Finding Shelter. Russell J. Levenson Jr.
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shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. You shall keep my statutes.
—Leviticus 19:18–19
The book of Leviticus is essentially about holiness, but includes a great number of do’s and don’ts. It includes a lot of laws. When I am encouraging a person to begin reading the Bible for the first time, I often say, “Don’t start with Leviticus.” It is long, a bit tedious, and lots of the do’s and don’ts do not apply to our time and our day.
Please do not misunderstand me: I am not one who encourages (or buys into) situational ethics or moral relativity. There are some of God’s laws that are, well, just beyond shifting given the circumstances (the Ten Commandments for starters).9 But for this meditation, let me borrow some wisdom from Frederick Buechner:
Law. There are basically two kinds: (1) law as the way things ought to be, and (2) law as the way things are. An example of the first is “No trespassing.” An example of the second is the law of gravity.
God’s Law has traditionally been spelled out in terms of category No. 1, a compendium of do’s and don’ts. These do’s and don’ts are the work of moralists and when obeyed serve the useful purpose of keeping us from each other’s throats. They can’t make us human but they can help keep us honest.
God’s Law in itself, however, comes under category No. 2 and is the work of God. It has been stated in eight words: “He who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14). Like it or not, that’s how it is. If you don’t believe it, you can always put it to the test just the way if you don’t believe the law of gravity, you can always step out a tenth-story window.10
Many of us tend to associate “laws” with “restrictions.” Some of them may seem like useless bother in our day-to-day lives (the speed limit for instance, or a stop sign on an empty street, or taxes for that matter). One could argue a lifetime over those kinds of laws. But notice in the passage above from Leviticus that set in the midst of lots of do’s and don’ts are two key imperatives, “Love your neighbor” and “Keep my statutes.”
When Jesus was once asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” He drew from this teaching as well as what our Jewish friends call the Shema from Deuteronomy.11 His answer was simple, “He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27).12 His answer was love.
Laws can be broken. You can run the red light, text while you drive, or cheat on your taxes. You can lust after one who is married to another, steal from your neighbor, and you do not “have” to love anyone, but you would be breaking the law—moral laws and God’s laws.
All those do’s and don’ts in the Bible that essentially have to do with not harming others or yourself—well, really they are about something I pointed to a moment ago—holiness. Not holiness in a sense of perfection, but holiness in the sense of wholeness, of being completely at peace with God and others. The best way to do that is to live into the two great laws—that vertical law of loving God and that horizontal law of loving others.
Arthur Michael Ramsey, 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote, “The essence of the ethics of Jesus is not law, but a relationship of persons to God.” Rather than see law as an intrusion, what if we saw it as simply the right way to live? The most right way is a right relationship and the most right relationship is that of love—love of neighbor, of self, of God. That is what makes us right; that is what makes us holy; that is the law of God—and it is the right way to live.
Where might God’s laws seem like an intrusion into your life? What if you turned the way of seeing such intrusion instead as an invitation? An invitation to a better life? A more holy life? A more whole life? An invitation that begins merely with a willingness to be loved by God and to love Him in return and thereby be empowered to love all who come your way—even yourself? Welcome God’s law of love and know His peace.
A Prayer
O Lord, rescue me from myself
and give me unto You.
Take away from me all those things
that draw me from You
and give me those things
that lead me to You.
Amen.
—Eric Abbott, d. 1983
9 Exodus 20:1–17.
10 Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1973), 50–51.
11 Deuteronomy 6:4–5.
12 Cf. Mark 12:30–31; Matthew 22:37–39.
Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.
—Numbers 12:3
I suppose I have read the above passage several times over the years, but not until I began this book did it really strike me. “Moses was very humble.” Leader . . . yes. Lawgiver . . . of course. Abolitionist without compare . . . certainly. But humble? It is hard to think on that image the late actor Charlton Heston gave us of Moses, standing tall before the soon-to-be-parted Red Sea and telling the Hebrews to “behold the hand of God,” and couple that with humility. Yet we are told here, he was, in fact, more humble than anyone on planet earth.
We preacher types often decry the decay of culture with words like “there used to be a time when . . . .” It would be tempting to suggest that we live in a time when humility seems not to be prized, but shunned. I suppose that has always been the case. We tell stories about heroes’ great accomplishments. We cherish wins, trophies, and prizes. When it comes to college football games that crank up during this season of the year, at the end of the game, it is the “most valuable player” who is heralded, not the humblest one.
But you and I worship a God who turns most things on their head. For instance, a foundational character trait of Jesus’s followers was to be humble. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” Jesus offers (Luke 14:11). Of course Jesus lived that humility right up to his last breath. As Paul reminds us, Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The Apostle Peter called on the earliest Christians to “clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with