Torah: A Relationship on God’s Terms

Torah: A Relationship on God’s Terms
Leviticus 19:1-37
February 8, 2004 (Non-Lectionary Sermon)

Over the past two Sundays we have discovered several things about the first five Books of the OT, the Torah. First of all we know that the God of the OT, the God of Israel, is the same God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that his character and his will are unchanging and thus the Torah must be consistent with the unfolding revelation that culminates in Jesus Christ. One of the basic themes of the Torah is that God desires to have an intimate, loving, relationship with his human creation. We see that same theme expressed in its greatest clarity and tenderness in the NT:

[Jesus said,] “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16 - John 3:17 (NIV)

The Torah and the NT are also in total agreement on the nature of the relationship God offers us: it is a relationship based on God’s terms! We do not come into the relationship or maintain the relationship based on our standards or our conditions, but on God’s.

What is that standard? We just heard it in our lengthy lesson from Leviticus: HOLINESS!

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. Leviticus 19:1 - Leviticus 19:2 (NIV)

Someone might say: “O, that’s just some OT stuff. It’s not something that we have to worry about as people of the New Covenant.” Wrong!

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15 - 1 Peter 1:16 (NIV)

And what is holiness?

“Holy is the way God is. To be holy he does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because he is holy, all his attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.” -- A. W. Tozer

God says to his people: If you want to be in relationship with me you have to be LIKE ME. In these verses God demands of his people purity in worship, honesty, integrity, justice, compassion, and love (Ross, Holiness to the Lord, p. 352) because these attributes are embodied in God’s holiness.

God tells Israel and God tells us: “I have chosen you by my grace. I offer you a relationship of love and blessedness that you do not deserve based on your intrinsic merit. If you will be in this relationship with me then here are the conditions.”

I. Now that God should set the terms for our relationship with him seems like a “no brainer” doesn’t it? Nevertheless the human heart, broken and fallen as it is apart from grace, pathologically corrupts and perverts every relationship. Instead of the relationship being all about God we quickly make it all about us! That’s why the Lord has to remind Israel over and over in these passages: “I am the Lord!” Or, “I am the Lord your God!” God announces the context of the relationship – holiness – and then he reminds the people: Hey! I’m God!

“‘Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God. “‘Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.’” Leviticus 19:3 - Leviticus 19:4 (NIV)

A. Why does God have to do this? Because we have to constantly be reminded that God is God and we are not! God says, “You must be holy.” We say, “Well now, let’s negotiate that point. Let’s redefine what you mean so that it suits our rebellious nature better. The decision this past week of the Massachusetts Supreme Court is an embodiment of this attitude. “Your definition of marriage is too confining. It does not accommodate our particular appetite for sexual expression. Therefore we demand that the definition of marriage be changed.” Journalist Steve Turner brilliantly encapsulated this dynamic in his poem, Creed:

This is the creed I have written on behalf of all us.

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin

We believe everything is OK

as long as you don't hurt anyone,

to the best of your definition of hurt,

and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin.

We believe that adultery is fun.

We believe that sodomy is OK.

We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything is getting better

despite evidence to the contrary.

The evidence must be investigated

And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in

horoscopes, UFO's and bent spoons;

Jesus was a good man

just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves.

He was a good moral teacher

although we think His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same--

at least the one that we read was.

They all believe in love and goodness.

They only differ on matters of

creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing

Because when you ask the dead what happens they say nothing.

If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,

then it's compulsory heaven for all

excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.

We believe in total disarmament.

We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.

Americans should beat their guns into tractors

and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.

It's only his behavior that lets him down.

This is the fault of society.

Society is the fault of conditions.

Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.

Reality will adapt accordingly.

The universe will readjust.

History will alter.

We believe that there is no absolute truth

excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.

What's selected is average.

What's average is normal.

What's normal is good.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,

and the flowering of individual thought

"Chance" a post-script

If chance be the Father of all flesh,

disaster is his rainbow in the sky,

and when you hear

State of Emergency!

Sniper Kills Ten!

Troops on Rampage!

Whites go Looting!

Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.

[From Nice and Nasty by Steve Turner. 1980 by Marshall, and Scott.]

B. This attitude is not just in the world, but it constantly seeps into the church as well. In North America it takes the shape of “Consumer Christianity.”

· The emphasis of Consumer Christianity is on how we personally benefit from our religious involvement.

· We expect the Church to conform to our privately held desires, feelings, and beliefs because that is what we have learned to expect from a society driven by appetite and entertainment.

· We believe that we have a right to be in control of our local church in direct proportion to what we have invested in it, the same way we view our right to control a company based on the amount of stock we hold.

· As Consumer Christians we are perplexed when the Church makes demands of us, or refuses to give us what we want. This is not the behavior consumers expect from the businesses with which they trade!

