Seder 95: Questions about Leviticus 22:28

 Leviticus 22:28 states, "But you shall not kill an ox and a sheep and her young in one day."  Since this commandment appears in the middle of a section of rules on sacrifices, one question that has been raised about it is whether it applies to all slaughter of animals, or just to animals that are sacrificed.  Jewish halakhic tradition says it is the former. (b. Hullin 78a).   

Another question has to do with the rationale for this rule, which appears right after the stipulation that a sacrificial animal must be at least eight days old (verse 27).  One proposal to explain both verse 27 and verse 28 is that the love of a mother animal for her offspring is one of the highest and "most human" aspects of the life of an animal, and that human use of animals should honor this aspect and not blot it out.  An animal sacrifice should not disrespect the animal's self-sacrifice for her offspring.  

In general, the Bible teaches kindness toward animals.  In Proverbs 12:10 we read, "Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel."  Midrash Tanchuma  sees in Proverbs 12:10 a contrast between God's mercy in Leviticus 22:28 and the cruelty of the wicked as exemplified by the Assyrian Empire.  Hosea 10:14 states that  "mothers were dashed in pieces with their children" by Assyrian military forces.  We are to imitate God and not the cruel Assyrian monarchs.  

Provisions like those in Leviticus 22:28 and Deuteronomy 22:6 may also have sustainability in mind.  If some kind of animal is overharvested, there is danger of its becoming extinct.  This is not just a trendy concern of the present moment.  Such concerns were raised, for example, by Ramban (Nachmanides) in the thirteenth century AD.  This is all part of man's "working and keeping" the Garden (Ge 2:!5).

Seder 95: 1 Peter 2:3-4---Affirming the Deity of Jesus

 One way in which the writers of the New Testament epistles affirm the deity of Jesus is by applying passages from the Tanakh about the God of Israel to Jesus.  We see one example in 1 Peter 2:3-4, where Peter brings together two passages of scripture.

First Peter 2:3 references Psalm 34:8 ("Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!), a verse about the God of Israel.  

Then in verse 4, Peter says that the Lord is "a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious." Here Peter is thinking of Psalm 118:22, which he later quotes in verse 7, as a reference to Jesus.  Jesus had been rejected by Jewish leaders in Jerusalem (Mt 21:42; Ac 4:10-11) but was resurrected to eternal life.  

So Peter makes an identification between the God of Israel and Jesus the Messiah, as the New Testament writers often do. 

Seder 95: 1 Peter 2:5---Spiritual Sacrifices in a New Temple

 Peter probably wrote his first epistle in the early 60s AD, several years before his martyrdom and within a decade of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.  Peter must have known at that point that the temple soon would be destroyed, since Jesus had told him about 30 years before that this would happen within a generation (Mk 13:3, 30).  

Peter wrote to congregations in northern Asia Minor that would have included both Jewish and Gentile believers.  He encouraged them to live faithful lives in an environment that was often hostile to their counter-cultural beliefs and practices.  

In 1 Peter 2:4-10, he told these believers that they were "living stones" in a spiritual temple, a temple in which the resurrected Messiah is the chief cornerstone.  Furthermore, they constituted a holy priesthood whose purpose was to "offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

A spiritual sacrifice presumably is once carried out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Other passages in the New Testament epistles say more about these sacrifices.  Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 that our bodies should be "living sacrifice," transformed by the Holy Spirit to obey the will of God. Hebrews 13:15-16 adds that acceptable sacrifices include praising God, doing good, and sharing what we have.

Peter added in verse 9, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."  

Here Peter brought together two passages, Isaiah 43:20-21 and Exodus 19:6, which describe Israel's priestly mission to be a light to the nations.  He told these believers that their spiritual priesthood would be carrying on with that mission, representing God with their words and their lives.  They would not be replacing Israel but assisting Israel in that mission.  

First Fruits of Zion has a good way of describing the New Testament people of God with its proleptic radial ecclesiology.

Seder 95: Lev 22:17-33---Acceptable Offerings

 Since God desires to be in close relationship with his people, he graciously reveals to the Israelites how they should worship him.  In the last half of Lev 22, he communicates some basic principles involving voluntary offerings.  These offerings are to be costly to the one bringing them, and so the animal being offered is to be of highest quality---"without blemish."  

There are slightly lower standards for a freewill offering (v 23), perhaps because such an offering might involve less planning than the other types.  The offerer may be deciding spontaneously, on the spur of the moment, to bring this particular offering, and verse 23 makes room for that kind of spontaneous impulse to thank God.

In the stipulation that these animals be "without blemish," Christians see a representation of the fact that Jesus "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God" (Heb 9:14).  Peter echoes this idea, affirming that we are ransomed "with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:19).

Another passage that reflects on acceptable sacrifices is Psalm 51, David's psalm of repentance after his great sins recorded in 2 Sam 11.  In that case, David needed to repent, and his relationship with God needed to be repaired, before he could offer an acceptable sacrifice (vv 16-19).  Kyle Kettering gave a sermon on Psalm 51 at Church of the Messiah on March 12, 2022.