Holy People
A Holy People
Image by Linda Braine from Creation Swap
The Firstborn
“The firstborn of your sons you must give to me. Do the same with your herds and flocks. The animal will stay with its mother for seven days, but on the eighth day, you must give it to me. You must be my holy people.”
Yahweh expected his people not only to avoid immorality but also to actively pursue holiness. The last set of laws focuses on how they could live as a people set apart to serve him, culminating in the celebration of the three annual pilgrimage festivals. The first of these laws reminded them to devote the firstborn son of every woman and female animal to God.
This law repeats the command given when God saved the firstborn of the Israelites and their livestock in Egypt.1 By codifying it in the covenant stipulations, God made it a permanent part of his relationship with Israel, lasting as long as the covenant at Sinai would. He also added the clarification that the animals should be sacrificed on the eighth day after their birth. This corresponded with the day Israelite boys were circumcised.2
The devotion of the firstborn marked the Israelites as a holy people dedicated to Yahweh.
Torn Meat
“Don’t eat the meat of any animal torn by wild beasts. Throw it to the dogs!”
Image by Eelco Böhtlingk from Unsplash
Another way Yahweh set the Israelites apart as holy was through their dietary laws. The laws concerning clean and unclean animals would come soon. But God considered one dietary law important enough to include in the covenantal stipulations. He forbade eating the meat of any animal torn by a wild predator. It had to be thrown out. The Israelites didn’t own dogs, so anything thrown to them was considered worthless rubbish.
While this law protected the Israelites from diseases transmitted by predators, the covenant focused on holiness rather than health. Two factors defiled such meat, rendering it unfit for a holy people. All predators were unclean, so contact with the prey’s carcass made it unclean as well. In addition, the blood could not be drained from an animal that had been torn apart. Eating meat with blood in it violated not only God’s covenant with Israel but also his covenant with all humanity after the flood.3
Honest Testimony
“Don’t give a false report. Don’t conspire with a wicked person to serve as a malicious witness.
“Don’t follow the crowd in wicked deeds and don’t answer in court to please the crowd and cause injustice.
“Don’t show partiality to the weak in court.”
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Many of the holiness laws focus on ensuring justice in the courts, where both judges and witnesses hold tremendous power. A corrupt judge can ignore the facts and give a dishonest judgment. And lying witnesses can persuade even a just judge by presenting false testimony. But Yahweh demanded honesty and justice for everyone living in his land.
To protect the accused, Yahweh didn’t just forbid false testimony. He also required two or three witnesses to verify any claim of wrongdoing.4 So a single wicked person could not convict the innocent. It would require finding others willing to serve as malicious witnesses, as Queen Jezebel did when she wanted to put innocent Naboth to death.5 Yahweh forbade his people from participating in such wicked conspiracies.
Yahweh also forbade distorting the truth to fit popular opinion. The crowd does not define right and wrong. Yahweh expects his people to do what is right and say what is true, regardless of what others think. They also had to ignore the social status of those involved in the court case, showing no partiality to the weaker party. Pity is not an excuse for injustice.
Kindness to Enemies
“If you come across your enemy’s cow or donkey wandering around, you must certainly return it. If you see a donkey that belongs to someone who hates you lying down under its load, don’t just leave. You must certainly help get it back up.”
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Yahweh taught the Israelites to love each other and treat each other with respect. Yet one of the most striking ways Yahweh set them apart was in how he expected them to treat their enemies. Some would inevitably hate them, both fellow Israelites and foreigners living among them. Yahweh commanded them to respond to hate with kindness.
Beyond just refraining from doing harm, the Israelites had to actively help an enemy in need. In the first case study, an animal belonging to the enemy has escaped and is wandering around lost. In the second, the enemy’s donkey can’t stand because of an uneven load. In both cases, the problem is either an accident or the enemy’s fault. Yet Yahweh expected his people to return the missing animal or help rebalance the donkey’s load, treating the enemy as a friend.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his followers to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”6 This was not a new teaching but one deeply rooted in God’s covenant with Israel.7 It does not deny the necessity of conflict under certain circumstances. But when conflict is unnecessary, love should reign.
Just Judgments
“Don’t deny justice to the poor among you in court.
“Stay away from lies. Don’t kill the innocent and righteous because I won’t justify the wicked.
“Don’t accept a bribe because a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.
“Don’t oppress a foreigner. You know what it’s like to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”
The next set of covenant stipulations again commanded justice in court, but this time with a focus on judges instead of witnesses. The command demanding justice for the poor parallels the command forbidding showing partiality to the weak. The lower classes of society do not deserve special treatment in court. But if the powerful oppressed them, the courts needed to provide a source of relief.
Judges also had to avoid both lies and bribes. Yahweh required two witnesses to establish guilt yet recognized that two people will conspire to lie. That did not give judges license to knowingly condemn the innocent. God would not justify a judge who condemned the innocent to death based on false testimony. Likewise, those who accept bribes make judgments based on financial gain instead of truth. In a court of law, God forbids any standard other than truth.
Finally, God forbade oppressing foreigners living in Israel. The Israelites were to remember what it felt like to live as foreigners in Egypt and to treat others accordingly. This command repeats a principle introduced in Exodus 22:21.8 But this time, the context is the court system. Justice in Israel belonged to all, Israelites and foreigners alike. Israelite judges were not to favor their own people in a dispute.
Cycles of Rest
“For six years, you may sow your land and gather what it produces. But during the seventh year, leave it alone to lie fallow. The poor of your people may eat, and what they leave, the wild animals may eat. Do the same for your vineyard and olive grove.
“For six days, you may do your work. But on the seventh day, you must stop so your cow and donkey may rest and your slave and the foreigner may be refreshed.”
Image by Dean McQuade from Unsplash
Between the laws commanding justice and those establishing Israel’s religious festivals lie two laws related to both categories. These required cycles of rest for all who would live in the land, a seven-day cycle and a seven-year cycle.
Yahweh had already established the seventh-day Sabbath when he first sent manna.9 Here, he made it a permanent part of the covenant and connected it to the justice laws. Instead of basing the Sabbath on the seventh day of creation, this time Yahweh based it on the need for slaves, foreigners, and even work animals to rest. Forcing them to work without rest would constitute oppression, just like what the Israelites experienced in Egypt.10
To this, Yahweh added a Sabbath year so the land itself could rest. Every seventh year, the Israelites could not plant or harvest any crops on their land. This required them to trust God to provide them with enough food during the six years so they could store what they needed for the seventh year. Only the poor could harvest what grew naturally. This law applied even to perennial crops, such as grapes and olives, so the poor would have plenty of food even without a planting season. Anything they didn’t eat had to be left for the wild animals.
The Pilgrimage Festivals
“Obey everything I’ve told you. Don’t call on the name of any other god. Let that not be heard from your mouth!
“Gather for a festival in my honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time during the month of Aviv, just as I commanded you. In that month, you came out from Egypt. No one may enter my presence empty-handed.
“Observe the Festival of the Harvest, the firstfruits of the fruit of your labor, what you sowed in the field. Observe the Festival of Gathering at the end of the year, when you gather the fruit of your labor from the field. Three times a year, every male must appear in the Lord Yahweh’s presence.”
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The covenant stipulations begin with a prohibition against idols and instructions about building an altar.11 They end with a prohibition against praying to other gods and instructions about celebrating three annual festivals. All the various laws in between relate to the same theme: how to properly worship Yahweh as the only true God.12
To remind the Israelites of their complete reliance on him, Yahweh established three pilgrimage festivals around the harvest schedule. Three times a year, every adult male in Israel had to gather before Yahweh. These gatherings occurred wherever the sanctuary resided, eventually settling in Jerusalem. Though he didn’t require women and children to attend, they usually did. All three festivals were joyous occasions of feasting and thanksgiving.
The first festival, Unleavened Bread, commemorated the day the Israelites left Egypt.13 It occurred in late March or April, right before the barley harvest, the beginning of the agricultural year.14 Each family had to bring a sheaf of their first ripe stalks to present to Yahweh on the day after the Sabbath.15
The Festival of the Harvest, also called Weeks or Pentecost, occurred seven weeks later, after the wheat harvest. It celebrated the end of the grain harvests and the expectation of God’s continued abundant provision over the summer. It may have also commemorated the giving of the covenant at Sinai, which occurred around the same time.16
The Festival of Gathering, also called Tabernacles, occurred in the fall, after all the fruits and vegetables had been harvested and stored for the winter. It both celebrated the gathering of the year’s produce and commemorated the years Israel wandered in the wilderness.17
Regulations on Sacrifices
“Don’t offer the blood from my sacrifice with anything leavened.
“The fat from my festival sacrifice must not remain until morning.
“Bring the first part of the firstfruits from your soil into the house of Yahweh, your God.
“Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
Image by Yvonne Huijbens from Pixabay
For each of the three pilgrimage festivals, the Israelites would bring a multitude of sacrifices and offerings. These gifts acknowledged Yahweh as the God of Israel and also fed both the priests and the people. So Yahweh included a few preliminary instructions about these sacrifices as part of the covenant.
The first command prohibited offering the blood of a sacrifice with anything leavened. The priests drained the blood and sprinkled it on the sides of the altar before burning Yahweh’s portion.18 The blood represented the animal’s life, which belonged to Yahweh. It also served as a purifying agent.19 Leaven, on the other hand, represented corruption because of the disproportionate effect a small pinch has on a large batch of dough.20 Therefore, it could not mix with the purifying blood.
Most of the sacrifices offered during these festivals were fellowship offerings. The fat and internal organs from the animal belonged to Yahweh as his portion. The priest had to burn the fat on the altar the same day the sacrifice was offered. It could not remain until morning. Likewise, the first part of the year’s produce belonged to Yahweh, and the Israelites had to present these to him without delay.
The last command forbade boiling the meat of a young goat in milk from its mother. While the meaning of this command is clear, the reason for it and its connection to the pilgrimage festivals are not. Except for the protecting sacrifice (“Passover”21), the festival sacrifices could be roasted or boiled, and nothing else in Scripture suggests a prohibition against boiling meat in milk. Most likely, the command forbids the cruelty of using a mother’s milk to kill her own kid, transforming God’s life-giving gift into an instrument of death.
- See The Firstborn Devoted.
- See Circumcision.
- See A New Reality; Leviticus 7:26–27.
- Deuteronomy 19:15.
- 1 Kings 21:5–13.
- Matthew 5:44.
- See Hate.
- See Oppression.
- See The First Sabbath.
- See Forced Labor.
- See Proper Worship.
- See Inclusio.
- See Unleavened Bread.
- Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Exodus 23:15.
- Leviticus 23:10–11.
- See Exodus 19:1.
- Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Exodus 23:16.
- Leviticus 3:1–5.
- Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:19–23.
- Luke 12:1; 1 Corinthians 5:6–8.
- See The Protecting Sacrifice.