Leviticus 21:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them…
On some sense, I am sure that everyone is created equal, but I have yet to define what that sense might be. From birth we are all different. Some are stronger, some are hairier, some have different parts, and those differences confer varying responsibilities and powers.
God holds the physical descendants of Aaron to a higher standard than he holds the rest of us. For example, he deals with their sexual immorality much more harshly. The daughters of Aaron must remain virgins until married. If they don’t, the penalty isn’t just stoning. It’s burning.
Aaron’s sons are held to a higher standard than his daughters. Emor gives a short list of things that a priest may not do that other of God’s people may:
Touch the corpse of anyone who is not an immediate relative.
Shave his head or disfigure his beard.
Marry a woman who has sex outside of marriage or who has been divorced.
Drink alcohol while serving in the sanctuary.
The High Priest has an even higher standard than that. He may not
Touch the corpse of even immediate relatives.
Marry a widow or any non-virgin.
Leave the sanctuary while performing the duties of his office.
Bring anything unclean into the sanctuary.
Paul alluded to this same concept when he told Timothy and Titus his standards for Church leaders. He never intended those lists to be taken as absolute laws for all believers. (Or even for all church leaders, for that matter! They aren’t priests serving in the Temple, after all.) He was illustrating how good leaders must have a different code of behavior. There is no sin in preparing and burying a corpse nor in having a rebellious child, but God said that his priests shouldn’t do those things.
That God’s standards for some people might be different than his standards for others only surprises the inheritors of the so-called Enlightenment. Many good things have come from the philosophical and theological revolutions of the past, but some things have also been lost and corrupted.
One characteristic of what computer programmers refer to as “elegant” code is that it accomplishes much with little. In other words, a complicated process reduced to a few simple lines of instruction. One can usually tell a novice programmer by the convoluted nature of his code.
Torah is like an elegantly written piece of software. While it seems at times to be just a long list of dos and don’ts, in reality, it is a simplified portrayal of deep and nuanced concepts. A set of instructions on what to do in a particular circumstance often (always?) opens into a multi-dimensional framework of truths concerning the nature of God, man, redemption, and spiritual health and sickness, but only if you look at it from the right angle. Here are just some of the characteristics that a passage contains greater mysteries than appear on the surface:
Unusual Hebrew spelling.
Altered Hebrew characters, whether in size, shape, position, or orientation.
Thematic parallels with other passages.
Parallel or mirrored structure, often called a chiasm.
Numerological and pictographic double-meanings.
Puns and cognates.
At Ashrei, Rabbi B discusses some of the deeper meanings of “clean” and “unclean” in Leviticus 11-15 (aka the Torah portions of Sh’mini, Tazria, and Metsora), and how these concepts contain real and applicable spiritual import for people in ages and cultures.
It is in the most unlikeliest of places that we often discover the most precious of treasures. From time to time I hear from people who read the Bible how they skip certain sections when reading because those sections seem tedious and boring, or even irrelevant. When expressing this sentiment they often cite the lengthy genealogies or the detailed laws concerning sacrifices or laws pertaining to cleanliness.
Although I understand and sympathize with the sentiment somewhat, I often respond by reminding them that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of G-d, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of G-d may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (cf. II Timothy 3:16). And all means all, including the passages we are about to consider in this and subsequent posts.
I believe that G-d’s Word is inspired, literally “G-d-breathed,” all of it. Not just some of it, or just the part starting with the Gospels, but all of it, very single word, every single syllable. I also believe that in the beginning was the Word, that the Word was with G-d, that the Word was G-d, and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (cf. John 1). That being said, I believe that we can find the Messiah being proclaimed on every page of the Bible. Let’s begin by taking a look at one of those long, tedious, and detailed sections of the Torah and see what we might discover.
Read the rest here: The Leper Messiah. (The linked blog is no longer online. Sorry! http://mayimchayim10.blogspot.com/2016/05/it-is-in-most-unlikeliest-of-places.html)
1. Primary marketing shenanigans.
2. Glenn Beck’s lunacy.
3. Endorsements from Bush, Graham, et al.
4. Delegates shenanigans.
5. Collusion with John Kasich.
6. Carly Fiorina VP pick.
Much of this was SOP for political campaigns of the last 20 years, but taken as a whole in this particular election cycle, it’s almost like failure was planned.
