Leviticus 19:19-37 - Tattoos and Immigrants and Separate Fabrics

Hey, I know you. You're back again. Thanks for tuning in to Tabernacle Talk.

We are continuing in Leviticus 19 and beginning in verse number 19 today. And we're going through some kind of laws of holiness, of God saying you are intended, intentionally Israel, to be different than all of the nations around them.

You don't treat people the way that they treat people. You don't do the things that they do to others. You have a reverence for God and for people who are made in the image of God.

And so we looked at several of those laws through the first 18 verses yesterday. And we'll see kind of where we end up today. And we're gonna dive right in.

Verse number 19, God here speaking to Moses. You are to keep my statutes. Do not cross breed to different kinds of your livestock.

Sow your fields with two kinds of seed or put on a garment made of two kinds of material. So here, this is something that would be an Old Testament law that we don't have to bring over.

God's going to mention some other things over the coming chapters of like, okay, why would God care about this type of thing? God says, have everything in its place. There are things that aren't intended to mix together.

And we'll see several of those things, even over the coming verses, even as we look at that, that things have purposes, things have designs, that God says, this is the role, the purpose of this thing, this livestock, this seed, this thread, this

fabric. And this over here is the purpose of this one. Don't intermingle them together. And I can think today, just cause it's on my mind, sometimes people mix politics and religion in a way that God has not intended.

And I've mentioned this a few times on the podcast before, but I want to mention the kind of thing that I'm talking about. So some people say, okay, anything that would venture into the realm of politics is something that is not religious.

Okay, well, that's definitely not true, especially not nowadays. There are things that the Bible speaks directly to that do inform how we view our politics. So the question of perhaps abortion or pro-life or pro-choice.

Okay, does God have anything to say about maybe when life begins, who's authorized to take life and under what circumstances life should or should not be taken? Well, the Bible does.

And so Christians should have an opinion on politics, not based on their like political party or what the party says is okay or not okay, but based on what God's words says. Now, I think I've mentioned this before.

The Bible says nothing about border walls. Therefore, that's a strictly political topic. Now, does the Bible have some things that it says about immigrants and immigration?

Yes, it does. And so that should at the very least affect how we view immigrants. Do we view them as a threat?

Do we view them as the exact same, or the exact same rules and expectations in whatever, as citizens?

Those are all things that you can kind of look at in God's word and say, okay, how does God view those that are here, as we read many times in Leviticus, as resident aliens? What are the expectations or lack of expectations that we have for them?

But a border wall isn't a Bible question. That's a politic question. It's okay, well, we have this view of what immigration should look like.

Here are the laws that we're going to put up. Here's the enforcement of that. Those are all political questions that don't have anything to do with God's word.

So if I get up on a Sunday morning, and I say, okay, here, you need to vote for this candidate because of this reason and this reason, and he's gonna do this for the economy, and he's gonna do this for that.

Well, I am mixing, if you will, my livestock. I'm mixing my fabrics. I am mixing these things that God has in two separate categories.

Now, if I get up in the pulpit and I say, hey, the Bible says this about life and when life can be taken and how life can be taken and who is responsible for doing that, then that's not a political question. That's a, this is what the Bible says.

If I get up and I say, hey, Jordan Peterson says this and Ben Shapiro says this, okay, well, now I've gone from focusing on God's word and I've just gone entirely to man's thoughts and man's opinions. So don't mix what God has specifically not mixed.

God does not tell the New Testament church, here's how you run a nation. God says you are the nation. And that nation is made up not of a specific nationality, not of those from a particular worldly citizenship.

He says everyone that calls on the name of Jesus. It's why in our services, we're not called to be partisan. We're not called to glorify a man or a party or even a particular nation other than our God's nation.

It's his kingdom. God's kingdom is not a democracy. It's a monarchy.

And so we should view that as paramount. Don't mix things that aren't supposed to be mixed. Same thing of in our politics.

We aren't supposed to say, okay, well, here's what perhaps Baptists believe in. So we're gonna put this into the Constitution. We're gonna make this a law of the land.

Or hey, this is what the Catholics believe in. So we're gonna put this into this particular law.

If we try and enforce religious opinions on people that don't hold those same religious opinions, then all we'll succeed in doing is creating people either being mad at the church or doing the things that the law says, but becoming hypocrites.

