While I had a lot of bad things to say about this book, I think Leviticus can often be taken out of context to say "Look what Christians believe! They're crazy gay-hating monsters!"
As I've slowly been discovering, reading the book of Leviticus in the context of the New Testament, especially the Gospels, is quite striking. There were many nights while reading something I disagreed with in Leviticus, I went to Mark to find Jesus doing the exact opposite, or flat out breaking a rule that God has given to his people all those years ago.
One of the main chunks of Leviticus focuses on the specific requirements for animal sacrifice to atone for one's sins. And there were so many different types of offerings: sin offering, burnt offering, wave offering, peace offering - each one to be used for a specific reason and at a specific time, almost always in tandem with another offering. I imagine that this would be a lot to keep track of back when few people were literate (assumption). The people of God certainly had a very good reason to fear God, because it was so damn easy to forget something, or screw something up. And often the penalty for a minor error was death or excommunication. I would certainly be afraid if I was living under those conditions.
Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, modern Jewish people still follow many of these customs today. And while I haven't seen too many Jews sacrificing animals in public, I do know that the Hasidic Jews observe everything from the Kosher rule to the rules about sex and so on. It is a full commitment to their belief and customs and I have nothing but respect for being able to live in such a disciplined way. And while I'm relieved that I'm free of those customs because of my belief in Christ, I am somewhat jealous that I don't have that level of steadfastness in my beliefs.
Like I've been saying though, I believe that what happened in the Gospels is truth and that those events freed everyone on earth from having to be burdened by this way of living. Maybe that's the "burden" that Jesus mentions so often in the gospels. Hmm...never thought of that.
This book has also reshaped my view of God. There are a few things about God that are clearly apparent when reading Exodus and Leviticus back to back:
1) This God is a god who needs to be worshiped.
It is a commandment to his people that they worship God. Now put this in another context. Think of God as a human king, or even our President. What if Barack Obama held a press conference tonight and said,
"Look, there's a new sheriff in town, and I make the rules now. Effective immediately, it is considered illegal if you do not worship me. If anyone is caught not worshiping me, or worshiping a president from another country, that person will be put to death."We would all cry, 'dictator' and rise up against this unjust behavior and anarchy would ensue and it would probably be the end of the world. Or Congress would impeach him. Either way.
My point is, why is it OK for God to declare he needs to be worshiped, but if a person does it, it's outrageous? I guess because Barack Obama didn't create everything and everyone.
2) God physically cannot tolerate sin.
As I've theorized before, God is an inflexible being that cannot be reasoned with or have his beliefs changed. He loves his creation of humanity, but their sin triggers something in God that makes him freak out and want to kill them. God is not human. I know its a tired analogy, but sin and God are like oil and water. They physically cannot coexist. And since sins are tied to humanity thanks to Adam and Eve, and since humans are the ones who commit the sins, by extension God cannot coexist with humanity.
Wow, I just reached a new conclusion. This is the ultimate tragedy of the Old Testament. God's creation whom he loved and dreamed of coexisting with, is now tarnished beyond repair and God cannot even stomach the proximity of his people without imposing some extremely strange and strict rules, customs and guidelines.
Now think about that in the framing of the New Testament and the sacrifice of Jesus. We almost always frame Jesus sacrifice as being the ultimate gift to humanity, but think about the relief and joy that must have come to God after centuries of being separated from his people, he can now finally coexist with them. Like a parent with a lost child, finally reunited.
Wow. What a remarkable idea. Not praising myself here, rather the text for being so profound and intricate. This conclusion has totally just reignited my excitement about my faith. YES!
So, just as I was expecting to come out of the book summary of Exodus with a further distaste for God, I expected the same to happen after summarizing Leviticus. I was wrong both times, and both times was able to reach unbelievably beautiful conclusions about who God is and why he loves us, even in spite of all these weird rules and sacrifices.
OH YEAH!
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