The Day of Atonement - known today in the Jewish world as Yom Kippur. (16:29) The tenth day of the seventh month of the year. While the priests were following the guidelines described in this chapter to cleanse the temple of any residual sin or uncleanness from the Israelites, the people of Israel would fast and rest in God to further bring purity to their community. They worked as a single body to purify themselves so that God would remain with them. Imagine what the body of Christ could do in our world if we unified in such a singular vision, to offer ourselves a pure sacrifices before God!
16:10 - Who is this Azazel dude? Well, we are not really given any background information on who Azazel is, but we can figure some things out from the text. We know that it is a person because the goat is being sent to him. We know that it is an enemy of God because it is out in the wilderness, where demons roam and God is sending the sins of the Israelites out to Azazel. You don't send the equivalent of a dump truck load of toxic waste to your friends! God is basically sending the sins of the Jews back to where they came from - to the father of lies - to the betrayer of man - Satan. That is the best bet on understanding what Azazel refers to - Satan or other demonic powers.
17:5-7 - The Israelites not always bringing their "A" game were apparently making sacrifices out in the wilderness to these goat demons. It seems that they believed male goats represented some sort of deity and were just making sure that the goat god was happy too. Some of the leftover polytheism is still running around in their hearts and God intends to snuff it out. It is a testament to God's mercy that He does not strike all these people down immediately for making sacrifices to false gods, but it also indicate that the Jews didn't really understand what they were doing. God makes it clear for them. You are not to offer sacrifices to anything but me - EVER! This may seem like ancient problems that don't apply to us, but we should all be careful that we are not offering gifts God has given us to the false gods of this world. I would say it is a pretty common occurrence int he lives of many Christians - offering sacrifices to the world as opposed to God...sacrificing time, money, talents, etc.
18:3 - Interesting that the author brings up the sins of the country of Canaan, because of their origins. The people of Canaan were descendants of Noah's son Ham who is described in Genesis as the father of Canaan. And Ham was cursed because he mocked his father's nakedness after the flood. Throughout this chapter the focus is improper use of sexual relationships. While Ham didn't physically do anything to his father, he dishonored God and his dad emotionally and verbally. Improper sexuality starts way before physical touching...you can violate sexuality as God intended in your mind and with you eyes and through your words too.
"Uncover nakedness" - The ESV says over and over "you shall not uncover the nakedness of _________." This sounds really weird, but it is an exact translation of what was originally written in the Hebrew. To uncover nakedness in the Hebrew world implied having sexual relationships with someone. So basically it is saying not to have any form of sexual contact or experience with the people listed (It's a broader term than just "sex.")
18:21ff - It seems strange that child sacrifice would be thrown in with this list of sexual sins, but it does make sense if you think of it like this. Just as you are not supposed to offer your children up to the fires of Molech (Child sacrifice was semi-common in the area surrounding the Israelites), you do not offer up your "seed" to vile sexual practices that go against God. As we saw a couple of days ago, God considers male discharge to be a sign of life and He equates it with child sacrifice. Makes you take sex a little more seriously, huh?
18:27 - This is something we have to understand. These laws are not just for the Israelites alone. God holds the people that came before them accountable to the sexual sins they committed. This gives us some idea as to why God can bring judgement upon the people that the Israelites conquer...they have already profaned themselves before God and made their country vile and unclean in His eyes. God as a holy and just Lord has the right to bring judgement upon people who reject Him.
2 comments:
I noticed that throughout some of this the punishments for a few of these laws are "being cut off from your people" I can't imagine what my life would look like if I was cut off from my family, friends, youth groups, etc.
18:25- "... and the land vomited out its inhabitants." that's intense.
That is intense...thanks Matt.
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