Ministers: You Are Not Your Own. Numbers 8.

You probably know that God created the tithe in the Old Testament. But did you know God expects a tithe not only of Israel’s crops, but of the nation’s people? God explains that the first born of every womb belongs to Him. But rather than take the first-born of every family, God took everyone born to one of the twelve tribes. The members of the tribe of Levi served as an offering in the place of the first born of every home in the nation.

“Thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron … and offer them for an offering unto the Lord … The Levites shall be mine … For they are wholly given unto me from among the children of Israel, instead of such as open every womb … For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast … And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle” Numbers 8:13-19.

God owns all of us. But He put a special claim on the tribe of Levi—and I believe God puts a similar claim on the lives of those He calls into the ministry.

This obscure passage from Numbers speaks to the selfless nature of the ministry. When God calls one of His children into full-time Christian service, or what we call “vocational ministry,” He asks them to give up everything to serve Him. It is not simply a high calling. It is a life of staggering sacrifice.

Paul wrote the following about all of us:

“You are not your own. For you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN.

Well, then whose am I? Paul says you have been bought with a price—the blood of Jesus. Therefore, you belong to Him. And this applies to all of us. Yet, it applies to pastors even more so. There is a selflessness to a life in the ministry. It is not a light burden.

The pastor carries the burden of his flock.

Can you imagine not only attending but speaking at every funeral? Can you imagine being summoned to the hospital day and night? Can you imagine counseling people suffering the worst tragedies of their lives?

Add to that the burden of people’s spiritual growth.

“Apart from these external trials, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” 2 Corinthians 11:28-29.

These are tremendous burdens. And for people that are compassionate by nature, it must be so heavy sometimes. My own pastor mentioned it last Sunday: twenty years in the pastorate means you have seen a lot of suffering. Sometimes it is hard to bear.

That’s not all.

On top of the obvious pastoral burdens, there is the burden of living your entire life surrendered to the ministry.

The calling limits you, impacting every decision you make. It dictates where you live. You may find Colorado beautiful. You can’t just move there if God has called you elsewhere. Maybe you want to buy a fancy car, but God says no. Or you want to take a particular kind of vacation, but God leads you to spend two weeks on the mission field. Perhaps you enjoy writing in your free time. You can’t just crank out spy novels. Even if you could write such a book you would not have the freedom to travel the country on a book tour.

And what about your social media presence? Generally, pastors have to remain pastors online. They can’t use social media to promote products or cultivate a role as some kind of influencer unless they can do it while maintaining their role as a pastor.

What if a preacher wanted to build a side-hustle as a stand-up comic? It may not be impossible, but you can see how such things are problematic.

All these activities that are perfectly available to laymen are often out of reach to the Godly pastor.

The fact is, the call to preach affects every area of a minister’s life. It impacts their spouse, their children, and their hobbies, vacations, and how they spend their money. It impacts EVERYTHING.

Paul writes to Christians, “You are not your own.” That is true for pastors—but even more so: YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN.

Pastors serve a higher calling, and it is a not easy. These are incredibly talented people, men and women who might easily achieve tremendous success (and a lot more money! [1]) in other fields—yet we take their gifts for granted. Of course, he’s nice. Of course, he’s a good talker. Of course, he’s charming and good with people. Of course, he reads his Bible and prays and memorizes scripture. It’s easy for him, he’s a preacher.

All of that is false and terribly unfair. God’s servants work hard to serve Him and keep Him first in their lives. If they do not work hard on their own spiritual health, they fail. If they do not serve God selflessly, they fail. This exceptionally selfless life presents tremendous hurdles.

Pastors: You have been bought with a price.

Dear God, give us compassion for our pastors. Show us how to support them in their tireless, selfless calling. Thank you for the men and women who serve our churches and our families relentlessly, day-in and day-out. May we honor them for a lifetime of sacrifices, most of which we will never know about. May we bless them and show them more gratitude and more appreciation and more love as the days draw near.

AΩ.

[1] I know too many gifted men who have left the ministry, become real estate agents, and become rich almost overnight!

The Bible is Filled with Radical Ideas. Numbers 5.

The Bible contains some radical ideas that are staggering: Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Pray for those who abuse you. Be a leader by being a servant. Humility is a virtue. Wash your hands and wash your food. Don’t eat everything: eat “clean” animals. Bury human waste outside the camp. Love your neighbors and be a Good Samaritan. Treat women equally. There are no ‘races,’ because “there is neither Jew nor Greek” Galatians 3:28. All human life is sacred, from helpless infants to helpless elderly.

The Bible also contains radical ideas that may not seem radical because we have grown used to them. Two of these are in the fifth chapter of Numbers. The first says that if a man is found to be a thief, he must return what he has stolen. That’s common sense, right?

But the Bible adds more: he must “add to it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed” Numbers 5:7.

That is, if a man is caught stealing, he must not only return the stolen goods, but he must pay the victim an additional 20 percent.

This additional payment is known as restitution.

Many jurisdictions follow this example today, providing for all kinds of restitution, and in all different amounts. In Texas, for example, our civil law provides that if a company takes advantage of a consumer, the consumer can file suit against the defrauding party and may claim treble or TRIPLE damages. That would be a restitution of 200 percent. In common practice, most defendants cure the problem and rush to settle, thus avoiding such a harsh penalty.

