Holy: Understanding It Better through Leviticus 19 (Total Wholes - part 3 of 5)

Totaling up the parts of the process for interpreting a passage of Scripture is very important.  It is always important to keep all the parts in mind, even as you work on individual parts.  The individual parts that go into the total in this case are: 1) translate, 2) transfer, 3) train, and 4) teach.

As each of these is brought together the goal is to form a single fabric that points to things like the themes of Leviticus and how the parts of the book are arranged together.

What is a bit disappointing when you read the literature regarding Leviticus is how quickly nearly everyone sees the singular theme of holiness as primary.  (I myself did the same following their lead in the past.)  There is a sense in which much of commentary is commentary on commentary and not original research, listening, or digging. 

I find one part of a sentence in Leviticus 19 to be very telling because a part of this sentence is repeated over and over in the chapter without repeating the holiness part.  In Leviticus 19:2d, we read: "For I Yahweh your God am holy".  Then one of my best professors at outlining a passage, dr. Allen P. Ross, points out that there are four sets of four built throughout the chapter around "I am Yahweh" or "I am Yahweh your God".  So with this repeating structure in the chapter what does it tell us about the theme of Leviticus?  Could there be something more important than holiness?

Notice I say "could there be?" not that "there is" at least quite yet.  Now that there is a proposal of another possible theme (along the lines of worship as a theme), I would like to clarify a possible idea. 

For many years (both unconsciously and consciously), I have treasured the theme in a book titled, Who Am I?  I have, for many years, considered the basic question, "Who?" to be possibly the greatest question that can be asked in a variety of forms whether it be: "Who are you [God, etc.]?" or  "Who am I?" or "Who are they?".  God's personal name would seem to address the question of "Who?" on the most basic level.  It is how we often times introduce ourselves to another or what we first ask them about themselves. 

The  name "Yahweh" is unique.  It is called, "the name about all names".  That raises the question of "Why is it the name above all names (if it is not only because it is the name of God)?"  So asking in another way, what lies behind its exalted status? 

I would like to make another proposal, but again not necessarily a definite answer at this point.  It is something to meditate on rather than something to swallow on first bite.  It is this idea.  What if the Israelites on hearing God's name regularly recalled God's words to Moses, when Moses asks who he should say sent him, "I am who I am".  In answering the question, "Who are you?", there could not be a better answer.  It even includes "who" in the response!

In that case, God's exalted name (or the integrity of his name) could be even more of a theme in Leviticus than holy.  I will only suggest here, as well as my other suggestions, that blessing might first get its meaning from integrity.  The question that remains is whether on further testing these possibilities hold up or whether they fail to show any possibility. 

You may in the end, if you are a Christian, find yourself singing:

Yahweh Is the Sweetest Name I Know

but, of course,

Jesus ("Yahweh saves") is Too the Sweetest Name I Know. 

May God bless you in your meditations on the possibilities of these proposals.  And may you also not be too limited by only the ideas you have heard many times before. 


In Christ,

Jon