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:
- Perfect life by which he has earned all the blessings of obedience to the law in our behalf,
- 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),
- Resurrection from the dead by which he has imparted to us new life.
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