Leviticus-Numbers-Deuteronomy

I finished both Leviticus and Numbers. I had not planned on writing anything about Numbers because it was rather tedious. That is, I wasn't going to write any comments about Numbers until I got to Deuteronomy and realized it's the same stories in Numbers only told by a different person!

Wish me good luck...

Punishment

Leviticus 26:27-29 But if, despite this, you disobey me, and continue hostile to me, I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.

Wow, THIS is old testament. I'm scared. Anyone else out there scared? I almost peed my pants.

A passage about eating flesh? It's definitely a great for Halloween, like Silence of the Lambs or something Steven King. So great I'm probably going to check the locks two or three times tonight. Good luck going to sleep, Heather.

P.S. Like how I put the scary text in scary red? ;)

P.P.S. How great is this carved pumpkin? I wish I had a talent for carving pumpkins like this.

Adultery

Leviticus 20: 10 If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

So what if it's not your neighbor's wife with which you commit this crime? Are we to assume that everyone is your neighbor in this scenario? And if that is so, what if it's a hooker? Lot's of questions about this one.

I've never understood why or how this could happen. Yes, there are lots of other fish in the sea. It's really fun to have a fish and throw it back, but it's not very nice if the fish is told it's the only one you're going to eat. Then the fish goes back in the ocean with a big ol' bite mark in it's side. Do you know how hard it is to swim with that kind of pain?

I guess what I'm trying to say is if there are problems just end it before riding off into the sunset (or whatever you're riding off into). Wow! So many animal analogies today.

P.S. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've gotten many of my application essays done and sent away for my transcripts and recommendations. I've gotten a lot done, just not this. I've continued reading and am now just finishing numbers so there will be lots more posts in the future.

Homosexuality

Leviticus 18:23 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Sheesh. It's right there staring at me. I heard this was in the bible a long time ago and never thought to go look at it. I suppose because I never saw it I just imagined, more like pretended, that it wasn't there. Frankly, I'd like to go back and pretend...

I don't know how you all out there feel about homosexuals, and usually I try to stay away from saying my opinion on hot button issues, but this one I'm sure of.  They are people and have feelings and hurt. The more I hear people telling them that God hates them (which I highly doubt) or that they chose their fate, the more I will stand up beside them and fight back. I'm not normally a fighter but it hurts to see people you love get hurt and it conjures up the fighter within me. 

I don't want to push people away with my thoughts, and I'm sorry if you disagree. It doesn't mean we can't be friends or that I don't love you. You don't have to agree with me. I'd like it if you did, but if you don't that is fine. 

Menstruation

Leviticus 15:19-20  When a woman has a discharge of blood that is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.  Everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean.

Sort of brings to mind a bloody version of Midas and his golden touch. "...and when MidAH went to touch her bed, it was suddenly unclean."

Menstruation has always had a taboo about it. Women aren't supposed to talk about when they have it to men especially. The Ashanti tribe appear have puberty rites only for females and when they receive their period for the first time the mother runs out of the house and announces it to the entire tribe. That's the only time they are excited about I guess, because if a menstruating women went to the wrong place with her "unclean" body she could be killed.

Here's an interesting story about menstruation (don't hear that everyday, eh?).

In 1996, during the running of the 100th Boston Marathon, Uta Pippig, the first woman to cross the finish line, had visible menstrual blood and sever menstrual cramps. The commentators on radio and TV called it "physical problems and diarrhea" and some called it "stomach pain." One reporter for the Boston Globe wrote in her article about the event that she "bled all the way from Hopkinton to Boston" and was criticized by readers and her peers.

Leprosy

Leviticus 13:45-46 The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; 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.

This is the first time I had a hard time getting through a passage without crying.  I got through Abraham almost sacrificing his son, Aaron's two sons burning to death, and other such horrors but this tugged on my heart. I definitely see how some of this could be necessary, especially in a time of little medical knowledge.  Knowing who has leprosy as you walk down the street could be the difference between life and death to these people. That being said, those people with leprosy are still PEOPLE. Can you imagine having to yell, "unclean, unclean" as you walk down the street in your hometown?  

Fast facts about leprosy:

In the past 20 years, 15 million people worldwide have been cured of leprosy.

In india where there are still more than 1,000 leper colonies.

Leprosy is in fact neither sexually transmitted nor is it highly infectious after treatment, as approximately 95% of people are naturally immune.

Before treatment was developed, leprosy was certainly contagious.

Unclean Food

Leviticus 11:13-19 These you shall regard as detestable among the birds. They shall not be eaten; they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, the buzzard, the kite of any kind; every raven of any kind; the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; the water hen, the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

1) Detestable? Abomination? Way harsh! Actually, this list makes sense.  All of these birds prey on living creatures. Most of them prey on animals such as rats, frogs, and insects. I can see how one might consider them detestable to eat for that reason.  

2) Bats aren't birds but I don't fault them for not knowing that yet.

3) Mom, aren't you glad they didn't want to eat "the heron of any kind?" My Mom loves Herons.  

4) And, for anyone who's curious what a hoopoe looks like (because I definitely was) here you go: