Thoughts on Leviticus

A sentence that would summarize Leviticus, would be “You should therefore be sanctified and holy, like unto the Lord.”

    To be sanctified means to fully accept Christ’s atonement, by word, and by deed.  This means to remain pure and clean in thoughts and in actions, and to seek out ways in which to serve the Lord.  Jehovah commands us to be sanctified so that we can more fully understand all that he has to offer.  We must be pure to do so.

  One of the things that has stuck out at me the most with my reading in Leviticus is all the myriad of details the Lord gives to his children.  At some points, they seem so redundant, when he describes exactly how something should look, or how something is to be prepared.  However, the modern day application is that we DO need to follow the Lord with exactness.  He may not always give us divine details regarding how we should follow his commandments.  But when he does, it is important that we do it precisely as he says.  We may not know why, but that’s more the reason to put our trust in Him. 

In Leviticus 18: 4-5, the Lord exhorts us to adhere to his statutes and judgments; Keeping the commandments falls right in with those verses with its similar wording.  He promises that by doing so, we will “live in them”, which to me means that we will be able to dwell with his Spirit and feel that strength that comes from following his command.

Other Commandments the Lord gives us in Leviticus 19 and 20 are; *Honor parents, *Keep the Sabbath, *Don’t turn to idols, *Don’t steal, *Don’t lie, *Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, *Don’t defraud thy neighbor, *Don’t curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, *fear thy God, *don’t judge unrighteously, *Don’t gossip, * No revenge, *Love thy neighbor, *Don’t hate others in your heart

I think one of the hardest of these commandments to keep is not gossiping and judging unrighteously.  It’s easy to see others doing wrong, or perceive that they are doing wrong because WE personally wouldn’t do things their way.  And of course, we usually want to talk about it with others, which leads to gossip.  I really want to try better to not gossip.  In the past five months, I have struggled more with neighbors than I ever have in my 18 other homes in the past 15 years.  It’s brought things to my eyes and ears I never comprehended that people really would do.  Though, I am reminded in Leviticus 19:17 that it’s okay to rebuke them (if it directly affects me), I need to be careful not to hate them and to still “love my neighbor.”  And it would help me with this if I refrained from gossiping about it, no matter how absurd or true the story is.  It will be hard, but I will try.