8 And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice, 

9 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord; even that man shall be cut off from among his people. 

These two verses make the point that it is not only the Israelites who were under the commandment to not make idolatrous offerings in their homes, but also the people who were not of their faith that lived among them. In tomorrow’s verses those not living under the Mosaic Law would again be forbidden from eating blood, the same as God’s covenant people.

This is, of course, a reminder that Israel was a Hebraic Nationalist State. They were not religiously neutral. Did they allow other people not of their faith to live among them? Yes. Did they allow those people to not hold to all the same faith practices? Yes. But were there certain religious laws underpinning their national infrastructure that all were required to observe? Also yes.

Today, in our Christian culture, we have made one of our great commandments the separation of Church and State. On the one hand, this has allowed religion to become more of a super-entity, one that supersedes the cultures and practices of any one nation. Though perhaps colored a bit differently from state to state, Christianity has been a great moving force in hundreds of kingdoms over thousands of years, even ones where it has no political identity. On the other hand, we do believe in an eventual return of Christ, which will herald a firm, Christian Nation that all the World will be subject to, essentially a return of the Hebraic National system, but applied to all the world.

What that means the role of religion in politics and national identity should be today, I do not know. I am aware that this is a debated topic of today, but I see no clear answer from these or other Biblical passages. Only a reminder of how things once were, and of how they will one day be again.