Leviticus 11:1-46 - Chewing the cud

11:1-46

We now come to a whole bunch of food laws, and I guess many of us think “what is the point?”. We are correct in this up to a point, for in Mark 7:19 Jesus declared all foods to be clean. However, this is God’s word, so there must be some purpose to it. 

The text starts with God declaring “these are the ones you may eat”. So, as in Eden, the starting point is that God has made ample provision for the people. Then God draws a distinction between “clean” and “unclean” creatures, with rules for animals, sea creatures, birds and insects. The translation of names of creatures in the Bible is often subject to significant uncertainty as they didn’t have any textbooks to refer to! While the rules for determining which category a particular creature was in are clear, no explanation of the reason for the distinction is given. Various attempts have been made, based either on health grounds, or on means of locomotion, or some other criteria. None of these attempts are particularly successful. They work in some cases but not in others. 

At the end of the chapter (11:44-47) we are told that the purpose is that Israel was to be holy as the Lord is holy. They were to be utterly dedicated to the Lord. In trying to find some rational reason for the distinction between clean and unclean we are trying to take back control, when what the Israeites were to do was to obey the Lord. So maybe what is going on is that God has given them a clear set of rules, and by sticking to these rules the people would demonstrate their commitment to the Lord. This would mark them out from the other nations.

Romans 6:9,10 - The death He died He died to sin

6:9

The resurrection of Christ was significantly different from the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus had died and was brought back to life, but it was exactly the same life as before. Lazarus died of something else later. Christ will never die again. Christ ascended to heaven, never to die again. Death no longer has any dominion over Him. Death was fully defeated.

6:10

The death Christ died was a death to sin. Christ died because He took upon Himself our sins. He died so that sin would no longer have any hold on us. He died, and was raised, never to die again. So Christ lives, and the life He lives He lives to God. Now Jesus lived His whole life to God, but He died because of our sin. He was raised so that He, and us, would live to God. What Paul is doing here is laying the groundwork for how we should live, and countering the silly arguments.

Leviticus 10:12-20 - Would the Lord have been pleased?

10:12-15

Moses tells Aaron and his two sons to eat the grain offering and to eat it in the sanctuary area. This was their part of the offering. The wider family was allowed to eat other offerings in clean areas. So what is going on here? Aaron has just lost his two sons. He may fear that the Lord is against him. Moses is assuring him that the Lord has provided for him and his family, but the provision is in line with God’s commandments.

10:16-20

Moses finds that Eleazar and Ithamar have not eaten any of the sin offering and he is initially very angry with them. Aaron counters that in view of all that had happened that day the Lord would not actually have been pleased if they had eaten their part of the sin offering. Moses seems to accept this response. Aaron seems to be indicating that his attitude would not have been right.

Romans 6:7,8 - We will also live with Him

6:7

“For one who has died has been set free from sin”. Literally it says “has been justified from sin”. Slaves could gain their freedom by a process called manumission, but under manumission the freed slave could well still have some obligations to their former owner. It was only when the freed slave died that all obligations ended. We have died to sin, sin no longer has any rights over our lives. 

6:8

For the freed slave who died, that was the end of it, nothing. We have died with Christ, we are also raised with Christ, we live with Him. As pointed out earlier, the physical resurrection is of necessity in the future! But the metaphorical resurrection begins now. We have died to sin, but there is now not nothing, but a new life. We are dead to sin, but alive to Christ, and alive in Christ. We live with Him. Under this picture of the gospel the notion of contemplating continuing to sin as a desirable way if life is just utter nonsense.

Leviticus 10:6-11 - Do not let your hair become unkempt

10:6,7

Aaron and his two remaining sons are told that they were not to mourn for Nadab and Abihu. The other relatives and Israel were allowed to mourn, but Aaron and his two sons were not to do so. Their role as priests of the Lord had to come first. Jesus said His disciples were to love God more than wives, husbands, mothers, brothers etc. Serving God comes first, even when it is hard. Aaron and his two sons did as they had been commanded.

10:8-11

God then speaks to Aaron directly, rather than through Moses. Why does He do this? Perhaps it is out of love. God knows that it is an absolute obedience He is demanding, so He explains directly to Aaron why things have to be that way. They are told not to drink fermented drinks when they go the tent of meeting. The key lesson is that they need to distinguish between the holy and common, and the unclean and clean. The fire offered by Nadab and Abihu was not holy. Only when they lived as dedicated to God could they teach the community the ways of the Lord. The same applied to all of us who seek to serve the Lord.

Romans 6:5,6 - We shall be united with Him in a resurrection like Him

6:5

We need to appreciate the nature of Christ’s death. He died because of our sin. He took our sin upon Himself and suffered the due penalty. Through faith we are united with Him in that death. We have said farewell to sin. Now let me make it clear that we are not talking about sinless perfectionism here! Paul’s writings make it plain that sin is still a battle. What Paul is doing is making clear what we have believed, what we have signed up to. So we are united with Christ in His death, we shall also be united with Him “in a resurrection like His”. There are two aspects to this. One is that we will be raised from the dead as He was raised from death, Clearly this hasn’t happened yet as we haven’t died yet! The other is that we live a different life now, a life which is free from sin (again, not sinless perfectionism!). 

6:6

Paul now applies this to our old self. To continue to live as our old self, i.e. a life subject to the slavery of sin, is just ridiculous. We have been called to a new life. Our old self (literally “old man”) was crucified with Christ. Our old self died with Christ. This happened so that “the body of sin might be brought to nothing”. “Body of sin” means the body enslaved by sin. The defeat and end of our enslavement to sin is part of the goal of our coming to Christ. Fundamental to the gospel is that our unregenerate self is a slave of sin. We need to be set free, and seeking to continue in sin is just anathema to that.

Leviticus 10:1-5 - Unauthorised fire

10:1,2

In the previous chapter we had seen the inauguration of the priesthood and everything seemed to go well. Everything was done in accordance with God’s instructions, the sacrifices were accepted, and the people saw all this. Now we have a disaster. Two of Aaron’s sons offer unauthorised fire, or “strange fire” in some versions, and are themselves consumed. The Law offered perfect instructions, but was given to an imperfect people.

It is not clear why Nadab and Abihu thought that offering this fire was a good idea, they may have been copying some ritual from another religion. Whatever the reason, God did not consider it a good idea. God determines how people are to approach Him, we do not. Sadly the church is often trying to use its own ideas about what pleases God, rather than seeking to follow God’s given commands.

10:3-5

Moses then speaks to his brother. “Among those who approach me I will be proved holy”. This applies to the priests, they were the ones who approached God. “In the sight of the people I will be honoured”, this applies to all the people, God will demonstrate Himself as holy before them. The two bodies were carried outside of the camp. Hess sees parallels between this incident and the death of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts.