Parting Comments

Well, there you have it, folks.  We've arrived at the end point, the last page, the conclusion.  We've explored all the rooms of the tabernacle - the outer court, the sanctuary, the holiest place - and here we stand, flanked by justice and redemption with the promises of the covenant soaring above our heads.  We have seen how we are to approach the presence of YHWH and bring our sacrifices and offerings.  We've seen how covenant holiness is defined by the community who would host the electric presence of a holy God - how it defines what we eat, how we dress, how we live among one another and the creatures that are our neighbors.  We've learned about boundaries, about purity, and about why these things matter in our approach to God.  We've seen that God's covenant with the people of faith involves not just God-to-human interactions, but human-to-human, human-to-animal, and human-to-land.

What now?

I really just have one final observation to make in conclusion.  Do you remember how the first 17 chapters composed the "perimeter" of the outer court - defining the sacrificial system and purity system?  We might say that that first (roughly) half was about things that pertain to our approach to the presence of God - it's about worship, about loving God above all else and doing it in a tangible, real way.

And then chapters 18-27 are the holiness code - as this section began to define what justice and integrity are, we were able to get closer and closer to God.  Entering smaller and smaller spaces of imagined rooms, fewer chapters, and smaller units, what we read increasingly had to do with how we treat those around us - embodying YHWH's righteousness toward our families, our neighbors, our slaves, our animals, and our land.  And we learned that none of it is really ours.

So in a sense, we might say that when we are furthest away from the outside, the movement is in - toward the holy place, toward the presence of God through the worship that is expressed - moving "further up and further in."  And when we get where we're going, as far as we possibly can go, what we find is that we cannot stay there but must move back out into the world to extend the justice and righteousness of YHWH to the entire created order.  We find that,

"Even going as far as we can go into the interior of the tabernacle, expecting to unveil its secrets, what we find is no secret: still, only and always, the justice of God and his fidelity to the covenants he made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob."

Worship and justice.  Loving and serving.

This double-movement of Leviticus is, in a sense, what we do every week when we gather as a community at worship.  We come, bringing ourselves and our offerings "at the entrance of the tabernacle," knowing that as we come we are drawing near to the place that is somehow specially God's own house.  We hear the word read and proclaimed, and as we do we are formed into the kind of people that mirror God's very nature in the devotion we express through our relationships with each other and with everything else in the created order.  We respond by celebrating our communion with YHWH through which we have communion with one another, as that great, mysterious symbol that we live into without knowing how to express it in words.  And then we are sent out to love and to serve, to be the image-bearers of YHWH's righteousness, justice, and holiness - to extend that vision from the the throne of God out through all creation.

We already saw how Jesus' response to the question about which is the greatest commandment drew on Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19 to coin what Scot McKnight calls, "the Jesus Creed."  And here we find that Leviticus is about nothing less -

Love God.  Love each other.

*If any of you have any questions about things you'd like clarification on, topics it may have been helpful to address more fully over the course of the study, or just general observations, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Please reply below!

Chapters 25-27: The Great Proclamation of Liberty, Part 3

VI.  Chapter 27: Debts to the Lord
        In chapter 25 we read about the jubilee legislation and how debts among persons are to be handled.  Chapter 27, correspondingly, addresses those things that have been dedicated to God.  This is particularly interesting (and often misunderstood), because Leviticus is so insistent that God is the sole owner of the entire created order - land, people, and animals.  How can things dedicated to God be redeemed - and why should they be dedicated in the first place?
     
I'm not sure I fully understand the significance of what is going on here, but I can offer two observations.  First, the idea that certain things would be set aside "as holy-property to YHWH" (27.14) functions within the Levitical framework of distinctions between the holy (kodesh) and the common (hol).  We are meant to understand that there is a difference between the two, and that distinguishing between them is central to the role of the priesthood and life in the community of faith.  Furthermore, these distinctions or boundaries affect all areas of life, not just the 10% we may or may not tithe, or what we choose to do with our Sunday mornings - being holy, being set apart as the people of God, is an all-encompassing way of life.
        Second, after chapters 25-26 have drilled into us God's sole ownership and governance of land, people, and animals, chapter 27 reminds us that this same over-Lord is also a covenant partner.  As creditor, God chooses to participate in the same structures of justice and equality that he holds his people to - the ultimate owner, conqueror, deliverer, and king ordains the law of the land, and then models it. This is how:

• Limits are set on standards of value - all commerce is to be defined by a single weight (25)
• Persons dedicated to the Lord may be redeemed (2-8)
• Animals dedicated to the Lord may be redeemed (9-13)
• Property dedicated to the Lord may be redeemed (14-24)
• Allowances are made for other miscellaneous things, including tithes, exemptions, and special circumstances (26-33)

Notice how these specific allowances that are included in 27 mirror the person-to-person obligations of 25; redemption of persons, animals, and property as covenant partners.

