Leviticus 19: 19-29, “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee. And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him. And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal. And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God. Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.”
If Israel was to perform the task that the Lord had given them then they had to distinct from the surrounding nations. When the Lord first promised Abraham that his descendants would go to Egypt and then return to their Land He told Abraham that He was giving the Amorites time to repent (Gen 15: 12-16, “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”). The Amorites didn’t repent and the Lord eventually forced them out of the Land because they were debased and were polluting the Land. The Lord made sure that Israel understood that they were not to follow any of the evil practices of the people who lived in the Land before they did. The rules against mixing crops and animals was to remind Israel that they were holy to the Lord and were not to mix with other nations. This was not a racist theme but because they would tend to follow the gods of the people they mixed with and stop following the Lord. Fruit trees were placed there for them to eat but a young tree would not stand having fruit taken too soon so they were told to leave the fruit and give the first crop to the Lord to remind them that they were the Lord’s firstborn.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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