I Am the Law

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Background
God gave His Law, recognized as 613 laws, decrees, commands, rules, precepts, instructions, regulations, statutes, and stipulations, to the Israelites after their Exodus from Egyptian slavery, before they entered the Promised Land.

That is worth repeating. Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God gave them His Law, and He expected it to be obeyed to the letter. It would seem that the Promise was tied to obedience, but let us not get ahead of ourselves. In this very detailed study, we will review God's opinion of His Law.

I Am the Law

The Old Testament authors also had a lot to say about God and His Law. While most Christians are at least somewhat familiar with the New Testament teachings on the Law, scarcely few have examined God's foundational perspective of the Law found in the Old Testament. A good place to start such a study is Psalm 119, but let us go deeper into God's word in the Old Testament, asking some very important questions:

What is the purpose of the Law?
Does the Law reflect God?
Will the Law ever change?
How long will the Law be in effect?
Does the entire Law need to be obeyed?
Is it possible to obey the Law?
What if you do not obey the Law perfectly?
If you obey God's Law, will you live?
What worldly influence does God expect the Law to have?
What is the connection between the Law and the covenant of an eternal Kingdom?
Can you summarize all of this information concisely?

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Exodus 18:20
Teach them His decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. NIV

What is the purpose of the Law?
We do not have to guess the purpose of the Law. God has two reasons spelled out for us.

First, Deuteronomy 4:5-8 states that this Law will show other nations the wisdom of God, thereby demonstrating that the Israelites worship the one true God.

Second, Deuteronomy 6:20-25 explicitly states that the meaning of the Law is for the Israelites to obey it in order to prosper in the Promised Land. Such obedience will be righteousness.

As Psalm 105:42-45 renders it, the whole point of the Egyptian Exodus and inheritance of the Promised Land was “that they might keep His precepts and observe His laws.”

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Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He. NIV

Does the Law reflect God?
The Law is a work of God, which, by the verse above, is perfect, but is the Law a valid representation of God's character? Deuteronomy 12:28 makes it pretty clear:

Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. NIV

In case there is still some doubt, consider that the Law has been described as just, right, good, perfect, trustworthy, wise, radiant, firm, righteous, great, glorious, and eternal (Nehemiah 9:13-14, Psalm 19:7-9, Isaiah 42:21, Psalm 119:160). These attributes all reflect God's Biblically labeled character. Furthermore, as we see in Deuteronomy 28:9:

The LORD will establish you as His holy people, as He promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in obedience to him. NIV

obedience to the Law will permit the people to be holy.

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Psalm 119:96
To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless. NIV

Will the Law ever change?
If the Law is perfect, we would never expect it to change. Indeed, Deuteronomy 4:1-2 and Deuteronomy 12:32 both say that nothing should be added to the Law, and nothing should be taken away from it either.

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Psalm 119:160
All Your words are true; all Your righteous laws are eternal. NIV

How long will the Law be in effect?
God intends for His Law to be in effect forever (Psalm 119:152). It should be obeyed always (Deuteronomy 11:1). It is everlasting (Psalm 103:17-18), part of an everlasting covenant (Isaiah 24:5).

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Numbers 15:39-40
You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all My commands and will be consecrated to your God. NIV

Does the entire Law need to be obeyed?
There are well over a hundred references to the call to obey God's Law. A subset of at least thirty-two of those commands specifically says to follow all of the Law; Exodus 15:26, Leviticus 19:37, Leviticus 20:22, Leviticus 26:14-15, Numbers 15:39-40, Deuteronomy 5:29, Deuteronomy 5:31, Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Deuteronomy 11:8, Deuteronomy 11:22, Deuteronomy 11:32, Deuteronomy 12:28, Deuteronomy 13:18, Deuteronomy 15:5, Deuteronomy 17:18-20, Deuteronomy 19:9, Deuteronomy 27:1, Deuteronomy 28:1, Deuteronomy 28:13-15, Deuteronomy 28:58, Deuteronomy 29:29, Deuteronomy 32:46, Joshua 1:7-8, Joshua 22:5-6, 1 Kings 6:12, 2 Kings 21:8, 2 Kings 23:24-25, 2 Chronicles 33:8, Nehemiah 10:28-29, Psalm 18:21-22, Ezekiel 18:19, and Ezekiel 18:21.

Take note that this is not simply obeying all of the Law in spirit. With the phase “all the words of this Law” found in Deuteronomy 17:18-20, Deuteronomy 28:58, Deuteronomy 29:29, and Deuteronomy 32:46, it is crystal clear that God is referring to obeying each and every meticulous detail in the Law. As we see in Deuteronomy 32:46:

[Moses] said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this Law.” NIV

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Psalm 103:17-18
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. NIV

Is it possible to obey the Law?
When you see how often God pleads for His people to obey the Law, there should be no doubt. Why would God tell His people to do something which they could not do? In fact, this opinion is explicitly given. Deuteronomy 30:11-14 says this in respect to obeying the Law:

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. NIV

God had given the Law to them, instructed that it be spoken about continuously (Deuteronomy 6:7-9), and placed the Law in their hearts so that it would not be too difficult to obey.

There is an entire book of the Bible devoted to a man who perfectly upheld the Law. His name is Joshua. Of course, there are several other references to such complete obedience too, such as Job 23:12 (Note: Some scholars suggest that Job lived prior to when the Law was given), Psalm 18:21-22, Psalm 99:7, and Psalm 119:44. As we see from 1 Kings 8:61 (and 1 Chronicles 28:7), it is not just individuals which could have complete obedience, but also the entire nation:

“And may your hearts be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by His decrees and obey His commands, as at this time.” NIV

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Psalm 81:13-15
“If my people would only listen to Me, if Israel would only follow My ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes! Those who hate the LORD would cringe before Him, and their punishment would last forever.” NIV

What if you do not obey the Law perfectly?
Per the Bible, you did not have to obey the Law perfectly to be considered righteous. This is obvious both from the facts that not every transgression of the Law held the death penalty, and that there were several different atonement ceremonies which could be performed based on different transgressions. In a sense, in adhering to the punishment schedule and atonement rituals, the people were keeping the Law despite transgressions of the Law itself.

