Deuteronomy 18-21

Deuteronomy 18

Priests can relocate voluntarily. They also get a portion of the animal sacrifices as meat, plus share in the first harvest.

God lists out the bad things the local nations do - sorcery, witchcraft, child sacrifice, and communicating with the dead. Don't do any of these.

False prophets must be put to death. False prophets say things in another god's name or make predictions that do not come true. They also are Baltimore Ravens fans.

Deuteronomy 19

Make 3 cities of refuge when they cross over. Make 3 more if they obey God and their territory increases. Here, we see a reference to the promises to the patriarchs plus the potential that God sees in the Israelites, that their geographic scope would enlarge.

Priests vet out accusations of one witness, for non capital offenses. False accusations by someone would warrant the same penalty of the crime that the person accuses of another.

Deuteronomy 20

The chapter covers the laws of war.

Army officers must send away people who are afraid, are engaged, or have not dedicated their homes.

Kill all the entire population of the cities of the idolatrous nations of the land. For other cities, they to spare the entire population if the city surrenders, or spare the women and children if they lay siege.

Trees are not your enemy, so don't destroy the food trees while laying siege.

Deuteronomy 21

Unsolved murders need to be cleansed by breaking a cow's neck.

You can marry women of captured cities. Yay. You can't sell them as slaves if they displease you. Boo.

If a man has two sons with different wives, the son of the first wife is considered the firstborn and gets the firstborn privileges. This was Abraham's situation, but the outcome was different.

Rebellious kids are stoned to death by the community, but first the parents must take them to the priest court. So, parents cannot act on their own.

People who are hung from trees must be buried that day.

Deuteronomy 15-17

Deuteronomy 15

They had to cancel the debts to other Israelites every seventh year. Obviously, this would impact whether or not they lend money to people. God anticipates this and says that they must not withhold money to lend to poor people because of the upcoming debt forgiveness. The language in the text refers to it as "give" and "giving", which it would be as opposed to lending.

Similarly, they had to release their Israelite slaves after 7 years of work. Note, it did not say that they had to release their slaves every 7 year (I.e., on a community-wide level) but rather it is calculated after 7 years of work.

Finally, they must sacrifice their firstborn male herd animals, but they get to eat them at the yearly feast pilgrimages. Yay!!!

Deuteronomy 16

Passover and the week of unleavened bread have designated places of worship throughout the country. For the unleavened bread, they could not let leavened bread be found in their homes, nor eat it.

Pentacost requires a voluntary offering. They language says they must celebrate with the community, so my guess is the offering is for community feasting at this point. It sounds like a pot-luck dinner.

Festival of shelters is similar to the week of unleavened in that it lasts a week. But it at the end of the harvest seasons and there is no requirement for unleavened bread.

Deuteronomy 17

People worshipping foreign must be stoned to death the gates of town, but not on the testimony of one person. The witnesses must throw the first stones.

The priests get to judge the hard criminal or civil cases and their decisions stand.

Some guidelines for the king - even though there is no king yet. He must be an Israelite, but cannot use his authority to amass personal wealth. He also must read these instructions to himself every morning.

He cannot send people to Egypt to buy horses, because the Israelites are commanded never to go back to Egypt, not even to buy horses for a king they do not have yet.

Deuteronomy 14

The first half coves the clean and unclean meats again. New things - animals that died of natural deaths can be sold to foreigners. It ends with the no cooking a goat in its mother's milk. I first thought this may have been a pagan practice, but its placement here suggests it's a dietary rule. Who knows. Maybe animals have dignity and this would violate that.

The second half covers using a harvest tithe to attend the various feasts. Every third year, the tithe goes to the Levites. So, are there 3 tithes? Or just one tithe with different uses, depending on the year? Based on this chapter alone, you would think it's the latter.

Also, we see a requirement to use the tithe to drink alcohol at the feast. (v. 26)

Deuteronomy 13

This covers several situations to prevent being led astray. The response is the same for all.

False prophets - anyone who leads makes a prediction, which might come true, but then says hey lets worship another god. Response - stone him.

Family members who say lets worship another god. Response - stoning.

A village that starts worshiping another god. Response - destroy it and burn aol the belongings of the village in the square.

Deuteronomy 12

ots of various prescriptions. A couple major themes:

1. People who are ceremonially unclean can eat meat. Phew.

2. The blood of meat must be poured on the ground.

3. Destroy the idols and Ashareh poles of the pagan practices in Canaan,

4. Do not worship God the same way the pagans worship their gods.

Point 4 is repeated throughout the chapter. I think verses like that gave rise to many Puritanical (I.e., anti-Catholic) traditions in the Christian history. Take Christmas for instance, which the Puritans did not observe. December 25th was the winter solstice at one point, which led rise to the German pagan rituals surrounding it. When Christianity became popular and evangelized the Germans, it adopted the celebration and Christianized it as Christmas in part to evangelize them.

So, does once pagan mean always pagan? Well, I think that goes too far, at least based on Deuteronomy 12. It you look at the examples within the chapter of what God is concerned about, they are the "detestable practices" of idols, Ashereh poles, and especially child sacrifice.

Going back to Christmas, it's interesting that December 25 is no longer the winter solstice, it is now December 21. But Christmas is not observed on the 21st, which actually shoes that the Christian tradition has gone a separate path from the original pagan rationale for a celebration that day,

Also, if once pagan means always pagan, then women should not wear earrings. Remember that random versus in Genesis as Jacob was heading back to Bethel?

Deuteronomy 11

More blessings if they follow God and curses if they do not. Something new though - when they reacth two mountains in Canaan, they are to pronounce a blessing at Mount Geribim and a curse at Mount Ebal.

Deuteronomy 9-10

The Israelites are about to enter the Land, perhaps even this very day they will cross into Jordan. Likewise, this could very well be the last day of Moses' life.

God explains why the Israelites get the Land at the expense of the current inhabitants. It is not because the Israelites are so great, but rather because the current inhabitants are wicked, in addition to the oath with Abrahams.

We also get a recount of the Golden Calf incident. God was about to destroy Aaron as well, but Moses' pleading to God saved Aaron's life. Afterwards, Moses had to chisel out two new tablets, on which God wrote.

Another interesting tidbit - God is the only name on which they can do vows. They are not to make vows or swear things under other names. I assume God has in mind things like "I swear to Baal that...". But I don't think God wants us to casually say things like "I swear to Jesus that..."

Deuteronomy 8

God explains why they were in the desert all that time. It was not merely punishment, but rather as a test to see if the Israelites would obey. He let the people go hungry, but it does not sway God let them go thirsty. Rather God provided water from a rock. A lot of this was discipline, like parent disciplines a child. This is an interesting perspective, considering God was ready to wipe them out.

The Promised Land will have the things they lacked in the desert - lots of plants and food. God partly let them go hungry in the desert, so that when their wealth and status increases, they won't attribute it to themselves.

As strange as this chapter seems, I can actually relate to it. In the hopes that some of the things I've struggled with will one day be resolved. For me, it's sports injuries. If I can go an entire year without getting hurt, I will attribute it to God.

Deuteronomy 6-7

God calls the people for whole-hearted commitment. It sort of restates the principals of the Covenant - follow my commands and I will bless you and give you land. A few things stand out to me:

all the rules and regulations are considered "commands".

They are told to destroy the inhabitants of the land, destroy their pagan poles and idols, and do not intermarry with them. As for destroying their idols, they cannot even take the gold and silver in them, but must through it into the fire. So, could they then take the silver and gold from the ashes after the wood has been burned and the metal has been melted? I would think so, but there is no explicit allowance.

