Lev. 19:19-34 may seem like a disjointed collection of rules about managing servants, textiles and crops. But when we see that these are used as symbols elsewhere for characteristics of people, we can learn God’s lessons that transcend culture and time.
Death and life after a series of three is always a messianic prophesy, as we see in 2nd Kings 13. Elisha doesn’t know it yet but he isn’t just speaking a prophesy, his death will be a part of the prophesy. The prophesy is the death and resurrection of the nation of Israel itself.
Leviticus 19 is about God wanting us to be as holy as He is. If we couldn’t be holy as God is holy, God wouldn’t have told us to even try to be holy like Him. If it was utterly too difficult to do, He wouldn’t have told us to do it. This is not a random chapter, inserted out of the blue to dumbfound us. This isn’t merely a book of dos and don’ts.
In a sobering interchange between the Messiah and one of His closest students during a pinnacle Pesakh (Passover) celebration, Yeshua challenged Simon Peter to truly become a key shepherd, foretold by prophet Zechariah, by becoming such a friend of God that he wouldn’t fear being persecuted to death.
The descendants of Israel had been in bondage in Egypt for 400 years. That’s not simply being slaves in Mitsraim (Egypt) but also being surrounded by Egyptian morals and cultural norms for all that time. After that long of a period of time, many were culturally Egyptian — assimilated — even though they were treated horribly by the Egyptians. And that is something that God caused to happen.
In this chapter, we have the first time that a pagan deity is specifically mentioned by name, but it’s a name with profound meaning.
Leviticus 17 is one of the most difficult chapters in that book to understand. One of the main phrases that people question in this chapter is the phrase “that man [person] shall be cut off from among his people.” This chapter is not about how people were to slaughter animals for their daily meal. It is about God’s instructions about sacrifices and how sacrifices were not to be made by the people themselves, but they were to be brought to the priests so the different sacrifices were performed properly under priestly supervision.
Is Yeshua’s “new commandment” in John 13:34-35 really new? An answer is taught through God’s appointed times of Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), Shmittah (sabbatical year) and Yobel (Jubilee year).