Uncommonಮಾದರಿ

“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Exodus 34:25-26

Ok, Moses, we were with you until the young goat rule.

Some of the laws were put in place to provide ceremonial expression. When we look at Old Testament laws, it’s important to ask why God is commanding this rather than what God is commanding. We understand we should give God our best because that is what God deserves. However, why would God add this goat command?

Obviously, in the culture God is communicating to, the people practiced certain things that did not accurately represent the heart of God. Perhaps the act of boiling a baby goat showed a lack of nurturing in the Israelites. This act of animal abuse was enough of an occurrence for God to address it. God did not like this practice of ceremonial expression.

The laws were established to create a ‘differentness’ from the surrounding cultures.

“Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day.” Joshua 23:6-8

Again, God wanted the Israelites to be different. He wanted them to accurately represent a god different from (and greater than) the other gods. God desired the nation of Israel to be distinct. He knew their weaknesses of being influenced by pagan worshippers, so he kept them separate. Nowadays, some Christians will turn this view to advocate anti-interracial marriage. Do you see how ridiculous this is when we look at the Scripture with the bellowing narrative in mind? God doesn’t care about a black person marrying a white person. What He cares about is that His nation of Israel is made up of something different than the rest of the world. His people need to practice the position of holiness to the best of their ability. Race isn’t the heart of this Scripture; the holy distinction is.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How can we be different compared to the culture today?
2. Are there other laws you can think of that people decontextualize today?
3. How are we supposed to read these Old Laws as followers of Jesus?