More Warnings Against Idolatry
- Even if true prophets tell you to follow other gods, don't listen to them. It's a test from God. This reminds me of the warning in Galatians 1:8 - "If we or an angel from heaven..." What's curious, though, is that here the enticement appears to originate with God, as if he's trying to trip us up, testing our devotion to him.
- If a family member tries to entice you into following other gods, show no pity nor shield them. In fact, you must be the first one to kill them, to stone them to death as an example to others. Whoa! This seems extremely strict! What a position to be put in, to be an "innocent" listener and put into the position of killing one of your own family members. Indicates how serious this is in the mind of God.
- If you hear of a town that's going into idolatry, investigate to see if it's true. If it is, destroy that town and all its inhabitants, burn the town and all its spoil, and never rebuild it. Knowing Israel's later fall into idolatry, it's obvious they didn't go to these (what seems like) extreme measures. Which is maybe why they succumbed, and many more paid the price.
1-2 Pagan Practices Forbidden: Self-laceration or head-shaving for the dead
3-21 Clean and Unclean Foods
- Clean: ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep: whatever divides the hoof and chews the cud -- both, not either/or.
- Unclean: camel, hare, rock badger (who chew the cud but do not divide the hoof); pig (who divides the hoof but does not chew the cud)
- Do not eat their meat; do not touch their carcasses
- Water animals: Clean - Whatever has fins and scales; Unclean - all others
- Birds: Unclean - eagle, vulture, osprey, buzzard, kite, raven, ostrich, nighthawk, sea gull, hawk, owl, water hen, desert owl, carrion vulture, cormorant, stork, heron, hoopoe (a crested bird with a slender decurved bill and black-and-white wings and tail), or bat
- Insects: Unclean - all winged insects
- Unclean: Anything that dies of itself. But you may give it to aliens or sell it to foreigners
- Forbidden: boiling a kid in its mother's milk
- Set apart a tithe (10th, I suppose?) of the yield of your fields, eat it in the designated place
- If the place is too far from you, turn the yield into money, buy what you wish, and eat it with your household in the designated place, "rejoicing together."
- Don't neglect the Levites
- Every 3rd year, store a tithe of your produce for the Levites, resident aliens, orphans and widows
1-18 Regarding the Sabbatical Year
- Every 7th year - Remission of debts for members of your community only, not for foreigners
- If you follow my commandments, however, there should be no one in need, for you will all prosper
- When I bless you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow
- However -- if anyone among you is in need, be generous -- even if it's close to the remission year.
- 10 - "Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake." Where have we heard this before? 2 Corinthians 9:6-8: The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.
- In this 7th year, free your Hebrew slaves, sending them out with a liberal portion of your own bounty. Remember you were slaves in Egypt.
- If slave chooses to stay, pierce his or her ear as a sign of this pledge
- Do not consider this a hardship. After all, they have served you for six years.
- If it is without defect, it is to be eaten in the presence of the LORD in the place the LORD chooses
- Pour its blood out on the ground like water
- 1-8 - We have heard how you helped our ancestors
- 9-16 - But now you have rejected us and made us a laughingstock
- 17-22 - We have not forgotten you, yet you have covered us in darkness. Because of you "we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter." (Repeated in Romans 8:36, Paul referring to himself and the other apostles suffering persecution for the gospel.)
- 23-26 - Rouse yourself, O Lord; come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.
1-3 Salutation
- From Paul, an apostle, commissioned by God to the churches of Galatia
- Grace and peace from God and Christ, who
- gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age
- according to the will of the Father
- to whom be the glory forever and ever
11-18 Defense of Paul's Apostleship
- Received by revelation of Jesus, not men
- Paul's history -- zeal for Judaism, conversion, 3-year stay in Arabia and Damascus
- His limited association with other apostles
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