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Thursday 3 November 2022

Leviticus 19:18,19 - Do not seek revenge

19:18

“Love your neighbour”. Sceptics are sometimes keen on speaking favourably of “love your neighbour” while condemning the Old Testament laws on sexual morality, forgetting, are morelikely being totally ignorant, of the fact that “love your neighbour” comes in the midst of the holiness code. The “love” here is not sentimentality or wishy-washy love. It is given in the context of not seeking revenge or bearing a grudge. What we are to do instead of seeking revenge or bearing a grudge is dealing with matters. Sometimes matters that upset us are really trivial and the answer is to just forget about them, others are more serious and the matter needs to be properly addressed.


19:19

There are some similar laws on not mixing things in Dt 22:9-11. No reason is given for these prohibitions and we find it hard to see the point. The first two prohibitions may be concerned with not mixing species, not joining what God has separated. The prohibition of mixing two kinds of materials is harder to understand.


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