In Leviticus, TBH I don’t have a lot to say until chapter 16.
except for those highlighted passages. These seem to indicate how God is extremely mindful that nothing unholy come before him. For us this means that we can be certain about the purity that God demands of his saints, and the joy which this very purity will bring when we are in Heaven one day. On a more practical level Catholics would see from these that God is particular as to how he is worshipped, and how the priestly Sacrifice, which we believe carries on at the Eucharistic Liturgy (Holy Mass) is carried out with utmost regard for “who” is conducting the liturgy (apostolic succession) and “how” it is conducted. We call this “right worship”, or “orthodoxy”.

[9:22 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: we skipped over these descriptive parts of Exodus. But Ch.37 is the making of the Ark of the Covenant (v.1-9). You see I’ve highlighted the “mercy seat”, which again, is just “cover” (as it is mentioned in my footnote). The Hebrew again כַּפֹּ֖רֶת kap-pō-reṯ.
[9:32 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: The faces of the cherubim are facing the “cover” The Lord says, “22And I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Covenant; I will speak with you about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.” (Ex.25:22). I just put together all the references where the LORD states that he will meet with the Israelites “between the cherubim, above the mercy seat/cover”: Ex15:22 (above), 29:42-43, Num.7:89, Lev.16:2, Ex.30:6. And other places where the Lord states that “I will meet with you/between the cehrubim/ enthroned above/on the cherubim” like Is.37:16, Ps.80:1, 2Kings19:15, 2Sam.6:2, 1Sam4:4, Num 17:4. Ps.99:1, Ex.30:36, Jud.20:27.

[9:37 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: The reason I have a massive stress on these themes should be obvious because it is all prefiguring Jesus’ Atoning Sacrifice for our sins and how God meets with us and we can “with confidence approach the Throne of Grace”, because of Jesus’ Blood which atones for our sins, or really, “covers over our lives/ our souls”
[9:38 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: The greatest Jewish Festival is for this reason called “Yom Kippur” “Day (yom) of the “Cover” we saw this in Lev.16
[9:47 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: I’d like to go through some aspects of Lev 1-15 which I previously skimmed over.
[9:51 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: The rulings for the Israelites really were very complicated, I think. There were rulings about the numbers of days that you were unclean after an emission, delivery, menstruation, to bathe after it, how many days, skin disease. It seems that because of this , the whole of Lev.4 is related to sacrifices that were to be offered for “unintentional sins”. These would be “sins” that were basically not following the law to the “t”, through an oversight. This is precisely what we call a “legalistic” religion, where the sins are not actually moral transgressions against persons or unclean thoughts. This is very similar to how Islam still is today, as is Orthodox Judaism. I wonder if anyone has seen the movie “Orthodox” or something like that on Netflix.
[9:58 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: Lev. 11 is all about the animals that one can and can’t eat…
[9:59 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: Lev.12 is interesting. it is the sacrifices to be offered at the delivery of a child. This ties directly in to Jesus’ Presentation in Luke, of course.

[10:30 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: All this that I’m pointing out about “Legalistic” religions becomes important because it is exactly what St. Paul is stating in Galatians is talking about when he says that these “works of the Law” cannot save us, but rather we are saved by faith. Orthodox/ Hasidic Jews even today for eg in Jerusalem have entire bath complexes where they go for a daily ritual bath, the “Mitzvot”, which is like a baptism, sometimes even several in a day. I have spoken to a rabbi myself who described this to me. Quite similarly Muslims have ritual ablutions and various scrupulous regulations surrounding their daily prayer, they are even encouraged to perform one of these in the mosque daily. Various things invalidate the water cleansing like emissions and passing wind (sorry!), but this is very real and true for every Muslim, I’m not making it up. Then they have to wash all over again or their salat (Prayer) is invalidated. Even the washing is performed in a detailed prescribed manner, including sucking water in through the nose, I could go on…but I won’t 🙂
[10:32 am, 21/04/2022] Sean Rodrigues: these laws about bodily emissions are in Lev.15. Sorry, I’m just trying to be thorough without being boring here. Tomorrow Lev.18.

Lev. 18

essentially the decrees are against any form of incestual relationships involving even family members related through marriage, against bestiality, and against infanticide (sacrificing your offspring to Molech). If the Israelites were to practise any of these, they are told that “the land will vomit you out”, “as it vomitted out the nation that was before you”.

Ch.20 here we see the strict regulations against sacrificing children to Molech, homosexual activity, sorcery/ wizardry (highlighted). It ends with the beautiful passage (highlighted in yellow) of the Lord telling the Israelites “”you …(are) to be mine”

Lev.26

In yesterday’s reading we read about the curses and blessings related to obedience and disobedience to God’s Law. Some of this can make very difficult reading, but this is how I interpret it:

The state of those who are separated and a rebellion against God is really a foreshadowing of what Hell will be like. Hell is a place with literally no love, and even the love that we take for granted, will have no meaning there. This is reflected in the verses which shockingly talk about people having to eat their own children. Now such events actually are documented in the Bible’s historical narrative, for example when Israel was beseiged by its enemies the people resorted to such means. The point is that Hell will not be better than Earth, rather it is guaranteed to be much worse. Even the loves that we think we have on Earth in denial of God (as atheists state that they don’t require to believe in God in order to love) are really only either a result of selfishness, or of invisible grace. In Hell even this will not be present , Selfish love which is the exchange of mutual favours will not work because there will be no favours to exchange. All the favours that you had on earth were the result of God’s blessings. And Grace will also not be present in separation from God. Verse like v.36,37 speak of the constant state of terror that is Hell “they shall flee…though no one pursues them”.