These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy … - Leviticus 7:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 22, 2015): Leviticus 7                                        

In the musical movie “Grease,” Olivia Newton-John sang her country rock classic song “Hopelessly Devoted to You” to a small pool with an imagined image of her co-star John Travolta. The message is clear, Danny (the character played by Travolta) doesn’t deserve her love, but she has no choice - her devotion belongs only to him.

To the outsider, Sandy’s devotion (the character played by Newton-John) to Danny makes no sense – or maybe it only makes sense in a teenage sort of way – and since Grease is a movie about teenage love, maybe that does make some kind of teenage sense. But, for Sandy, her devotion is hopeless, because all Danny will ever do is break her heart. He does not deserve her devotion, and yet, at least according to the song, that is what she says that she has to give to him. In fact, Sandy is not just “hopelessly devoted,” she is also wholly devoted – no one else deserves what it is that she has. She is willing to give herself to Danny, and only to Danny.

Okay, the movie is kind of cheesy, but it illustrates an interesting point when we are trying to understand some aspects of the Mosaic Law. Some regulations, and places, we are told are “most holy.” In English it almost sounds like a hierarchy placing these things that are most holy at the top of a long list. In regard to the guilt offering, when we read the words “most holy,” we think that means that nothing can be holier. And while that is true, it isn’t exactly what the words “most holy” really mean.

In Jewish thought there seems to be two categories of things that are called holy. Some were “most holy” but others were “light holy” – and the difference was that “most holy” meant that these were to be wholly (but not hopelessly) devoted to God or the priesthood for sacred use. For the things that were light holy, that was not true. So a Fellowship or a Peace Offering was considered to be light holy, because the sacrifice was to be shared between the God, in the form of the priests, and one who brought the offering. It was a great offering, one that honored God, but the offering was not wholly devoted to God or the priests, so it could not be most holy.

The Guilt Offering, on the other hand, was to be “most holy.” The whole offering had to be wholly devoted to God or the priests – it could not be given to anyone but God. The guilt offering was totally sacred. It could be nothing else and still make atonement for our sins. Only this devotion, unlike Sandy’s, was not hopeless – it was the design of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 8