Finally, in addressing things that have been consecrated to the Lord there is a sense that chapter 27 is reaching all the way back to the first few chapters of the book - remember the "bringing-near" of offerings in the approach to the outer court?  Leviticus is in a large sense all about the things that have been consecrated to the Lord and the things that belong to the Lord - distinguishing between the hol and the kodesh.  It is fitting that this final chapter functions as the "latch" around the great ring that has been our tour of the tabernacle.

Does that sound like an afterthought to you?

Chapters 25-27: The Great Proclamation of Liberty, Part 2

IV.  Chapter 26: Covenant Blessings or Curse

        If chapter 19 defined righteousness and justice, chapter 26 expands and completes that definition by describing the results of either faithfulness or infidelity to the covenant.  These are probably the chapters with which we are most familiar, which is all well and good ... except that apart from the rest of the book in which they are situated, they come to mean little more than a list of do's and don'ts and some utopian vision for life on earth - utopian, apparently, because we can never manage the do's as well as the don'ts.  Stripped of the structures they are anchored within and supporting, chapters 19 and 26 might as well be interpreted as, "If you behave you'll be rewarded; if not, well..."

        But a covenant relationship with the living God is not a simple matter of cause and effect.  We cannot earn our way into the promised land.  We cannot bribe God.  What we can do is choose to live our lives within the boundaries YHWH has drawn, knowing that in them is life and outside of them is death - and the death of our bodies is not the worst kind of death.  We should know by now that we are not a covenant people by our own choosing, but because we are chosen - quite apart from anything we've done to deserve it (Deut 9.4-6).  If there are two words I wish I could wipe from our minds as we explore this chapter, it would be "reward" and "punishment."  Maybe we could replace them with words like "flourish," "thrive," "mature," or "dwindle," "diminish," "destruct."  Did you know that it is the same Hebrew root for either "curse" or "become small, of no account, diminished"?  How's that for both a paradigm shift and a reminder of the last narrative we explored, "Cursing for Cursing"?

       
So let's take a look at these blessings and curses.

        First, verses 1-2 immediately bring to mind chapter 19 with the reminder that YHWH alone is God, and guarding the Sabbath is a principle way that we acknowledge that.  Along with that is included this curious phrase: "my Holy-Shrine you are to hold-in-awe, I am YHWH!"  Except it's not really that curious, since the whole book has been about exploring every nook and cranny of the tabernacle, explaining what is to be done in and at the tabernacle, and teaching us how to maintain and purify the tabernacle.  And it's not really that curious since we are as far in and as close up as we can possibly get to the Holiest place on earth, the place that YHWH has declared home. Actually, it's not curious at all since this tabernacle, this dwelling, is supposed to mirror the goodness of creation and God's design for the entire created order.  You asked how the community of faith is supposed to host the dangerous presence of a holy God?  This is how.  This is hospitality through holiness.

        Second, fidelity to the covenant creates space for:

• The abundant fertility and provision of the land (4-5), 
• the blessing of living peacefully within the land, without fear of dangerous animals or invading enemies (6-8),
• and the very presence of YHWH - "I will place my Dwelling in your midst, and I will not repel you.  I will walk about in your midst, I will be for you as a God, and you yourselves will be for me as a people" (9-13).  

Finally, failure to walk within the covenant boundaries is more like massive "systems failure" than punishment for bad behavior.  Or like throwing a wrench in the gears.  Or like John's boat that shut down last week because the intake was fully of jellyfish.  Recalling the warning from chapters 18 and 20 that all of this is so that "the land not vomit you out" (18.24-29, 20.23), the language here is that of physical revulsion - "If you are grossed out by my laws and regulations (26.15), the land will be grossed out by you (27.32-35)!"