Numbers five contains a second idea that is interesting, but has not proven workable in modern U.S. law. If a man in ancient Israel found himself so obsessed with jealousy that he was convinced his wife had been unfaithful to him, he could present her to the priest, explain his suspicions, and the priest would speak to her and give her a drink to consume, charging her that if she has been unfaithful, the drink will make her ill, but if she has not been unfaithful, the drink will have no effect.

“This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled, or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him and he be jealous over his wife” Numbers 5:29-30.

In a world of domestic violence, where jealous men from O.J. to Othello obsess over the faithfulness of their wives, a “law of jealousies” such as that of Numbers 5 could be useful. But it is no longer an option.

The Lord no longer operates as He once did. Even if we had a priest to perform the ritual, God would not be in it and, like the Salem witch trials, this ritual would no doubt devolve into something horrible in which the women always suffered, guilty or not.

Nevertheless, in ancient Israel, it must have been an amazing tool for addressing an unusual, but very real problem: rather than jealous men becoming murderers, there was a process whereby the matter could be handled in a court of law. Today, we use tools such as private investigators and ultimately a legal divorce if necessary. (Rather than taking the law into your own hands, it is always better to ‘take them to court.’)

And while God bluntly announces, “I HATE DIVORCE” (Malachi 2:16), it is always preferable to murder.

God, thank you for the wisdom of your revolutionary word. There are so many amazing ideas in the Bible. Some are so radical like “love your enemies.” But some are so simple we don’t realize they were once so valuable and novel, such as the law of restitution and “the law of jealousies.” Show us the wisdom and the answers in Your word. Give us the wisdom to appreciate even divorce as a potentially life-saving choice for a relationship destroyed by jealousy and hate.

AΩ.

Streaming Traffic or Bottlenecked Logjam: Finding Miracles in Large Datasets. Numbers 2.

Image: Logjam on the St. Croix River, Minnesota.

As timber companies harvested America’s forests in the late 19th century, one of the easiest ways to get logs to the sawmills was to set them afloat in local rivers. But these tree-sized logs would snag on things and on each other, creating logjams. In fact, logjams were not unusual. But serious logjams could be miles long with timbers snarled in piles thirty feet above the water. Breaking up a logjam like that was extremely dangerous, as any timber that suddenly shifted or popped free could kill a man.

Have you noticed the systematic and detailed nature of the Bible?

Of course, there are heartfelt, soul-nourishing passages of creativity like the poetry and music of the book of Psalms and the other books of Wisdom Literature (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon). Esther, Ruth, the Gospels, and some of the epistles read like personal narratives or letters.

But other books of the Bible are as systematic and detailed as textbooks. Consider the detail of the genealogies, the architectural records of the tabernacle and the temple, the detail surrounding the exodus and the wilderness journeys, and the statutory law laid out in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Google’s “AI Overview” defines a DATASET as a “structured collection of related data points, such as numbers, text, or images, organized for analysis, processing, and machine learning.”[1]

When speaking of large cities and the those who populate them, the term dataset can be applied to people: people are a collection of related data points which must be organized for analysis.

When millions of people are involved, you must adopt a systematic and detailed approach or the flow of traffic will become a log jam. This is true of every aspect of cities both modern and ancient, from armies to infrastructure, from education to medicine, from farming to housing. And it is true of written records, both secular and Biblical.

When millions of people are involved everything must be done in a systematic and organized manner.

Imagine the administrative and organizational skills of Joseph, saving the grain of Egypt for seven years, then saving the known world from famine during the next seven. Or the operation Job was running in his later years with 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 2,000 oxen, and 2,000 donkeys.

What a gifted administrator was Moses? God led the man into the desert—with almost no food or water—with over a million bickering, homeless nomads.

The fourth book of the Hebrew Bible has a Hebrew name that means “IN THE WILDERNESS.” Thus, while discussing datasets and the millions involved in the Exodus journey, it is interesting to note that rather than translating from the Hebrew, publishers changed the name to “NUMBERS.”* This is a book in which the numbers play a significant role.

The second chapter of Numbers describes the way these people in the wilderness were to camp each night. The tabernacle would be set up in the center, and the tribe of Levi would camp in a circle around it, with Moses and Aaron on the east. Beyond the Levites would be a clockwise ring of tribes from Judah on the east to Zebulun, Simeon, Reuben, Gad, Manasseh, Ephraim at the western end, then Benjamin, Asher, Dan, Naphtali, and Issachar.

“All those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand, three thousand and five hundred and fifty [603,550]. But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses” Numbers 2:32-33.

“This must have been one of the largest campsites the world has ever seen! It would have taken about 12 square miles to set up tents for just 600,000 fighting men—not to mention the women and children [and the uncounted tribe of Levi for a total of well over a million people]. Moses must have had a difficult time managing such a group.”[2]

Not only would such a crowd be difficult to manage. Imagine providing them with food and water! The billion-dollar infrastructure project for which I work provides water to not half as many people—and we have been laying 8-foot-diameter pipe for nearly a decade!

Can you imagine this crowd waking up in the desert and hiking ten miles, pitching tents, and hoping to find water—for a million people? Of course, God was involved. God is the miracle-working logistical expert. He is the only one capable of feeding this horde, providing them with water and shelter and provision for their animals.

All the detailed logistical planning in the world could not do what God did for Israel.

But reading these detailed records? It is a slow read. We are not watching an action film here! Every paragraph is predictable: Name the next location for a flag, name the tribe to camp around that flag, name its captain, and number its soldiers—then move to the next flag, tribe, and census (and repeat 12 times).

There is a routine to this reading. It is systematic, more like reading government forms than an adventure in the wilderness.

But the purpose of the book of Numbers is not to entertain. The purpose is to provide a reliable, systematic record of an actual journey. And as soon as you master the facts, you can step back and comprehend what is really going on: God led a million people through a wasteland and sustained them for forty years with food and water. Even their clothes did not wear out! (Deuteronomy 29:5).

What a huge miracle!

Have you ever needed a huge miracle? Are you praying for something as big as 12 square miles, as populated as a million people, and as long-term as 40 years in the wilderness? God can do it! He does not get tired! His miracle-working power will never, ever grow weary, no matter how long it takes. HE CAN SUSTAIN YOU FOREVER!

Never let the “boring” nature of the Biblical record cause you to miss the incredible story of what God is doing!

AΩ.

* The name “Numbers” follows the Greek (and later Latin) tradition of the translators of the Septuagint, who chose the term ‘Numbers’ to reference the censuses taken in chapters 4 and 26.

[1] The A.I. Overview cobbles together answers to Google queries by culling relevant information from other websites. When asked, it will tell writers not to cite the AI Overview, but to cite the websites from which the overview created its answer. I reviewed those: one was a less-than-ideal definition from Merriam-Webster. The rest were tech articles about A.I., and not worth citing for a definition of dataset. In this odd case, it made more sense to cite Google’s AI Overview.

[2] Chronological Life Application Study Bible, King James Version, Tyndale House Publisher, Carol Stream (2004), p235, note on Num.2:34.

How to Dedicate Your House to God. Leviticus 27.

I understand the idea of dedicating a new home to God.

People do it in many ways. Some pray over the lot before new construction. Others pray over the rooms. Some put a touch of olive oil on each of the doors. Some will spend time talking about Jesus throughout the house, speaking His name and letting the unseen world know He is their Lord. You can play worship music. I suppose there are many ways to give a home to the Lord.

Did you know the Bible actually provides for the dedication of a home? Leviticus provides an entire chapter instructing God’s people in how to dedicate to God themselves, their children, their animals, and their land.

“And when a man shall sanctify [dedicate] his house to be holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall estimate it [appraise its value], whether it be good or bad. As the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then shall he add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it and it shall be his” Leviticus 27:14-15.

If a homeowner wanted to dedicate his home to the Lord, the priest would determine the value of the house—and the priest’s word would be final. But if the owner was paid for the house, then it became the property of the temple or the priests or whatever. However, if the owner wants to dedicate the home while still living in it, then the owner must pay the value of the property to the priest, PLUS one fifth, or an additional twenty percent.

What does that mean for the young American homeowner? I guess it means if you want to dedicate your house to God—and you are an unusually wealthy homeowner—then pay to your local church the value of the home plus twenty percent.

That’s a lot more difficult than putting big white stickers in the back window of the car!

It’s also a lot more costly than prayers and a bottle of olive oil. But we are talking about a holy dedication to God. And remember: these gifts in Leviticus 27 are voluntary. No one is required to give a house to God.

God asks us for the first fruits, for the first ten percent of our income. He does not ask for your house! But if you are earnest and deeply compelled to give to the Lord, Leviticus 27 provides for the dedication of yourself, your wife, your children, your animals, your home, your land, and more.

With the exception of clean animals that can be sacrificed, each of these items can be dedicated to God through a gift of money. (That is, you keep the house, the car, the children, the animals, and dedicate those things to God by giving God money instead of those items. That is what REDEMPTION means: the owner can REDEEM the house by giving money in its place, just as Jesus redeems us, buying our souls with His blood.)

The cost of these dedications is significant. But if you want to give your children to God, perhaps you should expect that the cost will be weighty. After all, when Hannah gave her unborn son Samuel to God, she dropped him off around the age of three and he was raised in the temple. She only saw him once a year when she returned to visit and bring him new clothes for the year ahead. When Hannah chose to dedicate her child to the Lord, she paid dearly. Perhaps we should not rule out a weighty financial sacrifice when we wish to dedicate something to God. Again—such gifts are VOLUNTARY. Think hard about them and remember the Biblical mandate:

“Don’t make rash vows” Ecclesiastes 5:2.

Do not make rash vows. You know what that means? It means use your head. Talk to wise, older Christians. Listen to some advice and be wise with your money and possessions. And ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Remember, wealthy Israelites sacrificed bulls, others sheep and goats, and the poor sacrificed only a pair of doves. God knows your income. He knows what you can afford.

Dear God, we want to live for You. We want our houses, our cars, our children, and our money to belong to You, to serve You, to bring You glory. Show us practical ways that we can dedicate ourselves and all our STUFF to You. May we live every day for Your glory and Your renown.

AΩ.

