BibleProject - Why Is the Sabbath So Important? – Leviticus E7

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

Throughout the Leviticus scroll, Yahweh instructs Israel, “Be holy as I am holy.” But what does that actually mean? As we enter into the third and final movement of Leviticus, we’ll find that living holy lives had everything to do with how Israel treated others and utilized their time, a theme reinforced by the continual command to honor the Sabbath. Join Jon and Tim as they explore the wisdom we can find in these ancient laws.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-15:18)Part two (15:18-32:43)Part three (32:43-48:12)Part four (48:12-01:08:13)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS"Alive" by Ouska"No Problem" (from a contributor)“Beneath the Cross" by EventideShow produced by Cooper Peltz. Edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza. Show notes by Lindsey Ponder. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by MacKenzie Buxman.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Throughout the story of the Bible, God is on a mission to draw near to humanity, to dwell among us. And this is the gift God gives Israel when he fills the tabernacle with his presence. And what Israel discovers is that God's holiness is both good and dangerous. Now that God has come to live among his people, that causes a crisis, because there's a collision between God's holiness

and the impurity and death among Israel. God provides an answer in the day of Atomites where Israel's sins are cast out into the wilderness and this radical gift, it begs a question. If the Holy One, the source of all life and goodness and beauty lives in the middle of our camp, how should we live? How should we treat each other? What we find is that God gives many rules and rituals

and at the heart of all of them is God's desire to transform Israel. And at the center of it all is a practice we call the Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath and then the monthly annual rhythms teach the Israelites that their lives and their time are not their own. That their whole existence as a people is dedicated to the purpose of becoming holy. Become holy as I am holy. Sabbath is about resting, but it's more than that. It's an opportunity to stop providing for yourself and to trust that God will meet your needs. And so perhaps it won't be a surprise to find out that while God gives many practices to transform Israel, Sabbath is right at the center. The practice of justice for the vulnerable, the practice of mercy and generosity and of personal moral integrity, they're all bound together as one way of life with one story underneath them. And so Sabbath and holiness are really inextricable. I'm John Collins, today Tim McE and I begin the third movement of Leviticus.

We talk about holiness, love for God and neighbor, a surrendered life, a life of mercy and justice. And at the center of it all, Sabbath. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hello Tim. Hey John, hello. Hello. We are in the book of Leviticus. Mm-hmm. We have been for a little bit of time now.

Quite. Wait. This is our seventh. Seventh episode in Leviticus. Seventh episode in Leviticus. Seventh episode in Leviticus. Because we've done three in the first movement, three is the second movement. We're beginning the third movement of Leviticus. This is our first conversation of three on the third part. So this is conversation number seven. Three sets of three conversations is also kind of biblical, right? Oh, and so biblical.

We're so biblical right now. Yeah. Yes, this is our seventh conversation on Leviticus. For many people, the fact that you could ring out of a book like Leviticus, so much, I'm using a metaphor, like ringing water out of a, you know, like a washcloth. Yeah, I feel like the washcloth is still pretty soaked. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Wrong this thing much. No, no, we're just, we're just skimming. Skimming the surface to use a different, entirely different metaphor. So, yeah, we are here, entering into the third and final movement of the Leviticus scroll that goes from chapters 17 through 27. And I think my first help to just do a quick overview of the whole scroll and how it fits into the Torah. But then also the previous two movements, because they had a real coherence and closure moments. And so when we come to Leviticus 17, we open up a new horizon in the scroll. There's a significant step forward in the developing themes and argument of the book.

Yeah. And we are if we're going to focus in on just one main theme for this section. There are many themes going on and I'll play tour guide and point different things out But the main thing that corresponds to a theme video that we made and the corresponds to the reader's journey That we've created for people to experience within the Bible project app The focus theme is Sabbath Sabbath Sabbath or the seventh day. Yeah, yeah, the video we made is called Sabbath But it's about the seventh day rest Yeah. Yeah. The video we made is called Sabbath, but it's about the seventh day rest throughout the whole story of the Bible. So you'll be tracing that theme. We'll be tracing that theme. Mm-hmm. And the app you can also unlock that theme and we're gonna see it at work here in the third movement. Yes of

Leviticus, but first let's get a bird's eye view before we dive in to the details. But first, let's get a bird's eye view before we dive in to the details. So the book of Leviticus began from the launch pad of the last paragraph of the previous scroll, which was Exodus. And there, God came to dwell and live among his people, fire and glory, hovering over this beautiful sacred tent that got built at the foot of Mount Sinai. And the relationship between Yahweh and His people, however, has already become fraught with problems because the people have already broken the covenant relationship. They made with the God who wants to live with them, like within 40 days of having agreed to it.

That's the Golden Calf episode. Yeah. Would it be worth backing up even further, just if someone's coming in, mountain sign, I, God's people. Yeah, what's, okay. What's happening? All right, we're going macro, we're going big. Yeah, real big.

It's helpful for me too. Okay, good. It's resituating. That's good. In the beginning. God created the skies in the land. So the biblical story begins, I trying to invite the reader into viewing the world they

inhabit in a particular way by telling the story of our world with a particular take or slant. And the slant goes like this, we live in a beautiful world, hacked, full of potential that has been ordered, which is why it's not a perpetual disorganized chaos. And God has appointed among all the creatures of the land, one particular species to be a partner, an image of God's character and purpose

here in the world, human beings. They're given an ideal setup and abundant opportunity, but also are faced with a choice about how they're going to partner with God and rule the world on God's path. The humans make a really poor decision, but not entirely of their own doing, they're deceived by a dark, mysterious force of evil at work, trying to swork God's purposes. And so the human rulers make a stupid mistake and find themselves separated from the life and presence of God that wants to dwell on earth. So that's Adam and Eve exiled from Eden, which is like a sacred garden on a mountain,

high place, protected now by angelic beings and fire. The place that they were, what you're saying is the ideal setup, which the Bible calls it garden and Eden. They no longer have access, it's actually guarded by angels and fire. So this is a story about like humanity's origins. Yeah, it's also the introduction to the Hebrew Bible,

which are the scriptures of a particular people group. So it's the introduction to a story of the world but told from the vantage point of this people group and its convictions about the world, but told from the vantage point of this people group and its convictions about the world, which they believed are a gift from God. They believed that how they tell the story is how the God of the universe tells the story. It's quite a bold claim to make a collection of scrolls, but there you go. That's the claim. That's certainly what Jesus believed about these scrolls, but that's getting way ahead of ourselves. So what God does is He allows human folly to keep

spiraling because He honors the dignity of these image-bearing creatures. But at the same time, God keeps stepping in to prevent the worst from happening until the violence of humans get so out of control. God allows the world to descend into chaos and disorder. And so just as God brought order by separating the waters of chaos that's beginning, God allows the waters of chaos to collapse back in due to human violence. Cosmic collapse otherwise known as the flood. So you're going to see otherwise known as Armageddon. Oh, well, that's another kind of flood. But in Greek, the Greek, except to a gen,

the word flood is translated with a Greek word, kata kluzmus, which is where we get our English word, cataclysm. Where we get our, oh, I think it's a Santa Claus. No. That's a good one. That's where we get Chris Pringle. C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c make disaster. Oh, so the word flood, that is a cataclysmic event. The collapse of order in the cosmos. However, what God does is single out one family from among that cataclysmus, and through them gives them a new chance to do the Garden of Eden rule the world as God's partner on the other side of the cataclysm.

That's Noah, and Noah and his family replays the failure of Adam and Eve and their children. The cycle starts beginning where God keeps selecting one out of the many, gives them a chance to represent him and partner with him. They blow it, ushering their community, their family, their own lives into violence, chaos, strife of some kind that God honors. What do you mean he honors? Oh, well God honors humans' decisions to screw up their lives.

He doesn't step in right away and not all the time, sometimes, but not all the time, which is really annoying for a lot of biblical authors. That's why there's so many poems in the book of Psalms that begin with people frustrated with God. Like, why do you let it go on this long? Oh, yeah. Do something. Rise up, O Lord.

Deliver, save. You know, that kind of thing. Those are people that are watching the cascade of human violence and evil spiral. They're watching the flood. Yeah, they're watching innocent blood soak the land like before the flood. Oh, before the flood. Yeah. And they're asking for God to rise up and do something. Yeah, bring evil to a cataclysm again. But save evil to a cataclysmic end, but save your chosen ones so that you can fulfill your promises through them. So this is a melody that's on replay, over and over and over again, replays many times through the genesis scroll, through the Exodus scroll.

Now in Leviticus, God's chosen one family out of all the nations, family of Abraham, and appointed them to be his kingdom of priests and a holy nation. He brought the Mount of slavery through the wilderness and then to the foot of this mountain, Mount Sinai. So there, God invited all of them. Actually, this is really relevant for the section of Leviticus we're talking about. God said to all the people in Exodus 19, we've read this passage many times over the years, but it is super important. This is Exodus chapter 19 verse 4. God says to the sons of Israel,

You all have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that is your oppressors, and how I bore you on Eagles wings. I carried you through the wilderness, and I brought you here to myself at this sacred mountain. Now then, if you will shema, shema, listen, listen to my voice and keep my covenant, we're about to enter into a partnership. Because sacred agreement. Yeah, sacred agreement. Yeah.

So listen to my voice, honor the agreement that we're about to make, and then if you do that, you shall be my special possession among all the nations, because listen, all the land is mine. I could work with a lot of people here, but I've chosen you. You'll be my special possession, and y'all will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And those two concepts are key for this third and final movement of Leviticus. Okay. Kingdom of priests. There are priests from the line of Aaron. Yes. Aaron is Moses' brother. He's the high priest.

We met his four kiddos. That's right. So God selected Moses's older brother and his four sons to be the priests within the kingdom of priests. Yeah. So if all of Israel are priestly representatives for all the other nations, then within the kingdom of priests there is a special family of representatives, representatives within the representatives. Now, this idea of being priests within priests, is that anywhere else thought about, talked about in the Hebrew Bible, that everyone's supposed to be a priest in some sense? It is. It's actually explored on the other side of Leviticus in the stories of numbers that we're

going to be looking at in future conversations. But there, it's clear that God's desire is to pour out His Spirit on all of His people so that they all could speak the words of God to each other and listen to the voice of God. listen to the voice of God, but because of Israel's continual cycle of failure and covenant betrayal, God keeps selecting out a smaller and smaller group among the family. Okay. But still calling all. So it's the idea of within the many who are all together to be representative priests before the nations, he selects one particular family, and there'll be the priests who work in and around the tent, and all of what they're doing is a ritual liturgical drama

that symbolically tells a story about who they are among the nations. So who the priests are among Israel is a ritual drama showing all the Israelites every day what Israel is to be among the nations. That's cool. And that brings us up to speed too, and we're at in that God gave them designs for this tent, the tavern echo. And this is where all this ritual happens, and where God Himself comes to dwell. Yeah, and it's depicted as a portable micro-edin. It's a microcosmos, as it were. It's both Eden, but also an image of all the heaven and earth. God came to live among His people in fire, cloud, and it's good, but it's also dangerous. And so when the cloud touches down over the tent

at the end of Exodus scroll, Moses, the one who has been going in and out of the divine presence on the people's behalf, he can't go in. It's sort of like you buy a brand new car. It won't start. And then the first day, right, that you like, yeah, you go to drive and it's yours

and you're like, the doors won't unlock. Okay. That's more you can't get in. You can't even get in. You can't even get in. Yeah. So how do I get in? This is how you thought batteries are dead.

Teller. Yeah. So, um, Leviticus chapters one through seven, the first movement is God giving to Israel new batteries for the key fob. You know, there actually, there's a little key in the fob, have you ever used that? Yes, there is in mind too. Yeah. Yes.

