Be Holy

Leviticus 10-11

            These two chapters are tied together by the notion that Israel is holy to the Lord, set apart from the nations for God’s purposes. Consider, for example, Moses’ rather unfeeling statement to Aaron immediately after the latter’s sons died: “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: ‘Among those who approach me I will be proved holy.’” Nadab and Abihu, priests for the people, carried the first responsibility of being holy to the Lord. Not only were they Israelites, they were priests. They were doubly holy, doubly set apart. Their carelessness or willful disobedience, whichever it was, dishonored the God who had set them apart. I mentioned this a few days ago, that leaders among God’s people carry an outsized influence on the people. Their sin is not just personal, rather it has a devastating effect on those entrusted to their care. This responsibility in further demonstrated in the way that Aaron and his remaining sons are forbidden from grieving or from taking time off. The work they do on behalf of the Lord and of His people trumps everything else. The Lord is just that important.

            Holiness is also at the heart of chapter 11, the so-called kosher laws. Why are so many animals excluded from Israel’s diet? The short answer is in verses 44-45, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy… I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt; therefore be holy, because I am holy.” The cleanness or uncleanness of animals may or may not have some kind of deep rationale, but one thing is absolutely certain: the Lord excluded them. My study Bible notes, “Some hold that certain animal life was considered unclean for health considerations, but it is difficult to substantiate this idea.” No, the Lord simply said, “No.” I’m remined of something Martin Luther once said. Some of his opponents, who did not value the Lord’s Supper were mocking the idea that eating bread and drinking wine could bring the forgiveness of sins and Luther said the if God told us to eat straw, we’d eat straw for no other reason than that God told us to. The point of the kosher laws, then, is that Israel is uniquely dedicated to the Lord and to His commands. Some of the excluded foods are, in a word, delicious. Many of us love bacon or shellfish, for example, but the Lord said, “No.” So, Israel, God’s holy people, where consciously careful about what they put in their mouths.

            Peter says that we Christians are also holy to the Lord. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). The old King James version translated this as “a peculiar people.” Maybe it pays considering, as we struggle with seemingly random exclusions for Israel, the ways in which we, too, are called to live “peculiarly” for the Lord. That’s a whole other topic, but if we were to spend some time in the epistles of Paul, for instance, we would that some of our peculiarity, our uniqueness, is to be found in rightly ordered sexual conduct, rightly ordered ways of speaking, a rightly ordered relationship with power, and a rightly ordered relationship with God’s creation. I don’t have time this morning to delve deeper. Let us just ponder that we, too, are called to live a unique life, a life that to the world may or may not make much sense, but for us, it is the life God has called us to.