Profane חָלַל

We are in chapter nineteen of Leviticus with our word for today. חָלַל be defiled, put into use, profane, pollute, begin. It is used 135 times in the Old Testament, 3 times in our chapter. We find our word used the most in the sense to begin, to start. A couple of good examples are how the feast of weeks was calculated and the effectiveness of Joshua’s leadership. Deuteronomy 16:9 You shall count seven weeks. תָּחֵ֣ל Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Joshua 3:7 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today אָחֵל֙ I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Our word is also used in the sense of defile, to make morally or ritually impure. Jeremiah 16:17-18 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because חַלְּלָ֣ם they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” This is how our word is used 3 times in our chapter today. Leviticus 19:5-8, 12, 29 When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is tainted; it will not be accepted, and everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because חִלֵּ֑ל he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people … You shall not swear by my name falsely, וְחִלַּלְתָּ֛ and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord … Do not תְּחַלֵּ֥ל profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. Notice these three things if peace offering, using God’s name to deceive others and prostitution are all ways that defile the goodness that he wants his people to experience. We find this theme throughout the Bible that God offers goodness, but his people instead chose to corrupt it. Jeremiah uses the imagery of a well that does not hold water to contrast the goodness that gives life that God gives his people with what the people chose instead. Jeremiah 2:13 for my people have committed two evils:
 they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. This reminds me of what Jesus said which I will close with. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.