There are also shining examples of people who broke the Law, and yet were still considered righteous by God. In Numbers 20, Moses transgressed Leviticus 22:32, but God still thought Moses was righteous enough to speak with him face-to-face (Deuteronomy 34:10). In 2 Samuel 11-12, King David had committed adultery Bathsheba and then had her husband, Uriah, killed, yet 1 Kings 15:5 says this of him:

For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not failed to keep any of the LORD’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. NIV

and David's lineage was given the Kingdom as an inheritance (1 Kings 11:38).

It seems that God is willing to forgive past transgressions for those who are truly repentant. As Ezekiel 18:21 renders it:

“But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die.” NIV

This repentant turn to God is allowed for individuals and nations, as we see from the example set by King Josiah in 2 Kings 23:24-25:

Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the Law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD. Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. NIV

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Leviticus 18:5
Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD. NIV

If you obey God's Law, will you live?
Leviticus 18:5, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Nehemiah 9:29, Ezekiel 18:9, Ezekiel 18:17, Ezekiel 18:19, Ezekiel 18:21, Ezekiel 20:11, Ezekiel 20:13, Ezekiel 20:21, and Ezekiel 33:15 all say that if you obey the Law you will live. Ezekiel 18:21 and Ezekiel 33:15 even go so far as to add that a person who obeys the Law will “not die.”

Live, and not die? Is eternal life granted by obeying God's Law? Not at all. You have to look at other verses within the Bible to get the entire perspective. Consider Deuteronomy 4:40

Keep His decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. NIV

Speaking of “your children after you” means that you will die even while obeying the Law. So you will not live forever, but take a look at 1 Kings 3:14:

“and if you walk in obedience to Me and keep My decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” NIV

Obedience will grant you a long (not eternal) life. If you obey God's Law, you will live long, and you will not die prematurely. This is what it means to live by the Law, and not die, but that is not all.

Living a long time would not necessarily be a good thing, which is why God also promises blessings for you, your posterity, and your nation; habitation of the Promised Land, a peaceful life, and great prosperity were all gifts for obedience (Leviticus 20:22, Leviticus 25:18, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, Deuteronomy 5:29, Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Deuteronomy 11:13-15, Deuteronomy 30:16, Joshua 1:7-8, 2 Chronicles 31:21, Isaiah 48:18-19).

According to Deuteronomy 17:18-20, kings who obeyed God's Law would be granted a ruling dynasty.

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Deuteronomy 28:1
If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

What worldly influence does God expect the Law to have?
Deuteronomy 4:5-6 gives us a hint at the influence God expected His Law to have:

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” NIV

God's Law would show the surrounding nations how wise the Israelites were. From Deuteronomy 28:1-13, we can also see that obedience would not just grant the Israelites prosperity, but that God's blessing in return for obedience would make their nation the most prosperous nation in the entire world. It is from this perspective which we find Psalm 67:1-2 written:

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us— so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. NIV

The blessings the Israelites had received would make all other nations envious and curious. These other nations would try to figure out what makes the Israelites so prosperous. They would discover that the Israelites worship God and follow His wise ways (obey His Law). Naturally, they would try to emulate this success, obeying God's Law, and being led to the one true God in the process. That is precisely why we see the prophesy in Isaiah 2:3 and Micah 4:2 that:

Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” The Law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. NIV

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Psalm 132:12
If your sons keep My covenant and the statutes I teach them, then their sons will sit on your throne for ever and ever.” NIV

What is the connection between the Law and the covenant of an eternal Kingdom?
In Deuteronomy 4:40, we find some rather interesting text:

Keep His decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. NIV

God has given the Promised Land to the Israelites for all time, forever. This eternal gift is seen in Genesis 13:15 and Exodus 32:13 as well. However, whether or not the Israelites get to live in the Promised Land is determined by their obedience to God's Law. If they rebel, they will be expelled, but they will always be welcomed back to the Promised Land when they will obey God. This theme of prophesy can be seen in verses such as Ezekiel 11:17-21.

The same kind of situation exists for the Kingdom itself. The Promised Land must be ruled, and that ruling will be by that of a king. The dynasty of kingship for this eternal Kingdom belongs to those who will obey God completely. That is why we see in 1 Samuel 13:13 that Samuel told King Saul:

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, He would have established your Kingdom over Israel for all time.” NIV

That is why we see God's message to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28:7 as:

I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out My commands and laws, as is being done at this time. NIV

and why we see Solomon plead in 2 Chronicles 6:16 to God:

“Now, LORD, the God of Israel, keep for Your servant David my father the promises You made to him when You said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before Me according to My Law, as you have done.’” NIV

By these verses, we can quite clearly see that ruling the Kingdom eternally meant having an unbroken dynasty of successors, and that such a dynasty was dependent on each descendant obeying God's Law.

When Solomon ultimately ended up drifting from obedience to God, God tore the Kingdom from his successor, giving it instead to Jeroboam and offering him the same kind of enduring dynasty which was given to David (1 Kings 11:29-39).

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Isaiah 63:17
Why, LORD, do you make us wander from Your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes that are Your inheritance. NIV

Can you summarize all of this information concisely?
God gave the Promised Land to the Israelites for eternity, but they can only stay there, and kings can only rule there, while they obey the entirety of God's Law. God established the Law forever, perfect, and unchanging, just like Him. It is possible to obey the Law, and obedience does not need to be perfect in order to please God as long as you are truly repentant for your sins. Such obedience will be rewarded with long life and abundant prosperity, which will in turn lead others around you to seek God.