And you can look at even many of the nations during the 1500s to 1700s who were under religious institutions that the Church of England ruled over some things, the Roman Catholic Church ruled over some things for a brief amount of time, the

Presbyterian Church ruled over some things, and how all of that then birthed out religious freedom because they said, okay, well, the only real life change that can happen is not through mandating that you need to attend church or mandating that you

don't work on the Sabbath. What happens is when people personally choose it for themselves, and that way you don't just have a nominal Christianity, but they really personally live it out. And even our church's Statement of Faith, the Baptist Faith

and Message has a whole section about religious liberty, religious freedom, freedom of conscience, all of those things that have to do with that. So all of that little bit of a spinoff, but the same type of principle that we would have in don't mix

things that God has not put together, have some distinct roles and purposes for each thing. Verse number 20.

If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman who is a slave designated for another man, but she has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be punishment. They are not to be put to death because she had not been freed.

However, he must bring a ram as his guilt offering to Yahweh at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

The priest will make atonement on his half before Yahweh with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed.

So here, someone basically is engaged to, and again, totally different culture. Someone is engaged to someone else who has not yet actually taken the woman for his bride, and someone else sleeps with her. This is not rape.

That's something that could not be forgiven through a guilt offering. That was something that you were killed for.

This was something that was consensual, but they are not to be killed for this because this was not adultery and that the person had not yet married her. She was betrothed. But so here you have this.

God views even here in this instance, even this premarital sex, not just adultery, God views premarital sex as something that is defiling, that is sinful, that needs to have atonement made for it.

And so here he has the specific offering that is given. It's a guilt offering that a person has sinned. Verse number 23, when you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you are to consider the fruit forbidden.

It will be forbidden to you for three years. It is not to be eaten. So God says, give this fruit tree time to grow.

Don't eat anything from it for three years. In the fourth year, verse 24, all its fruit is to be consecrated as a praise offering to Yahweh. So first three years, don't eat anything.

In the fourth year, bring it as a praise offering to God. But in the fifth year, you may eat its fruit. In this way, its yield will increase for you.

I am Yahweh your God. So God says, here's a practice that I want you to do so that you have the most fruit from your trees. Verse number 26, you are not to eat anything with blood in it.

A pretty common thing we've read. You are not to practice divination or witchcraft. Nowadays, we view witchcraft in many instances as more lighthearted.

It's, oh yeah, I'll grab a Ouija board. I'll grab this or that. And I just kind of have some fun with it.

I'll go to a poem reader. It's just fun. It's just silly.

And again, a different culture, a much stronger demonic influence, especially in those days.

But it shouldn't be something that we as Christians necessarily take lightly, that we say I'm going to genuinely try and find out things about the future or secret things through someone that's engaging in spirituality or in avowed witchcraft.

It's not something that we pursue. We have a Holy Spirit. We don't need to seek out other spirits.

We have the Word of God to tell us what we need to do. We don't need to seek out those that give special spiritual insight from either from the spirits or just from them making it up. You can rely on God.

You don't have to look outside of God for direction for your life. Verse number 27. You are not to cut off the hair at the sides of your head or mar the edge of your beard.

You are not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.

So here in verses 27 and 28, there are some things that are directly tied to pagan worship and divination and witchcraft and occult practices that God says, here is my specific prohibition on. Don't follow.

Don't be like the other nations in doing these things.

Now, for some people, they have taken verse 28 with the, don't put any tattoo marks on yourselves and have extended that to the New Testament and have said that this is also binding on New Testament believers.

As I mentioned yesterday at the beginning of chapter 19, the kind of hermeneutic, the way of studying scripture that I've seen and heard espoused is look in the New Testament to see if something got brought over.

It's not that God forgot about some things and went, oh, okay, well, yeah, they'll see it in the Old Testament and they'll just continue doing it in the New Testament. Sorry, I forgot about it in the New Testament.

It's not really the way that we read scripture. Everything that God wants us to do, he has outlined.

So again, just because this is my podcast and I'm able to espouse my beliefs from scripture, if you do believe that you should not get a tattoo, then from Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 9, and James 4, the command to you would be, if you think it's a

sin to get a tattoo, do not get a tattoo. But if you're wondering, okay, what does the Bible say?

Here it's directly tied to occult practices with the gashing on the bodies for the dead, the specific way in which even facial hair is done, and the hair at the sides of your head.

These are all cultural practices that then are not reiterated in the New Testament. So my comment to you would be, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Don't do anything that would maybe espouse symbols of death or wickedness on yourself.

