Leviticus 26:1-Numbers 3:51

I do not feel like blogging tonight. I did something to my back [probably while hiking yesterday] and I'm plagued with a general sense of yuckiness.

But, the thing is, everyday it seems I can find another reason not to blog. :(

I'm tired.

It's late.

Criminal Minds is on.

I have to clean my room.

My nose itches.

So, you know what? Screw faulty reasoning. Let's do it! Here we go!

Chapter 26 - Promises and warnings. Chapter 27 - Giving the first fruits, the firstborn and the tithe. Chapter 1 - The census. Chapter 2 - The arrangement of the tribal camps. Chapter 3 - The Levites get assigned specific tasks according to their tribes.

Wow. This changes this quite a bit. That is one skinny skinny!

Since it is so short, I'm going to try to break it down chapter by chapter [for this blog, at least - let me know what you think!].

Promises - The magic word here is "if". If they obey, God will dwell with them just as it was in the Garden of Eden.

Also, in the Five Books of Moses, Robert Alter notes verse 10 - the NIV puts it this way - "You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new."

Alter's translation - " And you will eat old grain long stored, and you will clear out the old for the new."

The "old grain long stored", according to Alter, is a key reference to the importance of keeping the Sabbath year. I once heard Rob Bell say [something to this effect] that the idea of rest for the land is simply "farming 101". It's essential. God, evidently, built it into the very fabric of our being.

Curses - 7 curses. And the phrase "7 times over" keeps popping up. And it's bad. It's read bad. Nelson's Quick Reference Chapter by Chapter Bible Commentary explains, "Enjoying the gifts while insulting the Giver is both selfish and idolatrous. We should obey God, not to "deserve" His blessings or even to avoid His chastenings, but to show our love to Him and our desire to please His heart."

After all the curses are said and done, God concludes with one more "if". Even after all the depravity, if they confess their sins, they will be forgiven. And though they will still have to face the consequences of their actions, God will be with them once again.

Hmmmm. If this is what "breaking it down chapter by chapter" looks like, I'm not going to be able to do that. Let's go back to highlighting. ;)

I want to dive into the beginning of chapter 27. Because reading it made me sad. Simply put, it says that men are worth more than women. The Women's Bible Commentary [edited by Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe] offered me the only commentary I could find on this passage [though I'm sure there is probably much more]. Judith Romney Wegner wrote the commentary for Leviticus and she explains that these numbers related to a person's level of economic productivity according to their sex and age. She also notes, and I think rightly so, that the priests who came up with these numbers failed to factor in the economic benefits of child-rearing, care-taking, and housekeeping.

I think she is definitely on to something, but the thing is, God dictated these numbers to Moses. And I know God is not underestimating the value of women in society. So what gives?

Numbers is called Numbers because, well, it contains a lot of numbers. Specifically, I'm talking about the census at the beginning [and the end, which we'll talk about later]. It should be noted that this is a military census - all men over 20 fit to fight.

603,550. That's a LOT of people. There is some speculation about this. The Zondervan Handbook to the Bible notes that including women and children the Israelites would total 2-3 million. Buuut, also, the total could be a scribal error. The word "thousand" should possibly be interpreted "troop". Or/and that even today we use large numbers figuratively to describe "a lot of people".

Okay, last but not least, I thought it was interesting [but not surprising] that the Levites were given specific tasks. Something about the idea of God thinking of everything is a little bit thrilling to me. :)

Hmm. I think this ended up being somewhat shorter. I had a lot more time for commenting, that's for sure. And, actually, I finished in about a third of the time it usually takes me.

Sweet! Happy reading!

Tomorrow's [and yes, I do mean tomorrow] reading: Numbers 4:1 - 8:26. Wow- doesn't it seem so much easier and shorter this way?? Yay God!

The sticky part of Leviticus

A river of blood

[Editor's Note: If you are short on time, then, by all means, skip the reading part and just watch the video below. It's what goosebumps are all about [even if we haven't gotten to that part of Leviticus yet!]

I heard a pastor once describe the foot of the altar this way [a river of blood]. I think he [or she] may have been talking about the one at the temple, but either way it struck a chord in me and I thought I'd use this imagery to wake up Leviticus.

