Commentary on Leviticus 19 (Woohoo!)

You just gotta love Leviticus. And, I might add, Leviticus 19 is by no stretch of the imagination least among the chapters of the book. "And you, Levitcus 19, by the sea, are by no means least among your brethren; for out of you shall come forth wisdom and insight to match that of your forebears and peers, and shall shepherd my people Israel," or something like that.

There are so many good things in this chapter that it is hard to say which we like the best. So let's start at or near the beginning. Verse 2, of course is where they get the famous verse out of 1st Peter that states, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (God speaking). Of course God says that in a lot of other places throughout the old testament, but what the heck. Let's go on.

Verses 9 and 10 are very cool, but not just for what they say, but for what they tell us about what's on God's mind and heart. And here, in these two verses, we can see that what's on His heart and mind is the welfare of the less fortunate in the land. He commands them, "Now, when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; YOU SHALL LEAVE THEM FOR THE NEEDY AND THE STRANGER; I am the Lord your God." Pretty cool stuff because it shows that--God cares! One of the things I love about the old testament is looking for Jesus in all of it. Because we know that the entire thing points to Him if we can have the eyes to see it.

Verse 13 is cool; "The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning." Boy, if only WE could get paid after every day we work!!!

Verse 15--"You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly." God is also righteous as he cares for the poor. He says, "Yes, I care about them, but that doesn't mean that you are to make judgments in their favor that aren't right just because they are poor!"

And now we come the verse that is my personal favorite in the whole chapter, verse 17. He states, "You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely REPROVE your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him." So there it is in black and white...we are allowed to confront and reprove each other!! God's like, "No, you may not hate each other... you may not walk around bearing a grudge against people...but if you need to reprove them for their actions, yes, you may do so!" That's some good stuff right there baby.

And, of course, then there are the obligatory verses which make ABSOLUTELY no sense to us whatsoever, such as, "you shall not wear a garment upon you of two different kinds of material mixed together." (19) Hmmmm. I guess there's probably something in there about not being mixed with something else so as to be pure??? Who knows. Or this one--"You shall not round off the side growth of your heads, (?) nor harm the edges of your beard." Ooookaaay. If you say so Lord. :)