I had to call a dealership and they had to tell me about that. I was like, how are we getting my car? I had to call a battery and they're like, there's a key in there. Yeah, totally. A little sweet. Yeah. Sorry. No, it was fine.

Moses didn't have the special key. He didn't have a key. God gave him. God gave reveals to him in what we call Leviticus 1 through 7, a whole network of symbolic offerings. They also tell a story of Israel's complete surrender to the presence and will of God about fostering an attitude of constant gratefulness, giving back to God, what God has given to me. But then also, in invitation from God, even though the Israelites are morally flawed

and betrayers of the covenant, God wants them to come near. And so he gives them these substitute animals whose life can be offered up and surrendered on their behalf. A blameless life can die and so rise up to God and smoke into the heavenly throne room and appeal to God on behalf of people who are not blameless. And God says, all except the intercession of that blameless substitute so that you all can live near me. My good and dangerous presence. The takeaway that I love to come back to on that is that while this was a normal ancient ritual, the other nations that do this, they're trying to like appease the gods, and they never know like, is this enough? Like am I sacrificing enough? Do I need to even like cut myself?

Do I need to sacrifice a kid? Like they're just kind of like all this drama around like, how do I know that this Elohim's actually gonna be on my side? That's right. But these are presented as a gift from Yahweh, saying like, here's what you could do and know that I will be with you. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, God says, in actually, Lepidochus 17, which we'll start with in this conversation, God says, I have given you the sacrifices to cover for your failures. Yeah, which is backwards. Yeah, normally it's a human offering a sacrifice to God. And God says, no, I've given the sacrifices to you, to give to me, because I want you to come

near. And that's, yeah, that's the heart of God revealed here in the sacrifices and offerings. That's the first movement of a vacuum. Yep. And so the second movement begins with the tent being inaugurated, the priests being ordained in a seven-day ritual that echoes Genesis 1. So Aaron and his sons become like the new humanity recreated over seven days to work in the new Eden. And on the first day on the job, the eighth day, Aaron's sons decide to just rewrite the whole liturgy and take the place of their dad by doing what God had asked their dad to do, but just deciding they're going to do it on their own, by taking unauthorized incense fire into the tent.

And so, in Leviticus chapter 10, those sons die. God's good and dangerous holiness consumes them in fire. And they did so by passing by the curtain with angelic chariam on it, and then they're consumed by the divine fire. It's kind of a reflection of what would have happened to Adam and Eve if they try to just crash back into Eden. Yeah, the fire and charbeam, the God's station at the boundary of Eden, are represented by the altar fire and the charbeam on the door to the tent. So they go in doing what's good in their eyes and it does not go good for them. And so now you've got dead bodies

inside the most sacred place dedicated to life and holiness and purity and goodness. So big problem there. So what God says to Aaron, after that, hold the buckle, is first, hey, no drinking on this job, no alcohol, no drinking alcohol when you come in to do your priestly duties. So that's one thing. Reason being is you need a right mind that's clear and is able to make sober and wise decisions

about two fundamental categories that are important for Leviticus and for the biblical story. And this is Leviticus 10, 10, and 11, so that you can make a distinction between what is holy and what is common between what is pure and what is impure. Now watch this. What follows in Leviticus 11 through 15 is five long chapters about purity and impurity in particular. And it's all about how the priests are to teach the people about purity and purity.

We talked about that at length. Now as Israel, this is like the priests becoming like the health teachers. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's the health class. Yeah, kind of. And also like their pastors. Slash pastors. Slash pastors.

Slash spiritual directors. And so, but here's the thing, even if Israel, I, it's learned how to honor the laws of purity and impurity. There's a lot of impurity surrounding this sacred tent dedicated to life, impurity in the middle of an impure people. And so what God also provides, climatically, is the day of atonement, that once a year, all of the impurities and covenant betrayal in sin of Israel is atoned for, and that the tent is purified once a year from all of it.

And you're like, okay, that purity and purity thing, we've got to handle on how to deal with that. But remember, God told Aaron that you need to teach the people about two binary sets. The first is purity and impurity, but there's another one. Back to Leviticus 10-10. So don't drink on the job so that you can make a distinction, not just between the pure and impure, but between the holy and the common. And that is the summary of Leviticus 17 to the end of the book.

So the third movement is all about separating between holy and common. Holy and common. So what's interesting is the movement, too, begins with a story that prepares you for the whole rest of the book. All of these new ancient laws, essentially. Yeah, the rules about purity and impurity that launches Leviticus 11 through 16. And once impurity has a set of guidelines around it, we come back to Leviticus 10-10

and that we learn that the priests are also to teach the people about what is holy and common. And that's the main theme of the third movement of the book. So it's kind of cool, Chapter 10 literally gives you the program. It's like a table content. It's like a little table of contents. So you do the pure and impure, but then we pause and we look at the day of the Lord. I'm sorry, not the day of Atomit.

Yeah, that was Freudian slip, wasn't it? You're more right than you know. Really? I wonder, as soon as I said that, if you were going to say that. Yeah, really? Yeah. What is the day of the Lord in the prophets except a cataclysm. Cataclysmic, collapse of the cosmos on the forces of evil,

whoever they happen to be, but then a preservation of remnant out the other side to be the seed of a new humanity. This is Isaiah, this is Jeremiah, this is Ezekiel, did. Hebrew Bible, so amazing. Anyway, yes, the day of Atonement is much much. So we just talked about that.

And that's right in the center of the book. So we do the purity laws, day of Atonement, and then on this backside of the book, in the third movement, focusing on holiness and the third movement focusing on holiness and the profane as the King James. That's right.

Chapter 1727, you know, right now, so this is a live project for me of discerning the literary design of this section. It's clear to me it's a section. It's clear to many other Hebrew Bible scholars too. 17 to 27 of Obelivitis is a big climactic movement of the book. The debate is what is the intended literary organization within that section. And you can make a very persuasive case. There are three parts to this final movement. You can also make a really persuasive case that there's two.