Taking a detestable object into your home brings a curse.

Deuteronomy 5

Moses recounts the time he was at Mount Sinai with the Israelites. It retells the original 10 Commandments being spoken audibly from the fire. It also says that it was these that were written on the stone tablets.

Interestingly, the Sabbath day is associated as a result of God leading them out of Egypt. Taken to it's logical conclusion, it is possible the Sabbath day commandment would be "Jewish" like the way the Passover is, I.e., a command for them, but not necessarily a "command" for the New Testament era.

Here, the Sabbath is supposed to be day refraining from "ordinary" work. But non-ordinary work is allowed. Again, I think God is putting in place the modern concept of the weekend.

Also, God pushes the families of people who reject God, while blessing those that follow God to a thousand generations. This might give some explanation why the total war in the Canaanifes occurred, notably, why children get killed.

Deuteronomy 3-4

Chapter 3 recounts the war with Og, King of Bashan. As it turns out, he was the last survivor of the Rephaites, a race of giants. His bed was about 13 feet long, which gives some indication as to how tall he was.

It is a strange story. Who were these people? How is there a race of giants in the Bible? Who knows.

Deuteronomy 4 covers some of the basic principles of the law with a particular focus on idols and that there is only one "God". The is only one God that brought them out of Egypt, spoke to all of them from Mount Sinai, and wanted to establish them as a nation.

It also says the ever so famous, but actually quite controversial - don't add to or take away from the commands that I am giving you. Wait - what commands? These are all commands. Everything in the Mosaic law is a command. It presents a difficulty for us modern readers, which I think people take for granted. I don't know of anyone who still does the entire Mosaic code, so I would say that every Christian tradition has said that some laws are not applicable, but this is actually a warning against doing just that.

On the flip side, there are plenty of good reasons in the New Testament that many rules are no longer applicable. But at the very least, this is a warning that the people under the Mosaic law are not to add or take away rules.

Chapter 4 ends with cities of refugee begin established on the east side of the river. Basically, where they are currently camped. So, before they even enter the Promised Land, people have committed manslaughter or accidentally killed someone can go in peace right now.

Deuteronomy 1-2

Israel is camped across the Jordan river, but Moses recounts all the details of their previous journey through the desert. Most of this is a repeat of what we saw before, but we find out a few new details.

Joshua was selected to lead the people into the promised land in part because he was Moses' assistant and Moses sinned.

The land they pass through had races of giants at one time. Several races of giants are mentioned.

It is after all the fighting men of the prior generation die before they start having successful battles. Also, it is not stated, but something I picked up - the people stop talking about how Egypt was better. So, God's plan about them wandering around the desert for 40 years worked in the sense that those that reminisce of Egypt die out, leaving their children who were too young, or were born in the desert.

They had to pay for their food and water as they passed through the land of the Edomites (descendants of Esau) and the Moabites (descendants of Lot).

Numbers 36

Remember the women who were concerned about their inheritance? They're back. They stand to inherit land, but the tribal leaders are concerned because if the women marry someone outside their tribe, the tribal land size might change.

So, a new law. Women who stand to inherit land must marry within their own tribe. This will prevent the size of the tribal lands from changing. However, it won't stop the original lots of land by clan from changing.

Thus ends Numbers. Numbers was about numbers. Two censuses, plus numerous scourges that left thousands of Israelites dead.

From Numbers, we get a sense of the size of the Israelites. If there were 600,000 men aged 20 or more, then we might estimate their total size to be 1 or 2 million. If we take these numbers at face value, then I think we see several things:

1. Why the Egyptians feared them. They are a mass of people.

2. They really are the blessed children of God. They went from 60 people to 1-2 million in 400 or so years. This gives them an explosive population growth rate. At that trend, they'll take over the world.

Numbers 35

48 towns will be Levite towns. 6 of the Levite towns will be cities of refuge. A city of refuge is where people who accidentally killed someone can be protected from revenge from a relative of the victim. He must stay there until the death of the high priest.

Afterwards, we get a recounting of the criminal justice system - murder gets you death. The chapter ended with some interesting things:

murder pollutes the land and only the execution of the murderer can reverse the pollution of the land caused by murder. This might seem outlandish, but I think it is talking about things on a spiritual level. Plus, back in the Cain and Able story, the blood of Abel cried out to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10).

There must be at least two witnesses in capital murder trials.

No one can be put to death on the testimony of one person.

Numbers 33-34

Numbers 33 recounts the journey of the Israelites through the desert. We find out a few random details - Aaron died about 40 years after leaving Egypt. The Israelites also had left Egypt the next morning after the Passover, not in the middle of the night.

The recounting ends with them poised to go into the promised land. When they take the land, they have to drive out all the inhabitants or else they will become "like splinters" and God will do to the Israelites what God planned for the Canaanites. They are also supposed to divide up the land by lot.

Numbers 34 outlines the geographic boundaries of the land, plus names the people who are in charge of dividing up the land.

Numbers 32

he tribes of Reuben and Gad have a ton of livestock and decide that the land east of the Jordan is better suited for it. They ask Moses if they can settle there. Moses gets mad and thinks this might be a ruse for getting out of fighting in the campaign for Canaan. The tribes say they will send their men to fight with the rest of the tribes, but their families and livestock will remain and be protected in the east. Moses is happy with this arrangement.

Half of the tribe of Manasseh decides to join them in the east. The land apparently is the same land that belonged to the Amorites, who the entire Israelites defeated earlier.

It seems that the conquest has begun and the 40 years have flown by. However, we still have an entire another book to read before Joshua's military campaign.

Numbers 31

The story returns to the military campaign. The Israelites attack the Midianites for revenge for the idolatry and the plague that followed. This chapter answers a few questions from before. First, Balaam (the prophetic guy who was offered money to curse the Israelites, but then blessed ghem) was no man of God. He was responsible in some way for their worship of Baal and ends up getting killed in the war.

It is a campaign of total destruction. All the Midianite men die, but the soldiers bring back women and children. Moses is mad because these are the same women that led Israel to Baal worship. Moses orders them and the Midianite male children killed, but virgin girls are kept alive and distributed among the people. As it turns out, there are 32,000 virgin girls.

The plunder is divided up among the soldiers and civilians, and a portion goes to Eleazor and the Levites, including the virgin girls.

Numbers 28-30

Numbers 28-29

These chapters cover the timing of various animal and grain sacrifices. Each day, a lamb is sacrificed in the AM and another in the evening.

On the sabbath, they do the daily sacrifices plus an additional two lambs.

The high holy days have precise numbers, plus multiple bulls and rams.

Interesting, if these are all sabbath days, that's s lot of work the priests are commanded to do.

Numbers 30

If unmarried women take vows, they can be annulled by their fathers or future husbands. He has one day upon learning of it to do so, otherwise the vow stands.

Numbers 27

Part 1 discusses the inheritance laws. Basically, a man's property goes to his son. If he has sons, it goes to his daugthers. If he has no daughters, then it goes to his brothers, and so forth.

This is similar to what we have now, but we removed the gender distinction. Still though, if someone dies, his or property is inherited by the children, and if he has no children, then the nearest living relative.

This all happened because women lost their fathers, but their uncles were receiving their property.

Part 2 discusses the selection of Joshua as the successor of Moses. He is inaugurated in a public ceremony before high priest Eleazor and the entire community.

It is interesting that both of these are in the same chapter. Part 1 is property inheritance, part 2 is a spiritual leadership inheritance.

