Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 19:1
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
CHAPTER XIX
Exhortations to holiness, and a repetition of various laws,
1, 2
Duty to parents, and observance of the Sabbath, 3.
Against idolatry, 4.
Concerning peace-offerings, 5-8.
The gleanings of the harvest and vintage to be left for the
poor, 9, 10.
Against stealing and lying, 11;
false swearing, 12;
defrauding the hireling, 13.
Laws in behalf of the deaf and the blind, 14.
Against respect of persons in judgment, 15;
tale-bearing, 16;
hatred and uncharitableness, 17;
revenge, 18;
unlawful mixtures in cattle, seed, and garments, 19.
Laws relative to the bondmaid that is betrothed, 20-22.
The fruit of the trees of the land not to be eaten for the
first three years, 23;
but this is lawful in the fourth and fifth years, 24, 25.
Against eating of blood, and using incantations, 26;
superstitious cutting of the hair, 27;
and cutting of the flesh in the times of mourning, 28;
prostitution, 29.
Sabbaths to be reverenced, 30.
Against consulting those who are wizards, and have familiar
spirits, 31.
Respect must be shown to the aged, 32.
The stranger shall not be oppressed, 33, 34.
They shall keep just measures, weights, and balances, 35, 36.
Conclusion, 37.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIX
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the Lord spake unto Moses,…. About the same, or quickly after he had delivered the above laws to him; and there are many in this chapter, which were before given, and here repeated:
saying; as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Holiness of Behaviour Towards God and Man. – However manifold the commandments, which are grouped together rather according to a loose association of ideas than according to any logical arrangement, they are all linked together by the common purpose expressed in Lev 19:2 in the words, “ Ye shall be holy, for I am holy, Jehovah your God.” The absence of any strictly logical arrangement is to be explained chiefly from the nature of the object, and the great variety of circumstances occurring in life which no casuistry can fully exhaust, so that any attempt to throw light upon these relations must consist more or less of the description of a series of concrete events.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Ceremonial and Moral Laws. | B. C. 1490. |
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. 3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God. 5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will. 6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. 7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. 8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Moses is ordered to deliver the summary of the laws to all the congregation of the children of Israel (v. 2); not to Aaron and his sons only, but to all the people, for they were all concerned to know their duty. Even in the darker ages of the law, that religion could not be of God which boasted of ignorance as its mother. Moses must make known God’s statutes to all the congregation, and proclaim them through the camp. These laws, it is probable, he delivered himself to as many of the people as could be within hearing at once, and so by degrees at several times to them all. Many of the precepts here given they had received before, but it was requisite that they should be repeated, that they might be remembered. Precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, and all little enough. In these verses,
I. It is required that Israel be a holy people, because the God of Israel is a holy God, v. 2. Their being distinguished from all other people by peculiar laws and customs was intended to teach them a real separation from the world and the flesh, and an entire devotedness to God. And this is now the law of Christ (the Lord bring every thought within us into obedience to it!) You shall be holy, for I am holy,1Pe 1:15; 1Pe 1:16. We are the followers of the holy Jesus, and therefore must be, according to our capacity, consecrated to God’s honour, and conformed to his nature and will. Israel was sanctified by the types and shadows (ch. xx. 8), but we are sanctified by the truth, or substance of all those shadows, Joh 17:17; Tit 2:14.
II. That children be obedient to their parents: “You shall fear every man his mother and his father, v. 3. 1. The fear here required is the same with the honour commanded by the fifth commandment; see Mal. i. 6. It includes inward reverence and esteem, outward expressions of respect, obedience to the lawful commands of parents, care and endeavour to please them and make them easy, and to avoid every thing that may offend and grieve them, and incur their displeasure. The Jewish doctors ask, “What is this fear that is owing to a father?” And they answer, “It is not to stand in his way nor to sit in his place, not to contradict what he says nor to carp at it, not to call him by his name, either living or dead, but ‘My Father,’ or ‘Sir;’ it is to provide for him if he be poor, and the like.” 2. Children, when they grow up to be men, must not think themselves discharged from this duty: every man, though he be a wise man, and a great man, yet must reverence his parents, because they are his parents. 3. The mother is put first, which is not usual, to show that the duty is equally owing to both; if the mother survive the father, still she must be reverenced and obeyed. 4. It is added, and keep my sabbaths. If God provides by his law for the preserving of the honour of parents, parents must use their authority over their children for the preserving of the honour of God, particularly the honour of his sabbaths, the custody of which is very much committed to parents by the fourth commandment, Thou, and thy son, and thy daughter. The ruin of young people has often been observed to begin in the contempt of their parents and the profanation of the sabbath day. Fitly therefore are these two precepts here put together in the beginning of this abridgment of the statutes: “You shall fear, every man, his mother and his father, and keep my sabbaths. Those are hopeful children, and likely to do well, that make conscience of honouring their parents and keeping holy the sabbath day. 5. The reason added to both these precepts is, “I am the Lord your God; the Lord of the sabbath and the God of your parents.”
III. That God only be worshipped, and not by images (v. 4): “Turn you not to idols, to Elilim, to vanities, things of no power, no value, gods that are no gods. Turn not from the true God to false ones, from the mighty God to impotent ones, from the God that will make you holy and happy to those that will deceive you, debauch you, ruin you, and make you for ever miserable. Turn not your eye to them, much less your heart. Make not to yourselves gods, the creatures of your own fancy, nor think to worship the Creator by molten gods. You are the work of God’s hands, be not so absurd as to worship gods the work of your own hands.” Molten gods are specified for the sake of the molten calf.
IV. That the sacrifices of their peace-offerings should always be offered, and eaten, according to the law, v. 5-8. There was some particular reason, it is likely, for the repetition of this law rather than any other relating to the sacrifices. The eating of the peace-offerings was the people’s part, and was done from under the eye of the priests, and perhaps some of them had kept the cold meat of their peace-offerings, as they had done the manna (Exod. xvi. 20), longer than was appointed, which occasioned this caution; see the law itself before, ch. vii. 16-18. God will have his own work done in his own time. Though the sacrifice was offered according to the law, if it was not eaten according to the law, it was not accepted. Though ministers do their part, what the better if people do not theirs? There is work to be done after our spiritual sacrifices, in a due improvement of them; and, if this be neglected, all is in vain.
V. That they should leave the gleanings of their harvest and vintage for the poor, Lev 19:9; Lev 19:10. Note, Works of piety must be always attended with works of charity, according as our ability is. When they gathered in their corn, they must leave some standing in the corner of the field; the Jewish doctors say, “It should be a sixtieth part of the field;” and they must also leave the gleanings and the small clusters of their grapes, which at first were overlooked. This law, though not binding now in the letter of it, yet teaches us, 1. That we must not be covetous and griping, and greedy of every thing we can lay any claim to; nor insist upon our right in things small and trivial. 2. That we must be well pleased to see the poor supplied and refreshed with the fruit of our labours. We must not think every thing lost that goes beside ourselves, nor any thing wasted that goes to the poor. 3. That times of joy, such as harvest-time is, are proper times for charity; that, when we rejoice, the poor may rejoice with us, and when our hearts are blessing God their loins may bless us.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
LEVITICUS- CHAPTER NINETEEN
Verses 1-4:
The theme of morality continues in this chapter, with the declaration that faith in Jehovah God is the basis for all morality. This chapter contains restatements of the principles embodied in the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1-17), although not arranged in the same order as given originally.
Chapters 18-20 show the fallacy of the modern, humanistic idea, “You cannot legislate morality.” These chapters contain strict laws regulating morality, and the penalties for violation are severe. The fact is: law is given to “legislate” in the sense of regulate morality – either God’s, or man’s.
Verse 2 is God’s command to be holy. This does not mean to be without sin. It means to be sanctified, set apart, reserved exclusively for the use and service of Jehovah Elohim. This command is relevant for Christians today, see 1Pe 1:15; 3:15.
Verse 3 is a statement of the principles found in the Fourth and Fifth Commandments. It shows the close tie between respect for parents and faith in God. One who has no respect for father or mother will have no respect for God and His holy appointments; and one who has no respect for God will have no respect for the parents God has given him.
Verse 4 is the principle embodied in the First and Second Commandments. “Idols,” elilim, meaning “nothings,” is in contrast to “Elohim,” the true God, see 1Co 8:4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And the Lord spake. This is the object of the exhortation: first, that they should not measure the service of God by their own conceits, but rather by His nature; and secondly, that they should begin by studying (281) to be holy. For nothing is harder than for men to divest themselves of their carnal affections to prepare for imitating God. Besides, they willingly lie slumbering in their own filthiness, and seek to cloak it by the outward appearance of religion. Here, then, they are recalled to the imitation of God, who, in adopting them, desired that they should bear His image, just as good and undegenerate children resemble their father. If any should pretend to equal God, his emulation would be madness; but although the most perfect come very far short even of the angels, yet the weakness of the very humblest does not prevent him from aspiring after the example of God. To this point did all the ceremonies tend, whereby God exercised His ancient people unto holiness, as we shall hereafter see. Although this declaration does not occur once only, yet because it is annexed in other places to special precepts in order to their confirmation, let it suffice at present to apprehend the general doctrine it contains.
(281) “Pour le servir deuement, ils commencent par ce bout, de se purifier de toutes souillures;” in order to serve Him duly, they should begin by purifying themselves from all uncleanness — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Practical Piety: Religion in all Relationships
SUGGESTIVE READINGS
Lev. 19:2.Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say: Nowhere else in the whole of Leviticus does this direction to address all the congregation occur; a fact which indicates the importance of this section of the decalogue. And in the precepts of this chapter, traversing the entire range of personal, social, and religious life, we have the law summarizedthe whole duty of man in epitome.
Reverence for parents (Lev. 19:3); sabbath observance (Lev. 19:3); repudiation of idolatry (Lev. 19:4); the conditions of acceptable sacrifice (Lev. 19:5; Lev. 19:8); regard for the poor in harvest gleanings (Lev. 19:9-10); honesty in act and speech (Lev. 19:11); fidelity to oaths (Lev. 19:12); commercial integrity (Lev. 19:13); consideration for sufferers, the deaf and blind (Lev. 19:14); impartiality in justice (Lev. 19:15); avoidance of slander (Lev. 19:16); care for ones neighbour (Lev. 19:16); gentleness yet faithfulness to others faults (Lev. 19:17); malice to be shunned (Lev. 19:18); hybrid products forbidden (Lev. 19:19); the crime of seduction (Lev. 19:20-22); regulations concerning fruit growths (Lev. 19:22-25); blood to be put aside as food (Lev. 19:26); and sorceries and superstitious practices avoided (Lev. 19:26); prohibition of heathenish manners and rites of mourning (Lev. 19:27-28); traffic in vice condemned (Lev. 19:29); regard for the sabbath and sanctuary (Lev. 19:30); necromancy denounced (Lev. 19:31); respect for the aged commanded (Lev. 19:32); courtesy to strangers (Lev. 19:33-34); honesty, in trade (Lev. 19:35-36): and all based on the grand requirement that the statutes and judgments of the Lord were to be the rule of their conduct in all relationships and all transactions.
The righteousness which God delights in pervades our whole life, purifies all habits, ennobles all actions, stamps character with rectitude and conduct with integrity. Religion is for daily life; not for sacred scenes and solemn hours, but for every place, every moment; sanctifying the full manhood, elevating all action, dignifying all aims There is not a plan or project, not a fault or foible, not a vice or misdemeanour, not a social or sacred duty, but the thought of God is upon it, and He has a word in condemnation or sanction respecting it. He with whom we have to do overlooks nothing in our behaviour, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are open and naked to the eyes of Him (Heb. 4:13).
How scrupulously should we, therefore, speak and act; not in reluctant submission but in cheerful obedience; His laws within our heart; His statutes our song; delighting to do His will, For He who requires such minute dutifulness shows concern that none should suffer at our hands, and therefore that we should suffer nought from others. Divine benevolence regulates these requirements, and all are detailed indications of His fatherly eagerness for His childrens comfort. Only in right doing is there happiness, whether in the family, in society, or in the church, hence God requires the right to be maintained in all relationships; and when His will is done on earth earth will be a reflection of heaven.
HOMILIES ON CHAPTER 19
Topic: THE RELIGION OF MORALITY
i. Piety is not to be all ecstatic. Tabor heights, Beulah rhapsodies, third-heaven visionsthese are not the whole of religion, nor indeed the standard of a sacred life. There is the piety of daily work, of common things. Easier to be religious when we are on the wing soaring, than when we are on our feet struggling.
ii. Piety may not become eclectic. There are divine precepts and laws congenial to us, others the reverse. Yet we may not select. Directions concerning the Sabbath and sanctuary are easier and more pleasant to heed than those against tale-bearing, fraud in business, gleaning on the fields, etc. But these ought ye to have done, and not to have left the others undone.
iii. Piety should not be narrowly egotistic. Gods laws and directions call us out of ourselves, give no room for selfishness, self-assertion, individualism. Think of others first, care for the poor (Lev. 19:9), your neighbours (Lev. 19:13; Lev. 19:17), bearing no malice (Lev. 19:18), etc. Let self give place; look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others (Php. 2:4).
iv. Piety must never become elastic. There is a peril of the godly man relaxing and relapsing from strict and severe rectitude; stretching his convictions, and accommodating himself to prevailing tastes or personal fancies. Here is rigid law; to that he must bring all conduct; by this standard all his behaviour must be ruled. Avoid an easily adjusting religion, straining and shaping itself to the conveniences of the hour, and the inducements of temptation, and the impulses of the carnal heart.
I. RELIGION REQUIRES THE MORALITIES OF FAMILY LIFE.
God asks that there be first piety at home. [See Addenda to chapter, Morality.]
1. Family dutifulness among children. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father (Lev. 19:3). This is the first commandment with promise (Eph. 6:2). The word fear enjoins respect, felt and shown; generous succour and attention to their comfort; obedience to their rule and desires.
2. Purity in conjugal relationships. Between husband and wife there should be strictest fidelity. Any departure from morality is severely denounced as the violation of the sanctities of family bonds (Lev. 19:20; Lev. 19:22). No man should go beyond or defraud his brother in this matter (1Th. 4:4-6). And equally, with sternest reprobation, God marks the traffic in vice (Lev. 19:29). There have been parents sufficiently earthly, sensual, devilish, to be capable of this foul crime against a child. Jehovah would have the home clean and loving and hallowed.
3. Homage for the aged (Lev. 19:32). Venerating the hoary head, and caring for the old man gently in his drooping years, and paying him the courtesies and attentions due to one who has lived a lengthened life and is nearing eternity.
II. RELIGION REQUIRES THE MORALITIES OF NEIGHBOURLY RELATIONSHIP.
In the narrowest circle of our neighbours, near residents, there should be the cultivation of rectitude and goodwill. The yet larger range of neighbourliness is taught us in our Lords parable of the Good Samaritancare for anyone in need.
1. Every device of deceitfulness is to be abhorred (Lev. 19:11-12). No advantage to be taken, no trickery practised, no falsity condoned.
2. All oppression and injustice is to be shunned (Lev. 19:13). Straightforwardness in dealings, considerateness in payment of his dues.
3. Slander and whispering are denounced (Lev. 19:16). How disastrous this pernicious habit has proved! (see 1Sa. 22:9; 1Sa. 22:18; Eze. 22:9, etc.). Yes: and as harm may come to a neighbour from doing nothing equally as from our slandering him, God denounces our standing, i.e., standing still, when inactivity might let a neighbours blood be shed, either in accident from which we could rescue him, or from the stroke of justice when we could prove him innocent.
4. Generous concern for a neighbour is inculcated. Hate to be closed from thine heart; then venturing to rebuke him if he be going into sin (Lev. 19:17); yet never allowing malice to urge thee to avenge or bear grudge; but to love thy neighbour as thyself (Lev. 19:18). In this last precept is summed up all the moral aspects, the human side of religion.
III. RELIGION REQUIRES THE MORALITIES OF CIVIC BENEVOLENCE.
A man of God is not less a member of society, of the state, or of the nation because he is religious. He has duties towards his fellow-citizens as such.
1. The prosperous are to care for the poor. When the harvest is being reaped (Lev. 19:9) there is to be a generous dropping of ears for the poor: and so with the vine gathering (Lev. 19:10).
2. The healthy are to be pitiful to the afflicted. Instead of despising and maltreating the deaf and the blind (Lev. 19:14), all the instincts of philanthropywhich is piety humanizedprompt the strong to bear the infirmities of the weak.
3. Hospitality for the stranger (Lev. 19:33-34). A willing asylum should be offered to any fugitive or sojourner: there might be no national exclusiveness or selfishness: the generous band should be outstretched to any one who would find a home amid the people of God.
IV. RELIGION REQUIRES THE MORALITIES OF HONEST TRANSACTIONS.
1. Impartiality in the administration of justice (Lev. 19:15) If the high courts of judgment should be demoralized by no cupidity, certainly our personal conduct should be swayed by no servility. The poor and the mighty should have equal justice at our hands: not one law for the rich and another for the poor.
2. Fairness in the transactions of trade (Lev. 19:35-36). Honesty in commerce; in forming estimate of articles of purchase (in judgment), not saying It is nought, it is nought, etc. (Pro. 20:14); as well as in serving and selling these articles.
V. RELIGION REQUIRES ALL MORALITIES TO BE JOINED WITH THE ELEVATED SANCTITIES OF WORSHIP.
Just as that religion is wrong which consists in serving God to the neglect of man; so is that as surely wrong which fulfils duties to man but neglects Gods claims. Week-day righteousness needs to be crowned by sacred solemnities on the sabbath and in the sanctuary.
1. Family life should be hallowed with Sabbath sanctities. Keep my Sabbaths (Lev. 19:3); for that is the day of days in which to instruct the household in sacred duties. When God is revered in the home family reverence will not wane.
2. Delusive idolatries will be escaped by homage for Jehovah on His day. Keeping His Sabbaths will correct the perils of turning unto idols (connect Lev. 19:3 thus with Lev. 19:4).
3. Worship of the Lord should be with sacrificial offerings (Lev. 19:5-8); for man is a sinner, and must come with propitiation to Gods altar.
4. Gods sanctuary should be held in reverence (Lev. 19:30); not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together (Heb. 10:25); but coming with solemn thought and prayer.
5. All superstition to be sedulously shunned. Heathenish delusions (Lev. 19:26-28), and familiar spirits (Lev. 19:31). God should fill the spiritual life of man; and Him only should we serve.
Topic: THE GENIUS OF THE MOSAIC LAWS
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, etc. How repeatedly these words occur previous to enunciation of statutes to Israel, to indicate that Moses was only the amanuensis, or mouthpiece of Jehovah, and that the statutes demanded devout attention and implicit obedience The repetition of sundry laws recorded in this chapter furnishes a fair specimen of the whole economy, embraces principles and doctrines exhibited in the realms of Nature, Providence, and Grace. Looked at as a whole, they suggest the following trains of thought:
I. THEIR STRIKING ANALOGY WITH THE CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. This accords with what might have been expected priori, viz., that God would govern men by similar laws to those by which He governs the world, that between physical and spiritual laws there would be close correspondence. The laws here promulgated were:
(a) Unsystematic in their arrangement. Like the glorious diffuseness in nature, where the geologist and botanist can make their scientific arrangements from world-wide materials, scattered here and there in great profusion; so, in the Mosaic economy, running through Leviticusand through the whole Bibleare sundry precepts unformulated, unscientifically arranged, leaving scope for the sanctified soul of man to arrange in a course of systematic theology.
(b) Disciplinary in their character. Natures laws teach man that he is a probationer; that if he obeys, safety and happiness will ensue; if he disobeys, danger and death will await him. The Mosaic laws taught that whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap, that retribution follows closely on the heels of the wrong-doer. Thus, the law was a schoolmaster, teaching self-restraint, and enforcing lessons upon human conduct that have been the basis of all good government in the world, the germs of all pure morality among men.
(c) Merciful in their tendency. The law put no embargo upon anything that would minister to the real welfare of the human race, only pernicious habits were condemned. The weak, the poor, the aged, parents and strangers, all were to be treated with kindness; sympathy and aid were to be extended to them. Even towards the brute creation care and kindness were to be exercised, nothing was to be wantonly or unmercifully treated. Natures laws exhibit kindness and mercy in their operations; even in their sternest moods they work for good, and in the end produce happiness.
(d) Mysterious in their operations. Many of natures laws perplex and puzzle the greatest minds, seem inconsistent with the perfect wisdom and goodness of the Infinite Author of the universe. And in the Levitical code many of the sacrificial rites and ceremonial observances seem strange and ambiguous. These facts teach us (i.) how comprehensive Gods laws are; (ii.) how limited our knowledge is; (iii.) how incumbent faith, humility, and resignation are upon all who would know the will of the Lord and do it.
II. THEIR BENEFICENT INFLUENCE UPON THE NATIONAL LIFE OF ISRAEL. The people were in great danger of becoming corrupt, from their recollections of their surroundings in Egypt, from their inherent tendency to depart from the living God; the system of sacrifices instituted among them, the ceremonial laws to which they were expected rigidly to submit, would keep them distinct from the surrounding nations, lift them to a high standard of national greatness. The prohibition of all false swearing, fraud, deception, tale-bearing, selfishness, revenge, and every kind of private and public immorality, would conduce to the safety and stability of the Hebrew Commonwealth. The Levitical laws, while they taught the people that they were one as a nation, also enjoined upon each individual responsibility. The whole nation was one great family, mutually related to each other, all amenable to Jehovah, their Father and King. The religion of the Bible exalts the life of any nation that follows its precepts. Thosewhere the Holy Scriptures are regarded as the foundation of national greatnesswill be found in the van of the civilisation of the world.
III. THEIR SPECIAL ADAPTATION TO ELEVATE THE WHOLE NATURE OF MAN. The laws respecting uncleanness, restraining the animal passions and appetites, securing rest one day in seven, would conduce to mans physical well being. Powers of the mind would be awakened and expanded by efforts required to apprehend and obey the elaborate ritual of the tabernacle. The moral powers would be cultivated by everything having reference to purity of heart, and the spotless supremacy of Jehovah. Thus Israel were shown that God took special interest in them, that they were not like the brutes which perish, but servants of the Lord, children of the great King, being educated for higher future employment. They had access to the house of the Lord; listened to the Word of the Lord; were led by chosen servants of the Lord. These facts would lead them to look onward and upward, present to them the way to pardon and peace, to fellowship with God and meetness for Heaven.
IV. THEIR ELEMENTARY FORESHADOWINGS OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL. (a) In the supremacy of their claims. Everything was to be subordinated to the demands of Jehovah; so, Christ said, seek ye first the kingdom of God, etc. (b) In the object of their observances. Holiness was the end of everything in the law; so, the gospelin the precepts of Christ and His apostlesdemands purity of heart, sets holiness as the mark of our high calling, to which is attached the prize of heaven. (c) In the substitutionary character of their sacrifices. The Hebrews were taught to consider their guilt transferred to the victim offered for them; through it, in some way, they were forgiven, accepted of the Lord; so, in the gospel, through the one great sin offering guilt is removed, the favour of God secured, heaven opened. The services of the tabernacle, the statutes of the Levitical law, were calculated to suggest the priceless value of the human soul, the existence for it of a life beyond, of which the present is introductory and preparatory. In the gospel all these foreshadowings are presented as substantial realities, just as indefinite twilight merges into revealing distinguishing day.F.W.B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 19
Lev. 19:2.Theme: PERSONAL HOLINESS.
Ye shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
The glorious end for which the law was given, every ceremonial precept enforced, was that the people should become holy. The holy nature, name, will and purpose of Jehovah demanded that those who would be constantly drawing near to Him in the tabernacle services should come out from the heathen world, forsake their sinful customs, and become conformed to His commandments, which were
I. WORTHY OF JEHOVAH. Not one can be characterised as mean or unmerciful; some of them may seem beyond, but not one against, reason. The unreaped corners of the field, the gleanings of the harvest, the grapes left upon the vine for the poor and the stranger in the land, would speak of the considerateness of Jehovah for the physical wants of the people; and the injunctions against fraud, against hating in the heart, against impurity in social life; the command, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; all these injunctions pointed to the heart as the seat of all holiness, and demanded that the motives by which the Hebrews would be actuated should be pure Such a code of laws, with such humane and holy ends, reflected glory upon the supreme Lawgiver, proving that He is holy, that His nature is on the side of righteousness.
II. BENEFICIAL TO ISRAEL. Everything was to be avoided that would work detoriation in the physical constitution, for vice and impurity produce feobleness and decay. Want of reverence for parents and the aged; lack of sympathy for the suffering and infirm, bring ruin into the domestic and social circle. Greed, dishonesty, unrighteousness, work disintegration and disaster in the commercial world. The holy laws of God were a barrier against all these terrible evils by demanding personal holiness in everyone who heard these injunctions.
The disposition of the heart and mind was to be brought into conformity with the will of Jehovah, ye shall offer at your own will. The people were not slaves, to do reluctantly the will of God, or perform services and offer sacrifices in a mechanical manner; they were the Lords free men, and from wills in harmony with Him were to obey His statutes. Thus inward, personal holiness would be secured, Jehovahs glory displayed. The great end of the gospel is holiness of heart and life The Christian Church is a community of saints. The redeemed in heaven are those who are faultless, without spot in the presence of Gods unsullied glory.F. W. B.
Lev. 19:3.Theme: FAMILY PIETY.
Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths; I am the Lord your God.
I. In home life the SPIRIT OF FEAR DEMANDS CULTURE.
1. No dutiful submission to parents where fear has no place in childrens hearts. This fear not slavish but respectful, leading to an unresisting spirit, and obedient behaviour.
2. No proper basis of obedience where duty is not made forceful by the requirements of religion. Keep my sabbaths, making piety an integral part of home-life; thus fortifying the claims of parentage by the teachings of Gods Word and His house.
II. In children, both their HUMAN AND DIVINE RELATIONSHIPS SHOULD BE FOSTERED
1. This requires piety in the parents. How else can they show their children the ways of the Lord? Parents are to their children Gods representatives and viceregents on earth.
2. This will cultivate piety in the children Keep Gods Sabbath in the home: bring upon young hearts and minds the graces of religion, the delight of holy psalm and song, the teachings of Jesus, the bliss of adoption through Christ; and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
III. IN SABBATH HABITS the family needs be devoutly educated,
1. Sabbath leisure gives opportunity for parental attention to the religious interests of the family.
2. The Sabbath solemnity is helpful to the effort of leading childrens thoughts to godly instruction.
3. Sanctuary services and ordinances should form themes of teaching and interest in the home on sabbath days
Children, thus trained in early recognition of God by parents who link themselves with God in holy life and word, and who make the Sabbath a delight in their homes, assuredly will not depart from the ways of religion, but tread early the path after Jesus. [See Addenda to chapter, Family Piety and Sabbath and Sanctuary]
Lev. 19:3Theme: FILIAL OBLIGATIONS.
Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father.
Under the patriarchal dispensation the father was to be revered not only as the head of the family, but as the priest in the home circle The tent and the altar were reared together, children were expected to honour their parents by becoming attention to social and sacred duties. In the decalogue the claims of parental authority were enforced; and, being here reiterated, the Hebrews would be taught those duties which, disregarded, bring discord and misery into the home. Natural instincts prompt filial fear, but undutifulness to parents will often spring up with other moral delinquencies to which our fallen nature is prone. Want of reverence for parenthood
I. EXHIBITS BASENESS OF HEART. The affections must have become corrupt, the feelings hardened, when parents are dishonoured.
II. INCURS THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE. It is Gods will that children should reverence their parents; to disobey His will is to dishonour and displease Him.
III. ENTAILS DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES. A special promise was made to those who would obey in these particulars, and in several parts of Scripture threatenings of punishment are annexed to disobedience. Obedience should be reverent affectionate, cheerful and constant. Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.F. W. B.
Lev. 19:5.Theme: WILLING: OFFERINGS OF PEACE.
See homilies on Chapters 3 and 7 Compare specially Outline, Chapter
1., Lev. 19:3, p. 14, VOLITION IN WORSHIP.
Lev. 19:9.Theme: HARVEST GLEANINGS.
How notable are the provisions made in the Mosaic law for the poor
The Sabbatical year (Exo. 23:10-11; compare Deu. 15:12; Deu. 15:15)
The equalization of the atonement money for poor and rich, thus establishing the value of the poor as equal to the rich (Exo. 30:12).
The same minute directions for the poor mans offerings, showing Gods equal interest in his sacrifice (Leviticus 2, etc.).
And here the command that the harvest and vintage gleanings should be left (Lev. 19:9-10).
Notice
I. THAT THE HUMANE LAWS OF MODERN TIMES, respecting gleaning privileges, are all based upon this Mosaic command
Everywhere there is a popular feeling that the farmer should allow, and was not entitled to prevent the poor from gathering what the reaper left behind.
In England the custom of gleaning had very nearly passed into a legal right, for there is an extra judicial dictum of Lord Hall, in which he says that those who enter a field for this purpose are not guilty of trespass; and Blackstone (Lev. 3:12) seems to adopt his opinion. But that has since been twice tried, and decided in the negative in the Court of Common Pleas; the Court finding it to be a practice incompatible with the exclusive enjoyment of property, and productive of vagrancy and many mischievous consequences.
It is still, however, the custom all over England to allow the poor to glean, at least after the harvest is carried (Chambers).
The law of Moses directed a liberal consideration for the poor at the seasons of harvest and ingathering. The corners of the field were not to be reaped; the owner was not to glean his own fields; and a sheaf accidentally left in a field was not to be fetched away, but to be the possession of the poor gleaners.
Although the permission to glean was a favour, it required no special influence to secure it; for Ruth secured this liberty without any recommendation (Rth. 2:2-3)
II. That a benevolent helpfulness in respect of the poor IS A SPECIAL OBLIGATION OF THOSE WHO ENJOY PLENTY.
1. With God in thought, the rich will spare of their abundance that the poor may be fed. And this is the meaning of this sealing sentence, I am the Lord your God (Lev. 19:10). You owe all to Him, especially in harvest; and, therefore, share with the needy His gifts to you.
2. Amid harvest rejoicings, gratitude should incite to generosity. What render to God? As ye have received, give! Seek occasion to gladden othersthose in need. Gladness which has no kindly outlet and expression makes men selfish and hard. God is lavish; let your hands be open also (Psa. 145:16).
3. Kindness to the poor has especial assurances of divine approval. He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. The liberal soul shall be made full. But He will requite those who neglect the poor (Psa. 9:18; Psa. 12:5).
III. That this generous consideration for the poor is A TOKEN OF GODS REGARD FOR THE LOWLY.
1. Their maintenance engaged the divine attention. For them the corner of the field was claimed from the reapers, and to them was assigned the right to clear the ground. It was their part in the national soil, the poor had this heritage in the land. And God enjoins on His Church now to care for the poor. They are Christs bequeathment to His disciples. The poor always ye have with you.
2. Their salvation is prominently sought in the gospel. To the poor the gospel is preached. And God hath chosen the poor rich in faith. He who showed concern for their physical supply and maintenance, as emphatically manifests His desire that they be blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Therefore
(a) The poor should cherish a grateful and trustful hope in their God.
(b) They should value the high mercies of redemption in Christ beyond all the kindnesses of His providence. For the favours of providence only affect them temporally. but the riches of His grace are of eternal consequence. Therefore, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
(c) Let none, because of lowliness or poverty, despond of Gods favour. All His regulations prove that he careth for you. Look unto Him with assurance. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles (Psa. 34:6)
His love ordained the seasons,
By Him are all things fed,
He for the sparrow careth,
He gives the poor their bread:
Every bounteous blessing
His faithful love bestows:
Then magnify His glorious Name
From Whom all goodness flows.
Lev. 19:10.Theme: JEHOVAHS RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS.
I am the Lord your God.
Though the record of divine revelation contains no argument to prove the existence of God, it repeatedly asserts the fact; all the forces of nature, all positive and moral statutes, are traced to the sovereign will and absolute authority of Jehovah. The Hebrews were taught that their obedience was not to be governed by the customs of society, their own preferences or prejudices, but by the declared will of Him Who had sovereign claim to them and theirs. Thus they were emphatically taught
I. The absolute supremacy of Jehovah. No imaginary deity was to be brought into competition. or comparison with Him. He, the Eternal, Infinite, Almighty, Creator, and Governor of all things. He had right to assert His claim to universal homage; to settle the question of the human mind about the divine existence. God has spoken, declared His existence, and character; to doubt that word, deny that existence, impeach that character, indicate derangement of the mental powers, and debasement of the heart.
II. The absolute character of their obligations. They belonged to the Lord, He claimed them as His own peculiar people. All idols were to be forsaken (Lev. 19:4), the worship of Israel was not to have its basis in ignorance, or origin in fear, but in the recognition of the obligations under which Jehovahs relationship and dealings had placed them. He was a jealous God, and would not share worship with another. Having received such a revelation of the divine character and claims, Israel was under obligation to render intelligent, cheerful, devout, constant, implicit, willing obedience. The divine claims to obedience are unrelaxing, declarations of our obligations unrepealed. Ye are not your own, etc. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, etc. The divine supremacy of Christ places us under binding obligation to serve Him loyally; His self-sacrificing love constrains us to serve Him lovingly.F. W. B.
