Will Vaus

Today we are continuing a new sermon series I have entitled “Route 66” because we are taking a journey together through all 66 books of the Bible in 66 Sundays. My challenge to you, after hearing a message about each book of the Bible is to read the book of the week.     Our study today is focused on a book that forms a major roadblock for some people in continuing their journey on Route 66. Almost everyone I have ever met, who has tried to read through the whole Bible from beginning to end, gives up, or is tempted to give up, when he or she gets to the book of Leviticus. Why is Leviticus such a stumbling block?   I think the main problem is found in the type of literature that Leviticus contains. Whereas Genesis and Exodus contain mostly story, Leviticus is full of laws. Thus, the book can read somewhat like bylaws or a constitution for an organization or a country. It can be, for some people, almost as boring as reading the phone book.   In spite of that fact, I do...

We have now come down to the last three evil kings of Israel: Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea. The last of these kings became a vassal of King Shalmaneser of Assyria, who then invaded, deported the Israelites and settled other people in their land. The perspective of the author of 2 Kings was that “This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God…” (2 Kings 17:7) By contrast, 2 Kings 18-20 focuses on good king Hezekiah of Judah who reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. 2 Kings offers a more glowing account of Hezekiah than any other king of Judah. “He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him.” (2 Kings 18:5) The thing that really set Hezekiah apart was not only that he set about a great reform and return for Judah to wholehearted worship of Yahweh, but that every time he faced potential calamity, he turned to the Lord in p...

Leviticus ends with a chapter on the repayment of vows. Lawrence Boadt explains that this chapter was added later to update older laws that demanded fulfillment of vows no matter what (as in Numbers 30 and Deuteronomy 23). Eventually, Israel had to provide for monetary substitutions instead of handing over property where that might prove difficult or impossible. Leviticus 27 sets a monetary value on different objects. [1] The book of Numbers gets its name from the Greek word arithmoi that is used to describe the census in chapter one of the Septuagint version of this book. The Hebrew title of this book is: “In the Wilderness”. Friedman writes, The book of Numbers is the story of a journey…. Numbers is entirely about movement. The journey as a literary theme has been a recurring component of world literature from the epic of Gilgamesh , the oldest known book, and the Odyssey   to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz …. The journe...

In Leviticus 23, we have the laws related to various religious festivals. Friedman comments: The laws of the holidays as expressed in Leviticus reflect a concern with order and arrangement as well. YHWH tells Moses to tell the people what the nation’s holidays are to be, specifically: Sabbath, the holiday of unleavened bread ( massot ), an unnamed holiday related to firstfruits, an unnamed holiday involving horn blowing (known subsequently in Judaism, but not biblically, as the New Year [Rosh Hashanah]), the Day of Atonement, and the holiday of booths ( sukkot ). [1] In Leviticus 24:10-23, we once again have a narrative in the midst of the giving of the law. As Friedman says, the story is “interesting in parallel with the only other narrative in Leviticus, the story of the consecration of the priesthood. Like that other story, which culminates in the deaths of Aaron’s sons, the account of the blasphemy expresses what is at stake in the people’s young relationsh...

When I started blogging through the Bible on January 1, 2014, I did not anticipate I would be including so many quotes from my former teacher, Richard Elliott Friedman. However, I find so much in his Commentary on the Torah , worth sharing. His comment on Leviticus 19:3 is no exception…. Why are parents and Sabbaths put together here? (They come next to each other in the Ten Commandments as well, in reverse order.) It reminds us of the enormous power of the Sabbath to bind a family together. My first Jewish memory in my life is the image of my mother lighting the Sabbath candles and giving my sister and me a kiss. Then my father would say the Kiddush over the wine and give us each a sip. In many families the parents say a blessing over each child: “May you be like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel”; “May you be like Ephraim and Manasseh.” In many, the husband recites “A Woman of Valor” from the book of Proverbs to his wife. The potential for making something beaut...