Forbidden Mixtures
or Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
There’s some weird stuff in Leviticus. It is deliberately so, forcing us to chew on it, which in turn forces us to see the world in terms of symbols, as God intended. Most of us moderns can’t be bothered with it. It’s beyond our capacity. We think such notions are childish when in fact they require an uncommon wisdom.
You must be logged in to see the rest of this post.
Join now for a year for $15!
March 20th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Whoa! That’s cool stuff.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:02 am
I think everything in this post is very relevant given our current place in history. My professor, Rich Bledsoe, presents a three phase model of civilization: Tribal, Monarchial, and Empirical. Each era has it’s own staple sin. The common sin of the empire era is false intermarriage. For example, Solomon was the closest thing to an emperor in the Old Covenant and his sin was marrying the pagan women all around the world. However, in Genesis there are examples of legitimate counterparts to each era’s sin, and for the empire era it is Joseph in the Egyptian empire marrying a foreign woman, but this is good because she is converted. It is therefore a holy hybrid. Rich also suggests that the key idea which will become the marking concept of our age is marriage by faith. He says marriage will be as instrumental in bringing forth a new age as justification by faith was in Luther’s time. This is exciting. I think we will begin to see many “holy hybrids” emerging as people of different nationalities are married in Jesus’ name. These hybrids will result in holy life that will reform the faith and the world.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:07 am
I didn’t clarify a point: the reason I mention the empire sin is because we currently live in an empire time, and pluralism (false hybrids) is our biggest temptation. There are not so much governmental empires, but more commercial/corporate empires as globalization and the internet are now realities.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Wonderful stuff. Thanks Steven. For those not familiar with Rich, he has some articles on the Biblical Horizons blog which should be easy to find.
Also, the Tribal, Monarchial, and Empirical stages correspond to Father, Son, Spirit and the levels in the Tabernacle.
For those who might wonder about the basis for this, Herodian worship failed to intermix iron and clay, Roman state with Edomite rule. The beast killed the harlot. Only the Spirit, through Paul, could marry Jew and Gentile in a new body. This theme of intermarriage goes right back to Genesis 6.