Laying Down the Law

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Laying Down the Law
Looking back on my past OT studies, I found more typos than I care to admit! :-) But I also found a number of gems; studies which would be excellent to challenge your own faith and beliefs about God, or get the conversation started with a believer as to why they might want to reconsider that faith. Here are my favorites from the years gone by:

---Genesis

• The Sacrifice of Isaac is a classic point of Biblical contention. Would you do anything God told you to do, even if it was morally wrong?
• For humans to “play God” is often considered evil. What about the case with God Playing God? Is it really any better?

---Exodus

• Predators sometimes exploit their power to play mercilessly with their prey. In God: The Beast, that same theme rings through.
• How much suffering is enough? In One More Game, God will stop at absolutely nothing to let people know that He is God, even if that means their complete destruction.
• Promises, Promises. God promises that if they obey His Law, the Israelites will not have illness, miscarriages, or infertility, and they will have long lives. Long, but not everlasting...
• I'll Be There With Bells On, or I'll Be Dead. Because God would kill you for not wearing bells, or special underwear, when going to worship Him.
• We all have regrets. God does too, as you see in Repentant God, Part 2, where God wants to kill all of the Israelites which He just brought out of Egyptian slavery.

---Leviticus

• The Wrong Way = The Dead Way. Worship God wrongly, and He will kill you, and forbid people from mourning your death.
• If You Are Sick, You Are Guilty. At least, according to God. You are also guilty of sin if you have mildew in your house.
• The Second Greatest Commandment? God has a funny way of showing its prominence in the Law.
• In God's Altered Promise, take a look at how God changes His promises, adding on terms and conditions so that He is only obligated when He wants to be.

---Numbers

• God's forgiveness does not mean that God will not punish you, as you see in Repentant God, Part 3.
• God's Wrath Loves Company. Why else would God annihilate three entire families due to the guilt of three men?
• Scary as it is to consider, God Rewards Extremists.

---Deuteronomy

• The Law Makes an Impression. God thought that His perfect Law would prove His wisdom to everyone around the world. Well, it does make an impression, but not a good one for God.
• You are Chosen, but Not Special to God. Your salvation in His hands is arbitrary.
• God's Law demands absolute Intolerance for All other religions within the boundaries of His theocracy.
• You will find Virginity, Rape, and Bitter Justice in God's Law, as well as a poor understanding of human anatomy which has spawned a legacy of murders.

With my studies of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible complete, I am laying down the Law, so to speak. If I do any more detailed studies of the Old Testament, it will likely be sporadic, probably just to have a break from covering the Gospels. I will open it up to requests, though. So if you have ever had a question about the Bible and you would like my type of perspective, fire away! Leave your questions as comments below, and you just may win your own personal study, Foolishly hand-crafted. ;-)

God According to Leviticus

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Background
Our studies of Leviticus have come to a close. Rules and regulations can reveal a lot about an authority figure, so let us review what we have learned in this book of God's laws.

God According to Leviticus
The book of Leviticus is more about God's rules and regulations than any length of narrative story. So what do the laws of Leviticus cover? What do we learn from this book?

God loves barbecue, and prefers His meat really, really well done. Burnt to a crisp, actually. God demanded the burnt sacrifice of animals as part of the atonement process. Atonement came in a two-part process: first, blood was put on the altar, and second, God enjoyed the smell of the burnt flesh. Remarkably, neither of these events are repeated in the story of Jesus. So much for foreshadowing.

Not all of the offerings God required were to be cremated. Instead, God set aside some of the best cuts of meat and finest grains for the priests for the majority of the regulated sacrifices. The priests ate well. The people received true forgiveness from God (without Jesus). It was a win-win situation.

Speaking of forgiveness and sacrifice, it is worth noting that God created a gradation schedule for atonement offerings. The atonement for the head priest and the community elders ranked the highest value, demanding a blemish-free male bull. Meanwhile, the common man had the lowest value offering, a female goat or lamb.

In a very brief bit of actual storyline, we found a repulsive tale where two of Aaron's sons made an offering of “unauthorized fire” to God. God promptly burnt the two sons to death and then forbid Aaron and his remaining sons from mourning the loss of his sons/their brothers. If they did mourn, then God would kill them and become angry with all of the Israelites.

After killing the two men, God moved on to making more laws; defining clean and unclean animals. Of course, this late definition makes you wonder how Noah was supposed to know which animals were clean or unclean when God told him to collect seven pairs of the clean ones way back in Genesis 7:1-4. You know, back when everyone was a vegetarian (Genesis 9:2-3).

Through more of God's laws, we discovered that baby girls are twice as unclean as baby boys, requiring twice the purification time, and that the act of childbirth somehow obligates a sin offering.

Later, through prescribed shaman-istic cleansing and atonement rituals, we learned that it is God who makes people sick as a punishment for their sins. God also is responsible for spreading mildew too. And here, all this time, you thought that when you left your laundry in the washer too long it was just natural to develop mildew. Nope. You were visited by God!

God established Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to forgive the Israelites of their various sins throughout the year. After donning special clothes and making special sacrifices, the High Priest could then conduct the atonement ritual without God killing him. That ritual consisted of one goat which was killed, with its blood used to purify the Holy places and the Altar; one goat which became unclean by having the sins of the nation put on its head, and was then removed from Jerusalem and released alive in the wilderness (the scapegoat), and one ram used as a burnt offering which finally provided atonement with God for their sins. Do you remember when Jesus was released in the wilderness with the sins of mankind put on His head? Do you remember when Jesus became a burnt offering? Neither do I.

God went on to prohibit the eating of blood, because the life of a creature was in the blood. Thus, the inspiration for a vampire legend was born.

About two-thirds of the way through Leviticus God revealed what would become known as the second greatest commandment, thanks to Jesus; love your neighbor as yourself. However, its context defined your neighbor as your fellow Israelite, as opposed to how Jesus defined it in the Good Samaritan parable. While Jesus thought it was of primary importance, God buried this law with no particular emphasis after over a hundred other laws were already given, and it was not included in either set of the Ten Commandments.

