To Keep or Not To Keep

These are the commands the Lord gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.  Leviticus 27:34

To Keep or Not To Keep
By Rev. William Dohle

It's amazing what laws are still on the books...even though they are rather ridiculous!

Take a few laws from my home state, Utah.

• In Salt Lake County it is illegal to walk down the street with a violin in a paper bag.
• In Trout Creek, Utah it is illegal to cure a cold with gunpowder.
• It is a felony to persistently tread on the cracks between paving stones on the sidewalk of a state highway.
• It is illegal to hunt whales in Utah.  (By the way, Utah isn't even close to the ocean!

In Illinois, where I live now...

• The English Language is NOT to be spoken.
• Law prohibits eating in a place in Chicago that is on fire.
• It is forbidden in Chicago to fish while sitting on a giraffe's neck
• In Galesburg, no one may keep a smelly dog.
• And in Kirkland, IL bees are not allowed to fly over the village.

Google Outdated laws yourself and see what you find.

The funny part is that...these laws are STILL on the books.  I wonder sometimes if anyone has been caught breaking these laws.  What would they do to them?

The Bible too is full of outdated laws.  Whole books of them in fact.  Many are obvious.  Some not.  Laws, for instance, that concern the treatment of slaves do not apply to a society without slavery.  A Templeless religion has no need for instructions about burnt offerings and priesthoods.  And a society that gives the right to kill to the state has no need of laws with corporal punishment.

But how do you decide?  How do you choose?  How do you know what laws to keep and what laws not to keep?  How can you tell?

The book of Leviticus is itself a book of laws.  With few real stories within it, Leviticus was written to aid God's people to walk God's path.  It exists to help design Israel into the the people that God would be proud of.  It contains commands on what to eat and not to eat, how to clean your home from mildew, rules on the various festivals that are celebrated among other things.

It was written thousands of years before Christ, but its words still sting today.  Many of the Bible's worst critics and strongest allies quote from Leviticus to bolster their arguments.  The best known passages, like the ones about sexual behavior which only constitute one chapter of the book, are thrown around so much that we might think they were written yesterday for us and not to another people thousands of years ago.  Many laws in the book are ignored while other laws are held up as models of what God wants.

So... how do you decide what to keep?

As I come to the book of Leviticus in my journey through Scripture, I am sorely tempted to skip the book altogether.  It would be easy to put it behind me and focus instead on the narratives in Numbers and the passionate discourse in Deuteronomy.  Anything to keep from dealing with Leviticus!

But something compels me to look deeper.  The Spirit of God perhaps.  Something calls me deeper into the book... to wrestle with the laws that disturb me and to celebrate the laws that invigorate me.

So... join me through the season of Easter, as we explore the book of Leviticus further and understand the laws that the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, knew by heart.  And God help us on the journey!

Your word, O Lord, is full of disturbing and uncomfortable commandments, many of which I don't follow.  Give me eyes that I may see you through the words on the page.  Amen.