Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 16 Oct 2016
v The year that my son Josh was born, my neighbor invited me to go to a Holiness church with him in the backwoods of Georgia. It was the most enthusiastic church service I’ve ever been to. These folks went to church practically every night; they all sang the hymns at the top of their lungs, and when the spirit moved, they danced around the church building uttering nonsense syllables – every one of them, from the good-old boys to the little old ladies. When I could endure the bedlam no longer, I left. Later, while I was visiting my neighbor at his house, I pointed out that the Bible says if you’re going to speak in tongues at a church service that only two or three should do so, and that they should take turns. He looked like he had never heard of those rules in the Bible. He had a giant Bible sitting on the coffee table in the middle of his living room – it looked like it had never been opened before, so I opened it to 1 Corinthians 14:27 and showed it to him. I don’t think he was convinced. Apparently the basis of his sense of holiness came from the things his church did and not from God’s word.
v More recently, my son Amos met a Christian from Russia while he was working on a farm, and Amos was intrigued with the standards for holiness from the Russian evangelical tradition. For one thing, they considered Classical music to be a bad influence, and for another thing, no Christian would ever be caught dead wearing a tie to church – that’s just not what Christians do. Compare that with the standards I saw in practice at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, where I did some campus ministry back in the day. School authorities would regularly conduct surprise inspections of student’s dorm rooms. If they found any Christian rock or Country music, they would destroy those tapes and CD’s, they only let the students keep Classical music and Gospel in their dorms. Students were also required to wear ties to classes and church services.
v I may be confusing them with Toccoa Falls or Tennessee Temple or Columbia Bible College, but anyhow, who was more holy, the Russian Christians who avoided Classical music and ties and were the sons of martyrs, or the Bible College students preparing to be pastors and missionaries, and listening only to Classical music and wearing ties?
v You want to be a really holy Christian? Leviticus 19 tells us that our personal holiness comes not from what we do (or don’t do) but from who God is, and the more we set apart God as holy, the more holy we will be.
v As I noted when we moved past the description of the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, we are now in the section of the book that describes principles of personal holiness.
Ø Chapter 17 related the principles of forgiveness of sin to personal holiness by saying, “Don’t make animal sacrifices to any other god but Yahweh, and don’t use blood for any other reason but to atone for your sins in the way God’s word commands.”
Ø Chapter 18, on which I spent the last three sermons, related the principles of marriage to personal holiness.
Ø Now in chapter 19, we’re going to see the principle of ethics related to personal holiness, as every one of the 10 Commandments is spotlighted, one at a time, and many of them expounded on.
§ This morning I only have time to go through the first 8 verses which basically cover the first 5 of the 10 Commandments, and if I can generalize the theme, they speak of holiness, not in terms of whether you listen to Classical music or wear a tie or speak in tongues or go to church every day, but in terms of honoring God.
v What does “Holy” mean?
Ø The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines holy as “belonging to the sphere of the sacred.” But “sacred” is just the Latin root for the Germanic word “holy,” and the words “consecrated,” “saint,” and “sanctuary” also come from that Latin root and mean the same thing, so that doesn’t get us very far in our understanding.
Ø Brown, Driver, and Briggs’ classic Hebrew Lexicon adds one more phrase as a synonym, and that is, “set apart.”
Ø Louw and Nida’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, defines “hagios/holy” as, “superior moral qualities and possessing certain essentially divine qualities in contrast with what is human.”
Ø Now, I use these lexicons, not because they stand with authority over the Bible to define the Bible, but rather because they were written by scholars who did a good job of summarizing what the Bible says.
Ø Holiness is ultimately relational. It is about people and things that a personal god likes. The things that are holy are the things in good standing with a particular god.
§ So the “holy angels” in the N.T. are the ones in good standing with God, as opposed to the “unclean spirits” that Jesus cast out.
§ The “holy prophets” in Peter’s discourses are the ones who really delivered God’s word, in contrast to the “false prophets” who did not speak God’s words.
§ Think about how often the words “righteous” and “holy” occur together in the Bible (or, to use their Latin forms, “just” and “saint”). They go together because what is “right” with God is also “holy.”
Ø Thus, that which is holy is positively related to the “kingdom of God,” because all that is in the kingdom of God recognizes God as the ultimate authority – the King – and obeys Him, and since His law forms the basis for ethical holiness, those who are properly related to God in this way are holy and called “saints.”
