고기는 누구나 먹되 피는 먹지 마라 신명기 12장

신명기 12장은 고기는 누구나 먹되 피는 먹지 말라고 하시고 우상 숭배를 경계하며 하나님이 정하신 예배 규례에 대한 강조가 담겨 있습니다. 특히 예배를 아무 때나 아무 곳에서나 드리는 것이 아닌 한곳에 집중되게 가르친 게 인상적입니다.

 

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점령하고 파괴하라

1."These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and bum their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

 

 

참으로 잔인한 하나님입니다. 남이 살던 땅을 뺏는 것도 너무하다 싶은데 문화도 말살하고 파괴하라고 하는 것이 좀 지나치다 싶습니다. 그러나 하나님이 이스라엘 백성에게 그리 명한 이유는 아마도 선진화된 문명이기에 미개한 토착인들을 말살하려고 했던 것 같습니다. 하나님이 극혐한 문화 중에는 인신제나 성적의식 등이 포함되어 있다고 하니까요.

 

 

신명기 11장 읽기

기억은 순종의 기초 신명기 11장

 

 

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자유로운 예배 금지

8 "You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite who is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you. 

 

 

이런저런 얘기를 하는 가운데 13절이 인상적입니다. 너희는 스스로 조심하여 너희가 보는 아무 곳에나 번제를 드리지 말라고 하십니다. 이것은 아무 곳에서나 예배를 드리지 말라는 것인데요. 고대 근동 문화에서는 자신이 원하는 장소에서 신을 숭배하거나 제사를 드리는 일이 빈번했습니다. 하나님은 이 역시 옳지 못하다고 판단하시고 특별히 선택한 장소에서 예배를 드리라고 한 것 같습니다. 훗날 예루살렘 성전이 되었고요.

 

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육식을 허하되 피는 먹지 말라

 

 

15. "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

 

하나님은 먹는 것도 꼼꼼하게 알려 주십니다. 부정하거나 정결한자나 모두 원하는 고기를 먹을 수 있지만 대신 피는 먹지말고 물처럼 쏟아 버려야 한다고 합니다. 피를 먹지 말라고 한 것은 단순히 위생적 차원에서 한 주의라기보다는 당시 피를 꿀떡꿀떡 마시는 풍습이 많았던 모양입니다. 이는 종교적 영향으로 보이며 여호와 입장에서는 이단숭배처럼 보여서 그런 것 같기도 하고요. 또한, 사는 동안 레위인을 잊지 않도록 주의하라고 합니다.

 

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고기는 먹고 싶은 만큼 먹어라

 

20 " When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, 'I will eat meat', because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall bot eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose, 27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28. Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you for ever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

 

 

반복되는 내용입니다. 원하는 육고기는 얼마든지 먹을 수 있다고 합니다. 그러면서 피는 절대 마시지 말라고 하는데요. 그 이유가 바로 피가 생명이기 때문이라고 합니다. 이와 같은 내용은 레위기 17장 11절에 상세하게 나와 있습니다. 성경에서 명시된 내용뿐만 아니라 고대 사회는 피를 흘리면 죽는다고 생각했기에 생명의 원천으로 인식한 것이죠. 그리고 성경에서는 피가 생명을 넘어 속죄의 기능을 합니다.

 

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피의 금지 우상숭배 금지

 

29 "When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not enquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?-that I also may do the same.' 31 You shall bot worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

 

 32. "Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.