Numbers 26

The Israelites stand across Jericho.

Oooo...will they attack and enter? Nope

There has been numerous die-offs since the first, so a second counting happens.

So, a second censes count of Israel is in order and there still are over 600,000 fighting men.

I was thinking about the plight of their lives. They are told they cannot enter the Promised Land. But they win battles, they experienced freedom from slavery, manna falls from the sky....the Israelites have several repeating complaints:

They will die in the desert

Manna is boring

Why did we leave Egypt?

The first is legitimate, I think. It sucks to know the limits of your life. But in the context of their lives, it is awesome. They were slaves, they became free, God performs a miracle every day in the sense of manna falls from the sky...why should they complain? But alas, they do. I think we would kid ourselves if we think we would not do the same. Some would, some would not. Seriously, ask yourself, if the next 40 years, every meal will be free and taken care, but it will only be honey-tasting cake....what would you say?

After a day - nice food

After a week - ok food

After a month - protein, please?

After a year - blah

After 10 years - I forgot the taste of anything else

if this is all about a relationship with God, relationships become monotonous. Monotony of free food, even today, draws out complaints and not gratitude. Trust me, we have firm meetings and the same sandwiches show up.

I don't think complaining itself is wrong. If life sucks, if you are in the wilderness, I think it is healthy to admit it. The problem, and what seems to offend God, is when you say, "I was better off without you, God.". Even if everyone, including yourself, knows that is not true, we might say it anyway.

Back to Numbers. The second census shows that the mass killings have not decimated the Israelite community. Likewise, in some ways, it is a starting over.

But nevertheless, the army is poised to strike Jericho. What happens next?

Side question - and I think is something that affects our perspective during the "die offs", were these people who died "saved". Personally, I think yes, but I recognize that Christians have a variety or viewpoints of salvation in the pre-Christ era.

Numbers 25

Back in the Israelite camp, the Israelites start having sex with the local Midianite women, who lead them to the worship of Baal. God gets mad and tells Moses to arrest and kill the ringleaders of this.

While all this is happening, man takes a Midianite woman to his tent. Aaron's grandson sees this, takes a spear and kills them. This averts God's anger. It is then stated that there was a plague that was killing Israelites, 24,000 in particular. The plague is discussed in terms of stopping, but we don't know when or why it started. Given the context, it may have started at the same time that God directed Moses to kill the ring leaders.

So, is it fair that so many people die each time the Israelites do something bad? That's an interesting question. In some ways, the Israelite community is like the walking dead, in the sense they have to wander around for 40 years until the generation dies off. But they are winning battles and are not enslaved.

I also wonder if the reason why God gets so offended by "why did we ever leave Egypt" means that while enslaved, they worshipped the local Egyptian gods. Therefore, the complain would have the implicit message, why did we leave the Egyptian gods for this God? That's my theory. I think while enslaved they managed to keep some of their Jewish identity, but as for this detail, I don't remember.

Numbers 22-24

The people migrate up to by Jericho and a local king (Balak) freaks out. Apparently, there is a prophet of God who is not affiliated with the Israelites (Balaam). Balak sends for him to pay money for a curse on the Israelites. God tells Balaam not to go. Balak sends for Balaam a second time, this time God says go but only say what I tell you.

Balaam instead heads off his donkey to run away. The donkey sees an angel in the road and tries to avoid it. Balaam beats his donkey. The donkey starts talking and asks why are you beating me? Instead of being stunned by a talking donkey, Balaam tries to explain himself. He then sees the angel who tells him to go to Balak.

Whoa.

Balak and Balaam overlook the Israelite camp. Balaam only says what God prompts him. Instead of cursing Israel, Balaam ends up giving 3 blessings for Israel and ends up cursing the local cities. He offers a few distant prophecies as well about the Assyrians and a scepter coming from Jacob. Before we think, "hey that's Jesus", I don think so, because the the scepter is predicted to be a military leader who defeats the local. If anything, I think that pertains to the kingdom and king line of Israel, for after, the Israelites don't even have permanent land yet.

Numbers 21

Lots of anecdotes in this chapter. God gives them victories over the local enemies, but they cannot conquer their own hearts.

The Canaanites attack and take a few prisoners. The Israelites make a vow that if they win, they will completely destroy the Canaanite cities. This happens.

This shows a lot of maturity on their behalf, because it was against a similar Canaanite raid that pushed them back after they tried to go into Canaan after God told them they would have to wait 40 years.

Later on, they move on from Mount Hur (that's where Aaron died), the people complain, and even say the no-no complaint that gets them killed, "why did we leave Egypt?". God gets mad and sends hundreds of poisonous snakes, which start biting and killing people. The people admit their sin and beg Moses to take the snakes away. God directs Moses to build a bronze snake on a pole, whoever looks at it will be healed of their snake bite.

Later on, this bronze snake becomes an idol that they worship. But more interesting is why did God send poisonous snakes at all? I think God was letting them retaste what Egypt was like. Egypt is associated with cobras, plus the Egyptian sorcerers were able to turn their snakes into snakes when Moses went before Pharaoh.

Later on, the Israelites want to pass through the land of the Amorites. The king will not allow this and instead attacks them. The Israelites win. (victory #2). The Israelites even capture their towns and settle in them for a bit.

The israelites move toward Bashan, who's king freaks out and attacks them. They defeat this raid, even killing King Og. (victory #3)

Numbers 18-20

Numbers 18

The priests are not going to get land, but they will get the tithes of all Israel, plus they get to eat the sacrificial offerings that are not burned.

Not a bad deal, unless you want land, or if the Israelites stop paying tithes.

Numbers 19 covers the process whereby people who are ceremonially unclean get clean again. A particular emphasis of the chapter is on people who have touched dead bodies. If they do not do the purification ritual, they are to be caught off from the community.

Numbers 20

Miriam dies and is buried at Kadesh.

The people complain about their conditions again. It begins with complaining with water, but the turns to "we should not have left Egypt" and "we should have died with our brothers", presumably referring to the times that God struck down rebellious people.

Moses considers this rebellion and with Aaron goes prostrate in the sanctuary. He really cannot handle people complaining. God says to go speak to a rock and it will bring forth water. In other words, "you're Aquaman, remember?"

Aquaman assembles the people, but instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes it with his staff. God is not happy with this and says that he will not enter the promised land. We find out later that this instance will lead to Aaron's hastened death.

God explains this rationale - God wanted to demonstrate His holiness to the people. Apparently, God thinks that speaking to the rock would have demonstrated something else that striking the staff did not do. Perhaps this would have quelled the rebellious nature of the people of the some way. Another possibility is that maybe the 70 elders who were blessed with God's power a few chapters back would have picked up on this and said, "I don't need Moses' staff, I can just speak to a rock if we need water."

Whatever it was, Aquaman's lack of confidence (perhaps tied to this temper when people complain) is his downfall.

The people Kadesh and try to cross through the land of the Edomites (descendants of Esau). Their king won't let them pass but will send an army if they try to. So they go around.

Later at Mount Hor, God says that is time for Aaron to die. Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's priestly heir Eleazor go up the mountain, but only two return. The people mourn Aaron's death for 30 days.

So, in a single chapter, Moses lost both his sister and brother. Plus, Moses is told he will die in the next 40 years, since he won't enter the promised land.

Numbers 14-17

Things get ugly. In all this time, remember that every morning, the people wake up and there is fresh manna from heaven. Every morning, they wake up to this miracle which makes their lack of faith in God to help them take the promised land a little perplexing, IMO.

