Rules, and Breaking them... 

 

It's been an intense several days here in Leviticus-Land, but hold on, we're almost through! Two more days and we can move on to.... Numbers. Right.

 

As we continue to navigate the rules (and more rules) of Leviticus, it's interesting to reflect on which rules we still hold to, which rules we've dismissed, and why... and really, really try to be honest with ourselves about the contradictions... If we held to all the rules of Leviticus, the Super Bowl would have been an abomination (no touching pig skin) we'd never put another shrimp on the barbie (or enjoy a succulent Maine lobster...) and no tatoos or piercings, either...nor plastic surgery... and that's just for starters. Today's reading, with so many actions punishable by death, and so many ways to become unclean... phew. 

 

Which makes our reading of the Gospels alongside Leviticus so powerful... We see Jesus (and his disciples) breaking these rules regularly...saying that it's not what goes into our bodies that makes us unclean, but what is in our hearts. And it puts the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, who reached out and touched Jesus (by Law making him unclean) in a whole new light. And when we read the Good Samaritan in Luke's Gospel (also just around the corner), no doubt we'll remember today's passages about priests not touching the dead...

 

This journey through Leviticus makes me even more grateful for the freedom offered in Jesus.... And when we read Galatians in a few months, we'll understand why Paul was so grumpy with those who argued that we were still under the Law.

 

While we're here, a bit about that word sometimes translated as "abomination." (Drawing heavily from last year's work here...) In the last several years, there's been quite a bit of scholarship around how this word is translated in scripture, starting with to the translators of the King James Bible, and how that has influenced later translation.  The word in Hebrew that is translated "abomination" in Leviticus is toevah. It occurs 103 times in the Hebrew Bible, and  and it's translated differently throughout other parts of the Hebrew Bible (and in other translations), but in context is almost always referring to cultic taboo.  "Taboo" as it's used in our modern English, is more accurate than the meaning "abomination" has come to have in our modern usage.  "Abomination" has come to mean something that should just not exist on the face of the earth, whereas toevah, as it appears throughout much the Hebrew Bible (especially in Ezekiel, and other prophets), has so much more to do with a forbidden cultic practice, engaged by other nations worshiping their gods, and so should not be engaged by those seeking to be the ritually pure chosen people.   In Proverbs, toevah is used in reference to ethics.

  

So again, when you're reading along in Leviticus and come across, "abomination," think, "cultic taboo practiced by those other nations who we're fighting in order to take over the land of milk and honey, because we're to be set apart by God for great things as God's holy people." 

 

All in all, I am so grateful that through the gift of Jesus we are God's holy people-- through a relationship with him...

 

And I am so grateful to be on this journey with you!

 

Peace,

Paige+