Leviticus

1:2 – from your flocks – not wild – it has to cost you something – cf. Bob Tilton

5:1 – the sin of silence – of doing nothing! Cf. Matthew 26:63 – Jesus speaks under oath

5:1 – in Hebrew sin and their consequences are the same and Genesis 4:13 (Cain and Abel). We draw the fine line.

5:14f – guilt offerings – where damage was done and could be assessed – for example here in errors in maintenance money for priests! 1/5 added to the error. Interesting system! (Along with the ram guilt offering!)

5:14 – shekel of sanctuary – old, non-inflated/changed currency – right up to the New Testament days – gets around our "inflation and a buck in the plate" phenomenon

5:17f – A. "just in case" offering for the scrupulous! (Cf. Job 1:5)

6:1 and 7 – sins of the negative type – ones you can get away with (example theft by "finding") if you shut up about it – loss still occurs.

6:27 – washing out a taboo contact – "un-holying" a garment. This blood approaches Frasers "exact taboo" where sacredness and uncleanness are indistinguishable (peak)

7:12 – Thanksgiving offerings (for well-being and good) will be the only ones which will still be teaching their lesson in the day of the Messiah – (the rabbis say) (peak) therefore they view all these as didactic in purpose? Partly?

7:28f – cut for the priests rises over time (see details in peak)

8:5 – from servant to ruler – at first the priests "hand was filled" [with his first offering?] Later he was anointed (postexilic) head of a theocratic state.

8:5 – a new era – everything he was to _____was anointed, cleansed, and re-consecrated.

Homicide people could go home after death of the high priest (numbers 35:26 – 32)

8:33 – seven days hanging around in a meeting place – the time of insecurity and danger from evil influences – interesting cf. recovery of addicted people and those on "highs" from spiritual experiences so fragile at the first – also those first few days on the job when we pick up new group-tone and get "slotted" in the organizational structure
– seven days of birth (circumcision)
– seven days of marriage (Genesis 29:27) Jacob's first wife read seven versus week
– seven days of mourning (Genesis 50:10) death of Israel
– and all over the Old Testament – to do associations (sometimes) – cleansing rites (regularly)
"for it will take seven days to ordain you – what do you do during the times you are fragile – cf. Charlie Newcomb's "if the first two congregations don't kick the baloney out of you , you'll be useless for the rest of your life"

10:1ff – church politics right off the bat! It may reflect problem when Josiah brought Northern local priests to Jerusalem but they couldn't approach the altar (2 Kings 23:8-9) Aaronite priesthood was traced in postexilic times through Aaron’s two youngest sons (cf. first Corinthians 1:25-29 God chose the lowly) also lots of Old Testament younger ones chosen.

Zadokites were the first ones in Jerusalem – serpent of bronze was then a fetish. They were carried off to Babylon andAarinites came from Bethel!

Note to Zechariah 3:1-10 – declaration Babylon (Zadokites) could return and be legitimate priests

Included here – "is not this a brand plucked from the fire?"
"Each man beneath his vine and fig tree"

10:16 – 20 – the goof up in the ritual and staff hassle – (didn't take them long) (see Peake for details)!

"And when Moses heard that, he was content". (Peace in the valley once more)

11 (10?):1ff – (note peak – British dislike for horsemeat may well stem from the fact that horse was sacred to Odin and was made taboo therefore for Christians.) (I.e. here in the passage some foods are taboo because they are sacred to other gods in the area, and some because repulsive in looks/habits)

– blood and fat always taboo – "life" too potent for mortals)
– running sores – repulsive contagion, blood mixed

10:16-20 – Aaron wins a round with Moses – a controversy over whether the offering was to include the priest (in this ordination situation) or not [which altar was used] Moses assumed not and Aaron assumed it did include priest. Their selection of "approved practice" followed from their assumptions – "and Moses was content" – no divine zap was imminent! – Ah! The perceiver in him rises to the fore – get this right and Aaron!

10:44f – he saved therefore do it [the key to all laws in the Old Testament i.e. it's a religious base not an ethical one – the response to being pulled out of the mess in Egypt – the holy for I am holy]

10:46-7 – these regulations are here to explain the taboos that exist – always a "dividing between"

13:45 – "unclean, unclean" – how necessary to survival, how terrible for the person – cf. father Damien

14:10 – eight day – first day of new life for the leper

14: 26 – clear out the belongings before the priest examines the house mold lest all be declared "unclean" – the days before “Tylex"

16:1-34 – note 2 separate actions –

a – containing sin and isolating it from all sacred objects (sacrificial blood used as it was potent)

b – removal of sin (not sacrificial) by laying them on a scapegoat [evil seen as being able to be transferred]

– God chose to go for the removal part by default – the sacrifice one

Sacrifice are to clean things up and isolate sin from them (Aaron and ____ first – bull, then people (and mercy seat) both words for altar etc.)

Then the second goat able to take the now isolated sin away

i.e. God gave them a method to have sin removed from them and give them a new start/chance

Christ did this to and this informs how (under the hood – dashboard gauges!)

I think this will clarify now the later New Testament usage of this ritual when I return to it.

17:10ff – basis of the belief of efficacy is reflected here – life is in the blood so it's a taboo – potent sin driver-outer – in whole burnt offerings it's not drained out there for potent – a respect for life at a very basic level I sense

18:1-6 – God has his own customs – keep them not the customs of your old/new place of dwelling – interesting concept

18:10-23 – kin space "not two of one flesh"
– husband-and-wife
– of the same womb
– of the same thigh (semen)

This gives interesting meaning to "the two shall become one flesh (see diagram in notes)

18:16 – Leverite marriage continued despite this

Leviticus 18:22 – and the passage which the UCC is all torn up about

18:24 – all this stuff is Canaanite practice and the cause for them being "vomited out" of their land – it can happen again – just try it and see (i.e. it makes God throw up)

A team: 28 – the land will vomit you out when you defile it – cf. _____’s comment on rape of the natural world and how nature throws off parts of it (men may get thrown off)

18:30 – interesting that the view is that they were "out of God's culture" (Canaanite) – and tied in with other things like child sacrifice and bail worship (fertility rituals) of a variety of sorts – and that the current resurgence of pantheism and goddesses in such stuff is all happening today as well – mushy thinking stuff and generalized mayhem. We have come so far that are always one generation away from paganism.

19:1-4 (11f) – of extreme antiquity – perhaps a basis (a P fragment) of 10 Commandments!

19:9-10 – not picking up gleanings (for the poor) may have come from leaving the gleanings for the corn spirit to keep it alive – and then became a social custom for keeping the poor alive as they grew in understanding.

19:17-18 – now down to motives behind actions: "your neighbour as yourself"

19:17 – talk it out – the basis of Matthew 18:15-17 (versus hatred)

19:23 – for three years fruit trees are taboo – forbidden – (literally "uncircumcised") not a proper tree (being born) until the fourth year. (Baby boy not a separate entity until the eighth day)

20:26 – holy to me and from the People's – a logical step but more reflecting their times than the larger scene – cf. two streams in Judaism (postexilic) "light to the nations" and "circle the wagons"

21: – all the taboos of the priests! Results in your standard TV perfect specimen today not defects lest you upset people (God here!) So if things die hard. I wonder if the "perfection of Christ" material arises from this portrait?

24:4 – lamp till the morning – reminds me of the candle in Sam's cabin that night at Deer Lake.

25ff – here's the passage Wayne preached his "Jubilee" sermon on in July/91 which put the hair up on the back of my neck – and tied it to Jesus for sermon where he said in effect – I declared Jubilee to you – I am the incarnation of the year of Jubilee – it broke open the Exodus 20ff stuff and all the atonement material was reachable – very "young" in all this imagery, but the back of it is broken – how marvelous. Direct approach to blood/atonement imagery proved fruitless to me but atonement as day one in the year of jubilee I could grasp (it could grasp me) and atonement details, now shifted in their focus off stage could be looked at and explained for their rich imagery and insights etc. – hallelujah!

