Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Leviticus 19 commands us to be Holy just as Yahweh is.  What is meant by this term?  To be holy means to be separate or different from what is normal.  You can’t be holy when you act like everyone else.
Some of the Ten Commandments and other laws are repeated.  God wants the Israelites to remember these and continues to remind them and us of what is expected.

Generosity is encouraged by not harvesting a second or third time in the fields and vineyards.  The process of allowing the poor to go onto other’s property to glean or harvest what was left has many valuable aspects.  They work for what they receive.  The pride of work is maintained even if they have no crops of their own to gather.  Today’s harvesting equipment does not contribute to this type of generosity.

Kindness is also demanded.  Many other laws are spoken of here.  Horticultural laws, piercing, tattoos, and spirituality are dealt with in this chapter.  All the law is to be obeyed.  This makes it impossible.  The number of regulations causes increased difficulty in remembering and obeying everything God commands.

The penalties for sin are specified in Leviticus 20.  Capital crimes are sacrificing children to foreign gods, bestiality, homosexuality, dishonoring your parents and committing adultery.

Other sins mean separation from the community, being childless or other forms of discipline.  The purpose of these punishments is to make the Israelites different from others who used to live in the land they will inhabit.

Today we want to conform.  Being as much like others as possible is the goal.  As Christians, we also are to be holy, separate or different.  We don’t just separate ourselves physically or be different in ways that involve dress or actions just to be different.  There are reasons not to follow the practices of the world at large.

Sin is to be shunned in many forms.  Gossip, slander, and backbiting are ways that we follow the world and not Jehovah.  Questionable business practices are other ways.  While following the law does not save us, not obeying God makes us look like everyone else.  This is not being Holy like God.

Uncleanness is dealt with again in Leviticus 21.  Touching dead bodies other than immediate family members is restricted to the priests.  Shaving hair and beards are restricted.  Marriage practices are also covered.  Disgrace by children is also specified along with punishment for the children.

The last part of the chapter seems to make God out to be prejudiced against those with handicaps.  Yahweh restricts their approaching the altar of sacrifice.  He does not cut them off completely or demand their execution as for those who willfully sin.  There is a difference in the way these groups are to be dealt with.

©Copyright 2020 by Charles Kensinger