The actions of the 10 scouts incites the fear of the people and they speak of making a new leader who will return them to Egypt. We also find out that Joshua has sided with Caleb and urges the people go take the land.

The people are discussing stoning them when God plans to destroy them with a plague and start over with Moses. Moses talks God from not destroying them immediately, nor to give up. Rather, God plans to not let anyone older than 20 years or older enter the land. The rest will die in the desert. God told Moses to lead them back to the Red Sea. The 10 scouts who incited the revolt are killed by a plague, perhaps the same plague that God had in mind for the others.

Moses tells the Israelites about this. "Uh oh. We sinned, we're sorry. Let's go to the promised land.". After bring warned by Moses not to go, they are attacked by the Canaanites and Amelakites, who push them back to the desert.

Numbers 15 feels like it's straight out of Leviticus. It discusses sacrifices but is interposed between all these revolts.

There is an interesting anecdote about a man who is breaking the sabbath by collecting wood. The last we heard about the sabbath, God was telling them what TO do, not what NOT TO do. They were supposed to assemble in worship and do "non-ordinary work". Collecting firewood certainly is ordinary work for this man, and perhaps even prevented him assembling with the community for worship.

God tells the community to stone this man. He is taken outside of camp and killed.

On one hand, it is easy to see how later on the Pharisees came up with rules to protect the sabbath. On the other, I think God has a pattern of doing what we might all over-reacting when God sets up a new institution that has not fully been ingrained. For instance, the husband and wife embezzlers in the New Testament. Here, i don't think the sabbath culture had not been fully ingrained. Plus, the story is interposed among all other open revolts against Moses and God.

Numbers 16

The next revolt is Korah. He is a Levite who leads 250 people and challenges Moses as leader. They are frustrated that they have not been taken to the promised land and think Moses and Aaron act like superiors.

Uh oh, this is not going to end well.

In some ways, some of their complaints feel somewhat legitimate. "Moses, you promised to take us there, and now we're witting in the desert. What gives?". If that were it alone, then Moses would say, "we were about to do it, but you let the 10 bad scouts incite you.". But it goes a step further, based on Moses' response.

Moses lets God sort this out. He tells them to bring their offerings tomorrow and God will decide who should lead the Israelites. The next morning, the ground opens up and swallows Korah and his followers, even children. Fire then comes out and instantly kills the 250 leaders who went along with Korah.

The next morning, yet another revolt. The people claim that it was Moses that killed all those people. Do they think he's a great sorcerer or something?

God starts striking them down with a plague, but Aaron intervenes and cleanses them the incense from the altar. However, over 14,000 are killed, in addition to Korah and his followers.

Numbers 17

God comes up with a plan of demonstrating who is in charge without killing people. Twelve trial leaders put their staffs in a tent over night. The next morning, the staff of Aaron has bloomed, blossomed, and even sprouted almonds.

Moses shows this to the people, but their response is fear - "we will all die!"

All the revolts and problems seem to really begin with the report of the 10 scouts and their inciting revolt. Things are going relatively well up to then.

Numbers 13

After 400 years and all this talk of the promised land, the Israelites are getting ready to go in, they send 12 scouts, for after all, none of them has seen this land during their lifetime.

They scout the land for 40 days and return. They bring back a cluster of grapes so big that two people had to carry it on a pole. I don't think this means the individual grapes were huge, but rather the cluster was.

To balance the report, they talk about the people and the cities - walls, fortifications, and giants, descendants of Anak. Plus, the Amalekites, who they previously fought and beat live there.

It was the scouts' job to report on all this, so up to now, the report was fair. What is not is what happens next. One scout, Caleb urges that they can take the land. The other scouts say that they cannot defeat the giants and even go through the Israelites saying the same. Interestingly, Joshua was one of the scouts, but the text is silent as to what exactly he is doing or saying. We would like to think he is with Caleb in this since he replaces Moses as leader, but the text is silent.

Numbers 12

Miriam and Aaron start criticizing Moses' wife, but this turns in to them complaining that God "only" speaks through Moses. Aaron seems to have forgotten that he is lucky to be alive after the golden calf incident.

Since this comes after the 70 elders prophesying, I wonder if this means that Aaron was not selected in that group. He is head priest after all, but why is he jealous?

As for Miriam, we don't know much about her still. She is reported to be a prophetess back in Exodus, but apparently she wants more.

In the text, it is stated that Moses is the most humblest man on earth, which we can assume is the answer to why God uses Moses and not Miriam or Aaron.

God brings the 3 of them together and ends up striking Miriam with leprosy. She recovers, but has to spend a week outside of camp. After this, the camp moves on.

Numbers 11

They're on their way to take the promised land when things take a dark turn. People start dying.

At the first sign of complaints, God sends fire around the camp and kills some people in the outskirts. The people beg to Moses who begs to God to stop the fire, which happens. We don't quite know what the initial complaints were, or even if the people who were killed by the fire complained of anything. Perhaps these people wanted to leave or for whatever reason were not fully integrated in the community.

Then the foreigners start complaining about the lack of meat. Soon, the Israelites complain about the lack of meat. Note, they have manna every morning, but this does not impress them. In all fairness, protein is important, so this is a legitimate issue. What is not legitimate is their reaction - "we were better off in Egypt."

This prompts Moses to complain to God. This might be Moses' weak spot actually. God's response is to anoint 70 elders to take on more of Moses' supernatural and administrative duties. Perhaps God had in mind that these 70 people could pray for meat as well. These men feel the presence of God and begin prophesying. It seems to be too much for Joshua who asks that it to be turned off.

After this, God answers their prayers about meat - quail. Hordes of quail come in, the people gorge themselves, and they start dying. I interpret this to mean that they did not follow the rules on bleeding out an animal before eating them.

Numbers 7-10

Numbers 7 outlines s number of gifts and offerings brought by the israelites. Six wagons are given, which become used to transport the tabernacle. For 12 days, a tribe leader brings his offerings of animals and fine metal objects (incense bowls and silver platters)

We alas hear how God is no longer talking to Moses from Mount Sinai, but rather is speaking from Ark within the Tabernacle. Moses hears God's voice from the curtains. Since this is audible, I wonder if other people (Aaron? Other priests?) could hear God to talking to Moses as well.

Numbers 8 covers the Levite dedication ceremony. They had to shave their entire bodies and offer some sacrifices. Their time of service begins at age 25 and they retire at 50.

Numbers 9

It has been a year in the desert and is time to celebrate Passover again. We also now have uncleanness rules as well. God allows the people who are temporarily unclean do celebrate Passover one month later. All other things about the Passover remain the same (I.e., eating with unleavend bread). It is written, but I think this means they also had the days of unleavened bread feast one month later as well.

This is interesting. It looks like God is not so much about actual days for these celebrations, but rather emphasizes the fellowship of community among people and between God and man.

Numbers 10

They make a few silver trumpets which only the head priests blow. God gives them guidelines of when to blow the trumpets - over offerings, when the procession moves, on the first of each month, etc...

Finally, the Israelites get to move from Mount Sinai. Yay, let's go to take Canaan. Moses' brother in law wants to return to his ancestral homeland, but Moses asks him go stay and be a guide. This would be a normal request, but we find out a few verses down that the God's pillar is their guide, showing them where to go and stop. Does this mean that they had no human guide and the brother in the law returned? Maybe, maybe not.

Either way, the army is on the march. They're heading to the promised land.

Numbers 6

Nazarite vows!!!!