        Not surprisingly then, the first of these diminishings is physical infirmity (16-17), and then the turning of covenant partners - if the people of the covenant turn away, then so also will:

• The land - instead of rain in due season producing crop upon crop, "your land will not give-forth its yield" (18-20), 
• Animals - the wild beasts will turn against covenant people and animals alike (18-20),
• and most horrifying of all, the presence of YHWH becomes no longer a blessing but a curse - gone is the protection from war and strife (25), hunger and famine (26), dehumanizing treatment of one another (29), idolatry (30-31), desolation and loss of the land (32-33), exile (34-39), and fear and oppression (36-39).

BUT.

NEVERTHELESS.  

HOWEVER...

all is not lost.  There may yet be hope.  

Even though we have broken-faith (40), walking in opposition and causing God to walk in opposition to us (if you turn up-stream the channel is already going against you); even though we have hardened our hearts and acted as though we did not carry the mark of the covenant in our very bodies (41) - even then, there is still room for another turn.  Repentance requires only the confession of our twisted path (40), and the humbling of our haughty hearts.  YHWH will remember.  He will remember the covenant.  He will remember the promise "to be for them a God" (45).  

BUT. 

NEVERTHELESS.

HOWEVER...

what about the other covenant partners that our turning has affected?

Remembrance and forgiveness don't instantly erase the twisted paths we've cut across the face of the earth.  The land must still be given rest to recuperate from the sickness we've imposed upon it, and this is the meaning of exile.

V.  Exile: "Then the land will find acceptance"
        I've always struggled with the idea of exile.  In and out, back and forth, the people never seem to get the message even though they're booted out time after time, at great cost and with unimaginable suffering.  How is that constructive?  How does that help accomplish YHWH's redemptive purposes?
        But redemptive purposes - for who?   It never dawned on me that maybe it's not just about the people.  Maybe we are not the only ones to whom YHWH has extended the protection of covenant, are not the sum total of God's green earth, are not the axis on which the world turns.  Imagine that.
        Leviticus is clear that even though God will respond to the people's repentance by remembering and honoring his covenant, the land must still "find acceptance" regarding its Sabbaths, "since it did not enjoy-cessation during its Sabbaths when you were settled on it" (35).  The land will have to be left behind, "attaining-acceptance through its Sabbaths by being-desolate-of them" (43).  And here is the most curious thing of all - it is precisely because God will remember his covenant that the people must be exiled from the land.  Listen to what it says:

I will bear-in-mind my Jacob covenant,and yes, my Isaac covenant, 
and yes, my Abraham covenant I will bear-in-mind 
and the land I will bear-in-mind...  

Do you see what has happened?  How do we usually hear this covenant formula?  "God will take account of you ... he will bring you up to the land about which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Gen 50.24); "God called-to-mind his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Ex 2.24); "If they should see ... the soil about which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Num 32.11); "This is the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Deut 34.4).  Instead of tracing the covenant forward through time - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Leviticus traces it backwards.  And note what is always mentioned before Abraham - the land.  This backward movement as an act of remembrance is almost as if to say, "Yes, I will remember you and the covenant that I made with you and with your fathers, but I will remember it all - the covenant with you, with Jacob, with Isaac, with Abraham, and with the land - for before you were, the land was."  Adam - man.  Adamah - fertile soil.  "And YHWH, God, formed the human, of dust from the soil, he blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being" (Gen 2.7).

Is it possible to remember adam and yet forget adamah?
  

Chapters 25-27: The Great Proclamation of Liberty, Part 1

I.  Introduction
        Chapters 25-27 form a second "pedimental" frame corresponding to chapters 18-20, to highlight chapter 26 as an expansion and completion of chapter 19.  These two chapters are the pillars of the Holiness Code because they define covenant righteousness, liberty, and fidelity as YHWH's ultimate vision for the created order - land, animals, and humans alike.  Here in the holiest place, justice and fidelity are envisioned not as abstract concepts but analogous "patterns in time with movements across space."

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What??

