Leviticus 19:32-34 - Show respect for the elderly

19:32

This verse tells us to revere the elderly, and it is linked with revering the Lord. It is also another commandment which ends with “I am the Lord”. The root of rebellion is thinking we can manage without God, that we can be independent. When we do this we start to despise those whom we see as weak or inferior. One such group we might consider ourselves superior to are the elderly. To do so is to dishonour God.

19:33,34

Foreigners are to be treated as equals, i.e. to be treated as “native-born”. They must not be ill-treated. The motivation for this is that the Israelites were once foreigners in Egypt, where they were mistreated. Again, this ends with “I am the Lord your God”. And again it appears after a verse concerning those who are weak or vulnerable in some way. This, of course, presents us with a real problem today, for we have a very serious issue with illegal immigrants. With legal migration there is no problem in terms of what we should do, we should treat them well, as we are commanded to do so here. The case with illegal immigration is much more difficult, and I don’t have any easy answers.

Romans 8:8 - Cannot please God

8:8

“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” I talked earlier about “flesh” being a better translation than “sinful nature”. And it is not only overtly sinful things that displease God, though, of course, they do displease God. Our flesh loves security, and wants to be in control, to be independent. The one thing it most definitely does not want is to have to live by faith, to live by trusting God. So it will be averse to taking Godly risks. If we are honest, we will be aware of these traits within ourselves. Our plans are based on what we can do with our resources. God’s plans for us are based on what we can do depending upon God’s resources, upon God working in and through us. The flesh says “you need to be in control”, the Spirit says “you need to trust God”, or “you can trust God”. Living by the flesh leads to torment and anxiety, for we are never in full control of everything, and never can be. We were created to live lives trusting in God. When we do so we use our own resources to the full, but together with God’s resources.

Leviticus 19:30,31 - Observe my Sabbaths

19:30

Verses ordering the proper observance of the Sabbath, or condemnation of desecration of the Sabbath, occur throughout the Old Testament. Here it goes along with reverence for the sanctuary of the Lord. Now our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We should have proper reverence for our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, and we should take proper rest, with time purely devoted to the Lord.

19:31

Worshipping spirits of the dead was a fairly common feature of idol worship and there are strong prohibitions against consulting the dead. So people were forbidden from consulting mediums or spiritists who claimed to be able to contact spirits of the dead. If they did so they would be defiled. People sometimes object to God’s commands thinking that they stop us doing something that otherwise would be good or enjoyable. This is not true. If we go against God’s commands it defiles us, it corrupts and pollutes us. The command ends with “I am the Lord your God”. The most fundamental fact that we ought to live by is that the Lord is God. Everything should be looked at from that perspective.

Romans 8:6,7 - The mind set on the Spirit

8:6

If we live out of our own strength it inevitably leads to death, spiritual death. It might seem like a good thing to do, even an honourable thing to do. What could be wrong in putting all our efforts into pleasing God? But our nature is corrupted and that corruption will inevitably have its effects. If instead we set our minds on the Spirit then that will lead to life and peace.

8:7

The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. This is because of the root of sin, our rebellion against God. If we try to live out of the flesh, out of our own strength, then this corruption will have its effects. The root of rebellion will dominate. Our human nature is fundamentally hostile to God and does not submit to God. Moreover, it cannot submit to God. You may try as hard as you like, even seeming to succeed for a short while, but the poisonous fruit of the flesh will come to the surface before long.

Leviticus 19:26-29 - Do not practice divination

19:26-28

At first look these commands seem rather random. However, there is more to it than that. This is the value of using commentaries (Hess in my case) as they can give useful insights. The first command talks about not eating meat with the blood still in it, and we have had a few similar commands about this already, so why another one? However, the wording here in the Hebrew is actually different and literally says “upon the blood”, an expression that only occurs in three other places. All these three laws are actually relating to the worship of other deities, in particular the worship of spirits of the dead (Hess). 19:28 prohibits tattoos. This raises the question of whether it is still prohibited for Christians to have a tattoo. Today it is unlikely to be related to idol worship, so perhaps it doesn’t, though the point is debatable.

19:29

Prostitution is evil and is degrading. It is degrading for those who are prostitutes (usually women), and for those who make use of them. Hopefully we recoil in horror at the thought of a man making his daughter a prostitute. However, such things do happen.  Moreover, there is an increasing move to normalise prostitution, one example being the use of the term “sex worker”. There are even cases of it being considered a reasonable way for a student to make some extra money. Such moves are lies. As it says here “the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness”, this is what will happen to any country where prostitution is normalised.

Romans 8:4,5 - Those who live according to the Spirit

8:4

“In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us”. The fear of the Jews was that the gospel was antinomianism, that it meant the Law no longer mattered and people would live as they pleased. Paul has shown that living by the Law does not produce righteous results anyway, so it is a failed method. The gospel does produce righteous results. They are produced legally through the cross. They are produced experientially through the Spirit. We actually become people who do fulfil the Law. Anyone who thinks the gospel does away with the Law, or means we can do as we please understands nothing (Matt 5:17). This is achieved not by walking in the flesh (living out of our own strength), but by living according to the Spirit.

8:5

The urge to live out of our own strength is strong. We can even feel a moral duty to do so. This is all a fruit of the fall. For part of the root of the fall was a declaration of independence, we don’t need God! Older versions of the NIV used the term “sinful nature” where others had “flesh”, but the NOV has reverted to “flesh”. This is a very good choice. “The term “sinful nature” tends to make us think of overtly sinful things, like lust, greed , murder, lying, etc. But that is not what Paul is talking about here. Living out of the flesh means living out of our human nature, which is a corrupted human nature. So even if we start off with the best of intentions, it will eventually lead to the sort of overtly sinful things that we have mentioned (see Gal 5:19-21). Instead we need to refocus our minds on to the things of the Spirit. If we live according to the Spirit then we get reoriented on to the things that pleases God.

Leviticus 19:20-25 - In the fifth year you may eat its fruit

19:20-22

This section gives us some insights into how slavery operated. A female slave could be married. However, until she was married, even if she was betrothed, her status as a slave was paramount. However, the man who slept with her was still guilty of sin. It is because she was not married that the man was not to be put to death. However, God was still sinned against, hence the requirement for an offering.

19:23-25

When they entered the land the fruit from a fruit tree was not to be taken until the fourth year. In that year the fruit was to be offered to the Lord. After that the fruit could be used in the normal way. The Hebrew actually talks about the tree being uncircumcised, it was to be treated as uncircumcised in the first three years. Now one might think that this would make the people poorer, but God assures them that their harvest will actually increase. In the same way giving to the Lord does not actually make us poorer, for the truth is that we are dependent upon the Lord for everything.