin diseases were also ritually unclean. Anyone with a skin disease was to be examined by the priest, who would then determine if it was infectious or not. If it was, that person had to live outside the camp and call out “Unclean, Unclean” to anyone who approached. After a period of time the infected person could show himself to the priest. again and, if the infection had resolved, he could make an offering of two live birds—one being sacrificed and one set free—then wash himself and his clothes and reenter the camp. Similar laws and procedures were given for men with genital discharges and women with bleeding conditions. Laws for dealing with mold and mildew in clothing were given, and how to cleanse them both ritually and physically.
Among other laws given that pertained to the Promised Land was the command to leave the edges of fields and vineyards unharvested so the poor and the immigrant could have a share. Foreigners in the Promised Land were to be treated with justice—even loved—just as if they were Israelites. It was a reminder of God’s deliverance from their own oppression when the Isrealites were foreigners in Egypt. Other commands applied to the Israelite situation as both sojourners in the wilderness and a settled nation in Canaan. Honesty, justice, and love of neighbor were to mark relations between the Israelites and those who dwelled among them. The people were instructed to go out of their way to help a neighbor in danger, not avoid involvement, and even to go to a neighbor against whom one had a secret grudge in order to bring things out in the open for resolution.
God gave Moses a number of laws regarding sexual behavior among the Israelites. Among them, sex among relatives was forbidden, as was sex with in-laws, neighbors, people of the same gender, and with animals. God told Moses that sexual behavior of that sort was polluting and one of the reasons he had judged the people of Canaan and would soon drive them out and give their land over to the Israelites. The Canaanites were also being judged for their occult practices and their abhorrent child sacrifices to the god Molech. The Israelites were to strictly avoid those practices and in every way set themselves apart as a distinctly moral and upright people led by a holy God.
Comments
* The Mosaic dietary laws had some definite health benefits for the Israelites: low in fat, high in protein, and they avoided animals that often carry diseases (e.g., rats, pigs, vultures). But not all the laws fit into those categories and one can’t avoid the conclusion that the Israelites were, at least in part, simply to obey God’s commands as a means of acquiring the discipline necessary to build a community of people committed to God and distinctly different from other peoples of that time.
* The same can be said of the laws of ritual uncleanness. They definitely made sense in terms of facilitating better health in an era before the advent of antibiotics and the germ theory, but the laws were also designed to be character forming for the Israelite community. It was vitally important that contagious diseases be dealt with among a nomadic people who lived in close proximity to one another (e.g., isolating those with active skin diseases). But it was also vitally important that the Israelites learned to follow the prescribed laws so the community as a whole could function well, setting the stage for God’s coming revelation of grace and salvation for the world through Israel.
* There was poignant symbolism in the release of one of the birds given as an offering for someone who was declared clean after having had an infectious skin disease. Disease was closely associated with sin, and the one whose skin infection healed was not only freed from the guilt associated with such a designation, but also freed to return to his/her family and community after having lived in isolation outside the camp. Releasing the bird would have been wonderfully therapeutic for anyone, and a sign to all around that the healed person should be welcomed back with open arms. If God Almighty through the priest had accepted the person, then no one else should hesitate to do the same.
* God’s concern for the poor and the immigrant is a constantly repeated theme throughout scripture. It’s not hard to understand divine concern for the poor, which can be seen in virtually all religions. But concern for the foreign immigrant among them is central to the very identity of the People of Israel, whose forbearers always referred to themselves as strangers and sojourners among the peoples and nations within which they dwelled. In projecting that status forward into the Christian era, the same station in life is espoused by people of faith who primarily view themselves as foreigners in a world dominated by sin and depravity. By treating the foreigner with respect and concern, the Israelites—and Christians by extension—not only learn to see themselves as vulnerable outsiders, but they also learn to value their distinctiveness as residents of the coming Kingdom of God’s in a world given over to transient and far lesser kingdoms.
* Among those lesser kingdoms were the peoples of Canaan who, like all cultures through time, have immoral customs and behaviors. Particular distain is shown for the god Molech and the child sacrifices that attended worship of that popular Phoenician deity. One wonders how any religious system could allow the sacrifice of children, yet it was found elsewhere: among the ancient Incans whose frozen child sacrifices have been discovered on Andean mountaintops; among the Aztec, who sacrificed children to the diety Ilaloc during the building of their Great Pyramid at Tenochtitlan; among the Mayan and Teotihuacan peoples whose child sacrifices consecrated their temples and pyramids; among pre-Muslim Arabians and, many believe, among the prehistoric people of Britain.
But the matter doesn’t end with examples of ancient peoples whose morality some may explain away as primitive and undeveloped. Today, child sacrifice is still practiced in Africa, most notably Uganda. There children are kidnapped and killed by shamans (so-called “witch doctors”) for such banal purposes as blessing the site of a new building under construction, just as in ancient Mesoamerica. What all child sacrifices have in common, madness and cruelty aside, is the deeply-held idea that the blood of innocents must be shed to benefit the living. That compulsion, seen in so many cultures, comes from some collective human notion that we must take life in order to give it. Because life is considered precious, it is also considered costly. Fortunately, that impenetrably deep human impulse is fully addressed in the animal sacrifices of the Hebrew Scriptures and in the person of Jesus, whose own life was a fit and final sacrifice for all of humankind.
* The laws Moses gave regarding sexual behavior may seem quite strange and outdated to us today. But that is only because we are products of an increasingly indulgent age. The Mosaic laws on sex were given to support a traditional nuclear family that functions as the bedrock of a stable society. Sex outside of marriage, incest, and even homosexuality were viewed as threats to that divinely-ordained system. The other nations practiced those behaviors and others, as evidenced in the ancient and common practice of temple prostitution. But God was actively cultivating a distinctive people free from the self-indulgent cultural norms of the day—norms that continue to flourish in modern times under the banner of sexual freedom and personal liberation.
* The biblical view, considered by many today as backward at best, is especially mocked regarding its position on homosexuality. It is, admittedly, not a simple black-and-white issue, and certainly one toward which the science of genetics will have much to say in the future. Yet the scriptures unequivocally condemn the practice of homosexuality. At the same time, and perhaps most importantly, scripture does not condemn the homosexual. The distinction is enormous. It logically follows that a person can be morally upright as a homosexual as long as his or her impulses are kept in check. A homosexual orientation is distinguished from homosexual behavior. The distinction is really not that odd. It is the same for virtually every heterosexual male, who by nature possesses strong impulses toward sexual promiscuity. Just watch an attractive woman walk by any construction site full of men. Yet men must repeatedly curtail those intense impulses if they are to live a godly life of singleness or of monogamous commitment—the latter state providing the stable environment within which children grow into secure, well-adjusted, productive adults.
* Modern western culture tells us life is all about pleasing oneself, about being and expressing whoever and whatever you feel yourself to be. The Bible declares that life is all about pleasing God and becoming the person he desires and has designed each of us to be. One cannot do both simultaneously; they are and always will be mutually exclusive, no matter the era or cultural setting. Whether in ancient Canaan or on modern-day Main Street, at a sacred temple of prostitution or in a classroom on campus, the impulses and desires of the heart have not changed a wit. Human nature remains the same. The decision to follow the path of self-indulgence or godly commitment remains a constantly reemerging choice. There is, as Solomon famously declared, nothing new under the sun.
Biblical Themes
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15
