prohibitions

Holy Living

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39 “And if any animal which you may eat dies, whoever touches its carcass shall be unclean until the evening, 40 and whoever eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And whoever carries the carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.

41 “Every swarming thing that swarms on the ground is detestable; it shall not be eaten. 42 Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, any swarming thing that swarms on the ground, you shall not eat, for they are detestable. 43 You shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, and become unclean through them. 44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. 45 For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

46 This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, 47 to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.” – Leviticus 11:39-47 ESV

Chapter 11 is the beginning of an entire section of Leviticus that deals with laws concerning purification. The issue is less about physical cleanliness than it is about holiness. The state of “uncleanness” which God repeatedly addresses in this passage does not refer to the presence of dirt but instead, it is a spiritual category that carries a deep underlying message regarding the Israelite’s relationship with Yahweh.

Chapters 11-15 contain God’s decrees concerning the very real threat of spiritual impurity – a state that would make God’s chosen people unworthy to enter His presence. There were certain actions that God declared to be off-limits because doing them would render the individual defiled, dishonored, or desecrated. Eating the flesh of certain banned animals fell into that category. Touching a dead body would automatically result in defilement. And God’s desire was that His chosen people would fear any form of separation from Him so much that they would be willing to give up those things that He declared to be unclean and unacceptable.

It’s easy to read this lengthy list of banned animals and focus all the attention on them. But God’s primary concern was that His people would learn “to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:47 ESV). These dietary laws may sound arbitrary to the modern Western mind, but God was trying to persuade His people to think holistically about their lives. Holiness was a state of being that included all of life. God’s people were to avoid the temptation to compartmentalize their lives and reserve some areas for their own discretion. They belonged to God and He wanted them to understand that every area of their lives was to be dedicated to His use and for His glory. The apostle Paul picked up on this idea in his first letter to the believers in Corinth.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

That is an apt summary of the dietary laws and a great way to view this entire section of Leviticus. God was commanding His people to avoid anything that might interfere with their covenant relationship with Him. He wanted them to desire nothing greater than their intimate and unbroken fellowship with Him. And if avoiding certain foods would help preserve their set-apart status as His chosen people, that act of self-denial should be an easy choice.

Once again, the apostle Paul provides a practical perspective on this attitude of willing sacrifice in order to pursue a right relationship with God.

…everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. – Philippians 3:8-9 NLT

Nothing was so important to Paul that he would allow it to interfere with his relationship with Christ. He was willing to give up anything if he thought it might help to improve his walk with Christ. And he applied this dedication to abstinence to every area of his life, including his relationship with other believers.

And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. – 1 Corinthians 8:12-13 NLT

Were the Israelites willing to do the same thing? Was God’s ban on the consumption of certain animals worth obeying in order to maintain a right relationship with Him? Would they be okay with relinquishing their “right” to eat what they wanted so that they might enjoy unbroken fellowship with God?

God had declared certain foods to be unclean and off-limits. He provided no explanation and none should have been expected. It was enough that He had spoken and His will on the matter had been made perfectly clear. God felt no need to explain the reason behind his prohibition of certain animals. He simply declared them to be unclean and, if eaten, they would pose a threat to the Israelite’s relationship with Him. The question the Israelites had to ask themselves was whether the consumption of camel or badger meat was more important to them than maintaining their relationship with God.

When they found themselves facing hunger and possible starvation, would the temptation to eat banned meat override their desire to live in unbroken fellowship with Yahweh? These bans would become increasingly more real when they arrived in the land of Canaan and found themselves surrounded by people groups who regularly consumed many of the items that God had deemed off-limits for them. Compromise and accommodation would pose real threats to their relationship with Yahweh and that is why He provided them with a detailed list of rules concerning their ongoing holiness. They needed to know that they were to live distinctively different lives from all the other nations that occupied Canaan.

What underlies all of these prohibitions is God’s desire that His people live holy lives. He clearly commands them to refrain from making themselves detestable. In other words, each day they had to make a decision to avoid that which God declared to be unclean so that they could remain undefiled. It was a choice. They could choose to become unclean or remain pure in the eyes of God. Holiness was a choice.

