Leviticus 19:26

Leviticus 19:26 says, Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.  Here the prohibition against eating blood had two other prohibitions added, and that was using enchantments or observing times.  This would be the casting of spells and considering some days more fortunate than others.  We may think of Friday the thirteenth as an example, but we should think of horoscopes and superstitions as well.  God alone is in charge of the world, and not mother nature or a day of the calendar.  Verse twenty-seven adds, Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.  Matthew Henry says this had to do with attempting to make themselves resemble heavenly orbs, but it had more to do with the reason behind doing this than the actual hair or beard style.  Verse twenty-eight continues, Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.  This could be viewed as not cutting themselves at all or having tattoos, but once again it goes beyond that to the belief that this would somehow have an influence on the dead.  Once a person is dead, their everlasting fate is determined, and nothing that we do can change that.  Verse twenty-nine states, Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.  This would seem to be a very unnecessary command, but this was done in a lot of heathen worship.  If the people of Israel began to follow these heathen practices then before long the whole land would become full of wickedness.  Verse thirty adds, Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.  The people were to keep the sabbath and to reverence the sanctuary of God.  We today need to keep the sabbath, or the Lord's Day as we observe it, sacred and to reverence God at all times in our lives, since if we are a follower of Christ then our bodies are the temple, or tabernacle, of the Holy Spirit.  Verse thirty-one continues, Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.  There are fortune tellers today, and as Christians, we are to avoid them, just as the people of Israel were.  No one, other than God Himself, can foretell the future, and for a Christian to seek out someone who says they can is simply against God's command.  Verse thirty-two says, Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.  The people of Israel were warned against mistreating the elderly, and we know that a lot of that goes on today.  As followers of Christ, we need to make sure that we are not guilty of doing this.  Verse thirty-three adds,  And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.  The people of Israel were warned against mistreating strangers who lived in their land.  This would have been people of a different nationality, and we are not to mistreat or even look down on people of different nationalities today if they are in our land, because in God's eyes we are all equal and all the land is His land.  Verse thirty-four continues, But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.  This goes a little farther in how the people of Israel were to treat strangers in their land and says that they are to be treated as if they were born in the land and loved as a person loved them self.  I believe that God expects the same today.  Verse thirty-five declares, Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.  Then verse thirty-six states, Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.  The people of Israel were not to cheat anyone by using false measurements.  Because God is God, they were to be honest in all their dealings with others, and so should we today as Christians.  We should never attempt to cheat others, because it reflects on our relationship with God.  Verse thirty-seven adds, Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.  The people of Israel were to obey all of God's statutes and His judgments, because He was the LORD.  This has never changed.  We may put the Ten Commandments on all the walls of every building in the land, but unless we write them on our hearts by faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and live by His direction, it will do no good.