Ø Part of holiness is also realizing that this sanctity is generated by God and not by you or anything else related to God. In other words, you can’t make yourself holy unless you yourself are God. (And you’re not, by the way.) Only God can make the call of whether or not you (or anything else) are holy, because holiness is about whether He considers you properly related to Him.
Ø Ever since the first man and woman disobeyed God, they plunged themselves and the whole world into a broken relationship with God, a state of un-holiness. That is why we see in Leviticus that in order to become holy, the things of earth – be they clay pots or tents or people – had to first be consecrated (or made holy). And even then, they didn’t initiate that process; God picked the people and things He wanted consecrated and explained how to do the consecration procedure, and, in every case, it was blood – the payment of death to atone for sin – that was the basis upon which those things and people which had been put out of good standing with God through sin could be reconciled to a right relationship with God.
Ø Now, when we talk about growing in holiness or sanctification, we are talking about a process that occurs after God’s sovereign choosing, calling and justification of a person. It is a process which is empowered by the Spirit of Holiness – the Holy Spirit, and involves our submission to His will, conformance to His character, and obedience to His laws in the Bible – and His will, His character, and His law are all in agreement with each other.
v OK, I got kinda excited about defining holiness, but I hope that a good definition can help dispel wrong-headed ideas about holiness and can point the way toward how to obey the command to be holy here in Leviticus 19.
v Now, verse 2 here points us to the first of the 10 Commandments because if Yahweh considers Himself both “God” and “holy,” that means He is in good relationship as God with God, and that means there can be no other god, because if there was another god, then Yahweh wouldn’t be holy. Leviticus 19:2 tells us that there is no other god besides Yahweh who can define Yahweh as holy. Therefore Yahweh has the authority to say in the 1st Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
v Verse 2 also teaches us how to be holy: Setting apart God as holy is how to be holy.
Ø Holiness is not about proving to other people that you are a Christian, it is about honoring God for who He is.
Ø Holiness is not about conforming yourself to the way a certain group of Christians looks and acts; it is about living consistently with the fact that God is grander than anything and anyone on earth.
Ø “This is the object of the exhortation… that they should not measure the service of God by their own conceits, but rather by His nature... For … men … willingly lie slumbering in their own filthiness, and seek to cloak it by the outward appearance of religion. Here, then, they are recalled to the imitation of God, who, in adopting them, desired that they should bear His image, just as good… children resemble their father… [Now,] although the most perfect come very far short even of the angels, yet the weakness of the very humblest does not prevent him from aspiring after the example of God. To this point did all the [Levitical] ceremonies tend.” ~John Calvin, Harmony of the Pentateuch, 1st Commandment.
Ø “Their being distinguished from all other people by peculiar laws and customs was intended to teach them a real separation from the world and the flesh, and an entire devotedness to God. And this is now the law of Christ (the Lord bring every thought within us into obedience to it!) You shall be holy, for I am holy, (1 Peter 1:15-16). We are the followers of the holy Jesus, and therefore must be, according to our capacity, consecrated to God's honour, and conformed to his nature and will. Israel was sanctified by the types and shadows, but we are sanctified by the truth (John 17:17), or substance of all those shadows.” ~Matthew Henry
Ø Titus 2:13-14 “…Jesus Christ… gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” (NKJV)
v What does it look like to honor God as holy? The 10 Commandments tell us:
Ø “The holiness of God is His separation from all created being as the uncreated and creating Being, infinite in wisdom, power, justice, goodness, truth, and glory. The true holiness of man is man’s separation unto God in faith and in obedience to God’s law. The law is thus the specified way of holiness… Now, the fact that holiness involves separation, or very literally, a cutting, makes apparent immediately its basic and essential relation to law. The law simply states the principle of the cutting or separation. Wherever there is law, there is inescapably a line of separation… It follows therefore… that every Biblical law is concerned with holiness. Every law, by setting a line of division between the people of the law as against the outlaws… is concerned with establishing a principle of separation in terms of God… From beginning to end, the Scripture makes clear that salvation, justification is by the grace of God through faith, and that sanctification is by law, God’s law. The sin of Pharisee-ism was that it converted the law, and works of the law, into the way of salvation… The Biblical doctrine… calls for the progressive submission of man and the world to the law of God…” ~R.J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, p.36, 66, 84, 549
Ø Leviticus 19 proceeds with quotes from the 10 Commandments, but not in the same order as they are in Exodus and Deuteronomy.
v Which is a re-statement of the 5th Commandment “Honor your father & mother”
v and is repeated in the New Testament in Ephesians 6 (and Colossians 3): “Children, obey your parents in the Lord (in all things), for this is right (well-pleasing to the Lord).” (NKJV)
v Why would this command be at the head of the list?