“I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” – Leviticus 11:44 NLT

Ever since the Israelites had left Egypt, they had been faced with a choice to trust Yahweh as their redeemer, provider, and guide. Each day brought new temptations to doubt His goodness and greatness. The lack of food caused them to bicker and complain. The constant scarcity of water led them to question His wisdom and compassion.  But at Sinai, more than a year after they had left Egypt, God was still calling them to recognize who He was and to live their lives in a way that reflected their reverence for Him.

“I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.” – Leviticus 11:45 NLT

This is a statement of God’s sovereignty and holiness. This all-powerful and completely righteous God had chosen to redeem the people of Israel as His own possession. They belonged to Him. He had miraculously released them from their captivity in Egypt and set them apart to be a separate and distinct nation that would live according to His will. God had not chosen them because they had somehow earned His favor. They had done nothing to deserve His selection of them as His treasured possession. But now that they were His, He expected them to reflect their unique status as His one-of-a-kind people. He was holy, so they must be holy. And the dietary laws were just one more way God set them apart from all the other nations.

God had tasked Aaron and his sons with the responsibility of teaching the people “to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (Leviticus 10:10 ESV). These men were to help the Israelites to distinguish themselves from all the other nations on earth by seeing life from God’s point of view. Yahweh was providing them with divine insight into every area of life so that they might live in keeping with His will. And God reiterated the necessity for them to learn to distinguish the difference between the holy and the command, the clean and the unclean. He declared that these dietary laws were “to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:47 ESV). All so that His people might reflect His holiness by the way they lived their lives.

His will would become their will. His desires would replace their own. They would live to bring Him glory rather than seek their own good. Being God’s people required that they obey His will. And, in doing so, they would demonstrate that they were His chosen people.

“Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.” – Exodus 19:5-6 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Practical Laws For Real Life

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1 “Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.” – Exodus 21:1-6 ESV

Beginning with chapter 21 and running through the 19th verse of chapter 23, Moses delivers the expanded version of God’s law to His people. He later refers to it as “the Book of the Covenant” (Exodus 24:7 ESV. This more comprehensive collection of commands was intended to be an extension of the Decalogue. It is “an application of the Decalogue to the specific social context of Israel as a nation” (John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus).

The Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant were not given in a complete moral or legal vacuum. By the time of the exodus, various ancient societies had developed legal codes to help regulate human behavior and interaction. Many of these codes contain prohibitions similar to those found in the Book of the Covenant. These include the Laws of Esnunna, created by the Akkadian civilization located in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian civilization had the Code of Lipit-Istar. And centuries later, the Babylonians would come up with the more familiar Code of Hammurabi.

It is important to note that the Israelites had not been living in a lawless state. Even in Egypt, their lives had been governed by a series of written and oral legal codes. God created humanity with a basic understanding of His righteous standards. The apostle Paul wrote about how God has placed within all men an instinctive understanding of His law.

Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. – Romans 2:13-15 NLT

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they violated a clear command of God.

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17 ESV

And their motivation for breaking that command was their desire to “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5 ESV). As soon as they chose to disobey God’s prohibition, “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7 ESV). They gained an immediate awareness of their sinful state. In that moment, their innocence was replaced with guilt, as they considered the ramifications of their actions.

From the very beginning, God’s moral law permeated His creation. And despite the sin of Adam and Eve, mankind maintained a rudimentary understanding of God’s will concerning human behavior. Cain knew murder was wrong, and he understood that there were painful consequences for those who took the life of the innocent.

Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” – Exodus 4:13 ESV

But all the legal codes in the world could not correct mankind’s moral spiral into disobedience and decadence. By the time we get to chapter six of Genesis, the moral state of human society had hit an all-time low.

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. – Genesis 6:5 NLT

Their problem was not a lack of laws, but a general unwillingness and inability to obey those laws. Things had deteriorated so badly, that the text indicates there was only one righteous man left on the earth.

Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. – Genesis 6:9 NLT

This led God to begin again, providing Noah and his extended family with a means of escaping His judgment against the rest of human society. And post-flood, God’s unwritten law continued to hold sway, dictating the behavior of all those who descended from Noah’s three sons. But the generations that followed proved to be no different than their pre-flood ancestors. They also willingly and regularly violated God’s righteous standards.

This led God to begin again with a man named Abram, an elderly pagan from the land of Ur in Mesopotamia. God chose this obscure individual to carry out His divine plan for restoring sinful mankind to a right relationship with Himself. And long before Abram and his barren wife, Sarai, had ever conceived their first child, God made a covenant with them. This legal agreement was intended to set apart Abram and his descendants as a special people, who would enjoy a one-of-a-kind relationship with God Almighty.

“As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” – Genesis 17:9-11 ESV

Circumcision was a sign of the covenant. It was a legal requirement mandated by God that was intended to signify their unwavering commitment to their newfound status as His chosen people. God had promised to produce from Abram and his barren wife a great and mighty nation. And that promise was passed down from Abram to his son, Isaac, and then from Isaac to Jacob. And the Israelites whom God redeemed out of captivity in Egypt were the direct descendants of Jacob. They were the great nation that God had promised and they were to be His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6).

But after 400 years of living in Egypt, separated from God and influenced by the idolatry and immorality of that land, the people of Israel needed a more concrete and comprehensive understanding of God’s expectations of them. So, He gave them His law. The Ten Commandments were the summary statement of His moral requirements. The Book of the Covenant provided the application of those “ten words” to everyday life situations. These practical and highly specific laws were given to the people of Israel. They were intended to govern their conduct and set them apart from every other people group on the earth. These laws were not to be universally applied or mandated for all cultures but were designed to differentiate the people of God from everyone else.

In a sense, the Ten Commandments are timeless and universal in their application. But the Book of the Covenant was meant to apply to a specific people group living at a particular time in human history.

“…the Book of the Covenant was never intended to address every possible situation. It was more a guide to cases than a statutory code. Whereas the Ten Commandments were expressed as universal absolutes, the laws in the Book of the Covenant dealt with specific situations. They provided a series of legal precedents that wise elders could use in settling disputes. While these case laws could not possibly cover every new situation that might arise, they illustrated basic legal principles for living in community with the people of God.” – Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus: Saved For God’s Glory

But why does God begin his Book of the Covenant with laws concerning slavery? The answer is found in the prologue that God gave before delivering the Decalogue to Moses.

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” – Exodus 20:1-2 ESV

The Israelites had just been delivered from slavery in Egypt. They had spent several centuries under the heavy hand of the Pharaohs, toiling as indentured servants and enduring unrelenting persecution and suffering at the hands of their masters. But now, they were free. And God wanted them to use their newfound freedom as an incentive to treat others with greater dignity and respect.

It can’t be overlooked that, in His giving of the law, God does not abolish the practice of slavery. Instead, He provides moral guidelines for the treatment of those who find themselves enslaved. In a world where slavery was ubiquitous and universal, God provided a new way of regulating this institution that was of human origin. Slavery, like adultery, murder, incest, lying, and idolatry, was never God’s intention. They are all the result of sin’s entrance into the world. And slavery, as an institution and practice, became a symbol of mankind’s relationship with sin.

Jesus understood this undeniable link between mankind and sin. He described its vice-like grip on humanity in a statement He made to the Pharisees.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” – John 8:34 ESV

The apostle Paul would later declare the remarkable significance of Jesus’ death on the cross, which provided the only means of being delivered from slavery to sin.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. – Romans 6:6-7 ESV

God had delivered Israel from their slavery in Egypt. And when they exited that land, they brought with them a “mixed multitude” (Exodus 12:38) that most likely included their own personal slaves. In fact, when God instituted the Passover, He gave strict instructions concerning those slaves.

“…every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him.” – Exodus 12:44 ESV

God knew that slavery was going to be a permanent part of human society, in one form or another. And it would provide a glaring and ongoing illustration of mankind’s hopeless relationship with sin. Just as there were those who were born into slavery, every human being is born into a state of sin. And just as there were those who sold themselves into slavery to satisfy a debt, there are those who willfully choose a life of sin in the hopes of finding relief from their guilt and shame.

