Saturday, October 10, 2020

Leviticus 19:30-37 comments: Hebrews warned against seeking after wizards, admonished to respect elders, and honoring a just standard of weights and measures

 

Leviticus 19:30 ¶  Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 31  Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. 32  Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. 33  And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34  But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 35  Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36  Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37  Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.

 

The sabbaths, days of rest the Lord ordains, must be kept and the sanctuary must be sanctified by them, set apart and not defiled.

A familiar spirit can be thought of as a family spirit, a venerated ancestor, as explained in the comments on the preceding set of verses. A wizard, one who entertains a familiar spirit of the dead, also a necromancer or soothsayer, is not someone a Hebrew was to go to. This is someone who communicates with the dead. Later we will see an important event of this nature in the story of King Saul.

1Samuel 28:7 ¶  Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. 8  And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. 9  And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? 10  And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. 11  Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. 12  And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. 13  And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. 14  And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.

 

This is not a command that acknowledges the authenticity or reliability or truth of what a wizard claims to do. It is about the intent of the Hebrew. They were not to consult these people at all. It was forbidden and a direct contradiction of the sovereignty of God in their life. The Tarot Card, the toy 8-ball, the Ouija Board, the modern-day Gypsy Palm-reader are all modern examples of denying God’s sovereignty and seeking knowledge from beyond even if they are all total fakes today. Still, the way the text is written here in Leviticus and in 1Samuel we can assume it was possible before Christ’s resurrection. Let me explain why I think that.

Eden is the garden of God.

 

Genesis 2:8  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

 

Ezekiel 28:13a  Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God…

 

Our word paradise comes from the Persian word for a garden or a hunting preserve. So I believe that in the following verses it is apparent that Eden has been removed to the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.

2Corinthians 12:4  How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

 

Revelation 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

 

But, before the resurrection of Christ and after the Fall of Adam at some point the abode of the dead in God and of the wicked dead was in a place where one was visible from the other, in the heart or center of the earth.

Luke 16:19 ¶  There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was

laid at his gate, full of sores, 21  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23  And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25  But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

 

The Greeks knew the concept of Hades, a place where both good and bad went after death, some to pleasure and enjoyment and some to suffer. The Greeks, several writers both ancient and modern have commented, were heavily influenced in their religion by their contact in the Near East with Hebrews and in the Hebrew slaves they brought home.

Joel 3:6  The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

 

While the level of influence is much disputed some have even claimed that figures like Hercules were, based on the events of their mythic lives, were combinations of Biblical characters. For instance, Hercules being a mixture of Samson and Jonah by his feats of daring.

So, the Greek concept of Hades would have been influenced by what they were told by their Hebrew contacts while our concept of Hell as now a place of punishment waiting for the judgment, a sort of jail-time waiting for the eternal prison and torment of the lake of fire, now only for those wicked ones who have rejected Christ.

At the resurrection of Christ He promised that a thief on the cross would be with Him in paradise.

Luke 23:43  And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

 

He would preach to those spirits in the heart of the earth. Please notice first that Christ says that He was going to the heart of the earth and Jonah says he was in Hell. Apparently, Jonah died in the great fish’s belly and was revived as regarding the whale’s belly as a euphemism for the grave doesn’t work any better than Christ’s heart of the earth statement does for the tomb when the Bible explains where He went exactly.

Jonah 2:2  And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

 

Matthew 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

 

1Peter 3:18 ¶  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19  By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20  Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

 

The center of the earth is a bottomless pit as a sphere has no bottom, only sides.

 

Revelation 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

 

Isaiah 14:15  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

 

What was the purpose of this great mercy?

 

1Peter 4:6  For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

 

If you are dead you are no longer in the flesh. Your soul has gone somewhere having departed from your body as we saw in Genesis.

Genesis 35:18  And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

 

Old Testament era persons were not cut off from hearing Christ or receiving God’s mercy.

We see then from the previous verses I mentioned that this paradise is now in Heaven. So, I don’t believe that there is any possibility of anyone communicating with spirits of the saved dead unless God Himself were to permit a departed loved one to communicate by dream or vision. That is entirely different than someone claiming the ability to over-ride God’s sovereignty and drag someone out of Hell for some tea and biscuits. Samuel would not be in the physical location he was when the witch at Endor called him forth. He would now be in Heaven, unreachable by a heathen practitioner of black magic. The woman at Endor may have been real but no fortune-teller today can claim to have unlocked secrets from beyond that are not found in the pages of the Bible.

Verse 32 talks about rendering honor to the aged with the hoary head being a reference to grey or white hair.

Job 38:29  Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?

 

Of course, the aged one is honorable if he or she is faithful to God.

 

Proverbs 16:31  The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

 

It was acknowledged in Job, though, that;

 

Job 32:9  Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. [the way this is written you should mentally insert always again into the second clause after the colon for meaning just as you should include tempted with evil at the end of James 1:13]

 

A stranger is a foreigner, someone who is not a Hebrew. Immigrants to the land of the Hebrews were to be welcomed and treated with kindness and even love because they were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

There are several verses that make it clear that a stranger was a foreigner but a few where it is very clear are Leviticus 17:15; 18:26; Numbers 15:30; and, of course, this one from Ephesians;

Ephesians 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

 

Paper money was not used. A medium of exchange’s value was typically determined by weight.

Genesis 24:22  And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;

 

Leviticus 27:3  And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary…25  And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

 

Numbers 3:47  Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:)

 

You can imagine what kind of dishonesty could be displayed with the loose economy of many nations with no set standard of exchange. God set the value of the medium of exchange. He commanded the Hebrews not to cheat in weights and measures. Clearly, not unlike today, cheating and false weights were common.

Ephahs and hins were units of  measure whose definitions will vary somewhat with different interpreters. The point here is a standard measurement and not trying to defraud other people.

I thought a Greek word that Paul used in 1Corinthians was interesting in this regard when thinking about the Scriptures. Traditionally, by the way, it is believed that Paul had Titus and Luke write what he said in 2Corinthians from Philippi in Macedonia.

2Corinthians 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

The word kapeleuo, pronounced kap-ale-yoo-o according to Strong’s dictionary, from which we get the word corrupt in the verse just mentioned, references a merchant who waters down his product. As an example, consider the wine-seller who adulterates his product with water. 

Are you using a translation that attempts in a process called ‘formal equivalence’ a word-for-word expression of the original languages with even syntax and grammar where necessary to reflect faithfully the manuscripts from which it was translated, literally over a thousand Greek, Hebrew, and vernacular language manuscripts? Or, are you using one of those translations from a few dozen manuscripts utilizing what is called ‘dynamic equivalence’ where words can be changed to what the translator believed they should say rather necessarily what they do say? Corrupt scriptures have deadened the sensibilities of modern Christians and made a paraphrase of the Bible that has no spiritual power. Instead of the sword of the Lord many modern Christians are armed with a plastic butter-knife, as my wife, Beth, has said.

Another thing of note about a just measure, an honest measure, in regard to Christianity, is that the Christian is also admonished to not cheat in judgment, only in a spiritual take on this principle. We are not to point fingers when we are guilty of the same. Note these passages among others;

First, as Jesus said;

 

Matthew 7:1 ¶  Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

 

After a long list of wickedness expressed regarding the religious history of mankind Paul declares;

Romans 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

 

2:1 ¶  Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

2  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. 3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

And as James said;

 

James 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

 

So, we also have a standard of measurement that God does not want us to misuse.

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