Note: Due to the type of information written, I decided to give a brief overview of the content of each of the next three Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Each Book is covered briefly.
LEVITICUS – Science Catches Up with the Bible, Somewhat
Leviticus is known as a “Rule Book.” As the children of Israel camped near Mt. Sinai, God had many communications with Moses dictating laws covering worship, rituals, and aspects of life, including sexual. God constantly reminded the Jews that they had broken the covenant with Him and that an unblemished animal could be a substitute for that sin. All this, of course, was preparing the world to see the plan of eternal salvation via Jesus on the Cross. The Jews even used a goat and “placed their sin upon it” and released it out of their presence. This was in addition to a lamb atoning sacrifice and it is where we get the word “scapegoat” today.
Unlike other gods, only this One demanded moral purity. In other words, our God sticks out like a healthy thumb! The History Channel has several programs promoting the notion that the “god of the bible” was nothing more than alien activity that primitive humans could not perceive as something other than supernatural. Even if this theory is true (and I do not believe it is), this Power is righteous and we are not…conclusion = we should follow that being! In other words, if there is no supernatural God as described in the Bible, shouldn’t we devout ourselves to an alien if it is righteous? I would think that it would help us be better people. But these broadcasts try to convince us that we are evolving to an advanced life form and that we will catch up with or conquer those aliens someday. I recall Satan’s lie of “you shall become like God” in Genesis. In their mind, to surrender our wills to an alien, even if it is perfectly holy and righteous, is somehow degrading to us, especially if we can evolve into a supreme being ourselves (then who needs a God?!). On the contrary, the human race needs a good dose of humility and a strong connection with their Creator.
Other nations had horrible rites and practices. Many included perversions of the sacrifices that God ordained to the Jews. This is a favorite scheme of Satan – to pervert what God has done or said via the human race. Satan hates people because we are made in God’s image and will replace Satan in heaven. It must drive him mad to see how God succeeds through a life form that is so weak and prone to fail. I believe one fallen angel is many times more powerful than any number of human beings, yet God triumphs over that angel through us. It’s got to be the ultimate insult to Satan’s pride and all his cohorts. The gods called Molech, Ashteroth, and Baal often promoted human sacrifice, or baby sacrifice, or sexual orgies. In other words, none of these gods (which are all false gods) promoted good behavior like loving others and doing good to others. This is one of the reasons why many people had to be destroyed or driven out of the Promised Land for the Jews during their advance after the death of Moses. If the evil people were not destroyed, then the Jews would end up just like them and all would be lost. Unlike critics of the “Old Testament God,” God sees and dearly cares for the big picture. Think of it…if God did not intervene, the future of the world would have turned more wicked more quickly than it has over the years….and, brace yourself….you and I may not have even been conceived into existence.
When we examine with modern knowledge some of God’s laws for the Jewish people in Leviticus, we find they often protect and nurture good physical health. Some of them would prevent infection or the spread of disease or the bacterial growth on dishware. God ordered them to thoroughly wash their hands after touching a diseased or dead body. This Law about hand washing was completely ignored by the medical establishment even up to the 1800’s and beyond. Dr. McMillen, in his book, “None of These Diseases,” recounted a case in a hospital in Vienna during the 1840’s. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was in charge of the Maternity Ward — where 5 out of 6 women ended up dying while in the hospital. He noticed that women who died were the ones being treated by doctors and students who came from the morgue where they were doing autopsies or teaching lessons using cadavers.
Dr. Semmelweis hypothesized that infections had been carried on the hands of the doctors by “invisible enemies” from the corpses to their patients (this theory did not go over well with the intelligent and proud doctors of his day…sort of like staunch evolutionists today who ridicule the Bible). So, he made a strange new rule — that doctors in his ward had to wash their hands before treating the patients. Amazingly, deaths dropped by over 80%. Rather than praising Semmelweis, his colleagues labeled him a kook. His contract was not renewed. He got jobs at a couple of other hospitals and instituted the same practice with the same good results, but was eventually laughed into a mental institution where he died. The real irony is that sanitation practices outlined in Leviticus (like hand-washing) weren’t made part of Medical Law until … are you ready for this … 1960! (McMillen, p. 14-16). Science is slowly catching up with the Bible.
I believe that all this revelation years before man’s science caught up with it lends credibility to the Authorship of these unique, Sacred Writings.