Leviticus 17:1 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak
unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say
unto them; This is the thing
which the LORD hath commanded, saying, 3
What man soever there be
of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or
that killeth it out of the
camp, 4 And bringeth it not unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD
before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he
hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people: 5 To the end that the children of Israel may
bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may
bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
unto the priest, and offer them for
peace offerings unto the LORD. 6 And the
priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the LORD. 7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices
unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for
ever unto them throughout their generations. 8
And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which
sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice, 9 And bringeth it not unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the LORD; even that man shall
be cut off from among his people.
Deuteronomy 32:17 They
sacrificed unto devils, not to
God; to gods whom they knew not,
to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
These rules prevent the private offering of heathen, pagan
sacrifices to familial spirits and devils or foreign gods. Of course, this is
in the context of sacrifices and not ordinary food. Like Abraham men would
erect an altar for sacrifices but this often led to idolatry in the worship of
false gods and spirits. Individual
families among the heathen would have their own singular worship and gods which
represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits (see Leviticus 20:27),
the guiding divinities of ancestors dead.[1] God demanded these
sacrifices be brought to the tabernacle to be offered to Him under the
watchcare of His priests to dampen this impulse of man to find gods to worship
in almost every place and in every thing, as the ancient Romans did. There was
a god in the threshold of the door going out, the fireplace hearth, the
nursery, etc. etc. and it was nothing for a common Greek or Roman to not go but
a few feet outside of his dwelling before making signs and offering tokens of
worship to prevent harm from coming to him.
One way of bringing this into our dispensation is to point out the
danger of worshipping alone and saying that you don’t need to come to church.
When we are accountable to each other and hear how the Holy Spirit has guided
others in understanding we are less likely to go off on a tear about some
arcane doctrine we think we have found. Of course, this requires, to be
successful, everyone acting like the Bereans of Acts 17 who searched the
scriptures daily to see if a thing was true or not rather than just following a
man’s opinion.
To be cut off was not
merely to be exiled, kicked out of the camp. See the cross-references for being
cut off. This was serious stuff.
Genesis 9:11 And I will
establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any
more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Zechariah 13:8 And it shall
come to pass, that in all the
land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
2Kings 9:8 For the whole
house of Ahab shall perish: and
I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against
the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:
[1] Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 134.
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