利未记

Meditative Reflection
The Goat that Never Returns

“He is to lay hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites — all their sins — and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert…to a solitary place…” (Lev. 16:21-22)

It is interesting to note that two goats are being used on the Day of Atonement for “a sin offering” for the people (16:5). Since the first one has already been sacrificed and its blood shed for the sake atonement, it begs the question why is the second live goat needed? Has the atonement not been completed already by the sacrifice of the first goat?

Allow me to quote from Keil and Delitszch in this respect: “To understand clearly the meaning of this symbolic rite, we must start from the fact that according to the distinct word of v. 5, the two goats were to serve as sin offering…They were both of them devoted, therefore, to one same purpose.” (K&D, 589).

In other words, the sprinkling of the blood of the goat before the throne of grace has appeased the wrath of God (16:15), the sprinkling of the blood on that altar of sacrifice has restored their fellowship with the Lord, and the total burning of the sacrificial animal outside the camp signifies that its death has taken the place of the people. Indeed, their sin has been atoned for.

However, the laying of hands on the other live goat with the confession of their sin by the priest, and the sending away of this goat sends a powerful message of affirmation of the completeness and effectiveness of the blood of cleansing and forgiveness, and of the substitutional death of the sacrifice. The people do not need to fear the consequence of their sin, and they do not need to carry the burden of their guilt anymore. No more is their sin remembered by the Lord, and no more should they grieve for their sin — it has been carried to “the land of cut off” (the meaning of the “solitary place” in v. 22) and it, as symbolized by the live goat, “was not to find its way back’ (Knobel).

This is such an important message to us as well in that Christ has once-and-for-all completed the work of redemption on the cross for us. Not only is the consequence of our sin dealt with — He has borne the death which should be ours and has appeased the wrath of the Holy God, His blood has cleansed all our sins as well — never to be remembered by God, they have been completely forgiven.

However, from time to time, I still come across sincere and well-meaning Christians who continue to mourn and grieve for their sins from which they have sincerely confessed and repented. I have come across a brother in Christ who weeps every time sin is mentioned, not for the sin he has just committed, but the sin he has committed many decades ago.

To grieve for our sin is a precious thing, and I wish more Christians would take their sins more seriously and grievously, but to grieve as if it is still being remembered by the Lord or not forgiven by Him is to undermine the power of the sacrifice of the Lord and the blood He shed on the cross. Hebrew 9:14 reminds us of the powerful symbol of the rite of atonement on the Day of Atonement with the animal sacrifice and adds “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

No matter how horrendous the sin of our past was, if we have sincerely confessed and repented from it before the Lord, our conscience should no longer carry the burden of our past.

Meditative Reflection
Accountability within the Community of Faith

“Any Israelites or any alien living among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice to the Lord — that man must be cut off from his people.” (Lev. 17:8-9)

The instruction by the Lord to require all sacrifices be made at the Tent of Meeting might, at first sight, seems rather restrictive. However, the history of Israel has proved the foresight of the Lord.

The strict requirement about the location of sacrifice (and thus worship of the Lord) is aimed not only to safeguard the possibility of the Israelites to return to their worship of the goat gods, Seirim, when they were in Egypt, it also aimed to prevent them to do whatever they pleased with the prescribed rituals of worship which distinguish Yahweh worship from all pagan worships.

As it happened, upon the division of the kingdom of Israel into north and south, Jeroboam blatantly violated this instruction for fear that his people would go back to the southern kingdom to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and would again change their allegiance. The result was the setting up of two golden calves, one at Bethel and the other at Dan and plunged the people into sin (1 Ki. 12).

Such a violation of worshipping the Lord at the designated place of worship also became prevalent in both the southern and northern kingdoms in that they would worship the Lord in “high places” just like the Canaanites did with their worship of their gods. Time and again, even when some of the more godly kings in Judah, like Joash, returned to the Lord, “The high places, however, were not removed, the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there” (2 Ki. 12:3).