Through several more laws, God declared that He dislikes animal crossbreeds, fields planted with mixed produce, blended fabrics, well-groomed men who trim their beards and hair on the sides of their heads, and tattoos.

Through even more laws, God declared that the death penalty should be used against people for sins they have committed, ranging from child sacrifice for a foreign god known as Molech to having sex with a woman while she is on her period. A couple of these laws seemed to contradict other laws.

God defined that there were some limitations on priests, the costs of priesthood. They could not mourn for the death of anyone other than immediate family members, not including married sisters. The High Priest could not even opening mourn his mother or father. They had to marry virgins and burn to death any daughter who became a prostitute. If some male member of the priesthood was born with or began having defects, which ranged from blindness to damaged testicles, he could not make an offering to God.

It was not enough simply to be in the service of God to ensure His favor. God dictated that if His priests were unclean when conducting their duties, they would incur guilt and die (be killed by God).

In another brief story, a half-breed blasphemed God, and so God was consulted for guidance on how to punish him. God declared that anyone who blasphemes God should be stoned to death, and then went on to say that sins should be paid back in like fashion; take a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is in great contrast to what God just previously commanded, the killing of a mere blasphemer.

At the end of the list of laws, God laid out the blessings for obeying these laws, and the curses for disobeying them as part of the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, this is actually a whole new covenant, an alteration of God's promise, because the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had no such terms or conditions.

But wait! That was not all of the laws. The final chapter of Leviticus provided more regulations, laws which provided more money for God (or at least His priests). There God defined the value of a man, 50 shekels; and the value of a woman, 30 shekels. God also clarified that anything which was irrevocably given to God, such as men, animals, or land, can not be bought back. And to be sure of a residual income, God defined an obligatory tithe on all produce and livestock.

What We've Learned
God loves the smell of burnt flesh, and considers burnt sacrifice a critical component in atonement. Even on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which required the sacrifice of one goat for purifying the sanctuary and the release of the scapegoat to physically remove the sins from the nation, forgiveness was not granted until the burning of a ram.

God considers your importance to the community in determining what is necessary to provide atonement. It is not a one-size-fits-all atonement.

God seems as interested in providing for the financial well being of His priests as He seems anxious to kill them if they make any mistakes. And you should not mourn for anyone who was killed by God.

God not only considers women twice as unclean as men, but also holds women as less valuable than men; assigning no more than two-thirds the value of a man to a woman.

Despite creating all animals, there are some animals which God considers to be unclean and abominations to eat.

God put the life of every creature into its blood.

God does not want anyone altering what He has made, such as by blending two different things or trimming your beard or applying tattoos.

If you are sick or have mildew in your house, it is because God is punishing you.

God is superficial, not wanting anyone with any defects providing offerings to Him. While not explicitly said, perhaps this is because such defects were curses from God, just like sickness and mildew.

God believes that you should love your neighbor, meaning someone who lives in your own country, but did not consider this law important enough to give it any significant prominence in the Old Testament.

For human-to-human transgressions, God prescribes that you pay back in kind: take a life for a life, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. However, the slightest transgression against God is worthy of a death sentence.

God will change His promises at His will, adding terms and conditions to relieve Him of the responsibility to fulfill the promises and punish those who do not measure up to the new terms and conditions.

In short: God is a sexist, shallow, cruel, psychotically bloodthirsty, hypocritical, promise twisting deity who forgives most completely when imbibing smoke.

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More Money for God

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Background
Previously in Leviticus 26, God wrapped up the long list of laws within the book of Leviticus by describing the blessings that the Israelites would receive for obeying them, and the curses if they chose not to obey. It was an excellent grand finale to the book, which makes Leviticus 27, the last chapter of Leviticus and the subject of this study, seem like a misfit appendix.

More Money for God
You are valuable to God! You have a price, as do many other things. Let us take a look at just how valuable you are to God in the final chapter of Leviticus, and examine how much value God places on other offerings as we look into Leviticus 27; offerings up to and including human sacrifice.

Leviticus 27:1-8 regulates the value of everybody. If someone makes a vow to God to give an “equivalent value” for a particular person, these are the going rates for that person based on age and gender:

Age	Male	Female
20-60 years old	50 silver shekels	30 silver shekels
5-20 years old	20 silver shekels	10 silver shekels
1 month-5 years old	5 silver shekels	3 silver shekels
More than 60 years old	15 silver shekels	10 silver shekels

The most valuable male is only worth about 20 ounces of silver (roughly US$120 as of February 2010) to God. Also notice that not everyone is the same value to God, but rather it is based on age and gender, with females being at best 2/3 and as little as 1/2 as valuable as males for a given age. So, yes, God does value everyone, but not equally. To God, women are considerably less valuable, and young children are practically worthless.

According to Leviticus 27:9-13, if a person vows an animal which is ceremonially clean, it becomes holy, destined for sacrifice, and cannot be substituted. However, if the animal is not ceremonially clean, the person can redeem it (or buy it back) for its priest-appraised value plus 20%.

Similarly, in Leviticus 27:14-15 we find that if a person dedicates a house to God, the person can redeem it for its priest-appraised value plus 20%.

Leviticus 27:16-24 covers if a person dedicates land to God, and in a similar manner the land can be bought back for an appraised value plus 20%. That appraised value is based off of how much seed is required for it, with a rate of 50 shekels (the going rate for a 20-60 year old man) per roughly 6 bushels of seed. The land also had special rules because of the Jubilee laws which return lands to their original owners in the year of the Jubilee.

These redemptions are just like Jesus' redemption in that... well, no, actually it is not at all like Jesus' redemption. There is no foreshadowing or typology here.

