Finished Leviticus

Boring at times, but there was a lot of stuff that hit me.

1) In Chapter 4, they sprinkled blood 7 times for the sin offering. I am sure you could argue this is somewhat intertwined with Peter asking Jesus in Matthew 18:21-22 about how many times we should forgive.

2) In Chapter 13-15, God gave specific medical advice to the people. It was kind of weird to hear God talk about rashes for what seemed to be a whole chapter, but it shows that he cared about the people enough to give them medical advice.

3) Chapter 19:33-34, "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt, I am the LORD your God." I was talking with my mom a couple of days ago and she was telling me about the growing bigotry toward Hispanics in Indiana. This is a problem that I have seen in every part of the country I have lived. The political problem is complex and there surely needs to be some changes made on that front, but how does this verse influence how we are suppose to view immigrants (aliens)? I don't think every command in chapter 19 is something we must follow, such as: no shaving of the beard, no tattoos, and not to wear clothes woven of two kinds of material. Times have changed. What I will argue is that we are mandated to love our neighbors as ourselves. Could it be argued that our neighbors might be those who enter our communities as aliens? If so, I think God is laying the foundation for how you and I should handle those aliens.