Week 3 — MAPYO

: Leviticus Chapters
20
24:
10-23
26
Penalties for breaking Law
An Eye for Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth
Promise of Blessing
Promise of Retribution
Key Verses and Themes
Chapter 20

See Discussion questions below!

Chapter 24
An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth:

Lev. 24:19-20

God seems to establish a sort of "equal tradeoff system" regarding how people are to react to wrongdoings or offenses done to them.

Chapter 26
Eating their own children

Lev. 26:29

This prophecy/promised curse is fulfilled when the Arameans (ancestors of ethnic Syrians) siege Samaria, as we read in

2 Kings 6:28-29

, and & when the Babylonians siege Jerusalem, as we read in

Lamentations 4:10

. See where distancing yourself from God leads you to!

References to the New Testament & our Church practices

Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth

Matthew 5:38-45

See the discussion questions to read about what Christ says about this “system” we read about in

Leviticus chapter 24
Discussion Questions
Leviticus 20

What is happening in this chapter?

These are the penalties and consequences for breaking the law, especially the things listed out in chapter 19. We read in Mark last week Christ reference

v.19
when we looked at
Mark 7

where he declared all food clean.

A few points here

Again, Molech and child sacrifice is warned against here, even those who know about it but ignore it are warned that they will suffer consequences.

Mediums and spirits are again mentioned.

Acts 16:16-18—

demons still speak through mediums, and Christians must utterly reject them.

Sexual sins, like the others, are all to be punished with death. The Law imposed severe penalties to “shock the people” into seeing sin as death.

v.22-26

, God again calls upon the Israelites to be holy and not live like the nations whose land they will take over. God says “be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples." Here we see a parallel with the Church, which is called out from among the nations

(people of the world)

to live differently, and on an individual level as Christians to be spiritually distinct, which we currently know is not by dietary or clothing laws, but by charity and holiness of life.

Do we still put people to death according to this chapter?

Obviously NO! But the repeated “let him be put to death” must be read spiritually: these sins (idolatry, incest, witchcraft, blasphemy) all carry a sentence of eternal hellfire, and thus separation from God, and thus death. Going further, because we know that sin comes from within us, these wicked sins are all to be utterly destroyed in the soul. If we let them live, they corrupt the whole man

AFTER READING CHAPTER 20
***What’s in the other chapters?***
Chapter 21-

Law on Priests must conduct themselves:

Where we see that a high priest cannot tear his clothes nor go near the dead, which is why Aaron and his sons could not mourn Nadab & Abihu’s deaths.

Chapter 22-
Holiness of Offerings & Law on their acceptance:

Explanation is given on accepted/unaccepted offerings.

Chapter 23-

Appointed Feast Days:

Alongside weekly Sabbath, when & what Feast Days the Israelites were to observe.

Leviticus 24
Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth:

Why does Jesus seem to contradict the Law He gave?

The Law was given in condescension to the perversity and weakness of mankind, so it gave this “eye for an eye & tooth for a tooth” formula so that people would not harm each other out of fear of being harmed themselves. However, even with this condescension, the Law was still teaching temperance and the beginning of grace via this “equivalent exchange rate”.

How? Because how hard is it for someone who has just been punched, or cursed, to return only 1 punch or the 1 curse word that he received? It is difficult to find someone who would do that, because usually their anger causes them to dish out more than they received.

So the Law was set to limit vengeance, not encourage it.

Now when Christ says do not resist an evil person, the correct translation from Aramaic is just “evil” or “the evil one”, meaning the devil. Here Christ is not teaching them to not resist the devil and evil in general, but rather that through patient endurance we resist evil.

Christ continues with this idea in

Vv.40-42

, so as to enforce that the Law stopped revenge, but He, the Gospel, stops even anger and retaliation.

Why? Because Christ culminates His message in verses

43-45

, calling His disciples and followers to imitate God’s patience—He suffers the wrongs we do against Him because HE is patient for our salvation.

This right here is one of the hardest things to do as a Christian; so it’s a failure point for many. This is a part of the Cross we carry; denying our nature’s selfish wants and thirst for revenge, but if you fulfill it, it’s a major success point, because then you imitate our Lord and Savior, Whose first words upon the Cross were “Father, forgive them for they know now what they do”.

Luke 23:34.

The Saints all loved their enemies in this fashion; and the Lord here gave the previous teaching (all of chapter 5) to reach this pinnacle of the virtues.

Leviticus 26

What’s going on in this chapter?

God is promising the Israelites blessings if they uphold His Law, and retribution/punishment if they don’t. What’s again showing God’s grace is that He says even if the Israelites fall utterly and totally turn away from Him, in

v.40

He starts saying that if they admit their guilt, and repent, He will remember His covenant with them and not utterly destroy them.

AFTER READING CHAPTER 26
***What’s in the other chapters?***
Chapter 25-

Sabbath Year & Jubilee:

Every 7th year was like a whole year of Sabbath for the land, so now plowing or pruning, only harvesting what grows by itself. Every 50th year was a Jubilee year, meaning liberty is proclaimed, slaves freed, land restored, debts reset, etc.

Chapter 27 (last chapter of Leviticus)-

Law for Vows and Dedications:

Rules for vowing people, animals, houses, or land to the Lord. Reminder that firstborn animals already belong to God.

This Week's Study

Review the 3 weeks of Leviticus to prep for a very short exam and review activity next Monday!