Leviticus 19:1 – Torah is called “The Law of Moses” or simply “Moses,” but make no mistake. These are the words of God given through Moses. They are not the words of Moses.
v2 – “All the congregation,” meaning men, women, and children. The Torah is about living in harmony with God, the world, your community, and yourself. This section is primarily concerned with living in community with fellow believers. Paul referred to it as the Body of Messiah. We are to be different than the world (k’doshim) because we are a part of God’s people. Our standards must be different because his standard are different. When God follows a command with a statement like “I am YHWH,” he is emphasizing that we are to follow his rules because we are his. Not because we belong to the First Church of Whatever or because we are Jews or Chrisians, but because we have been adopted into God’s house. We live in his house, so we follow his rules.
v3 – If Yahweh is your God or if you want to live among God’s people, then keep the sabbath. If Yahweh is not your God or if you don’t want to live among God’s people, then “Do what thou wilt.”
v4 – If that other guy is your god, then you can make all the idols you want. “But as long as you live under my roof…”
v5-8 – Peace offerings must always be voluntary. Obedience is mandatory, but going the extra mile is better. Peace offerings are meant to be extravagant community events. They are not meant to be used for regular meals.
v9-10 – Leave something for the poor and the transient, but don’t just hand it to them if they are able to work.
v11-14 – Don’t cheat each other or be sneaky with each other. There is no place for maneuvering in God’s house.
v15 – Don’t play favorites. Don’t brown nose and don’t play Robin Hood, either. There is nothing wrong with being rich, and it’s not your job to cure poverty. LBJ was a fool.
v16 – Don’t be a tattletale, a gossip, or a slanderer. Mind your own business.
v17 – Confront evil (tactfully and quietly when possible) because it would be hateful to allow your neighbor to continue ignorantly in sin.
v18 – Be forgiving and turn the other cheek. I.e. be slow to anger.
Archive for April, 2008
K’doshim 5768 – A Set-Apart Community
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008WWH
Monday, April 28th, 2008First they were the WWF. Now they are the WWE. All along, they were not-quite-secretly the WWH. I work for a company in the broadcast entertainment business, so see a lot of WWF/WWE sorts of posters. I watch too much TV, so I see a lot of commercials. I’ve come to the conclusion that so-called “professional” wrestling is just poorly disguised redneck homoerotica. Yep. That’s the “H.” Don’t believe me? See for yourself.
If it’s so obvious, then why did it take me so long to figure that out, you ask? Because I have such a thick skull. That and an instinctual aversion to the perverse absurdity of pro wrestling.
Technorati Tags: wwf, wwe, pro wrestling
K’doshim 5768 – Fear Your Mother
Monday, April 28th, 2008Leviticus 19:3
Ye shall fear every man… The command to honor our parents is the only one of the Ten Commandments to be accompanied by a promise. This command to fear them as well is associated with the Sabbaths in part because both are given for our own benefit. We are not to keep the various Sabbaths for God, but for ourselves. God gains nothing tangible by the honor and fear we give our parents, while we gain longer and happier life through obedience and learned wisdom. Mothers are given precedence because we do not naturally fear them. It is easy for a child to fear his father. He is threatening and powerful, while mothers are kind and comforting. Yet God says that we are to treat them with fear for our own profit in spite of our natural inclination.
Technorati Tags: kedoshim, k’doshim, parsha, torah portion, torah, parents
The Firstfruits of the Resurrection
Friday, April 25th, 2008Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world, and it is bearing fruit, even also among you, since the day you heard and fully knew the grace of God in truth, even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, he also having shown your love in the Spirit to us. For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being empowered with all power, according to the might of His glory, to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things. For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven. And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His sight, if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and I fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the church; of which I became a minister, according to the administration of God given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God; the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power….
-Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, Letter to the Colossians
We search our houses for leaven in preparation for Hag ha Matzah and Firstfruits. We search our hearts for sin in preparation for Final Exodus and eventual Resurrection. Yet we know that yeast fills the very air we breathe, and sin inextricably infuses our flesh. It is only through Yeshua that we are made pure. Keep the faith, but know that in our weakness, he is our strength. In our failure, he is our success.
