Leviticus chapter summaries
15 bodily discharge regulations
16 the Day of Atonement
17 blood and eating***
18 sacred sexual relations
19 various laws including the 10 Words
20 punishments for sin ****
21 instructions for priests
22 instructions for priests
***Blood is a major theme in Scripture, because in a sense it is the source of life for all living things. From early in the OT through to the atonement made through Jesus Christ for our sins, God reminds us through Scripture of the importance of blood. God instructs that any time blood is spilled, it is a sacred thing. Here in chapter 17 it is in reference to animals, but this shows how important God takes the spilling of blood, even if it is just for eating. No innocent blood can be spilled without a price that is paid.
Also, God instructs that the people 'do not follow the customs' they were used to…they were still used to the old ways of the Egyptians. God is calling them to a new and Holy standard.
****One of the punishments for sin mentioned in Leviticus 20 is in reference to Molech. Molech was a false god that people would commonly offer their infants to sacrifice before this god by burning them to death. Sounds pretty gruesome. It also sounds like something that is completely disconnected from our modern world. While very few cultures still practice rituals of this sort, there is a more direct link to modern society than you might think.
Interestingly enough, parents would sacrifice their children to Molech in hopes of material and financial blessing. The hope was that Molech would take this most sacred of sacrifices and bless the ones who offered it to him.
Often in Scripture there is a dichotomy of those who want something, but do the exact opposite action needed in an attempt to achieve a desired result. This is exactly what the sinful nature did to us when it entered humanity through Adam and Eve, it made us believe that what was good for us in all actuality destroys us.
God says over and over to 'choose life.' What happens when parents kill their children in favor of benefiting themselves? Abortion is our modern day Molech. Around 98% of abortions are for birth control purposes and you boil the reason down it basically comes down to money. People say they can't afford a child, they want a more affluent lifestyle that they couldn't afford with an extra child, etc.
Think about it, when you multiply the effects of many parents eliminating their children for their own financial gain within a culture that culture dies off and eventually ceases to exist. So ironically, the opposite effect happens...those who want a better life end up damning the future culture that dies off because of selfishness.
ONE MORE THOUGHT: How interesting that although most in the US wouldn't consider ourselves a "Christian" nation that compared to a region like the Middle East, dominantly Muslim, we in the US have a much, much lower birthrate in families compared the the typical Islamic family. Do the numbers and you'll see that eventually a people/culture/society that doesn't value children enough to bring them into society ends up going the way of the Do-Do bird.
5 years ago
The Prime Minister of Education for Poland was taking a long hard look at your closing thought in 2008 and the exponentially growing population of Muslim peoples. He made a public statement saying that the nation that kills its children is destined to be taken over by one that doesn't.
ReplyDeleteA culture must maintain a birth rate of 2.5 in order to successfully continue. At a birth rate of 1.8 a culture becomes unsustainable, and at 1.5 it becomes unrecoverable. Germany's birth rate has now reached 1.3. Most of Europe is between 1.5 and 1.8.
BTW- On average, Muslim families are having eight children.
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