God Had Certain Commands for the Israelites. Which ones make sense today? -- Study in Leviticus continues.

Leviticus 19:19-28 – Social Order Basics Part IV – Miscellaneous Orders

Day 14 of our 14-day self-quarantine. It is cold outside, but the sun is so bright (hadn’t seen him for a few days). I’m looking forward to carrying out some necessary errands tomorrow. Can’t wait. Today, there’s more work to do inside plus my continuing study of Leviticus. Read on.

The Passage

¹⁹ ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.

²⁰ ‘Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free.²¹ He shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord to the doorway of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. ²² The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him.

²³ ‘When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten. ²⁴ But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ In the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying. ²⁷ You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

Thoughts on the Passage

The passage starts right off reminding us that we are to keep God’s statutes or commands. Then He gives us his next one and it has to do with mixed breeding – of animals, of plants, even of the clothes we wear. Last time I looked we seem to be doing all of those things. In the case of animals and plants, man is attempting to improve what God created. Matthew Henry reminds us also that when God made animals, etc., He made each “after their kind” and we are to keep them that way. Robert Jamieson suggests that there were physical reasons for this as mixing seed resulted in a weaker product, and perhaps even an unhealthy one.

Verses 20-22 deal again with sexual relations. One is not to have relations with another person’s slave that has not been given his/her freedom. Both are to be punished, but not to the point of death because the slave is to be returned to her/his owner. The other party is to make the appropriate offerings to the Lord, and he/she shall be forgiven.

Verses 23-25 deal with the appropriate way to plant a new orchard, but it also teaches us to be patient. In fact, God says, not having that patience and eating early of the fruit newly planted is totally forbidden. And if you wait the required time, the fruit becomes holy and an offering of praise to the Lord. Then you may eat, and in doing so, its future yield will increase for you. And I love that again God adds the reminder, “I am the Lord your God”. He is saying, “Trust me. There’s no other way.” I wonder if there isn’t some kind of investment lesson that we as Christians can take from these three verses. Matthew Henry writes extensively on this:

·       1. Some think this taught them not to follow the custom of the heathen, who, they say, consecrated the very first products of their fruit-trees to their idols, saying that otherwise all the fruits would be blasted.

·       2. This law in the case of fruit-trees seems to be parallel with that in the case of animals, that no creature should be accepted as an offering till it was past eight days old, nor till that day were children to be circumcised; see chapter 22:27. God would have the first-fruits of their trees, but, because for the first three years they were as inconsiderable as a lamb or a calf under eight days old, therefore God would not have them, for it is fit he should have everything at its best; and yet he would not allow them to be used, because his first-fruits were not as yet offered: they must therefore be accounted as uncircumcised, that is, as an animal under eight days' old, not fit for any use.

·       3. We are hereby taught not to be over-hasty in catching at any comfort, but to be willing with patience to wait the time for the enjoyment of it, and particularly to acknowledge ourselves unworthy of the increase of the earth, our right to the fruits of which was forfeited by our first parents eating forbidden fruit, and we are restored to it only by the word of God and prayer [I Tim. 4:5].

Finally, verses 26-28 here are commands regarding our own bodies. The no blood eating command is repeated, and because of its association with idolatry, it is grouped with the commands against practicing divination (seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means) and soothsaying (the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means; fortune telling, foretelling, divination. prophecy, vaticination or prediction, prognostication - knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source). We cannot have fellowship with Christ while at the same time having fellowship with the things of the devil – yet, many of us try.

In verse 27, there is a strange command with respect to how (men, at least) trim their sideburns and the edges of their beards. Chuck Smith suggests this may have to do with not intentionally shaving our heads, perhaps like the Hare Krishna do. Perhaps that is why, David Guzik reminds us, that the Orthodox Jewish men have long, curly locks down the sides of their heads today.

In verse 28, the Israelites were forbidden to cut their bodies, especially in mourning for the dead. As one pastor I heard said, “it really doesn’t do the dead any good.” We also don’t need to wail at funerals like many of my own people from Europe do. But the verse goes on to command that we do not make any tattoo marks on our body – something that many Christian, including some pastors have ignored under the argument that all those laws in Leviticus were only for Israelites.  Perhaps they were, but also perhaps, the Creator, also had His own reasons for not wanting us to do certain things. We with our own wisdom, have chosen to think of ourselves as wiser.  We do so at our own peril, because as He reminds us at the end of this passage as He did at the beginning, “(He is) the Lord.”

So, what are the take home lessons here for us? These are real issues that each Christian today has to deal with him-/herself. They can cause division for sure. The secret is that they should not divide our own self. We need to decide for ourselves, what we will do and how we will view these matters.  And we are not, in my opinion, to expect everyone to adopt our thinking. We must, however, be free to share our thinking and to listen to the rationale of others. Be right with your God.  

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.