Lev. 19:12Theme: FALSE SWEARING.
All nations have severely punished perjury. The Egyptians with death or mutilation; the Greeks with heavy fines and ultimate loss of all civil rights; the Romans visited it with the penalty of death.
These ancient nations all held that the gods were especially incensed by this crime, and that a divine Nemesis pursued the perjurer. [See Addenda to chapter, Perjury].
I. WHAT SWEARING BY GODS NAME ENTAILS.
1. Acknowledgment of His Omniscience. It calls Him to witness, and imprecates Him as the avenger of falsehood.
2. Acknowledgment of His Righteousness. He is to be the umpire and arbitrator. We call in as a witness to our fidelity only such a one as is himself faithful and true, and will act a right part. Such is God. Mans use of His name is an appeal to the certainty that He will judge aright.
II. WHAT PERJURY IN GODS NAME ENTAILS.
1. An insolent affront upon Gods character. It is infamy, daring insolence, the degradation of His most holy name for unholy ends. It invokes Him to act as a witness that a lie is true Yet He loathes falsity. It is defiant trifling, an affront to the God of truth. It profanes his name.
2. A certain visitation of judgment. He will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exo. 20:7) Certainly, therefore, He will punish lying and profanity. Having been called in as a witness to a lie He will prove that He witnessed it. Thus to insult His love of truth and defy His power to vindicate it, and trail the purity of His character in the mirebefore whom the very angels veil their faces as they adore Himwill ensure a just requital (Heb. 10:30). And there shall in no wise enter the heavenly city any who loveth and maketh a lie (Rev. 21:27).
Lev. 19:13Theme: FAIRNESS TO HIRED LABOURERS
I. WORK IS A JUST BASIS FOR AN EQUITABLE CLAIM.
Therefore it should be paid for, not patronisingly, nor grudgingly, but as a due. The labourer has given you his time, strength, ability, and ingenuity; he has a right to an equivalent from you, and should not be treated ignominiously, but respectfully in asking a just return
II. WAGES CANNOT RIGHTEOUSLY BE DEFERRED AFTER WORK IS DONE.
During a day of toil the labourer has put his capital into your service, spent his life for that period for your advantage and gain. You are to that extent his debtor; to detain his wages is to make yourself more his debtor, and delay in payment should be compensated with increment. Short reckonings make long friends.
III. MASTERS SHOULD STUDY THE POSITION AND COMFORT OF THOSE THEY EMPLOY.
A poor man has no capital, wants prompt settlement; he lives day by day upon his hard earnings. His strengthexpended by the days toilmust be replenished for the morrows work. To hold back the means for his nourishment is to rob him of the morrows capital, his replenished energy. And he may have dependents in his lowly home waiting to share in the earnings of the day. Hold not back his dues all night until the morning, lest your inconsiderateness inflict privation and embitter poverty. Comp. Deu. 24:14; Deu. 24:16; Jer. 32:13; Mal. 3:5; Jas. 5:4. [See Addenda to chapter, Business and work.
Lev. 19:14.Theme: DEAF AND BLIND.
i. As witnesses to AFFLICTIONS POSSIBLE TO ALL. they call for our commiseration
ii. As sufferers of DIREFUL INFIRMITIES, they should enlist our gentle care and generous helpfulness. Eyes to the blind.
iii. As pensive illustrations of MANS FRAILTY they should incite our gratitude that God made us to differ.
Consider
1. How mean the act of ridiculing those who carry the grief of such bodily infirmities. But fear thy God, for He will requite.
2. How swift was the compassion of Jesus towards those sad children of infirmity.
3. How glad the outlook of the heavenly life for such as suffer hereif they have hope in Christ. For there shall be no more sorrow, nor crying, neither any more pain.
Lev. 19:15.Theme: IMPARTIAL JUSTICE.
I. JUSTICE PERVERTED.
In every nation and age wealth and influence have effectively distorted the administration of justice.
Poverty and weakness have borne cruel and basest wrongs by reason of their very helplessness.
II. JUSTICE INFLEXIBLE.
Poverty may not be pleaded in arrest of justice. He, who being poor, acts wrongly, may not make poverty his screen; he must bear his guilt. A sentimental pity for the poor would thwart the ends of righteousness. Sin is sin whether committed in rags or in ermine. [Comp. Exo. 23:3.]
A servile courtesy to the mighty is equally subversive of righteousness. A pertidious king is as guilty a traitor to his country as a pertidious subject. Neither station nor purse should sway the balances of justice.
As in the sanctuary, so at the bar, there should be no respect of persons. [Comp. Jas. 2:6; Jas. 2:19, with Lev. 19:2-4.]
III. JUSTICE CERTAIN
God will judge those who now administer or pervert judgment. Every man shall give account of himself to God.
The supreme Judge of all the earth will do right. He discerns judgment now, and will dispense justice at the last day. [See Addenda to chapter, Justice.]
Lev. 19:16.Theme: TALE-BEARING AND SLANDER.
I. CHARACTER IS IN THE KEEPING, and therefore at the mercy of acquaintances.
1. Therefore supremely value each others good name.
2. Jealously defend a worthy reputation.
3. Scornfully silence the unproved rumours of evils [See Addenda to chapter, Slander.]
II. CHARACTER MAY BE RUTHLESSLY SHATTERED by sinister whisperings.
1. For listeners are ready to entertain and repeat slander.
Mans inhumanity to man!
2. Aspersions feed on the inventiveness of malice.
Proof not asked; nothing therefore to check or refute the slander. And lying lips find delight in adding to the lie as they pass it on.
3. Reputation is easily damaged. That which only a lifetime can build an hour may defame.
III. CHARACTER IS SO PRECIOUS that its traducers should be loathed.
1. Dread a tale bearer as a destroying pestilence
2. He who wrongs anothers reputation may next wrong yours. By heeding his slanders you encourage his vile trade, and slander must find new victims!
3. Put to shame all tale-bearers with ruthless severity.
Note
i. There is enough of woe abroad without increasing it.
ii. As we need our many evils to be pitied by man and pardoned by God, let us with charity hide sins, not expose them.
iii. There is grace in Christ, and energy in the Holy Spirit, by which to perfect a good life and win a good name, which even enemies of religion shall be unable to defame or destroy.
iv. The light of the final judgment will refute all slander, and bring every secret thing to the open gaze of the world.
Lev. 19:18Theme: NEIGHBOURLY LOVE.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Disinterested love is difficult to cherish, and is all too rare.
The contraries of love are everywhere rife: jealousy, rivalry, cruelty, selfishness, greed, hate.
An unloving spirit is an ungodly one; for a malicious man is as unlike God as an immoral man is; the slanderer is as cruel as the murderer.
I. ALL TRUE HUMAN LOVE HAS ITS ROOT AND ORIGIN IN GOD.
It is a ray of His glory, a breath of His Spirit. A mothers love is a divinely-implanted instinct. So the love of friendship is heaven-born. And neighbourly love is an inspiration from God The fine feelings of benevolence, of Philanthrophy, of charityall aspects of the divine spirit of love are of Him. And Christian love, the love of God, love for Christ, the brotherly love of saints, all come from our drinking in the spirit of Jesus.
II. EVERY EXPRESSION OF TRUE HUMAN LOVE HAS HEAVENS HIGHEST APPROVAL.
Our love Godward is the rising of the flame towards its Source, and is as a sweet savour of Christ to Him.
Our love for man is the outbreathing of the mind of Christ in us, the diffusion of the very spirit of Jesus.
Love for God and for man, let it prevail, and it brings heavens blessedness within the human breast, and will make our bleared and distracted earth again like heaven
III. NEIGHBOURLY LOVE HAS AMPLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ILLUSTRATION.
1. In seeking to turn him aside from sin (Lev. 19:17). [See Addenda to chapter, Neighbourliness.]
2. In bearing patiently any wrong received from him (Lev. 19:18)
3. In praying and working for his conversion to God.
4. In leading him to the Saviour you have yourself found; as did the woman of Samaria her neighbours.
A. Cultivate kindness and generosity by communion with Jesus; and that will so fill your soul with pity for the erring, and yearning for their deliverance as will make it easy to love your neighbour.
B. Consider how many evils you have wrought, which men have had to condone and God to forgive, and then you will take meekly the wrongs others have done you.
C. Live with eternity in view, and act towards others more as you will wish you had done in the Day of Account, and through the everlasting ages
D. And as opportunity goes by swiftly, do at once what love prompts, and do it with thy might. There are wounds waiting to be healed, hearts to be comforted, estrangements to be conciliated, errors to be forgiven.
Love thy neighbour, with like depth and thoroughness as thou lovest thyself.
Lev. 19:19.Theme: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STEWARDSHIP.
Ye shall keep my statutes.
The Israelites knew that the land towards which they were moving was given them for their inheritance, they were to possess it, and enjoy its abundant resources. But they had to remember that it was Jehovah who had delivered them from Egypt, who would conduct them through the wilderness, and to whom they would be responsible when they would get to the end of their wanderings, and enter upon the land flowing with milk and honey. In Canaan they would be the Lords husbandmen, and stewards, to farm the land according to His will. Ye shall keep my statutes. They would be reminded of their stewardship in
I. THE SACRIFICES THEY OFFERED TO THE LORD (see preceding Homilies on offerings). As the Hebrews brought the best of their substance and offered it to the Lord, they would recognise the claims of the Highest and Holiest to themselves and all they possessed.
II. IN THE PORTIONS THEY RESERVED FOR THE POOR. They were the almoners of the Lord, and at His command must see that the needy did not perish from want. Coveteousness and selfishness were alike condemned; they could not do as they pleased with the grapes and corn.
III. IN THE NON-PARTICIPATION OF UNCIRCUMCISED FRUIT. The young trees were to be left for four years, the fifth year they might partake thereof. Thus a curb was put upon their appetites, and the first-fruits were to be wholly devoted to the Lord. Thus the earth would be to Israel Gods banqueting house, and the people were to partake only of those things which the divine host considered good for them and the land.
IV. IN THE PRESERVATION OF PRODUCE AND STOCK FROM ADULTERATION. There was to be no breeding between diverse kinds of cattle, no mingling of seed in sowing a field, no mixing of materials in fabrics for garments. These injunctions would not only be in harmony with Jehovahs requirement of purity in heart and life, but would keep before the minds of the people the fact that corn and cattle, food and clothing were all under His surveillance. He was the proprietor of all; to Him account must be rendered for all.
V. IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THEIR COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS. Here we see (Lev. 19:35-36) how thorough and searching the morality of the Mosaic law was. The Hebrews were to avoid every kind of wrong-doing. Religion was to affect their business transactions, cover the whole of their secular life. In everything they did they were to remember that the eye of the Lord was on them, they were His servants, under obligation to do all to His glory, according to the principles of righteousness.
Under the new dispensation we are stewards in the kingdom of Christ. We are responsible for the use we make of the talents entrusted to us. The gospel does not exempt us from responsibility to live righteously all our days; all the precepts of the moral law are summed up in the golden law, as enunciated by Christ, Thou shalt love, etc. Christianity demands a holy, righteous life as well as a sound scriptural belief.F. W. B.
Theme: THE DUTY OF REPROVING OUR NEIGHBOUR. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
The ritual or ceremonial law was such a yoke as neither our fathers nor we (says Peter) were able to bear. Yet many excellent moral precepts are interspersed among those laws. Several in this chapter (Lev. 19:10-11; Lev. 19:13-16). In this injunction consider
I. WHAT DUTY IS ENJOINED, AND WHAT SHOULD BE REBUKED.
1. To tell anyone of his fault, Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him. sin, therefore, is the thing we are called to reprove, or rather him that commits sin. Do all we can to convince him of his fault, and lead him in the right way.
2. Love requires that we also warn him of error which would naturally lead to sin. If we do not hate him in our heart, but love our neighbour, we shall generously warn him of mistakes likely to end in evil.
3. Avoid reproving for anything that is disputable. A thing appears evil to me, therefore if I do it I am a sinner before God. But another is not to be judged by my conscience. So I must only reprove for what is clearly and undeniably evil, e.g., profanity, insobriety. Few who are guilty of these will defend them, when appeal is made to their conscience in the sight of God.
II. WHO THEY ARE WE ARE CALLED TO REPROVE.
1. There are some sinners we are forbidden to rebuke. Cast not pearl before swine, i.e., brutish men, Known to be immersed in sins, having no fear of God before their eyes. Do not expose the precious pearls, i.e, the sublime doctrines of the gospel, to their contempt, and yourself to injurious treatment. Yet if we saw such persons speak or do what they themselves know to be evil we ought to reprove them.
2. Our neighbour is every child of man, all that have souls to be saved. If we refrain because some are sinners above other men they may perish in their iniquity, but God will require their blood at our hands.
3. Else, in the lower world there might be upraiding of us for our neglect of duty, through which souls, left unwarned, failed to flee from the wrath to come.
4. Yet, the reproving is not to be done in the same degree to everyone. First it is particularly due to our parents, if needing it; then to brothers and sisters; then to relatives; then to our servants; to our fellow citizens; members of the same religious society; watch over each other that we may not suffer sin upon our brother. To neglect this is to hate our brother in our heart; and he that hateth his brother is a murderer. It imperils our own salvation to neglect this duty.
III. WHAT SPIRIT AND MANNER SHOULD MARK OUR PERFORMANCE OF THIS DUTY.
1. There is considerable difficulty in doing it aright. Although some are specially qualified to do it by grace, and skilful by practice. But. though difficult, we must do it; and God will aid us.
2. How most effectual? When done in the spirit of love, of tender goodwill for our neighbour, as for one who is the son of our common Father, as for one for whom Christ died, that he might be a partaker of salvation.
3. Yet speak in the spirit of humility Not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Not feeling or showing the least contempt of those whom you reprove; disclaiming all self superiority; owning the good there is in him
4. In the spirit of meekness. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Anger begets anger, not holiness.
5. Put no trust in yourself; in you wisdom or abilities; speak in the spirit of prayer.
6. And as for the outward manner, as well as the spirit, in which it should be done; let there be a frank outspokenness, a plain and artless declaration of disinterested love. It will pierce like lightning.
7. With great seriousness, showing that you are really in earnest. A ludicrous reproof makes little impression, or is taken ill.
8. Yet there are exceptions when a little well placed raillery will pierce deeper than solid argument. Ridiculum acri fortius. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
9. Adapt the manner to the occasion. By few or many words as the situation determines; or by no words at all, but a look, a gesture, a sigh. Such silent reproof may be attended by the power of God.
10. Watch for a fair occasion. A word spoken in season, how good it is. Catch the Mollia tempora fandi, the time when his mind is soft and mild.
11. But should a man be left alone when intoxicated? I dare not say so; for instances are forthcoming of its having had good effects. Despise not the poor drunkard. Many of them are self-condemned, but they despair. He that tells a man there is no help for him is a liar from the beginning. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.
12. You that are diligent in this labour of love be not discouraged. You have need of patience. That you reap, if you faint not.
When a religious movement is abroad it will be accompanied with a spirit of reproving. All who are awakened by Gods Spirit will be reprovers of outward sin.John Wesley, M.A., Sermons lxv.
Lev. 19:26; Lev. 19:31.Theme: WICKED SUPERSTITIONS.
I. A PROOF OF MANS ARRANT ALIENATION FROM GOD.
He will create oracles, consult devils, anything rather than seek unto God.
II. A RECOGNITION OF DARK SPIRITUAL AGENCIES OPPOSED TO GOD.
Scripture does not declare these familiar spirits to be unreal; it acknowledges them, and records mans dealings with them: Samuel and Witch of Endor. [Compare Act. 16:16.]
III. A REPROBATION OF SUCH PERSONS AS CLAIM TO BE MEDIUMS OF INTERCOURSE WITH SPIRITS.
Regard not them. God disowns them. A fearful case they are in who make this their trade. Heaven denounces them, and will exclude them. Spiritualists are in no favour or league with Deity.
IV. A PROHIBITION OF ALL USE OF THESE WICKED MYSTERIES.
Man is to deal alone with Deity, with God in Christ, with the Holy Spirit. They who seek after wizards, and use enchantments, are offending God, and are defiled by them.
Prayer brings us direct to Him who is the Father of lights; and He giveth liberally to any who lack wisdom and will ask of God (Jas. 1:17; Jas. 1:5).
Jesus Christ is the one Mediator, and ever liveth to make intercession for us. There should be no intercourse with the spirit world but through Jesus, and through Him with the Father alone. [See Addenda to chapter, Superstitions.]
Lev. 19:3; Lev. 19:30.Theme: SACREDNESS OF THE SABBATHS.
Ye shall keep my Sabbaths.
All days belong to God, and should therefore be kept sacred, but He has seen fit to anoint one day in seven with the oil of gladness above its fellows. The Sabbath is a divine institution dating from Eden, is associated with the completion of the great work of creation. It was heavens antidote to the curse of labour. Let us consider:
I. FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS THE SABBATH ORIGINALLY INSTITUTED?
Certainly not because God needed it: though on it He rested from His labours and sanctified it. It was made for man, that in it he might enjoy; (a) physical repose; (b) mental recreation; (c) spiritual profit; (d) uninterrupted opportunities for divine worship. Godlesness has ignored its claims, selfishness has begrudged its weekly advent and call from secular engagements. The observance of one day in seven for the repose and refreshment of body, mind and heart brings blessings to man and glory to God.
II. FOR WHAT PURPOSES THE SABBATH HAS BEEN PERPETUATED UNDER THE NEW DISPENSATION.
The change of day, the less rigid demand for its ceremonial observance, have not lessened its importance and necessity, It is still to be observed as a day of rest from secular toil, and specially devoted to the work and worship of Jehovah. The Christian Sabbath is associated with the completion of the great work of redemption. Christ set His appropriation and approval upon it by making special posthumous appearances to His disciples on the first day of the week. The conduct of the apostles gives authoritative sanction to the observance of the first day instead of the seventh; and the Holy Spirit has set His seal of approval upon the change, not only by the descent at Pentecost, but by exerting His saving power, as Christians have met for worship and extending the Redeemers Kingdom on the Lords Day.F. W. B.
Lev. 19:32,Theme: HOMAGE FOR AGE.
That is, when and
i. Because the aged REPRESENT MATURE WISDOM.
ii. Because the aged record LONG YEARS SPENT IN OUR SERVICE.
iii. Because the aged demonstrate GODS PROVIDENTIAL CARE.
iv. Because the aged are SOLEMN ADMONITIONS OF LIFES DECAY
v. Because the aged suggest NEARNESS TO ETERNITY.
vi. Because the aged exhibit the RICHEST FRUITS OF GRACE.
vii. Because the aged mark the LINE OF GODS COVENANT BLESSINGS for descendants.
viii. Because the aged REPRESENT ON EARTH HIM WHO IS THE ANCIENT OF DAYS.
(a) Youth should venerate the aged (Job. 30:1; Job. 30:12; Isa. 3:4-5).
(b) Age should influence and hallow the young (2Ti. 1:5).
[See Addenda to chapter, Old Age.]
Lev. 19:33.Theme: COURTESY TO STRANGERS.
I. WE OURSELVES ARE STRANGERS ON THE EARTH.
For ye were strangers in the land (Lev. 19:34).
1. Dependent on other care than our own; human and divine
2. Transient, soon to leave, resting but a little while on earth.
Observe: it is good to see in the case of others an analogy with our own; it will foster sympathy, and helpfulness.
II. COURTESY SHOULD ROOT ITSELF IN GENEROUS LOVE.
Thou shalt love him as thyself.
1. Acting to the stranger as if the service were being rendered to us. This will teach us what to do, and how to show kindness.
2. Recognising that we may perchance be in the strangers position. As thus needing kindness, let us now exhibit it.
3. Opening our hearts in ungrudging benevolence. Love gives lavishly. Courtesy should not be meagre and superficial.
III. GRATITUDE TO HEAVEN PROMPTS US TO GENEROUS KINDNESS.
Ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
1. Memory of Gods rescue should constrain us to care for others.
2. Gods relationship to us requires that we illustrate His lovingkindness.
3. His commands to courtesy cannot be evaded with impunity.
I was a stranger and ye took me not in: Depart!
Lev. 19:35-36Theme: BUSINESS HONESTY.
i. SOCIAL LIFE IS BASED UPON COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS.
Each bringing to the other some product of skill or toil. We cannot supply a fraction of our own wants, we must buy; and we have also, in turn, something to sell. Business is the outcome of this reciprocal dependence. Each can, each must help the other; or social and civic life would be impossible
ii. DISHONESTY IS SUBVERSIVE OF THE VERY BASIS OF SOCIAL LIFE
It breaks confidence, alienates intercourse; closes friendly relationships, substitutes roguery for righteousness, and wrecks all goodwill.
Pleasant to reflect
1. How much trade honour there is among men.
2. How surely trickery brings discovery, and therefore penalty, on rogues.
3. How honesty is ever winning respect and reward.
iii. JUSTICE SITS OBSERVANT OF ALL DECEITFUL DEEDS.
I am the Lord
He sees all secresies; weighs all balances; hales all dishonesties; will requite all deceits.
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 19
MORALITY
Morality is the object of government. We want a state of things in which crime will not pay, a state of things which allows every man the largest liberty compatible with the liberty of every other man.EMERSON, Fortune of the Republic.
O let us still the secret joy partake
To follow virtue even for virtues sake.
POPE.
FAMILY PIETY
Where Abraham pitched his tent, there he built an altar.
We are really what we are relatively.
P. HENRY.
Children are what their mothers are.
LANDOR,
SABBATH AND SANCTUARY
O day of rest! How beautiful, how fair.
How welcome to the weary and the old!
Dav of the Lord! and truce to earthy care!
LONGFELLOW, Christus.
Sin keeps no Sabbaths.
Of a well spent Sabbath Philip Henry used to say: If this be not the way to heaven, I know not what is.
POOR
This mournful truth is everywhere confessed,
Slow rises worth by poverty depressed.
SAMUEL JOHNSON.
Poverty is the only load which is the heavier the more loved ones there are to assist in supporting it.RICHTER.
CHARITY
They serve God well,
Who serve His creatures.
MRS. NORTON.
He is truly great, that is great in charity.
THOMAS A. KEMPIS.
To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.HORACE MANN.
PERJURY
Sworn on every slight pretence,
Till perjuries are common as bad pence,
While thousands, careless of the damning sin,
Kiss the Book outside, who neer looked within.COWPER.
BUSINESS AND WORK
Business dispatched is business well done, but business hurried is business ill done.BULWER LYTTON.
All true work is sacred; in all the work, were it but true hand labour, there is something of divineness.CARLYLE.
In every rank, or great or small,
Tis industry supports us all.GAY.
For men must work, and women must weep,
And the sooner its over, the sooner to sleep.
KlNGSLEY.
JUSTICE
Heaven is above all yet; there sits a Judge
That no king can corrupt
Henry VIII. iii., 1.
He who the sword of Heaven would bear,
Should be as holy as severe;
Pattern in himself, to know
Grace to stand, and virtue go;
More nor loss to others paying
Than by self-offences weighing.
Measure for Measure.
Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.
SOCRATES.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.ARISTOTLE.
SLANDER
One evil tongue, say the Jews, hurts three persons, the speaker, the hearer, and the person spoken of.
A lost good name is neer retrieved.
GAY.
I hate the man who builds his name
On ruins of anothers fame.GAY.
Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words:
Slander, the foulest whelp of sin.
POLLOCK.
Low breathed talkers, minion lispers
Cutting honest throats by whispers.
SCOTT.
Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
Snow, thon shalt not escape slander.
Hamlet.
Convey a libel in a frown,
And wink a reputation down.
SWIFT.
NEIGHBOURLINESS
We cannot show ourselves more friendly to any man than by an early reproof of his error, or, as it is here expressed, by not suffering sin upon him. Tis a mercy to meet with reproof (though late) from others; but to be soon reproved is much mercy. Every good, the sooner it comes to us, the better it is.CARYL.
SUPERSTITIONS
Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, religion to virtue: it is by the vivacity of earthly devices that we become superstitious: it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these devices that we become religious.MADAME DE STAEL.
OLD AGE
Lifes shadows are meeting Eternitys day.JAS. G CLARKE.
Age is not all decay: it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.GEO. MACDONALD.
Thus fares it still in our decay,
And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away,
Than what it leaves behind.
WORDSWORTH.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
HOLINESS IN CONDUCT TOWARD GOD AND MAN 19:137
THE FIRST TABLE OF THE LAW 19:18
TEXT 19:18
1
And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
2
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy; for I Jehovah your God am holy.
3
Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father; and ye shall keep my sabbaths: I am Jehovah your God.
4
Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am Jehovah your God.
5
And when ye offer a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto Jehovah, ye shall offer it that ye may be accepted.
6
It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire.
7
And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it shall not be accepted:
8
but every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the holy thing of Jehovah: and that soul shall be cut off from his people.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 19:18
416.
Just what did the expression You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy mean to the assembly of Israel when first they heard it? Were they discouraged? encouraged? afraid? resentful? or what? Discuss. (Count in this one chapter the number of times this expression appears.)
417.
How does respect for parents relate to sabbath observance?
418.
How are idols described? Which two commandments of the ten are here involved?
419.
How do peace offerings relate to idol worship?
420.
Why the strict regulations of Lev. 19:6-7?
421.
Isnt Lev. 19:8 a very severe penalty for eating the peace offering on the wrong day? or is this all that is involved?
PARAPHRASE 19:18
The Lord also told Moses to tell the people of Israel, You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. You must respect your mothers and fathers, and obey My Sabbath law, for I am the Lord your God. Do not make or worship idols, for I am Jehovah your God. When you sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, offer it correctly so that it will be accepted: eat it the same day you offer it, or the next day at the latest; any remaining until the third day must be burned. For any of it eaten on the third day is repulsive to Me, and will not be accepted. If you eat it on the third day you are guilty, for you profane the holiness of Jehovah, and you shall be excommunicated from Jehovahs people.
COMMENT 19:18
Lev. 19:1-8 We can organize these verses under the general heading: The First Table of the Law, and divide it as: (1) Honor to parentsLev. 19:3; (2) Sabbath observanceLev. 19:3; (3) Avoiding idolatryLev. 19:4; (4) The peace offeringLev. 19:5-8.
The interrelationship of these laws is not easy to observe. Honor to mother and father relates to sabbath observance possibly because it was on the sabbath parents would instruct their children. The respect given to the parents would be easily transferred to God and His day. The mention of mother before father in Lev. 19:3 is unique. It would seem God is saying that honor for mother is just as important as honor for the father,
The word for idols means non-entities or nothings. It is what Paul means when he says in 1Co. 8:4, We know that an idol is nothing in the world. The content of idol worship adds up to zero. Therefore give them no time or thought. Do not turn toward them, either mentally or physically. The second commandment in the Decalogue is covered by the prohibition against molten gods Cf. Exo. 20:4-6 and Exo. 34:17.
We learned in Lev. 17:3-7 that Israel was in a habit of sacrificing their cattle and herds to the idols before they prepared them for use at their meals. The transference in thought from idol worship to peace offering is an easy one when such a practice is known. We seem to catch a hint of attitude in the little phrase so that ye may be accepted in Lev. 19:5. Put your heart into the effort. Do not go through the form of killing your animals before Jehovah God in the same meaningless manner you do in your field-sacrifices to your idols. God will not accept your peace offering when given in that manner.
Authorities point out that there were two classes of peace offerings: (1) Those to be eaten on the same day they were slain, Cf. Lev. 7:15 and (2) the second class peace offerings which could be eaten the day following, Cf. Lev. 8:16. In Lev. 7:17-20 we have a thorough discussion as to why the meat should not be held till the third day. Perhaps the third day was somehow associated with idol worship, otherwise it would seem the penalty attached to eating the meat on the third day to be very severe.
FACT QUESTIONS 19:18
424.
How does the honor of mother and father relate to the observance of the sabbath day?
425.
This text contains a strong rejection of idols. For what reason?
426.
How do peace offerings and idol worship relate?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XIX.
(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.The prohibitions in the preceding chapter, which are designed to regulate the moral conduct of relations and connections towards each other in their family circles, are now followed by precepts which affect the Israelites life in all its bearings, both towards God and man. Hence the authorities during the second Temple regarded it as embodying the Decalogue, for which reason, as well as for the fact that it contains the sum and substance of the precepts of the Law, it is read in public. The precepts in this chapter are divided into sixteen groups, eight of which end with the emphatic reiteration, I am the Lord your God (Lev. 19:2-4; Lev. 19:10; Lev. 19:25; Lev. 19:31; Lev. 19:34; Lev. 19:36), and eight with the shorter formula, I am the Lord (Lev. 19:12; Lev. 19:14; Lev. 19:16; Lev. 19:18; Lev. 19:28; Lev. 19:30; Lev. 19:32; Lev. 19:37).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 19. God Requires His People To Be Holy.
Having spoken of what God requires of His people especially as regards sexual relations which had a vital place in a patriarchal society, God now moves on to remind them that they are to be holy in every way. They must not be spiritually skin-diseased.
It is not apparent from the English text but in this chapter there is continual movement from plural to singular and back again in order to bring home the personal application of the words. In view of this we will mark the verbs (p) – plural, or (s) – singular to bring out the difference.
The Command To Be Holy As Yahweh Is Holy ( Lev 19:1-2 ).
Lev 19:1
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,’
Once more we have the emphasis that all this was God’s word to Moses.
Lev 19:2
“Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, You (p) shall be holy; for I Yahweh your God am holy.”
We now come to the central point of all these statutes, ordinances and regulations. It is that God’s people be holy as He is holy, be set apart from the world’s ways as He is set apart from them, be pure as He is pure. They all know the purity and moral demands of Yahweh that reveal Him as distinct from all gods. They are therefore to be as pure and holy as He is, for they are His people. Their aim must therefore be to be like Him. Thus what comes next follows closely and expands on the ten words of the covenant of Sinai and the spirit of the covenant. Note the constant refrain, ‘I am Yahweh your God’ (compare Exo 20:2, and see here Lev 19:3-4; Lev 19:10; Lev 19:25; Lev 19:31; Lev 19:34 and Lev 19:36. Note also the slightly different phrase ‘I am Yahweh’ in Lev 19:12; Lev 19:14; Lev 19:18; Lev 19:28; Lev 19:30; Lev 19:32; Lev 19:37). The covenant God was speaking to them constantly, personally and powerfully.
That God is ‘the Holy One of Israel’ is stressed by Isaiah, based on His own vision of Yahweh’s holiness which made him cry out in his uncleanness (Isa 6:1-6). He knew Him as the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity Whose name is Holy (Isa 57:15), the One Who meets with the humble and contrite, who worship Him in the beauty of holiness (Psa 96:9). There is nothing impure in Him (Hab 1:13). This was what holiness meant to Israel.
“Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel.” It is again stressed that God’s words are directed directly to the people. This concerns the behaviour of the whole people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
Lev 19:2
1Pe 1:15-16, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy .”
Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Heb 12:14, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
Lev 19:12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Lev 19:12
Mat 5:33, “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:”
Lev 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
Lev 19:15
Lev 19:16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.
Lev 19:16
Pro 11:13, “ A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.”
Pro 20:19, “He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.”
Jer 6:28, “They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders : they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.”
Jer 9:4, “Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders .”
Eze 22:9, “In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.”
Lev 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Lev 19:18
Mat 5:43, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy .”
Mat 19:18-19, “He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself .”
Mat 22:37-40, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself . On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Mar 12:29-33, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself . There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself , is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Luk 10:27, “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself .”
Rom 13:8, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself .”
Gal 5:14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself .”
Jas 2:8, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself , ye do well:”
Similar to the Royal Law is the Golden Rule of Mat 7:12.
Mat 7:12, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Comments (2) – Note these insightful words from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding the meaning of this phrase.
“This also I have said, ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’ Now although in a sense all men are neighbours one of another, yet the reference is especially to those who habitually live near each other, for it is an easy matter to live at peace with one who is near at hand for a few days only, even though he be unfriendly; but in the case of one who has his dwelling near you, and day by day is the cause of trouble to you, it is most difficult to bear with him, and love him as yourself. But when you have conquered in this great struggle it will be more easy to love all others as yourself.” [28]
[28] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “I The Manifestation of God’s Presence,” section 2, part 4.
Lev 19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
Lev 19:19
Lev 19:32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.
Lev 19:32
Mat 25:40, ‘And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Lev 19:34 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.
Lev 19:34
Mat 25:40, ‘And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Chiefly of the First Table
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, v. 2. Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel and say unto them, ye shall be holy; for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. v. 3. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father. v. 4. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord, your God. v. 5. And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will. v. 6. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow, v. 7. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted, v. 8. Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
From the prohibition of moral uncleanness exhibiting itself in the form of incest and licentiousness, the legislator proceeds to a series of laws and commandments against other kinds of immorality, inculcating piety, righteousness, and kindness. Lev 19:1-37 may be regarded as an extension of the previous chapter in this direction, after which the subject of Lev 18:1-30, is again taken up in Lev 20:1-27. The precepts now given are not arranged systematically, though, as Keil has remarked, “while grouped together rather according to a loose association of ideas than according to any logical arrangement, they are all linked together by the common purpose expressed in the words, ‘Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.’ ” They begin by inculcating (in Lev 20:3, Lev 20:4) duties which fall under the heads of
(1) the fifth commandment of the Decalogue,
(2) the fourth,
(3) the first,
(4) the second.
These four laws are, in their positive aspects,
(1) the religious law of social order, on which a commonwealth rests;
(2) the law of positive obedience to God’s command because it is his command;
(3) the law of piety towards the invisible Lord;
(4) the law of faith, which trusts him without requiring risible emblems or pictures of him.
In Lev 20:11, Lev 20:14, Lev 20:16, 35, 36, obedience is inculcated to the eighth and the ninth commandments, which are the laws of honesty and of truthfulness; in Lev 20:12 to the third commandment, which is the law of reverence; in Lev 20:17, Lev 20:18, 33, 34, to the sixth commandment, which is the law of love; in Lev 20:20, 29, to the seventh commandment, which is the law of purity; in Lev 20:9, Lev 20:10, Lev 20:13, the spirit of covetousness is prohibited, as forbidden in the tenth commandment, which is the law of charity. Thus this chapter may in a way be regarded as the Old Testament counterpart of the Sermon on the Mount, inasmuch as it lays down the laws of conduct, as the latter lays down the principles of action, in as comprehensive though not in so systematic a manner as the ten commandments.
Lev 19:2
Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. The religious motive is put forward here, as in the previous chapter, as the foundation of all morality. It is God’s will that we should be holy, and by being holy we. are like God, who is to be our model so far as is possible to the creature. So in the new dispensation, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mat 5:48). “As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation” (1Pe 1:15).
Lev 19:3
Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father. The words fear and reverence are in this connection interchangeable. So Eph 5:33, “Let the wife see that she reverence her husband,” where the word “reverence” would be more exactly translated by “fear.” St. Paul points out that the importance of the fifth commandment is indicated in the Decalogue by its being” the first commandment with promise,” that is, with a promise attached to it (Eph 6:2). The family life is built upon reverence to parents, and on the family is built society. Obedience to parents is a duty flowing out of one of the first two laws instituted by Godthe law of marriage (Gen 2:24). The second law instituted at the same time was that of the sabbath (Gen 2:3), and in the verse before us observance of the sabbatical law is likewise inculcated, in the words that immediately followye shall keep my sabbaths.
Lev 19:4
Turn ye not unto idols. The word used for idols, elilim, meaning nothings, is contrasted with Elohim, God. Psa 115:1-18 exhibits this contrast in several of its particulars. Cf. St. Paul’s statement, “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one” (1Co 8:4). “If the heart of man becomes benumbed to the use of images of false gods of any kind, he sinks down to the idols which are his ideals, and becomes as dumb and unspiritual as they are” (Lunge). The remainder of the verse forbids the transgression of the second commandment, as the earlier part of the verse forbids the transgression of the first commandment: nor make to yourselves molten gods, as was done by Jeroboam when he set up the calves (1Ki 12:23).
Lev 19:5-8
The unsystematic character of this chapter is indicated by prohibitions under the fifth, fourth, first, and second commandments (Lev 19:3, Lev 19:4) being succeeded by a ceremonial instruction respecting the peace offerings, repeated from Le Lev 7:16-18. The words, ye shall offer it at your own will, should rather be, for your acceptance, as in Lev 1:3. In the seventh chapter a distinction is drawn between the peace offerings that are thank offerings, which must be eaten on the first day, and the peace offerings which are vow or voluntary offerings, which may be eaten on the first or second day. In the present resume this distinction is not noticed. Whoever transgresses this ceremonial command is to bear his iniquity and to be cut off from among his people, that is, to be excommunicated without any appointed form of reconciliation by means of sacrifice.
Lev 19:9, Lev 19:10
The injunction contained in these verses, to not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither gather the gleanings of thy harvest, is twice afterwards repeated (Lev 23:22; Deu 24:19-22). In Deuteronomy, the oliveyard is specified together with the harvest-field and the vineyard, and it is added that, if a sheaf be by chance left behind, it is to remain for the benefit of the poor. The object of this law is to inculcate a general spirit of mercy, which is willing to give up its own exact rights in kindness to others suffering from want. The word here used for vineyard covers also the oliveyard. The expression, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard, would be more literally rendered, neither shalt thou gather the scattering of thy vineyard, meaning the berries (grapes or olives)which had fallen or which were left singly on the boughs.
Lev 19:11
Stealing, cheating, and lying are classed together as kindred sins (see Lev 6:2, where an example is given of theft performed by means of lying; cf. Eph 4:25; Col 3:9).
Lev 19:12
And ye shall not swear by my name falsely. These words contain a positive permission to swear, or take a solemn oath, by the Name of God, and a prohibition to swear falsely by it (see Mat 5:33).
Lev 19:13
Cheating and stealing are again forbidden, and, together with these, other forms of oppression although legal. The command to pay labourers their hire promptlywhich covers also the case of paying tradesmen promptlyis repeated in Deu 24:14 (cf. Jas 5:4).
Lev 19:14
Thou shalt not curse the deaf. The sin of cursing another is in itself complete, whether the curse be heard by that other or not, because it is the outcome of sin in the speaker’s heart. The suffering caused to one who hears the curse creates a further sin by adding an injury to the person addressed. Strangely in contrast with this is not only the practice of irreligious men, who care little how they curse a man in his absence, but the teaching which is regarded by a large body of Christians as incontrovertible. “No harm is done to reverence but by an open manifestation of insult. How, then, can a son sin gravely when he curses his father without the latter’s knowing it, or mocks at him behind his back, inasmuch as in that case there is neither insult nor irreverence? And I think that the same is to be said, even though he does this before others. It must be altogether understood that he does not sin gravely if he curses his parents, whether they are alive or dead, unless the curses are uttered with malevolent meaning.” This is the decision of one that is called not only a saint, but a “doctor of the Church” (Liguori, ‘Theol. Moral.,’ 4.334). “Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put ant in obscure darkness,” says the Word of God (Pro 20:20). Nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God. By the last clause the eye is directed to God, who can see and punish, however little the blind man is able to help himself. (Cf. Job 29:15, “I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.”)
Lev 19:15
Justice is to be done to all. The less danger of respecting the person of the poor has to be guarded against, as well as the greater and more obvious peril of honouring the person of the mighty. The scales of Justice must be held even and her eyes bandaged, that she may not prefer one appellant to another on any ground except that of merit and demerit. “If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (Jas 2:9).
Lev 19:16
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people. For the evil done by mere idle talebearing, see Bishop Butler’s sermon, ‘Upon the Government of the Tongue,’ and four sermons by Bishop Jeremy Taylor, on ‘The Good and Evil Tongue; Slander and Flattery; the Duties of the Tongue.’ Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour; that is, thou shalt not endanger his life, which is the result of the worst kind of talebearing, namely, bearing false witness against him. Thus the effect of the false witness of the two men of Belial against Naboth was that “they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died” (1Ki 21:13; cf. Mat 26:60; Mat 27:4).
Lev 19:17
On the one side we are not to hate our brother in our heart, whatever wrongs he may commit; but on the other side, we are in any wise to rebuke our neighbour for his wrong doing. So our Lord teaches, “if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him” (Luk 17:3); and he appoints a solemn mode of procedure, by which this fraternal rebuke is to be conveyed in his Church: “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican” (Mat 18:15-17). Therefore St. Paul warns his delegates, Timothy and Titus, “Them that sin rebuke before all” (1Ti 5:20). “Reprove, rebuke” (2Ti 4:2). “Rebuke them sharply” (Tit 1:13). “Rebuke with all authority” (Tit 2:15). By withholding reproof in a bitter spirit, or from a feeling of cowardice, we may become partakers of other men’s sins. Whoever fails to rebuke his neighbour when he ought to do so, bears sin on his account (the more correct and less ambiguous rendering of the words translated in the Authorized Version, suffer sin upon him, cf. Num 18:22, Num 18:32). God’s people are their brothers’ keepers (Gen 4:9).
Lev 19:18
Revenge and malice are forbidden as well as hatred, and the negative precepts culminate in the positive law. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, which sums up in itself one half of the Decalogue (Mat 22:40). “For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Rom 13:8-10).
Lev 19:19
Ye shall keep my statutes. Having arrived at the general conclusion, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, in the previous verse, the legislator pauses, and then presents a collection of further laws, arranged as before in no special order. The first is a mystical injunction against the confusion of things which are best kept apart, illustrated in three subjectsdiverse kinds of cattle in breeding, mingled seeds in sowing a field, and mixed materials in garments. In Deu 22:10, a fresher illustration is added, “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.” The existence of mules, which we find frequently mentioned in the’ later history (2Sa 13:29; 2Sa 18:9; 1Ki 1:33), may be accounted for by supposing that the positive precept with regard to breeding cattle here laid down was transgressed, or that the mules were imported from abroad (see 1Ki 10:25). The word used here and in Deu 22:11 for a garment mingled of linen and woolen, is shaatenez, an Egyptian word, meaning probably mixed. The difficulty raised on this verse by the allegation that the high priest’s dress was made of mixed materials, is met by the answer that, if it were of mixed materials (which is uncertain, for wool is not mentioned in Exo 28:1-43, nor is it quite determined that shesh means linen), the mixture was not such as is here forbidden. The moral meaning of the whole of this injunction is exhibited in the following passages from the New Testament, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils” (1Co 10:21). “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” (2Co 6:14-16). “He cannot love the Lord Jesus with his heart,” says Hooker, “who lendeth one ear to his apostles and another to false teachers, and who can brook to see a mingle-mangle of religion and superstition’ (‘Serm.’ Deu 5:7, quoted by Wordsworth).
Lev 19:20-22
A distinction is drawn between adultery with a free woman, or a betrothed free virgin, which was punishable with death (Lev 20:20; Deu 22:23), and with a slave betrothed to another man (probably a slave also). In the latter ease a lesser punishment, no doubt that of scourging (according to the Mishna to the extent of forty stripes), was to be inflicted on one or both, according to the circumstances of the ease. The words, she shall he scourged, should be translated, there shall be investigation, followed, presumably, by the punishment of scourging, for both parties if both were guilty, for one if the woman was unwilling. The man is afterwards to offer a trespass offering. As the offense has been a wrong as well as a sin, his offering is to be a trespass offering (see on Le Lev 5:14). In this case the fine of one-fifth could not be inflicted, as the wrong done could not be estimated by money, and the cost of the ram seems to be regarded as the required satisfaction. No mention is made of damages to be paid to the man to whom the slave-girl was betrothed, probably because he was himself a slave, and had not juridical rights against a freeman.
Lev 19:23-25
The eating of the fruit of young trees by their owners for five years is forbidden, on the principle that such fruit is unclean until it has been sanctified by the offering of a crop as firstfruits to the Lord for the use of the servants of the tabernacle, and a full crop is not to be expected until the fourth year from the time that the trees were planted. The fruit is at first to be counted as uncircumcised, being regarded in a position similar to that of the heathen, that is, unclean, from not having been yet sanctified by the offering of the firstfruits. This sanctification takes place in the fourth year.
Lev 19:26-28
After a repetition of the fundamental ceremonial law against eating things which have the blood in them (the LXX. rendering, , “upon the mountains,” arises from a mistaken reading), follow prohibitions
(1) to use enchantment, literally, to whisper or mutter after holding communication with serpents (if the word nichesh be derived from nachash, a serpent);
(2) to observe times, or rather, according to a more probable etymology, exercise the evil eye;
(3) to round the corners of your heads, that is, use a sort of tonsure, as was done by some Arabian tribes (Herod; Lev 3:3) in honour of their god Orotal, and by the Israelites as a form of mourning (Deu 14:1; Isa 22:12);
(4) to mar the corners of thy beard, a fashion of mourning which accompanied the tonsure of the head (see Le Lev 21:5; Isa 15:2; Jer 48:37;
(5) to make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, another form of mourning, associated with the two previously mentioned practices (see Jer 21:5; Deu 14:1; Jer 16:6; Jer 41:3; Jer 48:37);
(6) to print any marks upon you, that is, tattoo themselves in memory of the dead. All these customs were unbecoming the dignity of God’s people, and had been connected with idolatrous practices.
Lev 19:29
Do not prostitute thy daughter. This is a peremptory prohibition, applying to every Jewish maiden, introduced in this place with a primary relation to the sanctification of lust by the dedication of young girls at some heathen temples; but by no means confined in its application to such practices. All legal sanction of the sin of prostitution is forbidden, for whatever purpose it may be given; and the certain result of such sanction is indicated in the final words of the verse, lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness (cf. Deu 23:17).
Lev 19:30
The command in this verse differs from that in Lev 19:3 by adding the injunction to reverence my sanctuary to that requiring the observance of the sabbath. It is a matter of experience that where the sabbath is not kept, God’s sanctuary is not reverenced, and that that reverence increases or fails away according as the obligation of the sabbatical law, whether in its Jewish form or its Christian form, be more or less recognized. The sabbatical ordinance is necessary as a previous condition of religious worship. Without it, the business and pleasure of the world are too strong to give way to the demands upon time made by the stated service of God. The verse is repeated in Le Lev 26:2. “When the Lord’s day is kept holy, and a holy reverence for the Lord’s sanctuary lives in the heart, not only are many sins avoided, but social and domestic life is pervaded by the fear of God, and characterized by devoutness and propriety” (Keil).
Lev 19:31
This verse contains a prohibition of all dealings with those that have familiar spirits or are wizards. The punishment of such persons is appointed in the next chapter. Both in the Old and the New Testament, the real existence of evil spirits and their power of communicating with the human spirit is assumed.
Lev 19:32
Reverence for the old is inculcated as being a part, not merely of natural respect, but of the fear of God. In the East this virtue, implying deference on the part of the strong to the weak, and of the inexperienced to the wise, exists in larger influence for good than in the West, where, however, its place has been, but only partially, supplied by the greater deference paid by man to woman (cf. Pro 16:31; Pro 20:29).
Lev 19:33, Lev 19:34
The command already given “neither to vex a stranger, nor oppress him” (Exo 22:21), on the pathetic ground that “ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exo 23:9), is broadened in these verses to the positive law, thou shalt love him as thyself. “The royal law of Lev 19:18 is expressly extended to the stranger, and notwithstanding the national narrowness necessary to preserve the true religion in the world, the general brotherhood of mankind is hereby taught as far as was possible under the circumstances” (Gardiner).
Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36
These verses, beginning with the same words as Lev 19:15, Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, contain another and wider application of that principle. Lev 19:15 prohibited unrighteousness in the judge, or in one who was in the position of a judge; these verses forbid it in merchants and tradesmen. It is the more necessary to condemn dishonesty, in unmistakable terms, as men who make a profession of religion, and therefore would be shocked at stealing, have often less scruple in cheating. Here and in Deuteronomy, where the Law is repeated, a religious sanction is given to the command; “For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deu 25:16). Cf. Pro 11:1, “A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight;” and Pro 20:10, “Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord;” see also Mic 6:10, Mic 6:11 and Eze 45:10.
Lev 19:37
Moral precepts are rested on their right foundationthe command of God and the religious motive.
HOMILETICS
Lev 19:1
Morality has a basis of its own.
The moral philosopher, if asked, “Why should I act morally?” replies, “Because it is right for you to do so.” If asked further, “Why is it right for me to do so?” he replies, “Because your conscience tells you that it is.” If asked why conscience should be obeyed rather than passion, he replies, “Because it possesses greater authority, even if it has less power;” and in proof of this he points to the approval or disapproval which it stamps upon acts according to their character. Morality can be proved to be reasonable, apart from religion.
But it cannot be enforced. If a man denies that his conscience commands him to perform a moral action, the verdict of the general conscience of mankind may be quoted against him as contrary to that of his own, but he can repudiate the authority of that verdict so far as he is himself concerned. He can reasonably maintain that the general conscience may be misled by prejudice or superstition, and that his own conscience is more enlightened than that of the mass. In this manner the philosopher, or any one who regards himself as a philosopher, finds a way of evasion ready at hand.
With the masses, moral teaching, unaccompanied by religions sanction, is still less effectual. The general good of mankind, or the duty of obeying the highest principle of our nature, has never restrained, and never will restrain, the mass of mankind from yielding to the force of strong passion or desire.
In the present chapter we find the moral dutiesthose of the second table as much as the firstrested upon a religious basis. They are God’s commands, whether that command be given by written precept or by an instinct engraven on man’s heart. And because they are God’s commands in both these ways, they are to be obeyed. Thus there is an appeal from man’s mind to something higher than himself, to which man will submit. The effort to preserve morality in a nation without religious sanction and religious motive is like the attempt to keep alive the flame of a fire, when the fuel from which the flame is derived has been withdrawn. One generation may continue moral; the next will certainly be licentious. “I am the Lord” is a basis of morality which never fails.
Lev 19:3
The laws of submission
(1) to human authority and
(2) to sacred ordinances, for the Lord’s sake, are enjoined in this verse.
1. The family is an institution of God’s appointment (Gen 1:28; Gen 2:24). The command to children to honour their father and mother is distinguished in the Decalogue by a blessing attached to it (Exo 20:12; Eph 6:2); and a special blessing is bestowed on the house of the Rechabites for obeying it (Jer 35:18). St. Paul enjoins the observance of the duty, both as an act right in itself and as positively commanded in God’s Law (Eph 6:1, Eph 6:2). The father’s duty is “nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph 6:4), including guidance, remonstrance, reproof (1Sa 2:23). By means of this institution the character of every member of the commonwealth is formed, at the moment when alone it is plastic, by the influence best adapted for turning it to good. Contrast the system adopted by Rousseau for dealing with his children, and the probable results on parents, children, and the State. Cf. the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony: “Marriage was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy Name.”
An analogous position to that of the parent is afterwards held by the civil magistrate in respect to the subject, and by the pastor in respect to a member of his flock. Therefore, in order to carry out the commandment, a man has not only “to love, honour, and succour his father and mother,” but also “to honour and obey the queen, and all that are put in authority under her: to submit himself to all his governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters: to order himself lowly and reverently to all his betters” (Church Catechism). On the other hand, the authorities in the State and in the Church have their duties also, not now the same as those of the parent towards the child, on account of the changed position of him who was once a child, but nevertheless analogous to them. So in other cases, wherever men stand in a relation to each other similar to that of parent and child, obligations similar to those which bind parents and children arise.
2. Sabbatical observance appears, at first sight, a small thing to place on a level, as here, with the fifth commandment, or, as in the Decalogue, with the first, second, and third commandments; but when we examine into it closely, we find that this disproportion does not exist.
I. ITS INSTITUTION. It shares with the ordinance of marriage alone the characteristic of having been instituted at the creation of the world. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen 2:3). Being coeval with creation, the sabbatical law, like the marriage law, is of universal obligation on all mankind.
II. ITS JEWISH FORM. The sabbatical law was observed during the period preceding the Mosaic Law (Exo 16:22-30). For the Jews it took the form given it in the fourth commandment (Exo 20:8-11; Deu 5:12-15) and other Mosaic injunctions (Exo 31:13, Exo 31:14; Exo 35:2, Exo 35:3; Num 15:32-36). To them it commemorated the rest after the Creation and the rest after the toils of Egypt, while it looked forward to the rest of Canaan while they wandered in the wilderness (Psa 95:11), and, after they had entered Canaan, to the still further rest of the Messianic kingdom (Heb 4:8); and it was to be kept with such severity that no work at all was to be done upon it, even to the extent of gathering sticks or lighting a fire.
III. ENDS SERVED BY THE JEWISH FORM.
1. It formed a very noticeable distinction between the Jews and the neighbouring nations, and so it was a preservative from idolatry.
2. It served, like circumcision, as a symbol constantly reminding them that they were God’s people, and should live in accordance with their profession. “Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them” (Eze 20:12).
IV. THE CHRISTIAN FORM. Christ declared his lordship over the sabbath day (Mat 12:8), but he did not exercise that lordship for the purpose of destroying it as an institution, but merely of adapting the primary law of the sabbath to altered circumstances. The Jewish sabbath, as such (that is, in its peculiarities), ceased to be binding, but the obligation of sabbatical law continued, and the ordinance took a changed form. By apostolic authority, as proved by apostolic practice, the Christian sabbath was kept on the first day of the weekthe anniversary of Christ’s resurrectionand the severity of its character was abrogated. As God had rested on the seventh day after his labour of creation, so Christ had rested in the grave on the seventh day after his labour of redemption. Why should the seventh day be any longer kept? “The Jewish sabbath died out in the course of the first generation of Christians, as circumcision died out, as the temple, as the Law itself died out The Lord’s day was a Divine and more immortal shoot from the same stock. It was rooted in the primitive law of the Creation. It recognized and adopted the old weekly division of time, that perpetual and ever-recurring acknowledgment, wherever it was celebrated in all the world, of the Divine blessing and promises. It had the Divine sanction of the tables of stonethose tables, written by God’s own finger, and therefore greatly superior in sanctity and enduring weight to the temporary enactments of the ceremonial law. It took up the old series of commemorations and sacred anticipations. It bade the true Israel of God record with gratitude and keep in mind, by the weekly institution and its recurring festival of rest and praise, the creation of mankind, the deliverance from Egypt, the entrance of the people into the promised land, the return from captivity, the coming of the Messiah; and to look forward under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost to the crowning and final mercy of the long scheme of Providence, the eternal rest in heaven which yet remaineth for the people of God” (Bishop Moberly, ‘The Law of the Love of God’).
V. THE ENDS OF THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION.
1. To reserve a certain sufficient part of time free for spiritual interests.
2. To teach the lesson of obedience to positive precept in religious things. The appointment of one-seventh of our time for this purpose is wholly arbitrary. There is no account to be given of it except that it is God’s will There is no other account to be given of weeks. Months and years have their reasons in physical nature; not so weeks. God has commanded, and because he has commanded, the weekly rest is observed by those who love God; and not only is the weekly rest observed, but a loving obedience is paid to all religious institutions and ordinances established by lawful authority.
VI. EFFECT ON THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN‘S LIFE. “The Christian man, desirous of loving God with all the affection of his heart, with all the rational intelligence of his mind, with all the devotion of his life, with all the energy of his strength, in the love taught him under the fourth law, will yield himself up gratefully and religiously to obey all duly ordered positive laws of the Church of God. The Sunday and its sacred observance will be to him the center, and furnish, so to speak, the form of his own way of life, and that of all his family and dependents. He will regard it every time it returns as God’s holy day of rest, the weekly commemoration of the primeval rest of God and of all the signal mercies of the elder covenant. Knowing himself to be of the true Israel of God, he will not forget the blessings connected by God himself with the sabbatical institution, vouchsafed to his fathers in the faith. He will celebrate it weekly as the feast of the Lord’s resurrection, and all the blessings of that resurrection; as the feast of the Holy Ghost the Giver of peace and rest in the Church, as the weekly antepast of that glorious and unending rest in the presence of God which still remaineth for the people of God. It will be to him a day of rest, peace, prayer, praise, and holy joy; no mournful and austere time, but on the contrary, a thankful happy time. He will remember his Lord’s injunction not to forbid or refuse works of necessity or mercy on that day. He will gratefully shut up the records of the cares, the interests, and the occupations of the week, and give that holy day to God; not discharging himself of his duties of worship by an attendance in God’s house or holding himself at liberty to make his own convenience or inclination the rule of obedience; but faithfully, dutifully, and completely sanctifying that day to rest, worship, and the thought of God and heaven. And the other days, the train of Sunday, will borrow of its light; each having its own sacred, special commemoration belonging to it, and each reflecting some of the brightness of the Sunday just preceding and catching moreand more from that which follows (Moberly, ‘The Law of the Love of God’).
VII. RESULTS OF ITS NEGLECT.
1. To the individual:
(1) an unloving spirit arising from a consciousness of disobedience to a command;
(2) a habit of refusing to submit to positive injunctions, and, growing out of that, a habit of choosing which of God’s commandments he will obey;
(3) a loss of religious opportunities, and consequently a gradual falling away from the habit of public worship, and therefore from the spiritual life;
(4) a sense of being overwhelmed by the business and worries of life which continue without cessation, and thence a want of calm peacefulness and cheerfulness.
2. To a nation:
(1) growth of ungodliness and irreligion;
(2) increase of self-indulgence and mere amusement-seeking;
(3) growing oppression of the poor, who are made to serve the amusements or requirements of the rich instead of enjoying their weekly rest and refreshment of body and mind and soul;
(4) the displeasure of God, whose primeval law is disobeyed.
Lev 19:4
This verse contains the laws of piety and of faith. “Turn ye not unto idols” forbids the worship of false gods; “nor make to yourselves molten gods” forbids in addition the sin of worshipping the true God under the form of a molten shape.
I. The great temptation to the Jews down to the time of their captivity appears to have been that of taking the gods of the nations round about them as their gods; Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech, Chemosh, drew off their affections from Jehovah. They did not desire apparently to give up the worship of God altogether, but to combine the worship of false gods with it, that is, to transfer a part of the religious affections which were due to God to some other object. This is done in the present day,
(1) by the Roman Catholic Church, which sanctions the transference of worship which ought to be confined to God, from him to St. Mary and other saints; and the moral and religious regard, which is due to God alone, not only to saints, but to a living man, who has been called the idol of the Vatican;
(2) by worldly men, who occupy their thoughts and feeling to such an excessive degree with the things of sense as to shut out Divine and spiritual things;
(3) by sophists, who, by the exercise of a subtle intellect in a presumptuous spirit, shut out God from their ken, and worship the universe, or humanity, or nothing.
II. The Jews were also guilty of the kindred sin of worshipping Jehovah under the form of an idol. This was the sin of Aaron’s calf, which represented, not any strange god, but Jehovah himself (Exo 32:5), and this was the case with Jeroboam’s two calves of gold (1Ki 12:26-33). This offense is committed by any Christians who adore a representation of the Deity, sculptured or painted, or any sign or symbol of him, of whatever material or appearance it may be. It is the sin of men or Churches which have faith to believe that there is a God, but so feeble a faith that they require visible symbols of his presence instead of bravely trusting in the Unseen. The Israelites said to Aaron, “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wet not what is become of him.” When they could not see Moses, the servant of God, they required a visible image of God. They could not trust him unseen; they required proof of his nearness; and this craving of a feeble faith led them to prefer the symbol of “a calf that eateth hay” (Deu 4:15) to no similitude at all. “Other nations, surrounding the Jews on every side, had their visible objects of worship, making their task of Divine duty and faith more easy. But to acquiesce in their unseen God, I am; to obey without immediate continual consciousness of his nearness; to trust in his protection at times when they had no sensible aid to help them to realize to their imagination his power; to let loose, as it were, their prayers into the air, without having some representative figure, or emblem, at the least, at which to point them;all this was too difficult a task for a feeble faith in things invisible and spiritual” (Moberly, ‘The Law of the Love of God’).
The same feebleness of faith has produced the worship of images in the Christian Church. It was not till the seventh century that they crept into use for aids in worship, and when they were approved in the eighth century by the second Council of Nicea, that Council was at once rejected, and its doctrine of images was repudiated by the Council of Frankfort and the bishops of Charlemagne’s empire.
In like manner, a feeble faith craves for full light, for demonstration, for infallibility, where God has only given twilight moral certainty, and an authority which is not absolute. It craves for immediate resolution of spiritual difficulties where God demands a patient dealing with them; it asks after a sign where no sign is to be given; it seeks out for itself mediators instead of going straight to God.
Not only does the use of images in worship arise from a feeble faith, but it makes that faith feebler and feebler, and thus leads to materialism. After a while the symbol becomes substituted for the thing symbolized by it, and the affections which the emblem was intended to excite toward an unseen object, do not pass beyond the external sign. Materialism and weakness of faith are the spiritual effects of worshipping images and craving after visible symbols.
“A brave contentment with an invisible God, showing itself in faithful and strong-hearted maintenance of piety in the absence (if it should so please God) or the apparent scantiness of signs, tokens, miracles, and other visible indications of the presence and protection of the Omnipresent and Omnipotent, and a like courageous and faithful abstinence from making to themselves unauthorized images, symbols, and emblems of him who communicated with the people without similitude, must be the particular quality or part of Divine love enjoined under the second law. The peculiar affection enjoined is the brave, trusting, spiritual faith in God invisible, spiritual, absent to our sense, dim in his tokens, obscure sometimes in his providences, not demonstrable in his evidences, not invariable in his benefits. Possessed of this spiritual faith in the Unseen, a man walks along his narrow path of life with a confidence, security, and cheerfulness which establish at once his comfort and his safety” (Moberly, ‘The Law of the Love of God’).
Lev 19:9, Lev 19:10
The law of kindness is a necessary complement to the other laws,
to make up the perfect character. A stern, just man is not the Christian ideal. The mercy and loving-kindness of God must be our model, as well as his other qualities.
“The quality of mercy is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.”
The man who leaves something for others that he might have taken for himself, such as the gleanings of his field, rises from the level of justice to that of generosity, and is educated to understand the noble impulses of a liberal heart and the blessedness described in the one saying of our Lord that is not recounted in the Gospels, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Lev 19:11, Lev 19:13, Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36
Stealing is forbidden by the law of man, and by the Law of God.
It is forbidden by the law of man in order to prevent injury being done to a citizen, and its sanction is fear of punishment. Remove the fear of punishment, and the goods of another will no longer be respected. It is forbidden by the Law of God because it is displeasing to God; because honesty and uprightness are in themselves right; because to defraud another is in itself wrong. Take away the fear of punishment, and there will remain as scrupulous a care not to trespass on the rights of another as before. The law of honesty, as inculcated by God, has a dominating power and influence in all conditions of life.
Cheating is to stealing as equivocation is to lying. Both are equally immoral. Cheating and equivocating only differ morally from stealing and lying by being more mean and cowardly. The law of man cannot prevent cheating. It can indeed send inspectors to see that there are ‘just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just him;” but that is not enough to prevent cheating. The only thing that will do this is the fear of the Lord and the consciousness that the unjust appropriation of anything, however small, is contrary to the will of God. Hence we may see the infinite importance for the well-being of a country that the moral teaching of children in public schools be rested upon a religious basis. The precept is reproduced in the New Testament: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Eph 4:28).
Lying is joined with stealing and cheating, not only because it may be used as a means of cheating (Lev 6:2), but because it is a fraud in itself and a sin against uprightness and honesty. The essence of the sin consists in deceiving our neighbours. “Men, as men,” says Bishop Taylor, “have a right to truth;” “for there is in mankind a universal contract implied in all their intercourses, and words being instituted to declare the mind, and for no other end, he that hears me speak hath a right in justice to be done him that, as far as I can, what I speak be true; for else he by words does not know your mind, and then as good and better not speak at all” (‘Ductor Dubitantium,’ 3, 2, 5). There are certain classes of men who have not a right to truth, such as madmen, and sick persons under special circumstances; and in these cases it is justifiable to say to them what is best for them, whether true or not; and in case of declared war the right to truth ceases, and is known to cease, so that no immoral deception takes place when false news is spread or stratagems adopted. But in time of peace and in ordinary cases, “Thou shalt not deceive thy neighbour” is the rule of conduct. Whether this deception takes place by means of a lie, or of an equivocation, or era mental reservation makes no difference in the morality of the act. The defense of equivocation rests upon a confusion of two things totally differentmaterial truth and moral truthfulness. The statement that the sun uses or sinks is materially false, because it remains stationary. But the man who makes such a statement is morally truthful, if he makes it not intending to deceive his neighbour and knowing that he will not be deceived. A statement that the sun had not risen (in the morning) or gone down (in the evening), if made with the purpose of deceiving the person addressed, and with an ulterior object on the part of the speaker, although materially true, would imply moral untruthfulness on the part of the speaker, and therefore is a lie. Bishops Taylor and Sanderson were some of the first theologians who, recurring to the severer morality of Augustine and the early Fathers, cast away with scorn the puerile confusion between moral truthfulness and material truth on which the system of modern Roman casuistry in this department rests. “He that tells a lie,” says Bishop Taylor, “and by his mental restriction says he tells a truth, tells two lies” (‘Ductor Dubitantium,’ 3:28). On the other hand, the Church of Rome teaches that the person addressed may be deceived to any amount, provided that the deception is effected by a form of words which is true in some sense apprehended by the speaker, though untrue in the sense understood by the other party. Accordingly, it is taught by an authority that may not be gainsaid by any member of that communion, that if a man prefixes the words” I say that” to a sentence, he may with a good reason make any false statement that he pleases, because in his own mind he means only to declare that he is making use of the words following that prefix, not that he is asserting their truth, as the person that he addresses supposes him robe doing (S. Alfonso de’ Liguori, ‘Theol. Moral.,’ 4:451). Contrast with this the injunctions of the apostle, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Eph 4:25); “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds” (Col 3:9); and the command of the prophet, “Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord” (Zec 8:16, Zec 8:17); and the teaching of the early Church, “A man lies when he thinks something to be false and says it as though true, whether it be true or false. Mark the addition that I have made. Whether it be really true or false, yet, if a man thinks it false and assert it as true, he lies, for he is aiming to deceive His heart is double, not single; he does but bring out what he has there”; and the teaching of the reformed Church, “Our result is that the party swearing after this manner both sinneth in his equivocal oath, and is notwithstanding that tacit equivocation bound in conscience unto the performance of his promise in that sense which the words yield of themselves, and are, without constraint, apt to beget upon the minds of others. Unless he act accordingly, he is not guiltless of perjury” (Sanderson, ‘Obligation of Oaths’). In the Book of the Revelation we read, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8).
Lev 19:12
Name of thy God,
contains three injunctions: First, a command that on due occasions we are to make appeal to God by solemn oath; secondly, a prohibition of perjury; thirdly, a command to reverence God’s Name.
I. TO SWEAR BY GOD‘S NAME IS COMMANDED, AS BEING A RECOGNITION OF HIM AS SUPREME LORD. Thus in Deuteronomy we read, “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his Name” (Deu 6:13); in the Psalms, “Every one that sweareth by him shall glory (or be commended)” (Psa 63:11); in Isaiah, “He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth” (Isa 65:16); in Jeremiah, “Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness” (Jer 4:2); “Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods” (Jer 5:7); “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my Name, The Lord liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people” (Jer 12:16).
II. GOD SWEARS BY HIMSELF. “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee” (Gen 22:16, Gen 22:17). “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isa 45:23). “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation” (Heb 6:13-18).
III. GOD‘S COMMAND MADE OF NONE EFFECT BY JEWISH TRADITIONS. These are summed up in the following passage of Philo Judaeus:”Let the word of the good man be a firm oath, immovable trust, free from falsehood, based on truth. But if this be not sufficient, and necessity compel him to swear, he should swear by the health or sacred age of his father or mother if they are alive, or by their memory if they are dead. For they are images and representations of Divine power, inasmuch as they brought into being those that did not exist before. They too deserve praise who, when they are compelled to swear, suggest the thought of reverence both to the bystanders and to those who impose the oath by the limitation and unwillingness which they show. For, saying aloud, ‘Yes, by ,’ and, ‘No, by,’ and adding nothing, under the appearance of sudden interruption, they show that they do not swear a complete oath. But let a man add thereto what he pleases, such as the earth, the sun, the stars, the heaven, the whole world, provided he does not add the highest and most awful Cause” (‘De Special. Legibus’).
IV. CHRIST FORBIDS SWEARING. “Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil” (Mat 5:33-37). Nearly the same words are repeated in Jas 5:12.
V. CHRIST‘S COMMAND LIMITED IN ITS EXTENT. His prohibition refers to ordinary swearing, not to solemn oaths taken in courts of justice or under similar circumstances. This is plain by the fact that at his own trial he replied to the adjuration of the high priest, which adjuration was the Jewish manner of taking an oath in a court of justice, “Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said” (Mat 26:63, Mat 26:64). Because the high priest’s words were “the voice of swearing” (Jas 5:1), Jesus broke his silence and spoke in obedience to the adjuration; and oaths are spoken of with approval in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 6:13-18).
VI. WHAT AS OATH IS. It is an appeal to the tribunal of God, the person swearing (or adjured) calling God to witness to the truth of his words. Its purpose is “an end of all strife” (Heb 6:16). When no circumstantial evidence is forthcoming, the only means of arriving at truth is the awe of God solemnly invoked by an oath, and the dread of offending him by perjury. Where either sophistical casuistry or a secretstill more an openskepticism undermines or destroys the sense of the obligation of oaths in a nation, that nation is hurrying on its way to destruction.
VII. PERJURY. The more solemn an oath is, the greater is the sin of perjury. If to swear by God’s Name is a method of arriving at truth appointed by God himself, to swear by his Name falsely subverts the purpose of the command and insults the majesty of God.
VIII. IRREVERENCE. Not only deliberate perjury but any kind of irreverence is forbidden by this injunction. “The Christian man will endeavour to recognize with faithful respect that holy Name wherever it meets him in his walk of life. As it is an appellation of the most high God, he will never utter it hastily or thoughtlessly. He will surely not use it at all except he have occasion to speak of it seriously and carefully. It is needless to say how totally he will refrain from such wanton profanation as that of garnishing his common speech by using the Name or referring to the doings of the Most High; still less how impossible it would be for him to allege the sacred Name, literally or by implication, in support of falsehood; nay, how impossible it would be that he should assert what is false at all, seeing that the Name of God is all around him, and that the most secularly sounding asseverations are nothing else than allegations of that Name. He will be much on his guard in prayers, lest, while he utters the sacred Name and the words which belong to it, his mind should wander away from the thoughts which ought to accompany it, and he should break the commandment. He will not shrink from the seemly reverence which the Church orders to be paid to the Name of Christ’ (Moberly, ‘The Law of the Love of God’).
Lev 19:18, Lev 19:34
We have the testimony of our Lord (Mat 22:9) and of the Apostle St. Paul (Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14) that to obey the injunction, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” is to fulfill all the commandments of the second table of the Law; and for that reason St. James calls it a royal law (Jas 2:8). Here, therefore, the Levitical Law culminates in its highest point, so far as our duties towards men are concerned. Lest the Jew should confine the idea of thy neighbour to his own kindred and race, an equal love is specifically commanded for the stranger that dwelleth with you. Not only, Thou shalt love thy Jewish neighbour as thyself, but also Thou shalt love the stranger that dwelleth among you as thyself. The force of the comparison, as thyself, may be studied in Bishop Butler’s sermon ‘Upon the Love of our Neighbour.’
But though the Law. culminates in the two kindred commands, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God;” “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;” Christianity does not. Christianity goes beyond the highest point to which the Law soars. Not only does it name the neighbour and the stranger as those whom we are to love, but also the enemy. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven” (Mat 5:43-45). The motive in the gospel is also higher than the Law. In the Law the motive in the case of the stranger is human sympathy arising from common suffering, “for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” In the gospel it is the desire to be like God in his dealings with men, “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat 5:45), “for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luk 6:35, Luk 6:36).
Lev 19:19
Mingled Seed
The moral meaning of the command, “Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed,” receives an illustration from the parable of the “man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also” (Mat 13:24-26). God’s servant must sow of the best; if the tares are mixed with the good seed, it must be the enemy’s doing, not his. One of the preparations made by the Jews for an approaching Passover was to go over the fields near Jerusalem, and root up plants that had grown from mingled seeds. But in the spiritual sphere this is not to be done. If the enemy has succeeded in introducing the tares, they are for the sake of the wheat to be let to grow together until the harvest (Mat 13:30).
Lev 19:32
Respect for old age
is not only inculcated as a preservative against the rule of brute force, but as a part of the fear of God, the parent’s relation to the child representing that of God to his creature.
Lev 19:37
Moral commandments have a double sanction.
They are to be obeyed
(1) because they carry their own sanction with them,
(2) because they are commanded.
In the latter respect all Divine injunctions stand on a level. All transgressions of what is commanded are equally sin, but they are not equal sins. A man who steals is not guilty of an equally heinous sin with the man who commits murder, but he is equally guilty of sin, because both murder and theft are forbidden. All God’s statutes, and all his judgments are to be observed without exception, in order to be righteous according to the righteousness of the Law. “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (Rom 10:5). “This do, and ye shall live” (Luk 11:28).
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Lev 19:1, Lev 19:2, Lev 19:4, Lev 19:5, Lev 19:12, Lev 19:26-28, Lev 19:30-32, Lev 19:36, Lev 19:37
Religion and superstition.
It is not always easy or even possible to distinguish between religion and superstition. We may fall into the latter when we are seeking to practice the former; or we may, from undue fear of the latter, neglect the former. In this chapter the Jews were taught (and we are thereby encouraged) to avoid the one, and to perfect the other in the fear of God.
I. THE SUPERSTITION WHICH WAS TO BE SHUNNED.
1. Clearly and decisively everything that was in any way idolatrous was condemned; “turn ye not unto idols” (Lev 19:4).
2. All that was distinctively or closely connected with heathen worship was also forbidden: the use of enchantments, the superstitious observance of lucky or unlucky times, also superstitious cutting of the hair or of the flesh (Lev 19:26-28); resorting to wizards, etc. (see 1Ch 10:13). There is amongst us much adoption of practices which are idle and vain, not warranted in Scripture nor founded on reason. Such things are to be deprecated and shunned, They are
(1) useless;
(2) harmful, as taking the place in our thought which belongs to something really good and wise;
(3) displeasing to the God of truth.
II. THE RELIGION WHICH WAS TO BE CULTIVATED AND PRACTISED. The Jews were to cherish and cultivate, even as we are,
(1) sanctity like that of God himself (Lev 19:2), entire separateness of spirit and so of conduct from every evil thing;
(2) reverence for his holy Name (Lev 19:12), and consequent abstention from everything bordering on profanity;
(3) regard for divinely appointed ordinancesthe sabbath and the sanctuary (Lev 19:30);
(4) gratitude for his redeeming mercy (Lev 19:36), “I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt;”
(5) spontaneous dedication to his service (Lev 19:5). “At our own will” we must bring ourselves and our offerings to his altar;
(6) daily, hourly consultation of his holy will, “Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them” (Lev 19:37).C.
Lev 19:3, Lev 19:32
Honour to whom honor.
It is uncertain whether we shall receive the honour which is due to us. Possibly we may be denied some to which we are entitled; probably we have experienced this wrong already, in larger or smaller measure, and know the pain of heart which attends it. Let us, therefore, resolve that we will give that which is due to others. The two passages connected in the text remind us that we should pay deference to
I. THOSE WHO CARRY THE WEIGHT OF YEARS. “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man.” “Respect the burden, madam,” said Napoleon, inviting a lady to move out of the way of one who was carrying a heavy weight. Those who have traveled far on the rough road of life, and are worn with many and sad experiences, on whom the privations of age are resting,these carry a heavy weight, a burden we should respect. They are as wounded soldiers on whom the battle of life has left its scars, and these are marks of honour that demand the tribute of youth.
II. THOSE WHO HAVE ATTAINED TO WISDOM. The young are apt to think that they can reach the heights of wisdom without laboriously climbing the steeps of experience. They find that they are wrong. Time proves to each generation of men that wisdom, whether it be that of earth or of heaven, is only gained by the discipline of life. There are men who pass through human life and learn nothing in the passage; the folly of youth cleaves to them still. Such men must be comparatively unhonoured, receiving only the respect which is due to old age as such. But when men have gathered the fruits of a long and large experienceand especially when men of intelligence and piety have stored up the truth which God has been teaching them as he has led them along all the path of lifethey are worthy to receive our sincerest honour, and we must know how to “rise up before the hoary head” in their case. With all and more than all the respect we pay to the learned, we should receive men whom God has been long teaching in his schoolthose who have learnt much of Jesus Christ.
III. THOSE WHO HAVE LAID US UNDER SPECIAL OBLIGATION.
1. Aged men who have lived a faithful life have done this. For they have lived, not only for themselves, but for their kind. They have wrought, struggled, suffered in order that they might help us and others to walk in the light, to enter the kingdom, to enjoy the favour of God; and they have earned our gratitude by their faithful service.
2. Our parents have done this also. “Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father.” What benefits our parents have conferred on us, what kindnesses they have rendered us, what sacrifices they have made for us, what anxious thought and earnest prayer they have cherished and offered on our behalf,who of us shall reckon? The debt we owe to them for all they have done for us is the heaviest of all, next to that supreme indebtedness under which we stand to God. But it is not only the obligation we have thus incurred which demands our filial reverence; it is the fact that our parents arc
IV. THOSE WHO STAND IN A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP TO US.
1. We should remember that fatherhood is the human relationship which most closely resembles and most fully reveals that in which God himself stands to us all. Christ came to reveal the Father unto man as the Father of souls. Therefore it is to be highly honoured.
2. Fatherhood (parenthood, for the mother is not to be left out of our thought) in the best state of human society has received the largest share of honour. We may gather from this fact that it is a divinely implanted instinct, only absent when the race has miserably degenerated under sin.
3. Honour given to parents as such is imperatively required by God. It was a patriarchal and Jewish, as it is now a Christian, virtue. After the injunction stand these significant words, “I am the Lord.” “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Eph 6:1). Filial disobedience and unkindness are grievous sins in his sight. Filial love, honour, and considerateness are well-pleasing unto the Lord.C.
Lev 19:9, Lev 19:10, Lev 19:13, Lev 19:14, Lev 19:33, Lev 19:34
Considerateness.
We gather from these verse
I. THAT THE FEAR OF GOD WILL SURELY LEAD TO THE LOVE OF MAN. That piety which begins and ends in acts of devotion is one that may be reasonably suspected: it is not of the scriptural order. True piety is in consulting the will of the heavenly Father (Mat 7:21), and his will is that we should love and be kind to one another (Eph 4:32). Philanthropy is a word which may not have its synonym in the Old Testament, but the Hebrew legislator was not ignorant of the idea, and the Hebrew people were not left without incitement to the thing itself. Hence these injunctions to leave some corn in the corners of their fields, and the scattered ears for the reaping and gleaning of the poor (Lev 19:9); to leave also some clusters of grapes which had been overlooked for needy hands to pluck (Lev 19:10); to take no advantage of the weaker members of their society, the deaf and the blind (Lev 19:14); and to show kindness to the stranger (Lev 19:34).
II. THAT CONSIDERATENESS IS A GRACE WHICH IS PECULIARLY PLEASING TO GOD. The Jews were expressly enjoined to
(1) show kindness to the poor (Lev 19:10);
(2) to be careful of those who suffered from bodily infirmity (Lev 19:14);
(3) to interest themselves in the stranger (Lev 19:33, Lev 19:34).
There is something particularly striking in the commandment that they were to refrain from cursing the deaf. Even though there might be no danger of giving positive pain and exciting resentment, yet they were not to direct harsh words against any one of their more unfortunate brethren. This legislation for the weak and the necessitous presents a very pleasant aspect of the Law. It also reminds us of some truths which come home to ourselves. We may observe:
1. That power is apt to be tyrannical. The history of nations, tribes, individuals, is the history of assertion and assumption. The strong have ever shown themselves ready to take advantage of the weak. Hence the oppression and cruelty which darken the pages of human history.
2. That God would have us be just to one another. In most cases, if not in all, we can take no credit for our superior strength, and build no claim on it. In many cases, if not in most, we can impute no blame to others for their weakness: the unfortunate are not necessarily the undeserving, and we have no right to make them suffer.
3. But beyond this, God would have us be specially kind to the necessitous because they are reedy. Here are these statutes in respect of the poor, the afflicted, and the stranger. The devotional Scriptures speak more fully of this sacred duty (Psa 41:1, Psa 41:2; 62:13; Psa 112:9, etc.). The prophets utter their voice still more forcibly (Isa 58:6-8; Eze 18:7; Neh 5:10-12; Jer 22:16; Amo 4:1, etc.). Our Lord has, with strongest emphasis, commended to us considerateness toward the weak and helpless (Mat 10:42; Mat 18:6, Mat 18:10, Mat 18:14; Mat 25:34-40, etc.). His apostles spoke and wrote in the same strain (Rom 12:15; 1Co 12:26, etc.). But that which, above everything, should lead us to be considerate toward the poorer and weaker members of our community is the thought that to do so is so truly and emphatically Divine. God himself has ever been acting on this gracious principle. He interposed to save the children of Israel because they were weak and afflicted. Again and again he stretched out his arm of deliverance, saving them from the strong and the mighty of the earth. On this Divine principle he deals with us all. He “knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust.” “Like as a father pities his children, so he pities them that fear him.” Our Saviour dealt with exquisite considerateness in all his relations to his undiscerning and unappreciative disciples; and now he is dealing with gracious forbearance toward us in all the weakness, poverty, shortcoming of our service. We are never so much like our merciful Master as when we speak and act considerately toward those who are poorer, weaker, and more helpless than ourselves.C.
Lev 19:11, Lev 19:13, Lev 19:15, Lev 19:16, Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36
Integrity.
The Jews have always been considered a cunning and crafty race; they have been credited with a willingness to overreach in business dealings. Men would rather have transactions with others than with them, lest they should find themselves worsted in the bargain. This suspicion may be well founded; but if it be so, it ought to be remembered that it is the consequence of the long and cruel disadvantages under which they have suffered, and is not clue to anything in their own blood or to any defect in their venerable Law. From the beginning they have been as strictly charged to live honourable and upright lives before man as to engage regularly in the worship of God. They have been as much bound to integrity of conduct as to devoutness of spirit. In these few verses we find them called to
I. INTEGRITY IN DAILY TRANSACTIONSHONESTY. “Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely” (Lev 19:11). “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him” (Lev 19:13; see Lev 19:35, Lev 19:36). Nothing could be more explicit than this, nothing more comprehensive in suggestion. No member of the Hebrew commonwealth could
(1) deliberately appropriate what he knew was not his own, or
(2) rob his neighbour in the act of trading, or
(3) deal falsely or unrighteously in any transaction or in any relation, without consciously breaking the Law and coming under the displeasure of Jehovah.
The words of the Law are clear and strong, going straight to the understanding and to the conscience. Every man amongst them must have known, as every one amongst us knows well, that dishonesty is sin in the sight of God.
II. INTEGRITY IN OFFICIAL DUTYJUSTICE. (Lev 19:15.) It is a pitiful thought that, in every nation, justice has been open to corruption; that men placed in honourable posts in order to do justice between man and man have either sold it to the highest bidder or surrendered and betrayed it from craven fear. God’s clear word condemns such rank injustice, and his high displeasure follows the perpetrator of it. He who undertakes to judge his fellows must do so in the fear of God, and if he swerves from his integrity in his public acts, he must lay his account with heaven if not with man.
III. INTEGRITY IN WORDTRUTH. “Ye shall not lie one to another” (Lev 19:11).
This, too, is a universal sin. Some nations may be more prone to it than others, The weak and the oppressed are too ready to take refuge in it; it is the resort of the feeble and the fearful But it is also used with shameful freedom and shocking unconcern, as an instrument of gain and power. God has revealed his holy hatred of it. “Ye shall not lie.” “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord;” “the Lord hateth a lying tongue” (Pro 12:22; Pro 6:17). Under the gospel of Christ, we are earnestly warned against it (Eph 4:25; Col 3:9). We are reminded that it is
(1) a wrong done to our fellow-men (“we are members,” etc.), and
(2) closely associated with heather habits (the “old man,” etc.); and we may remember that it is
(3) a habit most demoralizing to ourselves, as well as
(4) something which utterly separates us from our Lord, being so contrary to his Spirit and so grievous in his sight.C.
Lev 19:17, Lev 19:18
Love-its root and its fruit.
Two things lend a special interest to this passage.
1. It was twice quoted by our Lord (Mat 19:19 and Mat 22:39).
2. It shows us the Law as closer to the gospel than we are apt to think; it proves that, under the old dispensation, God was not satisfied with a mere mechanical propriety of behaviour, that he demanded rightness of feeling as well as correctness of conduct. We have
I. THE BROAD PRINCIPLE OF GOD‘S REQUIREMENT. Man is to “love his neighbour as himself” (Lev 19:18). No man, indeed, can
(1) give as much time and thought to each of his neighbours as he does to himself, and no man
(2) is so responsible for the state of others’ hearts and the rectitude of their lives as he is for his own. But every man can and should, by power of imagination and sympathy, put himself in his brother’s place; be as anxious to avoid doing injury to another as he would be unwilling to receive injury from another; and be as desirous of doing good to his neighbour who is in need as he would be eager to receive help from him if he himself were in distress. This is the essence of the “golden rule” (Mat 7:12).
II. THE ROOT FROM WHICH THIS FEELING WILL SPRING. How can we do this? it will be asked. How can we be interested in the uninteresting; love the unamiable; go out in warm affection toward those who have in them so much that is repulsive? The answer is here, “I am the Lord.” We must look at all men in their relation to God.
1. God is interested, Christ is interested in the worst of men, is seeking to save and raise them; do we not care for those for whom he cares so much?
2. They are all God’s children; it may be his prodigal children, living in the far country, but still his sons and daughters, over whom he yearns.
3. The most unlovely of men are those for whom our Saviour bled, agonized, died. Can we be indifferent to them?
4. They were once not far from the kingdom, and may yet be holy citizens of the kingdom of God. When we look at our fellow-men in the light of their relation to God, to Jesus Christ, we can see that in them which shines through all that is repelling, and which attracts us to their side that we may win and bless them.
III. THE FRUITS WHICH HOLY LOVE WILL BEAR. There are two suggested in the text.
1. Forbearance; “not hating our brother in our heart,” “not avenging or bearing any grudge against” him. Without the restraints and impulses of piety we are under irresistible temptation to do this. Unreasonable dislike on our brother’s part, injustice, ingratitude, unkindness, inconsiderateness, features of character which are antipathetic to our own,these things and such things as these are provocative of ill will, dislike, enmity, resentment, even revenge on our part. But if we remember and realize our brother’s relation to the common Father and Saviour, we shall rise to the noble height of forbearance; we shall have the love which “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1Co 13:7).
2. Restoration by remonstrance, Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” Instead of nursing and nourishing our indignation, allowing our brother to go on in the wrong, and permitting ourselves to become resentful as well as indignant, we shall offer the remonstrance of affection; we shall “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering” (2Ti 4:2). We shall try to win our brother back to that path of truth or righteousness which he has forsaken; so shall we “gain our brother” (Mat 18:15), instead of “suffering sin upon him.” This is the conquest of love, the crown of charity.C.
Lev 19:19
Aids to purity.
We shall first consider
I. WHAT WAS THE PRIMARY PURPORT OF THIS TRIPLE LAW. We need not be surprised if we find here another aid to purity of heart and life, another fence thrown up against immorality. Idolatry and immorality, both of the very worst description, had covered and dishonoured the land of Canaan. It was of the last importance that the people of God should be guarded in every possible way against infection and guilt. Therefore the wise and holy Lawgiver instituted various measures by which his people should be perpetually reminded that they must be absolutely free from these heinous crimes. And therefore precepts which intimated the will of Jehovah in this matter were bound up with their daily callings and their domestic life. Our text is an illustration. In the management of their cattle, in the cultivation of their fields, in the making and wearing of their clothes, God was whispering in their ear, “Be pure of heart and life.” Everything impressed upon their mindsthese precise injunctions among other statutesthat there must be no joining together of that which God had put asunder, no mingling of those who should keep apart, no “defilement” (see Deu 22:9), no “confusion” (Lev 20:12). By laws which had such continually recurring illustration they would have inwrought into the very texture of their minds the idea that, if they wished to retain their place as the people of God, they must be pure of heart and life.
II. SECONDARY TRUTHS WHICH THIS LAW SUGGESTS.
1. It suggests simplicity in worship; there may be such an admixture of the divinely appointed and the humanly imported, of the spiritual and the artistic, of the heavenly and the worldly, that the excellency and the acceptableness will be lost and gone.
2. It suggests sincerity in service; in the service of the sanctuary or the sabbath school, or in any sphere of sacred usefulness, there may be such a mingling of the higher and the lower motives, of the generous and the selfish, of the nobler and the meaner, that the “wood, hay, and stubble” weigh more than the “gold, silver, and precious stones” in the balances of heaven, and then the workman will “lose his reward.”
3. It suggests also the wisdom of taking special securities against specially strong temptations. God gave his people very many and (what seem to us) even singular securities against the rampant and deadly evil which had ruined their predecessors and might reach and slay them also. The circumstances and conditions of the time demanded them. Exceptional and imperious necessity not only justifies but demands unusual securities. Let those who are tempted by powerful and masterful allurements to
(1) intemperance,
(2) avarice,
(3) worldliness,
(4) passion,
take those special measures, lay upon themselves those exceptional restraints which others do not need, but without which they themselves would he in danger of transgression.C.
Lev 19:23-25
The range of sin and the rule of God.
There is much uncertainty as to the intention of the Lord in this prohibition. I regard it as a lesson concerning
I. THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF THE TAINT OF SIN. The Israelites were to regard the very soil of Canaan as so polluted by the sins of its former inhabitants that the fruit which came from it must be treated “as uncircumcised” (Lev 19:23). Idolatry and impuritythe two flagrant sins of the Canaanitesare evils which strike deep and last long in the taint which they confer. Their consequences are penetrating and far-spreading. So, in larger or lesser degree, is all sin. It leaves a taint behind; it pollutes the mind; it mars the life; it makes its fruit, its natural growth and outcome, to be “as uncircumcised,” to be unholy and unclean. And this is to an extent beyond our human estimate. If the Israelites had concluded that the iniquities of the Canaanites were to be regarded as polluting the very soil, they would not have reckoned that three years would be required to free the land from the taint of evil. But God made the purifying process extend over this protracted time. He knows that the stain of sin goes deeper and lasts longer than we think it does. What an argument this for expelling the idolatrous and unclean from our heart and life, for cultivating and cherishing the holy and the pure!
II. THE RANGE OF GOD‘S CLAIMS. (Lev 19:24.) Jehovah claimed the firstfruits of the land when the soil was cleansed: “all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord.” It was to be given (probably) to the priests. Thus God reasserted and confirmed his claim to all the produce of the land. This law would remind them that the whole soil was his, and that he had sovereign right to dispose of it as lie willed, everything being of him and belonging to him. God claims all as his; and his claim is righteous. For we have nothing but that which we have received from him; we are nothing but that which he has created and preserved. “All our springs are in him,” and all that we hold and occupy is his property. When we forget our derivation from him and our dependence upon him, he reminds us, by some providential privation, that we are failing from the spirit of reverence, gratitude, and submission which is the very life of our soul. And it is well for us voluntarily to set aside to his service the firstfruits of our labour, that we may be thus powerfully and practically reminded that we owe our very being and our whole substance to his bounty and his grace.
III. THE BENEFICENCE OF THE DIVINE RULE. By this provision God sought, as he is ever seeking,
(1) spiritual well-being and
(2) temporal prosperity.
By teaching them the truths which this abstinence suggested, and by requiring of them the patient waiting and the childlike obedience involved in the fulfillment of his will, he was disciplining and perfecting their spiritual nature. By giving them leave to pluck and partake for themselves after the fourth year, he provided for their bodily wants and appetites. These two ends God has continually in view in all his providential dealing with ourselves. He seeks our present satisfaction, and alsoand far moreour spiritual well-being; our pleasure as children of time and sense, and our perfection as children of the Father of spirits, as followers of the righteous Leader, as temples of the Holy Ghost.C.
Lev 19:30
Three helps to spiritual progress.
“There are many adversaries,” it is true; many drawbacks, hindrances, difficulties in the way of spiritual advancement. But there are these three powerful aids.
I. ONE SACRED DAY IN EVERY SEVEN. “Ye shall keep my sabbaths.” God has wrested from an exacting, rapacious world one-seventh of human life, and given it to us for the culture of the soul, for spiritual growth, for sacred usefulness. The observance of the sabbath is an act of
(1) filial obedience to God, and
(2) wise regard for our own true welfare.
II. A PLACE FOR SOCIAL WORSHIP. “Ye shall reverence my sanctuary.” We have all the advantage of social influences, the impulse which comes from association, to impress, to direct, to establish the soul in heavenly wisdom. We should worship regularly at the sanctuary, because
(1) we should not draw so near to God elsewhere, or gain in any other place such spiritual nourishment;
(2) worship there helps to devotion everywhere.
III. DEVOTEDNESS OF HEART TO X DIVINE BEING-. “I am the Lord.” Not the ineffectual endeavour to fill and feed, to nourish and strengthen the soul with admirable abstractions; but holy thought and sanctifying feeling gathered round a Divine One: directed toward him who says, “Trust me, love me, follow me, exalt me.”C.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Lev 19:1-37
Social morality.
cf. Mat 22:35-40; Rom 12:1-21; James, passim. From the primary principle of unworldliness, we now have to proceed to sundry details about social morality. Although these details are given indiscriminately, it is yet possible to discern certain great principles among them. And
I. ALL SOCIAL MORALITY IS MADE TO REST ON OUR RELATION TO GOD HIMSELF. In the Decalogue we have social morality, that is, our duty to man, based upon our duty to God; the “second table” rests upon the first. It is the same here. God brooks no rival (verse 4). He sets himself as our model of holiness (verse 2). He calls man to fellowship through the peace offering (verses 5-8). His Name must be subjected to no profanation (verse 12), and the sabbaths are to be strictly kept (verse 30). In other words, we have the four commandments of the first table strewn up and down these details, and exhibiting the fountain-head of social morality in faithfulness to God.
It is significant that all the efforts to make out an “independent morality” by the elimination or ignoring of God are proving failures. He is, after all, the sine qua non of real morality as well as of salvation. It is when his Name is feared and reverenced as it ought to be that man acts aright in his various relations.
II. COMPASSION FOR THE POOR AND AFFLICTED RESULTS, OF NECESSITY, FROM A DUE REGARD FOR GOD. For God is compassionate, and so should his people be. Hence the exhortation of verses 9, 10, about leaving in harvest-time what would be a help to the poor and the stranger. This is grounded upon the great fact, “I am the Lord your God.” Hence also the warning not to curse the deaf, nor to put a stumbling-block in the way of the blind, but” thou shalt fear thy God” (verse 14). This consideration for the afflicted and for the poor is a most important element in social morality. Our asylums for the deaf, the dumb, and the blind are embodiments of this great social duty. The poor-law system, if a little more Christian sympathy were engrafted upon it, is a noble tribute to a sense of national obligation towards the poor, better organizations even than these will yet be the fruit of the religious spirit. How to apply the principle that “he that will not work shall not eat,” and at the same time show the due measure of compassion, is a problem demanding most careful solution.
III. MERCANTILE MORALITY IS STRICTLY ENJOINED. All stealing, lying, and dishonest dealing is denounced (verse 11). No advantage is to be taken of a neighbour or of a servant (verse 13). All arbitration is to be without respect of persons (verse 15). Weights, measures, and balances are all to be just and true (verses 35, 36). This branch of social morality requires the strictest attention from the Lord’s people. It is here that continual contact goes on between them and the world. If religion, therefore, do not produce a higher type of mercantile morality than the world, it will be discredited. Nothing injures religion so much as the mercantile immoralities of its professors. Fraudulent bankrupts, dishonest tradings, overreachings,these are what go to lessen the influence of religion among men. It is just possible that we may, in our eagerness to be always presenting the truth of the gospel to our fellow-men, have failed to enforce sufficiently the morality which must be the great evidence of our religious life. At present, in this peculiarly mercantile age, this department of morality needs most earnest attention.
IV. PURITY IS TO BE CULTIVATED IN ALL SOCIAL RELATIONS. Not only was immorality discountenanced (verse 29), and punishment and trespass offerings directed in cases where immorality had occurred (verses 20-22), but the very cultivation of the land, the rearing of cattle, the making of garments, and, in a word, all their associations were to be pervaded by the principle of purity (verses 19, 23-25). For the use made of cattle, and of seed, and of raw material, might be prejudicial to purity in idea. Thus carefully does the Lord fence round his people with precautions.
V. SUPERSTITION IS TO BE DISCOURAGED, NO enchantment was to be used, nor were they to round the corners of their heads or beards; they were to make no cuttings in their flesh for the dead, or print marks upon themselves (verses 26-28). Nor were they to have recourse to familiar spirits or wizards, to be defiled by them (verse 31). God treats his people as intelligent, rational beings; and so he discourages all resort to unmeaning and pretended inspirations.
VI. IT IS CLEARLY SHOWS THAT LOVE IS THE ESSENCE OF ALL SOCIAL MORALITY. Vengeance is discouraged (verse 18)it is the outcome of hatred, which is unlawful when borne towards a brother (verse 17). The form of blood-feud (verse 16), which existed and exists among the Oriental and wandering tribes, is denounced. In fact, the Law is brought to this simple issue,” Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (verse 18). It is upon this that our blessed Lord seizes as the essence of the Divine Law (Mat 22:35-40). Paul also brings this out clearly and emphatically (Rom 13:9, Rom 13:10). And this suggests
1. That there is a legitimate self-love. There is a “better self” which it is our duty to love and cherish, just as there is a “worse self” which it is our duty to detest and mortify. When we consider this “better self,” we do not suffer sin upon it, we try to keep it pure and subject unto Christ. We try to be faithful with ourselves. We foster what is good and holy within us. All this is most distinct from selfishness. The selfish man is his own worst enemy; the man who cultivates proper self-love is his own best friend.
2. This self-love is to measure our love to our neighbour. Now, our Lord brought out, by the parable of the “Good Samaritan,” who is our neighbour. Every one to whom our heart leads us to be neighbourly. Neighbourhood is a matter of the heart. We must cultivate it. We shall have no difficulty in discerning the objects of our love. Let us then love them as we do ourselves. The golden rule is the essence of the Divine Law, “Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you.”
It is evident from this that Judaism was not intended to be an exclusive and selfish system, so far as outsiders were concerned, Men did not work it out properly, and this was why it became so narrow and selfish.R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD
Lev 19:1-8
Purity in worship.
The laws set out in this chapter were before communicated to Aaron and his sons; now they are given to the people (Lev 19:1, Lev 19:2). It is the privilege and duty of God’s people to acquaint themselves with his will. They should learn the Law from the lips of Moses. They should learn the gospel from the lips of Jesus. It is a maxim of antichrist that” Ignorance is the mother of devotion” The mother of devotion, viz. to superstition, it is (see 1Jn 2:20, 1Jn 2:21).
I. THE PEOPLE OF THE HOLY GOD MUST BE HOLY. (Lev 19:2.)
1. They must be separate from sinners.
(1) The people of God are distinguished by purity of heart. Of this God alone can take full cognizance.
(2) Also by purity of life (Tit 2:14). This is witnessed both by God and man.
2. They must be separated to God.
(1) This is implied in the reason, viz. “for I am holy” (see Peter Lev 1:15, Lev 1:16). Our Lord puts it strongly: “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mat 5:48). This cannot be understood absolutely. It must be interpreted relatively, viz. that as in his relations to us God is perfect, so are we to be perfect in our corresponding relations to him. But what are these?
(2) As his servants.
(a) We have our work assigned by his appointment.
(b) He pays us our wages. In this life. In that to come.
(3) As his children.
(a) We have assurance of our adoption (Rom 8:16; Gal 4:6).
(b) Consequently also concerning our heirship (Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7).
(c) We have also blissful fellowship (Joh 17:21; 1Co 1:9; 1Jn 1:3, 1Jn 1:7).
3. Grace makes us to differ.
(1) This was ceremonially described in the Law. In order to partake of the holy things, the people must be made ceremonially holy by ablutions.
(2) The truth of this is seen in the promise of the gospel. Before we can have spiritual communion with God we must be sanctified at the laver of regeneration, viz. by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
II. THEIR HOLINESS WILL BE EXPRESSED IN PURE WORSHIP.
1. They keep the sabbaths of the Lord.
(1) They cease from the toil of the world. So far the observance is outward. They also rest from the labour of sorrow and sin. This is an inward and spiritual observance.
(2) They appear in the convocations of God’s people. This worship may be public without any corresponding beauties of spiritual holiness. But the true worshipper mingles with the spiritual and heavenly portions of the Church as well as with the visible congregation (see Eph 3:15; Heb 12:22-24).
(3) Parents are held responsible for instructing their children in the due observance of the sabbath. So in the fourth commandment in the Decalogue, “Thou, and thy son, and thy daughter.”
(4) Hence in the text (Lev 19:3), the injunction to keep God’s sabbaths is associated with another touching the respect due from children to parents (comp. Exo 20:8-12). Parents are God’s representatives to their children.
(a) In their paternity.
(b) In the providence they exercise during the helplessness and dependence of infancy and youth.
(c) In their authority.
This is from God, and it should be religiously maintained. Those who are allowed to break God’s sabbaths will disobey their parents.
2. They keep themselves from idols.
(1) They will not “turn” to them. We are so surrounded by them, that we cannot turn from the true worship without encountering them.
(2) They will not “make” to themselves “molten gods.” The allusion here is to Aaron’s calf, which he intended to represent Jehovah Elohim. But in our godly parents, the work of God’s hands, we have truer representations of the living Father than can possibly proceed from our own hands.
(3) Idolatry is folly. Idols are nothings.
3. They serve God with reverence.
(1) They fear God, but not as slaves. They offer peace offerings to him which are offerings of friendship. They offer these also “at their own free will” (Lev 19:5). A constrained is an imperfect service. “God loveth a cheerful giver.”
(2) They worship him in faith. They will eat the peace offering the same day on which it is offered. They recognize the privileges of an early communion. What remains over on the second day they will eat. The dispensations of the types are two, viz. the patriarchal and Mosaic. But if any remain to the third day, this they burn with fire. Thus they express their faith in the Christian dispensation which should abolish the types by fulfilling them, and which should bring in better hopes.
(2) To return to the legal dispensation is now to provoke the anger of the Lord. Cyril of Alexandria argues that those who fail to see any spiritual meaning in the Law are still bound to keep it in the letter. But even that could do them no good, for according to the text, “If it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity,” etc. (Lev 19:7, Lev 19:8). To rejecters of the gospel now there is nothing but hopeless excision.J.A.M.
Lev 19:9-14
Kindliness.
In the earlier portion of this chapter purity of worship, with its associated reverence for the authority of God, in his representatives, viz. natural parents, and his institutions, as the sabbath, are enjoined. In the verses following our duties towards our fellows come more prominently before us, and in the text that class of those duties whose spirit is kindliness. Charity is sister to piety. We have here enjoined
I. A GENEROUS CONSIDERATION FOR THE POOR.
1. The needs of the gleaner are to be respected.
(1) In reaping the harvest, owners are instructed to spare the corners of their crops for the poor. What fails from the hand of the reaper is not to be gathered up again, but left to the gleaner. So in gleaning the vintage, the loose branches must be left to the poor and the stranger.
(2) We must not consider that to be wasted which goes to the poor.
(3) The harvest and vintage are seasons of joy. Such seasons should be seasons also of charity. Kindliness purifies and so heightens joy.
2. The authority of God must be remembered.
(1) “I am Jehovah thy Elohim.” This gives the poor and the stranger a Divine right in the gleanings, which now to disregard becomes impiety and injustice. Those who refuse their rights to the poor will have to answer for it to God (Psa 9:18; Psa 12:5; Psa 82:1-8.; Isa 10:1-4).
(2) The Divine example should inspire and guide us. “He openeth his hand, and satisfieth every living thing.” Man must not attempt to close the hand of God by refusing to the poor their due.
(3) The blessing of God is promised to those who consider the poor (see Deu 24:19; Psa 41:1; Pro 14:21).
II. A CAREFUL AVOIDANCE OF INJUSTICE.
1. Wrong must not be practiced stealthily.
(1) “Ye shall not steal”ye shall not injure your neighbour in a concealed way. To reap the harvest too narrowly would be to filch from the poor his due.
(2) “Neither shall ye deal falsely.” Thus there must be no concealing of faults in articles offered for sale. There must be no false representation of values either in vending or purchasing.
2. Lies must not be uttered.
(1) “Neither lie one to another.” When a lie is acted in false dealing, the next thing is to utter a lie to cover the wrong. One falsehood calls up another to keep it in countenance.
(2) “And ye shall not swear by my Name falsely.” Upon the principle that lies are called in to countenance the concealment of a wrong, oaths are suborned to countenance lies. Thus sin begets sin; and sin, in its offspring, becomes increasingly degenerate.
(3) This last is frightful wickedness. “Neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God.” It is appealing to the God of truth to confirm a lie!
3. Nor must wrong be openly perpetrated.
(1) “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him.” Power must not be abused in oppression. Many of the forms in which this was done are described by Job (Job 24:1-25).
(2) “The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.” It is the means of his living; and once earned, no more belongs to the employer than does the property of any other person. Huge injustice is practiced by those who take long credit from tradesmen, who thereby are put to the utmost straits to meet their business claims and those of their families.
III. A TENDER RESPECT FOR THE CONDITION OF THE AFFLICTED.
1. “Thou shalt not curse the deaf.”
(1) Thou shalt not be enraged should a deaf man be unable to render the service of one who has his hearing. So it is unreasonable to blame for not having rendered service those who were not informed that such service was expected.
(2) Thou shalt not curse, in his presence, a man that is deaf, because he is deaf and cannot hear it. So neither in his absence must a man be cursed, who is in the same case with the deaf, and cannot defend himself.
2. “Nor put a stumblingblock before the blind.”
(1) To do this literally would be a wanton cruelty.
(2) Traps must not be laid for the unwary to their hurt, viz. in things material or in things spiritual (see Rom 14:13).
3. “But thou shalt fear thy God.”
(1) Afflictions do not spring from
the dust. They come from God or are permitted by him. To take advantage of them or to trifle with them is therefore to tempt the Lord.
(2) The tear of the retributive justice of Heaven should restrain (see Luk 17:1). Biblical history abundantly proves that the law of retaliation is a law of God.J.A.M.
Lev 19:15-18
Justice.
As charity is sister to piety, so is justice related to both. This virtue is enjoined upon us
I. IN RESPECT TO CONDUCT.
1. In judgment justice should be impartial.
(1) Pity for the poor is, in the abstract, good. Yet must it not lead us to favour them against the right (Exo 23:3).
(2) Respect for those who enjoy rank and station is not only lawful but laudable. But this must not lead us to favour them in judgment (see Jas 2:1-4).
(3) The balances of justice are those of the sanctuary. They are true. They must be held by an impartial hand. It must not tremble under the excitement of pity, or of hope, or fear.
2. In dealings justice should be strict.
(1) “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.” Pedlaring is the vice here interdicted. This is rather the meaning of the word () rendered “talebearer.” Tramps, who have no settled residence, are oftentimes dishonest, and otherwise so dangerous to society, that every nation has its vagrant acts to control them.
(2) The Jews in their dispersion are much given to pedlaring. It has been to them a necessity owing to the unfriendly laws of the nations with respect to them. How dreadfully their sin has been visited upon their head when their necessities urge them to violate their law!
(3) Pedlars have, amongst other evils, been notorious tale-bearers. By the slanders they have circulated not only has the peace of families been invaded, but communities and nations have been embroiled. The Jews say, “One evil tongue hurts three personsthe speaker, the hearer, and- the person spoken of” (see Pro 11:13; Pro 20:19).
3. The evils of injustice are serious.
(1) “Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour.’ Some are wicked enough of purpose to compass the blood of the innocent by falsehood (Pro 2:11, Pro 2:12; Eze 22:9).
(2) Slander may have this result without the intention of the slanderer. Who can control a conflagration? (see Jas 3:6)
II. IN RESPECT TO MOTIVE.
1. “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.”
(1) He is thy brother. He has a common fatherhood with thee in God. He has a common nature with thee.
(2) He is therefore amenable with thee to the same tribunal. God, the Judge of all, surveys not the conduct only, but also the motive.
2. “Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour.”
(1) Not to reprove his sin is to hate him. This is eminently so when he hath trespassed against thee. To conceal it in such a case is to nurse wrath against the opportunity for revenge (2Sa 13:22). Such conduct is utterly at variance with the spirit of the gospel (see Mat 18:15; Luk 17:3).
(2) To “suffer sin upon him” is to be an accomplice in his sin. The words may be construed, “nor bear his sin.” This suggests that the accomplice, with the guilt, is also obnoxious to the punishment of the sinner. Men wreak their vengeance upon themselves.
(3) In rebuking we should remember that the sinner is our “neighbour.” It should be done in a neighbourly way. Thus, as far as practicable, privately. “Charity covereth a multitude of sins,” viz. from others, though not from the sinner. And kindly. It is thus more likely to be well received, as it ought to be (see Psa 141:5; Pro 27:5, Pro 27:6).
3. The root of justice is love.
(1) “Thou shalt not avenge.” This is another way of saying, “Thou shalt forgive.” With the spirit of vengeance there can be no peace in the world. God says, “Vengeance is mine ;” he claims the right to avenge because he alone is superior to all retaliation.
(2) “Nor bear any grudge.” Thou shalt not insidiously watch the children of thy people. How the Jews violated this law in their malignity against Jesus!.
(3) Contrarywise, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is the spirit of the Law as well as of the gospel. The same Holy Spirit of love is the author of both (see Mat 7:12; Mat 22:39; Rom 13:9, Rom 13:10; 1Co 9:19; Gal 5:14).J.A.M.
Lev 19:19-28
Fidelity to God.
In the verses before us we note the injunction
I. THAT THE STATUTES OF THE LORD MUST BE KEPT. These require:
1. That there be no unnatural mixtures.
(1) For the examples furnished, sound economic and hygienic reasons may be given (Lev 19:19).
(a) Cattle which God ordered “after their kind” (Gen 1:25), are not to be let to gender with diverse kinds. Hybrids are degenerated creatures; they are monsters; and they are withal unfruitful.
(b) Mingled seed must not be sown in the field. The plants of both kinds in such a case are found to be inferior (Deu 22:9). The land also is impoverished.
(c) Garments of mingled flax and wool are not to be worn. The mixture would induce electrical disturbances impairing to health.
(2) But the spirit of the law is moral. The people of God are taught by it to avoid everything that would compromise their simplicity and sincerity (2Co 6:14). They must avoid marriages with the ungodly. In business they must be careful not to join in ungodly partnerships. In friendships they must choose those who are of the household of faith (Jas 4:4).
2. That atonement be made for sin.
(1) The case (Lev 19:20) is that of a slave dishonoured and stilt held in bondage, who, through a subsequent offense, which, if she were free, would merit death (see Deu 22:24), is now punished with scourging. The degree of guilt is modified by circumstances; and punishment is moderated accordingly (Luk 12:47, Luk 12:48).
(2) But before the man can be forgiven he must confess his sin over a guilt offering. He must bring a ram. This was a well-known type of Christ, without whose atonement, no matter what scourging our sin may have brought upon us, there can be no forgiveness.
3. That the fruit of a tree uncircumcised must not be eaten.
(1) For this law there are good economic reasons. It hurts a young tree to let the fruit ripen upon it; and therefore to circumcise it, or pinch off the blossoms of the first three years, will improve the quality of its fruit. In the fourth year, then, the fruit will be in perfection.
(2) But the spirit of this law also is moral.
(a) Trees are taken as emblems of men (Psa 1:3; Mat 3:10; Isa 61:3; Jud Isa 1:12).
(b) First thoughts and forward desires are vanity, and must be rejected as coming from the flesh (see Gen 2:11). To let them ripen is to injure the character.
(c) In the fourth year, when the fruit is in perfection, it is consecrated to God as the “firstfruit,” which therefore is not always that which comes first in order of time, but the best. The service we render to God after the removal of inordinate desire by converting grace, is our firstfruit, or best service.
(d) As to the fourth year, Christ who is the “Firstfruit” and “Firstborn of every creature,” or Anti-type of the firstborn of every kind of creature, appeared amongst us in the fourth millennium of the world. And when he comes again it will be to introduce the fourth dispensation, viz. the millennial. The three dispensations preceding we need scarcely specify to be the Patriarchal, Levitical, and Christian.
(e) In the fifth year and thenceforward, the fruit was sanctified to the use of the owner. The consummation of our felicity will be in that glorious state to succeed the millennium, the “new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” We note
II. THAT THE CUSTOMS OF THE HEATHEN MUST NOT BE FOLLOWED.
1. Nothing must be eaten with the blood.
(1) At the time when animal food was granted to man the blood was reserved. The reservation corresponded to that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil when vegetable food was granted. In each instance the prohibition was given to common progenitors of the race, and therefore universally obligatory. Noah stood to the “world that now is” in a similar relation to that in which Adam stood to mankind at large.
(2) The Noachian precepts in general were violated by the heathen, and in particular this precept respecting blood. The psalmist refers to the custom amongst the Syrians when he says, “Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer” (Psa 16:4). And in these words there is a prophetic abhorrence of antichrist, who not only sets aside the Law of God by authorizing the eating of blood, but professes to drink the very blood of Jesus in the cup of the Mass.
(3) The penalties of this abomination are tremendous. As in Eden the eating of the forbidden fruit became death, so in the Noachian precept God requires the blood of the lives of those who will eat flesh with the life thereof which is the blood (Gen 9:4, Gen 9:5). Babylon who is also “drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus,” is therefore doomed to drink blood, for that she is worthy (Rev 17:6; Rev 16:3-6).
2. Superstition must be shunned.
(1) Thus augury is to be discouraged (Lev 19:26). This () nachash, or divining, may have been by fire or serpents. “Nor observe times,” nor consult the clouds. The heavens were their gods, and the clouds they naturally regarded as their aspects toward men, as indicating their intentions. The revealed word of the true God is sufficient for all lawful purposes of sacred knowledge.
(2) Distractions for the dead are to be discouraged. The heathen customs of cutting the hair and the flesh evinced the insanity of idolatry. Where the faith of a true religion is we have no need to mourn for the dead as those who have no hope.J.A.M.
Lev 19:29-37
The fear of God.
Of this excellent things are spoken by Solomon. It is the “beginning of knowledge,” “hatred to evil,” “strong confidence,” a “fountain of life,” “prolongs days,” and “gives riches and honour.” So here
I. IT IS A SOURCE OF PURITY.
1. To the family.
(1) There is a connection between Lev 19:29 and Lev 19:30. Those who keep God’s sabbaths will not profane their daughters either to idolatry or for gain. The fear of God nourished by the one will prevent the other.
(2) In keeping God’s sabbaths his sanctuary is reverenced. This furnishes an additional motive to social purity. For the sanctuary, whether it be composed of canvas, or of stone, or of flesh and blood, is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Who then can properly reverence it under one form and desecrate it under another? (see 1Co 3:16, 1Co 3:17; 1Co 6:18, 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16)
2. To the nation. “Lest the land,” etc. (Lev 19:29).
(1) The family is the root of the nation. All nations extant are sprung from the family of Noah.
(2) Nations are blessed or cursed in their families.
(3) God asserts himself here, “I am Jehovah” (Lev 19:30). The character of God is seen in his laws. It is pledged to maintain them.
II. IT ARMS AGAINST THE POWER OF DEVILS.
1. Familiar spirits are more than myths.
(1) Their existence is not here challenged, but admitted (Lev 19:31; see also Act 16:16, where the fact is put beyond question).
(2) Pretenders to the unenviable distinction, as well as persons actually possessed of such devils, are here held up to reprobation.
2. The fear of the Lord will preserve us from them.
(1) Their power is greatest over the “children of disobedience.” The desperately wicked are given over by God to Satan (Eph 2:2; 1Ti 1:20). Such persons may seek wizards, or wise ones.
(2) But godly persons will avoid them. They could not so reflect upon the wisdom and goodness of God that he should leave anything for our advantage to be communicated by wicked spirits. Spiritualism is a devilish delusion. Pride and selfishness will lead men into the snare.
(3) In this prohibition God asserts himself, “I am Jehovah thy Elohim.” He is our covenant Friend, who will so fully satisfy our lawful desires that we shall not need recourse to wicked expedients. He will also be our defense against the devices of the devil.
III. IT INSPIRES COURTESY.
1. Respect for age (Lev 19:32).
(1) With age there should be the wisdom of experience, and this should be honoured by youth. Caryl well says, “He that wears the silver crown, should be honoured in his capacity as well as he that wears the golden crown.”
(2) In respecting age we are to “fear Jehovah Elohim,” our covenant God, whose blessings are from father to son and from generation to generation (Gen 17:7; Isa 51:8; Luk 1:50). In the aged mart we should see the representative of the “Ancient of days” (Dan 7:22).
(3) It is a sad sign of the degeneracy of a nation when the child behaves himself proudly against the ancient (Job 30:1, Job 30:12; Isa 3:4, Isa 3:5).
2. Civility to strangers.
(1) “Thou shalt not vex,” or oppress, “him;” but treat him as though he were a native. “Thou shalt love him as thyself.” How tradition obscured this law when the question was prompted, viz. “Who is my neighbour?”
(2) The Hebrew is reminded, in connection with this injunction, how bitterly he suffered in the land of Egypt from the operation of the opposite principle. He is also reminded how odious to God was that cruel oppression from which he brought him out, and therefore how, if he would conciliate his favour, he must act from a different principle.
IV. IT PROMOTES JUSTICE.
1. In judgment.
(1) In the administration of law.
(2) In arbitration.
2. In dealings.
(1) Measures and weights must be true to the standards. These were kept in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple (Lev 27:25; 1Ch 23:29). Religion and business must not be divorced.
(2) To use false balances, or weights, or measures is worse than open robbery. It is abominable hypocrisy. It is robbing under the very colour of equity.
God claims the authorship of these laws (Lev 19:36, Lev 19:37).
1. They are worthy of him. He must be infatuated with ignorance or wickedness who would laud the “Roman virtue” in opposition to the “narrow spirit” of the Mosaic code.
2. They were eminently calculated to secure the happiness of the nation at home, and to promote its credit abroad.
3. Let us “observe” the Law of God to understand it, and, understanding, “keep” it. Then happy shall we be.J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Lev 19:1, Lev 19:2
Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. Holiness.
I. THE UNIVERSAL REQUIREMENT. “Speak unto all the congregation,” etc.
1. No exception. “All have sinned.”
2. The nature of man requires him to be holy. The relation between man and God. The laws of God not mere arbitrary decrees, but the expression, in positive relation to the freedom of man, of the Eternal Reality of the universe.
3. The universality of revelation is the universality of responsibility. “Their line is gone out in all the earth.” “Having not the Law, they are a law unto themselves.” What was said. to the Jews was said. to the world. The blessedness of humanity is the realization of the Divine image. A holy God, a holy universe.
II. THE UNIVERSAL MOTIVE. “For I am holy.”
1. Dependence upon God the root of religion, not as mere blind dependence, but that of the children on the Father.
2. Gratitude the constant appeal of the heart. The Lord your God, who has done so much for you, requires your holiness.
3. The Divine command is related to and blessed with the Divine provision of grace in a specific system of holiness, in which the people of God are held up. Be holy, for I have prepared for your holiness. We are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). Work out salvation, for God worketh in you.
III. THE MEDIATING MINISTRY. “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation.”
1. Here is the gracious method by which our holiness is made possible. The holy God speaks. The holy men of God speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost. The holy Word speaks, everywhere and always. The holy life is maintained among the holy people.
2. The holiness of humanity will be achieved as a fact through a holy ministry of the people of God to the world at large; of the consecrated few to the many. The hope of a revived Church, in a revived ministry. The spiritual leaders should feel their responsibility, both in teaching and in example.
3. Personal holiness must underlie all other. The purification of temples and services is not the sanctification God requires. He says not, “Be ye punctilious in worship and profuse in ritual;” but “Be ye personally holy, let your holiness be a transcript of mine, which is the holiness of will, of work, of thought, of character.R.
Lev 19:3-37
The holy Law in the holy life.
I. REVERENCE FOR PARENTS. True religion is seen in common, everyday life. If we love God, we love man. Family peace and order is best preserved by appeal to deep, religious motives. Natural affection is not sufficient against fallen human nature. “God says, Thou shalt,” must be the support of natural feeling.
II. SABBATH KEEPING. Not as a Jewish regulation, but as both the demand of physical nature and the gracious provision of God for us. “The Son of man is Lord of the sabbath;” therefore, while preserving it from abuse to the oppression of human liberty, sanctifying it for the higher place it occupies in the Christian scheme.
III. ABSOLUTE SEPARATION FROM IDOLATRY and all heathenism. Holy religion.
IV. WILLINGHOOD IN RELIGION. Lev 19:5, “At your own will,” or “that you may be accepted,” i.e; do it as unto God, by his Word, for his glory, in dependence on his grace, with hearty resignation of self to him.
V. PHILANTHROPY AND COMPASSION FOR THE POOR. The true charity is a practical remembrance of the needy and suffering, beginning at home, from our own personal possessions. God is the Lord of all. All are brethren.
VI. HONESTY OF DEALING is only to be maintained by religion. Mere social considerations and political economy will never purify trade and sanctify men’s intercourse with one another. Truth is safe in no keeping but that of the sanctuary.
VII. PROFANITY in speech and in act is an evil to be cured by positive religion.
VIII. THE JUSTICE OF THE LIPS is the justice of the heart in expression. The law that is kept sacred within will be honoured without respect of persons, and not by mere negation, but in active benevolence.
IX. REAL NEIGHBOURLINESS IS LOVE OF MAN PROCEEDING FROM LOVE OF GOD. No injury must be done either by word or deed, either by neglect of another’s interests or unholy wrath against another or encouraging him to sin by withholding due rebuke. All summed up in the positive precept, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” All the various prescriptions of the Jewish law, both negative and positive, regard the pure and holy development both of individual and national life. Religion is the root, social morality is the blossom or the plant, national prosperity is the precious fruit, of which, if we would preserve the seed and perpetuate the blessing, we must see to it that we find the very inmost center and kernel, which is the love of God as the Father of all, and the love of men as the brethren of the same Divine family.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
THIRD SECTION
Holiness of Conduct towards God and Man
Lev 19:1-16
1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto all the congregation1 or the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.
3Ye shall fear every man his mother,2 and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
4Turn ye not unto idols,3 nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God.
5And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will [offerings, unto the Lord ye shall offer it for your acceptance4]. 6It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. 7And if it be eaten at all on the 8third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. Therefore every one that eateth5 it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
9And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard [fruit garden6], neither shalt thou gather every grape [the scattered fruit7] of thy vineyard [fruit garden6]; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.
11Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord. 13Thou shalt not defraud [oppress8] thy neighbour, neither9 rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
14Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.
15Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment:10 thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
16Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people:11 neither12shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord. 17Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him [and not bear sin on his account13]. 18Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.
19Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind:14 thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled [diverse15] seed: neither shall a garment mingled [a diverse garment15] of linen and woollen16 come upon thee.
20And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondmaid, betrothed17 to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged [there shall be punishment18], they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 21And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. 22And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
23And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised:19 three years shall it be as uncircumcised to you: it shall not be eaten of. 24But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise20 the Lord withal. 25And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield21 unto you the increase thereof: I am the Lord your God.
26Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood:22 neither23 shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. 2327Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou 24mar the corners of thy24 beard. 28Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
29Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
30Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
32Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.
33And if a stranger sojourn with thee25 in your land, ye shall not vex [oppress26] him. 34 But [omit but27] 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.
35Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36Just balances, just weights,28 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. 37Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev 19:2. = congregation is omitted by 3 MSS. and the LXX.
Lev 19:3. In the LXX., Vulg., and Syr., the order is reversed to his father and his mother. The Sam and Onk. follow the Hebrew.
Lev 19:4. = inania numina, Rosen. It is formed from with a termination expressive of contempt.
Lev 19:5. = for your acceptance. See Textual Note6 on Lev 1:3.
Lev 19:8. The Heb. has the plural form , but the Sam. and other versions have the sing as in the following verb and noun.
Lev 19:10. is generally a vineyard, but also (Jdg 15:7) an olive yard. It is a field or yard of the nobler plants and trees, cultivated in the manner of a garden or orchard, Gesen. It is doubtless here used in its broadest sense, and the vineyard of the A. V. is therefore too restricted.
Lev 19:10. = that which is scattered, and hence meaning here both the fallen fruit (Chald., Vulg., Syr.), and also the single berries of the olive and the vine not gathered with the harvest.
Lev 19:13. . Lev 19:11 forbids sins of craft and falsehood against ones neighbor; this, sins of violence and open oppression. The translation given is that of the A. V. in Deu 24:14.
Lev 19:13. The Heb. is without the conjunction which is supplied in 40 MSS. in the Sam. and the LXX.
Lev 19:15. The conjunction is prefixed in 7 MSS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr.
Lev 19:16. . The Sam. and 66 MSS. omit the .
Lev 19:16. Here again the Heb. omits the conjunction which is supplied in 40 MSS., and in the Syr.
Lev 19:17. is a clause the meaning of which has been much questioned. It seems certain, however, that cannot mean suffer, (permit) as in the A. V., but must mean bear as in the margin. The marginal for him is ambiguous, and it is better therefore to use the more explicit on his account. For instances of precisely the same Sense of these words, see Lev 22:9; Num 18:32, and comp. also the very similar expression in Psa 69:8.
Lev 19:19. 3 MSS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr., prefix the conjunction.
Lev 19:19. (dual from = separation) occurs only in this verse (three times) and in the parallel Deu 22:9, but is frequent in the Talmud. It signifies of two kinds, heterogeneous. The translation of the A. V. at its first occurrence in the ver. diverse is good, and should by all means be retained in the other clauses, both for consistencys sake, and for the force of the command. All the Semitic versions preserve the uniformity.
Lev 19:19. occurs only here and in Deu 22:11, where it is explained of woolen and linen together. Its etymology is obscure. See the Lexicons and Bochart, Hieroz. I., lib. II., c. 35. p. 545, ed. Rosen. It is probably an Egyptian word, although not yet satisfactorily explained. The Chald. retains the word, and the LXX. translates = spurious, adulterated, probably by a mere conjecture. Rosenmller quotes Forster as explaining it of a costly Egyptian dress woven in various figures of plants and animals in colors, having a symbolical idolatrous signification. See Com.
Lev 19:20. Niph. from = to tear off, to set apart. There seems no doubt of the correctness of the text of the A. V., and the margin is therefore unnecessary.
Lev 19:20. . This word is . ., but there seems little doubt of its meaning, investigation, and then punishment. Authorities are much divided on the question whether both parties, or only the woman, was to be scourged. The LXX., Vulg., and Syr., are clear for the former, while the Sam. applies it only to the man. In the uncertainty it is better to retain the indefiniteness of the Heb. as in the marg. of the A. V. The Sam. reading is remarkable = he shall be punished, and then, in the sing. = he shall not die. This gives a sense agreeing excellently with the reason assigned because she was not free, and hence the act did not legally constitute adultery which was punishable with death.
Lev 19:23. The singular suffix in [and also in ] refers to , and the verb is a denom. from , to make into a foreskin, to treat as uncircumcised, i.e., to throw away as unclean or uneatable. Keil. The LXX. rendering = ye shall purge away its uncleanness expresses very well the general sense.
Lev 19:24. occurs only here and in Jdg 9:27. In the latter place it seems to mean merry-making feasts to idols, and Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 19) understands the law to be that the fruit of the fourth year should be carried to the place of the Sanctuary, and there used in a holy feast with friends and the poor. But the following verse seems so clearly to forbid the owners partaking of it before the fifth year that it would be unsafe to change the translation. The marg. of the A. V. holiness of praises to the Lord does not convey any distinct idea. The idea of Murphy a praise offering is hardly sustained by the text. The true sense is probably that incorporated into the Targ. Onk. it shall be consecrated to those offering praises before the Lord, i.e., it was to be given to the Lord through His priests, and used by them in feasts.
Lev 19:25. For that it may yield, the Sam., followed by the Vulg., reads for collecting (in storehouses) the produce.
Lev 19:26. . The LXX. must have read instead of to sustain the version , and some critics would adopt this to avoid the peculiarity of the construction of , considering it justified by the frequency of the practice in connection with idolatrous feasts (comp. Hos 4:13). But a mis-reading of the LXX. is not a sufficient ground for a change of the text; for the construction of see Exo 12:8, and comp. Textual Note4 on Lev 2:2.
Lev 19:26-27. In both places the Sam., one or two MSS., and the LXX., supply the conjunction.
Lev 19:27. The Sam. and most of the Ancient Versions put the verb and the pronoun in the plural in accordance with the previous clause.
Lev 19:33. The Sam. and versions have the plural.
Lev 19:33. The marg. of the A. V. expresses the sense of better than the text.
Lev 19:34. There is no occasion for the insertion of the but of the A. V.
Lev 19:36. The marg. of the A. V. stones is unnecessary, that being merely the primary sense of while weight is the fully established derivative sense.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
With this chapter begins a new Parashah of the law extending to Lev 20:27. The parallel Haphtarah from the prophets is Eze 20:2-20, recounting the disobedience of Israel in the wilderness to the commands of this chapter and their consequent punishment; and the close of Amo 9:7-15, denouncing the punishment and foretelling the final restoration of Gods peoplea prophecy applied by S. James (Act 15:16-17) to the gathering in of the Gentiles to the Church of Christ.
This remarkable chapter is perhaps the most comprehensive, the most varied, and in some respects the most important section of Leviticus, if not of the Pentateuch; it was by the ancient Jews regarded as an epitome of the whole Law; it was adopted and paraphrased by the best gnomic writers, such as Pseudo-Phocylides; and it has at all times been looked upon as a counterpart of the Decalogue itself. Kalisch.
It treats of the holiness in the daily life and conversation which must characterize the covenant people of a holy God. This basis of the commands given is prominently brought forward at the opening and continually kept in mind by the phrase I am the Lord throughout. This expresses at once the basis of the command, and the goal towards which the Israelite must strive. It is as difficult to arrange these laws systematically as to do so with the duties of the daily life, and an arrangement which would be systematic from one point of view would not be so from another. The following analysis of the chapter, from Murphy, presents a somewhat different view from that given by Lange below: They are in communion with God (18), in the communion of saints (922), and are about to be in a land of holiness (2332), and visited by strangers (3337). And each of these relations brings out a series of duties peculiar to itself.
Lange says: We hold that this section, as being the summing up of the laws of the theocratic humanity, is quite in place, as a contrast to the characteristics of the heathen inhumanity which the foregoing chapter has displayed; and in so far forth comprises in no part anything repeated, varying, or in the more restricted sense religious. It gives the characteristics of the consecrated human personality in the theocracy, and of its conduct as it should correspond with the holy personality of Jehovah, and hence it is said again and again: I am Jehovah. From this constant refrain a liturgy of religious humanity could be unfolded. First, in threefold distinctness: Ye shall be holy,i.e. hallowed personalities, for I Jehovah your God am holy, and ever again I am Jehovah your God (Lev 19:3-4; Lev 19:10; Lev 19:25; Lev 19:31; Lev 19:34; Lev 19:36), or I am Jehovah (Lev 19:12; Lev 19:14; Lev 19:16; Lev 19:18; Lev 19:28; Lev 19:30; Lev 19:32; Lev 19:37). Evidently these statements together, as the characteristics of the private human conduct, stand in connection with the legislation for the social humanity in the section, Exodus 21-23.
Disposition: Lev 19:1-2. The principle of humanity: Jehovah the Holy One. Lev 19:3-8. True and false piety. Lev 19:9-18. Inwardly grounded humanity. Lev 19:19-32. Observance of the moral laws of nature. Lev 19:33-37. Observance of hospitality and the duties of trade.
The first theocratic law of humanity is the root of all that follow, the law of piety. And here it is not said: Father and mother, but mother and father; for the mother precedes the father in the duty of mankind. Wordsworth says in reference to this order: In the former chapter God had displayed the evils consequent on the abuse of woman, and here He inculcates reverence towards her, as the foundation of social happiness. This is the fifth commandment of the Decalogue (Exo 20:12), and is clearly necessary to be called to mind here; for as the family is the basis of all social organization, so is reverence to parents the first necessity of family order. Next follows the reiteration of the fourth commandment (Eze 20:12) as the first duty of man beyond the immediate respect due from him to those from whom he derives his being. The great prominence everywhere given in Scripture to the observance of the Sabbath (comp. e. g.Eze 20:12-13; Eze 20:16; Eze 20:20-21; Eze 20:24, being the portion from the prophets read in the synagogue in connection with this chapter), and the universality of its obligation as grounded upon the Divine rest, show how deeply this must enter into all excellent social organization. These two precepts are here coupled together as they are in the Decalogue, and they are the only commands given there in positive form. They express two great central points, the first belonging to natural law, and the second to positive law, in the maintenance of the well-being of the social body of which Jehovah was the acknowledged king. Clark. It is noticeable that the same generality which is given to the command in Ex. by the use of the sing. is here attained also by the use of the plural; for the plural is not to be understood as used (Kalisch) for the purpose of including other festivals than the weekly day of rest.
Lev 19:4. This precept includes the two first commands of the Decalogue. The order of commands in this chapter, in so far as the commands themselves are the same, is different, from that in the Decalogue, because there the starting point is from God Himself; here from man in his family and social relations. In regard to this precept, Lange says: If the heart of man becomes benumbed to the use of images of false gods of any kind, he sinks down to the idols which are his ideals, and becomes as dumb and unspiritual as they are, Lev 19:4. All gods of the heathen are Elilim, nothingnesses, Psa 96:5; Psa 115:8; Psa 135:18; Isa 40:18; Isa 44:10, etc. Comp. also Deu 27:15. It was a notion of the Rabbins that this word was compounded of , = not, and = God. Comp. 1Co 8:4; 1Co 10:19.
Lev 19:5-8. The Legislator now turns to the especial outward act of communion with God in the peace offering. His object is not to speak of sacrifices in general, nor even of any special kind of peace offering; therefore the distinctions of Lev 7:11-21 are not referred to. The reference is rather to Lev 17:3-7, according to which, during the wilderness life, all food of sacrificial animals was to be sanctified by the peace offering. So here all holy feasting of communion with God must be based upon a sacrifice for their acceptance, and must be treated according to the commands already given. The order of the precepts is therefore perfectly natural: first, filial duty; then the observance of the fundamental divine institution for society; next, negatively, the entire turning away from everything that could come into rivalry with God; and now the keeping holy of the appointed means of communion with Him. After this come (918) various precepts to guard the holiness of conduct toward ones neighbor, especially the poor and distressed, illustrated by one command of detail after another until the all including principle is announced, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Lev 19:9-10. The gatherer of his harvest, out of the abundance which God had given him, must have a generous care for the poor and the stranger; the poor, as those unable to cultivate their own land, or who had been obliged to sell it until the next year of Jubilee; and the stranger, as those who by the organization of the Hebrew common wealth could have no possession of land in their country. The LXX. and the Syr. interpret stranger of proselytes, and are followed by some Jewish commentators; but such restriction is plainly at variance with the whole spirit of the command. The same precept is repeated, in regard to the grain harvest, in connection with the feast of weeks (Lev 23:22), and more generally in Deu 24:19-22 with a reminder of the privations and bondage they had themselves endured in Egypt. The story of Ruth is a beautiful exemplification of the operation of this statute.
Lev 19:11. This and the following precepts take the usual negative form of statutory law. The eighth commandment is here joined with the offences recounted in Lev 6:2-5 of falsehood and fraud towards others. St. Augustine here (Qu. 68) enters at length into the casuistical question of the justifiableness of lying under certain peculiar circumstances, citing the example of Rahab among others. He concludes that it was not her lying, as such, which received the divine approbation, but her desire to serve God, which indeed prompted her lie. However this may be, it is plain that the law here has in view not extraordinary and exceptional cases, but the ordinary dealings of man with man. Such law is of universal obligation. Comp. Col 3:9.
Lev 19:12 is of course covered by the third commandment, but is not coextens ve with it, since the point of view here is that of conduct towards ones neighbor. Comp. Lev 6:5.
Lev 19:13-17 relate to social offences of different kinds, common enough in all ages and lands, but all inconsistent with the character of a holy people. Lev 19:13 deals with faults of power, the conversion of might into right. The particulars mentioned are oppression (comp. Lev 25:17-43), robbing, and undue retention of wages. The last is spoken of more at length Deu 24:14-15. Comp. Jam 5:4. Lev 19:14 mentions crimes of mean advantage. Comp. Deu 27:18. The sense is, thou shalt not curse the deaf, for though he hears not, God will hear and avenge; and so of the blind, God sees and cares for him. Job remembered with satisfaction that in his prosperity he had been eyes to the blind and feet to the lame (Job 29:15). The precept in its literal sense belongs to all times, and so also does its obvious spiritual application, Rom 14:13; 1Co 8:9-13. Lange characterizes this verse as the sanctification of the human dignity of the infirm. In Lev 19:15 the Legislator turns to official wrong, guarding against personal influence in judgment from whatever source.Respect the person of the poor has reference not only to pity for him, but to that instinctive tendency to sympathy with the weaker side which still has such powerful influence with the modern jury in the perversion of justice. On the other hand, honoring the person of the mighty represents the opposite perversion, perhaps almost equally common, but less creditable to humanity. Lev 19:16-17 forbid offences of a meaner kind. On Lev 19:16 Lange says: Sanctity of a neighbors good name, and especially of his life and blood. Casting aside of all inhumane conduct, all ill-will, as manifested in malicious belittling, blackening, and slandering, and especially in attempts against the life of a neighbor, whether in court or in private life. The Rabbins, equally with the Hindoo laws, are particularly severe upon the crime of tale-bearing. The Targ. Jonathan paraphrases the clause, Do not go after the tale-bearing tongue, which is harsh as a sword, slaying with both its edges. The latter clause of Lev 19:16 is sometimes otherwise interpreted; most of the recent Jewish versions follow the Talmud in giving another sense to the words, which it appears the Hebrew will bear: Thou shalt not stand by idly when thy neighbors life is in danger. So Zunz, Luzzato, Herxheimer, Leeser, Wogue. Clark. Lev 19:17. Lange: Observance of good-will towards ones neighbor. Blameworthiness of hate, and also of the bitter keeping back of the reproof which one owes to his neighbor. It is a fine reminder that one may become a sharer in a neighbors fault by a lack of openness, and by a holding back of required reproof. On the last clause, see Textual, and on the whole verse comp. Pro 27:5; Mat 18:15-17.
In the close of Lev 19:18 all is summed up in the royal lawthou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. This is twice quoted by our Lord Himself (Mat 19:19; Mat 22:39), and, next to love to God, is made the great commandment of the law. It is repeatedly referred to by the Apostles as the fulfilling of the whole law towards ones neighbor (Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14; Jam 2:8). It may be that at the time it was given it was too far above the spiritual condition of the people, who must, first be trained by the detailed precepts going before. Nevertheless, it is imbedded in the law as the expression of the divine will, and that it might be reached by such as were able to receive it. Such passages as Pro 24:17-18; Pro 25:21-22, show that it did not fail of exerting an influence upon the nation, and in later times the Rabbins abundantly recognized it as the very summary of all duty towards ones neighbor. That the precept has no narrow limitations to their own people is shown by Lev 19:34, in which it is expressly extended to the stranger.
The second series of commands, Lev 19:19-32, is introduced with the formula, Ye shall keep my statutes, in which, says Kalisch, the word statutes must be taken in its original and most pregnant sense as that which is engraven and unalterably ordained: you shall not deviate from the appointed order of things, nor abandon the eternal laws of nature as fixed by Divine wisdom. Lev 19:19. Lange: Observance of the natural system, or of the simple laws of nature, symbolically expressed in reference to the tendency to allow the interbreeding of different species of animals, to mix various seeds in the field, and to wear garments made of mixed stuffs. When it is said in regard to these things, Ye shall keep my statutes, the laws of nature are plainly meant as the laws of Jehovah, and we must distinguish between the symbolical exemplification of the law and such mixings as nature herself or the necessities of life compel,to say nothing of the purpose of investigation. This law is repeated in Deu 22:9-11. It is clearly to be looked upon as one of those many educational laws given to train the Israelites to the observance of the natural order and separation of things, to a sense of fitness and congruity; and hence, when the underlying principle has come to be comprehended, the particular details by which it was enforced cease to be obligatory. As to the allegation that this command was violated in the high-priests dress, which is said to have been woven of linen and wool, it is unnecessary to say more than that the difficulty arises entirely from a misapprehension in taking the word scarlet to mean scarlet wool, instead of as a simple designation of color.
Lev 19:20-22. The punishment for adultery was death for both parties (Lev 20:10), and the same in case, of the seduction of a free virgin who was betrothed (Deu 22:23-24); and it was still death to the man in case the act might be presumed to have been by violence (ib. 2527). These laws were inapplicable in their full force in the case of a slave, since she could not legally contract marriage. Still, the moral offence existed, and therefore there must be punishment. Versions and authorities vary as to whether the punishment was to be inflicted on both parties (LXX., Vulg., Syr.), on the man alone (Sam.), or on the woman alone (A. V.). The last is supported on the ground that the mans punishment consisted in his trespass offering; but this is so entirely inadequate that this view may be dismissed. Probably both parties were punished when the acquiescence of the woman might be presumed, and the man alone in the opposite case. This would be in accordance with the analogy of Deu 22:23-27, and would account for the indefiniteness of the Hebrew expression. See Textual note 18. The supposition that both were ordinarily to be punished also agrees best with the following pluralthey shall not be put to death. In the form of sacrifice to be presented by the man, the trespass offering (comp. Lev 5:14 to Lev 6:7), the violation of the rights of property of which he had also been guilty is recognized.
Lev 19:23-25. Treatment of nature, in the case of the culture of plants, after their analogy with the life of man. Symbolic practice: the fruits of trees for the first three years were to be considered as the foreskin of the tree, and were not to be harvested nor eaten. The trees were to be allowed to grow strong by having their fruit hang on them. The fruit of the fourth year was to be hallowed to Jehovah, and thus by a theocratic consecration, the fruit of the following years should be a consecrated food, analogous to the food of the flesh that was slain before the door of the Tabernacle. First, the fruits of the trees were, so to speak, heathen; then they were hallowed in a priestly way; and then finally became fruits to be enjoyed by the theocracy. Lange. It is noticeable that this command, like so many others, is wholly prospective,when ye shall come into the land,one of the constantly recurring evidences that this legislation was actually given during the life in the wilderness.
Lev 19:26-28 forbid several heathen customs, some of them associated with idolatrous or superstitious rites, and all of them unbecoming the holy people of God. To the consecration of the use of fruit is added for completeness once more the consecration of the use of flesh, and indeed with a more strict prohibition of the use of the blood: ye shall not eat any thing with the blood. Lange. These words were not a mere repetition of the law against eating blood (Lev 17:10), but a strengthening of the law. Not only were they to eat no blood, but no flesh to which any blood adhered. Keil. Patrick, quoting from Maimonides and others, makes it very probable that this has reference to a heathen custom of eating flesh over the blood of the animal from which it had been taken as a means of communion with demons who were supposed to feast upon the blood itself. See Spencer, lib. II., c. 15. Neither shall ye use enchantment.This is a different sin from that forbidden in Lev 19:31; for in the parallel prohibitions, Deu 18:9-12, the two are distinguished, , primarily to whisper, to mutter, covers all kinds of magical formulas, all attempts to secure a desired result otherwise than by natural means or the invocation of divine aid. The LXX. and Syr. interpret it of augury by means of birds; but while the form of the Hebrew seems to connect the act primarily with the serpent, its sense in use is certainly more general. Comp. Gen 44:5; Gen 44:15. Nor observe times., according to some authorities, a denom. verb from = a cloud, and this sense has been followed by the A. V.; according to Rabbinical authorities, however, it is from = the eye, and means to bewitch with an evil eye. In either case the general sense is in accordance with the preceding clause: to rely upon occult arts for the accomplishment of ones purposes. Lange: To the prohibition of the unhallowed sensual use of nature is added the prohibition of the demoniacal misinterpretation of nature, of an impious desire to enter the spirit-world by breaking through the opposing limits of nature; the prohibition of soothsaying and sorcery, whereby, in all their forms, natural things were misused, Lev 19:26. In the same connection belongs the disfiguring of the natural appearance of ones own personal form, especially of the head and the beard, Lev 19:27. And in this law the Christian world might have cause to see itself reflected, with their unnatural forms of every kind: crinolines, trains, high-heeled shoes, chignons, and hats that are only lids to the forehead. Only the law of customs must be remembered: the taste of the women is the taste of the men. Theodoret (Qu. 28), followed by many moderns, understands the things here forbidden of heathen customs connected either with idolatrous usages or with mourning for the dead. Lev 19:28. For the dead. = , Lev 21:11; Num 6:6; or , Deu 14:1; so again [the same form as here is used] in Lev 22:4; Num 5:2; Num 9:6-7; Num 9:10. Keil. Lange: This opposition to nature was increased by cutting marks in their flesh in remembrance of the dead, as the Jews must have seen done in the cultus of the dead among the Egyptians. With this belongs the cutting in of written characters, every kind of tattooing, of profaning the human dignity in the human form. Lev 19:28. On similar heathen customs see Keil, p. 130 [Trans. p. 424]; Knobel, p. 513. Comp. Lev 21:5; Deuteronomy 14. But notwithstanding the law, the custom appears to have continued a familiar one, see Jer 16:6; Jer 48:37. Any voluntary disfigurement of the person was in itself an outrage upon Gods workmanship, and might well form the subject of a law. Clark.
Lev 19:29. The common natural disposition becomes especially unnatural when the father of a family gives away his daughter, or allows her to go away, to become a whore. One result of this is that the land or people itself begins to fall to whoredom also in the religious sense. The religious immorality is here meant, as it was joined with many worships, Num 25:1, etc. Knobel. The heathen religious service of lust existed among the most different nations, the Babylonians, for example, and the Indians of the present day. Lange. Keil argues that the reference here can be only to fleshly whoredom, the word being used only in this connection. But see Eze 16:27; Eze 16:43; Eze 16:58, etc. Nevertheless, the context here requires that the carnal sin should be understood, and certainly that is the primary sin in Num 25:1.
Lev 19:30. Lange: The spirit of reverence for the institutions of the church is also a characteristic of true humanity, and the corresponding irreverence, a characteristic of barbarism, even if the barbarism be occasionally in the garments of the higher culture. History has abundantly shown that the keeping holy of the Lords day and reverence for His sanctuary runs hand in hand with the highest national development. Throughout this social and domestic life is pervaded by the fear of God and characterized by chasteness and propriety. Keil. In His repeated cleansing of the temple (Joh 2:14-16; Mat 21:12-13) our Lord has shown that the latter duty at least is one of permanent obligation.
Lev 19:31. Lange: Also the passive superstition which, instead of asking of Jehovah, especially on His days of rest and in His holy place, asks of the conjurors of the dead and of wizards, or of any ungodly oracle of any kind, and thus breaks through the limits of the consecrated humanity, which leaves it to God to rule and trusts in God. Them that have familiar spirits.The Heb. is used both for the divining spirit, the foreboding demon itself, as here and in Lev 20:27; 1Sa 28:7-8, etc.; and also for the person in whom such a spirit was supposed to dwell, Isa 29:4. The LXX. usually render it by = ventriloquists, since among the ancients ventriloquism and magical arts were wont to be associated together. Wizard.lit. the knowing one; Symm. ; Aq. , is always associated with , and means plainly one who pretends to more than mortal knowledge. The chief means used by both these classes of persons was the consulting with the spirits of the departed. While this furnishes an incidental testimony all along to the belief of the Israelites in the life beyond the grave, it is self-evident that all such attempts to secure knowledge which God has not put it in the power of living man to acquire are a resistance to His will, and a chafing against the barriers He has imposed. It is remarkable that such attempts should have been persisted in through all ages and in all lands. In Lev 19:32 the outward marks of respect to old age are connected with the fear of God. The commendation of this virtue is frequent in Scripture, and its practice appears to have been universal among all ancient nations, as it is still among the Orientals.
Lev 19:33-34. Lange: Humanity towards the stranger, who is not a Jew, who thus certainly might dwell as a private man in the future inheritance of Israel. He was to be treated exactly as an inhabitant in human intercourse. Thou shalt love him as thyself.With this the remembrance is still preserved that the Israelites had been strangers in the land of Egypt. The royal law of Lev 19:18 is here expressly extended to the stranger, and notwithstanding the national narrowness necessary to preserve the true religion in the world, the general brotherhood of mankind is hereby taught as far as was possible under the circumstances.
Lev 19:35-36. Lange: Integrity, corresponding to the humanity, is now made especially prominent and sharp, as if in prophetic foresight in regard to the occupation of the Israelites in trade, and with reference to all forms of business.
In this mirror of humanity not only Judaism may see itself reflected, not only medival fanaticism, but also modern culture.
The Ephah is mentioned as the standard of dry, and the Hin of liquid measure. Precisely how much each contained is in dispute. The Hin was the sixth part of the Ephah; and the latter, according to Josephus (Ant. III. 9, 4; VIII. 2, 9), contained rather more than eight and a half gallons. But the Rabbins make the capacity only about half this, which is more probable. However this may be, it is clear that equity in the affairs of the daily life is here made to rest upon the foundation of duty towards God.
In Lev 19:37 all duties enumerated in this chapter are placed upon the same groundthe only ground, as experience has abundantly shown, sufficiently strong to withstand the temptations and vicissitudes of the world.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. The foundation of the law here, as everywhere, is the holiness of God. Because He is holy, therefore the people who would live in communion with Him must be holy too. This principle is of universal application to all times, and to all occupations of human life.
II. In the human development of holiness filial reverence must always occupy the first place, and next to that comes reverence for the outward institutions of divine appointment.
III. The fulfilling of our whole duty towards our neighbor, under the old dispensation as under the new, culminates and is comprehended in the lawThou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. With a clearness that seems to belong to the teaching of the Gospel, neighbor is made to comprehend the stranger as well as ones own compatriots.
IV. In the general exhortation to holiness are included all details of the daily life. There is nothing so insignificant that one may allow himself in unholy conduct in relation to it; because he would thereby violate the fundamental principle of communion with God. This is particularly applied in the law to matters of business and trade.
V. All attempts to arrive at more than mortal knowledge by consultation with the spirits of the dead are especially and emphatically forbidden.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Lange: The foundation of these laws is announced in the most emphatic declaration of the name of Jehovah and His holiness, again and again, as the sanction of the commands. Ye shall be holy, for I am holyi.e., ye shall keep your personality pure, for your Jehovah, your covenant God, the absolute Personality, repels all uncleanness, all confusion with the world, either in the heads of Pantheists or in the hearts and morals of the servants of sin, or in the rites of the priests. The personality is dishonored with every act of idolatry and every idolatrous worship (see Isa 44:9 sqq.; Acts 17). There follow the outlines of holy thanksgiving festivals, holy harvest festivals and vintages, holy ways of thought and action, holy oaths, etc. Continually new features of the consecration of life by a humane conduct are made prominent; and truly they are fine and thoughtful features.
Each precept of this chapter has a homiletical value so clear that no amplification of the text itself is necessary. Holiness is made to consist not merely in the avoiding of sin and in the fulfilment of certain prescribed duties, but in a general course of life prompted by genuine love. The wants of the poor are to be regarded, the weak and defenceless are to be respected, justice is to be unwarped by either personal sympathies or influence, tale-bearing avoided, all magical arts and efforts to attain forbidden knowledge are to be shunned, and, in a word, man is to conduct himself in all things as one who is in communion with God, and therefore seeks to have His will carried out in all the length and breadth of his own daily life.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev 19:2. = congregation is omitted by 3 MSS. and the LXX.
[2]Lev 19:3. In the LXX., Vulg., and Syr., the order is reversed to his father and his mother. The Sam and Onk. follow the Hebrew.
[3]Lev 19:4. = inania numina, Rosen. It is formed from with a termination expressive of contempt.
[4]Lev 19:5. = for your acceptance. See Textual Note6 on Lev 1:3.
[5]Lev 19:8. The Heb. has the plural form , but the Sam. and other versions have the sing as in the following verb and noun.
[6]Lev 19:10. is generally a vineyard, but also (Jdg 15:7) an olive yard. It is a field or yard of the nobler plants and trees, cultivated in the manner of a garden or orchard, Gesen. It is doubtless here used in its broadest sense, and the vineyard of the A. V. is therefore too restricted.
[7]Lev 19:10. = that which is scattered, and hence meaning here both the fallen fruit (Chald., Vulg., Syr.), and also the single berries of the olive and the vine not gathered with the harvest.
[8]Lev 19:13. . Lev 19:11 forbids sins of craft and falsehood against ones neighbor; this, sins of violence and open oppression. The translation given is that of the A. V. in Deu 24:14.
[9]Lev 19:13. The Heb. is without the conjunction which is supplied in 40 MSS. in the Sam. and the LXX.
[10]Lev 19:15. The conjunction is prefixed in 7 MSS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr.
[11]Lev 19:16. . The Sam. and 66 MSS. omit the .
[12]Lev 19:16. Here again the Heb. omits the conjunction which is supplied in 40 MSS., and in the Syr.
[13]Lev 19:17. is a clause the meaning of which has been much questioned. It seems certain, however, that cannot mean suffer, (permit) as in the A. V., but must mean bear as in the margin. The marginal for him is ambiguous, and it is better therefore to use the more explicit on his account. For instances of precisely the same Sense of these words, see Lev 22:9; Num 18:32, and comp. also the very similar expression in Psa 69:8.
[14]Lev 19:19. 3 MSS., the Sam., LXX., and Syr., prefix the conjunction.
[15]Lev 19:19. (dual from = separation) occurs only in this verse (three times) and in the parallel Deu 22:9, but is frequent in the Talmud. It signifies of two kinds, heterogeneous. The translation of the A. V. at its first occurrence in the ver. diverse is good, and should by all means be retained in the other clauses, both for consistencys sake, and for the force of the command. All the Semitic versions preserve the uniformity.
[16]Lev 19:19. occurs only here and in Deu 22:11, where it is explained of woolen and linen together. Its etymology is obscure. See the Lexicons and Bochart, Hieroz. I., lib. II., c. 35. p. 545, ed. Rosen. It is probably an Egyptian word, although not yet satisfactorily explained. The Chald. retains the word, and the LXX. translates = spurious, adulterated, probably by a mere conjecture. Rosenmller quotes Forster as explaining it of a costly Egyptian dress woven in various figures of plants and animals in colors, having a symbolical idolatrous signification. See Com.
[17]Lev 19:20. Niph. from = to tear off, to set apart. There seems no doubt of the correctness of the text of the A. V., and the margin is therefore unnecessary.
[18]Lev 19:20. . This word is . ., but there seems little doubt of its meaning, investigation, and then punishment. Authorities are much divided on the question whether both parties, or only the woman, was to be scourged. The LXX., Vulg., and Syr., are clear for the former, while the Sam. applies it only to the man. In the uncertainty it is better to retain the indefiniteness of the Heb. as in the marg. of the A. V. The Sam. reading is remarkable = he shall be punished, and then, in the sing. = he shall not die. This gives a sense agreeing excellently with the reason assigned because she was not free, and hence the act did not legally constitute adultery which was punishable with death.
[19]Lev 19:23. The singular suffix in [and also in ] refers to , and the verb is a denom. from , to make into a foreskin, to treat as uncircumcised, i.e., to throw away as unclean or uneatable. Keil. The LXX. rendering = ye shall purge away its uncleanness expresses very well the general sense.
[20]Lev 19:24. occurs only here and in Jdg 9:27. In the latter place it seems to mean merry-making feasts to idols, and Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 19) understands the law to be that the fruit of the fourth year should be carried to the place of the Sanctuary, and there used in a holy feast with friends and the poor. But the following verse seems so clearly to forbid the owners partaking of it before the fifth year that it would be unsafe to change the translation. The marg. of the A. V. holiness of praises to the Lord does not convey any distinct idea. The idea of Murphy a praise offering is hardly sustained by the text. The true sense is probably that incorporated into the Targ. Onk. it shall be consecrated to those offering praises before the Lord, i.e., it was to be given to the Lord through His priests, and used by them in feasts.
[21]Lev 19:25. For that it may yield, the Sam., followed by the Vulg., reads for collecting (in storehouses) the produce.
[22]Lev 19:26. . The LXX. must have read instead of to sustain the version , and some critics would adopt this to avoid the peculiarity of the construction of , considering it justified by the frequency of the practice in connection with idolatrous feasts (comp. Hos 4:13). But a mis-reading of the LXX. is not a sufficient ground for a change of the text; for the construction of see Exo 12:8, and comp. Textual Note4 on Lev 2:2.
[23]Lev 19:26-27. In both places the Sam., one or two MSS., and the LXX., supply the conjunction.
[24]Lev 19:27. The Sam. and most of the Ancient Versions put the verb and the pronoun in the plural in accordance with the previous clause.
[25]Lev 19:33. The Sam. and versions have the plural.
[26]Lev 19:33. The marg. of the A. V. expresses the sense of better than the text.
[27]Lev 19:34. There is no occasion for the insertion of the but of the A. V.
[28]Lev 19:36. The marg. of the A. V. stones is unnecessary, that being merely the primary sense of while weight is the fully established derivative sense.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter is a continuation of the same subject as the former. Here are many precepts of a moral and religious nature.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The apostle Peter hath given the best comment upon this precept. 1Pe 1:13-16 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
VII
THE LAW OF HOLINESS
Leviticus 17-22
This chapter covers Leviticus 17-22. The theme is the law of holiness. I will treat it catechetically.
1. Where must animals for food be brought and slain and why?
Ans. In such a camp as the Israelites camp, with 3,000,000 of people, the question of food was a grave question. The law required that every bullock, every sheep, every beef, every goat, that was to be eaten, be brought to one place to be slain, and that one place was the gate, or the door, of the tabernacle, the outer court of the tabernacle; and the reason for the law was that the priest had to inspect and approve of the method of slaughtering animals, for both sanitary and spiritual reasons. The first part, the sanitary reason, is employed today in the city regulations concerning slaughterhouses. The wisest precautions must be adopted with reference to cleanliness, to avoid the breeding of pests or pestilences.
The second and most important reason was that the priest should see that the law concerning blood was observed. They were expressly forbidden to eat any animal food from which the blood had not been drained, and this applied to animals where they killed them in the wilderness, as deer and those animals used for food; they must draw the blood off; as soon as the animal was killed, the blood must be drawn.
2. Give Old Testament and New Testament law prohibiting the eating of blood, and why is it now binding?
Ans. The Old Testament law commences with the law of Noah, when he represented the whole race. While they were given permission in that law to eat every moving, living
thing, immediately after (Gen 9:4 ) there is this express stipulation, viz.: that the blood must be drawn out of the body, or it could not be eaten. It was a sin to eat blood when the law applied to the whole world. Now when we come to the New Testament (Act 15 ) we have this law. In the great council that was held in Jerusalem, James in closing that council says in his speech: “Wherefore my judgment is that we trouble not them who from among the Gentiles are turned to God; but that we write unto them to abstain from what is strangled, and from blood.” Now in drawing up the decree later in the same chapter, you have this: “We lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that ye abstain from blood, and from things strangled.” That is addressed to the Gentiles and says, “Fornications, from blood and things strangled.”
In Rev 2 , our Lord calls attention to this law, and states that one of the things that he has against one of the seven churches in Asia is that they violate that law. So my decision is that the reason for prohibiting the use of blood for food is not a mere Jewish regulation. We find it binding on the race before there was a Jew, and we find it binding after the kingdom of God was passed to the Gentiles. Two reasons are given, one is that the blood is the life; and another reason is that because it is the life, it is the blood with which expiation for sin is made. Outside of the regulation concerning eating, just described, and which is set forth in chapter 17, we now enlarge the law of holiness with a new question.
3. What is incest?
Ans. That comes in the first part of Lev 18 , and goes down to Lev 18:18 . In this we have a number of things that are classed as incest. I am not going to discuss that on account of the delicacy of the matter. I will say, in general terms, that any offense that violates the law concerning nearness of kindred, comes under the head of incest, no matter what it is. There are many cases of incest mentioned in the Bible.
4. What is the purpose of this law prohibiting incest?
Ans. The purpose of the law is to enforce the sanctity of the family and its relation; and the common sense as well as the common interpretation of all denominations regards that law as binding now, because it does not arise from any particular condition of the Jews, but arises from the nature of the family institution, and is just as applicable to one people as another, and to one time as another. There is nothing temporary in it. We have laws regulating this also: for instance, that a man should not marry his own sister, his own aunt, or his niece, anything that violates the law of kindred. Now incest in that chapter stops with Lev 18:18 .
5. What law prevailed in England to prohibit a man’s marrying his wife’s sister, even after his wife was dead?
Ans. I don’t know that the law is abrogated now, but I know it did prevail. If a man married into a large family, and the wife died, then he could not marry the sister of his wife. Is that law properly derivable from Lev 18:18 ? I will quote it. My judgment is that they misinterpret the Levitical law in embodying any of the law into the common law of England. A great many romances have been written on this subject. Lev 18:18 simply says this: “Thou shalt not take a wife to be a rival of her sister in her lifetime.” Now you see that does not forbid the marrying of the wife’s sister after the wife dies. Yet the English law prohibited it, and not only prohibited it, but counted it as not marriage.
6. What is sodomy?
Ans. You can read that answer to yourself. That is a sin against the law of holiness, and is just as binding now as it ever was. That is, for a man to treat another man as if he were a woman, or a woman to treat another woman as if she were a man; that is sodomy. That was the sin that brought about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it derives its name from Sodom.
7. What is bestiality?
Ans. From beast we get bestiality, that is, a man treating a beast as if the beast were a woman, and a woman treating a beast as if it were a man.
8. Have we in our statute books any laws against bestiality?
Ans. We certainly have, and with a very sharp penalty. I have known of some convictions under that law, and it left a lasting shame upon the one who committed the offense, besides the punishment by the state. Now that ends everything relating to sodomy, incest, and bestiality. The next question of the law of holiness is embodied in these words, upon which I ask a question: “Thou shall not cause thy seed to pass through the fire to Molech.”
9. What is meant by causing the seed to pass through the fire to Molech?
Ans. The answer is, the offering of one of your own children as a sacrifice to be burned with fire upon the altar of the heathen god, Molech. There is some difference of opinion yet as to whether these children were burned alive or slain before they were burned. The Carthaginians practiced this, and a great many heathen nations with which the Jews had to do practiced this. You find a number of cases of it in the Bible. Now I will give you an old-time description of it. A man would be in great trouble about something, and he felt that an ordinary sacrifice would not remove the curse from him. He would vow to offer his own offspring as a burnt offering to the god, Molech, in order to appease that deity, and remove the curse from his house. A furnace, shaped something like a man, but a most hideous and monstrous man, was built representing Molech, built of iron; it had arms held out, a huge, gigantic image of Molech, and under that furnace was a place for the fire, and that would heat that iron image red-hot, and then they would take the naked babe, and place it in the red-hot arms of the idol; and in order to drown the sounds of its screams of agony, the priests would beat their tom-toms, or huge drums, and the parents, disregarding the screams of the child, would go away believing that they were absolved from the curse that had come upon them.
10. What is the meaning and application of “Thou shalt not build a city in the blood of thy first-born”?
Ans. That originated from the curse pronounced upon the men who should attempt to rebuild Jericho after it had been destroyed. The law was: “Whoever shall rebuild that city shall lose his first-born.” Then comes the great direction “Thou shalt not build the city in the blood of thy first-born.” From that I once deduced a prohibition speech, in the case where the city demanded the retention of the liquor traffic to promote commercial interest. “Thou shalt not build a city in the blood of thy first-born,” I quoted, saying, “You seek to promote commercial prosperity through the liquor traffic. Maybe your son will be the first to perish, maybe your daughter will become the wife of a drunkard, and your grandchild inherit a drunkard’s habits, and you are building a city in the blood of your children.”
11. What is meant by enchantments, and why forbidden?
Ans. The law says, “Thou shalt not use any enchantments.” It means, thou shalt not have recourse to any forms of seeking information or avoiding trouble that bring relief from any source but God. When I was a little boy, I knew an old Negro ninety years old who used enchantments. She would go out and gather herbs on the dark of the moon; she would catch a lizard or a snake, maybe get the eye of a newt, and put them in a pot with the herbs and boil them, compounding the enchantment, and if she could mingle a few drops of that in the water people would drink, she would “hoodoo” them. Those of you who have read Shakespeare’s Macbeth remember how the witch would take the eye of a mole, the toe of a frog, the blind worm’s sting, and boil them in order to concoct the enchantment. A great many Negroes up to the present day carry a rabbit’s foot in their pockets, or hang a horseshoe over the door of a house newly built, to keep off enchantments. The simplest form of enchantment is taking a cup of coffee before it is settled, and pour off the coffee and leave the grounds in the cup; then turning the cup over, the grounds left on the inside of the cup run down, and they forecast what is going to happen from the coffee grounds.
12. The next question is similar to this: What is meant by familiar spirits, and why forbidden?
Ans. This beats the coffee grounds and the enchantments. It has retained its hold over the human mind with more persons, perhaps, than any other sin except fleshly sins. Lots of people in Texas now believe it. “Having a familiar spirit” (Lev 19:31 ) means this: a certain person is a medium; a medium has the power to call up certain spirits from the dead, and obtain from these spirits information, and this information is sometimes conveyed by rapping on the table, one rap meaning “yes,” two raps “no”; then spelling out, one rap A, two raps B, and getting information that way. It has always been a horrible sin; it is just as much a sin today as it ever was. And the main point of the sin is expressed by Isaiah the prophet. In referring to it, he says, “Why seek ye to wizards, that chirp and mutter, and why should the living seek unto the dead? Seek unto me, saith the Lord.”
The sin of it consists, then, in disregarding God’s revelation, and endeavoring to obtain from the spirits of the dead, or from demons, information that God either has not given or withholds. He gives all the information that we need in his Book of Revelation. Sometimes this spiritualism or spirit rapping, or spirit slate-writing, or whatever the form of it, sweeps the country like an epidemic, and the most cultured people, some as a mere matter of curiosity or experiment, some for graver reasons, will go to this medium and endeavor to obtain from the spirits of the dead the messages of the dead, from the husband who has departed, or the child who has departed.
Now you may put this down as settled that if ever you want to do anything for anybody, you must do it while you are living, and while that person is living, and if you wait till the person dies you cannot ameliorate his condition. If you wait until you die, the opportunity to help the other person in any way is gone forever. Our Lord in Luk 16 settles that and many other questions. A rich -man who entered hell wanted the soul of Lazarus to go back and carry the message to his brothers in the other world, and it was forbidden; the rich man wanted the soul of Lazarus to bring him, on the tip of his finger, a drop of water in hell, and it was forbidden. Between the spirits of the righteous and the wicked after death a deep and impassable chasm yawns. One cannot pass to the other. Those are fundamental doctrines.
You can count this as a settled thing that there is no clear case in the Bible where the soul of one who was dead was ever permitted to come back to this earth with a message of any kind. And there are only two cases that have ever been quoted; the most notable one is what seems to have taken place when Saul sought to get information from Samuel through the witch of Endor, and when we come to that case, I will expound it in such a way that you will see that it is no exception. The other is that of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. They appeared unto Christ, but they brought no message to any person on earth. On the contrary, the word to the apostles was: “Hear ye him.” You cannot get anything from Moses and Elijah. That belongs to Christ. The message is: “Revealed things belong to us and our children, but hidden things belong to God.”
13. This question covers Lev 20 : What are the respective penalties for these offenses?
Ans. You have Lev 20 to read, and I want you to answer it as you see it. How many punishable by death, and how many by excommunication that is, cut off from the people? Now we take them as we come to them: Incest, sodomy, bestiality, enchantments, seeking those that have familiar spirits; and from Lev 20 you must answer what the penalties are in each case, and in giving the penalties show how many of the death penalty, and how many of the penalty of being cut off from the people.
14. This covers Leviticus 21-22. These two chapters give the law of holiness as binding on the priesthood. Now these chapters are added, giving the law to the priest, and the question is, What difference in the application to priests, that is, the law of incest, sodomy, and the law of enchantments, seeking this and that from familiar spirits? In other words, what difference do you find between the application of these laws to priests, and to the common people?
Ans. The difference is that the penalty is harder on the priest and the law more stringent. The law is more stringent for a preacher, if he commit a crime; while what he does is the same to him as it is to any other man, yet by virtue of his office the sin is greater. Because of his high rank, he has brought more shame upon the cause of God than if the offense had been committed by a common person. That is the reason for it. Now there is in Leviticus 19 a great variety of special statutes, all of them important, but it is like taking each one of them as a text. It would mean as many texts as there are verses, but I will ask on Lev 19 two questions.
15. Of what are the special statutes in Lev 19 developments?
Ans. They are developments of the Ten Commandments.
16. State in your judgment the most striking of these statutes.
Ans. Read the Lev 19 , and you will see a great variety, and some of them will impress you more than others. I will leave this to you because I want to train your mind to decide some things for yourselves. For instance you will find this: “Thou shall rise up before the hoary head,” and you may just put it down that no man is a gentleman who does not respect an old man or an old woman. He simply isn’t a gentleman, in any consideration. I have seen boys in a streetcar hold a seat, with a tottering old grandmother standing up, holding to a strap. Now a Jew would be an outcast if he did such a thing, and he never does it among his own people. Sometime ago, a distinguished Japanese brought his family to America, and travelled across the continent from New York to San Francisco. He had been here before and knew the difference, but his little boy and girl did not know, and they were perfectly horrified at the irreverence shown in America to parents and old people. It was a most astounding thing to them. I knew of a Jew who lost a trade of great value rather than wake up his old father, who was taking a nap and had the key to the desk in his pocket. He said, “My father is old and his afternoon nap is precious. I will not disturb his afternoon nap in order to make a trade.” And to this day the Jews are ahead of the Americans in deference to the aged. And the Japanese are above us in that; far below us in many things, but ahead of us in that.
17. What is the formal introduction to this law of holiness that I have been discussing?
Ans. The formal introduction is found in the first five verses of Lev 18:1-5 “And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am Jehovah your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings in the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes, ye shall do my judgments and keep my ordinances, to walk therein; I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall live in them; I am Jehovah.” That is the formal introduction, that answers the question.
18. What is the application to Israel at this time?
Ans. They had just come out of Egypt. They were just going into Canaan, and they were in covenant with Jehovah. The land they lived in was full of idolatry. The land they were just about to enter reeked with infamy, and the cry of its crimes went up to heaven. God said, “Their cup of iniquity is almost full,” and when it was full he said that he would spew them out of his mouth. Now he wanted his people not to be like them, and he said, “if you do as the Canaanites do, I will blot you out of the land.” And he did.
19. What deductions from these laws?
Ans. While there are many deductions, I call your attention to two:
(1) God holds the nation responsible just as he holds the individual, no matter what the form of government in that nation, an absolute or limited monarchy, aristocracy, or theocracy, or democracy. The government that violates the laws of God, that nation shall not go down to perdition as a whole, but its duration is limited, for Jehovah he is King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the government of the whole world is upon his shoulder, and no nation can long violate the laws of morality, truth and honesty, and survive. Upon the high walls of the city of ancient times was written: “Therefore, saith the Lord, their days are numbered,” and that city, no matter how regal, no matter how high its walls, how great its brazen gates, how strong its fortifications, the “Thus saith the Lord” came upon it on account of the iniquities, crumbled its walls to dust and made the site of that city the habitation of beasts, animals, and birds. As it was said of Babylon, “the lion shall whelp in thy palace.” God governs the nations. It is a great theme, one of the greatest of all. Beecher one time preached a great sermon on the government of God, and a young man asked him how long he was preparing that sermon. He said. “Forty years.”
(2) Now the second deduction: “As righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” It may be an English-speaking nation, it may be an Oriental nation, it may be an Arctic nation, no matter where the people are congregated into nations, righteousness exalteth that nation, and sin is a reproach to that people.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Leviticus Chapter 19
CHAPTER 6.
ISRAEL’S PRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Lev 19:1-13 .
Our chapter begins a varied application of the law to Israel, both Godward and manward. This was divine wisdom. It was excellent to have His will as to the earthly people as a whole or summary; not less valuable was it for them to have its several parts in suitable connection. There is no vain repetition anywhere, though those who count themselves able to sit in judgment of His word are necessarily incapable of entering into the truth. For man only learns it through his need and in a spirit of faith, dependence, and obedience. Indeed it would deny God and His majesty if it could be in any other way.
” 1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Speak to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them, Ye shall be holy, for I Jehovah your God [am] holy. 3 Ye shall reverence every man his mother, and his father, and ye shall keep my sabbaths: I [am] Jehovah your God. 4 Ye shall not turn to idols, and ye shall not make to yourselves molten gods: I [am] Jehovah your God. 5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace-offerings to Jehovah, ye shall offer it for your acceptance. 6 It shall be eaten on the day when ye sacrifice it, and on the morrow; and that which remaineth to the third day shall be burned with fire. 7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is an unclean thing (or, abomination), it shall not be accepted. 8 And he that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, for he hath profaned the holy thing of Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his peoples. 9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field; and the gleaning of thy harvest thou shalt not gather. 10 And thy vineyard shalt thou not glean, neither shalt thou gather the scattered grapes of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger: I [am] Jehovah your God. 11 Ye shall not steal, and ye shall not deal falsely, and ye shall not lie one to another. 12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely and profane the name of thy God; I [am] Jehovah. 13 thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour, nor rob him. The wages of the hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning” (vers. 1-13).
It is not here the abominable things against which they were warned, but the good inculcated because of their relation to Jehovah: what they should do, rather than what they should not, though this continues here and there to have its place still. So the chapter begins with a word and principle applied by the apostle Peter to the Christian Jews he addressed, as it is far more deeply true in Christianity; “be ye holy, for I am holy.” As woman so largely figured through the corrupt lusts of fallen nature in the chapter before, and even to unnatural vileness, it is striking that here we begin with, “Ye shall reverence every man his mother, and his father, and my sabbaths ye shall keep: I am Jehovah your God.” The mother has the first place in singular contrast with the slight of woman and the pride of man characteristic of the Talmud for modern Judaism. Of course the father is in no way forgotten, and if remembered would have his place of just authority. It is worthy of note that Jehovah adds here, “and my sabbaths shall ye keep.” The sabbath was not a moral duty, but of divine authority; and hence of all moment as a question of relationship with Jehovah and therefore the sign of His people Israel. If we as Christians own the Lord’s day, Israel will truly honour the sabbath in the age to come when Jehovah reigns. How pithily contempt is poured on “molten gods” in ver. 4!
Peace-offerings are next guarded; for man there had a large place, and danger was nigh. It is well when holiness guards our joy; but it is evanescent. Hence it could not be eaten on the third day without iniquity, and profanation (5-8). Man’s eating even with a thankful heart must be kept near the offering to God.
Jehovah would also train His people in gracious feeling. If He would bless their harvest and their vintage, He inculcates kindness to the needy, and instructs them to leave a margin of their good crop, and the scattered or fallen grapes, for the poor and the stranger. Such had once been their own lot in the land of Egypt; but the ground is Himself, Jehovah their God (9, 10).
Dishonesty and untruthfulness He prohibits, especially with the profanation of His name; and He denounces oppression of one’s neighbour, were it but in delaying for a single night to pay what was due to a poor labourer. Wealthy Jews were guilty in this way: is it confined to men of Israel? Vers. 11-13 are of great weight. The employment of labour is often conducted in a hard spirit, grinding the faces of the poor. It is no compensation but rather an aggravation in God’s eyes for masters to give liberally to so-called Christian or to philanthropic objects what is wrung out of tears and curses. And what has not trade or commerce to answer for in the oppressive desire to grow rich?
CHAPTER 7.
ISRAEL’S PRACTICAL HOLINESS.
Lev 19:14-18 .
Another duty is here urged, considerateness for such as through natural infirmity are liable not only to err but to have advantage taken of them by the lightminded or the malicious. Other warnings are given that an Israelite might behave to his brother as became the people of Jehovah. His fear was to govern all the life, individually or together. Righteousness in judgment is insisted on, irrespective of low or high. Tale-bearing is frowned on: who could tell the mischief that might result? Hatred in the heart is the deep wrong against a brother; but it is immediately urged earnestly to rebuke one’s neighbour that one bear not sin on his account (or, bring not sin on them). In short, no allowance of grudge, or self-vengeance, but to love one’s neighbour as oneself.
” 14 Thou shalt not curse (or, revile) a deaf [person] nor put a stumbling-block before a blind one, but thou shalt fear thy God: I [am] Jehovah. 15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the lowly, nor honour the person of the mighty; in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. 16 Thou shalt not go about a tale-bearer among thy people; nor shalt thou stand against the blood (or, life) of thy neighbour: I [am] Jehovah. 17 thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt earnestly rebuke thy neighbour, lest thou bear sin on account of him. 18 Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I [am] Jehovah” (vers 14-18).
We may view these injunctions as a class, and even from ver. 11. But it is well to observe that moral and ceremonial are expressly flowing together side by side, both founded on the revealed name of Jehovah, Whose honour is at the head of all, and Whose dishonour was more deadly and detestable than any other sin. It must and ought Lo be so, if He, the living God chose Israel to be His people, and Israel gladly owned Jehovah as their God, the one true God. And beautiful it is to note how He deigns to guide them in all the details of life, civil as well as religious, as their moral Governor: for so it really was.
Israel was in obvious contrast with the long abnormal time which stretched from man driven out of paradise till the deluge was sent on the race left to its self, and his so-called free-will ended in corruption and violence, greatly aggravated by the fallen angels, as Gen 6 tells us, interpreted (if we needed it) by 2 Peter and Jude. It was now in Israel, apart from all nations, brought out of Egypt, led through the wilderness, and established in Canaan under a divine government which comprehended all the people in their relation with Jehovah and with one another, and strangers too, with the utmost minuteness. Love would delight in it as showing His deep interest in them; self-knowledge would gratefully own His wisdom and their need. Insubjection to Him could only if distinct and unjudged bring death, as obedience was met by His manifested blessings.
Yet we must never forget that it necessarily and wholly differs from Christianity, which sprang from the sovereign grace of God in honour of His Son, after the Jew scornfully and with hatred refused Him – the end of their wicked history as a responsible people. So Isaiah had prophesied, disclosing first their captivity in Babylon for their idolatry (Isa. 40 – 48); next, the irretrievable ruin as far as they were concerned by the rejection of their Messiah (Isa. 49 – 57). But his last chaps. (Isa. 48 – 56) prove no less certainly, that divine mercy will restore them to unfailing better blessing for the elect remnant, who will become His strong and honoured and holy people, when the Lord appears in power and glory for His world-kingdom (Rev 11:15 ).
Christianity, and the church of which Christ is the glorified head, come in after His cross and ascension, and before He comes to receive the saints destined for the heavenly places. Christ as revealed in the written word is their rule of life, and the Holy Spirit sent forth is their power, in faith working by love, on the ground of Christ’s redemption and their deliverance by His death and resurrection. Hence, while taught to appreciate the faith and walk, the service and the worship of saints from Abel all through the O.T., there is in Christ a quite new standard of walk and worship. Also we are called to suffer for righteousness and Christ’s name, to love our enemies and to lay down our lives for the brethren, as no Jew was. Hence the N.T., which not only confirms the Old but reveals God’s secrets, that were not then revealed to the fathers or their children, as they are now by the Spirit to the glory of the Father and the Son.
It could not but be that these wondrous counsels of God, when the cross of Christ and His exaltation furnished the fit moment for making them known to His children, introduced wholly new ways both in the individual Christian and in the church as a whole. Alas! as they were the last to be revealed, they were the first to evaporate when the apostles departed to be with Christ. The Fathers so styled, the sub-apostolic Fathers, as far as we have their remains, are the clearest proof of the then fall from the grace and truth which came through our Lord Jesus. The heavenly things are thereby eclipsed. The very righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel is ignored, clouded, or debased. What could be expected of their knowledge in the mystery of Christ and of the church? of its standing, or of its hope?
It thus appears that time is a vast parenthesis between eternity before it and eternity to follow, in which the earth and Israel with the other nations fill the scene as in the O.T. Within that parenthesis comes another, turning on Christ’s rejection and exaltation on high, and the revelation of the great mystery concerning Christ, and concerning the church united to Him by the Spirit already, but awaiting His coming for heavenly glory and their reign with Him over the earth. Restored Israel will be blessed, at the head of all the nations here below, under the new covenant and the Messiah till eternity begins.
It is the new age which has had no recognition from the accredited guides of Christendom, who fall into the error that Israel had lost its place for ever that the Gentile might go on conquering and to conquer till the whole world was brought under the rule of Christ by the gospel and the church. But this was a total misconception on God’s revealed mind. The apostle Paul had formally warned against the notion in Rom. xi. Not only is it there laid down that the tenure of the Gentile rests on a responsibility similar to that of Israel, and contingent on abiding in goodness, but it is declared categorically that on its failure the Gentile is to be cut off as the Jew had been before. And prophecy is cited to prove that, when the fulness of the nations is come, Israel shall be saved as a whole. “According as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Zion; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins.” Hence the apostle explains, As regards the gospel, they are enemies on account of us Gentiles who now believe; but as regards election, beloved on account of the patriarchal fathers; and this on an indisputable ground: “for the gifts and calling of God are not subject to a change of mind.” For as ye [Gentiles] once disobeyed God, but now were shown mercy through their disobedience, so these also [Israel] disobeyed your mercy, in order that they too may be shown mercy For God shut together the whole of them into disobedience, that he might show mercy to the whole.
This wondrous display of mercy to God’s glory (to say nothing of the portion of the glorified in heaven) is necessary to fulfil the prophets, and establish His kingdom universally here below for a new age, after the present evil age is closed by divine judgments, and before eternity begins. Where it is not believed, there must be a gap left, which is in vain covered up by forcing the scriptures into a reluctant squeeze, some into this age, and others into the eternal scene.
CHAPTER 8.
ISRAEL’S HOLINESS.
Lev 19:19-37 .
It is remarkable that here they are called to observe Jehovah’s statutes, when three prohibitions are laid on Israel of a seemingly minor importance, not moral like that which follows.
“19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed; nor shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together. 20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that [is] a bondmaid betrothed to a husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her: there shall be punishment; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 21 And he shall bring his guilt-offering unto Jehovah to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt-offering. 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt-offering before Jehovah for his sin which he hath sinned, and he shall be forgiven for his sin which he hath sinned. 23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as their uncircumcision: three years shall they be as uncircumcised to you; it shall not be eaten. 24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy for giving praise unto Jehovah. 25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield to you the increase thereof: I [am] Jehovah your God.
26 Ye shall not eat [anything] with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantments, nor practise augury. 27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, nor shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I [am] Jehovah. 29 Profane not thy daughter to make her a harlot; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of enormity. 30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] Jehovah. 31 Turn ye not to those that have familiar spirits, nor to the wizards; seek them not to be defiled by them: I [am] Jehovah, your God. 32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and thou shalt fear thy God: I [am] Jehovah. 33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be to you as the homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I [am] Jehovah your God. 35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measure. 36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I [am] Jehovah your God that brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And ye shall observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I [am] Jehovah” (vers. 19-37).
Peremptorily, but in wisdom, was divine order impressed, and mixture of different kinds forbidden. He is a faithful Creator, and gave to each creature its species. Hence as it was sin to separate what He joined, it was not lees to join what He separated. Their cattle must gender according to the respective kind; their field must not be sown with different kinds of seed; nor was a garment woven of two materials to come on the Israelite. To the Christian the words are full of importance. It was Satan that sowed darner with the wheat; and the Spirit warns against every incongruous communion (2Co 6 ). There must be no diverse yoking with unbelievers, no touching what is unclean, no compromise of truth by mixed principles. In matters of this life compromise is amiable and right; but where God’s will is in question, it is a ruse of the devil.
The case that is next provided for (vers. 20-22) supposes the imperfect state which the law contemplates; for if she had been free, death was the penalty. But being a bondwoman and espoused, she was scourged, and he brought a guilt or trespass-offering; by which ram the priest made atonement, and the sin was forgiven. Jew or Greek, bond or free, is all gone now: Christ abides for faith.
Again, it was the day of earthly things; but Jehovah would have His people bear in mind the ruin of the earth through man’s sin. A full time must pees during which the fruit of their planted trees lay “as uncircumcised unto them”; the fourth year “all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise Jehovah”; after which they are free to eat, “that it may increase to you its produce.” It is the right principle of the first-fruits for Jehovah (vers. 23-25). God’s rights have the first place.
Then not only is the eating of anything with the blood forbidden, but enchantments and auguries, and heathenish ways in trimming of heads and beards, cutting of the flesh and tattooing, as opposed to Jehovah. So too the devoting of a daughter to whoredom, as not immoral only but “profane.” So as His sabbaths were to be kept, and His sanctuary reverenced, they were to shun necromancers and soothsayers as polluting (vers. 26-31). The same authority of Jehovah, which proscribed those heathen enormities, calls for honour to the hoary head and the face of the old man, coupling them with the fear of “thy God” (32). And what strikingly cuts off by anticipation the narrow and base pride of the Talmud, “a stranger” that might sojourn in their land was. not only to be allowed there unmolested, but to be loved as one born among them. “Thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I [am] Jehovah your God” (33, 34). How touching to remember their oppression in Egypt, not for resentment but for compassion!
Lastly, strict equity is enjoined in all dealings of trade and commerce. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measure of length, in weight, and in measure of capacity: just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin shall ye have: I [am] Jehovah your God, that brought you out of the land of Egypt” (36). It is a great aggravation, because it is not transient but deliberate wrong, when the scales and weights are unfair, when solids and liquids have a falsified criterion. “Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes and all my judgments, and do them: I [am] Jehovah” (37). The least things of daily life fall under His eye.
One of the prevalent errors in Christendom is to confound the divine aim of Israel’s calling with that that is by the gospel and in His church. The one was His kingdom regulated by the law, which failed utterly through the disobedience and at length apostasy of that people. But now in Christ rejected and glorified above the centre is transferred from earth to heaven, man as he is is treated as lost, and if any one be in Christ, as all saints now are, it is a new creation: the old things are passed; behold; new things are come in; and all things are of the God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
It is not therefore an effort to achieve the moral improvement of mankind, nor the hope still less of incorporating all the nations in one body, a contradiction of both letter and spirit, but all to Christ as head over all things to the church which is His body, already united to Him by the Holy Spirit, and about to join Him on high at His coming for an administration of the fulness of the times, when all things shall be summed, or headed, up in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in whom we were allotted our portion, for we are not the mere inheritance, but heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. The church is to share His heavenly and earthly glories.
Israel on earth under Messiah and the new covenant will manifest the law written on their heart. No longer under the law and the yet deeper guilt of rejecting Messiah to their own long rejection, they will be the theatre here below, as His blessed earthly nation, of manifesting to all families the happiness of a people that is in such a case, the happy people whose God is Jehovah; and thus the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.
But our calling is to be delivered from the present evil age, and to be blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, while sharing His reproach and shame on earth, and waiting for Him to come and receive us to Himself in the Father’s house.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
spake. See note on Lev 5:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 19
Now God continues in this same vein, as He moves into chapter nineteen.
Speak unto all of the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. You shall reverence every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: for I am the Lord your God. [Notice the repetition over and over, “I am the Lord your God, you’re not to have idols, and molten gods and so forth, I am the Lord your God.”] And if you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it of your own will. [Again man’s free will in all of his service and worship to God.] Eat what you can for two days, if you can’t eat it all in two days, burn it. If you eat it the third day, then it’s no longer accepted, it becomes an abomination of that which was offered in sacrifice of the peace offerings to God. When you reap your harvest, don’t gather the corners of the fields, and don’t gather everything. [Leave something there for the poor of the land] ( Lev 19:2-9 ).
So the welfare program was a beautiful program in that they weren’t, they were to go through and pick the grapes that were ripe, but leave everything that wasn’t ripe. But they couldn’t go through and pick the second time. Whatever was left was left for the poor in the land. They could come in once your harvesters had gone through. You weren’t to glean your own land, let it be there for the poor, don’t even harvest the corners of your fields, leave that to the poor. Thus the poor could go out and gather in the fields anytime the harvesters had gone through. It was there; it was available for them. So it wasn’t just a doled out program. You didn’t just go down and get food stamps, but you actually went out and gathered your own. So you were busy doing something, rather than just sitting and watching TV and polluting your mind.
Now the Lord goes on to give further instructions, verse ten,
Thou shalt not glean the vineyard, neither gather every grape; leave them for the poor and the stranger. Ye shall not steal, you’re not to deal falsely, don’t lie. Ye shall not swear by God’s name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: for I am Jehovah. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: but the wages that is hired [Actually you paid wages daily] thou shalt not keep them overnight. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, [Now these are some of the things that I found sort of amusing, you’re not to curse the deaf] or trip the blind ( Lev 19:10-14 ),
Man, what a dirty dog cursing the deaf man, or laying a stumbling block before a blind man. But you know, I’m amazed at how cruel people really are. I’m amazed how cruel children are to a handicapped child. What is that about our nature, that children are so cruel to a handicapped child.
Now in the animal realm, quite often a handicapped animal will be killed by another animal. But unfortunately sometimes men aren’t far from that. Taking advantage of the disadvantaged. How often we see it done, yet there’s nothing more cruel in the world taking advantage of a disadvantaged person. There’s nothing more dangerous in all the world, because God said He sticks up for the disadvantaged. God said He watches over the widow. Man, when you’re doing it to one that God is watching over, you’re in big trouble. But you see, man apart from Jesus Christ isn’t far from the animal. For an animal has body and consciousness. Man apart from Jesus Christ has body and consciousness, therefore he relates well to the animal kingdom; therefore, he is cruel to the handicapped or the disadvantaged.
But a man who has been born again by the Spirit of God and now has a spiritual birth, not just born of the flesh, but now born of the Spirit, and with this spiritual birth now is related to God, and related to Jesus Christ, you really can’t do these things. If you find yourself doing these things persistently and continually, then I will tell you, you don’t have a true relationship with Jesus Christ. For whosoever is born of God does not practice sin for God’s seed is in him now, a new seed, a new life. Born again by the seed of God, by the Spirit of God, and he cannot be living in sin. You say, “Oh I don’t know about that, Chuck.” Hey, I’m not telling you my words, that’s God’s word. You can read it for yourself in first John.
Now in judgment they’re not to respect the persons of poor, or to honor the person of the mighty: but they shall be righteous in the judging of their neighbour. You’re not to go around bearing tales, as a tale bearer ( Lev 19:15-16 ).
“Do you know what he did? Let me tell ya”, whisper and people believe you.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart ( Lev 19:17 ):
You see, what the Jews forgot was that the law was dealing with the spirit and the heart of man. They started to just observe it from an outward thing, and Jesus when He came and pointed out where they missed the law completely in interpreting it as governing outward activities, when the law is spiritual, and God is concerned with the attitude. Here the law says, “you’re not to hate your brother in your heart”. They just took the law, “thou shalt not kill”, you can hate him all you want, just don’t kill him. It’s only when you killed him that you violated the law. But Jesus brought out again, “Hey if you hate your brother, you violated.”
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ( Lev 19:18 ),
Now when Jesus asked the lawyer, “Which is the greatest commandment?” He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.” That’s what Jesus answered the lawyer. He said, “In this is all the law and the commandments.” So this is the second greatest commandment. Jesus said, “The second is like unto the first.” The first is loving God. But the second, and Jesus is quoting then from this one, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
for I am the Lord. Now you’re not to inner breed animals, you’re not to sow your fields with mingled seed, nor are you to have mingled materials in your garments, such as wool and linen mingled together. When they come into the land they are to plant the trees but for the first three years, they’re not to eat the fruit of it. In the fourth year the fruit belongs to God, in the fifth year it becomes theirs, and thus will they be blessed, and can reap the harvest after the fifth year. They’re not to make any markings upon their bodies. [The forbidding of tattoos, and so forth.] The forbidding of haircuts that corner of your head, or making baldness, [This is what, well, the Hari Krishna’s good example.] Ye shall not eat anything with blood, neither shall you use enchantment, nor observe times. [You’re not to be following horoscopes.] Not to make any cutting in your flesh for the dead, nor marks upon you: for I am the Lord. Keep my sabbaths, [verse thirty] reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek the wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, [In other words when the old man, gray-haired man comes in you’re supposed to stand up.] and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: for I am the Lord. [So the respect for the elderly is taught.] Also the respect for a stranger, treat him as one that is born in your land. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, [which are measurements] shall ye have: for I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt ( Lev 19:19-37 ).
So the fairness in their dealings. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The more positive habits of separation are insisted on by the repetition of laws already given, with one reiterated emphasis, namely, the fact that the God of this people is Jehovah. There was, first, a general call to holiness based upon the essential reason, ‘Ye shall be holy; for I Jehovah your God am holy.” This is the profoundest reason that can possibly be assigned. The holiness of Jehovah must be exemplified in His people. Every departure from the pathway of holiness is a profaning of the name of God, and in the case of a people thus called to realize and manifest the glory of His Kingship such departure is the most disastrous sin.
It is because of this that we find the almost monotonous repetition throughout this chapter of the solemn declaration, “I am Jehovah.” No less than fourteen times does it occur. A people created and governed by God are intended to represent Him and the truth concerning Him to other people. When they fail to do so, His name is blasphemed by that failure. Therefore, in the midst of all the activities of life there must be the perpetual remembrance of whose they are and whom they serve. It will be remembered that in this very connection in his letter to the Romans, when the apostle was dealing with the specific nature of the sin of Israel, he summed everything up by saying, “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Rom 2:24).
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Lev 19:17
The duty of brotherly admonition or reproof.
I. Consider what the duty is. St. Paul uttered a great truth when he said, “We are members one of another.” If we be members one of another, there must be relative duties which could not exist were these mutual relationships wholly destroyed. We may not act with a view to ourselves alone. If there be an obligation upon us, from the very fact of our creation, to have reference in all we do to the benefit of our brethren, we cannot shift off from ourselves the duty of brotherly admonition or reproof. If we see a brother or neighbour pursuing a course which is likely to provoke God’s wrath and must issue in ruin, then we are altogether and grievously at fault if we “suffer sin upon him” and do not strive to bring him to repentance and amendment.
II. There are certain rules and motives to be noticed as regulating the careful performance of the duty which the text lays down. (1) He who takes upon himself the duty of reproving another is required to proceed with much delicacy and caution. It by no means holds good that wherever a man sees vice, he is bound to rebuke it. We do not want a headlong and quixotic chivalry, fancying itself commissioned to break a lance with all whom it may meet on the highways of the land. (2) Since the end of reproof is mainly the well-being of the party reproved, there is to be a careful avoidance of that indiscriminate and unqualified censure which is calculated to disgust, and we should show by the tenderness of our dealing that, though we dare excuse nothing, we know how to distinguish between an involuntary betrayal and an unblushing rebellion. (3) The reproof should be given privately rather than publicly. (4) If we hope that our admonition will carry any weight, we must take heed that we are not ourselves chargeable with the fault that we reprove in others.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1970.
References: Lev 19:18.-T. Oswald Dykes, The Law of the Ten Words, p. 207. Lev 19:30.-New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 238; Sermons for Boys and Girls, 1880, p. 213. Lev 19:36.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 250; R. W. Dale, Sunday Magazine, 1866, p. 89; Parker, vol. iii., p. 135.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
2. Different Duties
CHAPTER 19
1. Honoring parents and fearing God (Lev 19:1-8)
2. The care of the poor (Lev 19:9-10)
3. Against stealing and lying (Lev 19:11-12)
4. Against oppression (Lev 19:13-14)
5. Against unrighteousness in judgment (Lev 19:15-16)
6. Thou shalt love thy neighbor (Lev 19:17-18)
7. Different commands and prohibitions (Lev 19:19-37)
Many of these duties enjoined upon a people called to holiness, the different commands and prohibitions, are of much interest. It is true, believers are not under the law. This, however, does not mean that we should refrain from reading and studying these commands. Jehovah changes not. May we remember that our call, like Israels, is unto practical holiness in life. Our responsibilities are even greater. Many lessons are here for us which will greatly help us in our walk as His people. The provision made for the poor (verses 9-10 compare with Rth 2:14-16) manifests the loving care of Jehovah. God has special regard for the poor and strangers. His blessed Son became poor and was indeed a stranger in the world He created. His people had no heart for Him and He was hungry, while His disciples had to take ears of corn from the field to satisfy their hunger. The Lord Himself was the owner of Israels land (Lev 25:23), and as owner He charged His servants to be unselfish in the use of the bountiful provision He was making for their temporal need.