The Samaritans, too, in their attempt to maintain the worship of Yahweh, edited their own Pentateuch (i.e. the Five Books of Moses) in which they purposely changed their place of worship to Mount Gerizim, in blatant violation of the latter command of the Lord to build an altar in Mount Ebal in Deuteronomy 27:4-8. This was in fact only part of the attempt for them to make some 6,000 changes to their Pentateuch (called the Samaritan Pentateuch).

In our New Testament Era, all believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we live under grace and not under law. However, the importance of worshipping together as one faith community is still important in order to maintain the orthodoxy of our biblical faith. As one leaves his or her faith community, the danger of a lack of accountability cannot be overlooked, because often this opens to the possibility of the formation of cults and the breeding of heresies. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, is a case in point.

Meditative Reflection
I am the Lord Your God!

“Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them.” (Lev. 18:5)

As God pronounces His decrees to prohibit incest and other sexual perversions, He repeatedly reminds the Israelites that “I am the Lord your God” many times throughout chapter 18 of Leviticus.

The reiteration of His name “the Lord”, meaning Yahweh, is important, because, as we know this was the name He introduced Himself to Moses when He commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to become His Chosen People (Exod. 3:14). This name powerfully distinguishes Him from any other gods of Egypt and Canaan, or for that matter, any other gods on the whole earth. His name is “I AM WHO I AM”. In other words, everything else derives its existence from Him, while He exists of Himself, without reference to anything or anyone. He alone is the Creator God!

The reiteration of His name as He lays down the very important decrees prohibiting incest and other sexual perversions signifies to the Israelites not only that they have to be different and set apart from all other nations, they have to recognize beyond a shadow of a doubt that He alone creates life, and thus all sexual activities which pertain to the reproduction of life have to be fully in tune with His desires and purposes and are never meant for licentiousness.

It is equally important for the Israelites to be reminded that He is their God in that they are to obey His decrees which are ultimately for their own good. As a result, as much these decrees about sexual behaviors carry serious threats and severe consequences, there is a great promise attached to it, and that is, “for the person who obeys them will live by them.”(18:5).

I agree with Calvin that this is not an earthly promise, but one that points to eternal life. Of course, it is not about salvation by work at all, but it does point out that having the Lord as their God does mean eternal life, if they keep all His decrees. The problem of course is not because of the shortfall of God’s decrees, but the inability of mankind to keep all His decrees. As a result, all God’s decrees ultimately point us to Christ, our faith in whom gives us eternal life. (See Calvin, III, 202-205)

Meditative Reflection
God does not Play Favoritism

“Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations….” (Lev. 20:22-23)

Sometimes, I wonder why God would play such favoritism in transplanting the people of Israel into the land of Canaan at the expense of the displacement of so many native Canaanites. Chapter 18 and 20 of Leviticus provide us with the answer.

In giving instructions to the people of Israel not to commit incest, indulge in all kinds of sexual perversions including having sexual relations with animals (18:23), and same-sex relations (18:22), and make human sacrifice to Molech, the Lord points out clearly that “all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you and the land became defiled “ (18:27), and because “the land was defiled, so I punished it for its sin and the land vomited out its inhabitants” (18:25).

In other words, it was not a case of the Lord playing favoritism, but that the inhabitants of Canaan had committed “all these” detestable things to the point that the land could not even tolerate them but to vomit them out. However, the Lord also warned the Israelites that should they follow the customs of the nations, “the land will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (18:28). History testifies to the truthfulness of the Word of God — Israel had indeed been vomited out of their land too!

Meditative Reflection
A Godly Society

“Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them, ‘Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.’” (Lev. 19:2)

The regulations given by the Lord in chapter 19 are rather hard to categorize; they appear to be a mixed bag of commandments, many of which have already been mentioned before. However, these regulations stand out in that they are particularly addressed to the “entire assembly” of Israel. In a sense, they represent a summary of what an ideal community that belongs to the Lord should be like — the daily life of a holy people which should be marked by:

1. Loving the Lord with our all:

As a result, the first few Commandments in Exodus 20 are being repeated in simple language in vv. 3-4 (with the 3rd Commandment mentioned within the context of loving one’s neighbor in v. 12). The remarkable thing is the honoring of one’s parents (i.e. the 5^th Commandment) heads the list which signifies the importance of living out our honor and fear of the Lord, not just within a ritualistic setting, but expressed through loving our parents through whom God has given us life;

