Leviticus 19:29-37 – Social Order Basics Part V – Miscellaneous Commands
Free at last. Our self-quarantine period is over. Or is it? The government has asked us to stay home for another month at least. So, we meet with our small groups online and we read the paper, watch the news, do crossword puzzles, play some Scrabble. And we continue to study our Bible, which by the way seems to always have this unique ability to say something about today’s global circumstances. Read on.
The Passage
29 ‘Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness. 30 You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord.
31 ‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.
32 ‘You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.
33 ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.34 The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
35 ‘You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity.36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah (approx. one bushel), and a just hin (approx. one gallon); I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 37 You shall thus observe all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them; I am the Lord.’”
Thoughts on the Passage
This passage has some commands that hopefully many of us will not ever need, but that does not mean there aren’t those who need them. The first command here in verse 29 is one of those. God is opposed to the child sex trade (and the entire sex trade for that matter). Exploiting children and adults in that way is to profane them (that is, it is to treat them with disrespect, or irreverence; it pushes them into things which are not sacred as it desecrates their body which is a holy temple of God). The result God says is harlotry (read that as prostitution; others translate it as profligacy or the reckless extravagance or wastefulness in the use of resources). And when we do that, God continues and says, the whole land we dwell in becomes full of lewdness (the quality of being very sexual or lustful in an offensive way, an example of which is asking people for sexual favors on the streets). Do you ever feel that our land has become ‘full of lewdness’? David Guzuk reminds us that this order stemmed from the practice in the old days, especially in Egypt when men gave their daughters as ritual prostitutes at a pagan temple.
In the next verse (30), God reminds us to keep His sabbaths and revere His sanctuary because He is the Lord. Keeping His sabbaths in the way that most of us have been accustomed to (by going to church) has become impossible recently, even forbidden in some cases, but there are other ways to keep God’s sabbath. The point is that we need to do ‘something’ different on that day. Normally, we are to ‘rest’ on that day. But now, resting is what we do almost every day. So, now, we may need to either think of all our days as sabbaths (not what God had in mind even during Covid-19) or come up with other ways of worshipping on our sabbaths – more prayer, more singing, more praising. And the sanctuary of God (in this case a physical place where we may normally go to meet with God) may take on a difference location, size, or shape – it may be our ‘closet’ or our den or our office.
In verse 31, we are forbidden to turn to mediums or spiritists (maybe today the better word is ‘spiritualist’). God says, you choose them, and you lose. You will be defiled. Period. So many so-called Christians live their lives with one foot grounded in the faith and the other grounded in the ‘new age’ lifestyle, running to check to their horoscopes or to get their fortune read. God says ‘no’.
Then comes verse 32 where God is speaking to those who are not “gray-headed” or “aged”. So, at my age, that’s not me, although I suppose if there were older people in the house, it would be me. But listen to what he says to those that are younger. He says first, get up earlier than those that are older than you. I’m so blessed to be able to sleep in these days, to be awakened by my daughter making coffee in the kitchen. Now if only we can get the grandkids following in their mother’s footsteps, that would be really nice. Although I must admit, it does happen that they do beat everyone up at least once a year (on Christmas morning). And secondly, God says, honor those that are older. Each one of us can find ways to do that, so we’ll leave that up to your imagination and your circumstances. The point is that God says we are to do those two things because by doing so, we “revere [our] God” for “[He is] the Lord”. And that ‘revere’ does not mean that we do it because we ‘fear’ our God. No, it means we do it because we want to show that we feel deep respect or admiration for Him. We do it because we love Him.
Then God tells us again we are to do no wrong to any stranger we come across. Strangers who live ‘with us’ are to be like those who belong there. And we are to treat them with love. God told the Israelites they were to do this because they once were ‘aliens’ in Egypt. We are to do it because, He adds, He is the Lord our God. What is interesting here is that the strangers in our land need to be viewed as ‘natives’ among us. I don’t know about others, and I can’t definitely speak for God, but to me that means we are to treat them no different than we would treat our own people. The question arises what is our responsibility to those who come to our land and don’t want to be like us and start demanding that they be treated differently? Perhaps that is best left for another topic, another day. But clearly, the Word here is clear – treat strangers in our land the same way as you treat natives. So, yes, give them all the rights of citizens of the land, but don’t change those rights or add to them, just to please them.
Finally, in verses 35 and 36 God tells we are not to cheat anyone in our business dealings. Establish your rules of operation and stick to them. Don’t take advantage of the weak or foolish. Judge fairly, pay fairly, treat fairly.
All these things God says will allow society to exist within a desired social order. Why do these things work? Because He is God who created us to operate in this way. And we follow His commands, because He is ‘the’ Lord and He is ‘our’ Lord. Now, if He isn’t ‘your’ Lord, well, you’re excused, but at your own peril, as the world is finding out, not just now through this Covid-19 experience, but since the beginning of man’s history.It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
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