Basically:

no alcohol,

no grapes or grape products not even raisins

no cutting your hair or beard

No going near dead bodies, even relatives

But these can be temporary as well, however long the person wants it to last. Nazarites can be male or female. So a Nazarite woman probably cannot shave her legs (not that they probably did anyway at that time)

If someone dies near them, they wait 7 days before shaving their head, and then they make an offering to God and reinstate the Nazarite vow.

Samson was a Nazarite and he killed lots of Philistines. So, I guess he had to shave his head each time it happened.

At the conclusion of their Nazarite vow time, their head is shaved and the hair is burned on the altar as a sacrifice.

Numbers 5

The census is over and the rest of the book seems to be Leviticus part 2

People are unclean by skin diseases, sexual infections, or touching human cadavers are isolated from the camp. There is no mention of people unclean from touching dead unclean animals.

Restitution for wrongful acts to other people must be confessed, returned with a 20% addition on top. If no one is available to claim it, becomes of an offering to God.

The rest of Chapter 5 has something really interesting. If a husband suspects his wife has been unfaithful but has no proof, then they can go to the priests for holy judgment. In a ritual, she drinks holy water. If she is guilty of adultery, she will become sterile. If she is innocent, then the water will have no effect and she can still have kids.

It describes it as the womb shriveling up, which makes me that if she is guilty, it sounds like she will feel immediate pain.

Woooaahh!!! Imagine that conversation. "hey hon, I'm jealous of all that time you spend with Bob, I think you need to take that holy water.". "this is the tenth time you made me drink that water. I think the problem is your jealousy, not me."

Numbers 3-4

The census continues. This time, the Levite males older than 1 month are counted as well the number of the firstborn sons of all of Israel.

Here, we see somewhat a parallel from the childbirth purity laws. Remember how women were unclean for the first 40 days if it was a boy, but 80 days if it's girl? (what if she has twins, a son and daughter a once!) It still is a weird rule, but at least it roughly parallels the male census count as only boys 1 month or older are counted.

God plans to "redeem" the firstborn Israelite boys that God reserved in lieu of killing them at Passover and switch the reservation to the Levites. The census count shows they are the same number, except off by 273. The difference will be made up financially.

The Levites are organized by clan from the original sons of Levi. They will have specific priestly duties based on their family clan.

The Kohathite men aged 35 or older (2750) responsible for moving the sacred objects of the tabernacle when the camp moved. This process is supervised by Aaron or his sons, lest the Kohathite priests die.

The Gershonite men aged 35 or older (2630) carry the Tabernacle curtains. The Merarite men 35 and older (3200) carry the frame poles. Both of these are supervised by one of Aaron's sons.

Numbers 2

umbers 2 provides details of how they are to camp around the Tabernacle. Three tribes camp on each side of the Tabernacle, each under the banner of their respective family.

The census is taken by a leader of each tribe, who will become the military leader for that tribe.

The oddball in this is the tribe of Levi. They are not counted in the number of fighting men. Plus, they are the ones that can approach the Tabernacle to assemble/dissemble it. Any unauthorized person who approaches the tabernacle gets killed.

One of the themes of Leviticus was what will happen when the Israelites take over Canaan. Here in Numbers, we essentially see preparations for war to go and take that land. The Israelites need a military organization, which they are getting here. All tribes will have a role to play.

I think this is the key to the distinction between Numbers and II Samuel 24. A reasonably prudent commander of an army would know how many troops he has. For after all, he must arm and position them. So, counting them probably is not David's sin.

Here in Numbers, the decision to go to war had already been made. Of course, it was God's decision. For David, he had not made any decision to go to war at all. Rather, he just wanted to know how many men he had. For what purpose, we don't know. Also, David has a long history of relying on God to fight battles. These two facts, that he had not decided to go to war and that David had relied on God in war many times before that makes it very different.

Numbers 1

Numbers recounts a census of the Israelites, which was taken a year after they left Egypt. Later in II Samuel 24, King David takes a census of his fighting men. God is very angry with it and sends the angel of death to kill the population for 3 days. The response is so grievous, it makes you wonder if God hates census taking. No, because the entire book of Numbers is one.

Numbers 1 provides a breakdown by tribe of all the fighting men in Israel. There are over 600,000 men.

Leviticus 27 and the end

Leviticus 27 covers making vows to the Lord to dedicate homes, animals, money in lieu of people. I cant think of anything remotely equivalent today.

Thus completes book 3 of the Bible. We now have an overall picture of the civilization that God started. It looks strange to us, and I'm sure it must have looked strange to their bronze age neighbors.

Leviticus 26

Lev. 26 is full of blessings and curses for following God's plan. Interestingly, the curses are 2.5 times as must text as the blessings. The blessings really forecast what happens in the reigns of David/Solomon while the curses foreshadow what will happen with the nation of Israel after that. The end of the text on curses ties it back to the land sabbath and in summary says that if the people are destroyed, the land will finally the Sabbath it needed. The curses end with God remembering the Covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, in that order. After God remembers this, the people can return to the land after being in exile.

Looking ahead, perhaps the years of the Babylonian Captivity were calculated by God according to the amount of time the land needed its Sabbath rest.

Leviticus 25

Lev. 25 covers a lot of God's plan for real estate.

Crop fields must take a year of Sabbath. At first, there seems to be no indication that the land Sabbath for the entire community must be the same year. However, when we see the calculations for the year of Jubilee, it seems to assume that every farmer will take the same year.

As for the year of Jubilee, every 50th year is the year and land ownership reverts back to the family of the original owners. This only applies to countryside property. So, the most anyone can rent the land is 49 years, and the price for the land use is calculated based on the years to Jubilee.

Land within walled cities can be bought for pertuity and the Jubilee year has no effect on that.

The year of Jubilee has another effect - freedom of all Israelite slaves/servants. This will be covered later.

The year of Jubilee is also another year that the land must remain fallow. So, if we have 7 cycles of land/use and Sabbath, then every 50 years the land will remain fallow for 2 consecutive years.

God anticipates the farmers' reaction to this and in the text says that land production in the year before land Sabbath will be so big that there will be 3 years' worth of crops. Woah.

As for slaves, we see a bit more. The Israelites are to treat fellow Israelite slaves more as servants. They cannot abuse them and it is temporary. At the year of Jubilee, they are free can and return to their family lands.

As for non-Israelites slaves, Israelites are free to own non-Israelite slaves and are not required to ever release them or treat them as humanely as they would Israelite slaves.

Why the distinction? Well, at the very least, it would create an incentive for the non-Israelite slave to become an Israelite, at least culturally and religiously. As for a modern application to this, in the Christian era after the Gospel went to the Gentiles, the ethnic distinction is erased and we would all be considered Israelites or at least potential-Israelites. In my view, this would raise the bar to remove the harsher form of slavery to all.

Leviticus 24

Aaron is to monitor the oil lamps all night long. At first glance, that would probably suck. But i think it was common in those days to have people monitor fires in the night because it is so hard to restart them without mathces.

Meanwhile, the priests get to eat the grain offering in the form of bread.

Finally, a blasphemer is stoned to death. It comes off as a harsh and even reminds me of modern day Sharia in Moslem countries for insulting Allah. Speaking of which, we finally get the "eye for an eye" doctrine at the end of Lev. 24. The last thing we saw closest to this was that losing an eye or tooth meant freedom for a slave. Taken together, I think God really hates us intentionally hurting each other. I don't believe this is intended to cover accidental harm, as we saw that earlier.

Leviticus 23

More on the sabbath and the festivals:

We finally get a command to do something on the Sabbath - sacred assembly. Interestingly, the Sabbath is always calculated by counting off 6 work days, and the next is the seventh, the Sabbath. Obviously, the Jews put this as Saturday. Our typical American calendar has the seventh day as Saturday. In some places in Europe, the calendar is different, where the seventh day is Sunday.

Barring the original Jewish interpretation that the seventh day is Saturday and that we look back on this through the bias of the New Testament, there is no requirement that I found in the Bible thus far that the Sabbath must be on Saturday. However, if the people are all to go to a worship assembly together, then as a community they need to pick the day to do it.

The other feasts:

Passover and unleavened bread

Offering of the first fruits

Festival of Weeks (Pentacost)

Feast of Trumpets

Day or Atonement

Feast of Tabernacles

Throughout these, the pattern emerges of offerings, plus it incorporates days of "rest", which it translates as "no ordinary work". But they presumably would be allowed to the alternative - non-ordinary work. I know the 7th day sabbath is not discussed here, but we see a definition of non-ordinary work being integrated into a "rest." This is one of the reasons why I think that the Sabbath commandment was in part institutionalizing what we take for granted today - a weekend.

The day of atonement really stands out. It is a day of fasting. Uh oh

Leviticus 20

This seems to be a companion chapter to the prior chapter on unlawful sexual unions. It provides punishments to what we saw before.

Most of them are death penalties. Sex with someone who is on her period just makes you unclean. (phew!)

In modern times, a lot of these are looked down upon and we would consider gross or weird. However, we have largely taken away the criminal penalties, especially the death penalty. Sex with animals might land you in trouble.

Similarly, it covers child sacrifice to Molek. This warrants the death penalty.

Seeking out mediums does not get the death penalty, but rather disfellowship. The medium is supposed to be killed.

Marrying a woman and her mother warrants being thrown in the fire. We have not seen that before.

Marrying your sister warrants disfellowship.

Leviticus 19

Leviticus 19 covers a wide variety of laws.

I have given up trying to find a pattern among the civil or criminal code. This society lived 3,000 years ago with rampant slavery and in a pre-Christ world. Likewise, I think the only explanation for some of these is to create a society that is culturally distinguished from the others.

Respect your parents, observe the Sabbath, and no idols. These are probably the highlights of the 10 commandments, highlights in the sense they are repeated the most.

Sacrifices can be eaten for a day or two, afterwards, it must be thrown into the fire. In a desert wilderness without refrigeration, this is probably a good idea.

During the harvest, do not reap to the edges or go through a second time, but leave them for the poor. This really is interesting and has modern analogies to our own system of Social Security. It is not a communistic system, as the property owner owns the majority of the harvest. Rather, it is more analogous to a socialistic institution of a bit of tax going directly to the poor. However, the poor have to put in the effort to find the leftovers.

Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. I take this to mean, do not poke fun or torment those with disabilities, even if they are not aware of it (cursing the deaf). Putting a stumbling block in from the blind would be just plain cruel.

Sleeping with a slave is the fiancé of another is bad and requires a sin offering.

When finally see some forbidden plants. The last time was the garden of Eden. When they take Canaan, they must leave the fruit alone for 3 years, the 4th year harvest is an offering to God, but the 5th year and afterwards they can eat. I guess that the sin of the people of Canaan has an effect on the land, including the plants.

Do not cut the sides of your hair or beard. By the way, no tattoos.

Leviticus 18

Leviticus 18 covers unlawful sexual relationships. This covers the gambit from humorous to just plain gross. Many of these are undoubtedly considered "incest" in our modern culture and are heavily frowned upon today. A couple I want to highlight:

No sex with your half-sister (v.11), daughter-in-law (v. 15), brother's wife (v. 16), wife's sister as a rival wife (v. 18). We saw all of these situations in Genesis with the Patriarchs. Abraham were Sarah were half-siblings, the Tamar and Judah incident involved a brother's wife and daughter in law. Finally, the rival sister wives reminds us of Leah and Rachel, wives of Jacob.

None of these were ideal situations and the relationships caused a lot of problems.

However, verse 9 forbids sex with your sister. Gross. But this would cause problems if one reads Adam and Eve to be the only humans on earth that were directly created by God. Then, all their future offspring would be forced to violate these rules. Likewise, they were commanded by God to be fruitful and multiply, so God is requiring them to break this rule.

A possible resolution could be found in the beginning of Lev. 18, where God explains these rules as being a separate practice from what they do in Canaan. Likewise, intermixed with all the rules on forbidden sex a requirement to not offer your children to the god Molek (v. 21). This would suggest these rules are to distinguish the Israelites from the worship of Molek.

That said, Lev. 18 concludes by saying that these practices defile the land and the land will vomit you out if you do them. This creates a quandary as the land did not vomit out the Patriarchs for doing this, while in contrast, Adam and Eve's offspring were implicitly instructed to break these rules.

I don't have an answer to this.

Leviticus 17

God outlines that all the sacrifices must be consolidated from the open field to the altar area. Presumably, the Israelites were making sacrifices in the open field otherwise God would not have had to say this. I have a lot of sympathy for this perspective because maybe the Israelites wanted to stay away from that area after the high priest Aaron's sons were killed there.

The text goes on to say that all the blood animals must be drained before they can be eaten. The reasoning - life is in the blood. This I find interesting. As for modern corrolarries, it is common to drain the animal of blood and directly consuming blood is not common. We do have things like blood pudding, sausage made of blood, but blood consumption has become a counter-cultural "Goth" affiliation.

Regardless of clean and unclean meats in the New Testament, I am not aware of any New Testament revocation of the rule or its purpose. Specifically, I am unaware in the New Testament that animal blood does not still carry its life, and hence blood is now appropriate to eat.

The chapter ends with a stand-alone rule about being unclean for eating meat of animals killed in the wild. The consequence is being ceremonially unclean. The cure, which I think applies for all situations of eating unclean meats - wash your clothes and bathe, and waiting until evenng.

Leviticus 16

Leviticus 16 covers a special ritual for the Day of Atonement

We need 4 animals - a bull, a ram, and two goats. The bull and the ram are for Aaron and his household. As for the two goats, lots are cast between them. The unlucky goat is scarified as an offering, but the lucky goat is now the "scapegoat". It gets spiritually blamed for all of Israel's sins, but then is led into the wild and released.

This ritual cleanses Aaron to allow him to go behind the Tabernacle curtain and be with God. Any other day, this would kill him.

Leviticus 15

Leviticus 15 rounds out the rules for impurity and cleanliness.

If a man has an "unusual discharge", him and everything he touches is unclean while it is going on. Similarly, a woman who is having her monthly period is unclean and everything she touches is unclean.

In both situations, they must offer two birds, one as a sin offering, and one as a burnt offering in the cleansing ceremony. Since this is a regular occurrence for women, it's good that they only have to offer up two birds each time this happens and not, say a bull. That would get expensive.

Two situations that do not require offerings but they are unclean: male ejaculations and when two people have sex. They are just unclean until evening.

Since the gist of these rules is human health and hygiene, it is tempting to say that is the full limit and purpose. However, Lev. 15:31 cautions that Israelites are to avoid unclean things so they that do not die for defiling God's dwelling place. I interpret this to mean that bringing unsanitary conditions into God's tabernacle would result in death. This would suggest that unsanitary conditions has some sort of holiness downgrade that.

Leviticus 12-14

Leviticus 12 - purification after child-birth

I cannot think of any modern corollaries to most of this.

If a son is born, he is to be circumcised on the 8th day (we have that). But then the mother is unclean for another 33 days, for a total period of 40 days.

