The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

• Leviticus 19:1-2

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the Lord.

• Leviticus 19:18

This may be the hardest quiz ever – except for maybe the Handel’s Messiah quiz, but there are only three possible answers and I will give you the answers.

The answers are: Exodus 22, Leviticus 19, and Deuteronomy 22.

Each of these chapters of the Bible have miscellaneous rules or laws.  It looks like the rules simply come out at random.  Thus, if you really know which of the quoted verses are in each of the three chapters, you might need to check yourself for an eidetic memory.  As a hint, there are six verses from each of these chapters.  There are some similarities.  If you get those verses reversed, don’t feel too bad.

While many look at these rules and laugh, there was great wisdom in the rules.  Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18 (above) when declaring that loving one another is equal to loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (at least three of these), as the Greatest Commandments.

But as for the multitude of rules, God does not wish to have great rule followers; He wishes to have a personal relationship with each of us.  Part of the changes within us when we accept Jesus is that we will wish to follow most of the rules.  God lifted the rule about eating unclean animals, but then some animals require special preparation to prevent medical issues down the road – thus the rule, to keep His people healthy.

I recently saw a television show where the scientist explained the bizarre practice in Leviticus 14 regarding defiling skin diseases.  The mixture that is sprinkled onto the unclean person’s skin is a mixture of the blood of a bird, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn.  This sounds bizarre until to realize that each ingredient provided a small amount of healing ingredients that we use today, such as anti-inflammatories and antibiotics.  There was great wisdom in those many, many rules.

The mechanics of this quiz will be that the Bible verses will be quoted in their entirety.  The “question” will be: Is this verse in Exodus 22, Leviticus 19, or Deuteronomy 22?  And to be honest, these are only a few of the chapters with a multitude of single statement rules.  God wanted to keep his chosen people healthy as well as holy, as the Scripture above states.

In the Bible Reference section, the verse number will be added.  I know, not much help.  Also not much help is that the verse numbers of each pair of verses, starting with questions 1 & 2, equals a multiple of four except for questions 5 and 6.  I know, I am a bundle of unhelpful hints today.

But there is one examination creation rule that I violated.  I will explain after the answers, but if you can trip onto what I did “wrong,” the entire quiz is solved.  Please, do not get too angry when you find out what this unhelpful hint is – unless of course, you figure it out.

The Questions:

#	Book & Chapter	Verse	The Rules of that Verse
1			“‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
2			“You are to be my holy people.  So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.
3			If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it.  Help the owner get it to its feet.
4			“‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life.  I am the Lord.
5			“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.(
6			Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
7			“‘Keep my decrees. “‘Do not mate different kinds of animals. “‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. “‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.(
8			“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.
9			Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
10			“‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God.  I am the Lord.
11			“Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.
12			When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(
13			“‘Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. “‘Do not practice divination or seek omens.(
14			“Do not allow a sorceress to live.
15			A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
16			“‘Do not steal. “‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another.
17			“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
18			Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

Some of these rules I simply picked randomly, maybe I just liked the concept.  Frankly, I think that I could possibly right a post on each of these rules.  Okay, most of them.

Question 1:  Have you ever had wages withheld?  For something that was a clerical error on the part of the person withholding the wages?  And when you called them on it, they apologized and hoped (not promised) that the error might be corrected within a month … or so?  In truth it was three weeks later, but we ate a lot of very simple meals that month, maybe lost a few pounds as we also skipped meals.

Questions 2 & 3: Some rules tell you what to do rather than strictly saying what not to do.

Question 5, 10 & 17: A lot is said about helping widows and orphans and the helpless (like the handicapped or foreigners in your land, to some extent).  We can start by simply not taking advantage or mistreating them.

Questions 18 & the last item of 7: A tailor or seamstress could tell you what is wrong with doing that.  As an engineer, I had to be concerned about certain metals in contact with one another that could gall.  With these metals, one metal can react with the other, causing them to bond or adhere to one another.  That may not be a problem unless the two metal surfaces need to move, like a valve body and the seating surface that shuts or opens, or an elbow joint in a mechanism, or a bolt and nut combination.

A couple of hints: One of these three books is more “lethal” than the other two, and one of the other books emphasizes that these rules come directly from God, using a commonly used phrase, but not in every verse.

Bible References:

#	Book & Chapter	Verse	The Rules of that Verse
1		13	“‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
2		31	“You are to be my holy people.  So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.
3		4	If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it.  Help the owner get it to its feet.
4		16	“‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life.  I am the Lord.
5		22	“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.(
6		12	Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
7		19	“‘Keep my decrees. “‘Do not mate different kinds of animals. “‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. “‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.(
8		25	“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.
9		10	Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
10		14	“‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God.  I am the Lord.
11		20	“Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.
12		8	When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(
13		26	“‘Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. “‘Do not practice divination or seek omens.(
14		18	“Do not allow a sorceress to live.
15		5	A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
16		11	“‘Do not steal. “‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another.
17		21	“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
18		11	Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

Question 14 had an unfortunate consequence in Salem, Massachusetts.  It is said that one person wanted the land or possessions of another and claimed that the other person was a witch (sorceress).  One of their tests to see if the woman was a witch was to dunk them in a pond, since “everybody knows” a witch cannot be drowned.  Strange, the only women to be killed in that test were the innocent ones.

I did not shy away from question 15.  In Leviticus 18, much of the chapter is devoted to Sexual Laws.  We all sin, and God is in the business of forgiving sin if we repent, turn away from the sin, and if we forgive those who sin against us.  Ultimately, it is the correct relationship that we have with God that matters, but we must each consider whether we believe in a God that encompasses the entire Bible or a god that we have created ourselves that we have created by cherry picking verses in the Bible that we like and ignoring everything else.

One verse that I did not choose was Leviticus 19:28.  It states that we must not cut or tattoo our bodies.  I have a son who has several tattoos.  I wish he had none.  Most of his tattoos illustrate his love for God.  He could, and has, used those tattoos to talk to other tattoo enthusiasts about Jesus.  I also have several dear friends who have a number of tattoos.  When I was growing up, I was taught to run away from such people.  I would never get a tattoo.  I may have not been the best steward of this body that God gave me, but God did not make any mistakes.  I am what I am as God made me and as I made my mistakes.

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The Answers:

#	Book & Chapter	Verse	The Rules of that Verse
1	Leviticus 19:	13	“‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
2	Exodus 22:	31	“You are to be my holy people.  So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.
3	Deuteronomy 22:	4	If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it.  Help the owner get it to its feet.
4	Leviticus 19:	16	“‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life.  I am the Lord.
5	Exodus 22:	22	“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.(
6	Deuteronomy 22:	12	Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
7	Leviticus 19:	19	“‘Keep my decrees. “‘Do not mate different kinds of animals. “‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. “‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.(
8	Exodus 22:	25	“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.
9	Deuteronomy 22:	10	Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
10	Leviticus 19:	14	“‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God.  I am the Lord.
11	Exodus 22:	20	“Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.
12	Deuteronomy 22:	8	When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(
13	Leviticus 19:	26	“‘Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. “‘Do not practice divination or seek omens.(
14	Exodus 22:	18	“Do not allow a sorceress to live.
15	Deuteronomy 22:	5	A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
16	Leviticus 19:	11	“‘Do not steal. “‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another.
17	Exodus 22:	21	“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
18	Deuteronomy 22:	11	Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

Did you notice the rhythm?  All of the answer are in the rhythm of Leviticus, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Exodus, Deuteronomy …  Expert test takers look for such rhythms and patterns in multiple choice tests.  This is similar to the thought that if you do not know the answer, choose “C”.  Thus, test writers try their best to break up that rhythm, and I would count the answers for each option and make sure they were near the same and never with “C” having the most.  Automatic computer-generated tests, either with the ability to shuffle the answers or not, are supposed to have these factors built into their randomization routines.  In such exams, it is important to test the knowledge, not the ability to find the writer’s “mistake.”

As for the cryptic hints: Not allowing sorceresses to live and destroying those people who worship false gods are both in Exodus, questions 11 and 14.  And only two of the selected verses end in “I am the Lord.”  These are questions 4 and 10, both from Leviticus, and in reading a few of these chapters in Leviticus, you get into the rhythm, after every 2-3 verses ending with “I am the Lord.”

And regardless of how you did, here is a song by Michael W. Smith, Above All.  There are so many rules in the Bible that we cannot live up to, but Jesus paid the price.  Jesus “took the fall, and thought of me, above all.”

And all the old will be made new; let’s listen to Casting Crowns, Scars in Heaven.

We all try to do what is right, but we keep screwing up.  We are broken.  We are “just a beggar in the presence of a King.”  Here is Matthew West’s Broken Things.

And for a change of pace, here is the Oasis Chorale singing Lyle Stutzman hymn, I am the Lord.  Since those words are peppered throughout Leviticus 19, I had to include it.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.