Leviticus 19:19
19 ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.
Okay, I’ve got to write something here, at least so it doesn’t look like I’m afraid to! This verse is a bit of a curve ball to me, to tell the truth, and I think it would be even if I had grown up on a farm or ranch. Why the agricultural, animal husbandry, and textile related commands? I’m not sure. I’ve looked in a couple of commentaries and found one theory has to do with the holiness of God—that to mix the breeds and seeds somehow communicates a want of respect for the “separate otherness” of our transcendent Creator. (Holiness = separateness, etc.) Another approach is that these three commands are all actually common-sense rules for running a good farm: The mixing of cattle weakens the breed; the mixing of seeds diminishes the crop and presents harvesting challenges, etc. One commentator mentioned that to mix wool and other types of fabric for clothing was actually dangerous to the wearer—resulting in an increased skin temperature, which could cause boils to break out on the skin! These explanations aren’t very compelling to me. God’s people may have been stubborn and spiritually immature, but they weren’t stupid. There is plenty of evidence that the surrounding peoples of the land of Canaan had a developed farming industry. To tell the truth, if I were to see a herd of all cross-bred cattle, or one field or varied types of grain, I don’t think the word “unholy” would come to mind… Lazy, perhaps…but not unholy.
So, why these three commands? Perhaps they are given to aid the Israelites in forming a culture that is different in its treatment of animals and land. Perhaps a blurring of breeds would create a singularly unique animal, but would erase the beauty of one particular type of breed. Perhaps God likes different breeds of cattle. Perhaps to sow your field with two different kinds of seed would make you look like a desperate, foolish farmer instead of a person who worked hard, played by the rules, and trusted God for the outcome. Perhaps wearing clothing from two different kinds of cloth…. Well, I’m open to suggestion on that one! Whatever the exact reasons for these divine commandments given to the Israelites, we can say with relative certainty that God cares about how we treat the animals we raise for food, the land that we sow our seed on, and how we put to use the resources that we gain from land and animals.
(Whew… Glad I’m done with that one….!)
April 6, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Ken, I have always held the view that these laws communicated the holiness of God. I think your first interpretation. Can you explain why this is wrong? Doesn’t the broader context of Leviticus seek to teach us that God is holy?
April 7, 2009 at 10:39 am
Hi Joe, and thank you for joining me in the Leviticus Challenge! I too, have always held the “holiness of God” idea as being the reason for these laws, and am sure that God’s holiness is a big factor. However, the purpose of Leviticus itself seems more of a description of the nature of fellowship with God (through faith in sacrifices, obedience to His commands, etc.), than it does an example of His holiness, or even a text for living in such a way that demonstrates that He is holy. “The blessings of obedience” seems a stronger argument for the book’s content than “the holiness of God demonstrated in His commands.” The reason I say this is because the holiness argument isn’t as clear to me in the book, and I don’t find believers in the Bible ever told to “be holy” so that God’s holiness will be evident, but instead they are to “be holy” simply because “God is holy.”
As for the immediate context, the verse itself, the intent regarding the mixing of “breeds and seeds” seems more closely connected to the idea of obedience–”You are to keep My statutes…” That’s the WHAT of the verse. The WHY of it (which is the issue we’re really discussing) is where I’ve developed some scepticism of the holiness argument. Mixed breeds do not suggest unholiness to me, nor do purebreds lead me to think of God’s holiness. If the simple mixing of a particular bloodline (same species, different breed) in itself suggests unholiness, by what logic or reasononing should the prohibition be limited to animals? Should people of different ethnicities intermarry, and if they do, are they less holy? Of course not, and the intermarriage in the Bible of some very prominent men would suggest so (Judah, Moses, Boaz, Salmon, David, etc.) But nonetheless, consistency would demand such an absurd conclusion if applied to both animals and people.
So, I have to ask myself, “is there any reason I can find in the world of the ancients that would suggest that mixed breeding/sowing, etc. was a particularly bad thing, or suggestive that the breeder/farmer worshiped a less-than-holy deity? If so, I haven’t found that information.
So, it would seem to me that God’s holiness (which is a huge factor here, esp. in realation to how He is compared with the idols of the surrounding nations) is meant to be communcated here through the obedience of His people to His Word, and not through the particular stipulations of that Word itself. I’m sure there’s a very good reason behind the “no mixing” laws here, but I don’t think I’ve discovered it myself!
What a BLESSING you are to me, Joe!
Thanks,
Ken