Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 20:9

9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

There has already been some discussion among other commentators as to what sort of “cursing” could warrant a death penalty for an ungrateful child. Tradition maintains that this death penalty only applied to the most severe of oaths against one’s parents, one that employed the name of God, Himself, but so far as I can tell, there is only a matter of tradition, not definitively proven to be true. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. It still remains a death penalty for words spoken, which ostensibly our laws and culture are against, though recent examples like the murder of Charlie Kirk suggest that many today privately endorse the notion of killing others for their speech.

The fact is, being put death for one’s words has a long history in humanity, and it seems likely that we have only had a brief departure from it. Interestingly, that departure came about by the prevalence of Christian ideals, and now if it is waning, it appears to be due to the abandonment of those same ideals.

Even so, while many forms of death for evil words might be unjust, today’s verse should cause even the Christian to wonder if there are some that are just. The sharing of words is the sharing of ideas, and the sharing of perverse and twisted ideas has killed innocents, as can be seen in just our recent history. Abortion, Canada’s MAID program, and the sterilization of children with gender dysphoria are a few examples of how words, ideas, and movements are vehicles of self-destruction for entire cultures.

And when it comes to self-destructive and suicidal expressions, it is hard to think of one more direct than the abhorrence of one’s own progenitors. While no one has perfect parents, and some have truly awful parents, our very existence in this world is still dependent upon them. Cursing one’s own mortal beginning is an act of ouroboros. It is the tree cutting off its own roots, the fetus severing its umbilical cord, the breaking of one’s own tether to life. And so, there is something symbolic in the death penalty being assigned to such an act.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 20:6-8, 27

6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 

7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. 

8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you.

27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

Verse 6 condemns those who seek the services of wizards, witches, or other occult practitioners. It mentions a penalty of being cut off but does not specify what that entails. The fact that God is the one doing the cutting off suggests this is a spiritual separation, not a legal action. But that is only for the one who goes to the witches and the wizards. As for those occult practitioners themselves, the witches and the wizards, the death penalty applies. They have made it their work to lead people away from the true Lord, let alone how their services are exceedingly dark and immoral acts. Some accounts suggest that they would provide poisons for assassination and abortifacients, as well as serve in sexual rituals intended to create copulation between humans and demons.

Moving on to verses 7 and 8, these two verses speak of being sanctified. Obviously, we heard a great deal about the sanctification of the tabernacle, its instruments, and the priests who operated therein, but there was also a sanctification for the common Israelite as well. To be sanctified means to take that which is basic and earthy, and setting it apart to be dedicated to higher and holier purposes. Thus, anyone who chooses to live a life defined first by their commitment to God is living a sanctified life. You might work in the world, but if in your work you seek to be honest and industrious, keeping your commitment to God to do fairly by your fellow man, then your worldly work is an act of sanctification to God.

Obviously dealing with the occult would be a form of unsanctification, but so would having any other idol as the chief interest in our daily affairs. Be it greed or pleasure or praise. Whatever we do towards those pursuits is unsanctified, even if it is religious in nature, and we run afoul of the injunctions in these verses.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 20:1-5

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 

3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 

4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: 

5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.

The chapter that we begin today covers sins that were punishable by death. A controversial category from the Old Testament to be sure, especially since Jesus himself would later defer the penalty of death to those who normally would be executed under these laws, specifically the woman taken in adultery. I think I will discuss the reasons for that in a separate between-chapters side post.

For those that criticize the Old Testament God for proscribing the death penalty at all, I would suggest that any genuine acknowledgement of God as the creator of us all, and of Him as a higher being than the rest of us, must also lead to an admission that He has that right to enact His will whatever it is upon us. One may not want Him to be a God that proscribes death for certain acts, but to suggest that He cannot or should not is to not actually believe that God’s morals are higher than our own.

But that argument is only for the sincere pacifists. We do also have hypocrites today that decry the death penalties in the Bible but then celebrate assassination attempts on their political rivals. For many it is not actually a question of whether some people deserve to be executed, it is merely a desire for their people not to be killed while other people are fair game. To these there is no further argument to be made than to point out their hypocrisy. They already worship an ideology that sanctions death, so let them deal with that before casting stones at any other.

Moving past all that, at least the first death penalty in this chapter is probably the least controversial: execution for one who sacrifices his own children to an idol. Most people even today can appreciate that the murder of innocent children is one of the absolute darkest acts that any person can do. But while I say “least controversial” and “most people,” I cannot say “entirely uncontroversial” and “all people,” for even in recent cases we do see those who would excuse the slaughter of one’s own children, such as with Lindsay Clancy. These are very troubling times indeed. This leads us directly to the further condemnation in verse 4-5, which is against those that would turn their eyes from this sin and spare the murder. God declares that they will be cut off, and so will we if we continue in this same path.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Bringing Out Their Best

Treat someone as unreasonable and beyond persuasion, and that is just how they will be.

But had you treated them as reasonable and capable of considering new information, they likely would have been.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:26-28

26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. 

27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 

28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.

Today’s first verse is clearly referring to pagan rituals and magic. It follows that the next two verses are also related to those practices. It seems unlikely “rounding the corners of your head,” (cutting the hair in a particular pattern) is inherently evil, but that at the time was associated with an idolatrous practice that the Israelites must not align themselves with.

Verse 28 is also clearly referring to pagan practices, cutting one’s flesh for the dead is some sort of perverse ritual, and “print any marks” (tattoos) was presumably putting pagan symbols or words on oneself. However, these two are a distinctive subcategory, having to do with harming one’s body, in some cases permanently. We do not receive commandments prohibiting these practices generally, but we also have no positive examples of them elsewhere in the Bible. Other negative examples do exist, such as the priests of Baal cutting themselves during their competition with Elijah in 1 Kings 18:28. Many, myself included, take the idea of our bodies as a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19) as an imperative to treat our flesh with dignity and respect, precluding deliberate harm to it. in any case, what we are left with from today’s verses is a guiding principle, and the requirement to use our own conscience, good reasoning, and prayer to determine how we wish to honor the bodies God created for us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:23-25

23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. 