1. The term “Judeo-Christian” doesn’t refer to rabbinic Judaism, but to the faith lived and taught by the Jewish prophets, the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish teachers who came to be known as Christians.
2. Rejecting the Jews because they “killed Jesus” is self-refuting. Jesus IS a Jew. God killed Jesus. You killed Jesus. If you reject the Jews because they killed Jesus, then you also must reject God, your neighbor, yourself. More significantly, you must reject Jesus, because, if He is who Christianity claims Him to be, nobody could have killed Him without His help.
3. Words change meaning over time. Get used to it. The English language exists because the English people changed the pronunciation and usage of German, Celtic, Latin, & Greek words over time. The word “antisemite” doesn’t mean “opposed to all descendants of Shem”. That’s the literal meaning of the Greek and pidgin Hebrew roots, but it’s not how the word is used. It means “opposed to the physical descendants of Jacob and adherents to the cultural and religious system known as Judaism.”
Forget about Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. They have nothing to do with our national security. The invasion(s) was stupid, and continuing a stupid course is just adding stupid to stupid. Define a clear objective, achieve it, and bring the troops home. The End.
Homeschool. Focus on faith, literacy, math, and science. Music and art are nice too, but they shouldn’t be the educational focus for most people.
Stay close to home. Don’t move to the other side of the country after graduation from school, but stay close to your extended family. Strong families make a strong nation.
Have babies. Lots and lots of babies. The race goes not to the swift but to the most prolific breeders. Seriously.
Back off on the meds. God created the world for our use, but medications shouldn’t be for everyday use except in extraordinary circumstances. Moderation in all things. You will be smarter and healthier. Your kids will be smarter and healthier. They will be less tempted to shoot people.
Men be men, and women be women. Men, cover your wives and families and teach your sons to do the same. Women, get under that cover and teach your daughters to do the same. Believe it or not, we will all be happier.
Keep God’s Law. In return, he promises big families, good health, secure borders, military victory, productive land. Really, what else do we need?
Leviticus 12:3
And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
No human being, including Yeshua, has ever been born complete.
When God created the world, he said it was good. It was perfect, but not in the way you might think. Perfection can imply an untouchable, changeless quality, but the world was meant to change. Adam was put in the Garden not only to care for it, but to subdue it, to change it.
Mankind too was created imperfect by design. We are flawed, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and that’s exactly the way that God intended to create us. However, he did not intend for us to remain in that state. On the eighth day of his life, a baby boy begins his transformation into the man he is to become, and his initiation is accomplished through pain inflicted by the hand of another man. Again, by design.
We are born in pain and grow to maturity through pain. Without it, we would live and die in infancy, never knowing who God intended for us to become. Without experiencing the sorrow of death and separation, we can never experience the full measure of life.
When God or man bars the way with trial, don’t waste time crying over facts, but consider how they can be used and overcome, like the last one, and the one before that, and the one still to come. With each victory gained through struggle over suffering, you will be one step closer to the perfection that God intended you to achieve.
Man was created to be an intermediary between Heaven and Earth, to govern the lower creation in deference to the higher. To accomplish this role we were given bodies with physical and spiritual components. Our flesh and spirit are intended to work together for maintaining, encouraging, and healing the natural world in communion with our Creator and one another.
When Adam sinned, he introduced signal pollution into both of these communication channels, the upward and the downward. We are no longer capable of effectively stewarding God’s Creation, forced into a situation in which we must extract our sustenance from it without inflicting too much damage. We are no longer capable of seeing God face to face. We must have prophets, teachers, intermediaries of all kinds to go up the mountain for us, because we are unable to endure the divine presence. His voice alone is enough to destroy us.
As a partial and temporary remedy to our spiritual injuries, God gave the sacrificial system, detailed most famously in the book of Leviticus. The khat’at (sin offering) in particular illustrates this point most clearly.
The bronze altar of the Tabernacle had horns on each of the four corners representing a connection to Heaven. The blood of the khat’at animal was collected by the priests and then the High Priest would paint these four horns with it, thereby purifying the entire altar. The remaining blood was poured out at or around the base of the altar, making the altar holy and atoning for (covering) it. The blood on the horns (the connection point with Heaven) and the base (the connection point with Earth) served as a sort of signal filter, temporarily removing the noise from our corrupted spiritual communications and allowing the altar to function on a higher plane.
