Theology 7372, Fall 2009

I used to read passages in Leviticus and wonder why God would ever make such a huge list of arbitrary rules for the Israelites. I mean, was He trying to make it as hard as possible for them to obey Him? Is this like a game of “Simon Says” where the chief aim of the leader is to trick the followers into messing up?

After reading some of these passages again and reflecting upon them, I am beginning to wonder if these are not arbitrary rules at all. Rather, they are rules set up for the Israelites benefit; Maybe these rules exist to protect the Israelites, not trick them into messing up.

A good example of this is the rules regarding leprosy in Leviticus 13. Verses 45 and 46 say this:

“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

A modern day reader, such as myself, reads this and wonders why God would inflict such a humiliating punishment upon somebody for contracting a disease, when they had no fault in doing so. Upon reflection though, it becomes clear. Leprosy is a contagious disease and this law is put in place in order to avoid putting the entire camp at risk of contracting one person’s disease. It is for this same reason that when an Israelite contracted a sore, God require the Priest to “shut the diseased person up for seven days.” The person must be kept out of contact with others until they were sure of his/her diagnosis, in order to protect the entire camp.

If you think about it, this is not all too different from modern day medical practices.  If one shows up at a hospital with a highly contagious disease, you will either be held in the quarantine wing for awhile, or you will be told to go home and not come out until you have gotten better.  School children are sent home immediately when they have a fever, and they are told not to come back until the fever has subsided for at least 24 hours; this is done to protect the entire school from acquiring an illness from one person. It is not  done for the sake of humiliating, exiling, or outcasting the sick child, but for the sake of protecting the hundreds of other children

Similarly in Chapter 11, God gives numerous instructions about what animals the Israelites can and can not eat.  He instructs them against eating several things such as bats, eagles, vultures, lizards, winged insects, rats, etc.  Many of these are animals that we still do not eat today, either because they are poisonous, inedible, or just down right nasty.

This reminds me that even today, God does not command against certain things like adultery, drunkeness, greed, etc. because He is a big party pooper in the sky, who wishes only to spoil my good time.  Rather He does it because He loves me, wants what is best for me, and wants to protect me.

So maybe the levitical laws are just arbitrary–maybe they are God’s version of Simon Says– or maybe they’re ahead of their time.

Although in the Hebrew laws and traditions there were godly instructions that outlined some of the do’s and don’ts and there were many very practical reasons for the rules regarding things that were considered unclean it seems there may have been more intense behavior than was intended.  Many other  laws we find in the Old Testament were expanded by the people to protect themselves against accidentally breaking the law.  These ideas of being unclean might also generate fear that would make the concern greater than the law intended– such as the rules regarding lepers.  Leprosy was frightening and the fear of contracting leprosy would have made the instructions not to touch someone with the disease more intense and might have brought greater ostracism than was necessary.    With both the fear of breaking God’s law and the fear of the practical human consequences there must have been a constant awareness of clean and unclean people and things and behaviors.  For those who were serious about keeping the law this would have been a constant threat to their own physical and spiritual cleanness living everyday with the question – is it clean or unclean?