P.S. Original opening, removed as unnecessary:

Personalized plates and bumper stickers distract me more than anything else on the freeway. Here’s one I cannot understand: Darkly tinted rear windows with huge white letters in the shape of a rainbow spelling out “IN MEMORIAM” followed by the name and birth year and death year of a loved one.

It is easy to relate to the grief people feel over deaths. But what I’m struck by is the words. I understand when a musical composition is labeled ‘in memoriam.’ And a monetary donation given in memory of a loved one makes sense. But how do you drive a car “in memoriam”? Are you driving in memory of the deceased? Or is your car now dedicated to them? Does the sticker indicate that everything you will do in the car from now on will be done in a manner that honors the deceased? Are you in there behaving “in memoriam” right now? What is going on?

You know what I do understand? …

Roadkill Café & the ‘Found Food’ Trend. Leviticus 22.

“This a polecat ferret. I found it not a mile away from here.” Mr. Arthur Boyt holds up before the camera a furry but stiffly flattened dead animal.  

“And as you see, it has been thoroughly rolled out [flattened] on the road. They stink. The flesh smells. But you can overcome that by putting the body in running water for four days—that will remove that musky tang from the meat. Yes, you could eat it. But you’d have to be pretty hard up to want to eat a pole cat.”

Boyt follows up, explaining why he began eating animals that he found on the side of England’s roads:

“I was living on my own. I didn’t have to bother with anyone else’s feelings on the matter … I would pick up roadkill to bring home and mount. I am a taxidermist … and instead of throwing the body away, I decided to start eating them.”[1]

Though most consider it abhorrent, there are some who value so-called “accidental meat,” arguing wild animals are free from antibiotics, hormones, steroids, and other medications. Some prefer the dead animals because they do not want to feel responsible for killing an animal. And some simply like the fact that the meat is free.

The Bible provides wisdom on this topic.

“That which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith. I am the Lord” Leviticus 22:8.

This verse prohibits priests from eating animals that die in any manner other than ritual slaughter. Rabbis applied this kosher rule not only to priests, but to all Jewish people: you must eat no animals that die on their own or that are killed by other animals. No roadkill. (In fact, kosher law does not allow Jews to eat animals that were hunted.)

This is a picture of holiness. Also because of holiness, the priests were not to make sacrifices with imperfect animals.

“Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut” Leviticus 22:24.

Another picture of God’s holiness involves those whom priests might choose to marry.

“They shall not take a wife that is a whore or profane, nor shall they take a wife put away [divorced] by her husband” Leviticus 21:7. 

This passage goes on, repeating the points:

“He shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow or a divorced woman, or profane, or a harlot, these shall he not take. But he shall take a virgin from his own people to wife” Leviticus 21:13-14.

These verses from Leviticus are more than simply arcane laws for an ancient civilization. God is teaching us about holiness. We should live holy lives. We should eat healthy food (and avoid roadkill!). But never lose sight of God’s grace. The New Testament points us to the cross, where God’s Son gave His own life to pay for our sins, whether we eat badly, marry badly, or commit sins and crimes too horrible to discuss here. There is grace. God forgives. He forgives and makes the unholy holy, then invites us into His kingdom.

“There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God” Hebrews 4:9.

Never lose sight of grace. But strive for holiness. Strive to be a virgin on your wedding day. Strive to live a holy life. Strive to eat right, think right, and act right. Pursue holiness. But again: never lose sight of grace.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1. You are clean, forgiven, and free in Him.

AΩ.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXVY8kttUtE

Whatever the Need, the Bible Can Provide. Whatever the Question, the Bible is the Answer. Leviticus 15.

Today is September 10, 2025. It’s not quite September 11, but it almost feels like it. For me the day began with a host of personal and professional challenges. These problems felt serious and weighty, but about lunchtime they suddenly paled.

Charlie Kirk was shot.

First, I heard he was shot. Then I watched a grainy video from a distance. Then I saw a video of the shooting from about the third row. It could not have been more clear or more graphic. The video was appalling and grisly and horrible. I texted back four words: “that is not survivable.” He did not survive.

Charlie Kirk was something of a professional debater. Described by reporters as a “conservative firebrand,” “culture warrior, and podcaster,” the 31-year-old often spoke at colleges and did not avoid controversies. At the moment of the shooting he was actually talking about gun violence.

I cannot speculate on the shooter’s motives, but it seems we are living in a world in which we murder those with whom we disagree. We are living in a world at war.

Soon I turned to my Bible.

My daily reading brought me to Paul’s letters to the church at Thessalonica. But my writing schedule took me to Leviticus 15. What a contrast!

Writing 1400 Before Christ, Moses begins by discussing laws concerning various bodily discharges or “issues”:

“And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water and shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle … and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue…” Leviticus 15:13-15.

On a day of murder—graphically videotaped and broadcast to the world—this sort of mundane reading of the Old Testament law seems incredibly, almost unbelievably dull. Who can calm their mind enough to concentrate on the arcane rules and rituals of ancient Israel? And why would you?

What relevance does Leviticus have to a world where a sniper can take a life from a thousand yards?

And what if you had lived 3400 years ago when Leviticus was hot off the press? Even if you were a citizen of ancient Israel, could you study the boring but highly technical content of this book during the many wars, sieges, captivities, and other political upheavals the nation endured? The lives of the ancient Hebrews were more war-torn and violent than anything the United States has seen in my lifetime.