Okay.  So we encountered chapters 18-20 immediately upon "entering" the second chamber of the tabernacle, the sanctuary.  As proximity to the Holy of Holies increased, it was fitting that those chapters would mark our entrance not only into a new room in our architectural imagination, but into a different section of the book - chapters 1-17 included the sacrificial and purity codes, and 18-27 is considered the Holiness Code.  We might envision ourselves crossing a threshold spanned by two pillars, over which is an arch reading "You shall be holy, for I, YHWH, am holy."  And exploring the pillars on either side, we learned what holiness emphatically is not - idolatry, expressed through pagan immorality.  Instead, God's people are to mirror God himself in the physical, tangible ways they grow their crops and shape their families and deal justly with one another.  To be God's people, we must mimic God's righteousness.

That was our entrance to the sanctuary, and having come through the screen of the 2nd Narrative (24.10-22) we are now entering the Holy of Holies (figuratively, of course, since only the High Priest is allowed in there once a year).  In this innermost room we find only this one unit of three chapters - just as only the Ark of the Covenant is housed in the Holiest Place.  Instead of denunciations of what is not YHWH's idea of righteousness (like chapters 18 and 20), these pillars expand our understanding of the justice and liberty that characterizes YHWH's covenant.  Look to the left (ch 25) and you see the covenant being fleshed out in person-to-person relationships; to the right (ch 26) and God himself participates in these same redemptive acts.  And overhead is the end toward which all else has been driving: God's vision for life within the covenant.

II.  Key Points
        There are three underlying ideas that are foundational for the vision for life expressed in these three chapters:

• First, "jubilee" or "home-bringing" as Fox translates it, defines freedom and liberation by the freedom to return home; the idea is not justice and righteousness just anywhere, but that justice and righteousness are only complete and fulfilled in the place that YHWH chooses and which he has entrusted to the care of his people.  
• Second, God is the sole owner.  The land and the people who inhabit it belong unequivocally to God - there can be no permanent sale or ownership of either.  
• Third, liberty and freedom are found only within God's law; the jubilee legislation of chapter 25 is precisely to legitimate the insistence that the protective boundaries of the covenant provide ultimate freedom.

With that, we're ready to ready to work our way around the Holy of Holies, starting with chapter 25.

III.  Chapter 25: Person to Person Obligations
        Chapter 25 contains and expounds what is known as "the Jubilee legislation," the single greatest passage of civil rights legislation in the Bible.  It is so important, in fact, that many commentators would see it as the penultimate chapter leading up to the grand finale of chapter 26, with chapter 27 as an afterthought that was tagged on at a later date.    I disagree, but we'll come to that later.
        First, what does "jubilee" mean?  I asked this question at Bible study this week, expecting to hear answers like, "a celebration" or "a feast," or "a party" - Exhibit A, entitled "Underestimating Your Students."  They stared at me blankly as if to say, "everyone knows what jubilee means," until Mary Clyde piped up - "Well, there's the Flounder Jubilee when all the flounder come home and beach themselves."  Of course.  The Flounder Jubilee.  Whether on the shores of North Carolina or the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, that's exactly what jubilee means - coming home.  Landing.  So although many of your English translations may read "jubilee," I prefer Fox's term "home-bringing" for the simple reason that it jars us out of any less-robust connotations we may have regarding the word.  Just think of the flounder.
     
The home-bringing legislation makes provisions for:

• Land - sets prices on a sliding scale in relation to the year of home-bringing since God's land cannot be sold and therefore "a certain number of harvests is what he is selling to you" (vv14-24); and stipulates that the land must be returned to its original owners every 50 years (25-34).
• Debts - forbids collecting interest (35-38) and ensures the remission of secular debts (person to person).
• Slavery - Israelites who "sink down in poverty" and whose "hands are too short" may be taken as slaves but must be treated as hired-hands, not the lowest laborers, and only temporarily - they may be redeemed at any time, either through their own labor or their relatives (39-42), are distinguished from foreigners (44-46), and are to be released at home-bringing (47-55).  

