A Beautiful Chapter

Everyone cherry-picks the Bible. That is, everyone picks what they want and rejects what they don't like. If there is a chapter in the Bible that stands as exhibit "A" for those who would use the Bible against itself it is Leviticus 19.

Consider the following directives:
Leviticus 19:19 (ESV) “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

Leviticus 19:27 (ESV) You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.

Leviticus 19:23 (ESV) “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten.

And of course, 21st Century Evangelical Christianity's most favorite-to-ignore passage:

Leviticus 19:28 (ESV) You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.

So we have a few commands here that MANY people use to disregard the Bible... or at least, the parts they don't like... you know - things about Jesus being the only way, sex being limited to monogamous heterosexual married couples et al. It's interesting how often Leviticus 19 and the topic of slavery are used to discredit the rest of the scriptures.

But herein lies the hypocrisy of those who discredit the Bible using Leviticus 19. In this chapter we have some of the most caring and people-oriented set of laws in the scriptures. Look no further than verse 18: Leviticus 19:18 (ESV) You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Jesus will look to this passage as integral. Paul will too. So does James. When Paul and James use the same scripture, you know it's a good one! In fact, the New Testament alludes to this passage 8 times. It is the second greatest commandment. 

Secondly, look at the rest of the chapter! Outside of the strange laws listed above, there are seriously important laws put in place to make sure the poor are cared for (Verses 9-10), justice is carried out (Verse 15), the older generations is honored (Verse 3, 32), the foreigner is welcomed into the land (Verses 33-34) and scales are rightly balanced in the exchange of goods (Verse 35-36). 

In fact, Leviticus 19 is a beautiful chapter. 

So what are we to make about these strange laws that we no longer practice?

Here's what we do. We understand that in those times, this was God's way of ensuring love was shown to neighbor. This was God's way of instructing and ancient people how to consider others as important as themselves. Who knows. Maybe planting your field with two different crops was a means to monopolizing the available seed. Perhaps God wanted them to share the profit making capability by having one crop per family. And what about the laws concerning hair cuts? I honestly have no idea. 

I do know this. God is always asking us to love one another... even when it seems foolish to later generations what it takes in our generation. Could you imagine an ancient context hearing God instruct us: "Do not cut people off on the road and show no middle finger to your neighbor?" 

The point is, we don't know what was happening in the ancient world that produced these specific guidelines so foreign to us. What we do know is there ultimate intent was to show love for one another - the way God always wants it.

Instead of cherry picking what is obviously a contextualized law, why not focus on personally practicing the central intention - to love our neighbor as ourself.