25:9 – you shall sound of trumpet abroad on the day of atonement – lasted 10 days of new year – Jubilee! Open a year of freedom and economic reconciliation when man system corrected its error like the leap-second time corrections for us.

25:9 – one day in a man's life time when he can see a glimpse of the true nature of God (through man's action) as he has it clouded (through man's actions) the other 49 years – ohJubilee! That is, the nature of God and we get a glimpse of it in Christ's life as others get a glimpse of it in us (his body) all years "oh Jubilee! Jubilee! Jesus is our Jubilee!"

25:9 – how did the ears of the oppressed and downtrodden strain to hear that morning trumpet how did the contentment of the oppressed take hold knowing – "tomorrow it will be different – at the horn I can start over." How greatly did the Jubilee act as a buffer to release the hostility of injustice all around and Set at liberty those who are oppressed and forgive debt and pronounce the year of the Lord's acceptance! Old Jubilee!

25:13ff – Jubilee year kept God in the center of the business activities – prices were set by the number of years of crop till the Jubilee – always on lease from the Lord. Wow!

25:18 – the land will provide – don't milk it to death and fear the provision – stock up for the year 6 and7 and eight – new crop in.

25:18f – cf._____'s letter to HBC company to forgive all northern debt on 500th anniversary cf Columbus 500th birthday upcoming as well – return the land to the natives! (The Hudson Bay Company didn't buy it as an idea)

– what about us as individuals doing it? Wouldn't that rock the socks off.

YOBHL – Roman – Latin – jubileus – Jubilee

25:29f – not returned if in walled (urban) setting – it wouldn't work there – what would? That's where most of us live now.

25:38 – motive for all this is redemption from Israel and God's provision – basis of economic system. [Could a lot of this had been developed in the light of their bad experience with "adjoining field to field" i.e. did they try this noble experiment in light of Deutero-Isaiah's "what are you going to do with your new freedom?" At the end of the exile. Freely have you received, freely give.

25:55 – God's slaves (Israel) are treated kindly by him – treat others the same way (cf. Jesus "love as I have loved you"

26:1f – closing exhortation of H – "the big scene" versus minute detail – consecration to God shows in true worship and upright living

26:8 – five chase 100, 100 chase 10,000 – geometric proportion – when in God's space cf. spiritual warfare anywhere

26:13 – broken your bars – you walk erect – I feel that – it's from obedience he says

26:14-20 – first penalty – panic (sudden terrors)
– wasting disease (life pine away)
– burning fever

Hardin the resources of life to your accessing them and break the power of your life (playing the puck [you] off the boards of life! You'll be back because you can't stand the pain of the other lifestyle – cf. alcoholics.

26:21f – second penalty – "a progressive disease" so to speak – "alcoholics aren't losers, they just lose a lot!" "And if by this discipline you are not turned to me... then I'll walk contrary to you!

– eat and not be satisfied (not enough and it doesn't "fill" (cf. "find our rest in the"))

26:27ff – third penalty – eating your kids – hitting bottom "drinking Lysol" even enemies apauled!

26:34 – the land will finally get its missing Sabbath (get a break) when you are turfed out of it! (Sounds like some alcoholics families!)

– and hassle in exile – tell me about it.

26:36 – skittish to any pain "the sound of the leaf will put to flight"

26:40 – but the door is open if you change your ways and return to God. O the relief of 12 steps towards the "sanity" of spiritual awakening to God's presence. "But if they confess their iniquity and that of their fathers – if their uncircumcised heart is humbled and if they make amends for their iniquity then I will remember my covenant

– and I will remember the land! Amends to all.

26:44 – yet in exile I will not spurn or abhor – so right! For their sake I will remember this covenant. The song of the person working on step one or pre-step one.

navigation