“You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees, I am the LORD your God.”
~ Leviticus 18:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to have your dad and/or ma read to you from the Bible? Your grandpaa’s ma still reads the Bible after every meal. Your grandpaa remembers never remembering much about what his ma read from the Bible after a meal. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have been in homes where the dad and/or ma would after a meal ask their kids questions about what had been read from the Bible. Does your dad and/or ma ask you questions about what they have read from the Bible? Your grandpaa has systematically gone three times through the Bible. This study – which your grandpaa calls ‘James and Ellen’, is the fourth time that your grandpaa is exhaustively going through the Bible chapter by chapter. The first time that your grandpaa methodically went through the Bible, your grandpaa used a modern language Bible called the Berkeley Version. Your grandpaa made notes in the Bible’s margins, underlined words and verses, connected words and verses with lines, isolated key phrases in parenthesis, etc. as he carefully deliberated through this Bible version verse by verse, chapter by chapter – starting with the first book, the first chapter and the first verse in the Bible. After your grandpaa finished going through the Berkeley Version Bible, your grandpaa went through the entire Bible again – this time using a King James Version Bible that your dad once had and used while he was at Tambo. Tambo is the New Tribes boarding school that is in Bolivia where your dad spent three years. Your dad was at Tambo from the start of his freshman year through his junior year in high school. Your grandpaa again started in the first book, the first chapter and the first verse of the Bible – but this time your grandpaa condensed each Bible verse in each chapter of each book of the Bible into a three word phrase which your grandpaa wrote down in pocket notebooks that were Bible book specific. When your grandpaa finished condensing every verse in your dad’s once Kings James Version Bible into phrases three words long, your grandpaa – after he had written down the different Bible books on a sheet of paper, cut the sheet of paper into small slips – with each slip having a Bible book name on it. After your grandpaa folded the slips, your grandpaa kept the folded slips in a small wooden container. To decide which Bible book to go through next, your grandpaa would have your grandmaa pull out from the small wooden container one of the folded slips of paper. The name of the Bible book that was on the folded slip of paper was the Bible book which your grandpaa would then begin to put into an outline and to amplify in the same Bible book specific pocket notebook that your grandpaa used to condense into a three word phrase each Bible verse in each chapter of each book of the Bible.
What questions do you think that your dad or ma might ask you if he or she should ever read Leviticus 18 to you? Your grandpaa does not remember ever scrutinizing this chapter even though he had dissected the chapter into three word phrases and amplified each verse in this chapter in outline form. Your grandpaa cannot envision his ma reading this chapter after a meal. This chapter’s focus is on illicit relationships. Why do you think that God would want to have a chapter in the Bible – which is His Living, Holy Book that He gifted to His specially chosen guys and gals to give them life standards to live by that would bless and glorify Him and then for His specially elected guys, gals and kids as a written instrument to help each guy, gal and kid – who He enables to hear His small, clear voice that clearly delineates what is disgustingly detestable to Him and what is not repulsively abhorrent to Him, to live lives that are holy in His eyes. God – as God the Father, is very specific through Himself – as God the Spirit, when He had Moses write in verse 4, “You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees, I am the LORD your God.” God expected the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were His specially chosen guys and gals, to live in an ordered community that was not being polluted by compromising relationships between next of kin and close kin. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to live in a structured society that was not being infected by despicable relationships between guys with guys and gals with gals. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to live in a controlled environ that was not being tainted by the loathsome actions of sacrificing their own kids to Molech. Molech was the Ammonite people group’s inanimate idol god. What God was communicating through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals was that what He said was moral law applied not only to His specially chosen guys and gals but also to the alien guys and gals who were living among His specially chosen guys and gals in Canaan’s land area – which is the land area that God was giving to His specially chosen guys and gals to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . God told His specially chosen guys and gals – again through Moses, that if they did not do what He was specifically telling them to do, that the land that He was giving them to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . would vomit them out of the land.
Ask your dad and/or ma if they are uncomfortable talking to you about sexual immorality and sexual impurity. In this guy focused chapter, God does not hold back at all to plainly define when a guy crosses the line. It is always up to a guy to set and maintain moral standards. (Over 16 years have passed since your grandpaa sent this missive to your dad to read to you. Homosexuality or queer lifestyles has become a United States societal norm. Two guys or two gals can legally marry each other. Perverted guys and gals are now in national government leadership positions.)
Leviticus 18 (842)