Leviticus 5: 1-6, “And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.”
We often think that swearing is using “television language”. The sort of language that people were ashamed to use in the last century but everyone uses on television these days and the kids grow up thinking it is normal rather than a sign of someone who is inarticulate. However, swearing in the Bible is making a promise and using the Lord’s Name to back that promise up. We still have a remnant of true swearing in court where people swear to tell the truth. If a person swears to do something then that person knows God is a witness to his promise and he is bound to do what he said. If a person makes an oath and then doesn’t keep that oath the person should expect some kind of consequences. If there is a witness to an oath the witness needs to understand that they have a sacred duty as well. The next issue concerns a person who is ceremonially clean and touches something that is unclean. The principle is simple: unclean makes clean unclean. We know this is true today when a person is infected with a disease and they come into contact with a person who is not infected then the non infected person is in danger of being infected. If a person hears someone else say that they are going to act unlawfully then the person who hears has a responsibility to pass that information or he he becomes guilty as well. Edmund Burke said that evil triumphs when good men do nothing, he got that idea from the Bible.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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