Old Testament - Leviticus 19 - May 6, 2022

 5/6/2022 -Leviticus 19

This chapter speaks of ethics. The Lord has certainly given the Israelites His law, but there is more to life than simply obeying the law. The Lord wants them to have more in order to BE more. V 2: “Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. As parents, we try to teach our children, not just how to obey the law of the land, but how to also work to learn how to be a friend, how to grow in compassion, how to think of others as much as we think of ourselves…

The Lord starts this scripture by reminding them of the things He has tried to teach them thus far: honor your parents, keep the Sabbath (that’s honoring our Heavenly Parent), have nothing to do with idols that so many other groups worship (v’s 3-5).

He then tells them to always help others: “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, nether shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard neither shat thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger;” (v 9-10) We are not to defraud our neighbor, and when someone works for us, we are to give them a worthy paycheck. (v 13) In v 14: we should help those who are deaf, or blind, or having any other health problem. 

Then he tells us how to watch out for our own thoughts and feelings: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment” (v 15) And He added that we should act and think the same whether we are dealing with the rich or with the poor. We are not to spread gossip. V 16 states it more strongly for me: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.”  We are not to “hate thy brother in thine heart” nor argue, or carry a grudge with our neighbors. (v 17) Instead we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I was surprised when I read v 28: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.” V. 30 tells us to stay away from spiritualists or spirit mediums, for they are the wrong kind of spirits to be close to! We are to reach out to help strangers.  And when we judge others around us, think first how we would want to be judged.

These are the things that will lead us to the most good and enjoyable life…for us and for those around us. 


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