July 9th, 2022

Our ‘walk’ through a significant portion of the Gospel according to Luke [10:25-37] continues on this Sunday, and there is, once again, a significant jump in the Old Testament text for this Sunday. Two Sundays ago, the text was from 1 Kings. Last Sunday, the text was from Isaiah. And this Sunday (‘Proper 10’) the text is from Leviticus 19:9-18, and there is also the possible additional reading of Leviticus 18:1-5. That variety within the Old Testament texts attests to THE great uniting factor within the New Testament, Jesus Christ.

This Sunday is one of three times within the entire three-year series that the text is from the book of Leviticus. And with the additional reading, this is the closest text to the middle of the work.

The middle of a literary work is usually bypassed because it is in the middle. A lot of other things are going on. Why bother with something in the middle? And how often have you wanted to sneak a peek at what the ending is going to be? The middle certainly helps with the structure, and the structure often helps with the message.

One of the best and easiest examples to give is that of the first man and his statement about the first woman. In the following verse, he shows her importance and gives the reason for her name. In the Hebrew, the first word, the middle word, and the end word are essentially the same. And here is a somewhat-literal translation of the Genesis 2:23 [and the designations of chapter and verse certainly give a structure to the text, although that structure may sometimes be distracting from the message]:

This, the now, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; to this, she shall be called woman, for from man she was taken, this.

In the Lord’s Prayer, as it is given in Matthew 6[:9-13], there is a significance and a significant difference in those same three points. The first word is ‘Father’, a very comforting word. The last word is quite the opposite, ‘evil’. And the middle word is a word that we are not sure of its meaning. It is the word ‘daily’ in ‘daily bread’, but it may mean something like ‘supersubstantial’ (that word happens to be basically a Latin translation of the unknown Greek word). That word might be a helpful way to understand the great gifts our loving Father gives out in the face of so much evil in the world.

Middle things are important. The entire book of Leviticus is important because it is the middle book of the Pentateuch. And near the middle of that middle book is the important chapter on the Day of Atonement [16], one of the very few times in which someone entered into the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. There are also the prohibitions in the following chapters that play an important role, especially for non-Jews, in Acts 15.

An important middle may not be the only important thing. An important middle may also divide the book into two parts, both of which may also have important middle points.

The way in which the book of Leviticus begins seems to point to the importance of the LORD speaking to Moses. So the first verse is given in a somewhat-literal translation below, and all the similar wording that occurs in the rest of the book will follow, again in somewhat-literal translations. What seems to make a difference in the progression is when a bad thing happens, and in this case, there are two of them. At the beginning of chapter 10, there is the death of Nadab and Abihu, and at the end of chapter 24, a blasphemer is stoned to death.

1:1       And he called to Moses and he spoke, the LORD, to him, from the tent of meeting, to say….

4:1       And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, to say [also 5:14, 6:1, 6:8, 6:19, 6:24, 7:22, 7:28, & 8:1]….

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10:8     And he spoke, the LORD, to Aaron, to say….

11:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses and to Aaron, to say….

12:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, to say….

13:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses and to Aaron, to say….

14:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, to say….

14:33   And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses and to Aaron, to say [also 15:1]….

16:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, after to die, two of the sons of Aaron, when they approached the face of the LORD, and they died. And he said, the LORD, to Moses….

17:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, to say [also 18:1, 19:1, 20:1]….

21:1     And he said, the LORD, to Moses….

21:16   And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, to say [also 22:1, 22:17, 22:26, 23:1, 23:9, 23:23, 23:26, 23:33, 24:1, 24:13]….

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25:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, on Mount Sinai, to say….

27:1     And he spoke, the LORD, to Moses, to say….
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Why do the bad things mark the transition to get us along farther into the book and closer to the LORD, starting at the tent of meeting and then getting to where he is on Mount Sinai? That seems to be what Jesus’ death does for us, when he is on the cross. His sacrifice brings us face-to-face with God.