Ø “Holiness begins in the home” ~Gordon Wenham, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Leviticus 19.
Ø Where do children learn to respect their parents and why they should respect their parents? From the earliest years, it is from their own parents that they learn the principles of holiness.
Ø Furthermore, the first relationship a child naturally has is with his or her own mother and father, and the way the parents love that child forms the child’s first impressions of what God must be like.
§ The relationship of trust and respect which a child has towards its parents form the basis upon which that child transfers its trust and respect to God as it realizes that God is greater than his parents.
§ Learning to respect parents in the context of a good relationship early in childhood sets a child up to respect God later in life.
§ That transition doesn’t happen automatically, but failing to train a child to honor parents is like putting a huge stumbling block in front of them to make it difficult to relate to God positively.
v Now, what does it mean to “honor”? Matthew Henry wrote a good summary of the Bible and of Jewish tradition on this word: “It includes inward reverence and esteem, outward expressions of respect, obedience to the lawful commands of parents, care and endeavour to please them and make them easy, and to avoid every thing that may offend and grieve them and incur their displeasure. The Jewish doctors ask, ‘What is this fear that is owing to a father?’ And they answer, ‘It is not to stand in his way nor to sit in his place, not to contradict what he says nor to carp at it, not to call him by his name, either living or dead, but 'My Father,' or 'Sir;' it is to provide for him if he be poor, and the like… ’”
Ø Note how Matthew Henry picked up on – not only the outward expressions of honor, but – the inward attitude of reverence and esteem. The Hebrew word “fear” focuses on the inward attitude rather than on the outward expression.
Ø A right relationship is a matter of the heart, not mere outward actions.
Ø Children, if you struggle with honoring and obeying your parents, as I’m sure we all have, ask God to give you an inward desire to honor them from your heart, and then cultivate a good attitude that respects your parents.
Ø One way to cultivate that good attitude is to turn away from every movie, every book, and every friend that portrays children as being smarter than their parents.
v Now, the second half of v.3 references the 4th Commandment as another way that we can set God apart as holy:
v This command is also one that starts in the home.
Ø Again, let me quote Matthew Henry, “If God provides by His law for the preserving of the honour of parents, parents must use their authority over their children for the preserving of the honour of God, particularly the honour of His sabbaths, the custody of which is very much committed to parents by the fourth commandment, Thou, and thy son, and thy daughter.”
Ø Parents (and grandparents), are you teaching your children and grandchildren how to make the Lord’s Day special?
v What is meant by “Sabbaths”?
Ø We meet with the word again in v.30, “You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary,” so v.30 relates it to events at the holy place in the tabernacle or temple.
Ø The same command is repeated word-for-word in Lev. 26:2, where it seems to be referring to the Sabbath years that happened every 7 years – especially on the 50th year of Jubilee (Lev. 25).
Ø However, in most places the plural “Sabbaths” refers to the weekly ones (Ex. 31:12-18, Lev. 23:15&38, 2 Chron 2:4, 8:13, 31:3, Neh. 10:33, Ezek. 44:24, 45:17, Hosea 2:11).
Ø In addition, Yom Kippur (Lev 16:31, 23:32) and Passover (Ex. 12) were each an annual Sabbath day (singular), as was the other feast day of Pentecost.
Ø These once-a-week days of rest, as well as three weeks a year of what amounted to church retreats, and then the sabbatical years were all part of the Lord’s Sabbaths, and I believe they are all principles that can be put into practice today: taking one day a week off regular work, taking a few vacation weeks a year, and taking occasional sabbaticals.
v The Bible says that the Sabbath was given as a sign that those enjoying that rest[1] were in a covenant relationship with the LORD: Ezek. 20:12 “Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them…
Ø Furthermore, Ezekiel 20:16 connects profaning the Sabbath with idol-worship: “they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols…” Ezekiel 23:39 explains, “For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it.”
Ø When we neglect to take the day off once a week in honor of our Lord Jesus, it is likely due to some other thing that is competing for first place in our lives and making us feel less inclined to honor Christ by devoting that day to Him:
§ maybe it is entertainment – selfish laziness because worship is mental work,
§ maybe it is work – to make more money or to bolster your identity,
§ maybe it is social pride – or even shame – that makes a person try to protect their reputation socially by not attending church,
§ whatever it is, it’s an idol.
