More thoughts about Leviticus

First let me say Dick Cripe and his wife are friends of mine. I sing with him in a chorale in town. They are very nice people. This is not a criticism, but rather an addendum to his letter.

I am not a Bible scholar, but a very serious student of the Word every morning. There is an answer as to what happened to the children of Israel when they did not obey the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). God was very serious about not cutting themselves and tattooing the body. In Jeremiah 47:5 the prophet asks, "O remnant on the plain, how long will you cut yourselves?" They had been forbidden in Leviticus 19:25. Not only had they been forbidden not to disfigure the body after the manner of the pagans or culture of the Cannanites, but Ba'al worship was the source of the cutting and tattooing.

Ba'al was in this culture as a god for fertility and rain when the Israelites arrived from bondage in Egypt. It required male and female prostitution in the temple and disfiguring the body. This would excite the Ba'al and he produce rain for fields, crops and the children needed to continue their culture.

This evil continued and became progressively worse even sacrificing their children in the fire to various gods until Ahab, who sinned more than any king. He married Jezebel who brought Ba'al worship to Israel. It is suggested by some historians that Ahab did not intend to replace the worship of the Lord but rather as many other kings had done presented Ba'al to the people in a syncretistic way. This ultimately caused the decline of the pure worship of Yahweh. "Thou shalt not put any other gods before me," the first of the Ten Commandments.

The importance of this merger with other gods was that they begin to use Ba'al as the god for everyday life and Yahweh as the god of power who could rescue them from the Red Sea. Every prophet both major and minor urged the putting away of Ba'al worship. Actually God pleaded with them and warned them and ultimately they were taken captive a number of times by Babylonians Assyrians and many other wars. The diaspora took place after the Babylonian capture. One of my favorite Psalms is 137, it is so plaintive: "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for our songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said sing us one of your songs of Zion. But, how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land." I will not write the rest of the Psalm; suffice it to say sin brings a joyless painful captivity to Satan.

Nearly one-third of the narrative in 1 and 2 Kings is devoted to the evil of Ahab and Jezabel. In this period the kingdom of God was championed by Elijah and Elisha and the kingdom of Satan was especially intense.

Thus, Satan's culture never dies. Our own culture has absorbed the dark power's influence. Fortunately for the many the Bible also teaches that what we do not know as sin we are not responsible for, but as soon as it is made known to us as sin we must let it go and make a change. That would mean a lot of tattoo removal for some people. So once you read this just do not do any more. LOL!

For a good book to read about the present-day culture Billy Graham has a book called "Storm Warning" and he uses the Book of Revelation as a guide which is usually hard to understand. But with his usage, it is easy to enjoy and absorb.

I became a Catholic about seven years ago and still deeply regard my Protestant background. I love the Jewish people deeply as well and "pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

Sharon Alwin is a Coeur d'Alene resident.