Full disclosure: I admit that I read these chapters very quickly...skimmed really. I get kind of bogged down in all the rules and regulations.
I found myself thinking a couple of things:
1. I assume this was all very new for the Israelites. This was going to be a brand new way of life...and it was apparently very different than all the other people they've been around (the Egyptians) or that they're going to be around (the Canaanites). Leviticus 18:3 says, "You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices." Then after a long list of specific sexual instructions God says: "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled." (18:24) These instructions are, for the most part at least (the main exception being the one about homosexuality), understood and upheld (if not always practiced) by almost all people today. People often talk about how immoral modern culture has become but I kind of get the impression that it's nothing compared to life in the pagan societies of OT times...like the Egyptians and Canaanites.
2. I was also thinking about all the regulations about diseases and uncleanness and the necessary steps to be restored. I know it's a purely hypothetical question but I can't help but wonder how much life would be different if we had never sinned...if "The Fall" hadn't occurred. I realize that if it wasn't Adam & Eve somebody would've eventually eaten of the "forbidden fruit" but it's interesting to imagine what life would be like if none of this blood atonement was ever necessary.
I suppose one day we'll find out.
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