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Amen. So, we are um in Leviticus 19 and uh every now and then I'd like to in Leviticus kind of pause and
0:13
u kind of re reiterate uh what what I think is um the nature of what we read in Leviticus. I I think it is far more especially in the holiness
0:24
code. were were far more uh like wisdom literature than even um Torah.
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And what I mean by that is in wisdom lit literature you don't expect a systematic outlinable presentation. When you read
0:48
proverbs you expect basically what we might call today bullet points. Um that does not mean there isn't a theme. If you were to pick a theme in Proverbs, it would be
1:00
wisdom. Um but there are other themes that um that that show up and many of the bullet points that you read
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then revolve around or orient themselves to that theme. But then there are others that seem to be very ancillary, very um kind of out there. And I've mentioned
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before that modern western commentators really recoil at not being able to outline the Bible. And most commentaries
1:32
that you would buy probably after 1950. The first section of any chapter is going to be their attempt at outlining it. I suggest you just skip it and go to
1:44
the go to the commentary because rarely do two of them agree. They're like a bunch of rabbis. They they they have their outline and they they think, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, there's 16 paragraphs here
1:56
arranged four, four, and eight. That's Winnham's outline of chapter 19." Um, someone else who's actually Jewish, uh, has a completely different outline of chapter 19. And, and I think they're
2:08
going about it the wrong way. I think they're looking for some type of systematic order systematic order and then they're forcing the passage into that order. But I don't see how you
2:19
can do that and it not impact your interpretation. If you think things are being written in a certain order with a certain associations that fit your outline, then
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that's how I think you're predisposed to interpret what you're reading. So I I think the error is in just trying to do it our way and rather than let it be
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what it is. And I think if you've read recently Leviticus 19 or or really much of Leviticus, you'll see that it it doesn't seem to follow a logical order or at least not a logic
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that attunes itself to the way modern western minds think. Uh there just seems to be some things that um I'll I'll tell you the one that throws Gordon Wenham in his
3:08
in his um commentary basically throws up his hands. Um then he takes him back down again. So I have to give him some credit there. But
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there. But we have the the famous passage, the one that is repeated so often in the New Testament in verse 18.
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You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
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And then verse 19, you shall keep my statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle, nor shall you sew your field
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with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.
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What just happened? You go from the second greatest commandment like unto the first to not making a garment with two different materials. Well, there's no transition there.
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And Wenham's comment is is basically this this just causes re readers to throw up their hands and say this doesn't make any sense at all. Well, I I think it's because they're they're
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trying to force it into some type of logic rather than seeing the the bigger picture which in Leviticus 19 is is I think very
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clearly holiness clearly holiness and also the the introductory section uh phrase in verse 19, you shall keep my
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statutes, which means okay, we're in we're in a different section now. It it's not that we're trying to transition or tie this all in to you shall love your neighbor. What does
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wearing a fabric or a garment with two different fabrics have to do with loving your neighbor as yourself?
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It it does have a general association, but that general association is under the rubric of what it means to be a holy community. But you can't just go from verse 18 to
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verse 19 and catch that. Okay. So, uh this is not an attempt at an outline. It's simply an attempt to show thematically what the Lord is doing
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here in these chapters of Leviticus. Now, we've already seen that Leviticus 18 is associated is associated with Leviticus 20
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as the prelude to the conclusion. This is the way the Canaanites have been living in the land. You shall not live that way.
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that way. But if any in your of your camp lives that way, you must deal with it. Because the Canaanites lived that way, the land is vomiting them out.
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If your people live that way and don't deal with it, the land will vomit you out. Okay? It's only, I think, under that understanding of those two chapters
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that we must interpret the individual things we read in those two chapters. I don't believe that what's written in 18 and 20 are exhaustive. I think the Canaanites were far more
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wicked than even chapter 18 indicates. And I think the people of Israel will become far more wicked than even what chapter 20 indicates. These are
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representative, how do I say, representative sins. representative sins. uh they're representative of the uh the p the statutes of the people who are
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being dispossessed, being dispossessed, but they're not exhaustive and they're then not presented to us in any real systematic manner. What we see in
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verse 18 verse 18 is a hinge between what goes before and what comes after in Leviticus 19.
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Now they are associated with each other. The first half, well um
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well um I don't want to get quite there. I think I'll do that when we get to the second half. The first half and the second half have slightly different orientations, but they both are oriented
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the community and how now the is the camp is to live. Now these are again as we I mentioned several weeks ago these chapters are
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also bracketed by chapter 17 which deals with the priest and chapter 21 and 22 that also deal with the priests but we've made a transition because
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chapters 21 and 22 deal with the priests as they live in the community not the priests as they minister in the tabernacle. So, if I were to add them back in here
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And the Lord spoke to Moses and told him to say to Aaron and his sons. Okay. Chapter 17 verse1, chapter 21 verse1. So we're back to the priest, but here
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this is the day of atonement. This is oriented around the tabernacle.
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this is the priest as he lives among the Israelite camp. Israelite camp. Now, the reasons he has to be the way he is in Leviticus 21 and 22 is because he
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serves the Lord in the tabernacle. But the emphasis here is still on the tabernacle, which is where we've been for the first 16 chapters of Leviticus. And the emphasis here is the community,
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which is where we'll be for the last uh five chapters. Okay? Or where we've actually been from chapter 18 on. So there is a valid transition between the
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holiness code which is here and beyond and the priestly Torah. But too much is made of that division.
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As if as I've said before they're two different sources, two or different writers, different times. um that doesn't actually hold water when you when you look at the holiness code
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and see how often the ten commandments are either actually referenced or alluded to in the holiness code. So Torah underlies the holiness code. Um,
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this is also, I think, confirmed by the Lord himself when he's asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" And it seems like he gives the the
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standard rabbitic Torah answer to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength. But he keeps going, doesn't he? And the second is
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like unto the first. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Why did he add that? Have you ever wondered that he wasn't asked what are the first two commandments?
