Background
The book of Leviticus mainly consists of laws given by God to Moses for the Israelites. In the previous chapter, Leviticus 18, God provides very specific laws on sex. In Leviticus 19, God continues on with more laws, including what would come to be known as the second greatest commandment, thanks to Jesus. We will continue on in the same chapter.
God Hates Hybrids and Tattoos
One of the great things about being God would be that because you are perfectly omniscient in the past, present, and future, you can created perfect creations for the purposes you intend in their pure form. Naturally, with that being the case, you don't want anyone mixing things up. So you have got to make some laws against that.In Leviticus 19:19, you find:
"Keep My decrees.God does not approve of breading mules, for example; one of the hobbies of George Washington.
Do not mate different kinds of animals.
Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.
Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." NIV
It is not clear as to whether or not you could plant a garden with more than one vegetable without disappointing God, or if this was only applicable to farm-style fields, or if you could section the land off to create multiple fields.
Chances are, you are offending God right now with your clothing. Even your 100% cotton underwear has elastic woven into the waste band. You could probably extrapolate this to nearly any blend of multiple chemicals to make synthetic fabrics. If so, maybe God and I are on the same page with our dislike of polyester slacks. You also have to wonder how God feels about composite building materials, like fiberglass and reinforced concrete.
With the prohibitions of mating of different animals, planting different seeds, and weaving different materials, you may think that what God is striving for is purity as a representation of Holiness and a reflection of God's perfect creation. However, this is not the case. Or if it is the case, then God contradicts it with His directive in Exodus 28:8 for the priestly garments to be made from gold thread, blue, purple, and scarlet woolen yarn, as well as fine linen all woven together. So His Holy representatives are decked out with rather fancy, mixed-fabric clothes.
Further down in the chapter, after legislating having sex with slave women promised to other men (Leviticus 19:20-22), prohibiting eating fruit from trees for four years after they are planted (Leviticus 19:23-25), and condemning eating blood and sorcery (Leviticus 19:26), God veers off into some extra-odd territory again. In Leviticus 19:27-28, we find:
“Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.” NIVOddly in contrast, it seems that God would not approve of either well groomed men or women with tramp stamps!
This couple of strange verses could come from a couple of different points of view. One may be that God made you perfectly, so He does not want you grooming your hair or marking your body in a way that changes it. The other point of view may be that these actions were commonly practiced among the pagan nations God (or the author) did not want people duplicating these superficial practices.
Yet either way, this seems to be an odd divergence into minutia which is very far away from what is reportedly the core message; that of God's love. For why should God care if you breed mules or trim your beard? What speaks of love in restricting you from wearing clothes of interwoven fabrics? These arbitrary laws seem more like someone voicing their personal dislikes as opposed to God trying to show His love for the Israelites.
I was looking at where you were pointing out how it seemed that God contradicted clothing rules he made, where you use Exodus 28:8. I'm still studying, so I'm not fully knowledgeable about the Bible, but here all, I see is that he describes the clothing in different colors, not fabrics.I tried to see if yarn and linen were different things, but the most I can find as far as the two terms go, is "a yarn of linen". So I don't believe He contradicts what He has defined for rules of fashion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing this out Abetwabe. This is one of those cases where I must plead some ignorance because I do not know the Hebrew language. The best that I can do is cross reference the many different English Bible versions (assuming they used and understood the Hebrew source) and the sentence structural context.
ReplyDeleteSome particular interpretations make Exodus 28:8 very clear in use of both wool and linen, such as the Contemporary English Version:
"The entire priestly vest must be made of fine linen skillfully woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and decorated with gold." CEV
Leaning on their interpretations, it seems that both wool and linen were used. (Check out BibleGateway.com for many different versions at your fingertips!)
Also, from the sentence structure, it seems that linen is different from the "blue, and purple, and scarlet" because it is specifically mentioned as an additional component, i.e. "this, this, and this, and that" with the "this" belonging to one group of things and the "that" being linen.
I hope that helps explain my position regarding the contradiction.
God created these beings, and they are not evil. God does not hate anyone, but he does hate sin.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that hybrids want to be
just like everyone else.
This is not a witch hunt.
Hello Anonymous! I never implied that this was a witch hunt. In fact, if you were able to understand my post, it was more directed at the absurdity of God making laws for such things.
ReplyDeleteOh, and by the way, I would suggest reading Psalm 5:5 and Psalm 11:5. God hates all who do wrong, which apparently means those who trim their beards, have tattoos, and wear mixed fabrics.
is not a horse, pony, donkey, zebra, and mule a member of an equine family of sorts, and not to be considered different species
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI guess it comes down to your definition of "kinds." I would think that having a different number of chromosomes, as mules (63), horses (64), and donkeys (62) do, makes it genetically different enough to be considered a different kind.