Technorati Tags: firstfruits, resurrection, passover, pesach, unleavened bread, hag ha matzah
On Keeping Torah
Friday, April 25th, 2008Since it is such a ubiquitious theme in theological discussions, I created a separate category for articles that address how and why a Christian should follow Torah.
History Repeats Itself in West Texas
Thursday, April 24th, 2008More than 1400 years ago Gildas wrote, “Britain has kings, but they are tyrants; she has judges, but unrighteous ones; generally engaged in plunder and rapine, but always preying on the innocent; whenever they exert themselves to avenge or protect, it is sure to be in favour of robbers and criminals; they have an abundance of wives, yet are they addicted to fornication and adultery; they are ever ready to take oaths, and as often perjure themselves; they make a vow and almost immediately act falsely; they make war, but their wars are against their countrymen, and are unjust ones; they rigorously prosecute thieves throughout their country, but those who sit at table with them are robbers, and they not only cherish but reward them; they give alms plentifully, but in contrast to this is a whole pile of crimes which they have committed; they sit on the seat of justice, but rarely seek for the rule of right judgment; they despise the innocent and the humble, but seize every occasion of exalting to the utmost the bloody-minded; the proud, murderers, the combined and adulterers, enemies of God, who ought to be utterly destroyed and their names forgotten.”
I suspect he might have something to say about the child-stealers in Texas.
Technorati Tags: flds, san angelo, cps, child protective services, kidnapping
Destined for Something
Sunday, April 20th, 2008As I think through the great biblical personalities, it seems that everything in their lives pointed to one great mission. Although they were focused on something completely different early on, that turned out to be preparation for some other destiny. Abraham was a wealthy nomadic herdsman with multiple herds before he became a father of nations. Moses was the son of a slave living as the son of Pharaoh before he led the Israelites out of Egypt. David was a shepherd, musician, and soldier before he became the Poet-Priest-King of Israel. Paul was a leading rabbi of the Pharisees before he used all that knowledge and intensity to build churches. Everything that happened to them and everything they did contributed to the accomplishment of a higher calling that they might not have even heard yet. David had never heard of Goliath when he killed the bear. Paul was busy stamping out churches when he was struck blind on the road to Damascus.
Where you are and the battles you have fought through the years might not make any sense to you right now, but God has a plan. He has a job for you, a mission, and all of those mountains and valleys were put there to build you into who you need to be in order to successfully accomplish that mission.
Undeserved Rewards
Monday, April 14th, 2008Someone has been sending me money anonymously. I have to assume that it is one of my readers, so I’ll say thank you here. I don’t deserve that kind of support, but I certainly appreciate it. God has worked out a just-in-time financing plan for my life. He always provides just exactly what I need, exactly when I need it.
Acharei Mot 5768 – A Priest’s Covering
Saturday, April 12th, 2008Leviticus 16:16
And he shall make an atonement for the holy place… There are several orders of priest: Melchizedek, Aaron, father, and believer. Each one is a scaled down version of the one before. The Ark with its covering—here called the mercy seat—is a model of priesthood, while the other articles of the tabernacle represent the people or spheres over which each priesthood presides. The priest made a covering (or atonement, Hebrew kafar) for the sanctuary because of the sins of the nation. So too can a father provide a degree of covering for the sins of his house. He cannot forgive their sins against God nor remove them, but he has the authority to drive off unclean spirits, to invite godly and healing spirits, and to intervene with God on behalf of his wife and children.
Technorati Tags: torah, parsha, acharei mot, torah portion, priesthood, atonement, patriarchy, father, covering
Speaking of Crazy…
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008A group of third graders in Georgia plotted to attack their teacher.
A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.
I can see one or two kids going off the deep end now and then, maybe a handful of kids fantasizing about hurting their teacher, but this is scary. These aren’t high schoolers or even junior high kids. These are third graders! Between television, public schools, drugs (and I don’t mean anything illegal), humanism, and Darwinism, what in the world have we done to our children that they have become capable of this?
Technorati Tags: children, public schools, school violence