Who has time to concentrate on Leviticus–then or now?

Reading Leviticus after watching a death broadcast almost in real time made me realize that some books are only intended for study and quiet reflection.

Remember the saying, “there are no atheists in foxholes?” Well, there are no soldiers reading Leviticus in foxholes either.

If bullets are whizzing over your head, you will want your Bible. You may crave your Bible like never before. But it will be Psalms you are after, or if not the Psalms, it will be the Gospels or Paul’s letters.

Paul’s epistles are written to Christians living in a world like ours, a world where they will be persecuted, where they may find themselves terrified, where they need God’s peace. Paul’s language is entirely different than that of Moses.

Paul provides the sort of hope and peace we need when we are overwhelmed by war, by murder, by death:

“Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 1:1.

(Now THAT is what we need on September 10 … and September 11th, 12th, and every day.)

“We sent Timothy … to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions (2:2-3). … For God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (5:9).”

“We ourselves glory in you … that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which also ye suffer” 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5. 

“We pray always for you, … that the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you (1:11-12). … Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter (2:2).”

“Finally, brethren, pray for us … that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil (3:1-3). … Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all … The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” 2 Thessalonians 3:16-18.

There is nothing richer than the Bible, no better source for wisdom, history, human psychology, practical insights into leadership and governance, business and finance, and even things as elemental and raw as murder, war, survival, and victory.

There is a time for Leviticus. Absolutely. We must read and study the whole Bible.

But there are days for Psalms, days for hymns of worship and praise. Days when we need wisdom from those who have been persecuted, who have suffered for the cause of Christ.

There is no book like the Bible. May God fill our hearts with a deep love for His word.

AΩ.

God Placed a Boundary Between Sex, Children, and Worship. Leviticus 12:2-4.

“If a woman conceives and bears a man child, then she shall be unclean for seven days … And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised, and she shall continue in her purifying for three and thirty days. She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying shall be fulfilled” Leviticus 12:2-4.

So a woman is ritually unclean for a month if she delivers a baby boy? Yes. And if she delivers a girl, she is unclean for two months (Leviticus 12:5). Does that feel like rejection or some kind of shame being heaped on a young mother?

It is not.

‘Unclean’ does not mean sinful or dirty. Instead, it is a legal distinction that honors the mother by relieving her of certain duties (she does not have to go to church). Scholars suggest this would have made the early days with a new baby easier.

But there is more.

When the nation of Israel entered the Promised Land, they saw farms that were more prosperous than anything they had ever seen in Egypt or the wilderness.  Like idol worshippers everywhere, the idol-worshipping Canaanites believed their farms were flourishing because they had been faithfully serving the local deities. This notion that different gods ruled different territories (much like the five mafia families would one day divide up the city of New York) was well-known and enticing to the Hebrews. They were drawn in, tempted to believe that to have a good harvest, they needed to please the local gods. (They may have seen God as a God of Egypt and the desert, but doubted His power in a fertile valley.)

There is another reason idolatry was so tempting: idol worship provides a god the worshipper can “control” (sort of) and from whom the worshipper can secure various blessings. It is a quid pro quo notion, allowing the idol worshipper to tell himself that if he makes certain sacrifices for Baal, then Baal will give him a good crop.

God, as you may have discovered, does not treat us that way. God loves us, but He will not be manipulated by us. God loves us, but He instructs us NOT to approach Him with bargains and deal-making (see Matthew 7:7-11 MSG).

It gets worse.

Baal was a male deity believed to be able to bring rain. Asherah was a female deity alleged to bring fertility. And, as another writer explains, the pagans–

“practiced ‘sympathetic magic.’ That is, they believed they could influence the gods’ actions by performing the behavior they wished the gods to demonstrate. Believing the sexual union of Baal and Asherah produced fertility, the worshippers engaged in immoral sex to cause the gods to join together, ensuring good harvests. This practice became the basis for religious prostitution (1 Kings 14:23-24). The priest or male member of the community represented Baal. The priestess or female member of the community represented Asherah. In this way, God’s incredible gift of sexuality was perverted to the most obscene public prostitution.”[1]

It gets worse still.

“At times of crises, Baal’s followers sacrificed their children … to gain personal prosperity. The Bible calls this practice ‘detestable.’ (Deuteronomy 12:31, 18: 9-10.)”[2]

Imagine this scenario: pagan ‘worshippers’ gather on “every high hill” where men and women engage with strangers in ‘ritual sex’ or, in today’s vernacular, a “religious orgy,” some of them bearing official-sounding religious titles such as “temple prostitute,” all to win the favor of the false gods Baal and Asherah. And when people really had a need, they would murder their children for Baal as a sacrifice. Can you imagine the way these violently unholy acts must have grieved the heart of God?

Thus, to ensure such horrible acts did not take root among His people, God separated all acts of sexuality from the religious practices of ancient Israel.

“Canaanite religions incorporated prostitution and immoral rites [including child sacrifice!] as the people begged their gods to make their crops, herds, and families increase. By contrast, Israel’s religion avoided all sexual connotations. By keeping worship and sex entirely separate, God helped the Israelites avoid confusion with pagan rites.”[3]

Did God provide laws prohibiting temple prostitutes and ritual sex? Absolutely. Did God provide laws prohibiting child sacrifice? Absolutely. But God took things one step further: He pronounced new mothers ritually unclean for weeks following birth, thus ensuring that neither the mothers nor their children would be anywhere near worship—pagan or otherwise. God gave Israel an entirely new set of religious practices, creating a religion where neither ritual sex nor newborn children were welcome, to ensure that His people would be tempted by Baal worship as little as possible.

Dear God, the more things change, the more things stay the same—our culture still has a tendency to worship sex and to offer the lives of children on the altar of our own prosperity. Forgive us, Lord. We are men of “unclean lips and we live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Forgive us and deliver us to true worship. May we honor You in all that we do. May we be grateful, wise, and disciplined about sexuality, respecting the boundaries You have given us. And fill us with love, compassion, and a sense of the purpose of every child’s life.

AΩ.

[1] Much of this content comes from this article: https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/fertility-cults-of-canaan

[2] Id.

[3] Chronological Life Application Study Bible, KJV. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, (1988), p211, note Lev.12:1-4.

Electric Holiness. Leviticus 10:1-3.

I had to be taught to respect electricity. Before I learned, I played games with it. Once I held a long nail above a lamp plug. I loosened the plug just enough to expose the two metal prongs, but the lamp was still lit. Experience had taught me that the prongs would shock me if I got too close. From about an inch above, I held a nail across the two prongs. Then I let it go and the nail fell across the prongs like a bridge.

Instantly, there was a loud zap, the wall outlet turned almost completely black, and all the plugs in my bedroom went dead. The room smelled like fire. Even with the lamp out and smoke trailing up from the outlet, I could see that the nail had sunk halfway through the two prongs before melting into them, fusing the three pieces of metal in a primitive arc weld.

I was in big trouble. My father understood electricity. More importantly, he respected it. In addition to whatever punishment he meted out, he left me with a room full of dead outlets for months. Although he could easily repair the damage I had caused, he was in no hurry.

Having heard of a recent electrocution, I did some reading. The news stories involving electricity are terrible. One girl of 14 died after she took an extension cord into the bathroom so she could charge her phone while using it—from the bathtub. Police verified that the phone never got wet, but the girl may have touched a frayed wire from the extension cord which caused her death.

The stories of construction workers dying while working household repair jobs are legion. An average of 143 construction workers are killed by electricity every year. Some touch wiring, some touch downed power lines, some innocently touch a household appliance (like a stove) that has been electrified by bad wiring.

Electricity is an amazing tool. Among energy sources (natural gas, coal, gasoline, electricity) electricity is unique. Nothing rivals the versatility and efficiency of electricity. Nothing else could power circuits or operate computers. A world without electricity could produce heat, air conditioning, and cooking. But not radio, television, or computers. The invisible, lightning-fast current is powerful, but dangerous. Essential but deadly. We must respect it.

Moses’s brother Aaron had two sons, Nadab and Abihu. They did not learn this lesson.

The brothers saw the miracles in Egypt. They witnessed the Passover. They saw God part the Red Sea. The two became priests and they participated with Moses and Aaron in the rituals God used to create a holy tabernacle out of ordinary raw materials. But somehow the two did not gain a proper respect for God’s holiness:

“And Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle … he anointed the altar and all the vessels … he poured anointing oil on Arron’s head and anointed him, to sanctify him … he brought the bullock for the sin offering … he brought the ram for the burnt offering … he brought the ram of consecration … And Moses took of the oil and the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons’ garments, and sanctified Aaron and his sons … So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses” Leviticus 8:10-36.

“And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces” Leviticus 9:23-24.

“But Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, placed unholy fire in their fire pans, laid incense on the fire, and offered the incense before the Lord—contrary to what the Lord had just commanded them! So fire blazed forth from the presence of the Lord and destroyed them. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the Lord meant when He said, ‘I will show myself holy among those who approach me, and I will be glorified before all the people.’ And Aaron was speechless” Leviticus 10:1-3.

Moses and Aaron loved Nadab and Abihu. These were Aaron’s sons and Moses’s nephews. But they crossed the holiest of lines and paid for it with their lives.

Lest you think this is strictly an “Old Testament thing,” God similarly struck down Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5. We must respect God’s holiness. No, we do not operate temples and perform holy sacrifices with sheep and goats. But He commanded us to “Be holy, as I am holy” 1 Peter 1:16. Will we always be holy and never sin? No.

But God is always holy. We must respect God and remember and honor Him as holy. We must honor His word as holy. We must honor the Bible’s wisdom as holy, not assume it is outdated. Search your heart. Do you honor God? Do you revere Him? Do you remember how great He is and how small you are?

Do you yield your opinions and preferences before the holy authority of God’s word?

Dear God, teach us to honor Your holiness. Remind us that because You are holy, You are also good and kind and merciful and compassionate. We are blessed because You are holy. But we ask You to inspire us and teach us about Your holiness. Equip us to worship You better and more deeply as we grow to understand what holiness really means. We love you!

AΩ.

You Can Trust Your Heavenly Father. Psalm 123:2.

