I have finished Leviticus in my yearly reading plan. It was a rough book for me. It's the one that made me ask a lot of questions. There are some topics in the Bible that apologists call "difficulties" and I ran into a few in just that one book.
Both those difficulties stirred up unpleasant emotions for me. As a black woman, the granddaughter and daughter of southerners born before and during the great racial stresses of the 1890s and on and on, I know that some people justify their social ignorance on Bible verses. Of course, those Bible verses are taken out of context or molded to fit some personal ugliness of the heart but...
For those of you who have run into these particular Bible difficulties, I would like to share the answers I found.
Regarding why certain people were excluded from the duties as priests, I had jumped to a major conclusion: that the disabled were excluded from being priests at all. Not true. They were excluded from offering sacrifices at the altar. The David Lamb site has a great post about this. After I thought more about it myself, I came to one conclusion: that many things in the Old Testament are foreshadowings of things in the New Testament. The priests offering sacrifices in the O.T. were unblemished as was Jesus when he became the perfect sacrifice for us. You may need to find your own peace over this one but I am fine.
Next was the big thing for me, especially since racism has been much more visible in our current society. 2020 is going to go down in the history books for creating as much spiritual stress as social stress...
Once again, I took all my hurt feelings and jumped to conclusions about the Bible's view of slavery and racial injustice. I read through a few commentaries and checked Got Questions, then I calmed myself and thought logically. Got Questions has a page addressing the slavery question very specifically. Of course, they do because I am not the first person to wonder about the subject.
As I continued reading and coming up with questions on topics that I personally find "triggering", I realized that I was falling into a trap. Instead of remembering that God has a purpose for everything, I was busy questioning His motives and ways. How amusing. As if being reminded of my tendency toward pride, as I neared the end of Leviticus, some verses gave me serious food for thought.
In Leviticus 26, God is reiterating some laws and rules to be obeyed. I noticed that He would remind Israel how serious He was about this. 26:23, 24 hit me with just how serious. God is not to be played with:
"And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins."
Wait. What?
"Then will I also walk contrary unto you." That does not sound good. It's almost like God saying "If you feeling froggy, jump."
And if Israel insists on being disobedient (like I so often do), there is more. When I got to 26:36, well...
"And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth."
Uh... I had seen that threat before and I know enough about the Bible to know that God is always serious, but when He repeats things, you better watch yourself.
So, who am I to question or doubt God? He loves His children - even the hardheaded and so often disobedient ones of us. We just have to know of His love and humble ourselves.
After all that we do, in our pride and in our fleshly stubbornness, He will love us.
Remember how much the children of Israel fussed and complained and griped and groaned and continually disobeyed? Well, this is how Leviticus ends with 23:43-46 -
"The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."
So, I am saying that this is God who loves me. Me - the one who is always questioning and ready to doubt at the least little provocation. For every question I have, there is an answer.
Peace
--Free