If a daughter is born, the mother is unclean for a total time of 80 days.

Meanwhile, she cannot touch hallowed objects or go into the sanctuary. Afterwards, she must do a sin offering.

A sin offering? Having a child is not a sin, so I suppose it ties back to being excluded from the sanctuary during purification time. Why the 40/80 day distinction if it's a son or a daughter? I have no idea.

Leviticus 13-14 - skin diseases

The text of Lev. 13 provides a long list of situations where skin diseases may or may not be spreading. Importantly, it is the priest that determines if its is leprosy or not. If so, the leper must live alone and his clothes may or may not be burned.

A humorous anecdote in all of it is that bald men are considered clean (v. 40-41)

Lev. 14 gives us a precise ritual of reintroducing a person who has been healed of leprosy. There actually are two rituals, one involving two birds (kill one, let the other free) followed by a sin offering. Leprosy, like childbirth, is not a sin, but this sin offering is required to rejoin the population.

The last portion of Lev. 14 provides us with what to do when the leprosy has invaded the walls of a home. The home is to be shut up for 7 days. If that does not work, then it is to be destroyed. Interestingly, if the home is cleansed, an offering of two birds is required. One bird is killed while the other is released. This is similar to the ritual of rejoining the population for people. Why do the bird ritual? I have no idea. Perhaps there is some spiritual effect of leprosy. This would not be out of the ordinary in the Bible as we see a spiritual connection to diseases frequently in the ministry of Christ.

Leviticus 11

Leviticus 11-14 covers the laws of "impurity" - clean and unclean meat, child birth, and skin diseases.

Are these applicable today? In what form? Are they merely "ceremonial" and not moral? Personally, I've never been 100% satisfied with the ceremonial v. moral line drawing of the Mosaic code that some modern Christian commentators do. It has an attractive simplicity to it, but in my view, it oversimplifies the Mosaic code because the Mosaic code itself blurs it all without such a distinction.

Let's start with Leviticus 11. Without editorializing, here are the meat rules:

Land animals fit for consumption must have: (1) cloven-hoof and (2) ruminate.

Water animals fit for consumption must have: (1) fins and (2) scales

For birds, we do not get a guiding principle, but rather a long list of things unfit for human consumption. However, a simple reading of the list emerges the pattern, the birds unfit include birds of prey and scavengers.

We get a list of other common animals that are unclean - weasel, mouse, tortoise, ferret, chameleon, lizard, snail, and mole.

If the rationale for these rules are hygiene and disease control, then the precise combinations for land and water animals seem arbitrary. Rumination would definitely affect an animal's disease, for after all, if it ruminates, then it must be a vegetarian. If we contrast this with the rules for bird meat, this would be consistent and we can discern a pattern - do not eat animals that scavenge or are predators.

However, the cloven-hoof or lack thereof seems to not have anything to do with what goes into the animal's body. No, it doesn't. However, I'm guessing at this as I don't know this for a fact, but the ruminating animals with cloven hoofs (i.e., cow) are foregut fermenters while those with a unified hoof are hind-gut fermenters (i.e., horses).

A bit of comparative anatomy, rumination is the process whereby the animal's GI track breaks down the cell walls of plants. This could occur in the 4-chamber stomach, such as in a cow (fore-gut fermentation), or in the large intestine of a horse (hind-cut fermentation).

Does this ultimately matter? I have no idea. I'm trying to figure why the cover-hoof matters other for the fact that it just so happens to fit the pattern of fore-gut rumination.

As for water animals, the scavenger/predator demarcation falls apart. One great example is tuna. Tuna are vicious predatory fish, but they have fins and scales. Likewise, vegetarian sea creatures don't always have fins. An example would be marine iguanas, although this would be included under lizards.

So, what's the pattern? What is this about? There is a general pattern of avoiding predators and scavengers, but it is not completely consistent. There are herbivores that would be excluded as unclean while some predators would be considered clean.

A great indication of the rationale for this might come from the consequence of touching their dead bodies, which is outlined in Lev. 11:31 - unclean until evening. This would indicate that it is about disease control and/ or physical cleanliness. It also fits into the pattern that emerges for purity of childbirth and leprosy.

On a side note, although the Israelites probably did not think like this (maybe they did), there is no consequence of eating unclean animals listed other than touching their bodies. Touching their bodies is a part of eating them. So, I suppose if you were an ancient Israelite and you really wanted to eat a pig, you could do it, but you would unclean until the evening.

If touching their dead bodies made you unclean, then the Israelites could not use these animals generally for hides and leather.

After all the discussion about disease control, we get an indication at the end of Leviticus 11 that is far more than about hygiene:

⁴⁴For I am the LORD your God. Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

This would indicate that God views these rules as part of the general requirements for holiness. This would suggest there is a moral component to these rules.

So, let's ask - should these be applicable today?

On one hand, if these are about disease control, plus in the New Testament Peter sees the animals on the sheet and is instructed to "kill and eat". Well, despite Peter's vision, if we really care about being healthy and these rules are given by God, then maybe we should follow them.

On the other hand, I know people who still keep these rules. However, to my knowledge, they do not follow the corollary rules on clean and unclean meats, such as not using the hides of unclean meats (i.e, crocodile purses, eel-skin wallets etc...).

A follow-up question - what about plants?

In Leviticus 11, we do not get corollary rules on clean and unclean plants. There are no specific prohibitions against plant or plant products that we might consider "unclean" today - marijuana, coca, tobacco, or poppy. Tobacco and coca are New World plants, so the Israelites would not have had an opportunity to use them.

However, marijuana (hashish) and poppy have a long history of use in the Middle East. The closest thing we find in Leviticus 11 about potentially defiling plants is verse 44's prohibition about defiling oneself, although it uses unclean meats as the example.

Leviticus 11

Leviticus 11-14 covers the laws of "impurity" - clean and unclean meat, child birth, and skin diseases.

Are these applicable today? In what form? Are they merely "ceremonial" and not moral? Personally, I've never been 100% satisfied with the ceremonial v. moral line drawing of the Mosaic code that some modern Christian commentators do. It has an attractive simplicity to it, but in my view, it oversimplifies the Mosaic code because the Mosaic code itself blurs it all without such a distinction.

Let's start with Leviticus 11. Without editorializing, here are the meat rules:

Land animals fit for consumption must have: (1) cloven-hoof and (2) ruminate.

Water animals fit for consumption must have: (1) fins and (2) scales

For birds, we do not get a guiding principle, but rather a long list of things unfit for human consumption. However, a simple reading of the list emerges the pattern, the birds unfit include birds of prey and scavengers.

We get a list of other common animals that are unclean - weasel, mouse, tortoise, ferret, chameleon, lizard, snail, and mole.

If the rationale for these rules are hygiene and disease control, then the precise combinations for land and water animals seem arbitrary. Rumination would definitely affect an animal's disease, for after all, if it ruminates, then it must be a vegetarian. If we contrast this with the rules for bird meat, this would be consistent and we can discern a pattern - do not eat animals that scavenge or are predators.

However, the cloven-hoof or lack thereof seems to not have anything to do with what goes into the animal's body. No, it doesn't. However, I'm guessing at this as I don't know this for a fact, but the ruminating animals with cloven hoofs (i.e., cow) are foregut fermenters while those with a unified hoof are hind-gut fermenters (i.e., horses).

A bit of comparative anatomy, rumination is the process whereby the animal's GI track breaks down the cell walls of plants. This could occur in the 4-chamber stomach, such as in a cow (fore-gut fermentation), or in the large intestine of a horse (hind-cut fermentation).

