Bible Summary:

God tells Moses to have people be holy, respect their mothers, fathers, and older people, and the Sabbath. He then gives them a list of nots:

• Do not abandon God and worship idols.
• During harvest, do not cut the grain at the edge of the field nor go back to cut the heads of grain that were left.
• Do not go back through your vineyard to gather missed grapes; leave them for the poor.
• Do not lie, cheat, or steal.
• Do not make a promise in God’s name, if you do not intend to keep it.
• Do not take advantage of anyone or rob him.
• Do not hold back wages of someone you hired, not even for one night.
• Do not curse a deaf man or put something in front of a blind man to make him stumble.
• Do not show favoritism to the poor or fear the rich in legal cases.
• Do not spread lies about anyone, and when someone is on trial for his life, speak out if your testimony can help him.
• Do not hold a grudge against anyone, settle your differences so you will not commit a sin because of him, but love your neighbor as you love yourself.
• Do not crossbreed domestic animals.
• Do not plant two kinds of seeds in the same field.
• Do not wear clothes made of two kinds of material.
• Do not eat the fruit from a newly planted tree for the first three years, offer all the fruit to God in the fourth year, and then eat the fruit every year after.
• Do not eat meat with blood still in it or after the second day after the offering.
• Do not practice any kind of magic.
• Do not cut the hair on the sides of your head, trim your beard, tattoo yourself, or cut gashes in you body to mourn for the dead.
• Do not disgrace your daughters by making them temple prostitutes.
• Do not go for advice from people who consult the spirits of the dead.
• Do not mistreat foreigners. Treat them as you would a fellow Israelite, and love them as you love yourselves.
• Do not cheat anyone by using false measures of length, weight, or quantity.

My Thoughts:

Is genetic experimentation bad?: I think Moses covered about everything in this list. The command to not cross-breed animals or plants was surprising. We have been cross breeding since Gregor Mendel created hybrid pea starting in 1856 (learn more about Gregor Mendel at Wikipedia).  But, it puts into question how far genetic experimentation should go? In the future you might choose your child’s looks – gender, eye color, hair, and build. Sure sounds like Hitler’s master race. I think God was cautioning against messing with nature and interestingly, coming from the Bible, natural selection.

Positive repackaging by Jesus: The “love your neighbor as you love yourself” in Leviticus was surprising. It sure sounds like Jesus, just without all the “nots”. Maybe he just repackaged the best ideas of the Old Testament with a positive spin? If so, good for us.