Why is God against clothes of mixed fabric, but He's Ok with wearing clothes made by underaged slaves?

Question

Or, to say it a little nicer: why are there so many trivial rules in the Bible? All what these trivial rules do is cause people to worry if they are doing something wrong, when they aren't even hurting others.

Answer 1

Um, maybe god has an incomplete understanding of the market forces that drive international trade?

Actually, the imposition of hundreds of stupid rules was just a way for the priests to increase their power. They collected a fee every time someone came to the temple to make a sacrifice; so guess who wrote the rules about when and why sacrifices were required?

Answer 2

These and other prohibitions were designed to forbid the Israelites to engage in fertility cult practices of the Canaanites. The Canaanites believed in sympathetic magic, the idea that symbolic actions can influence the gods and nature…. Mixing animal breeds, seeds, or materials was thought to “marry” them” so as magically to produce “offspring,” that is, agricultural bounty in the future.

Some biblical commands are not so culture- and context-dependent. We can recognize them by how frequently and in how many different contexts they are presented, and by the strength of their connection to identifiable culture-transcending principles. By those tests, Leviticus 19:19Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) is clearly tied to one time and one place, unlike commands relating to (for example) love for God and neighbor, honesty, integrity, and sexual behavior.

When atheists and SSM advocates laugh at Lev. 19:19Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) and other culture-dependent commands, what they’re really displaying is their ignorance of their own ignorance. They don’t know the culture they’re denigrating; and either they don’t know that they don’t know, or else they don’t care that they don’t know



Source:
http://www.thinkingchristian.net/posts/2013/01/why-wearing-clothes-of-mixed-fabrics-lev-1919-was-wrong/

Answer 3

the only people who really still follow those rules about not mixing specific fabrics are the Jews I believe....I may be wrong though and if so, please forgive me...

so....using the Torah, which is where you find those rules.....if you looked further you would see that there are also rules on how to treat those that work for you or how to treat those that do a service for you or how to treat the underprivileged

all of the rules, when taken on their own, may seem trivial but when added up make for a moral life

the problem comes in when people ignore those rules and mistreat people anyway

Answer 4

Are you talking about the old testament or the new testament? The reason God ordained all of those rules in the old testament is because he wanted to separate his chosen people from others (the pagans) behaviorally and spiritually. His intentions were to make them as different as possible. in the new testament the "rules" laid there are actually signs to look for in yourself, after you have accepted God. these "rules" are actually virtues that are to come naturally to you as you ardently follow the way of God. hope that answers your question.

Answer 5

There are rules because we all need rules, weather we like them or not or weather we think they are important or not. You may think that one rule is trivial and others may find it very important.

Do you really think god is ok with wearing clothes made by underaged slaves.??

Answer 6

Part of the reason for "the fall" of mankind is that we like to do things ourselves. We like to think we don't need God. That's the reason Satan told Eve that if she ate of the fruit she would be like God. She already was like God. He created her in His own image. Yet Satan wanted Eve to feel like God was cheating her in some way. And she did, and she ate.

But we all do it. We take matters into our own hands. We do it our way, as the song goes.

I think the Old Testament is like a progression of ways that won't work. Not because they can't work, but because people won't live by them. It's like God is saying "See, you've tried this, and here's what happened...."

At one time God spoke to all the fathers, and that didn't work. Then He spoke to prophets in all the nations and that didn't work. Having people stone murders, well, there are still murders. Didn't work. Self-regulation is a nice idea, but human beings, as a rule, are not that good at it. We end up with kind of a mess.

God made a promise to Eve that one of her children would triumph over Satan. The nation of Israel is God keeping His promise to Eve. It's not that He didn't have anything to do with other nations, but He used Israel to bring the Messiah. And part of Israel's job was to stay pure.

They had a special relationship with Him and they had special rituals to remind them of their purity before Him. Not mixing their fabrics was to be a reminder that they were to be "unmixed" with idolatrous nations around them.

They were very rules oriented, because after all, that's what we wanted - to do it ourselves. And to do it ourselves, we have to know the rules. We have to know what God knows. God knows sin is horrific. That's what all the sacrifices are about.

Most of the rules that seem trivial are highly symbolic in nature.

When Jesus came, He saw that the rulers (the Scribes and the Pharisees) had even created rules on top of God's rules. They had ceremonial washings and took God's laws about Sabbath rest and made it so you couldn't pick fruit if you were hungry because they considered it work.

No matter how rule oriented we are, it still doesn't save us. It doesn't work.

Thinking we have to do it ourselves makes us a little neurotic, truth be told.

So we have grace. I don't believe, as some do, that grace means I can do whatever I want and Jesus makes it okay. But I do think it means that I strive to do what God wants me to do, knowing that He helps me and that Jesus is my advocate when I fail.

Because Jesus fulfilled the old law, those ceremonial laws don't apply to me. I can mix fabrics and eat lobster (I really like lobster, btw), without guilt. It's not the law I am under.

Since I'm not a Jew, the ten commandments don't apply to me. I know that seems like a shocking statement to most people. That doesn't mean I can murder or steal. Jesus reiterated and expounded upon 9 of the 10 commandments. But I don't keep the Passover or rest on Saturday, because I'm not an Israelite.

I don't think the cultural laws were trivial. They served a purpose. But they aren't binding today. What is binding to day deals with the human heart: loving God and treating others as we would be treated. To paraphrase what Jesus said, all other law hinges on those two principles.

Answer 7

If you paid attention to who the rules where dictated too, then you would realize that the rules where for the "Chosen People" and where given for specific reasons (to set them apart from the rest of the world)

Answer 8

The Bible's "trivial rules" have a historical context. Once you understand that, then they won't seem so trivial.

Answer 9

Because the Biblical god is a nitpicking, petty, small minded old man who is determined to find SOMETHING wrong with everybody, no matter how good they are.

Or, because the people who wrote the Bible were nitpicking, petty, small minded old men, etc.

I say, why bother trying to please somebody who refuses to be pleased, no matter what you do?

Answer 10

The one I should worry about is the one where a person is allowed to stone their family if they are caught bowing down to a foreign god.

And that applies also to extended families.