24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. 

25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the Lord your God.

This is an interesting bit of instruction God gives the Israelites. When they would first come into the land of Canaan for their inheritance, they were not to immediately eat fruit from their newly planted trees. Most scholars agree that this did not only apply to the first groves that were planted either, but to all trees that were planted throughout Israel’s generations. The fruit would be unclean to them for three years. God called it uncircumcised. The fourth year would be clean but needed to be given to the Lord. Only on the fifth year could they start to eat the fruit for themselves.

Several commentators have noted that it is common in tree cultivation to not use the first years of fruit as they are small and poor for eating, but if one cuts the buds before they can fully grow during those first years, the tree will learn to bear fuller and better fruit. Thus, it seems likely that the Israelites were going out and literally “circumcising” the trees, cutting off their first buds during those formative years.

This instruction is part of the universal pattern of delayed gratification, where one must prolong what is wanted immediately so that it can be had more fully and more rightly later. So much of wise living is learning self-denial in its time, be it in going through your studies, saving money, turning down premarital sex, or just waiting for the world to turn in your favor. And then, when the long waited for blessings do arrive, let the first harvest be consecrated to the Lord. Then the measure of patience is full, we can enjoy our fruit with a full heart, and God will bless all future yields.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:20-22

20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 

21 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. 

22 And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.

Today’s verses deal with a controversial subject: fornication with a bondwoman. There doesn’t seem to be any distinction in the language as to whether this is referring only to a foreign Canaanite woman, or an Israelite daughter who is an indentured servant, or both. In any case, the matter here is clearly fornication, not rape, which is handled elsewhere. Also, I say fornication because it fits are modern vernacular where the woman is unmarried, but she is betrothed, and in Ancient Israel that would have elevated the crime to the level of adultery.

In regular cases, adultery was an immediate death sentence for both parties. Hence the woman taken in adultery brought as a test to Jesus to see if he would approve of stoning her. But as we see today, this was actually only the punishment for free persons. The law recognized servants as not having the same privileges, and therefore they were not subject to the same punishments. As we have seen in several cases, the law was designed with protections around the vulnerable. In one sense it was no respecter of persons, condemning all for the same sinful behaviors, creating no class who could just get away with wrongdoing. At the same time, it would change the range of applicable punishment, always retaining the greatest penalty for those with the greatest opportunity.

Verse 20 describes the woman’s punishment as “she shall be scourged,” but this is a highly debated translation. The Hebrew word used here, בִּקּרֶת (biqqoreth), means “examination, i.e. (by implication) punishment — scourged” (Strong’s Concordance). There is nothing that actually makes certain that the word was meant to be scourged here, instead of investigated, nor anything that links it to the woman only. This passage could just as easily read “they shall be scourged” or “they shall be investigated.” Indeed, almost every translation today does use one of those other interpretations.

What is clear is that separate from whatever punishment is described in verse 20, the man involved in the offense would have to make a trespass offering. After this, both parties could apparently be forgiven.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:19

19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

Verse 19 is about keeping things separate and pure, not mixing parts together. It can be seen as a continuation of the laws against eating unclean meat and not using leaven during the Passover. All of this, of course, is a symbol of being a separate and chosen people. Though Israel would necessarily live alongside pagan cultures, they were not to mix faiths, not to corrupt their worship of God. Unfortunately, Israel would on many occasions fall into this very error and would lose their kingdom because of it.

Of course, we cannot judge them too harshly. Corruption of the faith is a very real problem in our day, too. There are many “Christians” who are more converted to the trends of our current society than their actual doctrine, seeking to blend fabrics of love and tolerance with sins like homosexuality, to give just one example. Mankind has ever been too concerned with looking right according to the current social standard, and not in being right in God’s eyes.

It is interesting that it is this particular verse has become a favorite go-to for those wanting to discount the Bible’s commandments against homosexuality. “Why do you hold to the Bible’s condemnation of gay people, but you still wear clothes with mixed fabrics?” The answer is that, as previously mentioned, the mixed fabric law was part of the unclean meats and leaven laws, which was explicitly withdrawn in Acts 10, whereas the sins of sexual immorality have never been rescinded. Still, it is ironic and poetic that people attempt to justify homosexuality by referencing the very category of commandments that symbolically opposed the mingling of faith with the immoral trends of the day.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:17-18

17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 

18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.

Today’s two commandments are very interesting. While all the previous ones have been prohibitions against what you do, today’s venture into prohibitions as to what you permit yourself to feel. “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart” and “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” can be very difficult commandments to follow, as they require an emotional state that we may not naturally feel.

In my own experience I have learned that while the presence of hate and the absence of love might be my natural state towards any individual in particular, it is possible to change them over time. By not dwelling on the hate when it arises, it does eventually go away. By seeking to do kind acts even in the absence of love, eventually the love returns. Thus, I do not believe that we are condemned by being amiss in these things in a single moment, but only if we will not train our hearts to love and be kind with the time that we have.

It is also interesting to note how these two laws in the Old Testament point to the higher law that would come later. I think we do not often remember that when Jesus said that the second greatest commandment was “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” (Mark 12:31) he was not presenting a new idea, he was quoting himself as Jehovah in today’s verses. And he was also quoting the Old Testament for what he gave as the first great commandment, to love God with all our hearts. (see Mark 12:30 and Deuteronomy 6:5).