2. Loving our neighbor as ourselves:

That obviously completes the two greatest commandments expounded by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40. However, apart from the expected repetition of the 6^th to 10^th Commandments, the following “neighbors” are being highlighted, because these are the ones that often overlooked:

a. The poor and the alien:

And thus, one is not to harvest everything in our fields, but purposely leave some for them (vv. 9-10) — what an important lesson for us to learn, even today;

b. The hired workers:

The commandment not to hold wages ever overnight is so relevant to us — those of us who are bosses should take note;

c. The slave:

While the provision in vv. 20-22 appears to be unfair to the slave girl, it actually gives rights to the slave girl far above what the neighboring nations did at the time, and it serves to expose the sin of the owner in public (with the assumption that the 1/5^th compensation would be paid to the fiancé of the slave girl in Leviticus 6);

d. The Disabled:

The deaf cannot hear our curse, and the blind cannot see the stumbling block we set before them, but God does and He is their defenders;

Another thing that stands out in these instructions is that it goes beyond the surface and deals with the heart, and so not unlike the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5), the people are told “not to hated your brother in the heart” (v.17)

3. Ethical Behavior:

A godly society is necessarily marked by honest and fair treatments of all, and so

a. Honest scales are to be used in business (v. 35)

b. Justice should be administered irrespective of social status (v. 15)

c. Do not be greedy in your business venture, but trust the Lord for your prosperity (vv. 23-25)

4. Setting apart from the world:

The rest of the regulations in this chapter seek to set the godly people apart from the neighboring nations with the reiteration on:

a. The food law: especially that of not eating meat with blood (v. 26)

b. Anything to do with spirit worship including divination, cutting of hair, cutting of body, tattooing, and mediums; and

c. Prostitution which often was associated with cult worship.

Meditative Reflection
Bodily Defects

“He may eat the most holy food of His God as well as the holy food...’” (Lev. 21:22)

Upon reading the prohibition against priests with defects to “come near to offer the food of God” (21:17), we might feel that God is being unfair to those who are physically challenged. However, we have to understand that

(1) “For God rejected whatever was defective or mutilated, in order that the Israelites might know that no victim would suffice for the expiation of sin, except such as possessed complete perfection; and this is justly required in a priest, who cannot be a mediator between God and men unless he is free from every spot” (Calvin, 239). This is an important symbol which ultimately points to the perfection of Christ in whom perfect expiation has been made possible through Him as both the sacrifice and the High Priest;

(2) The prohibition only applies to the coming near “to offer food of his God” and that is the direct involvement in the presentation of the sacrifice, but not other duties of the priests; and

(3) It is clearly stated he may eat not only the holy food, but the “most holy food of his God” (21:22), as a result, God ensures that he will not only be provided for, but is accepted before Him like any other priests and nothing has changed his relationship with Him — He remains “his God”.

Perhaps, the lesson to learn, apart from the all-important symbol of perfection that ultimately points to Christ as our perfect High Priest and sacrifice, is that what really matters is our relationship with God, and as one old, faithful servant of God once told me, “Whether we have the opportunity to serve or not is ultimately vanity!”

Meditative Reflection
Kindness Even to the Beast

“When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made to the Lord by fire.” (Leviticus 22:27)

“Scripture says, ‘At least grant the offspring to its mother for its first seven days.’ For if nothing comes to be without reason and milk flows in the mothers for the nourishment of the offspring, then in taking the offspring away from the providential endowment of the milk, a person is doing violence to nature. So Greeks and anyone else who runs the law down ought to blush for shame if the law is generous over irrational beasts. Yet some people actually expose human offspring to abortive death. By prophetic authority the law has for a long time cut short their ferocity through this commandment of which we have been speaking. For if the law refuses to allow the offspring of irrational creatures to be separated from their mother before taking milk, it is far more forceful in preparing human beings against that cruel, uncivilized view (exposure to death of infants). If they ignore nature, at least they may not ignore the lessons of the law.”

(Clement of Alexandria and His use of Philo in the Stromateis, 2.92.2-4, as quoted in ACMOC, III, 193)