Respect the LORD's Authoritah!

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as I attempt to read the Bible with fresh eyes, as if I don't know anything about it, and without consulting experts on what it "really" means.. Let's see where this takes us! 

I'm reading Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Leviticus 22

Leviticus 22 reiterates the purity of person and beast in regards to offerings. At this point I'm not really sure what priests did most of the time but cook food given to them. 

Verse 10 says that a priest's "bound or hired servant" can't partake of the offerings, but verse 11 says a "man acquired by purchase" may. I surmise that the "bound" servant is paying off a debt and lives independently, but the verse 11 man is a slave and therefore part of the priest's household.

It's interesting that a divorced daughter who comes back to live at home may partake of the offerings (verse 12); there seems to be no scandal or disgrace attached to divorce. The LORD, however, is very particular about cleanliness.

Leviticus 23

There's some reiteration of previous commandments about holidays.  The Festival of Booths is for after the Isrealites settle in the promised land to commemorate their time in the wilderness. I looked up "booth." It has an archaic meaning of a makeshift shelter. So, in this Festival, the Israelites get to go camping.

Leviticus 24

More tabernacle business for nine verses, including a command to keep the lamp perpetually burning. Then comes the case of the blasphemer.

The Lord tells Moses that blasphemers shall be stoned to death by the whole congregation. The name of the LORD shall not be mocked. The LORD might as well be saying "Thou shalt not question my authority."

The LORD, let's remember, is hovering nearby in an auto-propelled cloud. This isn't an abstract God that you only know by faith and which everyone is free to have some difference of opinion about. The LORD's done both awesome and awful things before the Israelites' eyes, and is not to be trifled with.

Although the blashpeming man use the name of the LORD in a curse, one can also connect blasphemy to a lack of gratitude. To blaspheme the LORD would be saying something like, "We would have left Egypt anyway," refusing to acknowledge the remarkable events that transpired which the LORD made happen.

If this is metaphor (sometimes the Bible reads like metaphor, sometimes not), and the Lord is really our highest self, we could say that to mock or ignore the infinite possibilities within us, to press on in the belief that we're just finite beings, is to decree the death penalty for ourselves, because death is all we believe in. 

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)