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Leviticus 23-26



In Leviticus 23, we have the laws related to various religious festivals. Friedman comments:
The laws of the holidays as expressed in Leviticus reflect a concern with order and arrangement as well. YHWH tells Moses to tell the people what the nation’s holidays are to be, specifically: Sabbath, the holiday of unleavened bread (massot), an unnamed holiday related to firstfruits, an unnamed holiday involving horn blowing (known subsequently in Judaism, but not biblically, as the New Year [Rosh Hashanah]), the Day of Atonement, and the holiday of booths (sukkot).[1]
In Leviticus 24:10-23, we once again have a narrative in the midst of the giving of the law. As Friedman says, the story is “interesting in parallel with the only other narrative in Leviticus, the story of the consecration of the priesthood. Like that other story, which culminates in the deaths of Aaron’s sons, the account of the blasphemy expresses what is at stake in the people’s young relationship with their God. Further, in the earlier account, it is God who deals with the offenders, Nadab and Abihu, directly; whereas in this account of the blasphemy, humans themselves must deal justice. The two stories thus convey together the idea that the law is both a divine and a human concern.”[2]
In Leviticus 24:20 we have the famous law of “an eye for an eye”. Friedman calls this “Perhaps the most perplexing of the ethical laws”. He says this because this law “has frequently been cited as evidence of the stern character of YHWH, but that is a misunderstanding. In its context in Leviticus it applies solely to human justice. YHWH Himself frequently follows a more relenting course than that, from the golden calf event to a series of reprieves for seemingly undeserving individuals and communities in subsequent books of the Tanak.” The basic principle set forth here is “that punishment should correspond to the crime and never exceed it.”[3]
In Leviticus 25 we have the laws related to the seventh year Sabbath and the jubilee. As Friedman notes, these laws are “designed to prevent the feudal system, common in the rest of the ancient Near East, from developing in Israel…. Every Israelite is to be apportioned some land…and the deity commands that in every fiftieth year the system returns to where it stared.” Imagine if we practiced this in our world today: every person given a piece of land, all debts wiped out in the fiftieth year, and the land returned to its original stewards. What a different world this would be! In this biblical system, “Economic suffering is rather treated as a reality of life, which one is required by law to remedy.”[4]
Leviticus 26 presents the blessings attendant to obedience to the law and the curses attendant upon disobedience. Friedman explains,
The blessings and curses are not rewards and punishments. They are a formal part of the biblical covenants…with exact parallels in legal contracts of the ancient Near East. They express the outcomes of fulfillment or nonfulfillment of the covenant’s terms.[5]
The blessings connect with the law that has gone before, and the history of Israel that will follow. The curses serve as a grim foreshadowing of the exile to come because of Israel’s disobedience.
C. S. Lewis offers a very appropriate definition of sin in his book, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer….
Every sin is the distortion of an energy breathed into us—an energy which, if not thus distorted, would have blossomed into one of those holy acts whereof “God did it” and “I did it” are both true descriptions. We poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument. We caricature the self-portrait He would paint. Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is sacrilege.
Thankfully, Jesus has provided, not only to Israel, but to all people, the way out of this downward spiral. He has done this through his:
  1. Perfect life by which he has earned all the blessings of obedience to the law in our behalf,
  2. Death on the cross by which he has paid the penalty of all the curses of the law for our disobedience (including the curse of death for blasphemy),
  3. Resurrection from the dead by which he has imparted to us new life.



[1] Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, 394
[2] Ibid, 399
[3] Ibid, 400
[4] Ibid, 402-404
[5] Ibid 411

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