Leviticus 18-20 = Today's thoughts

Today’s thoughts from Leviticus 18-20

 

In this portion of scripture we are looking at how to deal with our neighbors.  One of the interesting aspects of this passage is that these statements are followed up by God restating over and over, I am the Lord.  It is full of You shall’s and you shall not statements, and God is making it clear that these are his statutes and not whomever is delivering them.  God even states in 19:19 You shall keep my statutes.  These aren’t suggestions they are the one right way that God had chosen to communicate love for others by his people.  One section struck me humorously when reading this, it says you shall not curse the deaf or put stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.  I instantly thought of all those crazy warning labels we see on things today, (like.. don’t use this hair dryer in the shower)  you see those things and you are like, really, we really need to say this to people.   But God knowing human nature knows that even the most obvious of wrongs that can be done to one another will in fact be done by someone wanting to take advantage of their neighbor.  I think that is why he includes teaching like this.  Human nature can be an ugly thing and the ways in which people often exploit one anther is unconscionable.  God is making it clear through extreme example that his people are to be better than this.  This is taken even further under the new covenant with Christ.  We as believers trying to transform the lives of others by demonstrating the Body of Christ in action, must go beyond the obvious and truly serve those we come in contact with.

 

Serve one another with gladness.

Rob