Ø In the Bible, every gathering of believers after the resurrection, including the gatherings of Jesus with His disciples, was on a Sunday, so that is when Christians gather.
Ø And when we take that day off and dedicate that time to God, we are demonstrating with our lives that God is really important; He is holy and worth giving time to.
v Honoring one day each week as more holy teaches the principle of holiness in regards to time: Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.” (NKJV) God is portrayed as less special when no time is set apart for Him from common time.
v Isaiah 56:2-6 and 58:13-14 and Jer. 17 prophecied blessings on keepers of the weekly Sabbath in the New Testament age, for even now God is your God, God is sanctifying you, and you are not to turn to idols but rather make distinctions between what is holy (God) and what is unholy (anyone in rebellion against God).
v So we’ve seen the first, fourth, and fifth commandment related to God’s holiness making us holy. Next we come to the 2nd commandment:
v Cf. Leviticus 26:1 “Ye shall make for yourselves no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for: I am the LORD your God.” ~Bingham
v The word for “idols” is a Hebrew word for “empty” or “vain,” or that which is “not really God.”
Ø They could have been images made of metals heated to a liquid state and poured molten into a cast and cooled until solid again in the shape of some person or animal like a calf;
Ø I think it more likely that the Hebrew word speaks of an image carved from wood and then covered with a gold or silver foil.
Ø Exodus 20:22-23 …“Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.”
§ The one true God is different from other gods because He is personal (He communicates with us from heaven)
§ and because He has no image with which we can represent Him.
§ When we embrace these unique things about Yahweh which set Him apart from other Gods, we hallow His name and walk as His holy people[2].
v “[T]he object of Moses is to restrain the rashness of men, lest they should travesty God’s glory by their imaginations; for another clause is immediately added, ‘I am the Lord your God,’ in which God reminds them that He is despoiled of His due honor, whenever men devise anything earthly or carnal respecting Him.” ~John Calvin
v “Turn not from the true God to false ones, from the mighty God to impotent ones, from the God that will make you holy and happy to those that will deceive you, debauch you, ruin you, and make you forever miserable. Turn not your eye to them, much less your heart. Make not to yourselves gods, the creatures of your own fancy, nor think to worship the Creator by molten gods. You are the work of God's hands, be not so absurd as to worship gods the work of your own hands.” ~Matthew Henry
v Now the last point in this set of laws is unexpected because it’s not one of the 10 Commandments, but it is still about setting God apart as holy in order to be holy:
v This is a repetition of Lev. 7:11ff[4]
v Note how this made the worship of God during the Old Testament times a special thing[5].
Ø Barbeques could be held as part of worshipping the one true God, but not any other god.
Ø The meat eaten in the temple festivities could only be the finest, freshest meat.
Ø Anyone who violated these principles and cheapened the value of worshipping God was to be excised from the community. (Rashi)
v How does this apply to us in the N.T.?
Ø We must seek acceptance from Jesus – not from any other god or man.
Ø We should make your worship of God serious fun like the fellowship offerings of the O.T. were: good music, good food, good fellowship are ways to show that God is special.
Ø And when you give, give God what is freshest and best. The quality of your giving shows how special you think He is.
Ø Also, make much of Jesus’ resurrection! He who was slaughtered to forgive our sins was dead for less than three days! The parallel with the meat of the peace offering seems to be intentional.
Ø The punishment for profaning the worship of God was to be “cut off from his people.” Thus it is still today the case that unrepentant profaning of the worship of God will get you cut off the membership rolls of the church.
Ø So there are things you can do: “Though the sacrifice was offered according to the law, if it was not eaten according to the law, it was not accepted. Though ministers do their part, what the better if people do not theirs? There is work to be done after our spiritual sacrifices, in a due improvement of them; and, if this be neglected, all is in vain.” ~Matthew Henry
v So in these first 8 verses we have the first table of the 10 commandments – all except for the 3rd commandment about not taking the name of the LORD in vain, although that is referred to later on in Leviticus 19.
v Now, I know you have not upheld these standards of holiness. You have not obeyed even the first five commandments. That is why Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness and perfectly related God’s ethical laws to his own personal holiness so that He could give His righteousness to you.
v In Leviticus 19, God calls you to believe this and set God apart as holy by worshipping no other God, by honoring your parents, by honoring His Sabbaths, by spurning idolatry, and by making His worship special.
When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the
added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is
different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from
the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of
the original Hebrew, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the Hebrew text, I insert an X. (Sometimes I will place the X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is
singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations
between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different
translations of a given word. Hebrew text that is colored purple matches the
Dead Sea Scrolls, and variants between the DSS and the MT are noted in endnotes
with the following exceptions: When a holem
or qibbutz pointing in the MT is
represented in the DSS by a vav
or a hireq pointing in the MT is
represented in the DSS by a yod
(the corresponding consonantal representation of the same vowel) or when the
tetragrammaton is spelled with paleo-Hebrew letters, I did not record it a
variant. In Chapter 19, 11Q1 paleoLeviticusa contains
verses 1-4, 1Q3 PaleoLev-Num contains verses 30-34, 4Q26a Leviticuse contains verses 34-37,
and 4Q23 Leviticus-Numbersa contains verses 3-8
|
LXX |
Brenton |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
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1 Καὶ ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων |
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, |
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, |
1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, |
1 וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר: |
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2 Λάλησον τῇ συναγωγῇ τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς Ἅγιοι ἔσεσθε, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἅγιος, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. |
2 Speak to the congregation of the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy. |
2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. |
2 “Speak to the whole congress of the children of Israel and tell them, ‘Y’all must be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy. |
2 דַּבֵּר אֶל-כָּל-עֲדַת[6] בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: |
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3 ἕκαστος πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ μητέρα αὐτοῦ φοβείσθω, καὶ τὰ σάββατά μου φυλάξεσθε· ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. |
3 Let every one of you reverence his father and his mother; and ye shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. |
3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. |
3 Each of y’all must respect his mother and his father. Also y’all must keep my sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God. |
3 אִישׁ אִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו[7] תִּירָאוּ וְאֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: |
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4 οὐκ ἐπακολουθήσετε εἰδώλοις καὶ θεοὺς χωνευτοὺς οὐ ποιήσετε ὑμῖν· ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. – |
4 Ye shall not follow idols, and ye shall not make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God. |
4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God. |
4 Don’t y’all pay attention to the idols, and don’t make gods out of cast-metal for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God. |
4 אַל-תִּפְנוּ אֶל-הָאֱלִילִים וֵאלֹהֵי מַסֵּכָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ לָכֶם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: |
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5 καὶ ἐὰν θύσητε θυσίαν σωτηρίου τῷ κυρίῳ, δεκτὴν ὑμῶν θύσετε. |
5 And if ye will sacrifice a peace-offering to the Lord, ye shall offer it acceptable from yourselves. |
5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will. |
5 And when y’all slaughter a sacrifice of peace offerings y’all must slaughter it [to] Yahweh for your acceptance[8]. |
5 וְכִי תִזְבְּחוּ זֶבַח שְׁלָמִים לַיהוָה לִרְצֹנְכֶם תִּזְבָּחֻהוּ: |
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6 ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ θύσητε, βρωθήσεται καὶ τῇ αὔριον· καὶ ἐὰν καταλειφθῇ ἕως ἡμέρας τρίτης, ἐν πυρὶ κατακαυθήσεται. |
6 In what day soever ye shall sacrifice it, it shall be eaten; and on the following day, and if any of it should be left till the third day, it shall be thoroughly burnt with fire. |
6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. |
6 It shall be eaten during the day of your sacrifice - or on the next day, but what is left over until the third day must be burned in the fire, |
6 בְּיוֹם זִבְחֲכֶם יֵאָכֵל וּמִמָּחֳרָת וְהַנּוֹתָר עַד-יוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי בָּאֵשׁ יִשָּׂרֵף: |
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7 ἐὰν δὲ βρώσει βρωθῇ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ, ἄθυτόν ἐστιν, οὐ δεχθήσεται· |
7 And if it should be at all eaten on the third day, it is unfit for sacrifice: it shall not be accepted. |
7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. |
7 and if it is eaten at all during the third day, it will be tainted; it will not be accepted,[9] |
7 וְאִם הֵאָכֹל[10] יֵאָכֵל בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי פִּגּוּל הוּא לֹא יֵרָצֶה: |
|
8 |
8 And |
8 Therefore
every oneX that eat |
8 and as for the ones who eat [it], each will bear his iniquity because he has blasphemed the holiness of Yahweh, and as for that soul, it shall be cut off from its people. |
8 וְאֹכְלָי עֲוֹנוֹ יִשָּׂא כִּי-אֶת-קֹדֶשׁ יְהוָה חִלֵּל וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מֵעַמֶּיהָ: |
[1] “[T]he rest from labor had reference to the sacrifices; since it would have been a mere mockery to rest without any ulterior object.” ~Calvin
[2]Secular Humanists understand the application of this principle better than Christians in general do nowadays. As Rushdoony put it, “social health requires the prohibition of idolatry, because its toleration means social suicide… It constitutes treason to the King or Sovereign… To the modern mind, treason to the state is logically punishable by death, but not treason to God. But no law-order can survive if it does not defend its core faith by rigorous sanctions... [A] humanistic law-order tolerates everything which denies absolutes while warring against Biblical faith.”