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You know, he was asked what was the greatest commandment. But then he goes, what does he say? Yeah. And then he says, and upon these
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hinge the law and the prophets, that the whole Torah, the whole revelation of God does not hinge solely upon you shall love the Lord your God. And this sounds almost
11:39
blasphemous to say, but according to Jesus, it does not hinge solely upon you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. It also hinges upon you shall love your
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neighbor as yourself. Now, um John picks up on that in his letter. Or is it James? All right, James. How how can you how
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can you say that you love God and you hate your brother? Okay. So, so we're not we're not without precedent in scripture that that these two commandments are are joined um
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Yes. Right. And it proves it it sounds it and some people think it is because they think well no you you only love God. You love God. That's it's love of God. But God has ordained that you love God
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through loving your neighbor. Uh and and as Paul says that you know that this the kind of the second table of the law the horizontal side. He says, you know, love
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is the fulfillment of the law. So, um, when we're in Leviticus, we have to we look back on on that from on Leviticus from the Gospels and from James and from
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Romans 13. But on the other hand, as we're in Leviticus, we can also look forward to these passages and realize that Paul wasn't changing
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Judaism. Jesus wasn't changing Judaism. He was explaining it in truth, but he wasn't changing it. He wasn't coming up with some new interpretation.
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And I think that's one of the reasons why he could say to Nicodemus, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?" You know, he he wasn't, you know, he spoke with authority. He spoke as one who who
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really knew the law, but he wasn't an innovator. He wasn't changing it. And so we're we're not learning something um new in Leviticus, but I think we're learning something deeper. At least I
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am. Um as we look at the holiness code and the manner in which um the community, the camp was supposed to live. We've been uh throughout this
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study. We've been talking about, you know, how can a holy God dwell in the midst of an unholy people? Well, that would be Leviticus 1 through17. Okay, we can say
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Okay, these are the sacrifices and the uncleanness and cleanness and purification rituals and the day of atonement. Okay, this is how God remains in the midst of his people. But then the
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opposite question that goes with it is the people the people in the presence of a holy God. Well, that's Leviticus 18-27.
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And if we use the other um rubric that I've been talking about, we might say that this one here is worship and this one here constitutes
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witness. But you can't have one without the And I think those paradigms are permanent.
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I think if we we look at the various individual rituals, statutes and whatnot, we see that they don't transfer into the new covenant community. But the principles that they typified,
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the principles that they highlighted day in and day out, they do. And so if you ask, what is the purpose of the church on earth? I think it's
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still God dwelling in the midst of an unholy people. And it's still an unholy people dwelling in the presence of God. And the purpose of the church is still the dual function of worshiping and
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witnessing. But the witnessing, if we look at Leviticus 19, especially, the witnessing is not some door-to-door
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evangelism with tracks. That's not the witnessing they're doing. The witnessing is the way they live life together in the presence of God.
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And it touches upon some very mundane things, but it it repeats in a communal sense the same essential teaching that we read
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back in chapter 11 and through 15 regarding the clean and the unclean and the rituals of purification. Okay, it it's really getting down into the nuts
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and bolts of how they live life in the presence of God. Now I think the mistake or the the grave error
16:52
that modern Christianity has made and and really actually probably even ancient and then medieval Christianity is we
17:03
is we we put a full stop between Judaism and Christianity which is the same as putting a full stop between the old revelation of the Hebrew
17:13
Bible and the New Revelation of the Christian Bible, which is why we have an Old Testament and a New Testament rather than just one Bible. I don't know who
17:24
did that, where it came from. Um, it was it at the same time when the chapters and verses, I don't I don't know. I haven't really studied that.
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But there's no valid inherent reason in our Bible to have two
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testaments. I'm not suggesting that the publishers go back and take them out because I think it would confuse so many people that it would do more harm than good. I just think we need to realize that we're we're not New Testament people. Okay?
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We're not a New Testament church. Those those phrases are themselves mistaken in their basic premise. We're we are the people of God chosen from before the
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foundation of the world. Which means in seinal form we were already present in Israel waiting for the revelation of the Messiah and then the bringing in of the
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Gentiles. That was all in there in the kernel and now it's coming to fruition. I don't I don't personally see how we can understand the mission of the church
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if we fail to understand the mission of Israel. And so that's what we're trying to do. And and and I think what I'm trying to say in terms of the hermeneutics of Levi Leviticus is that we need to allow it to
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to uh to read as it's written and not try to force it into some type of rigid systematic outline that that it just doesn't fit. and realized that that the
18:55
when when the when the topics of each little point and uh I can't remember who it was. I think it might have been Wenom as well. No, it wasn't wasn't Wenham. He stuck with his 16 44 and 8. That was
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some sound like a musical movement or something, but he stuck with that. But someone else pointed out uh I think very accurately that I am the Lord. I am the Lord your God. There are your markers.
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Okay. But the reality is that you can go from one statement, I am the Lord. Okay, that's one thought. And then to another and the two aren't relate, don't don't appear to be related at all, but they
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are. It's it's almost as if the scripture is triangulating the theme by moving to different points on the survey map. Does does that make sense? Okay.
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Instead of instead of coming at it all from one, and that's how we would do it, very linear. we would come at our our conclusion by premises all in a linear manner. The scripture doesn't do that.
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It kind of circles it. And when you when you step back and you see what the scatter is, it all has a common theme.
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And that is what it means to be a holy people. Okay? What it means to be in the presence of a holy God. We've dealt with that. Now, what does it mean to be a
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holy people? holy people? Okay. And and that's what the holiness code is is really all about. Now, I'm not going to get into the details, but on um pages 73 and 74,
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I have a list of uh just listing the ten commandments and then passages in Leviticus in in 19
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um that um that reference either directly you shall revere your mother and your father. The only difference there is that father and mother are switched. No other
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difference. Okay? you shall you shall um honor the Sabbath or you shall um keep the Sabbath. Well, that that you know that's the fourth commandment or they are alluded to that you can look at the
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verse and say okay this is a this is a fifth command or a sixth commandment type thing. I want to point out though that although the commentators um point
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as being referenced or implied by the sin against another man's slave in Leviticus 19. Um,
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that is that's a stretch. Okay. I I don't personally see the seventh commandment involved there. Um, if you if you read the passage in Leviticus 19, um, the sin against another man's slave, there's there's
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restitution made. if the the slave is not married. Um, it's it's it's it's somewhat odd in its formulation, but it doesn't just scream, you know, adultery,
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do not commit adultery. It's not actually adultery. actually adultery. It may be connected in the sense that the seventh commandment,
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you know, you know, it um it it doesn't simply forbid. So for example um the sixth commandment against mur am I getting this right murder also prohibits
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hatred violence uh injustice um raping oppression I mean there's a whole rubric of sins and behavior that
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is that is prescribed by thou shalt not murder okay so it could be that the seventh commandment against adultery also speaks to the sanctity to the
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integrity of the marriage union by forbidding all forms of sexual sin. So, okay, there's the connection. Um, the other ones are a lot more obvious. Okay, if you if you
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allow that connection, then you have all 10 represented in Leviticus 19. And that's what many scholars, both Jewish and Christian, they they will call or refer to chapter 19 as the decalogue of
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the holiness code because of those illusions or or references. Now what that does and uh one commentary William Hallow uh points out the Levitical laws
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are part and parcel of the holiness code and especially if considered with Leviticus 19 repeated that repeatedly invoke the formulas that base the human
23:38
and social relations in question on the authority of the holiness of God. His point is that the law undergirds the holiness code. It is not a separate type
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of gospel or law where as like today you have a social gospel that is often viewed differently as a as some a theological gospel.
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theological gospel. No, there's there's no separation between the two. The social gospel or the gospel's impact on society is only right if it's firmly based in
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the theological gospel, the actual promise of God in the scriptures. You can't you can't take one of them and say, "Okay, this is what we do. We do
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the social thing." Okay? We do the love of your neighbor. Okay? Oh, no, no. We we do the love of your God. No, they go together. You you can't have
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one without the other. Okay. So, um again, that's more from a how do we read these chapters? How do we read um Leviticus in in total, but how do we
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read read the holiness code? I've mentioned for the last several weeks that we're uh we're moving toward chapter 19 and and I I fear that some of
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the later chapters of Leviticus are going to seem somewhat of an anti-limax. Um because chapter 19 and chapter 19 verse 18 is really the heart of the
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matter and you know I'm a little afraid of getting to the heart of the matter halfway through the session. um you know, but I I think that there's enough material in the rest to still stimulate
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our thoughts and our and our devotion. But I think I do think we've reached in a sense we've reached the the mountaintop in Leviticus 19:18. And from
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there, we can survey backward to the legal requirements of the camp and then forward to the social requirements from the position, you shall love your
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neighbor as yourself. Um, so that's where we're headed and that's that's the why I wrote this in this way because I do think in a sense we're standing at the peak of the mountain with chapter 19
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verse1 17. As we move up toward it, we read some sections of communal holiness that again do not seem to be related to
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one another. The first one I want to point out, does anybody have any comments or questions?
26:13
All right. Well, let's take a look at then the first I'm going to spend more time in the actual chapter in Leviticus 19 because of the positive nature of the
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um statutes. These are things you shall do. Chapter 18, chapter 20 are these are things you shall not do.
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And I and I think it is far more a far more benefit for us to focus on the things you shall do. So he begins um let's see here
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verses three and four uh pick up one two three of the ten commandments. Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father and you shall keep my Sabbaths. I am the
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Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God. Now you you you think as you're reading,
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oh, okay, he's going to rehearse the ten commandments here, not putting them in order, but he's he's rehearsing. No, nope. He goes on in verse five. Now, when you offer a sacrifice of peace
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offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be ex accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it. and the next day. But what remains until the third day shall be burned with
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fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an offense. It will not be accepted. And everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profained
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the holy thing of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people. That does not have anything obvious to do with the prohibition against idols.
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nor with what follows. Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap every corner of your field. Okay, so here we have an example of a section
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within this wisdom literature that doesn't really fit with what's in front of it and what's behind it and therefore doesn't easily fit into a outline. Okay.
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So what what do we make of it? It really is a reiteration of the law of remember the law of the sacrifices. This is the law of the peace offering.
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But we're not going to read about the burnt offering, the guilt offering, the trespass offering, the votive offering. We don't read about those. We just read about the peace offering.
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the way they treated they were to bring certain articles of their crops and their et be treated specially not the least of which were represented by
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the way that even the way they ties in these worship practices they do connect the way they treat their holy foods it
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has to correspond the way they treat their common foods as well okay that that's a very good point and I I would fully agree with that uh there are because the common foods foods were
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not unclean. not unclean. They were just common. We made that point when we talked about there's nothing wrong with common. Common is just common. just common. The other thing is that the the food
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that was at the edges of their field is to serve the same people that their peace offerings were to serve as well. They were to provide for the poor and
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the leanings were for those same people. And I I think you're you're getting what I think is the point of selecting the peace offering is of all of the
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sacrifices, the peace offering was most communal. It was the community sacrifice and it also involved holy food. Holy
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food that the people parttook of. It was the only sacrifice of which the people, the sacrificers themselves parttook.
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themselves parttook. Other sacrifices the priests were allowed to partake. We'll deal with that in chapter 21 and 22. Okay? And then other sacrifices only the Lord parttook
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like the burnt offering. So, we're dealing now with something that's going to come up in chapters 21 and 22, and that is the concept of holy food,
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which is in fact, and this is kind of giving away ahead of time what's in those other chapters. So, what was the peace offering? Well,
31:34
at the very basis, he mentions it. It's holy food. But we need to realize that the food of the sanctuary
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the sanctuary was holy because it was given to Yahweh and then given back.
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So to eat a holy meal is to eat at the table of Yahweh. Does that make sense?
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Right. And and I'm and you're you're um anticipating me, but you're absolutely right. It is a unique offering because it is free will. Um, but it also presupposes atonement.
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presupposes atonement. You did not come first and foremost with a peace offering. I I've thought for many years that that was Cain's mistake.
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He brought a peace offering. Abel brought a burnt offering. You don't approach a holy God. Again, this is how do people unholy people live
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in the presence of a holy God. You don't presume peace. presume peace. You atone. You atone. You come under the blood of the atoning
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sacrifice. And then as a manifestation of of faith in the peace that is then secured by that atonement, you have a feast. It's a it's a it's a
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worshipful meal in the presence of God. But it is first and foremost God's food given back to his people. It was supposed to be Yeah.
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And and as as Aaron pointed out, it was also to be for the disadvantaged of the community. It was for the poor, for the alien, for the widow, for the orphan, for those who
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did not have means. This was the kind of the benevolence meal as it were. Um but but it really out of all the offerings, this is the one that makes sense because of all the offerings. Um so let me let
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We don't really do this when we when we ask the blessing over our meals, but it's kind of what we're doing. Okay? We're um we're recognizing that first and foremost, this is the Lord's
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provision. And and so for us, every meal is holy because it we recognize that that all is the Lord's provision. This was visual. It was it was meant to inculcate that
34:40
attitude, but in a very visual way because they were in front of the tabernacle. They were at the altar when they presented to be to be slain and
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basically cooked and then given back and have your have your meal. This is Yahweh's food. Later in chapter 21 and 22 when we talk about the priest's meal,
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this is also the essential point that the priest's meal was not first and foremost the priests like the offerer came and and had already divided up what
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went to the priest and said, "Okay, here's yours." That was the sin of Eli's sons. They didn't like boiled meat. I don't like boiled meat. Okay? They they wanted
35:26
roasted meat. So they insisted that the offerer give them the portion they selected before it went on the altar
35:36
and they died because of their presumption, their arrogance and their blasphemy. It goes to the Lord first and then back to the priest. Okay. So the
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reasons behind all of these mentions of of this holy food is that it's not actually your food anymore. It's the Lord's food given back to you. Okay? So
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this is why if if you don't do it the right way, it it nullifies the whole thing. you the the the cleanness and the
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forgiveness that you attained through the guilt offering, the burnt offering, the sin offering is now reversed and you bear your iniquity. The point of the
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peace offering is that your iniquity has been lifted from you. You're at peace with God. with God. Okay? And so the penalty for doing this arrogantly, which means anything that's
36:33
just disobeying God. Okay? is your he says your iniquity remains. It's like everything that was taken off of you in the sacrifices that led up to the peace
36:45
offering are now put back on you and you got to start over. Actually, you don't get to start over. You're cut off from among your people. So, um the communal
36:55
aspect, this is truly the community sacrifice. It's done very publicly and then shared
37:05
publicly in the tabernacle court is where you you had this meal. Um, and it's it was a it was really an ancient fellowship meal, but it it it
37:16
presupposed fellowship with God before fellowship with with one another. And if that fellowship with God was broken through disobedience, then there could be no fellowship with one another. So
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these are principles that not only maintained the integrity of the camp before God, but also maintain the integrity of the camp within itself. And
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that's what we were talking about last week, that if if the camp allows unpunished
37:50
disobedience or accepts continued disobedience, the camp will disintegrate. the community will disintegrate. It will not simply be the apostate or the
38:03
rebellious. It will be the whole camp. And as I mentioned last week, I think that lies at the heart of Paul's concern for the church at Corenth. Yes, the sin
38:13
that was committed was was heinous, but that wasn't his main concern. It was it was you're not even dealing with it. You're even proud of it. You know how how how much you you have liberty to
38:24
allow this to happen. said, "No, you you're you're you're playing with fire."
38:38
He injects a solid word into what especially based on what I know Yeah. And yet he has to speak to them. And I do not praise I will not praise
38:49
you. into that joy things that are judgment that don't even belong in the discussion. I I think that and I think I mentioned this when we
38:59
were in that section. I I think that our communion much more patterns after the peace offering than it does the Passover. Okay. I I I think it has very little to
39:10
do with the Passover. Very very little. But I think it has everything to do with the peace offering because we have been atoned. We have been made clean. Okay? And and we have been permanently made
39:21
clean by the blood of the perfect lamb. So that we have the the free right to come before Yahweh's table, okay? As his children and joyfully eat Yahweh's meal.
39:35
Okay? Um why it's just bread and and wine, you know, that's a different discussion, but it is a a peace offering feast that we celebrate. So I think
39:47
that's why it was chosen among all the offerings here in Leviticus 19 is again the emphasis is communal but we're we're introducing we're introducing a new
40:14
right it had to be clean or it couldn't be given God. Yes. But it's so much Yeah. Yeah. It's given to Yahweh then given back. Okay. But not all of it's given
40:26
back. So the priests are going to be referred to in chapter 21 and chapter 2. Interestingly, I guess this is from my college days. They they kind of show up as waiters.
40:38
as waiters. They serve God's food at his table. Okay. that what now we we don't I don't think we really think about sacrifice that way but they're actually serving
40:50
God's food to him and and this was a common ancient view of sacrifice to begin with was that it was food for the gods and God consuming it was his accept
41:01
acceptance of the meal as it were and and so this points back to another feature of of ancient culture but also of the Hebrew Bible and I think it does
41:12
come on into the New Testament scriptures as well and that's the idea of table fellowship
41:28
in in order to understand the the depths of coinia both with the Lord and with one another in the community.
41:43
We have to understand the meaning of the meal in much of human culture even today. Now I've I've found in my years that
41:55
this is something that two groups of people have preserved better than most others and the association is embarrassing. pagans and Mediterranean.
42:19
But you you don't read about and I I won't get the title, but you don't read about my my big fat German wedding, you
42:30
the the Greeks, the Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, Italians, Spanish. The table, the kitchen table is the center of the universe. Meals were
42:41
a thing for me growing up. Meals were a thing. They they were a time. We got away from it in my family, but whenever we were with my mother's family, it was
42:52
always the kitchen table. It was always around the kitchen table. It was a right of passage when you were old enough to be admitted to the kitchen table rather than set off into my mom's living room.
43:04
and watch the fuzz on her TV. Um, shiver at the thoughts.
43:16
But the and and I'm not I'm not extolling either pagan or Mediterranean culture. I'm just saying that human cultural history has largely oriented around the meal.
43:28
What does Abraham say to the strangers that come to his tent? You know, um, my Yeah, exactly. I was going to say that my brother-in-law's mom, Pansy Filipony,
43:38
it was always, "Wait two minutes. Two minutes for a plate of steaks, a bowl of spaghetti, a loaf of bread, none of which is prepared, just like Abraham's calf, you know, two minutes." Um, but
43:50
that's I'm just saying that that's a mindset that our more atomized uh society uh society has kind of lost. Now, I I'm not
44:02
suggesting I I don't think it's a bad thing if we recover it, honestly. Um, but I think that we recognizing the loss of something allows us to to understand
44:12
even if it's not our culture anymore, we can understand that it was their culture. And so, when we read it in scripture, if we're going to understand it, we need to understand it in its
44:24
setting. Not just its its linguistic setting, its words, but also its cultural setting. and and God adapts himself to this in both testaments.
44:36
The table and table fellowship is the essence of communal love and acceptance. This was the reason why Paul condemned
44:47
Peter when he backed off from eating with the Gentiles. This is also why Paul chastises the Corinthians for the way their love feast had turned into nothing
44:57
but um selfish opportunities to get drunk and stuff the face. Okay, these these things are so enimical to the idea of te table fellowship that they were
45:09
almost sacrilege. And Paul says, "Will I praise you?" No, I will not praise you. Okay? You do not come together to celebrate the Lord's supper. you come together to stuff your face and get
45:20
drunk and and that you know that I think we would still think that that's horrible in a in a church today. But in that culture when you refused someone to
45:32
sit at the table that was a that was a statement of condemnation of of of of uh judgment against that person.
46:11
like you don't stay okay it's time for you to go home to your family but when you were asked to That was a big deal. Felt like a big deal. Not only that, but there was more to it. Like there was their brothers and sisters started looking out for me
46:24
because you're part of familia now because you've seated at the table. Yeah. It was a big deal. And it was a big deal as a child when I was able to sit at the table. That that was that was a way. And then
46:35
the next right of passage was my first glass of wine. Yeah. you know, but but that culture, I think, is closer in terms of modern cultures, and that's
46:45
it's not really that way anymore. It's it's getting away from that, but that culture is more like the culture of the ancient near east. And and much of that culture still remains in the Middle
46:56
East, doesn't it? I mean, that's this is, you know, this is not you you you didn't really even have a dining room. You had a dining room, but that's where people you didn't really like.
47:07
In my in my in fact my grandfather's house, he did not have a dining room. He just had a kitchen and most of the kitchen was the kitchen table. Okay? And that's where everything was discussed and all the arguments were were laid
47:19
bare and and it was just it was wild. It was lively. I think it freaked Angela out when she first experienced it. Um although you know as dairy farmers that
47:29
life was kind of around the kitchen table as well, but this is a cultural thing. And so when God invites us to the table, it's it's like it's like Justin is saying, you you're now in, okay? And
47:41
his angels now look out for you, okay? You're you're at the table. And that's why Peter's crime was so great. It wasn't that what what he was doing was
47:52
he was he was rendering the gentile Christians secondass citizens in the kingdom. And Paul was going to have none of that. of that. One of the things
48:20
Yes. Um you're right. I I do remember that. Um although I didn't never mind at my grandfather's house because he was such a good cook. Or Pansy. I mean Pansy could lay out a meal that the kings would be jealous of. But you did you
48:33
they were offering they were offering inclusion and and to turn that down was rejection. And this is something that like my
48:44
father needed to learn this because his background was German and it wasn't the same. You had to you had to learn what was being meant by this. It was more than just, you know, you couldn't say,
48:54
"Well, thank you. I'm not hungry." Yeah. It has nothing to do with you being hungry. being hungry. Okay. And and I do think that our our modern culture emphasizes
49:07
really the the neutrality of the meal that it it's just sustenance. You have to be careful what you eat. You don't want to eat too much. You know, it's it's now so much about nutrition and
49:18
diet. And and I'm I've got no problem with that. I don't think we should all be roly polies. It's like, but that's that's not that that's not what the meal
49:29
traditionally in human culture, it's not what the meal represented. It it represented inclusion, love, fellowship, acceptance, all the things that the
49:40
human soul needs was being offered in that meal. Now, that's not to say that the environment was always pure and good. I'm not saying that. Just saying this was the nature of a meal in much of
49:53
human culture. human culture. Justin was saying I think this culture as well in which you cannot carry on a feud or be enemies
50:05
with someone at that's actually in that's actually in in scripture. You know, if if a if a man
50:15
lays hold of your tent peg, you're obligated to show hospitality to him. But even long term, that that changes your relationship. your relationship. It it does. And that's what again it changes. You
50:28
You're no longer enemies. You You are now friends because you've taken a meal together. Yeah. Well, that's true in families, too. Um you may not like them but you
50:40
know it was it was part of your heritage and and to you know I I miss that. Um but we we have family meals.
50:51
It's I I guess in the church it's not that we need to bring back that particular culture, but perhaps understanding that culture and the centrality of the meal will improve our
51:02
perspective of our Lord's supper, our our table when we when we celebrate communion together that this is what we're doing. We're we're accepted in the beloved and we accept one another.
51:35
Yes. Yes. Um, and I think that the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem will be the the full and final consummation of that which grows in still corrupted hearts because of the Holy Spirit,
51:47
because of the blood of Christ. But that that that's all the the blood of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is our invitation to the table. So when Jesus says to the Jews, you will be cast
51:59
out into utter darkness, but all these other people are going to come to the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Okay, I I think to some
52:10
extent we've trivialized the marriage feast of the lamb because we we've lost the cultural connection with what that meant in the ancient near east and in so
52:21
many cultures throughout history. Again, I'm not saying we need to restore that specific manifestation of that cultural millu, but we should at least understand
52:32
it. Okay? It's it's kind of like when we talk about when we read in the Bible about kingdom, what do we know about kingdom? What do we know about kingdom?
52:44
Kings are be to be what? Thrown away. You know, they're to be cast off. Uh, and so there is I don't want a king and I'm up joining the no kings movement, but I don't even know what they're all
52:55
about. Okay, it's just a bunch of crackpots as far as I can tell. But um, but we don't want a king, but we have a king and and so we need to better
53:07
understand the culture of royal domain because that's what's throughout scripture. Okay. And the meal is is as I said, this is really where it kind of
53:18
all begins. And I think perhaps this is why chapter 19 begins essentially with the peace offering because this is the free will free will meal of the
53:29
community. And it also says something else and this is kind of going down a little bit I think a step down. And um Aaron, I think you you alluded to it in your
53:39
comment, but um just because it's a free will offering. will offering. Don't be flippant about it. I mean, you you might get into the habit
53:52
of, oh, this is the burnt offering. Okay, get this right because this is the one that God's going to, you know, okay, got that right. Got the sin offering, right? Got the guilt offering, right? Oh, this is the free will. This is peace
54:02
offering. I'll just take this. No. you know, or you know, it'd be a waste to throw it away just because it's the third day. third day. Refrigerator is not broken. I mean, why
54:12
would we do that? Because he said so. Okay. So, he he comes down the list as it were, I think, primarily to emphasize the communal sacrifice, which
54:23
presupposes all the others. For a Jew, you didn't need to mention all the others because they had to happen before the peace offering. Okay? So, they're already included. But I think he's also
54:33
mentioning it because this is where the weward in spirit are going to start to go wayward. Okay? Where where it comes down to the free will or the votive, the
54:45
the voluntary offerings is where you're going to start cutting corners. You're going to start being a little bit lax in the specificity of what you're supposed to do. And so he reminds you, no, no,
54:56
no, don't do that. Because if you do that, all the other ones that are presupposed now come back on your shoulders. your iniquity remains with you. So it's like um don't
55:25
Now, that's tough. And and that I think is the point of all of this, including the the clean and the unclean and the impurities and the purification rituals. The point here is not I mean it is absolutely this is how
55:37
you will live before me. But it's also conversely saying you're not going to be able to do this. This is just too much.
55:47
Okay? And and it was Peter, I think, who said at the council of Jerusalem, um, are we going to lay upon the Gentiles a burden that neither we nor our forefathers have been able to bear?
55:58
Okay, we can't carry this load. We can't be on all the time. Okay? And and and yet you must be. Now, that's why
56:10
you have the day of atonement. Okay? That's why you have the blood of the lamb. But the the point of having all this was not so that they might be saved by it. That's that is an error of
56:22
category. The law was never given to save anyone and it was never possible as Paul tells us later that any flesh should be justified by the works of the law. Okay? So they were never going to
56:34
get to heaven this way. They had already been delivered from bondage and now to maintain that condition they must live this way. this way. I think it was almost um
56:47
in a sense a grading on the curve that God dealt with Israel communally more so than individually
57:02
communally the righteousness of the few as God had promised with regard to Sodom and Gomorrah preserved the unrighteousness of the many for a longer period of time. Does
57:13
that make sense? Okay. He kind of took them on an average. All right. And I think he does that. I think he does that in the church. I mentioned before that if he if
57:23
he dealt with Israel the way he dealt with um with um oh my word, Naab and Abihu or if he dealt with the church the way he dealt with um why is my mind? Ananas and Safh
57:37
this would be an empty room. Okay. It'd be empty churches. smoldering but empty. You combine the two of course. Um so he he does deal graciously through all this
57:48
but the the message the teaching still remains. This is more than our either we or our forefathers can bear. We can't carry this load. And in doing that the
57:59
law and even the holiness code continues to point to a redeemer through whose blood we will be perfectly sanctified. And then the patterns become from
58:11
different motivation. different motivation. Well, maybe not even different motivation. We still do it out of gratitude and recognition of what God has done for us. We still recognize that
58:22
did I erase it? That the gift, the food, yeah, here it is. The food is first Yahweh's and then ours. Okay. And I guess this is what lies behind
58:33
the practice of consecrating the host in the Roman Catholic mass. or raising the elements in the Presbyterian communion. Okay. The idea
58:45
of presenting it first to God and then to the people. I don't like it. But I think that's where it comes from is that you're bringing it first to God. I was going to say though that
59:05
Yeah. Good point. And then he gave himself his body to the people. Yeah. He gave himself to his father his father and then he gave himself. It's the consecration. That's a very good point. The consecration has already been done and we simply partake of the blessing
59:17
and the benefit of that completed consecration. That's a very good perspective. Thank you. I appreciate that. So um so that's the peace
59:28
offering. And then we go on and as I said this doesn't seem to be at all related. He goes on in verse 9, "Now when you reap the harvest of your land,
59:39
you shall not reap to the very corners of your field. Neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest, nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you
59:50
gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.
1:00:17
Right. I think it was swarming. I think the tabernacle and the court the the court of the tabernacle would have been packed. I mean TSA lines would have
1:00:27
nothing on nothing on you know you have you have these uh Instagram videos eight and a half hours to offer my sin offering you know.
1:00:41
yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I I would imagine it was I've always um thought that the tabernacle would have been like a
1:00:52
butcher shop. butcher shop. The blood would have literally uh streamed from the altar. today. So I I
1:01:03
think the visual and uh the s sensual images sensual images are very vivid. The smell, the sight,
1:01:14
the sound, the baying uh goats and sheep and and the mooing cow cattle and and then the the smell, the blood. Um yeah, I think that would have been just really
1:01:26
uh almost c uh overload. um sensory overload with with all this. But it was all meant to show these two
1:01:36
things right here. Okay? This is a holy nation. They've been they've been created. They've been formed by a holy God. What does that even mean? Well, this is what it means. It means a lot of
1:01:48
a lot of atoning sacrifices. But it also means joyful feasts, provision, harvest. Okay? It means that people who are blessed of their god in a very visible
1:02:00
way if they obey and obedience was very much part of the whole holiness thing.
1:02:20
I think some of them would have been very impressed and and would have converted and some did. I think others would have considered them as most did fanatical especially since um in the in the Greek
1:02:30
and Roman era the um holy of holies was empty. This is this is a religion that has no god because they had no idol. Okay. And
1:02:42
that's actually written up by non-Jews. The fact that these these people are they have one one god. They reject all other gods and yet they have no god
1:02:54
because they have no images. So yeah, they they present it and I and I think that's this part right here. Again, this is the witness. But what I think is so important and so um counterintuitive to
1:03:06
our modern understanding is that their witness flowed out of their communal life. It was not itself
1:03:17
a an active direction. it was the the natural result of them living in holiness before their God.
1:03:28
Okay? So, the things that we're reading, if if they they did these things, then as Deuteronomy 4 tells us, the other nations will look and say, "What a wise and understanding people." And and who
1:03:41
has a God living so close to them as our God is to us today with these commandments? Right? This is your wisdom. This is your wi witness. And it
1:03:54
wasn't, okay, now you go out into the you you go to Assyria and and and you go into into the Hittite Empire. No, it was you live in community in this land as a
1:04:06
holy nation and that is your witness. I think that's the same model for the church. I think it was meant to be. And I think this is the this is where
1:04:18
the more communal manifestations of the church, the cloysters, the Amish for example, this is what they're working from.
1:04:30
The error they made is in isolating themselves from the world. Okay? They they recognized that their primary duty before the Lord was to the
1:04:43
community, but then they took the community out of the world like the monasteries. Okay. So they thought they were doing this, but they ceased doing that.
1:05:36
and and some people have put it this way. It's it's not it's not what you do and say on Sunday, it's how you live on Monday. And there is some truth to that. Um it it's it's not you cannot bifurcate
1:05:47
uh your life in Christ and you cannot separate your your worship from your witness and you cannot separate your life from the community. And I think
1:05:57
that message is clear in Leviticus, in the Pentatuk, in the prophets, but I think it's equally clear in the New Testament that that there's no such thing as this indivi individualized Christianity that we have in our
1:06:09
culture. And I think that has emasculated the church and has rendered it impotent in its witness to the world. And as we do send out missionaries, they
1:06:22
are I mean has has anybody stopped to realize how ineffective Western missions has been.
1:06:36
I mean, just the just the practical analysis, and I know we're not supposed to count numbers, you know, but we're not seeing Turkey return to the Lord. We're not
1:06:47
we're not seeing the gospel returning to the territories that it once dominated. And we've been doing this form of missionary work for a good 200 years.
1:06:58
And we really started it during the Protestant Reformation. Now, of course, the Roman Catholic Church had the right idea. bring swords and spears and you get a lot of conversions that way. Uh I'm
1:07:09
being facitious of course. No, I think it has always been the case that we the church witnesses by living as a as a
1:07:19
people in the presence of a holy God and it's communal in nature. Okay. I think even well I I won't go into many more any more detail because I want to I want
1:07:30
to focus at the last remaining part of tonight's class to this um this passage. Um this this passage
1:07:43
impacted me many many years ago and then I I read a book by a professor at Denver Seminary um Craig um Blamberg. Thank you. thinking blazing and that's a
1:07:54
different Craig Blumberg um neither poverty nor riches from the psalm I'm sorry Proverbs 30 I think the prayer
1:08:04
Lord give me neither poverty nor riches okay and that's the title of his book and and it's it motivated me to actually focus on biblical economics for my
1:08:16
doctoral dissertation at RTS and I just you know I got a lot of books signed out a lot of books and I remember getting one that it was titled um biblical
1:08:27
economics or something like that and and a subtitle was everything the Bible has to say about wealth and economics.
1:08:38
Chapter one began in the book of Acts and other than a handful of references to Proverbs there was nothing from the Old Testament at all in the book. I
1:08:50
actually went back to the scripture index and there was nothing including this passage from Leviticus 19. When we look at this passage from
1:09:00
Leviticus 19, it is not just farmers and vineyard owners that are being spoken of. This is an economic characteristic
1:09:12
of a holy nation and that is integral to its economic mechanism is a builtin provision for the poor and
1:09:25
the stranger. Because as we read the scriptures, we find out that those who have no
1:09:36
protection and they have no status are especially the concern of our God. So he inculcates an economic system.
1:09:49
Now, now do not get me wrong. This is not socialism. This is not communism. But it is willful inefficiency
1:10:00
willful inefficiency which means it's also not capitalism. There are many Christians today who think that capitalism is taught in the Bible. It is not. Nor is socialism. Nor
1:10:14
is communism. Nor is fascism. The Bible doesn't actually teach any economic system that is practiced by any nation in the world today or ever has.
1:10:26
I'm not sure Israel did either. I think the only example that we have in the scripture is Boaz.
1:10:39
No. Um, so this was this is where my faculty adviser challenged me as to whether or not I was a communist. He literally asked me, "Are are you a communist?" Like, "No, comrade, why'd
1:11:00
Um, because it is expected of modern American Christianity to extol the virtues of capitalism. Um, you can only do that if you've read
1:11:12
absolutely no history of capitalism. I mean, actual history of capitalism. Now, I'm I'm I'm a believer that capitalism is the most efficient form of
1:11:22
economics and certainly the most efficient form of productivity and prosperity for any people. uh it was, you know, it was uh one of Churchill's witisms when he he said that
1:11:34
he he prefers the uneven distribution of wealth under capitalism to the even distribution of poverty under communism. Okay. And and so yeah, I do too. Okay. I
1:11:45
So that that's not the point. The point is I don't need to sanctify it. Okay. Okay, I don't I don't need to sanctify any economic system any more than I need to sanctify the US Constitution, which
1:11:56
is probably the greatest political document ever written. Okay, but it's not in the Bible. Wasn't inspired. And and capitalism is not a system that we find in scripture because capitalism
1:12:07
hones in on efficiency, productivity, and profit. and profit. A capitalist will glean into the corners of his or harvest the corners of his field. He will send his workers twice
1:12:20
and the fallen sheave. And that's what it's actually called in Jewish literature, the fallen sheave. Okay, there's the guy walking with all and one of them falls.
1:12:31
We'd have somebody back behind him picking them up because that's money lost. And God said, "No, you don't pick it up. You drop a
1:12:41
sheave, you know, you're you're siththing and one of them gets away, you leave it. Okay? You you're you're gleaning your your vineyard and a bunch of grapes fall, you leave it. Or you
1:12:54
missed some, you leave them. Okay? You're doing your fruit trees and you don't get everyone. You shake them, you get what comes down, but there's still some up there, you leave them. That is really radical.
1:13:05
Okay? That is very not it is not socialism. You don't you don't gather them all up and divide them up evenly among everybody. Was Boaz rich or poor? He was rich, right? Okay. And there was
1:13:17
no condemnation for that wealth at all because he was a righteous man who obeyed Leviticus 19. Okay. And my
1:13:30
thesis was that that this this concept of equity, not equality, but equity, okay, equity is different from equality. Equity
1:13:45
prevails when there is a portion for everyone. for everyone. Equality prevails when the portion is the same.
1:13:56
the same. But there's nothing in scripture that demands that the portion be the same. In fact, when the portion is forced to be the same, that portion reduces to the point of starvation. And that's
1:14:07
historical. So if we insist that everybody gets exactly the same portion, then those who are by nature and by temper uh temperament producers
1:14:18
will lose all motivation to produce. And those who are by temperament or even by physical uh disability receivers will have nothing to receive.
1:14:29
And so that that blows communism and socialism out of the water. They they don't work. They don't work. But capitalism in its pure form is also a violation of scripture. It's not
1:14:41
something that a Christian can can embrace because its principles are founded on self-interest and greed. And I think that's why it
1:14:53
works so well. Okay. And and so it does work. But is it something that we who are God's people and God's witness, is it something we can embrace or is there
1:15:05
a place in our economic thinking for Leviticus 19? I think there is. And the example that I found that um I was somewhat aware of because of growing
1:15:16
up in an Italian family is something that has come to be called
1:15:34
In fact, it is so noticeable that this name was given by the academic economic community as they recognized the affinity and care of certain
1:15:48
ethnicities. The Vietnamese The Vietnamese are are such a people. Um the Italians and the Poles were such a people are not anymore because they've
1:15:59
left their enclave. They no longer live together. The am the AMA community in Iowa, the AMA refrigerators, that was an
1:16:09
enclave community. So what it is and in its in its um human manifestation it is almost always a homogeneous ethnicity
1:16:22
and not all ethnicities do this. The Hispanic community does not do this. Okay? They they are not enclave. Um in fact many ethnicities are as divided
1:16:33
within themselves as they are with the world around them. But there are certain ethnicities like the Vietnamese and this is more like 1970s 80s you know what was
1:16:45
the I mean it was dry cleaners right you know I I know but the Asians and dry cleaners but that was the idea that if someone was coming over you would set them up in business and then you would
1:16:57
help their business by sending them customers and then they would do the same for the next one and they and there was always something left over and it's not that they were reading Leviticus but in In fact, they did not go over the
1:17:08
harvest twice. There was always something for the needy in the community. They did not lead labor unions because they were already taking care of each other within that
1:17:42
Okay. But what set them apart in the eyes of economists was that they did not isolate themselves. They were they were generally living
1:17:53
within like little Italy, you know, they were generally living yes close together. That was primarily driven by language. They they did not immediately adopt
1:18:04
English. Now the sec the second generation did and those ethnic communities the physical communities tended to spread out like the Cubans in Miami because what held them together at
1:18:17
first was what held mankind together in the the plane of Shinar. They all spoke the same language. Okay. But then by the second generation that changed and and
1:18:27
people started to scatter. As they scattered the enclave economy fell apart. That's not a unique economy developing
1:18:38
each other. each other. Yes. But it it's it's a unique economy in that what took priority was within the community and they hired one another and they sold to one another. So it was
1:18:50
it was there's another word that's used that's used often now. It was embedded.
1:19:09
Yeah. Well, I can tell you where they got the more to pay from the non-Indians that they ripped off. I mean, I I say that in justest, but Ariel and I are both in full agreement
1:19:19
that we don't do work for Indians. Yeah. They're that that's that's a unique culture, too. Yeah. They don't actually they're not actually named among the
1:19:30
enclave economies though. Um the enclave economies what's special about them is they typically had a unique industry that they would get into like dry
1:19:41
cleaning. Okay. Uh or bakeries. The the Italian community was bakeries. Okay. They still are north side of Boston, you know, some of the greatest bakeries in
1:19:51
the world. Um but they would have an they would have a very unique amount you know they had refrigerators. So they had an industry but what's what's important is that they didn't they didn't just
1:20:02
keep it all they sold and traded with the world but they did so in what in in such a way that they were recognizably separate even though they were still
1:20:14
interacting with the community around them. So the the they were embedded in the surrounding
1:20:33
Um there was an attempt in England during the 19th century uh in the textile industry to do this very thing. It was called Lannarch and I can't remember the name of the fellow who tried it and it
1:20:44
worked for a while and it was the the the last thing that that uh drove drew the attention of the economic academic community is that they were uniformly
1:21:05
Now when I read this I thought that's what Israel was supposed to be. they would lend to many but borrow from none. That that they would be prosperous
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in all their undertakings but they would also be separate from the world around them. Okay. Clearly they they interacted with foreigners because
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foreigners are mentioned as being in the land and even in the tabernacle area and even bringing offerings. Okay. So it wasn't a cloister. It wasn't a a
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monastery, but it was a a community, an enclave community embedded in the surrounding culture that was to live economically in such a way that was in obedience to God
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who was the p who gave them the power to make wealth. It was like they lived the Sabbath all the time by not gleaning into the corners and a second time over the vineyard. By leaving this for the
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poor and the needy, the orphan and the alien, they were they were acting in such an economically stupid manner. They
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could only proclaim their dependence upon God for their well-being. And again, I think Boaz is given to us as an example of of how this was supposed to work for the whole nation.
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For the whole nation. And then we have in history even and and I think there's many examples of this that people live according to biblical principles. Paul I think this is what Paul mentions in
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Romans 2 that the Gentile who obeys the law in his conscience is as circumcised. Now, that doesn't mean he even knows the
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law. What the law of nature, the the vestage of the immigo day within his conscience tells him what's right and he does it. He obeys his conscience. And
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Paul says that is it's not saying he's saved, but he's saying he's he's as if he were circumcised. Whereas the Jew who is circumcised and doesn't obey the law, it becomes uncircumcision to him. We saw
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that in the generation that came out of Egypt. They became as it were uncircumcised. So um even when Gentiles, even when
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unbelievers obey the principles that are being outlined here, they're prosperous. Now they can't sustain it because it it
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the world creeps in and and this is what happens to all of them. The children marry outside the community, the ethnicity is diluted. Okay? and and then
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the whole idea passes away with the first or second generation. And that's the reality of of this. But nonetheless, this is a historical uh phenomenon. And
1:23:59
when I read it, I thought first of all, that's Israel. That was God's intent for Israel. And then I thought, well, why isn't that God's intent for the church?
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Well, we say, "Okay, well, we're too scattered and we're all in different businesses and and you know, we have our own li we have our own lives." Well, then we can hardly call ourselves a community, can we?
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And we can hardly take communion together as a community when we're not a community at all. So, what do we do? We manufacture community by putting in
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bowling alleys and cafes and movie theaters in our churches. We are we are fabricating community because we don't actually have it. I'm saying we I mean
1:24:44
American Christianity. Our mega churches become campuses where you can do your grocery shopping, your entertainment, your bowling, you know, everything right
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there on a safe Christian environment. Right? I don't know that God ever planned on it being safe in in the midst of a hostile unbelieving
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world. Living as the people of God could never be called safe. But we've made it safe. We sanitized it. But what do we do on Monday? Well, we all go to our jobs.
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In my studies, my conclusion was I I don't expect that we can reverse that. But I think we can begin. And I think we can begin in our own
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lives, our own economics by applying the principles of Leviticus 19 and realizing that not harvesting into the corner and not gleaning over the
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vineyard twice and not picking up the fallen sheath. These are principles. These are almost metaphors or euphemisms against greed,
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against greed, against penny pinching, you know, against being a good steward. Okay, being a good steward means that's that's Christian for being cheap. Okay, I mean,
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it just is, at least in my experience, that's what it is. It means not paying your teachers at a Christian school a living wage because it's a ministry and we're being good stewards of our money.
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It it means accepting third generation computers for your church school because we're good stewards. You can't even run Microsoft on them. Um
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it's it's it's frustrating. We do work for churches and we we go into these churches are the best places to find whatever 1980s model computer you might
1:26:44
be looking for because they have them in storage there. Okay? because churches never throw anything away. Okay? And this is what was donated to them
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by their people being good stewards. This is not a good witness. This is not a good testimony. And I think that the principle of this enclave economy, if it
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works, if it works in the gentile world, because of the principle of scripture, should it not work in the church who are the inheritors of scripture?
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And and I think this is what it means really means to live as a holy people in the presence of a holy God and to bear him the most powerful witness and that
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is the witness of obedience. Well, let's close in prayer. Father, we do pray that you would open our minds to to read your word and to
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understand how you wish us to apply it in our culture, recognizing that we don't live in the ancient world. Things aren't as they were even a hundred years ago, even 50 years ago in our country.
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And rather than trying to turn back the providential march of time, we ask for wisdom to apply the eternal principles of truth we find in your revelation
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to the world and to the church in which we live today. For your glory and for the exaltation of Jesus Christ, we ask in his name.
