Through the Bible in 2012

Readings:

Leviticus 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Comments:

The story of Nadab and Abihu may surprise us. But the story is a reminder that the worship of God is serious business. What went wrong that they died? Perhaps they were intoxicated. All of us know we should not get behind the wheel of a vehicle if we have been drinking alcohol. The same is true for all we do – whether it be making important decisions or whether we are in charge of others or whether we are leading others in the worship of God. We are called to be level-headed.

What about the unclean and clean foods? I like how Dr. Elsworth Kalas puts it: holiness is not just a matter of how we worship God in a formal setting, holiness is about all of life. In our day people might act one way in church, but act quite differently just an hour after church. We may fool other people, but we certainly don’t fool God. And it seems God is concerned with every detail of our lives.

What is holiness? Holiness is the quality or state of being holy. And “holy” means to be set apart. We think of things that are holy as being “pure.” An object that is holy is said to be set aside to be used for religious or spiritual purposes. When we call the scriptures holy (as in “Holy Bible”) we mean these words (or this book) is a sacred book, a special book, a book that is used in our religious life.

We are called to holiness because God is holy (Leviticus 11:45). Jesus will echo this call to holiness. What does that mean to us? We are called to be holy people. Does it mean we are “pure” or that we are better than others? Or does it mean we are to be different, set apart for God’s purposes? Do you think of yourself as holy?

Some of the concerns of these ancient people do not concern us today. There may be people today we try to keep all these ancient laws. We know as Christians we are not bound by the laws concerning what we can eat or not eat. There are some who say it is very wise to still follow these laws. We know, for example, that pork is not the healthiest meat for us to eat. Should we refrain from eating pork simply because it may not be healthy for us, or should we refrain simply because God told people to not eat pork?

Over time, these were issues God’s people had to deal with especially after the time of Christ as the new community called the church was forming.

We must be careful when reading these ancient laws. We may see laws that we agree with and want to hold others to these same laws today. At the same time we will see laws we know we don’t follow today nor do we want to or feel that we need to in order to still follow God and be obedient to God.

So how do we determine what is what? That is a very good question!

We must seek the wisdom not of single verses taken from the Bible but of the whole Bible in the context of history and the wisdom of the community in which we are a part. That wisdom comes to us down through history as well as from contemporary sources. We look to the wisdom of the church as a whole today. And even then, we know that the church as a whole does not always agree on everything.