Ø That is why the 10 Commandments were moved away from our city hall;
Ø that is why one of our members was edged out of serving in the Junction City public school;
Ø that is why it is illegal for the owners of this facility to refuse to host a same-sex marriage;
Ø that’s why you can’t teach Creation in the university classrooms.
Ø The implementation of religious toleration in our once-Christian country has been a Trojan Horse for creeping idolatry.
Secular Humanists understand the importance of making the practice of Christianity ultimately illegal, and it’s time Christians took an aggressive stance of discouraging the open worship of other gods and discouraging the open defamation of Christ, rather than taking a neutral or defensive stance on religion.
[3] KJV, AJV, JFB – no small authorities, all take this word in terms of doing something of your own free will, which is a possible meaning of retzon, and the peace offering was an offering that could be voluntarily added when it was not required. Calvin, the ASV (followed by the NASB), RV (followed by the ESV), and the NIV and NET considered it to mean “accepted,”
[4] “And now this is the instruction regarding the sacrifice of peace-offerings which he shall offer to Yahweh: 12 If he is offering it upon an [occasion of] thanksgiving, then he shall offer on [top of] the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil and cakes of stir-fried fine flour mixed with oil. 13. On [top of] the cakes he shall offer leavened bread [for] his offering - on [top of] his sacrifice of thanksgiving peace-offerings. 14 And from it he shall offer [as] a contribution to Yahweh one of each offering to the priest who sprinkled the blood of the peace offerings. It shall belong to him. 15 Now, the meat from the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not let [any] of it be left over until morning. 16 And if his offering is a vow or a voluntary sacrifice, it shall be eaten on the day he offers his sacrifice, but the remainder of it may also be eaten during the next day. 17 But the remainder from the meat of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned in the fire. 18 And if some of the meat from the sacrifice of his peace offerings is eaten at all on the third day, the one who offers it will not be accepted – it will not be credited to him. It will be tainted, and the person who eats from it will carry his iniquity. 19 And the meat which comes into contact with any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burned in the fire, but as for all the meat that is clean, he may eat [that] meat. 20 ‘But the person who eats meat from the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to Yahweh when his uncleanness is upon him, that person must also be cut off from his people. 21 And in the case where a person comes into contact with any unclean thing - by human uncleanness or by an unclean animal or by any contaminated unclean thing, and eats from the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to Yahweh, then that person must be cut off from his people.’”
[5] “[C]onsecrated meats were not kept too long, lest they should become tainted or putrified, and thus religion should fall into contempt. Perhaps, too, vainglory was thus provided against; for if it had been allowable to eat the meats salted, many would have made ostentatious offerings without expense. God, therefore, imposed a restraint, that they might offer their sacrifices more sparingly and reverently.” ~Calvin
[6] The “all” is missing in the LXX and in the Cairo Geniza manuscript, but it’s in the DSS (11Q1)
[7] אִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו LXX S TMs V invers cf 21,2a-a, but DSS 11Q1supports MT
[8] KJV, AJV, JFB – no small authorities, all take this word in terms of doing something of your own free will, which is a possible meaning of retzon, and the peace offering was an offering that could be voluntarily added when it was not required.
[9] Cf. Lev. 7:11ff
[10] SP changed the passive infinitive “to be eaten” into an active one “to eat,” but it wouldn’t make a difference in translation anyway because the governing verb that goes with it is also passive, so even the SP spelling would come out “be eaten.” The DSS (4Q23) backs up the Niphil in the MT.