Leviticus 19:1-2,
15-18
1 The Lord spoke to
Moses, saying: 2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say
to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
15 You shall not
render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the
great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go around
as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your
neighbor: I am the Lord. 17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your
kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18 You
shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you
shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
In Leviticus 19: 1-2, we continue with the Holiness Code
begun in Chapter 17. We find the formulaic statement that the Lord spoke to Moses. It reminds us that the context of this
passage is the instruction at Mount Sinai and that Moses plays a prominent role
in the canonical text as the one who receives and communicates the Torah. Moses
will speak to congregation of the people
of Israel, a phrase that occurs only here, but the term “congregation”
usually refers to sacred assembly limited to adult males. The message he is to
deliver, which will become the theme of the chapter, is that sacred assembly is
to be holy, for the Lord is holy. Holiness of the divine is, in the phrase of
Rudolph Otto, a mysterium tremendum.
It includes a notion of divine power displayed in awe-inspiring and frightening
natural phenomena. It suggests separation from the ordinary and profane. Israel
was to be holy. The Lord elects Israel so that it will participate in divine
holiness. Incorporation into the sphere of divine holiness also means
separation.[1]
They are holy when they keep the statutes.[2] It
represents “a democratizing element” in the theology of the priestly circles
within Israel. Rather than limiting holiness to a special class within Israel,
such as priests, the command receives broader application.[3] We
find the command repeated in I Peter 1:16. The holiness of God demands and
enforces the holiness of the people of God. It means divine confrontation with
humanity that leads to a human correspondence to the divine.[4]
In verses 15-18, we find a continuation of a theme that
began in verse 13 of a list of things that one is not to do to the neighbor.
They are to have justice in their judgments, which may suggest that adult males
took their turn as part of the group of elders of the community. It certainly
applied to priests, prophets, and judges. This included neither disadvantage
due to poverty nor special privilege to the rich. They were not to slander the
neighbor. They were not to take advantage of the physical infirmity of the
neighbor. They are not to hate their kin, one of the few times an inward
disposition receives a prohibition. Yet, we also have some responsibility for
our neighbor that may take the form of reproof, rebuke, confrontation,
correction, and reasoning frankly with them. They need to do this so that they
will not become complicit in the sin of the neighbor. Such counsel was also
part of the wisdom tradition. Psalm 141:5 says that receiving a blow from a
righteous person is a kindness. Proverbs 9:8b says that wise people love those
who offer them correction. Proverbs 19:25 and 27:6 offers similar advice. Jesus
urged his disciples to correct each other if one fell into sin (Luke 17:3 and
Matthew 18:15), with the emphasis on repentance and forgiveness. Paul urged
that such one offer such correction with gentleness lest they succumb to
temptation (Galatians 6:1). James 5:19 urges bringing back one who has wandered
from truth. All of this is a reminder that those who live in covenant with the
Lord are also in covenant with each other. To put it another way, if you see
yourselve doing something badly and nobody bothers to tell you anymore, that is
a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love
you and care about you.[5]
Thus, given the context, we could say that offering such correction is an
expression of love for the neighbor. Yet, we also need to take care lest all we
are doing is expressing hatred on the one hand or vengeance on the other. Thus,
as the passage continues, they are not to take vengeance upon or bear a grudge
against the neighbor. Rather, they are to love the neighbor as themselves. In
this context, it refers to the fellow Israelite. Verse 34 seems to expand the
notion of neighbor to the stranger. Jesus would generalize the command with the
parable of the Good Samaritan and with making it the second of two great
commandments, neither of which are part of the Ten Commandments. Jesus has
brought together the two passages of scripture, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus
19:18, in a way no other Jewish teacher had done.[6]
Paul refers to this passage in Romans 13:9 and Galatians 5:14 as a summation of
the Torah. The Letter of James may even be a sermon based on Leviticus
19:12-18. The basis for the commandment is simple and profound: I am the Lord. The Israelites have
pledged loyalty to Yahweh. Their identity and the identity of Yahweh have bound
together in a covenant relation.
[1]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
1, 398.
[2]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 491.
[3] (J. G.
Gammie, Holiness in Israel [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989], 32).
[4] Barth (Church Dogmatics II.2 [66.1], 501)
[5] Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture.
[6]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 78.
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