Speaking of Jesus, do you remember the tale about how Jesus threw out the money changers form the Temple (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, implicitly in Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-17)? They were there due to the verse of Leviticus 27:25, which stated that all of these cash payments were to be made according to the value of the sanctuary shekel.

Back to the Old Testament, Leviticus 27:26-27 reminds them that God already gets the firstborn animals, but He is willing to sell back the unclean ones.

Leviticus 27:28-29 steps into another kind of devoting to God; an irrevocable giving, such as by burnt sacrifice. That can include human sacrifice! Verse 28 states that anything a man owns and irrevocably devotes to God, including men, animals, or land, cannot be redeemed because it is most holy. Verse 29 goes on to say that any man given to God in such a way must be killed!

Now, what humans could a man “own” to give as such offerings? His slaves, his wife, and even his sons and daughters could be sacrificed in such a way. See the horrible story of Jephthah in Judges 11:29-40 for such a case, where he sacrifices his only child, his young daughter, to God by burnt offering. This is in the Good Book, you know, God's word.

Getting back to money, just in case these voluntary offerings did not fully support the Levites, God makes the giving of a tithe of produce and livestock compulsory in Leviticus 27:30-33.

With these various laws for financial offerings, and the regulations which provided for periodic and random sacrifices of foodstuffs, God has poised Himself to become very wealthy, or rather has poised the Levites to become high-class citizens which controlled the majority-share of the wealth of the Israelites. In other words, they were set up to be exactly the kind of people Jesus supposedly rejected for their love of wealth and importance.

God's Altered Promise

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Background
After having a blaspheming half-breed stoned to death in Leviticus 24, God continues on in Leviticus 25 with laws regarding the selling of land and the buying of slaves. That nearly completes God's list of laws in Leviticus, so now it is time to reveal what the Chosen People will receive for obeying the laws, and what disobedience will cost them.

God's Altered Promise
There is a mark of a man of integrity: you can believe his word. If he says he will do something, then he will do that very thing. He will not delay, put conditions on it, or make you jump through hoops before he will do it. His word is golden, and his respect is thereby earned. One should expect no different behavior in God, for how can a man be better than God. Let us take a look at Leviticus 26, and consider God's integrity.

Leviticus 26:1-2 lay down the final two of a long list of laws which began in Leviticus 1. Do not worship any images, such as Jesus on a crucifix for example, and respect the Sabbaths and the Sanctuary.

With the laws complete, God outlines the great benefits for obeying this long list of laws Leviticus 26:3-13. These include abundant harvests, safety from beasts and enemies, and many offspring. Maybe the best benefit of all is that God would dwell with them, and they would be His people. In Leviticus 26:13, God reminds them that He brought them out of the Egyptian slavery, yet He conveniently fails to remind them that they were slaves in Egypt because of Him!

God then reveals the punishments for not obeying His laws in Leviticus 26:14-39. First God will bring “sudden terror,” harsh illnesses (some of which will cause blindness and death), and they will be captured by their enemies (Leviticus 26:14-17).

If they then do not repent, God will punish them “seven times over” by making their harvests minuscule (Leviticus 26:18-20).

If they then do not repent, God will punish them “seven times over” by making wild beasts attack their flocks, their children, and the people themselves until the population is scarce (Leviticus 26:21-22).

If they then do not repent, God will punish them “seven times over” by making enemies attack them, capture them, and cut off their food supply (Leviticus 26:23-26).

If they then do not repent, God will punish them “seven times over” by making them so hungry they resort to cannibalism, destroying their cities and sanctuaries, and laying their land to waste. The remnant that survives will be scattered among foreign nations, and where they will live in a state of fear and submission to their enemies (Leviticus 26:27-39).

Finally, if they repent, then God will remember His covenant which He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Leviticus 26:40-42). Perhaps we should take a closer look at those covenants.

God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:4-21 stating that his offspring would be innumerable, that his offspring would be enslaved and mistreated 400 years, and that they would come out of their enslavement with great wealth and then occupy the Promised Land.

God promises Abraham in Genesis 17:4-14 that he would have numerous offspring which became nations and kings, and that as an everlasting promise God would be their God and they would have the Promised Land forever. Circumcision was required for this covenant.

Then, after Abraham nearly sacrifices his son, Isaac, at God's request, God promises in Genesis 22:15-18 that He will surely bless Abraham's offspring, that they will be innumerable, that they will capture their enemies' cities, and that all nations of the earth will be blessed through them.

As for Isaac, God promises him in Genesis 26:2-5 that his descendants will get the Promised Land which was promised to Abraham, that his offspring will be innumerable, and that all nations of the earth will be blessed through his offspring. Why? Per Genesis 26:5:

"because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My requirements, My commands, My decrees and My laws." NIV

Mind you, Abraham did not have many requirements, commands, decrees and laws to follow from God, at least not that the Bible recorded.

Isaac's son, Jacob, gets his promises from God in Genesis 28:13-15, that his descendants will get the Promised Land which was promised to Abraham, that his offspring will be innumerable, and that all nations of the earth will be blessed through his offspring.

God also tells Jacob in Genesis 35:11-12 that nations and kings would come from his offspring, and that they will get the Promised Land.

Now, did you notice anything in all of those promises? First, you may have observed that they came about due to God's approval of Abraham's actions. Second, you may also have realized that, other than circumcision, there were no conditions required for Abraham's offspring to inherit these blessings.

Coming back to Leviticus, we just read that if and only if the Israelites obey God's long list of laws and regulations, which now spans the books of Exodus and Leviticus, will God follow through with the promise that He made to Abraham. And furthermore, if they do not obey, not only will God not keep His original promise, but He will also punish them severely.

In effect, God is making a new promise, a new covenant with the Israelites. God has altered His original promise to Abraham by adding new terms and conditions which effectively null and void the original covenant, because they provide God the opportunity to fulfill that covenant only when it is pleasing to Him.