While Susan was swinging on her swing, I picked up a wad of cut grass.

“Don’t do anything, Steven,” she warned me. “My dad is in there watching you.”

I glanced at the dark window across the yard. How did she know he was watching? I couldn’t see anything. But she said it all the time. And anyway, it was just dry grass. I was impulsive. I threw it at her in spite of the warning. A few seconds later the back door opened.  

“Come here, young man!” Mr. Thomas shouted. I walked over to him, probably looking smug. He had yelled at me before and I didn’t take him too seriously. After all, I only threw mowed grass at his daughter—a pretty girl my own age—and the wind had blown all the grass back on me.

When I walked up to Mr. Thomas he grabbed fistfuls of my hair on either side of my head just above my ears. He lifted my skinny ten-year-old frame up until we were eye-to-eye. I did not make a sound.

“Who do you think you are, throwing things at Susan? If you ever do that again, I’ll break both your legs! Now, say you’re sorry!”

“But it was just grass and—”

He shook me back and forth and raised his voice. “Say you’re SORRY!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Now go home!” He dropped me. I landed on my feet and walked back to my house next door, rubbing my scalp.

I was in trouble often enough that I’d stopped telling my parents about it. For years I never told anyone that Mr. Thomas picked me up by my hair. My father would have been quite interested. What I did not know then was that Mr. Thomas’s abusive, but more or less harmless act was a dangerous sign of escalation. The next time Mr. Thomas got physical with me, it would be worse. Thankfully, before anything else happened, he and his wife abruptly sold their house and moved away.

One of the consequences of having a difficult father is that the experience colors your perception of your Heavenly Father. No matter how often people tell you that God is kind and merciful and loving and good and trustworthy, you may struggle to believe it.

I was raised by a great father. If you were not, let me tell you what that was like for me: I naturally trust people because my father was so trustworthy. I expect people to do the right thing. And, though I have encountered monsters worse than Jim Thomas, I still enter every relationship believing the best about everyone. In fact, I have had to train myself to cultivate a reasonable skepticism. I expect people to be great and I expect circumstances to work out. I expect difficult things to turn around. I am hopeful and optimistic at all times and in all situations. I look to God, convinced—truly CONVINCED—that He will provide for me. I rarely worry about the future. I do not struggle with faith. And I have never been lonely. Although I have missed individual people to the point of tears, I have not experienced severe, long-term loneliness.

I know I am blessed. But I am also human. My career has been a series of whitewater rafting trips on dangerous, icy rivers. During even the hardest times (perhaps because of my great parents), I never took my eyes off the Lord.

This may be where the children of difficult parents struggle the most. When things look bleak, it is easy to doubt God, or to turn from God and seek answers elsewhere. This is particularly true when things go from bad to worse—and when problems never seem to end.

“Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy on us” Psalm 123:2.

If you had great parents, you understand the verse above: I serve the authorities in my life—parents, teachers, employers, or God—and the authorities take care of me.

But if your parents were negligent, abusive, or absent, the verse may not make sense at all. For some kids, the pattern is not serve your parents and they will provide for you. It is something more akin to Every man for himself.

But that is not how God operates. You have a HEAVENLY FATHER and He longs to take care of you. He longs to provide for you. Fix your eyes on Jesus—that means, LOCK your eyes on Jesus—and He will provide for you.

“Our eyes wait on the Lord our God, until He have mercy on us” Psalm 123:2.

God, forgive us when our eyes stray. Help us to fix our eyes on You, to wait on You to meet all our needs. Have mercy on those raised by difficult parents. Remind us that You are good and You are so much greater than the Mr. Thomases of the world.

AΩ.

The Law is Your Schoolmaster. Leviticus 7:22-27.

Image: this ‘vintage ad’ is actually a parody.

People who are unhappy with laws love to bring up Prohibition and then cite the old cliché, “You can’t legislate morality.” However–

The failure of Prohibition proves not that you can’t legislate morality, but that you can’t legislate morality when the entire country disagrees with the legislation.

Prohibition failed because too many people were unwilling to obey the law.

The truth is, we legislate morality every day. We create laws that require some things and prohibit others. There are thou shalts and there are thou shalt nots. And people adapt. We grow accustomed to the rules and begin to perceive them as good, as normal. In fact, the law establishes societal norms. The law teaches people what is right and what is wrong. In its role as a teacher, yes, the law establishes—it legislates—morality[1].

“Wherefore, the law was our SCHOOLMASTER to bring us to Christ,” Galatians 3:24[2].

One benefit of Old Testament law is the impact it has had on the eating habits of Jewish and, to a lesser degree, Christian cultures. When was the last time you saw horse meat on a menu? Or an American grocer willing to sell the meat of any land-based meat eater, or of domestic dogs or cats? To be honest, I feel awkward writing about it, and you’re probably uncomfortable reading about it. We are horrified at the notion; we recoil in disgust. But ask yourself why we recoil? Why do we eat some animals and not others?

After all, there are open markets in the world where you can buy the meat of almost any animal. So why do Americans react in shock to barbecued rats on a kabob?

Because the Old Testament forbids the eating of such things, and the Bible’s influence has shaped our choices–our tastes–down through the centuries. Do we follow the Biblical rules?

