| | "When you sacrifice a peace-offering to God, do it as you've been
taught so it is acceptable. Eat it on the day you sacrifice it and the
day following. Whatever is left until the third day is to be burned up.
If it is eaten on the third day it is polluted meat and not acceptable.
Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has violated what
is holy to God. That person will be cut off from his people...
"When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, don't eat
its fruit for 3 years; consider it inedible. By the fourth year its
fruit is holy, an offering of praise to God. Beginning in the fifth
year you can eat its fruit; you'll have richer harvests this way. I am
God, your God." (Leviticus 19:5-8, 23-25)
kristy planted a few strawberry plants (bushes? i keep calling them
that and she yells at me. i'm not sure what they are or will be), and
i'm extremely jealous. i wanted to plant a few in my new mini-garden,
but jj won't let me. you can't eat the strawberries until at least the
second year and he keeps talking like he wants a new project house
(this one is running out of projects, believe it or not). i also do not
know if i'd be able to not pick the almost-ripe looking berries of this
year rather than toss them away as you're supposed to for a good
strawberry tree-flower-bush-plant.
maybe that's why these particular laws in leviticus (in a whole string
of interesting laws... expect more from this chapter!) jumped out at
me. first God says you have to eat meat in 2 days (the only time you'd
get meat is from offering), and then he says you have to wait basically
5 years for fruit after you plant it!
Why does God care when you eat something? i understand (a little bit) his whole section on what to eat, but when? Why would that matter?
my hebrew professor has been talking to us lately about OT Law; many
Christians say "that's law, we're free in Christ, we have no need for
law!"but he reminds us that while we're not constrained to the law, it
is still scripture and therefore useful for teaching, rebuking,
instructing, all that jazz that paul says in 2 Timothy (btw, when he
said that, he was referring to the law and prophets! not to the letters
he was currently writing... hmmm....). so i've been enjoying my quest
through the OT looking for spiritual significance, bringing me closer
to what Jesus was all about, since he was the fulfillment of this very
law and not means to get rid of it. lecture over.
so what do meat days and berry years have to do with God?
i've been falling in love with Galatians 5 lately. the fruit of the
spirit (huh! it all comes around to food!). i've been thinking about
how i don't always live it. and that paul says you can't turn it on and
off... you either operate by the spirit or by the flesh- the sinful
nature- the part of you that only seeks to satisfy the self and not God
or others.
I think that God gave His food-timing laws (eat meat in a hurry, wait
on the berries) to help us. Think about it. There were no such things
as refridgerators, or even ICE, back then. so, you eat some meat, leave
it out for 48 hours and, in the middle of the desert they were
wondering, i'm going to guess that the meat would have some friendly
visitors, mainly in the form of maggots and bugs. probably not good for
the system. but, i can imagine (though i only currently eat chickens),
that when you only get meat once a year, having to throw any of it away
would be quite difficult. i once read a book about at girl whose mom
made her eat a ham even thought it was full of maggots because they had
nothing else to eat.
what if God made a law of something because he knew our flesh couldn't
resist it on our own? our tummies and our taste buds that make our
mouths water over that ooey-gooey chocolate brownie are too much for
us, so we need told that we're not allowed to eat such things when they
can cause disease and we can die- and pass it around to the rest of our
family and town.
and then there's the berries. wait 3 years? God, i might explode if i
have to wait 3 years to enjoy the goodness of a strawberry. on my own
accord, i can't resist. so, God made a law. don't eat it. why? because
it will be a much better berry- and you'll have many more of them- if
you wait a few more years. things will be better if you can hold out
and enjoy them after they come to fruition (ah, another food word).
sounds kinda like another lecture i've heard (and given), about things in their proper time and context *ahem, sex.*
i'm starting to think that God really had it together when he gave us
Leviticus. He knew what we just couldn't handle. He knows that on my
own, i have zero self-control. so he made a rule. little kids have no
natural volition to brush their teeth, so parents have to make a rule-
brush before bed. someday they'll brush because they desire to give
people around them the smell of fresh breath. and because they like to
be able to chew. they won't do it because they have to, they'll do it
because it is good.
i'm pretty sure it's biblical. Galatians 3:23-4:7.
so here's where i see beauty... the law leads us to the spirit. we
don't know how to walk in the spirit, so we're directed to by the law.
but it's not about the law. it's about living a life of love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.
sometimes we just have to be told how to do that. |
| | Posted 5/15/2007 9:17 AM - 4 Views - 0 eProps - 1 Comment
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