Leviticus
16
– 18
Verses 16:21 & 22 talks about the infamous “scapegoat”:
21-22 Aaron
will place both his hands on the goat’s head and confess aloud over it all the
guilt, rebellion, and wrongdoings of the people of Israel. In this way,he
will transfer the sins of the people onto the goat’s head; then another man who
has been selected for this special task will drive the goat
into the wilderness. When the man releases the goat into the desert, it will
carry all the offenses of God’s people away into the desolate wastelands.
When the thought of a “scapegoat” comes up today we tend to
think of things differently. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a person who is
unfairly blamed for something that others have done.” The “unfairly” part is
what gets most people goat when reading this, since there is no unfair part. We
are all of sin no matter how righteous we may be, we fall short of God’s glory
and needed that goat.
Jesus has stepped in to be the sacrifice for our sins and
become that scapegoat. The difference was he was not led to the wilderness, but
rather the cross!
Verse 17:11 deals with the blood:
You see, the life of the body is in
the blood, and I have directed that you are to take blood and offer it on the
altar to atone for your lives and cover your sins. It is the
life flowing in the blood that atones for you and
covers you.
The blood is the key to life; it transports everything we
need to each part of the body. Without it we’d not have life. Sure each part
has an important role, but the blood is the “glue” that makes it all work. The
lungs bring it air which the blood then transports the oxygen to all the parts
of the body. The stomach brings in nutrients which the blood again transports
over the body. Without the blood we would be nothing and that is why God
emphasizes the importance of the blood.
Chapter 18 is one of those chapters that many get hung up
on. It’s the incest chapter and the one that says gay sex is wrong. It gives
almost every family relationship and that sex is wrong in that relationship. It
becomes comical and opens up the door for so many jokes. I did want to touch on
verse 18:22 which is the homosexual relationship verse:
You are not to have sexual
relations with a man in the same way you do with a woman; such a thing is
detestable.
Bible thumpers get on this verse and hammer it home when
talking about the homosexual lifestyle while ignoring other parts of the Law
that are blatantly overlooked. The Law is something mankind cannot live to and
why we needed Jesus. Now the logic on why this is not allowed is simple, since
God wanted His people to prosper.
The big question is the morality of this. Often people say
David and Jonathan had a “relationship” and the “thorn” in Paul’s side was
homosexuality. The science side shows the mating of the two serve no purpose
other than self-satisfaction. At the same time I have known homosexuals from a
very young age who exhibited this behavior. So does God hate gays? No way! Does
God hate the sin? I cannot tell if it’s a sin for gentiles, so I don’t know. I
have heard both sides of the story and know many who love God yet hate the
Church because of their stance. Multiple gays have confided in me that they
would love to be straight, but have no interest in the other sex. Would God
have made them that way or is this payback for generational sin? Again I
ultimately cannot answer those questions and just want each and every person to
know the salvation of Jesus.