The issue of tattooing falls here within the context of
emulating the practices of pagans and is, in particular, associated here with
the making of cuts in the body for the dead.
The first six verses of the reading all deal with issues that relate to
cultic practices of surrounding pagan nations including temple prostitution,
drinking of blood, and seeking information from those who purport to tell the
future or speak to the dead. We have a relationship
of trust and faith with the God of all, and He will give us all we need to live
this life, wisdom from other sources is always to be suspect. All these have the words, "I am the
Lord" appended to them to certify the obligation to keep the command. The next verses are obligations owing the deliverance
from Egypt. They are to treat strangers
as natives under the law and are to love them as themselves because God treated
them in the same way in delivering them from the Egyptians who had not treated
them equitably, enslaving them. They were
not to be like the Egyptians once they had power in their own land, they were
to be like the Lord who delivered them.
What is it that causes people to seek out mediums, fortune
tellers and the like? Being anxious
about the future, fearfulness that it won't all be okay. Jesus says we are not to be anxious about the
future for one simple reason, God is sovereign and loves us. He has the future if we are His own
possession. We want more than the
necessities, we want not only today's bread, we want to already have tomorrow's
bread and He wants a more intimate, constant relationship and reliance that He
might prove Himself to us. One way of
living into the teaching from yesterday about storing up treasures is
simplicity of life. I am certainly not
there, not even sure I want to be there, but it is what we are called to
do.
Has anyone ever boasted about you for the persecutions and
afflictions you are enduring? I doubt I give
any reason to boast about me in affliction.
If they did, they don't know me truly.
I don't bear affliction well, most of us don't. Paul tells the Thessalonians, however, that
these are the righteous judgments of God that we may be considered worthy of
the kingdom. Those who persecute and
afflict us will suffer in return, eternally if they do not repent. Suffering, in Paul's economy, isn't an
option. He knew what was done to the
only truly righteous man who ever lived and knows that Jesus was right, if they
rejected Him they will surely reject us as well if we are pursuing
Christ-likeness. Our sufferings now will
make us worthy of the call and in the end will mean glory and honor in eternity. The future is longer term than any fortune
teller can know.
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