People usually harbour an ambition to conquer the Bible. They set goals such as finish reading it in one year or two. These are noble ambitions but rather unprofitable. The Bible is a library of 73 books. What good will it do you to finish reading 73 books in one year or two? What benefit will it bring you? What inspiration will it enlighten in you? Do you think reading the Bible cover to cover will improve your relationship with God, will gain you a better understanding of the will of God? Indeed, many people begin with Genesis but seldom get through Leviticus. Unless you are comfortable in dealing with details and repetitions, I am afraid you will soon be bogged down by the jumble of statues scattered around. Of course, there are large sections of clearly related collection of law codes for sacrifices, cleanliness, sexual conducts, compensations etc. But in some, there seems to be no clear relation between any two adjacent statues. It seems that they just happen to have come together by chance. The author did not consciously try to organize them into more meaningful structures. Leviticus is not an easy book to read.
If we want to identify any major themes in Leviticus, one candidate immediately comes to mind.
Be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy (Leviticus 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:26; 21:8).
Of course God is holy. But He also commands us to be holy like Him. When He prepared to establish the Sinai Covenant with the Israelites, He made it clear their obligations.
and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6a).
To help them fulfill their obligations, God gave them instructions and guidelines in the Torah.
When sociologists study the phenomenon of religions, they propose a dichotomy of the sacred and the profane. Our daily life belongs to the region of the profane. Anything beyond belongs to the sacred. It is an Otherness out there. But the profane and the sacred are also related, especially through rituals. Man transcends the profane, through rituals, to take part in the sacred. The beauty of Jewish monotheism is its ability to integrate the sacred and the profane in their daily life.
Let us turn to Leviticus 19 to take a look. It begins with a formula.
And the LORD said to Moses (Leviticus 19:1).
Then comes the main theme again.
Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy (Leviticus 19:2).
Then comes the jumble of commandments and statues. You will find the Ten Commandments scrambled with other codes in a different order from that found in Exodus 20.
Honour your parents (19:3).
Keep the Sabbaths (19:3).
Do not worship idols (19:4).
Do not steal (19:11).
Do not bear false witness (19:11).
Do not profane the name of God (19:12).
Keep the Sabbaths (19:30).
In between the gaps, you will find codes regulating the eating of peace sacrifice, harvest, paying wages to labourers, treatment towards people with disabilities, passing judgments, vengeance, sex with a slave woman, hairstyles, tattoos, making daughters prostitutes, treatment towards aliens, just balances and weights etc. No wonder, Leviticus is really a difficult book to comprehend. I hope someone will enlighten me on the organization of these statues.
In Matthew, Jesus told us to be perfect, rather than to be holy (Matthew 5:48). To be holy is to become an Otherness, separated from the ordinary daily life. No. Jesus wants us to excel in our daily life. He sets us six assignments to be handed in at the Last Judgment. Some of them can also be found in Isaiah 58.
To feed the hungry (Matthew 25:35).
To quench the thirsty (25:35).
To welcome the strangers (25:35).
To clothe the naked (25:36).
To take care of the sick (25:36).
To visit the imprisoned (25:36).
Doing these is to love our neighbours. Through serving the needy, we serve God.
And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40)
Therefore, let us joyfully serve the needy. In doing so, we serve God.
My Lord, teachers always help the weaker students. We are weak in doing good. Help us do good joyfully for it is an opportunity to come close to You. Amen.
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