So I'm on the fence as of the day we're recording this conversation and I hope to have more clarity on this in about a month or so after working on it more. But right now, I'm just gonna go with three. Okay, we're gonna talk about it in terms of three parts. Yeah. Leviticus 17 through 20,

it does have a meaningful kind of organization instead of themes around it. What's interesting in this section, 17 to 20 of Leviticus is it begins with a whole chapter on sacrifices, not francs. And we've seen a lot of these so far. Totally, but it echoes the first seven chapters of the book, which are all about that.

In chapter 17 opens with the similar language as chapter one began with. So that's cool. And then what 17, 18, 19, and 20 all focus on are guidelines specifically for the priests and all of the people. This is the first time in Leviticus where all the Israelites are addressed by God.

Everything before has been either Tamosas or to Aaron and his sons, the priests. So now we're moving out. That this is now a calling that's gonna be placed on all of the Israelites. The kingdom of priests. Yeah, we're back to kingdom of priests. And if you are doing like word counts the words for holiness

Just leap off the page in this section. They're in pink in my study notes And it's just like pink everywhere from all the way in this the final movement and we're not tracing holiness though We're not you could you could very easily sounds like because here's another We're not. You could. You could. Very easy. Sounds like. Because here's another factor for holiness, is the words for holiness are connected to God's commands, and this section is overwhelmingly dominated by the number seven, in like every way you could imagine. So there are seven sets of commands for the priests and the people in chapter 17 to 22,

and then within chapter 18, 19, 20, 21, middle of 21, first half of 22, the second half of 22. Each of those has sets of laws that are all grouped together in numerals of seven, usually two times seven, but sometimes three times seven. So 14 or 21. And that leads to the last part of this movement, which is chapters 23 through 27, and it begins with a discussion of the Sabbath on the seventh day. They're not lines of the seven annual feasts of Israel, and then the seven lamps of the menorah that's the priest of the light day and night and then the Sabbath bread that's to go in

to the tent and then the Seventh year of the release of the land and then the seven times seventh year of the Jubilee So you can feel the crescendo and this is a part of how the whole of iticus scroll is While the whole of itica scroll is architected on the pattern of Genesis 1, building up to a climactic 7th day rest. That's why we chose the Sabbath theme. Seven is an organizing principle for chapter 17 to 27. You could summarize it this way. God has come to dwell among his people.

The tent has been purified by the day of atonement. Okay, but purified you mean. The tent has been, according to the logic of chapters 11 through 16, it's been vandalized polluted by the sins and impurities of the Israelites. And so once a year, the day of atonement washes clean. It's a reset. It's a reset. Yeah.

And the sins that have polluted Israel and polluted the tent are exiled in the form of a goat that's sent out of the camp. Yeah. That having been accomplished, that's not the end of the story, though. All that accomplishes is that God can live among us people. Yeah. But what's the purpose of God living among his people? So that they can be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Remember, that's the program. Holy meaning set like...

Set apart. Set apart to be in proximity and service. That's right. And if you're set apart to be in proximity to the source of all beauty and goodness and justice and purity and life, then that's going to begin to transform every aspect of daily life among the Israelites. And that's why God starts to address all the people now. And so what we're going to find here are laws about the daily lived communal experience of living in an ancient Israelite village or camp and how people are to relate to God and how people are

to relate to each other. This is the section where Jesus found the second most important command in the Torah, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. That line comes from Leviticus chapter 19. These are community guidelines. which is to love your neighbor as yourself. That line comes from Leviticus, chapter 19. These are community guidelines. Yeah, yeah. So lots of rules around marriage, around sex, around treatment of the most vulnerable,

especially the elderly, people with disabilities, the poor, the immigrant and orphans, special focus on them in the way Israelite society was structured. Those were the groups of people that most often became vulnerable very quickly. There's going to be laws to safeguard the holiness of the priests among the people, and then there's going to be all woven into their lives these rhythms of time, and all in patterns of seven. These are the feasts. Yeah, the weekly Sabbath, and then the monthly annual rhythms of Sabbath teach the Israelites

that their lives and their time are not their own, that their whole existence as a people is dedicated to the purpose of becoming holy, become holy as I am holy. quoting Jesus here. Whoa, actually, and Jesus is quoting this section of Leviticus. Be holy as I am holy is a refrain in this movement of Leviticus that Jesus rifts on in the Sermon on the Mount by saying, be complete as your Heavenly Father is complete. You use different word there because he... Well, our English translations say be perfect as your Heavenly Father is complete. You use different word there because he... Well, our English translations say be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

And it's translating the word, what, Greek word, tele-Oss? Greek word, tele-os, yeah, which means complete. Is that the way you would translate the Hebrew word holy? No. It's the way you translate the Hebrew word, blameless. Blameless, alright. Right, right, right. Yeah, well Jesus is doing, that's the whole rabbit hole.

We'll get there. Yeah, well I don't know one day. So maybe we can talk about it. So that's this section of the book. This is the holiness charter for all the people of Israel. Now that God has come to live among his people and that causes a crisis, because there's a collision between God's holiness

and purity and the impurity and death among Israel. They have a time it resolved that. So now, what should it look like in the daily lived experience of Israelites? If the holy one, the source of all life and goodness and beauty lives in the middle of our camp? Yeah. How should we live?

How should we treat each other? That's what this section is all about. Now, this is kind of what many people hope the Bible will be for them. Oh, yeah. It's like a holiness charter. A holiness rule book. Yeah, like. Yeah, okay. Tell me in my context, give me all the goods.

How do I do this right? Give me the list of rules. The list of rules. And so there's going to be rules in here. Like, don't oppress the immigrant. You're like, why do you use that one? Yeah, don't publicly shame a deaf person. Love your neighbor as yourself.

You know? Great. Copy paste. Yeah, exactly. They're also gonna be laws in this section, which are when you get orchard, don't eat of the fruit for the first three years. Dedicate it as holy tiahuay for the first three years.

Like, okay, I guess what I do with that one. Yeah, don't get tattoos. Yeah. That one's in here. Yep. Right now in our culture, hotly debated statements about sexuality are found in here. Statements about not having sex with animals are in here. So, we need to remember all biblical literature is ancient literature. This is part of our paradigm. Yeah, this is ancient literature. It's ancient literature and it's wisdom

for all later generations of God's people. So, we are not the first audience of these commands. The audience of these commands are ancient Israelites, escaped slaves who were having their identity reformed in the transition between the bronze and iron age, you know, in the ancient or east. And these laws are dialed into that context. And so to simply copy and paste without doing your cultural background homework is likely lead in the long term, or even in the short term, to I think misapplication, misuse of these laws.

So, to wisdom literature, there's divine wisdom for all of God's people of any place in any time, but we will hear that wisdom by learning to read these in context, literary context and ancient context. And you can see Jesus doing that, and you can see the Apostle Paul doing that by how they draw upon a quote from this section. You know, my Jesus in the Sermon the Mount, especially doing that.

Yeah, that's right. And Paul, when he did it kind of famously with the Muscle the Ox. Yeah, he did it by quoting from a law in Deuteronomy about how to treat your animal. Yeah. And he takes it as a wisdom reflection on how to compensate leaders in a local house church. Yeah. Which then Christians throughout history have taken as wisdom for how to compensate clergy clergy in other church structures.

So we're all using the Bible as wisdom literature, the point is to become hyper aware of it. So what we're gonna do in the rest of this conversation, and then in the next two, I just wanna camp us out in different parts, to see how the themes of holiness and Sabbath are intertwined. Cause we might think, well, Sabbath rest is just,

you know, it's something you're supposed to do, so you get a break. And then also, there's like, love your neighbors yourself and be nice to people. But within the storyline of the Torah and Leviticus, the practice of Sabbath, the practice of justice, for the vulnerable, the practice of mercy and generosity, and of personal moral integrity, they're all bound together as one way of life with one story underneath them. And so Sabbath and holiness are really inextricable here. And so that's kind of what I want to point out in this section. Okay, real quick, let's just read or touch down on the opening section of this movement,

Leviticus 17, verse 1, then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, and speak to his sons, and speak to all the sons of Israel. So again, this is the first time that in Leviticus that all the Israelites are being addressed. Say to them, this is what Yahweh has commanded. Anybody from the house of Israel who slaughters in ox, or a lamb, or a goat in the camp, or anyone who slaughters it outside the camp, but doesn't bring it to the door of the tent of meeting, to give it as an offering to Yahweh in front of the dwelling place of Yahweh, that person will be reckoned as a murderer.

Well, she's not supposed to slaughter animals other than for sacrifices. So this is to the Israelites in the wilderness, we can't just take this out of narrative context. Okay. While they're in the wilderness, Israelites in the wilderness. We can't just take this out of narrative context. Okay. While they're in the wilderness, traveling through the wilderness. There's one place to butcher animals. Yeah. Well, stay it positively.

Any animal that you do butcher, you need to present it first as an offering to Yahweh. And notice the list of animals in ox, a lamb, or a goat. These are the three main categories of animals that are offered in all the offerings. So every life that you take to provide for yourselves, first surrender it as an offering to me before you get any of the meat in return.

Oh, is this a different type of offering? This isn't like. Yeah, it doesn't say what category of offering. Because there's four different kinds Right, it just says any time you slaughter an animal to provide for yourself as we travel through the wilderness Whether you do it outside the camp or inside the camp first come and dedicate it to y'all Is this why we pray before meals? This is the verse. Okay. All right, let's keep going so the reason, verse five, is that,

so the sons of Israel bring their sacrifices, that they were sacrificing out there in the wilderness. Oh, because a lot of shady sacrifices were happening out there. They need to bring all that to the doorway of the tent and sacrifice them as, oh, and then here we get the category. Sorry I forgot about this, as a peace offering. Peace offering is one of the main offerings where most of the meat is for the person offering it. That's right. And it's a way to kind of reconcile with each other.

Yeah, or it's a way to offer an animal to say thank you to God, but then you take the meat of the animal. Yeah. And you invite people and have a big party and say, yeah, wait. When you slaughter an animal in the ancient world, you're not putting it in a deep freezer. Totally. You're throwing a party and everyone's going to eat. That's right. Yeah, you kill it to have a party. And are you going to do that out in the wilderness?

In the wilderness? Parts of the wilderness to some unknown God. Yeah, that's right. Or are you going to do it here in the center camp? That's right. Okay. And here's the reason why. For seven, so that they no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the seerim, that they prostitute with out there in the wilderness.

So who's this? The seerim. The seerim. The seerim. We talked about, what was the other guy, Azazel? Azazel in the previous chapter, the Leviticus 16 mentions a wilderness spiritual being named Azazel. The powerful God.

Yeah, whose name, Azazel means a powerful L, a powerful spiritual being, who is out in the wilderness and you send the goat loaded with the sins of Israel out to him, like a garbage truck. Like here, take the garbage waste, take our sins. Take our garbage. You'll enjoy this. Send it back to where it came from. So now we get an image in the next chapter. It's a good meditation literature, technique,

where you're like, who's that, that's all? And like, what's that all about? Well, in the next chapter, you find out like, well, you know, the Israelites have just been really tempted to go out to the wilderness and offer sacrifices out there to the Sayereem. So the Sayereem. Sayereem. No, Sayereem. Sorry, I've been unclear. Sayereem. You're being clear. I just don't understand how to say it. I pronounce it. So e-rime. Sit.

E-rime. It's the word se-ir. Se-ir. Sa-ir means goat. Uh-huh. Or it's the word for hairy. Oh. And this is what Jacob and Esau?

