Leviticus 24:1-25:22

Leviticus 24:1-25:22

The beginning of Leviticus 24 speaks about some of the customs that they were to have in the temple, specifically speaking about the priests again. But the rest of the chapter looks at some more commands that were directed toward all of the Israelites. For instance, God took the importance of His name seriously. Anyone who disrespected His name was to be killed. Think about if that law was still in effect in our culture today. Our culture does not take God’s name seriously at all. On just about any program on TV or any movie you might see, someone is disrespecting God or His name. We are caught in this act many times as well, probably without even thinking about it. We must take this command seriously. There is no name on earth like the name of God, and it deserves the utmost respect! This passage is a challenge, for me anyways, to watch how I use God’s name in my daily conversation.

The final command of this chapter is the “eye for eye” principle. Think about if this law was still used today. How different would society be? A good friend of mine has said many times before that “an eye for an eye will make the world go blind.” This is so true and fun to joke about, but maybe we ought to take this command more seriously. Now I am not saying that we should go out and hurt those who hurt us, for Jesus says in the Gospels to love our neighbors, and ultimately we should share the gospel with them. However, if we had this principle in mind in life, we might be more careful about what we say or what we do to someone.

Leviticus 25 takes the idea of the Sabbath and some of the feasts previously mentioned and puts them together. Just as they were expected to work 6 days and rest on the 7th, the Israelites were also expected to work 6 years, store up enough for the 7th year, and rest on the 7th year. This year became the Sabbath year, where the Israelites did not have to worry about their work; instead, they could turn all of their focus on God, celebrating all that He had done for them. Then, on every 49th or 50th year, the Israelites were supposed to celebrate the year of Jubilee. This year was a year in which slaves were freed, land was given back to its rightful owner, and the whole country was given a chance to start completely over. Think of the idea of starting over in life. There are times in which I am sure all of us would like to be given a second chance or wish that we could redo something in our past. God gave the Israelites this opportunity during the year of Jubilee, and He still gives us this chance today through salvation. This may not be an accurate comparison, but I can see some similarities between their year of Jubilee and our salvation. Mainly, I see the idea of starting over, and things being restored to their proper use. In salvation, we are restored back to God, for He no longer sees the sin in us but His perfect son.

Matt