Does this ultimately matter? I have no idea. I'm trying to figure why the cover-hoof matters other for the fact that it just so happens to fit the pattern of fore-gut rumination.

As for water animals, the scavenger/predator demarcation falls apart. One great example is tuna. Tuna are vicious predatory fish, but they have fins and scales. Likewise, vegetarian sea creatures don't always have fins. An example would be marine iguanas, although this would be included under lizards.

So, what's the pattern? What is this about? There is a general pattern of avoiding predators and scavengers, but it is not completely consistent. There are herbivores that would be excluded as unclean while some predators would be considered clean.

A great indication of the rationale for this might come from the consequence of touching their dead bodies, which is outlined in Lev. 11:31 - unclean until evening. This would indicate that it is about disease control and/ or physical cleanliness. It also fits into the pattern that emerges for purity of childbirth and leprosy.

On a side note, although the Israelites probably did not think like this (maybe they did), there is no consequence of eating unclean animals listed other than touching their bodies. Touching their bodies is a part of eating them. So, I suppose if you were an ancient Israelite and you really wanted to eat a pig, you could do it, but you would unclean until the evening.

If touching their dead bodies made you unclean, then the Israelites could not use these animals generally for hides and leather.

After all the discussion about disease control, we get an indication at the end of Leviticus 11 that is far more than about hygiene:

⁴⁴For I am the LORD your God. Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

This would indicate that God views these rules as part of the general requirements for holiness. This would suggest there is a moral component to these rules.

So, let's ask - should these be applicable today?

On one hand, if these are about disease control, plus in the New Testament Peter sees the animals on the sheet and is instructed to "kill and eat". Well, despite Peter's vision, if we really care about being healthy and these rules are given by God, then maybe we should follow them.

On the other hand, I know people who still keep these rules. However, to my knowledge, they do not follow the other rules on cleanliness. For instance, they do not follow the implications of this regarding animal hides (crocodile purses, eel-skin wallets would be unclean to touch), or the purity rules on childbirth (Lev. 12) or use priests to check skin diseases (Lev. 13). Rather, the food rules are taken and followed, but the rules around them are ignored. Stuff like that annoys me.

Leviticus 8-10

The priests are consecrated, begin their ministry, and quickly, something goes terribly wrong.

In chapters 8-9, we get the offerings of consecration in exquisite detail. I think the detail here serves a few functions:

1. This was the first time any of this had actually been done. We saw all the sacred items built at the end of Exodus and we get the rules of how to use them in Leviticus 1-7, but here we see it all happening. The repetition here shows that the priests are doing it in accordance with God's command.

2. The details matter. If they are not followed precisely, the priests themselves die.

3. In chapter 9, the priests sacrifice one of everything - bull, calf, goat, lamb, and the grain. The only thing omitted are birds. The priests are getting experience performing many of their duties right at the beginning.

Chapter 10

Two of Aaron's sons make a mistake in the offering/incense and are consumed by fire. Moses directs the sons of his uncle to retrieve their bodies and take them outside of camp. Moses directs Aaron and his sons to stay at their posts and not mourn because they have the Lord's anointing oil on them.

Then, a first - God talks to Aaron. God says don't drink any alcohol before deciding what is pure or not.

The chapter ends with Moses getting mad because Aaron's sons did not eat the holy meat. Aaron steps in and says, "would the Lord be mad that I didn't eat this day?". This satisfies Moses.

I think all the events of Chapter 10 happen on the exact same day. This would explain why Moses is satisfied that Aaron and his sons are not eating. Aaron just lost two sons and is told he cannot mourn in the traditional sense. However, he can abstain from eating the holy meat, which I think he does as a way to mourn.

As for the prohibition on alcohol, my guess is that is what Aaron's sons abused before getting killed. It sounds like the may have had too much to drink and it affected their ability to remember and/or judge the requirements for holy offerings. This killed them.

I also have to wonder how much of this, if any, was tied to Aaron's (or his sons') participation in the golden calf. As far as we know, Aaron was never punished, yet he participated in it. Meanwhile, others that did were killed by the sword or plague. Even if God has forgiven Aaron in light of his chosen place to be the first high priest, we could probably assume that the golden calf incident is forefront on Aaron's mind when something like this happens.

Leviticus, generally

Leviticus is highly repetitive at times, which is why I think most people stay away from it. But it's essence is quite powerful. We're talking about how the Israelites were forgiven of their sins, became justified and holy so that they could commune with God.

Leviticus 4-7

We finish the rules on sacrifices. Just think, priests and Rabbis here on afterwards had to keep all this stuff straight.

Sin offerings:

Head priest - bull

Entire community - bull

Israelite leader - male goat

Regular citizen - female goat or female lamb (but the female lamb must have a pink bow in her hair, awwww)

Poor people - 2 pigeons or doves, or if you're really poor, some flour (French Bible says 4 kilograms)

Guilt offerings : a ram plus financial restitution and a financial penalty

General rules:

The offerings burn on the altar throughout the night. The ashes are cleaned the next morning. The altar fire is to burn continually.

Grain offerings - a portion is burned but the priests get to eat the rest. Unless it's the day of a priest anointing then the entire portion is burned.

The meat of sin offerings must be eaten by the priest who offers it and any male (females too?) person of the family offering can eat it. This imparts holiness onto those eating it.

Fellowship offerings (i.e., thanksgiving offerings) can be eaten too and there is no requirement of who can and cannot eat it. However, the priests get the meat from the thigh and chest.

You can't eat the fat or blood of animal, but the fat of animals killed in the wild can be used for other purposes. I assume this includes candle-making.

It sounds like they did not cook with lard.

Leviticus 1-3

God opens a butcher shop.

Leviticus begins with a description of the types of offerings and in graphic detail, describes butchering animals for sacrifices.

Lev 1 - burnt offerings, described are bulls or birds (pigeons or doves)

Lev 2 - grain offerings

Lev 3 - fellowship offerings, an animal from the herd, but lambs and goats are described

The pattern for herd animals:

The animals are chosen from the herd. For burnt offerings, they must be male without defect. For fellowship offerings, they can be male or female. They are killed outside the sanctuary and their blood is splattered on the sides of the altar. Their internal organs are removed with the fat and it is all burned on the altar. God loves the smell of this.

For birds, their head is wringed off and burned. There is no requirement that it be a male bird. Then, their crop and feathers are removed. The rest is burned.

Grain offerings must be the first fruits of the harvest. You cannot use leavening or honey in it. These are also burned.

Exodus 38-40

The Israelites finish building all the sacred objects. Again, I don't have much to say about this, but a couple things that seem interesting:

The total gold and silver used were 877.300 kg and 3017.750 kg, respectively, according to my French Bible which updates measurements like these.

There are 603,550 "men" (maybe people) aged 20 or older.

The Holy Place is consecrated one year after they left Egypt.

Aaron and his sons have to wash their feet and hands when entering the tabernacle. Speaking of Aaron, I don't know why he was not killed by the plague or swordsmen that killed the worshipers of the golden calf.

Finally, the glory of descends on the tabernacle tent, a cloud by day and a fire by night. If these remained on the tent, they would stay where they were. If not, then they would move on.

Another question raised - is God dwelling in their midst now? God said that He would not because people are stiff-necked after the calf incident. In the alternative, maybe God had something else in mind that would have happened, but for the calf.

The Exodus is over. The people are out of Egypt, the Covenant is concluded, and all was has happy in the land. Let Leviticus begin.