Bible Readings
Reading 65: Yahweh taught the people how to live according to His righteous standards
Read Leviticus 19:1–37.
In today’s reading, Yahweh gave Moses a detailed list of instructions for how His people should conduct themselves in their everyday lives. God is all-righteous, all-just and all-loving. These characteristics set Him apart from everyone else. This is what being holy means, to be set apart from everything else.
As His people, Yahweh instructed His people to live like Him even though He knew that Israel was sinful. In following the nation’s history so far, we have already seen how sinful they could be. They were stubborn, disobedient, idol-worshipping, constantly complaining, and very often ungrateful. But God still expected better of them.
They were to be His representatives and so He didn’t want them to live in such sinful ways. He called them to change their behaviour and model their daily lives after Him. He set the moral standards for their daily lives by giving them His regulations.
In today’s passage, we can see God give Israel regulations regarding many areas of life:
how to have love and respect in personal relationships
how to be distinct in the way they practised agriculture and animal husbandry
how to be ethical in business and personal dealings
how to take care of the poor and the foreigners and more.
There were even warnings against attempting to seek help from other sources like fortune-telling. Living in the way He prescribed would transform their lives and their society. They would stand apart from all the nations around them.
Let’s look into one example: taking care of the poor and the foreigners who have chosen to live with Israel. Yahweh knew there would be poor people for various reasons. So He instructed the people that during the harvest, they were not to harvest the edges of their grain fields or pick up dropped grain. This meant that there would be some grain left in the fields. Similarly, he instructed the people not to harvest every last bunch of grapes from their vineyards. They were to leave some of the fruit behind. This was to ensure that the poor could go into their fields and have something to eat.
Both the poor Israelites and foreigners living within Israel were entitled to take these parts of the harvest, which were known as the gleanings. These instructions, along with the others showed Yahweh’s heart for all the people. God was instructing the people to care for everyone in their society.
Yahweh’s regulations were meticulous. If the people understood God’s heart in giving them these rules, they would know that God wasn’t being legalistic, but rather, he was detailed in how far He wanted them to really take care of each other, respect each other and show honour to one another.
The key principle of God’s laws regarding living together is in verse 18: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Though church-age believers like us are not bound by the laws that God gave to Israel, we worship the same God. So we can take note of the principles in the laws that Yahweh gave to Israel.
In the New Testament gospel of Matthew, an expert in religious law asked Jesus the following question.
Matthew 22:36–40
36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Jesus quoted from today’s reading: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” He said loving God (through our thoughts, words and actions) and loving others as we would love ourselves are both equally important. Why? Because God is all-righteous, all-just and all-loving. And when His people model themselves after His characteristics, they would also love righteousness, justice and each other. God made mankind to be His representatives, to reflect who He is. So if we focus on these two loves, we are living in a God-honouring way.
As we reflect on our own lives, think about how we are showing love and care for the people in our lives, from loved ones, family members, to friends, neighbours, co-workers and others.
Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind people and areas of our lives where we can improve in the way we relate to others.
God may be pointing to some relationships that are more difficult to change. For these tough relationships, pray for courage, wisdom and the willingness to take the first step to “love your neighbour as yourself.”