A LEVITICUS-FREE NEW YEAR:
The Folly of Biblical Literalism in the Modern Age
1 January -- New Year's Day 2K
Having deconstructed one of my "favorite" Biblical stories, that being Sodom and Gomorrah, I'd like to now deal with another Biblical book which the anti-gay forces like to thump us with. (A quick sidebar: Did you ever notice that the "live and let live" pages of the Bible always seem to be the first ones to get knocked loose from all that thumping?)
First and foremost, look at this phrasing which appears over and over and OVER again in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, starting with the very opening words of the book and repeated in nearly every chapter. The emphasis is mine, in each case:
Lev 1:1-2 The Lord called to Moses from the Tent of the Lord's presence and gave
him the following rules for the Israelites to observe....
Lev 4:1-2 The Lord commanded Moses to tell the people of Israel....
Lev 6:1-2 The Lord gave the following regulations to Moses. An offering is to be made if any of you sin against the Lord by refusing to return what another Israelite....
Lev 8:1-2 The Lord said to Moses, "Take Aaron and his sons....
Lev 9:1 The day after the ordination rites were completed, Moses called Aaron and his sons and the leaders of Israel
Lev 11:1-2 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations for the people of Israel....
Lev 12:1-2 The Lord gave Moses the following regulations for the people of Israel....
Lev 15:1 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations for the people of Israel....
Lev 17:1-2 The Lord commanded Moses to give Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel the following regulations....
Lev 18:1-2 The Lord told Moses to say to the people of Israel....
Lev 19:1-2 The Lord told Moses to say to the community of Israel....
Lev 20:1-2 The Lord told Moses To say to the people of Israel....
Lev 21:1 The Lord commanded Moses to tell the Aaronite priests....
Lev 22:1-2 The Lord commanded Moses to tell Aaron and his sons....
Lev 23:1-2 The Lord gave Moses the following regulations for the religious festivals,
when the people of Israel....
Lev 24:1-2 The Lord told Moses to give the following orders to the people of Israel....
Lev 25:1-2 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded him
to give the following regulations to the people of Israel....
Lev 27:1-2 The Lord gave Moses the following regulations for the people of Israel....
Whew!
Sorry for belaboring the point, but I think it's important to show how consistently and constantly that wording is used, "for the people of Israel." Here, to underscore it even further, are the very final words from the Book of Leviticus:
Lev 27:34 These are the commands that the Lord gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.
Now I don't know about you, but I happen to be a 20th century (er, excuse me, 21st century) Christian -- not a 4,000-year-old Hebrew !
If that is not enough to settle this question in some minds, let me go farther. To those who want to resort to Leviticus as an anti-gay weapon, I would ask: Do you wear clothing made of more than one fabric? Do you quarantine your women for a week after their menstrual period, or bathe yourself after sitting in the same chair as they? Do you eat shrimp or lobster? Do you ever eat a cheeseburger, or have a glass of milk with your salami sandwich? Do you cut your hair and/or your beard? Don't the neighbors complain about the smell and the noise from your backyard altar where you slaughter all the animals and throw their blood all over the place?
If you fail to conform to any of those Levitical commands and prohibitions, then you are guilty of committing an "abomination." After all, Leviticus says in both 20:22 and 26:14 that the Lord demanded, "Keep ALL these commands." How do you decide which Levitical commands you'll keep, and which ones you'll discard?
Lev 20:13 If a man has sexual relations with another man, they have done a disgusting
thing [an "abomination" in the King James translation], and both shall be put to death....
Do you honestly want to follow that Levitical command and kill gay people? If not, why not?
Here's a good one:
Lev 25:36 Do not charge Israelites any interest, but obey God and let them live near you.
Do you refuse to pay interest on your MasterCard or your home mortgage? What if the bank, instead of crediting interest on your savings, sent you a statement quoting ZERO interest, and instead quoted Leviticus 25:36?
How would you like to face this penalty for having lost your temper and cut loose with the "G.D." expression?...