A man of integrity will fulfill his promises despite the costs involved. I guess you cannot say the same for God.

Do not get me wrong. I do understand why God would not want to fulfill His promise to a wicked and undeserving people. Yet if God is not bound by His word despite any circumstance, what real hope is there of an eternal Salvation?

Kill the Blasphemer

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Background
After addressing some rules and regulations associated with the priesthood for a couple chapters, roughly two-thirds into Leviticus, God gets back the laws for everyone.

Leviticus 23 lays out more ordinances for various holidays, including a promise by God that He will kill anyone who works on the Day of Atonement, which neither shows love nor foreshadows the day Jesus would supposedly provide atonement for the world.

Leviticus 24 continues on with laws about offering oil and bread to God on every Sabbath. Then an issue arises which needs to be addressed...

Kill the Blasphemer
It is tough being God. After all, you cannot please everybody all of the time. The hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes you orchestrate, or at least permit to happen, seem to make some people unhappy with you. The paths where you lead people may not be easy or comfortable, causing some people to question your wisdom and providence. Yet because you are omniscient, you know it is all going according to plan and will work out for the best.

So what do you do when someone curses your name because they do not agree with the way you are running things? Laugh it off, amused by the impotent, angry screams of your creations? Enlighten a prophet to teach them your ways? No. Not if you are the God of the Bible. This God, has zero tolerance.

In Leviticus 24:10-24 you find the story of a half-breed son, the product of an Egyptian father and an Israelite mother. One day this half-breed gets into a fight with a full-blooded Israelite, and he proceeds to blaspheme “the Name” of God. That does not go over too well.

As you may remember from the popular version of the Ten Commandments, God prohibits blasphemy, but He did not say what to do about it back when He provided the commandments. So, upon hearing that this half-breed blasphemed, some Israelites took him into custody and then sought out God's guidance from Moses. This is part of God's reply, from Leviticus 24:15-16:

"Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death." NIV

In Leviticus 24:17-22, God goes on to provide some general rules of justice with His reply. It boils down to repaying injustice with the same kind of punishment. Take a life for a life. In Leviticus 24:20 is the famous “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” line. The exception is if a man kills an animal owned by his neighbor, he must simply pay for the animal instead.

Of course, that turns God into a hypocrite. In the same breath, God is saying to kill someone who speaks badly of Him, and then says that you repay injustice with like punishment. Clearly, this bad-mouthed half-breed did not kill God, because God keeps popping up in the rest of the Bible, including the quoted verse immediately following the incident! So how can it be justice that God demands his death? Well, that is God's justice. God has different laws for Himself, just like he has different laws for the priests.

The chapter closes out with the half-breed being stoned to death by the Israelites in Leviticus 24:23. You can always count on the Bible for a happy ending.

Be Clean, or Be Dead

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Background
Previously in Leviticus, we saw that God defined some rather-limited restrictions on the priesthood. Continuing on in our study of the book, we take a quick look at a potential hazard of the priesthood.

Be Clean, or Be Dead
It is not enough to demand devotion and love. Really, those are the minimum requirements. God also wants worship, but not just any worship. You have got to perform prescribed ceremonies exactly as given, or else God will kill you. You have got to wear special clothes to worship, or else God will kill you. Yet there is one more detail to cover; cleanliness for worship. Enter Leviticus 22.

In Leviticus 22:3, we discover that any priest who comes near the sacred offerings to God and yet is ceremonially unclean must be “cut off” from God's presence. As we discussed in the study on Leviticus 20, it appears that “cut off” is likely a euphemism for being killed.

In case you do not remember some of the many things which can make a person ceremonially unclean, Leviticus 22:4-8 provides some examples. These include having an infectious skin disease or a bodily discharge, touching something defiled by a corpse or defiled by a man who had ejaculated, or perhaps touching a “crawling thing” or eating food torn by wild animals. If he does any of these things, he must bath in water and then wait for the sun to go down before going near the sacred offerings.

Just to reiterate the sentiment of Leviticus 22:3 to “cut off” transgressors, Leviticus 22:9 goes on to say that if the priests do not keep these requirements, they will incur guilt and die. It does not say how they will die, but the inference is certainly that it will be an untimely death.

Let us take a moment consider why God is so anxious to kill His priests.

Many Christian commentators like to boil this down to there being a right way to worship (as defined by God) and a wrong way (anything else), and so worshiping the wrong way is a sign of rebellion or disrespect to God. It is a sin like any other, and as we know, the wages of sin is reportedly death. So they are deserving of death, right?

However, do not forget that God is our heavenly Father and the epitome of love. Such a condemnation does not seem fitting for those roles. For example, imagine telling your child draw a picture with a beach, and umbrella, and the sun. Imagine your child draws a picture of the beach with towels laid out on the sand and seagulls in the air with a red sun in the background. Would you rip up your child's picture in front of him and berate his inability to follow directions? Would you slay your child for not following directions? God, I hope not. Any God who would take such extreme measures is far from showing fatherly love.

So, if this is a false religion, why are there so many Biblical reasons to kill errant priests, and why God be portrayed as taking the initiative to kill errant priests?

One reason may be to discourage entrepreneurial people from setting up their own priesthoods, and thereby taking away market share. Who wants a job where one false move could bring your death, like being on a bomb squad?

Another reason may be that any number of claimed transgressions could be used to justify slaying a priest who threatened to reveal the dirty little secret that this was a false religion. You would not want all of the priests to be in on the secret due to the risk of that information leaking out. So those who discovered the secret would be dangerous, and would need to be taken care of one way or another.

A third reason may have just been to commiserate the priesthood with the laymen to reduce feelings of jealousy. Not many people want to be on a bomb squad, and not many people object to the wages that the bomb squad gets paid. Likewise, the laymen probably would not object to the priests wearing the finest clothes and eating the best food given that they are putting their lives on the line.

