Leviticus: Laws and Family Sorrows

Okay, so I read Leviticus and I can't help but wonder why Plotz doesn't understand that it is boring. Sure he may have other motives for reading the thing than I do, but at no point did I find the entire book to be interesting. Basically God expounds on the laws that he's already given Moses. That's right, pretty much this whole book God is talking to Moses on a mountain and I guess the poor guy has got to trek back and forth up and down this thing for a few weeks so he can get all of this down word for word. After all, it takes forty days to get the ten commandments and we know that the Israelites weren't slacking in his absence. Nope. They were busy building a golden calf. (By the way, Aaron did that and there is no mention of a punishment for him anywhere in the book.)

Anyways, if you pay close enough attention while Moses is writing all of these crazy laws down, two pretty brutal stories take place. The first comes just after God explains to Moses what needs to be burned on the altar and what kind of oils and incenses to use. Of course, two of Aaron's sons must have messed up somehow because as soon as they take the oil that they made into the tabernacle their fried. Now I'm imagining this scene was pretty gruesome, especially for Aaron who has to watch his son's die, but they aren't even mourned. Instead God admonishes both Moses and Aaron to be more careful next time. (Thanks for the warning system. One strike and you're out I guess.

The other story is just as short and pretty much as brutal. Two guys get in a fight and one of them happens to say God's name in a way that the big man doesn't like. Solution: have everybody stone him. First up are the people who heard him, which if I read it right includes the guy's entire family. That's right swear at God and he'll not only execute you but have your family do it. I'm starting to see God as something less than the family man I saw him as before.