What does the grandeur of the Day of Atonement have do with the food we eat or with our sexual relations? A very great deal, if we take our walk with God seriously. The way this passage moves from the sublimely spiritual to what we might consider cultic and then to the physical dramatizes how the Jewish Law (and our continuing faith) sees life as a whole. The line between the sacred and the secular is not so sharp as our logic might want to make it.
The most fascinating creature in the atonement experience is the scapegoat, Azazel. The sins of the people are laid on it, and it is led out “into the wilderness.” The scene reminds me of Psalm 103:12, when the psalmist notes that God has removed our transgressions “as far as the east is from the west,” and also of the New Testament writer who, in probable reference to this ceremony, says that Jesus “suffered outside the city gate” (Hebrews 13:12).
The code of sexual conduct is specifically to be other than what “they do in the land of Egypt . . . [and] in the land of Canaan” (18:3). The conduct of those peoples caused the land to be “defiled” so that at last its inhabitants would be “vomited out” (18:25). The people of Israel were to have a different standard because of their relationship to God and their regard for the bodies God had given them. No doubt much of the popular culture of our time (which can easily engulf us) is equally repugnant to God’s standards.
PRAYER: Jesus, Savior, I lay on you the burdens of shame I cannot bear; take them far from me, I pray; to your glory. Amen.
What connection do you see between the instructions for the Day of Atonement and the ensuing prohibitions against the eating or drinking of blood?
| LEVITICUS 19–21; PSALM 37 | Week 7, Day 3 |
As we said before, to be holy is to be different from those around us. But it is very difficult to live in the midst of a culture without taking on much of its style and standards. Chapters 19 and 20 deal with that problem. Some of the issues may sound trivial to us, but for the Israelites they were marks of distinction; if they became too much like their neighbors in these matters, they might easily slip over into their patterns of ethical conduct, too.
Other laws are fascinating for their practical social sensitivity. When reaping a harvest, leave some for the poor and the alien (19:9-10)—perhaps the only time Israelites were asked to be careless in their work! “You shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning” (19:13). Why not? Because in an economy of day laborers, many lived from one day’s pay to the next, and if the wages were held back, a family was left hungry for the night. Do not “revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind” (19:14); that is, don’t take advantage of someone’s limitations. In judgment, “you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great” (19:15)—a standard we still find it hard to fulfill even in a modern legal system. And “rise before the aged, and defer to the old” (19:32).
And the basis for all these commands: Because “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (19:36).
PRAYER: You have brought me from my own kind of bondage, gracious Lord, so I gladly acknowledge your right to my devotion. Amen.
List five or six of the highly practical laws in Leviticus 19.
| LEVITICUS 22–24 | Week 7, Day 4 |
Every day is sacred in its own right, but we need special occasions in the calendars of our lives that give a lift to life and that help to center our focus. The several festivals performed that function for Israel. For while there were many laws that reminded them of their differentness, these festivals gave a certain beauty and glory to their role.
Three of the celebrations had to do with nature. The Israelites were an agricultural people, so it was natural for their lives to revolve around seedtime and harvest. Most of us aren’t as conscious of our dependence on nature, because we live more removed from its rhythms; but now and then an earthquake, a flood, or a tornado reminds us that as surely as ever we are dependent on nature.
Only the Day of Atonement called for fasting; other festivals were in a more celebrative mood. Several were intended to remind the people of the power of God in their nation’s history and of the loyalty that was therefore owed to God. The Festival of Booths, in particular, recalled that they had lived in booths when they escaped from the land of Egypt.
But while these occasions came scattered through the year as annual events, there was always the seventh day of the week with its sabbath. As one Jewish philosopher said, “More than Israel kept the sabbath, the sabbath has kept Israel.” It is God’s gift of rest and dignity for those who will receive and observe it.
PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for days of rest, awe, and laughter. Amen.
Six holy celebrations, besides the sabbath, are described in Leviticus 23. What qualities or characteristics do they have in common?
| LEVITICUS 25–27 | Week 7, Day 5 |
If the sabbath is a gift to us, it is meant also to be a gift to nature. Every seventh year the land was to lie fallow. Whatever came of the unpruned vine or the untended field could be eaten, but there was to be a rest for the land. Here was a simple method of soil conservation long before it became a science. And here was a reminder of our obligation to nature. The land is blessed or cursed according to the quality of our stewardship. In a sense, the land is helpless beneath us; we determine its fate. But it will have the last word. If we do not treat it with care, it will get the really last word.
As we noticed earlier, seven was one of the significant numbers for the Hebrew people. After seven sevens of years, there would be a year of jubilee. “It shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces” (25:12). More than that, there shall be a reordering of the economy: Debts will be canceled, and those who have sold themselves or their families into slavery will be set free.
What a festival! “You shall have the trumpet sounded loud” (25:9) to announce the beginning of this year. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn around this chapter, applying it to our redemption in Christ.
“Ye who have sold for nought
your heritage above
shall have it back unbought,
the gift of Jesus’ love:
The year of jubilee is come!
The year of jubilee is come!
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.”
PRAYER: Help me to make this year, this very year, a jubilee of glad and holy living; and help me to share it well with others. Amen.
It is often said that the Old Testament historians wrote like prophets and the prophets like historians. Find a section in today’s Scripture where the writer of Leviticus sounds like a prophet.
| NUMBERS 1–3; PSALM 38 | Week 7, Day 6 |
The Book of Numbers gets its title from the first census of Israel, which is contained here. If it were titled for its most significant event, however, a cynic might well call it the Book of Retreat, because it is in Numbers that we read the sad story of the Israelites coming within reach of their land of