What Esau was called. Yeah. And so to dress up like his sa-ir brother, Jacob puts on the animal skin of the se-ir. That's right. So it's some sort of spiritual being. It's a spiritual being referred to as a goat. And when you put an eam at the end of something

like the seraphim, it's plural. Yeah, that's right. So lots of debate about the se-ir eam. And they are mentioned as desert dwellers, dangerous desert dwellers elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, where it seems like it's just referring to like goats who take up residence in the wilderness. But here it seems like these goat figures refer to something more. Yeah, so like I would be tempted as an ancient Israelite to go like, Hey, let's go bring this animal out into the wilderness and sacrifice it to this goat

God. It's dangerous out there. Oh, here we are. It's a piece of the danger. Yes. Yes. Yes. Here we are in this little camp, a little place of order with a little Eden at the center. But out there, it's dark, just dangerous. We've been out here for a long time. And Yahweh keeps providing for us, the sky goo bread, the mana. What is it from the skies, and he'll lead us to Oasis.

But, you know, we could cover our bases and appease the wilderness, God. Yeah, we got the priests doing the Yahweh thing. Let's go take care of the gods. That's right. So, the Israelites are tempted to shore up their own security by offering animals to the gods' wilderness, Azazel. And so, Yahweh is like, okay, how do we deal with this?

Okay, everybody, any animal that ever gets killed for any reason. Always bring him here. Yeah, so this whole narrative, when we're opening to the theme of sacrifices and offerings, so this is a link back to chapter one. But also now, for the people, everything that I consume, first been dedicated to Yahweh, who my sole security and provider. This is a habit Yahweh is asking the people to engage in, but it's a formative habit. And so you've made this joke about, is this what praying before meals is about, but that's kind of true. That's a wisdom

response to the strange ancient law. Yeah, because we don't have the temptation to go in sacrifice things to like goat demons per se. But there is a propensity towards saying, okay, Yahweh provides, but I should cover my basis. That's right, yeah. And I should make sure that I'm diversified and like all these other ways

and which means chasing after all sorts of other things. Yeah. Potentially. Yeah, even things that contradict my loyalty to Yahweh. Yeah, I know that the way that I'm making money is a little shady, but you know, you gotta butter your bread somehow. Totally, yeah, and it provides and it allows me

to do good things for my family and my community. Yeah. So what you're doing there is you're meditating on the core issue of the heart, right? The motivations of the heart, of the Israelites that are exposed here, and you are creating a wisdom principle. And what does it mean to bring everything to Yahweh first? That's right.

And so this is why it sounds crazy, but like any animal that you don't dedicate to Yahweh and kill it and eat it. Is it murder? either. As murder? Is it like murder? This is like where Jesus quotes the law, the tank of commandments, and the sermon on them out, do not murder. And then he says, I tell you what? Anybody who insults their brother, saying, you empty head, will be guilty of murder.

That was a Temechi trend. Before that. Oh, yeah. Before the empty head. So where did Jesus get this idea that you could equate something that's not a capital crime with murder? Well, yeah, I guess. Here we are. If you take the life of an animal, but use it in your own eyes and dedicate it to something

that actually... You're improperly taking the life of the animal. Yeah. And you're dedicating the life of a precious animal to some force or ideology or something in the world that is actually a part of the problem that won't bring life. It actually brings death. Yeah, you know, the sacrificial system back then, there was a high respect for animals. Oh, totally.

I mean, these animals are like enacting this really important role for you and they're nourishing you. Mm-hmm. And part of the reason why this improper sacrifice as akin to murder is in the next statement here, which is in Leviticus 1711, which is another law about any Israelite who consumes blood, will be cut off from the people of Israel. which is another law about any Israelite who consumes blood. We'll be cut off from the people of Israel. This is kind of core to kosher law, draining the blood from the meat.

That's right. The Leviticus 1711, for the life of the flesh is the blood. And I, Yahweh, have given to y'all on the altar the blood to cover for and purify you from your sins. It's because of the blood being the life. That's what makes it a tone. So the blood is life. So don't consume the life of a creature as if it's yours. First, drain the blood from it on the ground.

But if you do that, then you're like cane, spill in blood on the ground. So what you do is you take that life and you dedicate it to Yahweh and you say, Yahweh, you gave this animal to me. This animal really belongs to you. Its life is yours, not mine. And I receive it as a gift. And I take what you've given me as a gift and I have a party. This is the peace offering.

The peace offering, and I invite all the people around my tent and share with what God has given to me. And that ritual forms you to see the world in a certain way that's different than just I can do what I want, I can take the life of these creatures and dedicate it to some other loyalty. That's what this chapter is about. It's pretty profound. So that's the living kiss 17. we haven't gotten to Sabbath yet. But it'll pay dividends for what happens after this. So what follows is a three chapter unit, what we call a bit because 18, 19, and 20.

And it's a triad organized as a symmetry. In fact, most of the rules articulated in chapter 18 are restated, almost verbatim in chapter 20. It's like, wait a minute, I just read this. But it has this effect of surrounding chapter 19, and we'll just read the opening and closing of 18. Chapter 18 begins, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, I am Yahweh your God, you shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done

in the land of Canaan where I'm bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. So you came from an empire that has their own rituals, that has their statutes, their way of walking, and you were going into a culture of Canaan that has also an established way of living in the world. And you are to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation. So you are to perform my justice and my statutes. Live in accordance with them. I am Yahweh your God. And so you shall keep my statutes and my justice because the human who lives by them will have life. Leviticus 185, Paul the Apostle, love this line, he quotes it a few times in his letters. So if people who follow the word of God who live by the will and command of God, will have life. I mean, the Garden of Eden teaches you that story.

This isn't just talking about the specific rules that you always giving them in this context. It's also a reflection on this meta theme of when God gives a command, following the command brings life. Brings life. Yep, that's right. And here, Yahweh's commands are set in contrast to the commands or the ways of life from Egypt and the way of life in Canaan. And so that's the frame for this list of rules about marriage and sex. They're about to follow.

So that's really important, like you were joking earlier about, oh, just copy and paste. These rules, well, why are these rules stated the way that they are? They're in dialogue with active cultural practices and norms in both Egypt and in Canaan. And they speak to a wisdom of how to act instead. That's right. It's not that they have nothing to say to us, but what they say to us is through wisdom reflection, which might mean that we respond to this

through a different surface expression of the command, copying, pacing command might misdirect us for how to respond to it as wisdom. So there's 14 laws that follow about people that it's inappropriate to have sex with. And it's essentially drawing the boundary lines around the nuclear family, the extended family, and how many degrees out from aunts, uncles, second cousins, third cousins is appropriate to marry within. So this is a deep rabbit hole, but what's really fascinating here is God wants to safeguard the sexual integrity and reputation of

his people, because he's calling them to be fruitful and multiply, and that's one of the blessings of the covenant. But apparently there are more appropriate and less appropriate ways to do that as a community. And so these laws represent a way that honored the wisdom of Yahweh, but that's set in contrast to both Egyptian and Canaanite practice. So some of them might strike us as really strange, like, don't sleep with your dad's wife. Let's say it's your stepmom. Don't marry your sister. Don't marry your father's wife. Let's say it's your stepmom. Don't marry your sister. Don't marry your father's wife's daughter. So every one of these has some kind of cultural issue in its ancient

context that it's addressing, but that's what these 14 laws are about. Is this a Hebrew idiom? Okay, so this was fascinating. The phrase used for sex is the phrase to uncover the nakedness or to look upon the nakedness. It's a figure speech. Is this why then, with Noah's tent, it's kind of like something sexual is happening? Yeah, so this is all parallel to after the cataclysm of the flood. Yeah. And God delivers the family of Noah, Noah plants a garden with a tent in the garden. He eats the fruit of the garden, gets drunk and exposed, and then his son comes in and the phrases, looks upon the nakedness of his father.

So if you read Leviticus 18 verse 7, do not uncover the nakedness of your father, namely, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother. Don't uncover her nakedness. In other words, to look upon the nakedness of your father here is a figure of speech for having sex with your own mom. So to sleep with your mom is to expose the nakedness of both your mom and your dad, because it's his wife and she's his husband. So this is a great meditation literature example. So now you go back to that story and you're like oh, oh yes. In other words, it's a puzzle. It's a riddle. Yeah. Back in Genesis chapter 9 and the key to the riddle, you don't come across to Leviticus chapter 18. Is that because we're not native Hebrew thinkers,

or is this like a really obscure Hebrew idiom? Oh, well, just within the collection of the Hebrew Bible, it's the idiom that's used right here, and then there. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. And it also makes sense of why after Noah's son does that, it's Noah's grandson, Canaan, through ham, that bears the consequences of ham's sin.

In other words, ham wrongs his father by looking upon his nakedness, but it's ham's grandson, Canaan, that bears the brunt. Oh, Canaan. Where are they going? Where they're going. And God just said, don't act like canaanites. That's what this chapter is about. So don't sleep with your mom,

like the canaanites do. And what is Genesis 9 about? But a guy named Ham, who does this to his dad. Or the story of canaan. It's the origin story of canaan. Interesting. Yeah. So that's the Leviticus 18. Two's the origin story of Canaan. Interesting. Yeah. So that's the Leviticus 18.

Two other things I want to draw attention to here. One is chapter 21, which illuminates a little bit more the mysterious Ozzazel and the goat demons. Verse 21. Verse 21, yeah, of chapter 18. Chapter 18. Yeah. You shall not give any of your children or offspring to offer them up to Mulech, and so

profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh. Here's another Elohim in the mix. Except this time it's not offering an animal, it's sacrificing children. Child sacrifice. Yeah. So, the identity of Molech is a big rabbit hole. It's spelled with the same letters as the Hebrew word Mellek, which is the word King. And it's for sure some sort of deity that claimed to have royal authority to demand the

life of people's children if you want to have this deity on your side. Likely a kingaanite deity? Yeah, and again the rabbit hole is deep on Molech and why that title, it seems like a title. So offering up your children as a sacrifice, profanes the name of your God. So you're an Israelite, people look at you and say, oh those are the people of Yahweh. Oh, but they sacrifice their kids to Mollek too. Oh, okay. So people will see you and the name of Yahweh will be considered like the name of any other

deity, because you can worship Mollek, you can worship Yahweh. It's cool. It's like a degrading of Yahweh's reputation. So it's just important because this chapter isn't just like rules about sex and then there's rules about worship. This is all about not living like an Egyptian or a can tonight is about how your family is structured. It's about your sexual ethic. It's about what you do with your animals. It's about what you do with your children. It's all woven together as one thing here.

So that's chapter 18. There's other things we could explore there, and it's matched on the other side by chapter 20. And then in the middle is chapter 19, Leviticus 19. So let's just read some of these. Then Yahweh said to Moses, speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, say to them, y'all shall be holy because I, Yahweh, your God, Him holy. Become like me, every one of you. Become a source of life and light like I am a source of life. Yes, yes, become like me. Yeah, interesting. I mean, it makes sense that these people are living near the fire cloud, if you always glory and life and light, that they would begin to take on the characteristics of that, like Moses did, up on Mount Sinai. Verse three, every one of you shall fear his mother and father.

You're like, oh, that kind of sounds like 10 commandments. Honor your father and mother, yep. But here the words fear. Fear. So fear and honor is a synonym. Yeah. Fear your father and mother and keep my Sabbath. I am Yahweh your God. You should not make any idols or any molten gods. I am Yahweh your God. Those are three of the ten commandments right there, but re-worded here. So honoring your parents who are images of God to you, keeping the Sabbaths plural and not making any idol images of God. So it's a little sandwich. We're quoting the three of the ten commandments, but we've

reordered them to create a little symmetrical sandwich here. So fear your parents who are images of God to you, matching that on the other side is don't make any images that are your own making. And then in the middle is, make sure you keep my Sabbaths. Right, the middle is the Sabbath. Yes. It's an important, one idea, Sabbath. Apparently. Apparently. Yeah, okay, so I'm just trying to put the picture, like we might read a section of a book like this and be like, okay, random rules for being holy, I guess.