These reasons are just speculation. It may be that the laws which restrict, by penalty of death, the priests are actually the best evidence for these laws being from a real God. If so, that has some rather disturbing implications drawn from the other laws, as we have seen in the previous studies.

For extra reading, check out the remainder of the chapter, Leviticus 22:17-33. That you will find that God will not accept offerings with defects, especially testicular defects, as well as a few more regulations for offerings and a plea against blasphemy.

The Cost of Priesthood

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Background
We are continuing through the book of laws known as Leviticus. It has been a strange journey. Recently we learned about loving your neighbor, abstaining from blended fabrics, and possibly killing couples who have sex when the woman is menstruating. With such important topics out of the way, it is time for God to reveal what He expects from His priests.

The Costs of Priesthood
Being one of the priests of God would have been a great honor and privilege. They were held in high esteem among their fellow Israelites. They ate the best food for free. They even got to wear the fanciest clothing and be surrounded by gilded furnishings. However, there were some costs associated with the priesthood.

According to Leviticus 21:1-4, priests could not mourn for the dead like the common people did, which usually meant making yourself unclean, letting your hair grow wild, tearing your clothing, etc. The only exceptions were for his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother, or an unmarried sister. Apparently once your sister got married, you were not supposed to care about her as much. Nice.

Per Leviticus 21:5-6, priests cannot shave their heads, cut the edges of their beards, or cut themselves. Why? Because they need to be Holy because, by fire, they offer “the food of their God.” What is funny is that God already prohibited these actions for all people in Leviticus 19:27-28, all except the head shaving part anyway. Maybe God forgot about that, or maybe He just wanted to emphasize this point.

With Leviticus 21:7-8 and 21:13-15, we see that the priests could not marry non-Jews, prostitutes, or divorced women, because that would defile them. It is nice to see that God ranks non-Jews and divorced women right up there with prostitutes. :-P Instead, priests can only marry virgins from their own people.

If a priest's daughter became a prostitute, she had to be burned to death (Leviticus 21:9).

The high priest had some special requirements regarding the dead (Leviticus 21:10-12). In particular, he was not allowed to show outward signs of mourning and he could not go anywhere that there was a dead body. The high priest could not even leave the sanctuary to mourn for his father or mother. Why? Because that would make him unclean, and he had been dedicated to God with anointing oil.

This mourning law appears to be good evidence to suggest this could actually be God-given material. Why would a man writing these laws for himself restrict himself from mourning for the death of his own parents?

There is no blatantly obvious reason which would make these restrictions easily fit into the concept of man-made laws. However, this may speak to the type of religion which was being established. It is a religion where God has absolute dominion. That means that when someone dies, God has killed them. Maybe God motivated an enemy or wild animal to attack. Maybe God smote them with disease, or simply snuffed out their life. Any way it happens, God has taken their life. So it seems somewhat logical for the creator of such a religion to restrict the priesthood from mourning deaths, as they are the very will of God.

This same attitude is further reflected in the laws of Leviticus 21:16-23. As opposed to the come-as-you-are attitude of Christianity, the Old Testament God does not want anyone with a defect near Him. Blind, lame, disfigured, deformed, crippled, hunchbacked, dwarfed, eye defects, festering sores, or damaged testicles? Stay back from the curtain of the Holy of Holies and the Altar, and do not try to make an offering to God. Far from being viewed as someone who only values the inner beauty, God is portrayed as a deity with an eye of disdain for physical imperfections. In those days, such imperfections were viewed as curses from God, so naturally God would not want such a person serving Him.

Ultimately, we see from this study that the priesthood, and the High Priest in particular, was not without restrictions. It is unusual for an elite class to apply restrictions to itself. However, in this case, these restrictions appear to aid in promoting the power of their professed deity. So while there were costs associated with the priesthood, the costs were limited and were beneficial to fostering faith in the religion.

Killer Typos

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Background
We are in the book of Leviticus, which is full of laws given by God to Moses for the Israelites. Some laws are good, while other laws are weird. For example, in the previous chapter, Leviticus 19, God provides the “love thy neighbor as yourself” law (in a form few would recognize), and in the same chapter God provides a law prohibiting the wearing of clothing made from more than one material woven together.

There are also some laws which seem a bit harsh, at least in terms of their punishments. Leviticus 20 showcases many of such laws, and will be the subject of this study.

Killer Typos
Many Christians have the idea that God is brimming with love and mercy. Indeed, as God describes Himself in Exodus 34:5-7, He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and He forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin. And who has not heard the words of Jesus immortalized in the story of John 8:1-11: “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”

However, when you read the laws in Leviticus 20, you get a different impression of God. God comes off as being a bit intolerant. In some cases, the intolerance seems rightly deserved. In others, it just seems that the punishment is a too steep for the sin. In fact, it leaves you wondering why Jesus did not pick up the first stone and throw it at the adulterous woman.

In Leviticus 20:1-3, God commands the Israelites to kill anyone who sacrifices his child to Molech. It's not mentioned here in the text, but it would have been a sacrifice by fire. God goes on to say in Leviticus 20:4-5 that if the Israelites choose not to kill such a man, God Himself will “set [His] face against” that man, his family, and any who follow him, and will “cut [them] off” from their people. I can definitely respect that, but it makes me wonder why God has not “cut off” other evil doers in history.

It is not clear what God means by “cut off” when He said He would “cut off” anyone sacrificing to Molech. God wanted such a person dead, and you cannot be more “cut off” than being dead, so “killed” seems to make sense for a definition.

Leviticus 20:6 commands the slaying of anyone who goes to mediums and spiritists. Seemingly disjoint, God does not call for the slaying of actual mediums and spiritists until the very end of the chapter in Leviticus 20:27. But what would you expect? After all, this divine inspiration was recorded by a man long before the creation of word processing software. Typos happen.