From our current cultural vantage point, it is difficult for us to comprehend these verses. We struggle with the idea of God somehow condoning a practice our society knows to be abhorrent and has worked hard to abolish. But these passages are dealing with a subject that was woven into the social fabric of the times. Indentured servitude was a way of life. Every nation practiced it. And God wanted His people to exhibit a completely different approach to this painful and pervasive part of the human condition. So, He provided His chosen people with binding laws that were to govern their interactions with everyone in their community, including slaves.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 23b

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Don’t!

“Get the truth and never sell it; also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.” – Proverbs 23:23 NLT

When our children are young, one of the most common words they hear come out of our mouths as their parents is “don’t!” It seems like we are constantly having to tell them what NOT to do. Why? Because they are young and lack the ability to know right from wrong. They are self-centered and live in a world that they think consists only of them. Their desires come first. If they see something they want, they simply take it, regardless if someone else is using it at that moment. If they desire something and someone denies them access to it, they find a way to get it anyway, even if it means disobeying the authorities in their life. Kids have to hear the word, “don’t” because they don’t know any better.

In chapters 22 and 23 of Proverbs we have a list of 30 wise sayings, most of which are prohibitions or restrictions against particular behaviors or attitudes. They address everything from drinking to the dangers of gluttony. We’re told not to cheat our neighbors and not to make friends with someone who has an anger problem. But why do we need to hear all these warnings and commands? Because many of us still lack the ability to make wise decisions on our own. Remember, the book of Proverbs is very practical, providing divinely inspired input for daily living. This is Monday-morning relevant stuff. No religious mumbo-jumbo or spiritual speak here. This is relevant counsel for real life. But if we try and apply these principles to our lives like self-help tips, we are going to be highly disappointed. Oh, they might work for a while, because they are truths from the very throne of God. But we will be incapable of keeping them long-term because we really don’t understand their value and we lack the convictions necessary to stick with them. We will be like a child who knows all the rules, but fails to keep them because he doesn’t understand the reasons behind them.

The key to all of this is understanding the truth. If we look at these wise sayings without an understanding of the truth behind them, we will simply see them as restrictions that keep us from doing the things we want to do. We will see them as road blocks to our self-satisfaction. We may keep them for a time, because someone bigger and stronger than us told us to, but as soon as we have the chance, we will rebel and reject them. That’s why we are told to “get the truth and never sell it; also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.” The 30 wise sayings are not wisdom in and of themselves. They are the byproduct of wisdom. They are wise because they have come from a wise God and through the life experiences of wise men and women. We are told to get discipline, because without it we will never be able to follow the counsel in this book. We need good judgment, because without it we will never understand or appreciate the value of following the advice found on the pages of the book of Proverbs, or anywhere else in the Bible for that matter.

There comes a time when we no longer have to say, “don’t!” to our children as much as used to. Why? Because they have grown in wisdom, discipline and understanding. They have reached a point where they understand the reason behind the restriction. They have grown wise in the ways of the world. For some of us, reading this list of 30 wise sayings leaves us nodding our head in agreement because we already know the truth found in them. Others of us may read them and think, “This is hard stuff, I don’t know if I can pull it off or if I even agree with it.” They sound restrictive and unattractive to many of us. Because we lack wisdom. We need understanding. We are short on discernment. And all these things come from God. We need to get to know Him better. We need to know His heart so that we can see the truth contained in His Word. When our children are young and we tell them “don’t!,” they think we’re mean. But as they grow older and get to know us better, they realize just how much we love them and have their best interest in mind. The same is true with God.

Father, at the end of the day, I need to understand just how much You love me. I need to see life through Your eyes, with the help of Your wisdom, with Your understanding, and assisted by Your discernment. While so much of what this world offers up seems attractive and appealing, it is dangerous and could do me harm. I need to trust You when You say, “don’t!” I need wisdom, understanding and discernment to see life and your rules for living life in the right way. I need to know Your heart. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org