We are like that altar, intended to be a connection between heaven and earth. Yeshua’s blood, shed on Passover, atones for the sins of all who repent and believe in him, restoring our relationship to God and enabling us to communicate with Him. Since we still inhabit fallen bodies and live in a fallen world, we continue to struggle with sin. We fight our evil inclinations daily, repenting for our failures, and continually appealing to God’s grace for His mercy. Ongoing, unrepented sin causes a breakdown in spiritual communication until we can no longer hear God’s voice at all.
We were created for a purpose, collectively and each of us individually, but if we are living in sin, we are incapable of fulfilling our purpose. Ramses had wealth, fame, and greater military and political power than any other man on earth, yet his great contribution to history is as the Pharaoh whose defiance of God brought Egypt to the brink of extinction. By clinging to our sin, whatever great contribution we might have had to God’s Kingdom could be reduced to an object lesson in what not to do.
I’m not saying that perfect behavior is a condition of salvation. If it were, no one on earth could be saved. I am only addressing our ability to act effectively as God’s emissary. (Deliberate rebellion against God’s commands is something else entirely, and will have to wait for another day.)
Our great hope, the point of our faith, is that in the day of the resurrection, our bodies will be made new despite our personal failings, and we will be permanently transformed along with our relationships to Creator and Creation. We will be enabled to resume our intended place in God’s order as the connection point between Heaven and Earth. Nature will no longer fight us and we will commune freely with God and peacefully with each other.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Anyone who wants to be President badly enough to make it happen is almost certainly unqualified for the job.
None of the greatest men of God in Scripture sought power for themselves. Consider these highlights from the lives of Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and David, all undoubtedly great leaders.
Abraham
Abraham was an extremely wealthy man, a king in his own right. Everything he did prospered, yet he was never greedy, never took power where he didn’t already have authority, never engaged in military conquest. When he went to war against the four Mesopotamian kings to rescue his nephew Lot, he refused any reward from the five Canaanite kings whose people he also saved.
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.” (Genesis 14:22-24 ESV)
After his wife Sarah died, he asked Ephron, a Hittite prince, to sell him a cave as a burial place. During the negotiations The Hittites called Abraham “lord” and “a mighty prince,” and Ephron offered to give him the cave for nothing. He bowed to all the people and paid more than the market value.
Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” (Genesis 23:12-13 ESV)
Moses
Adopted into the house of Pharaoh, Moses actively tried to protect his people, the Hebrews, from oppression, not as a prince of Egypt, but as a fellow Hebrew.
When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2:13-14a ESV)
After forty years of exile in the land of Midian, God called Moses to confront Pharaoh, but he resisted. He had no desire to engage in national politics or to be the leader of his people.
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11 ESV)
But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” (Exodus 4:10 ESV)
Even after many years as the reluctant leader of Israel, he remained a selfless and humble man.
Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. (Numbers 12:3 ESV)
And Moses was very angry and said to the LORD, “Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them.” …And Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD.” And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. (Numbers 16:15,28-31 ESV)
Gideon
When the Midianites continually raided the land of Israel, Gideon, also known as Jerubbaal, did all he could just to protect his own family’s livelihood. Leading an army was the furthest thing from his mind when God sent an angel to call him to do just that.
And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” (Judges 6:12-16 ESV)
And when the war was over, Gideon had won a lasting peace against Midian and settled inter-tribal disputes, Israel asked him to rule over them as king. Instead, he gave them a new religion (for what it was worth) and returned to his own home.
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.” …So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. (Judges 8:22-23,28-29 ESV)
David
When the prophet Samuel anointed David to be the new King of Israel, instead of declaring himself and forming an army, David became the servant, personal musician, and right-hand man of the King Saul who had been anointed before him. He had a number of opportunities to seize power, but he always refrained.
He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed.” So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. (1 Samuel 24:6-7 ESV)
Years later when his son Absolom rebelled and David was forced to flee Jerusalem, he humbly accepted severe criticism from a man of Saul’s house, allowing that the man might even be right.
When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The LORD has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?'” And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today.” (2 Samuel 16:5-12 ESV)
When the war was over and Absolom dead, that same man was the first to greet David on his return and begged his forgiveness. His advisor Abishai urged David to have the man killed, but David refused.
Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?” But David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?” And the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath. (2 Samuel 19:21-23 ESV)
Susceptibility to political ambition seems to be the greatest weakness of representative democracy. We choose our leaders by how well they appeal to our vanity and greed instead of how well they appeal to God’s Law and mercy.
I don’t have a better suggestion. I don’t have any ideas for fixing a broken political system because I am convinced that no political system can be fixed, that whether we are a democracy or a monarchy has almost no impact on whether we are cursed with great leaders or with power hungry tyrants.
Mohandas Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” However leaders are chosen in any nation and in any political system, history indicates that we almost always get the leaders we deserve. If we want better leaders, we must become a better people. If we want leaders like David and Moses, we must become like David and Moses ourselves, not seeking after power for our own purposes, but able and willing to wield power when necessary on behalf of our families, communities, and nations. We must obey God’s Law, hear his voice, and act fearlessly when we are called.
Nominal leaders are superfluous and incidental in a nation of Davids. As Gideon said, “The LORD will rule over you.”
Chiasmus in Exodus 18:1-11 comparing Jethro bringing Moses’ family and Moses bringing God’s family.
Moses & Zipporah had been married for almost 40 years by the time God sent him back to Egypt. His children were probably grown men (or else they were miraculously conceived), which puts a whole new twist on the family donkey ride across the desert interrupted by mom performing a late circumcising. But why did they continue to tag along with Mom instead of going on to Egypt with Dad? Surely it wasn’t just about their safety.
In Exodus 18:2-6, we’re told 3 times that Jethro cared for Moses’ family, bringing them to meet him in the wilderness. Then in 18:7-10, we’re told 3 times that God delivered the Hebrews from Egypt, with Moses leading them out to meet Him at Sinai. Clearly we are meant to see a parallel between Moses’ wife and sons leaving Midian to meet him and the Hebrews leaving Egypt to meet God.
Moses brings Israel into the Wilderness to meet God at Sinai.
Jethro brings Moses’ family into the Wilderness to meet Moses at Sinai.
Moses and God greet one another on the mountain and speak privately in the tent.
Jethro and Moses greet one another publicly and speak privately in the tent.
Jethro restoring Moses’ family to him at Sinai is a living metaphor of Moses restoring Israel to God at Sinai. Israel is God’s family.
One reason that Moses’ wife and sons (who were probably grown men) were separated from him was so that God could give us this metaphor of how he feels about us. We are God’s family and He wants us to leave Egypt and go out to meet with Him in the wilderness.
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
(Matthew 10:31-39 ESV)
God’s standard of righteousness requires making a distinction between things, separating the clean from the unclean, and much of Creation involved separating one thing from another: light from darkness, water from dry land, woman from man, etc. We should not be surprised that the creation of a new man necessarily involves more separation and loss.
Abraham experienced his share of division resulting from God’s call on his life.
He left his childhood home of Ur for Haran.
He left his family in Haran for a new, promised land.
He left the Promised Land for Egypt.
Sarah was taken from him twice.
He was separated from his nephew, Lot.
He kept apart from the people he lived among.
He sent away his second wife, Hagar, and her son, Ishmael.
He was resigned to losing his son, Isaac.
Sarah died long before he did.
He didn’t seek any of this out. Every loss was born of necessity. He didn’t set out to break up his family or to put walls between himself and the people around him. (Although it was at times a result of his own poor judgment.) Separation, especially from family and community, is difficult and painful, but Abraham’s faith in God and in God’s promises kept him moving in a direction that required division.
God knows what is best for us. He knows what we need and, just as importantly, what we don’t need. If we trust in God, we will obey Him, and this requires a deliberate separation of our old lives from our new. Obedience to God’s commands means that we will look and behave differently from the people around us, and this will, sooner or later, cause us pain. If you are faithful to God, you will experience loss. You won’t have to seek it out–and most of the time you shouldn’t! It will find you all on its own.
Just remember this: despite all of Abraham’s losses, just like Job, in the end he gained much more than he lost. He left Egypt with great wealth. He remarried after Sarah died and had many more children. He didn’t even realize his greatest gains in his lifetime, though he surely knew of them because of his special relationship with God. He became the father of many nations, not just by Isaac, but by Ishmael and all the sons of Keturah. Greatest of all, through Abraham, salvation has been made available to the whole world.
Be faithful. Be obedient. Let God worry about life’s profit and loss.
A few thoughts on half-witted antisemitism:
