Reading for February 24
Leviticus 15:1-16:28
Oh man...so many freaking rules. This section focuses on becoming unclean due to bodily discharge...ewwwww. So it covers semen, period blood, and any other discharge. Same kinda deal - you have to wash your clothes and then you're considered unclean until evening. Some interesting points:
- If a man and woman have sex, they are both considered unclean until evening. Why penalize people for propagating creation? Is this where the fundamental fear and icky-ness when thinking about sex comes from?
- If a woman has her period, anything she touches is considered unclean. I started to read this book called "Living the Year Biblically". In this book, the author took every rule in the Bible literally, so when his wife had her period, he couldn't sit on anything she sat on.
She started to get frustrated by the fact that he couldn't sit next to her, so she just sat on everything in the house. Eventually he went out and bought a folding lawn chair and brought it around with him everywhere. It is a really funny book and written from a comedic standpoint. I need to pick it up and read the whole thing, but I would definitely recommend it.
- There is a bit after each set of rules where the person who is unclean has to "make atonement before the LORD" for being unclean. And the way someone makes atonement is by sacrificing two birds. I thought you only needed to sacrifice something when you had messed up, or wanted to please God. A lot of these things that lead someone to be considered unclean are out of their control. There is no conscious decision on a woman's part to wake up and want her period. So why would someone need to atone for something that is not their fault?
I think this again relates back to original sin. The uncleanliness is a result of people being sinful by nature, and while it is not the fault of the human's who become unclean, they must still atone before God. Kinda sucky, but I guess it makes sense.
Mark 7:1-23
Wow, what a cool overlap. This entire section of text deals with the idea of being unclean. It starts with Jesus and his disciples eating with their hands, but they hadn't washed their hands. The Pharisees called him out on this saying he was breaking the tradition of the elders. Jesus completely reversed the paradigm here, saying,
"Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")So this is another important factor I haven't yet talked about, at least not directly. So far in the Old Testament, God has been almost obsessed with the physical actions and attributes of his people. What to wear, what to eat, how to deal with skin disease, how to deal with discharge, and on and on. Jesus main focus seems to be people's hearts and attitudes and faith. Of the things he lists above, over half are 'mental sins' - meaning there is no physical action tied to them.
20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
Old Testament - God concerned himself with the outer workings of a person
New Testament - Jesus concerned himself with the inner workings of a person
Psalm 40:11-17
11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD;
may your love and your truth always protect me.
12 For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
I'm sorry if you don't watch it, but this reminds me of a scene from LOST last night. Quick summation: There's this island and these people crashed there and survived for a reason. There's this God-like being named Jacob who brought them all to the island for a yet-unrevealed purpose. There was a scene in the episode last night where one of the characters, Jack, demands to talk to Jacob to ask why he is on the island, but Jacob doesn't show up. One of the other characters meets with Jacob later and asks him why he didn't appear to Jack when he asked. Jacob said something along the lines of:
"Sometimes you need to tell someone exactly where to go and exactly what to do. Other times you need to let them stare at the ocean for a little while" (Jack was indeed staring at the ocean at this point and obviously thinking long and hard about his purpose there).
This just reminded me of this verse, because there are times when God doesn't answer our prayers or our cries for help. I think the analogy on LOST is a great one, basically saying there is merit in self discovery and revelation.
Proverbs 10:13-14
13 Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning,
but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.
14 Wise men store up knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.
Don't be a fool, reading the Bible is cool! Ugh...ok I'm done.
I really love doing this blog. I think I've said this before, but just the act of writing out my thoughts helps me reach new conclusions that I wouldn't have reached if I was just reading straight through. So thanks to everyone who continues to read and keep me motivated. Again, the invite is always open if you want to email me to debate or discuss something. My email is brandonamurray@gmail.com. Feel free to write me, or you can just throw something in the comments below, and thanks. (For Mr. Mitchell, there).
Oh man I love the "and thanks." We need to get Ira Glass on here whenever possible. Anyway, the concept original sin has interesting advantages. It seems to work as a "catch all" response to validate seemingly bad things God does or asks of us. It also puts us at a disadvantage from the start and makes us need religion or God to be saved and be "good" people. From your earlier question, this is one of the huge differences between secular and religious perspectives. A secular world view does not view humans as inherently flawed or incomplete. So for me, original sin makes sense from a business perspective. You need religion because you are sinful not necessarily because you have a good reason to believe. I also have some questions about eternal punishment being an adequate response to "thought crimes" such as not believing. We should discuss at some point.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's kind of a catch all set up that forces us to need God, and then later, Jesus. I have been thinking about why people become Christians - I am because my parents were, but I did validate it for myself as a young adult and made a conscious decision to follow it.
ReplyDeleteI know a few Atheists-turned-Christians and I want to sit down with them and talk about what it was that made them want to become a Christian. I think that would be an interesting side study.
there's this book that my mom bought in an airport once called "the red tent" and its written from the perspective of a jewish woman in the olden times when they would just banish women to a tent for a week so that the men could keep sitting where they wanted to. it also somehow intersects with the story of joseph. i dont really remember. it's kind of long. but this post makes me want to look for it in my house and read it again.
ReplyDelete"Old Testament - God concerned himself with the outer workings of a person
ReplyDeleteNew Testament - Jesus concerned himself with the inner workings of a person"
I know from reading through something like Leviticus that it seems like the Old Testament just seems to be a super cruel book that gets nullified by the New Testament.
But I just wanted to put a word of "don't give up on the OT" props, cuz in its full context (which I even admittedly haven't fully read as I should) it's beautiful and reveals in many ways that same loving, compassionate God that you see in Jesus.
It's definitely a difficult book, and I struggle with so many passages about treatment of women, slaves, warfare, etc etc. I cannot deny that.
But I think it's worth looking for wrestling with it and trying to not see the two books as two separate messages, especially since the books are so integral to each other.
God over and over again weeps for his people in their despair, promises never to leave then, interacts with them and cares about them in a way that the Greek gods in ancient times would not.
There are books of complex philosophizing and wisdom like Job and Ecclesiastes, brilliantly written books from a literary standpoint like Esther, flashes of justice and compassion for the poor, the lost the orphans.
And above all, it demands to be read as with the overarching narrative in the back of our minds of a God who deeply loved his good but broken creation, who does not work from far away but deeply cares for His people, chasing them to shower them with mercy while they continually turn away from him. Over and over again, God's people will be delivered by God, then a few years later, they piss on God and bow down to idols. Then God delivers them again, then lather, rinse, repeat.
Again, not trying to gloss over the really really hard passages. But there's so much beauty in the OT as well.