Leviticus 20:9 demands the death of anyone who curses either of their parents. If we had that law, probably around 5% of kids would not make it to adulthood.

Leviticus 20:10-16 covers several sexual sins. Can you guess what the punishment is for these:
Adultery with the wife of your neighbor – death to both people
Sex with your father's wife (not necessarily your mom) – death to both people
Sex with your daughter-in-law (not necessarily your own daughter) – death to both people
Male homosexual sex – death to both people
Marry a woman and her mother – all three are burned to death
Male or female bestiality – death to the person and animal

Notice that God placed the same punishment on adultery as He did male homosexuality. Yet you do not find that hate groups seek out and target adulterers. Where is the Christian outcry against adultery which permeates our culture far greater than homosexuality?

Continuing on the path sexual sin, the language of punishment in Leviticus 20:17-21 gets a little more vague. It is not necessarily death for everyone:
Marry your sister – both people are to be “cut off”
Sex with a woman on her period – both people are to be “cut off”
Sex with a sister of your mother or father – both people are to be “held responsible”
Sex with an aunt – both people will die childless
Marry your brother's wife – both people will be childless

Remember from above that “cut off” seemed to mean killed. So it appears that God also wants to kill anyone who has sex with a woman on her period. On the other hand, it may be that “cut off” was simply kicked out of the community, or even less than that. After all, according to Leviticus 15:24, if a man has sex with a woman on her period, he is unclean for seven days. Oops, it seems we have a little typo contradiction!

Speaking of typos, that last bit about not being able to marry your brother's wife seems to be one too. Or is God implying that it is acceptable to marry other people's wives? This is not about divorced women, as they are dealt with later. The only context where this would really make sense is if the brother had died. However, Deuteronomy 25:5-10 says that you should marry your brother's wife if your brother died without producing a male child, and that marriage is explicitly purposed in order to have children! It seems to be another typo contradiction.

So what do we have here? Lots of laws demanding death to transgressors and several typos showing evidence of being a man-made construction as opposed to a divine dictation. That is not a good combination for a book proclaiming to be the Truth.

God Hates Hybrids and Tattoos

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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.
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

God does not approve of breading mules, for example; one of the hobbies of George Washington.

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.” NIV

Oddly 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.

The Second Greatest Commandment?

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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, prefaced by a plea by God for the Israelites to be Holy.

The Second Greatest Commandment?
Think for a moment about giving verbal instructions to someone. Suppose that there were a couple of key objectives which you wanted to communicate as well as several other instructions which would help people achieve those goals. How would you elevate these primary objectives? Perhaps you would explicitly say those were the goals? Maybe you would provide emphasis to them, such as by mentioning them first or last, or repeating them throughout the instructions, or somehow otherwise set them apart in the instructions?

You may remember a story from the New Testament where Jesus is asked by one of the scholars of the Law what is the most important or greatest commandment. Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-34 record the episode, including Jesus' reply. (Luke 10:25-28 records a similar but different story.) Jesus says that the most important commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus goes on to say that the second most important commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Love your neighbor as yourself is a wonderful commandment! :-) It is exactly the type of commandment you would expect from a God who is the epitome of love. So let us examine the emphasis God places on this commandment in the Old Testament.

This commandment is not in the first or the second set of the Ten Commandments. It is not even in the first or second books of the Bible. Well over 100 commandments had been dispensed before it appears in the third book of the Bible, Leviticus, and in a location roughly 2/3 through that book. Leviticus 19 is a listing of various laws. About halfway through the chapter you will find Leviticus 19:18 in all of its splendor:

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” NIV

You will notice that the command is not simply to love your neighbor as yourself. Instead, it is played off as a contrast to seeking revenge or bearing a grudge. Perhaps most significant is the implied definition of “your neighbor” as “one of your people” instead of how Jesus would redefine it as everyone in Luke 10:29-37 in what is commonly referred to as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It seems God and Jesus had different opinions on the matter.

There is nothing to make this commandment inherently stand out in the list. It is sandwiched between the good law of Leviticus 19:17 which tells you not to harbor hate in your heart and the strange law of Leviticus 19:19 which tells you not to mate two different kinds of animals. Even the phrase “I am the Lord” is repeated in several other verses within this same chapter in seemingly poetic meter as opposed to highlighting extra-important commandments.

Clearly no prominence of placement or explicit emphasis was given to this commandment to mark its importance. So what about repetition? Was the importance of this commandment driven home by listing it over and over again?

In Mark 12:33 it says that loving God and loving your neighbor are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. If that is so, then it is difficult to discern from the text. Being somewhat generous, there are around 50 calls to love God in the Old Testament. The sentiment of loving your neighbor is explicitly expressed only one time in the Old Testament. Only once. Meanwhile, burnt offerings are mentioned at least 260 times, with 39 instances of it saying how the smell of the burnt offering was a pleasing aroma to God.

If God truly thought that loving your neighbor was the second most important commandment, He has an odd way of showing it.

Instead, it seems that human analysis was involved to find this little diamond in the rough, shine it up, and promote it to its proper level of importance and moral guidance. In fact, this follows the trend of modern day cults or denominational divisions within the church. Some re-interpretation of the importance of particular parts of Scripture precedes an entire movement, just like John Wesley's interpretations created Methodism. Christianity latched on tightly to this new interpretation, repeating the message of loving your neighbor eight times within the New Testament.

It would be remiss to not mention one other instance in the Old Testament where this commandment is repeated in a manner of speaking, but with a different target. Later in the same chapter, you find Leviticus 19:34 saying:

“The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” NIV

Again, we see a limitation of the concept of loving your neighbor. The “living with you” clause extends the concept only to those living in the same nation. It is interesting that many of the Christian conservative groups have such strong feelings against the illegal immigrants in the United States. God does not qualify this commandment with legal versus illegal aliens. It comes from the same chapter as loving your neighbor, so it must be important too, right?