C. Against the backdrop of this idolatry of self, God says: I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD! BE HOLY BECAUSE I AM HOLY! LIVE OUT MY CHARACTER AND YOU WILL HAVE REAL LIFE.

II. Love and holiness are inseparable in the Torah. Allen P. Ross says of this chapter of Leviticus: It is an exhortation to the people of God to live out the holiness of God as a natural part of their lives. And the means by which they are to do this is love…. Jesus explained that the greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37-38). Then he added that the second command was like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (22:39). These are the two greatest commandments, for they summarize the whole law. One can thus say that the way to become holy is to keep the commandments, but the way to keep the commandments is by loving God and loving people.” [Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord, p. 351]

Now the first thing that people see when they look at Leviticus 19 is that it seems to be an arbitrary list of miscellaneous regulations. Some of them make sense, some of them seem to be linked with dietary laws that Jesus said were no longer binding upon us (Mark 7:19). How does a list of rules have anything to do with love? What are the principles that are ETERNALLY BINDING UPON THE PEOPLE OF GOD in this passage?

A. To begin with the fact that the law seems to deal with such minute things as the way God’s people were to dress, eat, and even wear their hair reveals that holiness means every part of my life is lived for God.

B. It shows us that God determines what love is. God’s love has a particular form. In other words we do not determine what love is by referring to our inner feelings or ideas. Authentic love cannot be determined through self-reference. Rather God defines what love is like.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:8 - 1 John 4:10 (NIV)

C. God’s love is not about FEELINGS of warm fuzzy affection, acceptance, and inclusion. Rather loving God is based in actions. We tend to begin with feelings and then move to concrete action. God’s love begins with actions that elicit feelings.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 (NIV)

Dag Hammarskjold wrote, “The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.” [Dag Hammarskjold in Markings.] Real love does certain things and avoids other things.

III. Well, that’s just wonderful, but where does the rubber hit the road for us in these Scriptures? If holiness is what God is and we are called to be holy, then what characteristics of God are we being called to emulate? Leviticus 19 gives us specific categories of holiness that are just as relevant for those of us under the new covenant as those who entered into the first covenant.

A. In Leviticus 19 God says that real holiness born of love is absolute loyalty to God alone. God’s insistence that Israel refuse idols and the constant repetition of “I am the Lord” reveal that God and God alone is to be chief among our affections. I am surprised at how radical this simple assertion can still be. Real holiness is loving obedience to God’s will. Jesus said:

B. It means acting with compassion, justice, honesty, and tenderness to other people. It is here in Leviticus that God first commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Here we are taught to make provision for the poor, to deal justly with employees and behave honestly in business. We are commanded to refuse to hold grudges or to speak slander. We are enjoined to revere our parents, to preserve the dignity of the physically disabled and to honor the aged. Each of these points is reflected in the Gospel! That’s what it means to be holy. In its simplest form it is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

C. It means that God’s people will overtly live a distinctly different way than the pagan world around them. The purpose of the laws governing the way they wore their hair, etc., were to demonstrate the distinction between Israel and the surrounding Canaanite culture. Likewise we are to live a separated life – set apart and clearly different from the world around us. Is there anything about your life that is distinctly Christian, distinctly different from the world around you? Are you comfortable here or do you realize that you are a stranger and an alien? If you were shocked to see the stunt pulled at the half-time show, let me ask you this: Why were you still watching when it got to that point? Were the lyrics and the salacious bumping and grinding of the acts leading up to that point enough to make you change the channel before the “wardrobe malfunction?”

CONCLUSION: Holy people can be scary people because they have determined to live life with such a passion for God that they are willing to live on God’s terms.

Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves-on God's grace and on our will to be holy. -- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Leviticus 19:1-37

19:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
3 "'Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
4 "'Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.
5 "'When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. 6 It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned up. 7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is impure and will not be accepted. 8 Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has desecrated what is holy to the LORD; that person must be cut off from his people.
9 "'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
11 "'Do not steal.
"'Do not lie.
"'Do not deceive one another.
12 "'Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
13 "'Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him.
"'Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
14 "'Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD.
15 "'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
16 "'Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
"'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD.
17 "'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
18 "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
19 "'Keep my decrees.
"'Do not mate different kinds of animals.
"'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.
"'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
20 "'If a man sleeps with a woman who is a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. Yet they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. 21 The man, however, must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for a guilt offering to the LORD. 22 With the ram of the guilt offering the priest is to make atonement for him before the LORD for the sin he has committed, and his sin will be forgiven.
23 "'When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, regard its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider it forbidden; it must not be eaten. 24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way your harvest will be increased. I am the LORD your God.
26 "'Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it.
"'Do not practice divination or sorcery.
27 "'Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
28 "'Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.
29 "'Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.
30 "'Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.
31 "'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
32 "'Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.
33 "'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
35 "'Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. 36 Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.
37 "'Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the LORD.'"
NIV

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