Lev 24:14 "Take that man out of the camp. Everyone who heard him curse [God] shall put his hands on the man's head to testify that he is guilty, and then the whole community shall stone him to death.
Today is the First of January. What will you be doing on the 10th of July?...
Lev 23:26-30 The tenth day of the seventh month is the day when the annual ritual is to be performed to take away the sins of the people....Any who eat anything on that day will no longer be considered God's people....And if any do any work on that day, the Lord himself will put them to death.
"The Lord Himself will put them to death." Earlier, I mentioned that type of Old Testament imagery of God The Father as "The Great Thundering Cosmic Punisher." Here are a few more examples of it:
Lev 10:1-2 Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan, put live coals in it, added incense, and presented it to the Lord. But this fire was not holy, because the Lord had not commanded them to present it. Suddenly the Lord sent fire, and it burned them to death there in the presence of the Lord.
And:
Lev 26:16 I will punish you. I will bring disaster on you -- incurable diseases and fevers that will make you blind and cause your life to waste away. You will plant your crops, but it will do you no good, because your enemies will conquer you and eat what you have grown.
And:
Lev 26:22 I will send dangerous animals among you, and they will kill your children, destroy your livestock, and leave so few of you that your roads will be deserted.
And:
Lev 26:26 I will cut off your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake all the bread they have. They will ration it out, and when you have eaten it all, you will still be hungry.
Here, perhaps, is the single most repugnant and outlandish section of Leviticus -- it actually sets down the ground rules for human sacrifice!
Lev 27:28-29 None of you may sell or buy back what you have unconditionally dedicated to the Lord, whether it is a human being, an animal, or land. It belongs permanently to the Lord. Not even human beings who have been unconditionally dedicated may be bought back; they must be put to death.
Is that the type of God you want a personal relationship with? A "strike-em-dead-in-their-tracks" fiend?!
Stop and think for a minute. In that place and time, we were talking about mankind in a very primitive state. Good heavens, no sooner did Moses climb down from the mountain than some of the Israelis fashioned a golden idol of an animal. These were people who trafficked in slavery, had multiple wives and concubines, and kept a sword at the ready at all times to defend against conquering enemies. It was mankind's primitive, often warlike nature that required this sort of "come-down-on-peoples'-heads-with-an-iron-club" Taskmaster. There didn't seem to be any other way to get some of them to pay attention.
Many of the Levitical commands were perfectly logical for that place and time. The ancient Israelis were people wandering through a desert climate, thousands of years before refrigeration was even dreamed of. Of course they should not mix meat and dairy in the same cooking vessels. But how could you possibly explain micro-organisms to a people who lived thousands of years before a microscope? You couldn't. Just as it is unnecessary to make a three-year-old child understand the scientific process of heat convection in order to teach him that the stove will burn him, you simply swat his hand and tell him, for his own good, "don't touch the stove." For the good of some very primitive and stubborn people, God had to smack their hands (or worse) and insist that they not do certain things.
The life expectancy at that time was a shockingly low 25 years of age. Diseases were rampant, and sexually transmitted diseases would have been a death sentence. Furthermore, a people surrounded by enemies, as the Israelis were, needed a high birth rate to swell their ranks. It is eminently logical that God wanted them to devote every ounce of sexual energy to procreation.
But Jesus -- thanks be to Him ! -- put an end to all that Old Testament "Cosmic Thundering" business. Look what he told the Samaritan woman by the well in the Gospel of John:
John 4:21-24 Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes. But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as He really is, offering Him the true worship that He wants. God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship Him as he really is." [emphasis mine]
This clearly indicates that the real character of God was never as it was portrayed in the Old Testament. But it was necessary for Him to deal with mankind in a more stern fashion back then in order to get through their thick heads. Jesus alluded to this also in Matthew 19:
Matthew 19:8 Jesus answered, "Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives because you are so hard to teach."
God is not now, nor was He ever, a fiend. God is love. Have a "Leviticus-free" New Year! Read the book to gain an understanding of some of Israel's early history -- but kindly do not try to bash 21st century gay people over the head with it, thank you very much.
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A LEVITICUS-FREE NEW YEAR:
