Leviticus 10 – 12

Verse 10:2 is one of those events I don’t understand:

 Flames erupted from before the Eternal and burned up Nadab and Abihu. They both died in the presence of the Eternal One.

Here they were doing something wrong and it cost them their lives. I often read events like this and wonder why God would kill people because they did not follow procedures correctly.  Where is grace in this? Why would Nineveh be spared because they repented, yet Nadab and Abihu are not given that chance. If you look at this closer, they were Aaron’s sons and therefore had been in the presence of God and therefore should have known better. Also, in verse 1 it says the fire was “unauthorized” yet in the KJV it calls the fire “profane” which gives us a better understanding to why they were killed. In a nutshell they should have known better.

Chapter 11 contains the food laws. Again I don’t think it was meant to be a sin eating pork, but rather a good guide to eating. God wanted to set aside his people and therefore wanted to ensure they were healthy. We get to Peter’s vision in Acts which shows God saying it’s ok to eat food outside the Law assuming it’s blessed. This is in direct conflict with the Law! Why? I am not 100% sure but the Law was set aside to show what was the standard and we are not expected to be able to uphold it. No chapter 11, in  my opinion, was more guidelines and not hard lines.

Chapter 11:22 is good news:

You may eat the following insects: locusts, destructive locusts, desert locusts, and grasshoppers. 

We can eat bugs!! See to all the parents who grab the bugs out of their children’s mouth, it’s ok!!

Verse 12:2 starts a question on a conflict:

Go, talk with the Israelites, and tell them, “If a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy, then she will be ritually unclean for seven days, just like she is unclean when she is menstruating.

Why then in verse 5 does it double the time if she had a girl? This is a non-scientific study, but in watching Katy during both pregnancies. Vern, the first, was more difficult. She was sick and recovery seemed to take longer, Devon was much easier. Now one would say D was the second one, but have read this over and over again concerning pregnancies. So maybe God was protecting women, since there is a difference in carrying and delivering a girl over a boy.