It’s been a while.  Everything is changing.  God’s word stays true forever.  Last time we heard all of the imperatives regarding offerings, emissions and food.  Now we turn to the imperatives that are more severe in tone.

Lev 18:2 “Speak to the people… I am the LORD your God.”  The first command of this section is for Moses to tell the people that who their boss is makes them different.  If you are going to be different from Egypt, you can’t act like Egypt.  This is the context of the following commands on uncovering nakedness.  Apparently the Egyptians were nudists.  And what’s the promise?   If the Israelites do these things, “lest the land vomit you out” (18:28).

Lev 19:2 “Speak to all the congregation… you shall be holy for I the LORD your God am holy.”  This introduces a loosely held together section running to 20:26.  The binding theme is holiness.  Statutes based on who God is and less on how not to be like other people (although 20:23).  Lev 19 has: revere parents (v3); make acceptable offerings (v5); leave some harvest for the poor (v10); oppression, injustice and vengeance aren’t okay (v11-18); instructions on everything from concubines to scales (v19-36).

Lev 20 has no imperatives.  The passage deals with potential problems and future promises.  Notice all the “if” statements.

Lev 21:1 “Speak to the priests… no one shall make himself unclean for the dead.”  There are lots of exceptions for family members, but priests are supposed to have a different loyalty.  Why?  “They offer the LORD’s food offerings, the bread of their God” (v8).

Lev 21:17 “Speak to Aaron… none of your offspring… who has a blemish may draw near.”  Pretty harsh.  God already took one of Aaron’s sons.  Being a priest is a serious deal.  If someone is going to do it right, they will have to be perfect.

Lev 22:2 “Speak to Aaron… abstain from the holy things.”  What?  Aren’t priests supposed to be around holy stuff all the time?  This idea is supposed to be connected to “while he has an uncleanness” (v3).  The priests’ job isn’t getting any easier.

Lev 22:18-19 “Speak to Aaron and… all the people of Israel, ‘When anyone presents a burnt offering… if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish.”  At a meeting of medical missionaries and supporters I heard the quote, “No junk for Jesus.”  I think that applies here.  A sacrificial system completely breaks down if you start bringing junk.  God shouldn’t have to command this, but he knows his people.

Lev 23:2 “Speak to the people… ‘These are the appointed feasts.”  God commands Moses four times in this chapter to speak to the people about feasts and calendar stuff.  This first section covers the two most important.  The Sabbath is to be a day of “no work” (v3).  The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread create a whole week of offerings capped by a day of rest.  Unlike Exo 20:11 or Exo 12:17 and other times that Sabbath or Passover is mentioned, there is not a “Why do we do this?” in Lev 23.  God has the right to set the calendar.

Lev 23:10 “Speak to the people… bring the sheaf of the first-fruits.”  If you aren’t a farmer, a “sheaf” is a bundled up stack of grain.  Think of those grain bundle things that you see around caricatures of pilgrims at Thanksgiving.  This idea is bigger than grain.  All produce is offer-able (v13).  Then seven weeks plus fifty days later is the ‘feast of weeks’ although that name isn’t in the text.  Essentially, the people are to thank God for stuff popping out of the ground and for a good harvest at the end.  So the actual ‘no work day’ is at the end of the Feast of Weeks  (v21).

Lev 23:24 “Speak to the people… observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets.”  I don’t know.  For me rest doesn’t equal trumpet blowing.

In v26 there is no imperative introducing the Day of Atonement.  It still is a no work day (v28), but it has been intricately described earlier in Leviticus 16.

Lev 23:34 “Speak to the people… for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the LORD.”  This is the only feast day with the ‘to the LORD’ designation.  The description of this feast is very vague here, but essentially everyone is to go camping on order to remember the Exodus.

Lev 24:2 “Command the people… to bring pure oil for the lamp.”  This tsavah is more intense than the “speak” of our previous imperatives.  Who keeps the lamps burning?  The people do.

Lev 24:14 “Speak to the people… ‘Whoever curses God shall bear his sin.'” Seems fair enough.  You curse God, you bear the consequences.  However, in 2015, can we be okay with a God who commands the death penalty for religious belief?  It happened.  Deal with it.

Lev 25:2 “Speak to the people… ‘The land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD.'”  After seven years the land gets a break.  Letting a field go unused or rotating crops is a wise farming practice.  But, what God is getting across is that Sabbath provides food (v6).  That is the opposite of a Black Friday world.

Leviticus 26 has no imperatives.  It is more of a “when you get there” passage.  It ends with stark warnings of how God will personally deal with sin, and it promises exile.  “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths… while you are in your enemies’ land” Lev 36:34.  Notice that this promise of destruction is not tied to a “You turned to other gods” idea but that the people will not do what God asked concerning Sabbath, proper sacrifice, purity, etc.

Lev 27:2 “Speak to the people… if anyone makes a special vow.”  This chapter is so weird to us.  Jacob is the first person to do this in scripture (Gen 28:20-22).  In short, due to intense circumstances you promise to devote something to God. Jacob said a specific amount, but you could just name a person or animal.  You can’t fully devote land because God hands out the land as ancestral heritage (Lev 27:24).  But, you can devote the produce of the land or potential produce of the land.  In the case of a person devoted, you must redeem them by paying money to the temple.  For an animal the option is to pay the money or hand over the animal to become property of the temple.

This system seems so bizarre to us.  Think of your prayer life.  Usually in times of panic we ask God for something.  Heal me.  Save me.  However, the Israelites in moments of panic offered things to God.  At worst, this was viewed as perfunctory transaction, but at best, this is a preemptive offering of gratitude for God’s deliverance.  “I will give this to God because of the good he will do.”

That’s Leviticus.  We saw over and over that God’s commands in this usually “boring” book are actually a tale of intimacy.  You set up house rules because you want to live with someone.  Now it’s time for the people to start heading where they are supposed to live.  The Hebrew title for the next book is “In the Wilderness”, but English bibles have “Numbers” because counting is important.