It does feel often when you're reading through these, like, now this is random. Yeah, so yeah, so I'm just trying to sample different sections and see they're all cohesive together. This is about forming a contrast community that's different than Egypt, different than Canaan. It's the people of Yahweh.

So these are not the people of Molech. These are the people of Yahweh. And these are people who honor the sexual dignity of every other member of the community in a very unique way to a degree that their neighbors were not doing. These are people who dedicate everything they have to Yahweh, even their every meal, every food, all their food. These are people who honor their parents. They don't give their loyalty to the gods that we all here in Canaan, think you're normal. And man, they even surrender all of their

time to Yahweh by resting every seventh day. It's crazy. Why would you do that? There's work that needs to be done. There's fields. there's sheep that need to be tended. And you're just gonna let them graze the field next year day. And not- Move them around. Yeah. So I guess what's cool about this section of Leviticus is that Sabbath is woven into all these other commands.

And just, you know, Leviticus 19 is worse. When you reap the harvest of your land, don't harvest the corners of the field. But leave the corners. Don't milk your land for maximum profit. Leave whole sections of it so that the vulnerable in your community can come and generate value and work and earn a living too. So that's the bit of his 19. Alongside, don't steal. Right. Don't deal falsely. It's a more 10-community movement.

Don't oppress your neighbor. Don't withhold the wages of somebody that you've hired. Don't curse someone who's deaf. Don't take advantage of the blind. Do justice and judgment. Don't be partial to the poor or the rich. Don't hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. Don't take vengeance. Don't bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself.

And then keep going. These lists continue and that culminates again, down here in verse 30, you shall keep my Sabbath and honor my sanctuary. I am Yahweh. You know, there's this theme, if I had more time in my life, I always struggle with time scarcity, but I've always wanted to go and just take like a few minutes and just read all of like the classic Greek philosophers. I've just kind of know them in Hodgepodge.

But so as I understand, and maybe there's probably listeners of the podcast that you're like, this is your jam. But as I understand it, a big motif in classical Greek philosophy was striving for a fully integrated life, where every decision you make is directed by some core principle that you've determined your life is about. I guess it's very similar to inspirational speakers today. But it's how to make your life fully integrated so that everything you do with your time, your energy, your money, your relationships is all in service of some...

Not working towards a world. Yeah, and I just... and I know it's a temperamental thing, you know, some temperaments are more like that than others. My wife's kind of like that in some ways, but not in others. And I'm kind of like that in other ways and not in some than ours aren't mismatched. But that's essentially what a section of Leviticus like this is about. These might seem all disparate and random, but they're really all in service. Love God and love your neighbor as an image of God. But the way that translates into every aspect of life,

each law gives us this wisdom principle. The Sabbath is a key piece here that's going to just keep ramping up in importance as you read throughout the section of the book. But that's at least what I'm reflecting on at this point in our conversation. Let's see that back to you. These can feel like a hodgepodge. But there is a coherent symmetry and order and logic behind how they're presented within the narrative and even within themselves. Yeah.

But then also it's a big selection of just like all of life. That's right. And it's giving you wisdom for how to live in right relationships with people in like this coherent integrated way. Yeah. live in right relationships with people, in like this coherent integrated way. Yeah, coherent and complete in that I forgot to mention this. Chapter 18 has two times seven laws. Chapter 19 has three times seven laws. Chapter 20 has two times seven laws.

So we're clearly- Seven times seven laws. Yeah, for a total of seven times seven laws. So we're clearly selecting from some larger body laws. This isn't the entire covenant law code that they would have had. really selecting from some larger body laws. This isn't the entire covenant law code that they would have had. Is there selections? That's right.

In this section, even repeat some. So instead of giving you the complete list, they chose to repeat certain ones to make a certain point. In patterns of seven, which is a common Hebrew way of making a complete statement about something. And in the middle of that block of seven times seven laws, in the beginning and ending of chapter 19 is keep my Sabbaths, which is leveled up just as much importance as doing justice to your neighbor and sexual integrity and dedicating everything you have to Yahweh is.

Is resting every seventh day? Yeah, dedicating the time that you have to Yahweh. Yeah, because if you're going to be fully integrated, one big block that you need to integrate is your time. How you think of just being a human living through time? Yeah. Yeah. Who or what determines how you use your time, spend your time, invest your time. It's all from the time. Time is a metaphor. Time is money. Metaphor. So we haven't talked about everything that we could talk about here, but it introduces the Sabbath theme, the section, Lividicus 17 through 20, everything's organized in sevens, and then that's intensity of the number seven is just going to keep ramping up to the final part of the book, which we'll look at next, which is all about honoring not just the Sabbath,

but the seven annual feasts, and then the seventh year, and then the seven annual fees and then the seventh year and then the seven times seventh year and all the sudden Huge amounts of your life your entire lifetime. Yeah is dedicated to Yahweh in cycles of time Mm-hmm, and this is a whole part of what it means to be a kingdom of priests and a nation that is holy set apart for the service of Yahweh and a nation that is holy. Set apart for the service of Yahweh. Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Projects Podcast. Next week, we continue reading the third movement of Leviticus.

If the Tabernacle represents an actual piece of real estate, this belongs to Yahweh. And in this space, he will take up residence and fill it with his presence and I can go there and meet with him. In the same way, there's set times that are appointed to meet with Yahweh because Yahweh fills that time in a unique way and I can find God there in that time in a special way. Today's show was produced by Cooper Peltz edited by Dan Gummel and Tyler Bailey, show notes by Lindsay Ponder. Ashlyn Heiss and McKenzie Buxman provided the annotations

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