The Dynamics of Our Life Prevent Us from Going Back, Only Forward…
But which way is forward
Trying to understand all the men and women sexual uncleanness in Leviticus Chapter 15 took me back to my early high school years going to the library and sneaking a look at a certain book in hopes of figuring out the birds and the bees. Years later I would find the little red book that my Dad gave me in that regard. When I opened it to read it, the first thing it said was to not just give this to your son!
The mystery of life unravels naturally when we follow our natural instincts and let nature take its natural course hopefully without any excesses of those natural instincts and with love for God, self and neighbor as so well stated in the Big Bible Book.
I am the Lord your God. Keep my laws and my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them.
Speaking to the children of Israel, God said through Moses that you shall not do according to the custom of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt: neither shall you act according to the manner of the country of Chanaan, into which I will bring you, nor shall you walk in their ordinances.
Wait a minute, Israel was Jacob and Jacob was the son of Isaac who I think was from Chanaan. It strikes me odd at first that everything didn’t just fall into place when the Israelites returned home from Egypt. There is no back to the future or back to the past in life. Everything is dynamic and ever changing. God returned a new people with a new but old covenant to their land of origin.
So to be it with the dynamics of the Old Testament and the Old Covenant and the New Testament and the New Covenant.
No man shall approach to her that is near of kin to him, to uncover her nakedness.
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father, thy mother, thy father’s wife; thy sister by father or mother; thy son’s daughter; thy father’s wife’s daughter; thy father’s sister; thy mother’s sister; thy father’s brother: neither shalt thou approach to his wife, who is joined by to thee by affinity; thy daughter in law: because she is thy son’s wife, neither shalt thou discover her shame; thy brother’s wife; thy wife and her daughter; her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to discover her shame: because they are her flesh and such copulation is incest.
Thou shall not approach to a woman having her flowers, neither shalt thou uncover her nakedness.
Thou shalt not lie with thy neighbor’s wife.
Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind, because it is an abomination.
Thou shall not copulate with any beast, neither shalt thou de defiled with it.
Some things explicitly stated in the Old Testament are trumped by the two Golden Commandments to love God and love your neighbor. Not to judge so that we are not judged.
I don’t think anything in the Old Testament trumps anything in the New Testament.
Who am I to judge what two human beings consent to behind closed doors?
The Dynamics of Our Life Prevent Us from Going Back, Only Forward…
Day 39: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; The Dynamics of Our Life Prevent Us from Going Back, Only Forward…
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Leviticus Chapters 15-18
Bible Notes:
This Book of Leviticus is so called, because it treats chiefly of divine worship for which God had chosen the tribe of Levi.
After describing the ordination of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, it records the Mosaic laws of sacrifice, of legal purity, of holiness, of vows, and of tithes.
Leviticus Chapter 15: Uncleanness of men in their issues; Offerings of men cleansed of their issues; Uncleanness of women in their issues; Offerings of women cleansed of issues; Warning against uncleanness.
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: The man that hath an issue of seed, shall be unclean. And then shall he be judged subject to this evil.
‘When any man has an unusual bodily discharge, such a discharge is unclean.’
If he who suffereth this disease be healed…
The man from whom the seed of copulation goeth out.
The woman, with whom he copulateth, shall be washed with water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
The women, who at the return of the month…
In the days of her separation
If a man copulateth with her in the time of her flowers…
To take heed of uncleanness, that they may not die in their filth…
The law of him that hath the issue of seed, and that defiled by copulation
And of the man that sleepeth with her.
Leviticus Chapter 16: The Day of Atonement; Vesting of the high priest; Casting lots for the two goats; Entry into the Holy of Holies; The emissary goat; The date of the feast.
When they were slain upon their offering strange fire…
The emissary goat…
Emissary—a representative sent on a mission or errand: emissaries to negotiate a peace; an agent sent on a mission of a secret nature, as a spy.
That he may pour out prayers upon him, and let him go into the wilderness.
And may expiate the sanctuary from the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and from their transgressions, and all their sins.
And when the goat hath carried all their iniquities into an uninhabited land, and shall be let go into the desert…
Accomplish the atonement
And this shall be to you an everlasting ordinance: The seventh month, the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work…
Afflict—to distress with mental or bodily pain; trouble greatly or grievously: to be afflicted with arthritis; Obsolete: to overthrow; defeat; to humble.
You shall humble your souls…
Leviticus Chapter 17: Laws for slaying of animals; Sacrifices to devils forbidden; Eating of blood forgiven.
Shall be guilty of blood: as if he had shed blood, so shall he perish from the midst of his people.
And they shall no more sacrifice their victims to devils, with whom they have committed fornication.
If any man… eat blood, I will set my face against his soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Let him poor out its blood, and cover it with earth.
You shall not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and whosoever eateth it, shall be cut off.
Leviticus Chapter 18: Imitation of Gentiles forbidden; Prohibited marriages; Unlawful lusts; Punishment for unlawful lusts.
You shall not do according to the custom of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt: neither shall you act according to the manner of the country of Chanaan, into which I will bring you, nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do my judgments, and shall observe my precepts, and shall walk in them. I am the Lord your God. Keep my laws and my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord.
No man shall approach to her that is near of kin to him, to uncover her nakedness.
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father, thy mother, thy father’s wife; thy sister by father or mother; thy son’s daughter; thy father’s wife’s daughter; thy father’s sister; thy mother’s sister; thy father’s brother: neither shalt thou approach to his wife, who is joined by to thee by affinity; thy daughter in law: because she is thy son’s wife, neither shalt thou discover her shame; thy brother’s wife; thy wife and her daughter; her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to discover her shame: because they are her flesh and such copulation is incest.
Thou shall not approach to a woman having her flowers, neither shalt thou uncover her nakedness.
Thou shalt not lie with thy neighbor’s wife.
Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind, because it is an abomination.
Thou shall not copulate with any beast, neither shalt thou de defiled with it.
A woman shall not lie down to a beast; nor copulate with it: it is a heinous crime.
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