Strange Laws

Leviticus 19:19
Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your fields with two different kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
Deuteronomy 22:9-11
Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled. Do not plow with an Ox and a Donkey yoked together. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
Have you ever had one of those times when you were reading your Bible, and you read some passage or chapter, and found yourself asking, “What in the world is that all about?” I know that I have. Believe me, I have found myself scratching my head on many occasions! But that just makes me want to dig deeper to gain understanding, instead of just giving up, thinking that it just doesn’t make sense. Everything in the Bible is there for a reason. We are supposed to do the work to gain the understanding. I hope you feel that way also, and you will join with me for a few moments to look at one such Scripture that initially puzzled me.
The purpose of this study is to examine these laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which, to us seem strange now as we read them, and discover two things:
First: What was the significance of these laws to the Israelites at the time they were written?
Second: What significance do they have for us now?
If we interpret these laws as they are translated in the New International Version of the Bible, as well as the Amplified Bible, the first of them appears to be a law against cross breeding animals, not specifically just bovine, as indicated by the word “cattle” in the King James Version of the Bible. Although the command is worded differently in Deuteronomy, with the emphasis more on using different kinds of animals while plowing, rather than on breeding, the principle is the same. This command has been broken in the breeding of a male ass and a female horse to create the mule, which is a hybrid, incapable of reproducing.
The second command listed here has also been broken in the agricultural field in what is referred to as “hybridization”. Hybridization involves controlled crosses between two parent plants. A plant produced by the cross between two varieties of the same species is known as a crossbreed. A plant produced by a cross between two different species is known as a hybrid. Pollen from the stamen, or male element, of one plant is transferred to the pistil, or female element of another plant. Examples of different kinds of plants that have been produced by hybridization include cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts, all of which originated from the cabbage.
The third command listed here has been broken by the textiles industry in the creation of new kinds of cloth by combining different kinds of fabrics.
These examples may not seem that significant to us, but by examining what these laws meant to the Israelites in their culture, we will be able to see how the same principles that motivated the giving of these laws can be applied to our culture.
As Matthew Henry writes in his commentary on the Scriptures:
“There appears not anything at all of moral evil in these things, and therefore we make no conscience of sowing wheat and rye together, plowing with horses and oxen together, and wearing linsey-woolsey garments; but hereby is forbidden either, 1. A conformity to some idolatrous custom of the heathen, or, 2. That which is contrary to the plainness and purity of an Israelite. They must not gratify their own vanity and curiosity by putting together what the Creator, in infinite wisdom had made asunder.”
Chapters 17-27 of Leviticus have been referred to as “The Holiness Code” because they cover a variety of topics applicable to both the people and the priests. Many of these laws were given to help Israel avoid the unholy customs of the pagans whom they were supposed to drive out in their conquest of the land of Canaan.
“The covenant community was charged to keep certain laws of ceremonial cleanness, that there might be a difference between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean. A holy God called His chosen people to be a holy nation. The nation was to be consecrated to Yahweh, and to regulate life and conduct by the ideal furnished in His law.” (Exploring the Old Testament, W.T. Purkiser)
Let’s consider what Matthew Henry says here: “They must not gratify their own vanity and curiosity by putting together that which the Creator in infinite wisdom had made asunder.” There is much wisdom here that we can apply to our times. Consider the issue, for example, of genetic engineering. There are a lot of things we have figured out how to do. The question is not “Can we do it?” The question should be “Should we do it?”
According to the Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, “The underlying principle is the sacredness of life.” The writer goes on to say: “All living things, and the earth itself that supports all life are to be treated with reverence; they are not man’s to be used wantonly at his good pleasure; they are God’s. The earth contains certain resources, e.g. coal and oil. They are intended by God for the use of man on this planet, they are not to be raped by a single generation. Spirituality shows itself in the use of things. Religion is concerned with the practice of farming, the planting of crops, the clothes we wear.”
This position is also supported by the Beacon Bible Commentary. The Hebrew word “habdalah” illustrates this principle of separation. The principle of habdalah was to characterize all of life. What God had separated, they were to keep separated. This principle is exhibited in extreme fashion in such groups as the Amish and the Mennonites in our time.
According to the Beacon Bible Commentary, Hosea 2:5 and 9 suggests that the Canaanites attributed different products to different baals (gods), so that the garments made of mixed materials may have had a pagan significance.
Matthew Henry suggests that the best explanation for the giving of these particular laws can be found in the Genesis account of Creation:
Genesis 1:11
And the Lord said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth, and it was so.”
Genesis 1:24
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creatures, after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and the beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so.”
The fact that God made everything that lives with the ability to produce offspring like itself shows us the inherent purity and sanctity of things as they were originally created by God.
The Abingdon Bible Commentary also supports this idea: “The underlying concept may be that of distinction of species, each species has its distinct and divinely given characteristics which are not to be interfered with.” Abingdon also suggests that there is evidence that cloth mixtures had associations with magic. Leviticus 19:20 says, “Do not practice divination or sorcery.”

Conclusions:
The significance of these laws for the Israelites in Old Testament times:
God had established His covenant with Israel, and it was His intent and purpose to make them into a holy people. One of the factors contributing to their ability to live as a holy people was to separate themselves from the practices and lifestyles of the surrounding pagans who were involved in every kind of ungodly act from temple orgies to pagan gods, magic spells and incantations, to offering their children as burned sacrifices to idols. If it was the custom of the pagans to plow with unequally yoked beasts of burden, then Israel must refrain from this. If it was the custom of the pagans to mix seeds when planting, then Israel must refrain from this. If it was the custom of the pagans to wear garments made of mixed fabrics, then they must refrain from doing this as well. This may be seen as the negative side of the command.
This same principle is followed in the practices of the churches within the holiness movement. Many of these churches have clear statements against participation in such things as social dancing and card playing. The idea can be stated something like this: “If the heathens do such and such a thing, then we do not do it.”
As the prophet Jeremiah states: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the people are worthless.” (Jeremiah 10:2-3a)
The problem with this approach to holiness is that the rationale behind why certain things are forbidden, and other things are not, gets a bit arbitrary. It can be very subjective. As this applies to us, some would argue that Christians should not get tattoos, stating that it defiles the body. Others see no problem with Christians getting tattoos. It is really more of a matter of why the person is getting the tattoo.  This is just an example. Many other issues could be addressed.
The positive side of the commands can be seen in the difference between the world-view of the Hebrews and that of the pagans. All the pagan creation myths contain elements of immorality and chaos. Even in Greek mythology, we see the elements of chaos and immorality depicted in the life of “the gods.”
In the Greek Orphic tradition, Time (Cronos) creates the silver egg of the Cosmos. Phanes-Dionysus, the androgynous being, bursts forth from the egg. Phanes-Dionysus supposedly contains with himself / herself the seeds for all the gods.
The Earth Diver myth, which is common among Native American tribes, tells of a giant turtle who dives down into the watery abyss and comes back up with slime under his toenails. Earth Initiator, whoever that is, scrapes the slime out from under the turtle’s toenails, and made ground out of it.
Contrast these bizarre fables with the Hebrew world-view of a holy God who created the world out of nothing simply through His spoken Word. Yahweh’s creation is not chaotic and arbitrary. It is orderly and purposeful. Yahweh created everything perfectly, and to serve a perfect purpose. With this world-view, we can see why it was seen as essential for the Israelites not to tamper with God’s created order.
If there were any pagan magic practices that existed at the time, that involved a violation of any of these laws, it was essential that Israel not become involved in any of these, for magic and divination of any kind is totally unacceptable to Yahweh.
The significance of these laws for the Christian dispensation:
We must learn the principles of being separated from this world’s system. We must not pattern our lives after it. We operate by a different set of values and priorities:
John 16:19
“If you were of the world, the world would love his own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. (This refers to man’s fallen world system, not God’s creation.) If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does- comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of My Father lives forever. ”
James 4:4
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
Christians cannot use the same criteria that the world uses in determining the value of things. We must not employ the world-view of secular humanists and atheists to make critical decisions over issues of life and death. These issues include abortion and euthanasia. If we make our decisions based on the Biblical view of the sanctity of life, and not on the matter of simple expediency, we will not condone any activity that cheapens life.
There is a poisonous mind-set that is prevalent in our society that devalues and ridicules the hard issues of life that God uses to grow and mature us as people. In this mind-set, children are viewed as cumbersome to our success and fun. Pregnancy is view as a “problem” that needs to be solved. Marital challenges are viewed as problems that need to be eradicated rather than worked through. The divorce court is seen as the quick solution to the problem. (Actually, in reality, it creates more problems than it solves.)
God uses the hard issues of life to grow and mature us. When we avoid dealing with hard issues, we abort the maturation process, and we live like old children in our view of life. Some people never “grow up”, they simply get older physically. A lot of people in our society have the psychological and emotional make up of children. They are just walking around in old bodies.
Next, we learn the value of trusting God, and leaving things the way He created them, and not trying to change them, willy-nilly, to suit our own ill-informed, self-serving purposes. God does not make mistakes. He does not need for us to fix His blunders. We could use a hefty dose of godly wisdom on many current issues, such as genetic and atomic engineering. We are opening Pandora’s box, and standing on a very dangerous and slippery slope as we tread into many of these areas.
We have a lot of knowledge, but we are sorely lacking in wisdom. Knowledge, strictly speaking is just having and knowing information. Wisdom, on the other hand, is knowing how to use that knowledge in the correct way, or knowing whether the knowledge even needs to be used at all. Knowledge asks the question: “How do we get to Mars?” Wisdom asks the question: “Do we even need to get to Mars at all?”
People can have a lot of knowledge without really learning anything. Real learning is more than simply knowing how to regurgitate the correct answers to pass a test.