I've got one uncle that he tattooed his wife's initials on his, where my wedding band is. And he did that because he works with a lot of machinery and things. And so a ring could be actually physically very dangerous for him.

And so he did that. And so his wife's initials are always there on his hand.

I would find that to be a very God honoring practice, one that has respect and a permanent marking of this woman is my bride and would be very helpful in that way and permanent identification.

It's not even something you can take off if you wanted to hide the fact that you were married. But as with the New Testament, if anyone thinks that something is sin, they should absolutely not partake in it.

But if you're looking at someone else's life, I would say all of those same things from Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 9 would apply that if something's not outlined in the New Testament that says here's this specific action you're not to take, allow

them freedom of conscience to say if it's wrong for them, the Holy Spirit will make that clear to them as they read through Scripture. And I don't have to inform them of something that the Holy Spirit has not.

Now, if they come to you and ask, hey, what do you think about this? Feel free to say, hey, here is my opinion from Scripture. But that's a few thoughts on that.

I don't know what amount of time we're at. About 15 minute mark. Yeah, we'll be able to finish out the chapter.

But those are a few thoughts there. If you have any questions, please message the page, email me. If you've got my number, text me.

I would love to talk more with you about these types of things and how freedom of conscience works for believers. Verse 29, do not debase your daughter by making her a prostitute or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.

So here, a very common thing that you would read about even in other places in scripture is sometimes when people were very down on their money, they would sell their children or here enlist them as prostitutes in order to get money.

And God says that is abominable. Do not do that. It will absolutely destroy and defile and infect the land that you're living in.

And you will basically be kicked back out just like all the other nations were. Pardon me. Verse 30, keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary.

I am Yahweh. God says what belongs to me, view as important. The Sabbath days belong to God.

It's you worship, you're thankful to God, you allow him to work. And his sanctuary, the place where his worship dwells, the place where he is above the Ark of the Covenant. He says, revere it, view what is God's as important and sacred.

Verse 31, do not turn to mediums or consult spiritists, or you will be defiled by them. I am Yahweh, your God. Same things as before with divination and witchcraft.

Verse 32, you are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old. Fear your God, I am Yahweh. God says, have respect for those that have come before you.

And sometimes I get in trouble because my parents always raise me to say, yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am. And some people, they view sir or ma'am as insulting or a sign that someone is old or that they have a certain status.

And so they'll be like, oh, don't call me sir, don't call me ma'am. And I sometimes get in trouble for it, but it's all right with me. We ought to have a respect for others.

And it's something that is sorely lacking in my generation and the generation before me. Many people view those that are more elderly just as foolish, stupid, not with the times. And that's not how God views them.

And it's not how we should view them. They are made in the image of God just as much as I am. Verse 33.

When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native born among you. You are to love him as yourself.

For you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh, your God. I actually didn't know these verses were in here when I was talking earlier about immigration.

But those are at least considerations that we need to take into account when we think about these types of things. What does God's Word have to say? And how does that affect how we view things?

Again, this isn't a prescriptive thing for perhaps the types of legislation that are passed. It doesn't say, you know, thou shalt legislate this way in regards to all immigration things.

But at least as far as the Christian's heart is concerned, I would think these verses ought to color the way in which we talk and the way that we vote. Verse 35, do not be unfair in measurements of length, weight or volume.

You're to have honest balances, honest weights, an honest dry measure and an honest liquid measure. I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them.

I am Yahweh. So here you would have, you know, things that were priced out and it's okay. It's this much money for this amount of grain, this much money for this much liquid.

And you would say, okay, well, so basically you would short things a little bit on your measurement so that way people were paying more for less. And the big thing that sticks out to me is like chip bags today, where it's like 90% air and 10% chips.

And God's saying, don't do that to people. Have honest measurements, do honest business. So thanks for tuning in today.

Several topics, lots of, man, just lots of things to think about as believers, especially in the New Testament. How does God want me to live? How does he want me to treat people?

What does God think of what I do with my body? What does God think of how I treat immigrants? What does God think about tattoos?

All sorts of things that we ought to consider. What does God want from my life? God cares about every portion of your life.

And I'd say the ending thought there is so important that he says, why would you care about all of these things? Why would you care about following these commands? It's because he is the God that saved us there, that brought them out of Egypt.

Nowadays, the God that redeemed us, that died for us on a cross, that rose again, that he's Lord. And so we ought to care about what he thinks and follow his word. Thanks for tuning in.

See you tomorrow. Bye-bye.