Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Leviticus

[Hezzrah]

It is clear to me that Book of Leviticus is an ancient health and criminal code, nothing more and nothing less. God element comes into play in that book only to instill fear into uneducated, at the time, masses. Why do some Christians use that part of the Bible to justify their bigotry against gays and yet at the same time, ignore warnings not to eat shellfish and the whole female period thing? You're either all in or all out and this is why Hasidic Jews have my respect for this.

[jimwalton]

Wow, you're showing some bias pretty quickly. God is only to instill fear into the uneducated masses? Hm, sounds like a slant from the starting line. I'll play along though, if nothing else to start a dialogue.

First of all, Leviticus is not health and criminal code at all. You've missed the whole point. Leviticus is a holiness code. It's how people construct holiness. The purpose of Leviticus is to detail the management of sacred space, sacred status, and sacred time. A great French restaurant may have an inviting atmosphere, but it's a different thing altogether to be back in the kitchen. Leviticus takes us back into the kitchen where we see how and why things are put together the way they are, and how to place a fork on the table. To use a different analogy, we have to first learn the steps if we want to dance. Leviticus is teaching us the steps.

Now that I've laid a very brief foundation, I'll move to the next expression of your bias—that Christians just use Leviticus to justify their bigotry and inconsistency. Hm. This post of yours is more a rant than a question. No matter. I'll comment.

The laws of Leviticus, as I mentioned, as based in defining holiness. God is holy, and we are not. Leviticus describes how the "kitchen" and the "customers" can interact with each other, and its usually mediated by the hostess (high priest), servers (priests), busboys (Levites), etc. What the laws of Leviticus are teaching us is basic truths about God and man, man's estrangement from God, how that estrangement can be bridged, and how a person can have a relationship with God.

With that foundation and structure in place, now let's address your bias directly (bigotry and inconsistency). The consensus among Christians is that Jesus has fulfilled the Law, and we don't need to follow it anymore. Any of it. The function of the Law of Moses, in general, and Leviticus as part of it, was not as a health and criminal code for society (as such, it is in many ways obsolete anyway), but as a revelation of the character of God. It's about the holiness of God, and how people construct holiness in a relationship with him: to separate ourselves for God's purposes, to live lives of purity as God is pure, and to treat every part of our lives as an offering acceptable to God.

Since the law was given to reveal the character of God to us, it is with that understanding that Jesus later says, "I didn't come to abolish the law...but to fulfill them" (Mt. 5.17). It's as if he was saying, "You could come to know what God is like by looking at the Law, but that will just give you part of the picture. If you look at me you'll get the complete picture." Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen God." The Law wasn't a set of arbitrary rules, but a lifestyle of living in God's way, which is what Jesus did.

The sacrificial laws, rituals, and the priesthood are all valid, but now we look to Jesus, the perfect high priest and perfect sacrifice. They were symbols of our access to God, and we still have access to God, but now through Jesus. The Levitical law, along with the rest of the Law, is a road that takes us to Jesus, and it stops there. It was a good road, but its purpose has been fulfilled.

The food laws were symbolic of the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, and that separation has been abolished in Christ.

The laws about sexuality and relationships were symbolic of our relationship to God, and that relationship has been secured through Jesus.

So we don't look to ANY of the Laws any more as our standard of living. We look to Jesus. On the other hand, all of those laws inform the revelation that comes to us in Jesus, and so we don't disregard any of them. We look at them for what they symbolize and teach, however, and not so much following them as a list of rules.

As far the dietary laws, they represent our relationship with God. Animals suitable for sacrifice were suitable for human consumption. Perhaps also the laws pertain to "categories" and "anomalies." Since "fish" are supposed to have fins and scales, shellfish and eels don't qualify. Since "birds" have wings and fly, emus and ostriches don't qualify. Land animals "should" walk on all fours, so a snake doesn't qualify. The symbolism is that the relationship with God is that which fulfills its design and purpose, and when something is out of whack, symbolically speaking, it cannot be in relationship with God. Jesus fulfilled this by making it possible to be justified by faith and to be made right with God (no longer "out of whack").

But what about the sexuality laws? Sexuality throughout the Bible is used as a powerful symbol for one's relationship with God. When the Israelites dip into idolatry, God says they have "committed adultery" and "prostituted" themselves. God uses the symbol of marriage for his committed relationship with his people. Therefore sex outside of the committed relationship of marriage symbolizes a relationship with God that is broken and twisted from its intent. In that sense, our human relationships symbolize our relationship with God, and are to reflect holiness. Given that understanding, any relationship in the Bible other than that of a man and woman committed to one another in marriage is labeled as “an abomination,” as a symbol of a corrupt relationship with God. Sexual relationships outside of the "norm" (hence an anomaly, or "out of whack") compromise one's holiness.

So Christians, along with Hasidic Jews, should also have your respect. We're all in. The whole Law was a road that led to Jesus, and has been fulfilled in Him—all of it. Now we as Christians are "in Christ"—all in. The Law was a guidepost that has been fulfilled. He fulfilled it in that he did what the law failed to do: showed people how to live. The law was a temporary measure—God wanted to tell his people that they should have certain attitudes. God did that by commanding actions (the Law) with the idea that they would see the attitudes behind them. They failed. Christ, on the other hand, preached the attitudes (Mt. 5), but more importantly lived an example of the proper attitudes (Phil. 2.5-8) as well as the proper actions (Jn. 8.46), thus accomplishing what the law failed to accomplish. So the rule of thumb now is that we follow Christ's example. We can, in that sense, ignore the law (all of it), because if we follow Christ's example, we'll get both the actions of the law and the attitudes of the heart. But we don't do them because of the law; we do them because that is what godly attitudes bring about. So all of the law was fulfilled in Jesus, and our behavior now is not based at all on the law, but on Jesus' example (Rom. 13.8-10). The coinciding with many point of the law is to be expected, but we are not living by even that section of Law.