We live in what has been called “The information age”. Our mantra is “Information (knowledge) is power.” The internet gives us access to more information than we could ever want or need. We are constantly bombarded with so much unnecessary information that unless we know how to simply filter out most of what we see and hear on a daily basis, the overload of information becomes overwhelming. The problem with our culture is that our knowledge has outran our wisdom. Knowledge is leading the race. Unless this changes, we are in big trouble!
Having said that, I think it is needful to state that there is a great need for proper balance in our understanding and use of technology. When I use the term “technology”, I am using it in the broader, anthropological sense, “the body of knowledge available to a civilization that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials.” (The American Heritage Dictionary) Used in this way, a simpler way of saying this is “How we use stuff.” We have come to use the term “technology” in too narrow a sense lately, referring only to stuff having to do with electronics and computers.
Some cultures go to extremes in avoiding any use of what they refer to as “modern technology”, such as the Amish of southern Pennsylvania. The problem that I personally have with this practice is that the line that is drawn to distinguish what is considered modern is a bit arbitrary. What is considered modern to one generation is not modern at all to another. Much is made of the issue of leaving things in their original state, which is what we have touched on in this study of these Old Testament laws that seem strange to us now.
Let’s think about this for a moment: All of what we use as it comes from nature is stuff that we manipulate in some way to suit our purposes. When we fashion things out of metal, we are heating the metal, and shaping it in some way. It could be argued that to melt the metal down is to alter its original form. When we make things out of glass, we are melting down sand and reforming it. All of this is technology in the strictest sense. How do you differentiate between whether it is acceptable to cut down a tree and make a wagon wheel from the wood, and not acceptable to make a gasoline powered motor to drive the wagon that the wheel is attached to? In both instances you are manipulating base elements. Most likely the wagon wheel would also be treated with some substance that would prevent it from rotting. In other words, you are altering the original form.
Advertisers use arbitrary terminology with such phrases as “all natural ingredients”, that have a psychological appeal to people who fancy themselves as being more health conscious. I am not saying that we all should not be more health conscious. We certainly should. But we should not allow ourselves to be psychologically manipulated by terminology that is used simply for the selling of a product. What does the term “all natural ingredients” mean anyway? Basically it means nothing. Everything that is made comes initially from all natural ingredients. Everything we have access to on planet Earth comes from nature. Thus, everything starts with “all natural ingredients”. I am not aware of anyone importing things from outer space to manufacture marketable products.
Morphine is derived from Poppy, which is a naturally occurring plant. Marijuana is also a naturally occurring plant. I do not advocate the use of either, other than for purely medical purposes, specifically, pain relief in certain situations. Just because it is a naturally occurring substance does not mean that we should make use of it frequently, and for the wrong reasons. To a person experiencing a kidney stone attack, morphine is a blessing. To a junky who feeds it into his veins to escape reality, it is a curse. A person who is experiencing the nausea of radiation therapy, or to someone with neuropathy, the THC in Marijuana can bring needed relief. That does not mean we should make it readily available to the general public so everyone can walk around stoned all the time. The Apostle Paul advised Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach ailments. He did not advise Timothy to get drunk and make a fool out of himself.
As for the principles I have deduced from this study, here are the conclusions I have come to:
Concerning living things, specifically animals, plants, and human beings, we have no business tinkering with the basic building blocks of life itself, and attempting to alter those things. We understand a lot more now than we used to about DNA, and how it works, although our knowledge in this area is still only scratching the surface.
God made all living things to reproduce “after their kind”. There is a divinely ordained reason for all living things to stay just as God made them. When we begin to tinker around with altering life forms, we are tip-toeing into an area in which we have no business. We are trespassing on property onto which, with the words “after their kind” God has placed a huge “No Trespassing” sign. We are opening up the possibility of creating new and dangerous life forms that make Frankenstein’s monster pale in comparison to what we could potentially unleash. This is the main principle that I think we should take from these Old Testament laws.
Concerning how we manipulate inanimate materials, I think there is a lot of gray area. Determining what is, and what is not appropriate in regards to the manipulation of inanimate matter can be very subjective. There is room for a great deal of debate on these matters. I think the questions we need to ask are: first, “Is the change necessary and beneficial? Is there some benefit that can be derived from the changes that we make to base elements? Are there also disadvantages? Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, or vice-versa? Will it ultimately be detrimental to the environment and to our well-being? (Take plastic for example. We use plastic in everything, and it has many convenient uses. However, plastic’s biodegradability (or the lack thereof) leaves much to be desired. Plastic, as far as we can ascertain from our finite observations, does not rot and go back to nature. Plastic, once it is made, remains forever plastic.)
In conclusion, two basic issues are raised by these strange Old Testament laws:
How do we mix with the world’s system and operate within it, and yet not become entangled in it and allow the world’s value system to interfere with how we live by God’s eternal kingdom principles and plans?
How do we use “stuff” in the proper way without abusing it, and making a huge mess out of God’s creation?
Hopefully, I have sparked enough of an interest in you, the reader, to get you thinking more deeply on these matters, and coming to the right conclusions for yourself.