Day Nine - Feasts, Sabbath Years, and the Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 14:33 to Leviticus 26:26

It has been said by others that it took God only one night to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took another forty years to get Egypt out of the Israelites.  A large part of putting behind the ways and memories of life in Egypt was to give the people a new way of living and a new sense of their identity.

Today our daily reading begins with more directions and prohibitions around things that will defile or make a person "unclean."  When we reach chapter 17, and extending through chapter 26, we encounter what is referred to as the Holiness Code.  In addition to laws on personal behavior and relationships there is added a cycle of feasts and observances.  Each one is a reminder to the community that they are the Lord's people, and that God is planning for the long haul.  Life is not only about the immediate needs before us, but what will happen in the next year, and seven years from now, and fifty years from now.

One way that we deny the goodness and faithfulness of God is to become short-sighted and not see the longer road ahead.  As we take this journey with God let us keep our heads up to see to and beyond the horizons to which we are being led.