Rules, rules, rules! Some people welcome rules because they like to do the right thing and they don’t want the trouble that comes from breaking the rules. There is comfort in knowing right from wrong.

Other people see rules as an assault on their personal freedom. they ask, “What harm can there be in breaking a few rules?” Sometimes they get away with rule-breaking — at least for a while — and  it leads them to believe that some of the rules just don’t apply to them.

Do a lot of the Old Testament rules and laws seems quaint and out of touch to you as you read them today? We think that society has evolved beyond the need for all of these rules, but God sees his Laws as immutable as the laws of nature. They provide a vital glimpse into God’s expectations of holiness for his people and the basis of his judgments against sin.

In today’s reading we see that an underlying principle of the Law was that people and things should be pure, not mixed up together with things not quite like themselves. For instance, God forbade cross-breeding animals, planting multiple kinds of seed in a field, and weaving different kinds of thread into one fabric. God wanted his people to discern between what was truly holy and pure, and what looked permissible, but was actually against his law.

The biggest temptations people face come from things that feel good and seem right, but lead to unforeseen consequences later. God sees the consequences and he tells people to avoid compromising themselves.

These laws were a constant reminder that Israel was a completely unique nation, separate from the nations around it, and belonging to God. When they entered the Promised Land the prohibition on mixing with others not like themselves would extend to not intermarrying with the Canaanite people they encountered, as well as avoiding worshiping their false gods.

The bottom line was that God was jealous for his people. He didn’t want them to lose their identity as his nation-under-God, and he didn’t want them to take up the worship of idols.

Animals Used for Meat

The Israelites were allowed to use domestic animals for meat, but probably did so only sparingly. Meat from an animal had to be consumed within two days. They didn’t preserve meat and they didn’t waste it, so an animal was slaughtered only when they were sure it would be consumed in a timely way.

 A domestic animal intended to be used for food had to be brought to the tabernacle. The priest would kill the animal and capture its blood, then he would splash the blood against the sides of the altar and burn the fat on the altar. After that the owner could take the meat home to share with friends and family.

Apparently Israel was in danger of offering animal sacrifices to goat gods out in the desert. This was an idolatrous practice that might have crept into the thinking of the Israelites by associating with pagan tribes who passed through. When God required Israel to bring all animals to the tabernacle for slaughter, he prevented them from practicing secret sacrifices to false gods. (Leviticus 17:7)

The Israelites were allowed to hunt for wild animals for food as long as they were in the category of clean animals. They had to bleed out the carcass and cover the blood with dirt to bury it. They were not allowed to eat animals that were found dead because it wasn’t possible to know whether the blood had been drained from the body.

God didn’t allow Israel to eat meat with the blood still in it, or to drink blood, because the life of the animal was in the blood, and all of life belonged to God. They respected life by not consuming blood. Also, blood was used to atone for sin and uncleanness; it was sacred to God.

Purity in Sexual Practices

The laws regarding who was eligible to be our spouses are so entrenched in our society now that we may be surprised to find that God had to spell them out to the Israelites. Basically, a man could not marry or have sex with a close female relative.

A close relative was defined as someone born into the family or who had married into the family. Once a woman was married, under the law she became the daughter of her husband’s parents, the sister of his siblings and the aunt of his nieces and nephews. Any man within that circle was forbidden from taking her as his wife.

The exception, however, was if the woman was widowed during her childbearing years before she had a child. Then her dead husband’s brother was obligated to marry her and provide a child in his brother’s name. This kept the dead husband’s heritage intact and gave the widow a child to provide for her in her old age.

The Law consistently forbade men from  having sex with their neighbor’s wife because that was adultery and it disrupted the peace and continuity of at least two families. The Law also forbade homosexual relations. Both of these behaviors were forbidden in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.

People were told not to have sexual relations with animals. God detested anything that went outside his created order and he condemned bestiality.

Child Sacrifice Forbidden

There was a false god that was worshipped by pagan tribes from North Africa to Canaan, and it had different names, but the most common was Molech. The worship of this god demanded child sacrifice by fire. God hated this practice and he absolutely forbade it to Israel. One of the reasons God was going to rout the Canaanites from the land was to put a stop to child sacrifice as part of idol worship.

In fact, God told Moses that all of the corrupt practices forbidden to Israel were the reason the Canaanites had to be wiped out.

“But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” Leviticus 18:26-28

Personal Holiness

Leviticus 19 is a list of laws that contribute to personal holiness. The list seems random, but the laws are all related to the integrity and wholeness of the nation. Many of these laws seem obvious to us, and some of them seem like common sense or just plain good manners, but it’s good to remember that they were first instituted right here in Leviticus. God was kind to put these guidelines into writing and to standardize good behavior.

God gave these laws to people who weren’t sure about what was right or wrong, and ever since the Law was given we have benefitted from its wisdom. In the eyes of God these laws are as immutable as the law of gravity. They are the standard by which all people will be judged, and if it were not for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, all people would be condemned on the basis of these laws. Praise God that Jesus paid the penalty for all lawbreakers who look to him for salvation.

The theme of Leviticus is be holy as God is holy and that’s something we all have to keep learning how to do, even in the 21st century. We are saved by grace, but we please God most when we understand his standards of holiness and live by them.