Strange Endings to a Unique Book
At first glance, this
seems to be a strange ending chapter to the book of Leviticus. Why end a book of the Bible on the note of
setting a price upon a person? It seems
strange. And it is. I can’t figure out why this chapter wasn’t
inserted earlier in the book so as to make the two previous chapters the ending
of the book. From a human perspective,
those chapters would’ve given us a much better note to end on.
That being said, I’m
not really in a place to critique God’s Holy Scriptures. So let’s look at the text regardless of its
orientation.
God’s View of People
This chapter seems to
be about setting up a value on the human being.
Men seem to have a typically higher value than women. Children and the elderly seem to have a lower
value than adults. Is this really how God
views people?
The answer to that is
quite simply “no.” This is how a human
economic system places a concrete value of a whole amalgam of random and
abstract variables. In general, this
price could be the expected economic contribution of such a person in the
Hebrew society. But these values are for the purpose of human economics, not
God’s economics.
We can absolutely be
sure of this. When Jesus Christ came to
this earth to redeem mankind – and creation with it – he did not say that men
would be redeemed first or that adults would be redeemed better. Jesus Christ did not come to die primarily
for the men and subsequently for the women, children, and the elderly by
proximity. No, all have sinned and have
fallen short of the glory of God. All
are deserving of judgment and condemnation.
Men are in no greater or less need of being redeemed than women; adults
are in no greater or less need of redemption than children or elderly. We are all deserving of condemnation. Likewise, all are equally blessed in
salvation because all are equally guilty.
Granted, we know that
condemnation is not ultimately what God has in store for those who are in
Christ because Jesus Christ has come and died for our sake. But I bring up this argument to show that
this economic system given here at the end of Leviticus has little to do with
God’s “true evaluation” of a person. In
the end, God will judge up more on our sinfulness and Christ’s redemption than
our gender or our age. This chapter has
everything to do with the typical human economic system – it is a worldly
system toward which God is trying to provide some guidance.
Holiness
What I do enjoy about
this chapter is the emphasis on holiness.
Things dedicated to the Lord can be redeemed, but it is more costly than
redeeming it from another person. Why do
I like it? Well, I like it because it
shows us that we should really think long and hard before dedicating things to
the Lord. When we give something to the
Lord, if we want it back for selfish reasons it is going to cost us more than
it is really worth. I’m not arguing that
we shouldn’t make vows or give things to God’s service – I am arguing that this
is a decision that is very important to think about first.
Let’s take a few
examples. How many people contribute to
a church but still feel the need to mandate where the money is used? Is that really giving something to the Lord
or is it masking a person’s desire to still be in control while feeling like
they are “tithing?” How often do you
hear of people making “designated gifts” so they can give to their own pet
projects? They aren’t giving out of
generosity; they are appearing to give while maintaining control.
Another example is
something that most parents do. Most
parents go forward during worship and have a baby dedication – or a baby
baptism. How many parents really mean
what they are doing there? How many
parents are really dedicating their baby to God – or at the least really
dedicating themselves to the bring up of their baby in the Christian ways? I’ve done several infant baptisms in my life as
well as several adult baptisms. The
reality is that many of the adult and infant baptisms end up in a person
eventually feeling as though they “kept God’s commandment” without considering
the fact that they have also made an obligation to the Lord.
You see, people make
vows to God and people make promises to God far too easily. This last chapter does give us an indication
that we should think hard about vows to God because to redeem our vow back is
costly. Or at least it should be.
In today’s world and
today’s religion, it is not. You simply
quit coming and there is no accountability.
Well, until you get to God’s judgment.
But by then the cost may be too great and it may be far too late to be
able to ask God to take care of the payment for the cost. In today’s way of doing religion we are
comfortable making the cost light {or
non-existent} while at the same time not telling people that the ultimate
cost may be too great. This is what Bonheoffer
teaches when he talks about costly grace
instead of cheap grace. We should think more before we make vows and
promises so that when the time comes we are prepared to live up to those
promises and find fullness in God.
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