Mar 2 2021 Day 32 Leviticus 19:1–23:44

‘You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.



Leviticus. In this year walk through the Bible, Leviticus is one book I was not looking forward to reading. It’s full of all sorts of very prescriptive rules and judgements. This is the book that many cite when condemning homosexuality as an abomination. Never mind that a few verses before, we learn that wearing clothing with mixed fiber is not ok, nor is sitting on a surface that a woman sat on who was bleeding. It’s hypocritical to read Leviticus, or any Scripture as literally true, unless you’re going to read it all as literally true.

Clearly, I don’t read it as literally true. One joy of reading it is that I’m forced to wrestle with what it means to me, if it’s not a giant rule book. I believe it’s a way of interpreting God’s law, that may have made sense to the people of the time. At its core, it’s about how to live a holy and sanctified life. It also contains these gems, like, love your neighbor as yourself. Yes.

If I were to write my own rule book based on my circumstances, I suspect it might appear as arbitrary as Leviticus. It certainly wouldn’t last thousands of years.

• Wear clericals to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Friday are days of rest.
• Ride your bike to work, to save energy and have time to reflect. Even in the rain. 
• When not working at a Sunday church, attend when you can. Sabbath the other times. 
• Don’t smoke in the house, to keep the house holy. 
• Pray and write in the mornings. Except when you need sleep. Then sleep.
• Be tolerant of everyone. 
• If someone has demons, they are definitely not ritually unclean. But sometimes hard to be tolerant with. 

I don’t write these to solicit any comments about my list. But it is an interesting exercise. What would be in your rule book?

This morning, I’m thinking about my rule book, and how it might look as capricious as Leviticus to anyone else. I need to show Leviticus a little more grace, and let their rules be theirs. And definitely not take it literally or presume it’s 100% relevant in my world now.