Oh, Leviticus. Dear boring, irrelevant Leviticus. I know I'm supposed to be helping you get through the dull bits [as Jermaine so kindly pointed out while I was whining about this blog earlier]. A sizable part of me wants to say, "I'm sorry, it turns out Leviticus really does just suck too much. Whadaya say we call it a day and try again tomorrow?"

I have a cheat sheet. A wonderful explanation of the key points given by James-Michael [of course]. But, sigh. I'm not the most organized person, so needless to say, I've lost it. I'll try to dig it up tomorrow. For now, I'll aim to wing it.

The Skinny:

Chapter 1 - Details on the Burnt Offering. Chapter 2 - Details on the the Grain Offering. Chapter 3 - Details on the Peace [or Fellowship] Offering. Chapter 4 - Details on the Sin Offering. We learn that even if a person sins unintentionally, there are still consequences and punishments [and restitution must still be made]. Chapter 5 - More details about the Sin Offering and an explanation of the Guilt Offering. Chapter 6 - More on the Guilt Offering. Then what the priests are supposed to do with all these offerings. Chapter 7 - More on that. Also, no eating fat or blood. And an excerpt about the priest's share. Chapter 8 - The Ordination of Aaron and his sons. Chapter 9 - They begin their ministry. Chapter 10 - Aaron's sons screw up and are killed in the presence of the Lord. Moses appoints Mishael and Elzaphan [their cousins] to take their place. Aaron is not allowed to mourn but his family is. There is a dispute about why they didn't eat the sin offering and Moses is angry. But Aaron explains that he couldn't after what just happened and Moses is satisfied [I think that's the way it went, at least]. Chapter 11 - Instructions on clean and unclean animals for food. Chapter 12 - How long until you can be clean after giving birth. Chapter 13 - A lengthy passage about infectious diseases and then about mildew. Chapter 14 - How to be cleansed from infectious diseases, and then, of course, mildew, too.

I found this AMAZING video on You Tube. I originally planned on saving it until tomorrow. As you can see, it's called Leviticus 20:13, and we're not quite there yet. But I just couldn't wait! It's so poignant and powerful. A must see, for sure.



Okay, getting back to the river of blood. There was a point to that wake up call. The pastor [whom I can't remember but who deserves full credit for the following thought] spoke about sin. Sin [a very simplistic definition of sin: going against God's will] is like an infectious disease. It starts out small, but it leads to death. So it must be atoned for. With blood.

So picture the temple in Jesus's day. Loud and bustling. People everywhere. Coming in and going out. And all the while there's this steady flow of animal blood meandering throughout. From the altar to the gate. Constant.

Leviticus is the beginning of all of that. And Jesus, as you may have guessed, is the culmination. The final atonement.

Frankly, it's bizarre. And compelling. All those dead animals. They didn't work. The whole idea was to repent. To sacrifice. And to sin no more. But we didn't get it.

So we got a river of blood.


A note about Aaron and his sons

Wow. Wait, what? God killed them because they burned incense in the wrong way?

What??

And Aaron was not allowed to mourn [that's what the reference to unkempt hair and tearing of the clothes was all about].

It says, he "remained silent." [10:3b]

Because when something like that happens, words fail.

And, again, God's anger is overwhelming. It seems like too much to swallow.

But you know what strikes me? They could have left it out. They could have left all of the parts out that made God look like a bully on a power trip. They could have left the ones out where the Israelites whined endlessly.

[By "they", I mean, our Jewish fathers who compiled the Torah and the Hebrew Bible]

But they didn't. And, gosh, you can't make this stuff up [well, actually, I suppose you could - but why would you want to?].

I've heard Leviticus described as a Big Book of Instruction for priests. The Levites were held to extremely high esteem because they were to be the priests. And once again, they weren't chosen on their merit, they were just ordinary people. And they messed up.

But the stakes were a lot higher. God needed to show these people how important this was to him.

And what is interesting is that, right now, at this very moment, we [those of us who call ourselves Christian] are called to be a kingdom of priests.

But we're just ordinary people. And we get it wrong a lot. And the stakes are still high. Different, but high. And that's exciting! And terrifying!

Because there is so much on the line.

Tomorrow's reading: Leviticus 15:1 - 25:55.