Obviously, we do not: pork is everywhere today. But pork was everywhere in Bible times also (remember the men with a herd of 2,000 pigs in Mark 5:13?). Pork is delicious and the animals are among the least expensive to raise. No, Christians do not keep kosher. Nor should we (Acts 10:15).

But it is interesting to consider the entirely positive influence of the Old Testament dietary restrictions. The healthiest animals to eat are those the Bible allows: animals with both cloven hooves and multiple stomachs, such as cattle, sheep, and goats.

The least healthy are meat eaters—animals that eat other animals. Among fish, the healthiest are again those the Bible allows: scaled fish, rather than those with skin or the hard shells of lobster, shrimp, and crabs—because these are bottom feeders, living on carrion and fecal matter, and thus more likely to spread illness to humans.

In the case of land and sea creatures we are forbidden to eat, the dangers they pose, including both bacteria and parasites, can be largely eliminated by the hotter, more even, “all-over” cooking of a modern kitchen.

But who knows how many thousands of lives have been saved throughout history because of kosher dietary restrictions?

And one dietary restriction we hear little about applies to animals the Israelites were allowed to eat. God’s chosen people were allowed to eat cattle, sheep, and goats, but not every part of them.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘You shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat … For whoever eateth of the fat of the beast, … shall be cut off from the people. Moreover, ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people’” Leviticus 7:22-27.

The excellent book NONE OF THESE DISEASES[3], by S.I. McMillen, argues that God’s laws protected God’s people from illnesses science would not understand for thousands of years.

The prohibition against pork, for example, protected people from roundworms (unusually common in pigs). Rules requiring hand washing stopped the spread of germs though germs would not be discovered for centuries. And the above rule against eating blood protects people from blood-borne pathogens and from the risks of an iron overdose. As vital as blood is to your circulatory system, large doses are toxic to your digestive system.

So the Hebrews could eat beef and mutton. But they could not eat the blood from those animals. But what about the fat? “You shall eat no manner of fat…” Leviticus 7:23.

Why not?

Who would eat fat anyway? Actually, we eat fat all the time. Pig fat is rendered into lard, and beef, sheep, and goat fats are rendered into tallow. Lard is prized for cooking and baking. Tallow can get much hotter and is prized for frying. Yet, God’s people were not to eat lard (being pork fat), and were not to eat tallow (being the fat of ruminants). “You shall eat no fat.”

Why not? Was God just giving the people rules, or was there a scientific basis for the prohibition?

There was a scientific basis. These highly saturated fats—when eaten in America’s Super-Size quantities—cause heart disease, strokes, and a host of other problems. And God knew that. He protected His people, promising that if they would obey His laws, they would suffer “none of these diseases” that the Egyptians—and presumably all other Gentiles—would suffer, Exodus 15:26.

Christians live under the New Covenant. We know that circumcision is optional but not required. Yet it has health benefits not only for men but for their wives. (McMillen’s book notes that Jewish women suffer a lower incidence of cervical cancer which many believe is due to the pervasiveness of circumcision among Jewish men.)

Similarly, Christians are free to eat pork, lard, beef tallow, marbleized steaks, and fatty ground beef. But modern science has proven the benefits of God’s ancient kosher laws: eating pork, blood, fatty meat, and fish without scales presents risks[4]. And though we do not strictly follow the Bible’s dietary laws, I am thankful for their continued positive influence.

The law remains our schoolmaster, guiding us toward healthy habits. Not only can the law legislate morality. If we are willing to consider it, the law can guide us toward healthier families and a healthier culture.

One final point: while researching this essay, I ran across blogs from Christians who seem convinced lard is the miracle ingredient that everyone should be eating. While fats in small doses are a necessary part of our diets, I’m inclined toward a more traditional scientific position: consume saturated fats in moderation.

But if you do not trust science, or believe the various studies to be in conflict, let me encourage you to err on the side of the Old Testament. When confused by the conflicting voices online, defer to the Bible’s guidance. After all, “God is not a God of confusion, but of peace” 1 Corinthians 14:33.

May God’s word teach us how to eat. May God’s word legislate our morality, our ethics, our societal norms. May the law be our teacher, God’s word our Schoolmaster.

AΩ.

[1] Should you disagree, ask yourself: Have you heard someone defend their choices by arguing, “Well, it’s not illegal.” Young people are particularly fond of the defense of legality, as if everything that is legal is automatically right. Of course, that is false. The entire study of ethics concerns actions that are legally right, but are wrong nevertheless, because they are unethical. Nevertheless, we know—even teenagers know—the law does serve as a guide to right and wrong. The law IS OUR TEACHER, and it does legislate or establish morality. Again—see Galatians 3:24.

[2] I love Galatians 3:24 in the King James version. I memorized it from the New American Standard version, which employs the word ‘teacher,’ but ‘schoolmaster’ is better.

[3] This book has been revised and updated: NONE OF THESE DISEASES: The Bible’s Health Secrets for the 21st Century, by S.I. McMillen and David E. Stern.

[4] Yesterday’s news reported that two people have died in Louisiana this year from eating raw oysters. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/flesh-eating-bacteria-raw-oysters-rcna227900

**Some fats are allowed under kosher law, and some forms of tallow are prepared in a manner that is considered kosher.