Some of these are very puzzling laws. Some are very straightforward... "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge". Got it. "Do not insult the deaf or cause the blind to stumble". Good wisdom. "Do not stand idly by when your neighbor's life is threatened". Agreed. But "don't wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread"? Why not? "Do not trim the hair on your temples or trim your beards". Again, I'd love an explanation! And finally, all the laws about who you can't have sex with! It must have been a rampant problem. But my thought is, why not just say "Do not have sex with anyone except your wife". Maybe that's wishful thinking. God knows the heart of His people too well. He certainly had reason to believe that His instructions would not be taken at face value, yet I find myself wanting a stronger mandate against sex outside of marriage. What is clear, as my husband pointed out, was that God was warning them not to behave as the Egyptians and Canaanites, the cultures they were leaving and entering, respectively. Gross sexual immorality was pervasive in both, and God wanted the Israelites to differentiate themselves. Perhaps the behaviors listed were not so much a catalog of what was going on in the nation of Israel, as it was a warning based on the behavior of those around them.
Tomorrow's reading: Leviticus 20-22
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