**BIBLE STUDY** Leviticus Raised Questions & Gave Answers

 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.

The first struggle I had was understanding why God excluded certain people from serving as priests based on their physical afflictions. The second was about whether or not God was condoning slavery. 

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

**BIBLE STUDY** Finding Meaning in Leviticus

Trigger warning: I am going to make a couple of statements in this post that I am sure will offend some people. My intent is not to offend. My intent, as always with my posts, is to share information and my viewpoint and opinions. But because I do want to share in love, please do read and think about anything I say before you dismiss it.

I will be honest and admit that I have trouble reading through books like Leviticus and Numbers. It's so tempting for me to skip over these "drier" books. 

Every word in the Bible is there for a reason, though so I refuse to take any shortcuts this time around. I have been taking notes and try to find something to think about for each section of the chapters I read. With Leviticus, I mostly have questions which means I have to look for answers. That's how I came up with so many links in my last post.

I have just struggled through chapter 7 in Leviticus. It wasn't until I got halfway through chapter 4 that something dawned on me.

We commit so many sins - intentional, unintentional; "small" sins, and "large" sins. I couldn't possibly even attempt counting how many times a day I sin in thought. If I lived during the Mosaic era, I'd have worn a hole in the path to the priest's door. 

When I started thinking about all those sacrifices people had to offer back then, I became ever so much more thankful for the Lord's sacrifice on the cross. His once-and-for-all sacrifice takes on more and more meaning as I think about my sins. People, I don't sin daily, I sin from moment to moment. On some days, my thoughts are a blur of sin.

So, I started paying attention to the types of offerings in Leviticus. Because of the repetition, there seem to be hundreds mentioned but I realized there were five of them. I still had trouble understanding them though so I was thrilled to come across this wonderful chart by Raymond K. Campbell on *Bible Centre:

Cambell (who has other contributions shown on Bible Centre) gives a sketch explanation of each offering type. I have printed this out to study while I skim back over chapters 1-7.

By the way, I found it interesting that a wave offering (ex: Lev 7:30) is a portion of a sacrifice waved in the air indicating that it is for the Lord. When I read that, I immediately thought of how music fans are often encouraged to wave their hands "in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care". A Redditor might tag this as being mildly interesting. Of course, when I got to Leviticus 10:2 and started reading about Aaron's sons offering up "strange fire" so I did a quick search for any lyrics and found something by The Indigo Girls (never listened to their music before) and they have a song called "Strange Fire" with this as the starting lyrics (my emphasis added):

I come to you with strange fire
I make an offering of love
The incense of my soil is burned
By the fire in my blood
I come with a softer answer
To the questions that lie in your path
I want to harbor you from the anger
Find a refuge from the wrath

Because I never heard their music or knew anything about this duo, I did some cursory Wiki lookups. I am surprised that they are gay but seem intertwined with ministries. Sort of like if I was a  proud and professional liar who claimed to follow Christ - who died for my sins as a liar, cheat, adulterer, etc. I am not proud of my sins and don't live unrepentant of them and I, for the record, would be afraid of the fire of God's wrath. Just saying so don't come for me with wagging fingers and the shaming. This is not a statement about hate for gays. This is a statement about my understanding of sin and repentance and salvation through Christ. I don't hate gays or anyone else for their sin but I do pray they find salvation.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that. I hope this helps anyone else reading through Leviticus.

Peace

--Free

*I have not visited Bible Centre before now and have not perused the site. I have not read their Statement of Faith. Please use discernment when visiting any linked site.