What is unique about this legislation is the radical redefinition and periodic redistribution of ownership, as mentioned earlier - yet this is emphatically neither socialism, nor communism, nor (dare I say) capitalism.  The closest historical parallel we might find is a kind of feudalism, except that the feudal lord is God himself.  The land is his, the people are his, and their presence and productivity is as his tenants.
        In the ancient world, it was a common practice of victorious conquerors to release the prisoners and cancel all debts upon ascension as ruler - call it a type of wooing to convince the conquered peoples that this new reign was going to be the greatest thing that ever happened them.  YHWH takes it even a step further, though, and declares that this isn't going to happen just once, now that the people have left Egypt, but every 50 years, like clockwork.  This would have the effect of defining the entire social and economic structure according to the observance of home-bringing, and the constant reminder that all we are and all we have is entrusted to us by YHWH.  So even though these laws are about person-to-person obligations in the mundane exchanges of society, they work to cultivate a constant awareness that how we treat one another affects our relationship with YHWH.  We are not our own - and that is something to celebrate.
 

Land: Holiness & Covenant

Before we charge on through chapters 25-27, we need to turn our attention to another great symbol system that we encounter in Leviticus.  So far we have explored the Sacrificial system and the Purity system, and we come now to the third and final symbol: the Land as both host and covenant partner with God and Israel.  Throughout Leviticus, we have seen hints that the entire created order is related to YHWH's covenant in one way or another, especially in the distinction between animals acceptable for sacrifice (those entrusted to Israel) and those not (because they already belong to God), and the kinds of animals that are good for eating (those entrusted to Israel) and those that aren't (because they already belong to God).  Stated another way, the central idea informing all three symbol systems is that,

All creaturely life belongs absolutely and totally to God, and Israel in particular is to embody that belonging.  

We need to explore Leviticus' perspective of the land as we prepare to engage chapters 25-27, because these chapters trace Israel's faithfulness or failure through a perspective of the land as covenant partner with God.  So what does that mean?  Following Ellen Davis' lead, I will sketch Leviticus' view of land through Three Temporal Perspectives in Three Aspects.


I.  The View of the Land from Three Temporal Perspectives...
        What do we mean by "temporal perspectives"?  Well, simply this: the consensus of current scholarship is that Leviticus was most likely compiled over a period of several centuries.  During this time, the circumstances of the Israelite community and their physical location in relation to "the land" would have undergone several changes, and these different circumstances influence the perspective of the text.  First, there is the perspective of wilderness; the narrative situates Leviticus near Sinai just after Moses has received the ten commandments and the construction of the tabernacle has been completed.  This entire scene is located "in the wilderness," somewhere between the slavery of Egypt and the promise of the holy land.  It is life at the border, the threshold, the "no longer" but "not yet."
        Second, there is the perspective of exile.  We will find out more specifically what exile means as we take a look at chapters 25-27, but already, even before entering the promised land, comes a warning that settling within it is contingent upon a few important details.
        Finally, the perspective of monarchy.  The land belongs to YHWH, and the Israelites are allowed to inhabit it as tenants.  In fact, the Israelites themselves exist as debt-slaves to God by virtue of their being rescued from slavery in Egypt.  Viewed within this monarchic perspective, the tabernacle is the place where God sets up his throne on earth and governs all creaturely life.  The land is God's kingdom.

II.  ...in Three Aspects
        Remember that the above perspectives have to do with specific temporal periods in Israel's history.  The following three aspects differ in that they express how the land was understood to function during any and all of those particular circumstances of time.  First, the land was a means of subsistence.  Loss of the land or its failure to produce had severe and immediate consequences - directly related is the concept of debt-slavery that we will hear about in chapters 25-27, because the land was central to the economy.  If Leviticus is to address economic practices at all, the systems surrounding land ownership and debt-slavery are central.
        Second, if the land belongs to God and is his domain, it is understood to be an extended Sanctuary and locus for holiness of life.  YHWH is really present with Israel (cf. 26.11-12), so the tabernacle is in a direct line with God's throne in heaven - peace, fruitfulness, and shalom spread out from the tabernacle through the land (26.2-3).  On the other hand, if God is really present with Israel, that presence becomes a curse to those who fail to live in congruence with God's commands - we'll get to that later.
        Third and finally, the land is a partner in covenant relationship.  Stop and think about that for a minute - the land is a partner??  When we get to chapter 26 we'll explore the ways that the land participates either in YHWH's protection and provision when Israel is faithful, or punishment when they are not.  There is almost a kind of mystical sensibility that the land is more an animate creature of God than it is a thing acted upon.

With this framework in place, we're ready for chapters 25-27: the Great Proclamation of Liberty.