Note the precept concerning the laborer. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning (verse 13). This again reveals the gracious care of the Lord. How little such care and consideration for the poor and the servant is found in our day! If these simple instructions were followed the discontent of the poor and the unrest of the laborers would not be as prominent as they are now. Israel failed in this. They cheated the poor and hired servants (Amo 8:5-6). What is to be in the last days of the present age we find in Jam 5:4 : Behold the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them that have reaped have entered into the ears of the lord of Sabaoth. The divine plea for the poor and the laborer is utterly disregarded in the last days, and Jehovah has to take up their case.
The deaf and the blind are also mentioned. The defenceless and helpless with the poor and the hired servant are the objects of His special care.
In verse 19 the raising of hybrid animals is forbidden. Anything mingled God despises. His people are to avoid this, even in the smallest things.
Heathen superstitions, such as using enchantments and observing times are forbidden by Jehovah. These are unworthy of a redeemed people linked with Jehovah. All superstitions, such as dreading certain days and numbers (Friday or 13), and other foolish observances, alas! found so much amidst professing Christians are heathenish and dishonor God, who alone knows and controls the welfare and future of His people. All cuttings in your flesh for the dead were also prohibited. Thus the pagans did who have no hope. Such sorrow, expressed in fearful lamentations and frenzied outbreaks, were unworthy of Israel, as they are more so for Christian believers (1Th 4:13). Those who have familiar spirits (mediums) and wizards were not to be consulted.
But it is truly most extraordinary that in Christian lands, as especially in the United States of America, and that in the full light, religious and intellectual, of the twentieth century, such a prohibition should be fully as pertinent as in Israel! For no words could more precisely describe the pretensions of the so-called modern spiritualism, which within the last half century has led away hundreds of thousands of deluded souls, and those, in many cases, not from the ignorant and degraded, but from circles which boast of more than average culture and intellectual enlightenment. And inasmuch as experience sadly shows that even those who profess to be disciples of Christ are in danger of being led away by our modern wizards and traffickers with familiar spirits, it is by no means unnecessary to observe that there is not the slightest reason to believe that this which was rigidly, forbidden by God in the fifteenth century B.C., can now be well-pleasing to Him in the nineteenth century A.D. And those who have most carefully watched the moral developments of this latter-day delusion, will most appreciate the added phrase which speaks of this as defiling a man. (S.H. Kellogg)
It will be wise to meditate carefully on all these commands and prohibitions. They reveal the tenderness, the wisdom and the holiness of God.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
The leading precepts of the law are here repeated to give them new force, and with many additions and illustrations, that they might be better understood. Most of these having already been explained, the reader may refer to the places by the marginal references of the bible.
Lev 19:9. Not wholly reap. No nation is well governed that is unmindful of the poor. Allowing them some indulgencies, and the means of providing a little store for winter is a great industry; and is at the same time a pledge to the public of their honesty. For who would steal, when detection would deprive him of privileges which make life happy? It is the grossest of civil policy to keep the poor in a state of ignorance and hopeless depression.
Lev 19:10. Thou shalt not glean thy vineyard. In great farms we have some remains of this custom; but in general we take the commons and the gardens from the cottages; and with these the fuel is prohibited. In cities we build for them splendid prisons, which shorten their lives by a broken heart. We pity the slaves abroad more than the wretched at home. This precept so often repeated by Moses marks its importance, and the need there is to enforce it on the attention of the rich.
Lev 19:16. A tale-bearer. One who travels as a pedlar, carrying news, telling lies, and thereby promoting family quarrels and bloodshed.
Lev 19:17. We are next cautioned against hating our brother, when he has sinned against us. Instead of forming any plot or plan of revenge against him, we must go and admonish him privately. By so doing we have gained his approbation, he will generously reform his fault, and love us the better afterwards. Jesus Christ has improved this precept, and given it new lustre and force. Mat 18:15.
Lev 19:19. Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed, for they will not ripen at the same time, and the taller will shade the lower. But the moral is, thou shalt not mix with gentile nations, who sowed dry grapes with their wheat, from a Sabian superstition, that otherwise they should have bad crops. Garments of linen and woollen are prohibited for the same reasons.
Lev 19:26. Charms and enchantments, astrological calculations of fate, and superstitious observances of times, so much indulged among the heathen, are not to be named among the Lords people. A belief in Gods holy providence is defence sufficient for a good man.
Lev 19:28. Ye shall not make any cuttings. See on 1Ki 18:28.
Lev 19:29. Do not prostitute thy daughter. The heathens are said, by several authors, to have prostituted their daughters in honour of their gods, and from vows made before a battle. In Israel, not a single crime of this nature could be allowed. All intercourse between the sexes, out of marriage covenant, must be punished. The father is here made responsible for the morals of his daughter; consequently the magistrate is accountable for his city, or district; and the government for the morals of the whole nation. The minister of religion especially, who holds his peace at vice, becomes a partaker of the public guilt; and as the watchman of his flock, he is liable to share in the punishment. The divine Being has here condescended to assign a reason for the prohibition; it was lest the land should become full of wickedness. Violations of the marriage compact, the first and best of bonds, once receiving the connivance of the public eye, are as the neglect of a bank when the water first begins to overflow; presently it opens a wide channel, which the efforts of man are unable to obstruct.
Lev 19:31. Familiar spirits. The root ob, and obah, the belly. This word is of frequent occurrence, as in Lev 20:27. Deu 18:11. 1Sa 28:7-8. It is so called because those haruspices affected to swell their bellies, and somewhat like our modern ventriloquists, to give answers from the gods, proceeding as from the bottom of their bellies. Thus in Isa 29:4. Thou shalt be brought downthy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. So in Job 32:19. Elihu said, Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles. Plutarch calls it , because the words used to proceed from the belly. To this day the negroes, as well in the West Indies as in Africa, preserve the detestable practice of oby. See Exo 22:18.
The remaining precepts are to honour the hoary head, where wisdom and virtue have distinguished a long life; to avoid pagan oracles, wizards, and all fortunetelling, as open acts by which men, leaving the throne of grace, apply immediately to the devil.To strangers the Israelites were enjoined to be courteous, for the heathen were often cruel; and especially as strangers sought an asylum in their country for the sake of religion, that they might repose their trust under the wings of JEHOVAH, and claim the blessings of his covenant unto all generations.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Leviticus 18 – 20
This section sets before us, in a very remarkable manner, the personal sanctity and moral propriety which Jehovah looked for, on the part of those whom He had graciously introduced into relationship with Himself and, at the same time, it presents a most humiliating picture of the enormities of which human nature is capable.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, l am the Lord your God.” Here we have the foundation of the entire superstructure of moral conduct which these chapters present. Israel’s actings were to take their character from the fact that Jehovah was their God. They were called to comport themselves in a manner worthy of so high and holy a position. It was God’s prerogative to set forth the special character and line of conduct becoming a people with whom He was pleased to associate His name. Hence the frequency of the expressions – “I am the Lord.” “I Am the Lord your God.” “I the Lord your God am holy.” Jehovah was their God, and He was holy; hence, therefore, they were called to be holy likewise. His name was invoked in their character and acting.
This is the true principle of holiness for the people of God in all ages. They are to be governed and characterised by the revelation which He has made of Himself. Their conduct is to be founded upon what He is, not upon what they are in themselves. This entirely sets aside the principle expressed in the words, “Stand by thyself, I am holier than thou;” a principle so justly repudiated by every sensitive mind. It is not a comparison of one man with another; but a simple statement of the line of conduct which God looks for in those who belong to Him. “after the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.” The Egyptians and the Canaanites were all wrong. How was Israel to know this? Who told them? How came they to be right, and all besides wrong? These are interesting inquiries; and the answer is as simple as the questions are interesting. Jehovah’s word was the standard by which all questions of right and wrong were to be definitely settled in the judgement of every member of the Israel of God. It was not, by any means, the judgement of an Israelite in opposition to the judgement of an Egyptian or of a Canaanite; but it was the judgement of God above all. Egypt might have her practices and her opinions, and so might Canaan; but Israel were to have the opinions and practices laid down in the word of God. “Ye shall do my judgements, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgements; which, if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.”
It will be well for my reader to get a clear, deep, full, practical sense of this truth. The word of God must settle every question and govern every conscience. There must be no appeal from its solemn and weighty decision. When God speaks, every heart must bow. Men may form and hold their opinions; they may adopt and defend their practices; but one of the finest traits in the character of “the Israel of God” is profound reverence for, and implicit subjection to, “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.” The exhibition of this valuable feature may, perhaps, lay them open to the charge of dogmatism, superciliousness, and self-sufficiency, on the part of those who have never duly weighed the matter; but, in truth, nothing can be more unlike dogmatism than simple subjection to the plain truth of God; nothing more unlike superciliousness than reverence for the statements of inspiration; nothing more unlike self-sufficiency than subjection to the divine authority of holy scripture.
True, there will ever be the need of carefulness as to the tone and manner in which we set forth the authority for our convictions and our conduct. It must be made manifest, so far as it may be, that we are wholly governed, not by our own opinions, but by the word of God. There is great danger of attaching an importance to an opinion merely because we have adopted it. This must be carefully guarded against. Self may creep in and display its deformity in the defence of our opinions as much as in anything else; but we must disallow it, in every shape and form, and be governed, in all things, by “Thus saith the Lord.”
But, then, we are not to expect that everyone will be ready to admit the full force of the divine statutes and judgements. It is as persons walk in the integrity and energy of the divine nature that the word of God will be owned, appreciated, and reverenced. An Egyptian or a Canaanite would have been wholly unable to enter into the meaning or estimate the value of these statutes and judgements, which were to govern the conduct of the circumcised people of God; but that did not, in any wise, affect the question of Israel’s obedience. They were brought into a certain relationship with Jehovah, and that relationship had its distinctive privileges and responsibilities. “I am the Lord your God.” This was to be the ground of their conduct. They were to act in a way worthy of the One who had become their God, and made them His people. It was not that they were a whit better than other people. By no means. The Egyptians or Canaanites might have considered that the Israelites were setting themselves up as something superior in refusing to adopt the habits of either nation. But, no; the foundation of their peculiar line of conduct and tone of morality was laid in these words, “I am the Lord your God.”
In this great and practically-important fact, Jehovah set before His people a ground of conduct which was immovable, and a standard of morality which was as elevated, and as enduring, as the eternal throne itself. The moment He entered into a relationship with a people, their ethics were to assume a character and tone worthy of Him. It was no longer a question as to what they were, either in themselves or in comparison with others; but of what God was in comparison with all. This makes a material difference. To make self the ground of action or the standard of ethics is not only presumptuous folly, but it is sure to set one upon a descending scale of action. If self be my object, I must, of necessity, sink lower and lower every day; but if, on the other hand, I set the Lord before me, I shall rise higher and higher as, by the power of the Holy Ghost, I grow in conformity to that perfect model which is unfolded to the gaze of faith in the sacred pages of inspiration. I shall, undoubtedly, have to prostrate myself in the dust, under a sense of how infinitely short I come of the mark set before me; but, then, I can never consent to the setting up of a lower standard, nor can I ever be satisfied until I am conformed in all things to Him who was my substitute on the cross, and is my Model in the glory.
Having said thus much on the main principle of the section before us – a principle of unspeakable importance to Christians, in a practical point of view – I feel it needless to enter into anything like a detailed exposition of statutes which speak for themselves in most obvious terms. I would merely remark that those statutes range themselves under two distinct heads, namely, first, those which set forth the shameful enormities which the human heart is capable of devising; and, secondly, those which exhibit the exquisite tenderness and considerate care of the God of Israel.
As to the first, it is manifest that the Spirit of God could never enact laws for the purpose of preventing evils that have no existence. He does not construct a dam where there is no flood to be resisted. He does not deal with abstract ideas, but with positive realities. Man is, in very deed, capable of perpetrating each and every one of the shameful crimes referred to in this most faithful section of the book of Leviticus. If he were not, Why should he be told not to do so. Such a code would be wholly unsuitable for angels, inasmuch as they are incapable of committing the sins referred to; but it suits man, because he has gotten the seeds of those sins in his nature. This is deeply humbling. It is a fresh declaration of the truth that man is a total wreck. From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, there is not so much as a single speck of moral soundness, as looked at in the light of the divine presence. The being for whom Jehovah thought it needful to write Leviticus 18 – 20 must be a vile sinner; but that being is man – the writer and reader of these lines. How plain it is, therefore, that “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom. 8) Thank God, the believer is “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” He has been taken completely out of his old creation standing, and introduced into the new creation, in which the moral evils aimed at in this our section can have no existence. True, he has gotten the old nature; but it is his happy privilege to “reckon” it as a dead thing, and to walk in the abiding power of the new creation, wherein “all things are of God.” This is Christian liberty – even liberty to walk up and down in that fair creation where no trace of evil can ever be found; hallowed liberty to walk in holiness and purity before God and man; liberty to tread those lofty walks of personal sanctity whereon the beams of the divine countenance ever pour themselves in living lustre. Reader, this is Christian liberty. It is liberty, not to commit sin, but to taste the celestial sweets of a life of true holiness and moral elevation. May we prize more highly than we have ever done this precious boon of heaven – Christian liberty!
And, now, one word as to the second class of statutes contained in our section – namely, those which so touchingly bring out divine tenderness and care. Take the following: “and when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19: 9, 10) This ordinance will meet us again in Lev. 23, but there we shall see it in its dispensational bearing. Here, we contemplate it morally, as unfolding the precious grace of Israel’s God. He would think of “the poor and stranger;” and He would have His people think of them likewise. When the golden sheaves were being reaped, and the mellow clusters gathered, “the poor and stranger” were to be remembered by the Israel of God, because Jehovah was the God of Israel. The reaper and the grape-gatherer were not to be governed by a spirit of grasping covetousness, which would bare the corners of the field and strip the branches of the vine, but rather by a spirit of large-hearted, genuine benevolence, which would leave a sheaf and a cluster “for the poor and stranger,” that they, too, might rejoice in the unbounded goodness of Him whose paths drop fatness, and on whose open hand all the sons of want may confidently wait.
The Book of Ruth furnishes a fine example of one who fully acted out this most benevolent statute. “And Boaz said unto her, (Ruth,) At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed and left. And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: and let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.” (Ruth 2: 14-16) Most touching and beautiful grace! Truly, it is good for our poor selfish hearts to be brought in contact with such principles and such practices. Nothing can surpass the exquisite refinement of the words, “let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her.” It was, evidently, the desire of this noble Israelite that “the stranger” might have abundance, and have it, too, rather as the fruit of her own gleaning than of his benevolence. This was the very essence of refinement. It was putting her in immediate connection with, and dependence upon, the God of Israel, who had fully recognised and provided for “the gleaner.” Boaz was merely acting out that gracious ordinance of which Ruth was reaping the benefit. The same grace that had given him the field gave her the gleanings. They were both debtors to grace. She was the happy recipient of Jehovah’s goodness. He was the honoured exponent of Jehovah’s most gracious institution. All was in most lovely moral order. The creature was blessed and God was glorified. Who would not own that it is good for us to ‘be allowed to breathe such an atmosphere?
Let us now turn to another statute of our section. “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob Him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.” (Lev. 19: 13) What tender care is here! The High and Mighty One that inhabiteth eternity can take knowledge of the thoughts and feelings that spring up in the heart of a poor labourer. He knows and takes into account the expectations of such an one in reference to the fruit of his day’s toil. The wages will, naturally, be looked for. The labourer’s heart counts upon them; the family meal depends upon them. Oh! let them not be held back. Send not the labourer home with a heavy heart, to make the heart of his wife and family heavy likewise. By all means, give him that for which He has wrought, to which he has a right, and on which his heart is set. He is a husband, he is a father; and he has borne the burden and heat of the day that his wife and children may not go hungry to bed. Disappoint him not. Give him his due. Thus does our God take notice of the very throbbings of the labourer’s heart, And make provision for his rising expectations. Precious grace! Most tender, thoughtful, touching, condescending love! The bare contemplation of such statutes is sufficient to throw one into a flood of tenderness. Could any one read such passages and not be melted? Could any one read them and thoughtlessly dismiss a poor labourer, not knowing whether he and his family have wherewithal to meet the cravings of hunger?
Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly consideration for the poor, so often manifested by the rich. These latter can sit down to their sumptuous repast after dismissing from their door some poor industrious creature who had come seeking the just reward of his honest labour. They think not of the aching heart with which that man returns to his family, to tell them of the disappointment to himself and to them. Oh! it is terrible. It is most offensive to God, and to all who have drunk, in any measure, into His grace. If we would know what God thinks of such acting, we have only to hearken to the following accents of holy indignation: “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them that have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (James 5: 4) “The Lord of Sabaoth” hears the cry of the aggrieved and disappointed labourer. His tender love tells itself forth in the institutions of His moral government; and even though the heart should not be melted by the grace of those institutions, the conduct should, at least, be governed by the righteousness thereof. God will not suffer the claims of the poor to be heartlessly tossed aside by those who are so hardened by the influence of wealth as to be insensible to the appeals of tenderness, and who are so far removed beyond the region of personal need as to be incapable of feeling for those whose lot it is to spend their days amid exhausting toil or pinching poverty. The poor are the special objects of God’s care. Again and again He makes provision for them in the statutes of His moral administration; and it is particularly declared of Him who shall, ere long, assume, in manifested glory, the reins of government, that “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in his sight.” (Psalm 72: 12-14)
May we profit by the review of those precious and deeply practical truths! May our hearts be affected, and our conduct influenced by them. We live in a heartless world; and there is a vast amount of selfishness in our own hearts. We are not sufficiently affected by the thought of the need of others. We are apt to forget the poor in the midst of our abundance. We often forget that the very persons whose labour ministers to our personal comfort are living, it may be, in the deepest poverty. Let us think of these things. Let us beware of “grinding the faces of the poor.” If the Jews of old were taught by the statutes and ordinances of the Mosaic economy, to entertain kindly feelings toward the poor, and to deal tenderly and graciously with the sons of toil, how much more ought the higher and more spiritual ethics of the Gospel dispensation produce in the hearts and lives of Christians a large-hearted benevolence toward every form of human need.
True, there in urgent need of prudence and caution, lest we take a man out of the honourable position in which he was designed and fitted to move – namely, a position of dependence upon the fruits, the precious and fragrant fruits, of honest industry. This would be a grievous injury instead of a benefit. The example of Boaz should instruct in this matter. He allowed Ruth to glean; but he took care to make her gleaning profitable. This is a very safe and a very simple principle. God intends that man should work at something or another, and we run counter to Him when we draw our fellow out of the place of dependence upon the results of patient industry, into that of dependence upon the results of false benevolence. The former is as honourable and elevating as the latter is contemptible and demoralising. There is no bread so sweet to the taste as that which is nobly earned; but then those who earn their bread should get enough. A man will feed and care his horses; how much more his fellow, who yields him the labour of his hands from Monday morning till Saturday night.
But, some will say, “There are two sides to this question.” Unquestionably there are; and, no doubt, one meets with a great deal amongst the poor which is calculated to, dry up the springs of benevolence and genuine sympathy. There is much which tends to steel the heart, and close the hand; but, one thing is certain – it is better to be deceived in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred than to shut up the bowels of compassion against a single worthy object. Your heavenly Father causes His sun to shine upon the evil and on the good; and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust. The sure sunbeams that gladden the heart of some devoted servant of Christ are poured upon the path of some ungodly sinner; and the self-same shower that falls upon the tillage of a true believer, enriches also the furrows of some blaspheming infidel. This is to be our model. “Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5: 48) It is only as we set the Lord before us, and walk in the power of His grace, that we shall be able to go on, from day to day, meeting with a tender heart and an open hand every possible form of human misery. It is only as we ourselves are drinking at the exhaustless fountain of divine love and tenderness, that we shall be able to go on ministering to human need unchecked by the oft-repeated manifestation of human depravity. Our tiny springs would soon be dried up were they not maintained in unbroken connection with that ever-gushing source.
The statute which next presents itself for our consideration, exemplifies, most touchingly, the tender care of the God of Israel. “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.” (Ver. 14) Here, a barrier is erected to stem the rising tide of irritability with which uncontrolled nature would be almost sure to meet the personal infirmity of deafness. How well we can understand this! Nature does not like to be called upon to repeat its words, again and again, in order to meet the deaf man’s infirmity. Jehovah thought of this, and provided for it. And what is the provision? “Thou shalt fear thy God.” When tried by a deaf person, remember the Lord, and look to Him for Grace to enable you to govern your temper.
The second part of this statute reveals a most humiliating amount of wickedness in human nature. The idea of laying a stumbling-block in the way of the blind, is about the most wanton cruelty imaginable; and yet man is capable of it, else he world not be warned against it. No doubt, this, as well as many other statutes, admits of a spiritual application; but that in nowise interferes with the plain literal principle set forth in it. Man is capable of placing a stumbling block in the way of a fellow-creature afflicted with blindness. Such is man! Truly, the Lord knew what was in man when He wrote the statutes and judgements of the Book of Leviticus.
I shall leave my reader to meditate alone upon the remainder of our section. He will find that each statute teaches a double lesson – namely, a lesson with respect to nature’s evil tendencies, and also a lesson as to Jehovah’s tender care.*
{*Verses 16 and 17 demand special attention. “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.” This is a most seasonable admonition for the people of God, in every age. A talebearer is sure to do incalculable mischief. It has been well remarked that a talebearer injures three persons – he injures himself, he injures his hearer, and he injures the subject of his tale. this he does directly; and as to the indirect consequences, who can recount them? Let us carefully guard against this horrible evil. May we never suffer a tale to, pass our lips; and let us never stand to hearken to a talebearer. May we always know how to drive away a backbiting tongue with an angry countenance, as the north wind driveth away rain.
In verse 17, we learn what ought to take the place of tale bearing. “thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” In place of carrying to another a tale about my neighbour, I am called upon to go directly to himself and rebuke him, if there is anything wrong. This is the divine method. Satan’s method is to act the talebearer.}
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Lev 19:1-8. Holiness, Piety, Idolatry, Peace-offerings.Note the mention of the mother first. On the Sabbath, see pp. 101f., Exo 20:8*. Idols, lit. things of nought; only here and in Lev 26:1 in Pentateuch; common in 2 Isaiah (cf. 44:9ff.). Molten, specially prohibited also in Exo 34:17; not in Exo 20:4. On consumption of peace offerings, see Lev 7:15-18, which, however, only allows this latitude for a vow. Since peace offerings alone were consumed in part) by laymen, this restriction has its place in a manual of holiness for laymen.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
MANY LAWS GROUPED TOGETHER (vv. 1-37)
We have seen at the beginning and end of chapter 18 God’s announcement, I am the Lord your God. In chapter 19 the expression I am the Lord occurs 15 times. But here it is difficult to find any division of topics, for laws of every kind are found following one another. It has been suggested that in this case the reason is to stress that the law is one: there is a unity about it that is not to be ignored by those under law. Jam 2:10 strongly enforces this: For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
The chapter begins with God’s assertion, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy (v. 2). Holiness involves, not only acting rightly, but loving what is good and hating what is evil. Thus, Israel was to be totally and feelingly on God’s side. True regard for mother and father is linked with the keeping of the sabbath days, which was to express regard for God (v. 3).
Idolatry is therefore firmly forbidden (v. 4). This had been stated in the ten commandments, but is often repeated because God knew Israel’s tendency to disobedience. If a peace offering was offered, it was to be eaten the first two days, but after this any part left over was to be burned, not eaten (vv. 6-7). One who ignored this was to be put to death (v. 8).
Self discipline was also to be exercised in harvesting. They must not reap the corners of their fields, nor go back to glean what had been left in the first harvest. This was to be left for the poor or for strangers who had little means of support (vv. 9-10). Such a law tested whether they loved their neighbor and whether their faith was really in God.
Stealing, cheating, lying, swearing falsely in God’s name are common evils, but forbidden by law (vv. 11-12), and no less evil under grace, for again there is no faith nor love in any of these. The same is true in whatever kind of oppressive treatment one may practice on his neighbor, including deferring to pay the wages of an employee (v. 13). Consideration of the deaf and the blind is also required by law (v. 14), as is fairness and impartiality in judgment, favoring neither rich or poor (v. 15).
Talebearing or slandering is then mentioned followed by hidden hatred. Law does not only forbid bad actions, but also bad thoughts of the heart (vv. 16-17). If one’s brother had done evil, this was no reason to hate him: rather, even the law required that he should rebuke the offender, not in a harsh spirit, not condemning him nor bearing any grudge against him, but instead, you shall love your neighbor as yourself (v. 18).
Mixtures were also forbidden. Jews were not to allow their livestock to breed with other species. Mixed seed was not to be sown. Linen and wool were not to be mixed in any garment. This has typical significance such as is seen in 2Co 6:14-18, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
While adultery was punishable by death, yet a difference was made in the case of verse 20, and this fornication could be atoned for by a trespass offering (vv. 21-22).
When Israel came into the land of Canaan and planted trees, they were not to eat any of their fruit for the first three years. In the fourth year they were still not to eat the fruit, but sanctify it to the Lord, then in the fifth year they could eat it. These are not laws for Gentiles, nor for the present dispensation of grace, but they teach us that in everything, even in our eating, God should have the first place.
In verse 26 the prohibition against eating anything with blood is linked with that against divination or soothsaying, for the first speaks of God’s rights, the second that we are not to allow Satan any rights over us.
Verses 27-28 tell us that our bodies are not our own to do with them as we please, whether in shaving for show or making cuts in the flesh or being tattooed (Compare 1Co 6:19-20). All of these are only to satisfy a person’s pride.
Parents are warned against the horrible evil of prostituting their daughters (v. 29). This would not only be gross cruelty to the daughters, but would lead to wickedness filling the land. Again also the Lord insists on their keeping His sabbaths and reverencing His sanctuary, for the parent-daughter relationship will be rightly sustained only where there is a proper relationship with the Lord. This sacred relationship also calls for the total refusal of any relationship with mediums and familiar spirits (v. 31), who represent Satan, the arch-enemy of God.
The aged among the people were to be held in honor and respect. In eastern countries today people are more careful about this than in the west. Also, when a stranger came to reside in Israel he was to be treated with respect and courtesy, in fact, Israel was told to love him as yourself (v. 34). If this was true in Israel under law, how much more emphatic it should be for Christians who are under grace.
It is insisted that no injustice of any kind should be found amongst Israelites, whether in measurements, weights or volume. Their scales were to be honest, their weights and all measurements. These things are always right, whether in Israel or among Gentiles, as everyone’s conscience bears witness. The Christian is glad to conform to such instruction, not because it is law, but because he knows and loves the Lord. Thus it is added here, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. We have been brought by grace out of worse bondage than that of Egypt, and have greater reason to respond in love and obedience to the Lord.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
3. Holiness of behavior toward God and man ch. 19
Moses grouped the commandments in this section together by a loose association of ideas rather than by a strictly logical arrangement. They all spring from the central thought in Lev 19:2: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." This sentence is the motto of Leviticus (cf. Lev 11:44-45; Lev 20:26; Mat 5:48; 1Pe 1:16).
"Every biblical statement about God carries with it an implied demand upon men to imitate Him in daily living." [Note: Ronald E. Clements, "Leviticus," in The Broadman Bible Commentary, 2:51.]
"Leviticus 19 has been called the highest development of ethics in the Old Testament. [Note: J. West, Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 156.] This chapter perhaps better than any other in the Bible, explains what it meant for Israel to be a holy nation (Exo 19:6). The chapter stresses the interactive connection between responsibility to one’s fellow man and religious piety, the two dimensions of life that were never meant to be separated." [Note: Rooker, p. 250.]
"Developing the idea of holiness as order, not confusion, this list upholds rectitude and straight-dealing as holy, and contradiction and double-dealing as against holiness. Theft, lying, false witness, cheating in weights and measures, all kinds of dissembling such as speaking ill of the deaf (and presumably smiling to their face), hating your brother in your heart (while presumably speaking kindly to him), these are clearly contradictions between what seems and what is." [Note: Douglas, p. 531. This writer compared Israel’s ancient laws and modern tribal customs.]
"Holiness is thus not so much an abstract or mystic idea, as a regulative principle in the everyday lives of men and women. . . . Holiness is thus attained not by flight from the world, nor by monk-like renunciation of human relationships of family or station, but by the spirit in which we fulfill the obligations of life in its simplest and commonest details: in this way-by doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God-is everyday life transfigured." [Note: Hertz, p. 192.]
This chapter contains quotations from or allusions to all ten of the Ten Commandments. [Note: See the charts in Rooker, p. 252, and Ross, p. 355.] Its structure is chiastic. The first and last sections deal with a person’s relationship to God (Lev 19:3-8; Lev 19:32-36), and the second and fourth with one’s relationship to his fellowman (Lev 19:9-18; Lev 19:30-31). The central section deals with man’s relationship to himself (Lev 19:19-29). [Note: Jonathan Magonet, "The Structure and Meaning of Leviticus 19," Hebrew Annual Review 7 (1983):166.] The first half of the chapter contains positive (Lev 19:3-10) and negative (Lev 19:11-18) commands, and the second half reverses this order with negative (Lev 19:19-31) and positive (Lev 19:32-37) commands. [Note: Ross, pp. 354-55.]
"It is . . . best to view this chapter as a speech to the community-similar to a covenant-renewal message-that draws upon all the main parts of the law to exhort the people to a life of holiness. Its basic principle is the responsibility of love." [Note: Ibid., p. 355.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Holiness precepts 19:1-18
"This section . . . consists of a list of twenty-one (3×7) laws. These laws are broken up into smaller units by the sevenfold repetition of the phrase ’I am the LORD (your God)’ (Lev 19:3-4; Lev 19:10; Lev 19:12; Lev 19:14; Lev 19:16; Lev 19:18)." [Note: Sailhamer, p. 349.]
The clause "I am the Lord" reminded the Israelites that God was their ultimate judge.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Respect for parents and Sabbath observance (Lev 19:3) were the foundations for moral government and social wellbeing respectively. Compare the fourth and fifth commandments.
Idolatry and image making (Lev 19:4) broke the first and second commandments. This verse recalls the golden calf incident (Exodus 32).
Regarding the sacrifices, the main expression of worship, as holy (Lev 19:5-8), revealed true loyalty to God contrasted with the idolatry of Lev 19:4.
The preceding ideas deal with respect for God. Those that follow emphasize love for one’s neighbor that flows from love for God.
The Israelites were not to harvest their fields and vineyards so thoroughly that there would be nothing left (Lev 19:9-10). Farmers in the Promised Land were to leave some of the crops in the field so the poor could come in and glean what remained. This showed both love and respect for the poor (cf. Lev 23:22; Job 29:12-13; Isa 10:2; Zec 7:9-10). [Note: See Donald E. Gowan, "Wealth and Poverty in the Old Testament," Interpretation 41:4 (October 1987):341-53, for a study of the plight of the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner in Israel.]
"Unfortunately, much activity and much excitement in modern religious activities has a general disregard for the poor and needy. One cannot legitimately give God thanks and praise while ignoring the poor and needy (Heb 13:15-16)." [Note: Ross, p. 360.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE LAW OF HOLINESS (CONCLUDED)
Lev 19:1-37
WE have in this chapter a series of precepts and prohibitions which from internal evidence appear to have been selected by an inspired redactor of the canon from various original documents, with the purpose, not of presenting a complete enumeration of all moral and ceremonial duties, but of illustrating the application in the everyday life of the Israelite of the injunction which stands at the beginning of the chapter (Lev 19:2): “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.”
Truly strange it is, in the full light of Hebrew history, to find anyone, like Kalisch, representing this conception of holiness, so fundamental to this law, as the “ripest fruit of Hebrew culture”! For it is insisted by such competent critics, as Dillmann, that we have not in this chapter a late development of Hebrew thought, but “ancient,” “the most ancient” material; -we shall venture to say, dating even from the days of Moses, as is declared in Lev 19:1. And we may say more. For If such be the antiquity of this law, it should be easy even for the most superficial reader of the history to see how immeasurably far was that horde of almost wholly uncultured fugitives from Egyptian bondage from having attained through any culture this Mosaic conception of holiness. For “Hebrew culture,” even in its latest maturity, has, at the best, only tended to develop more and more the idea, not of holiness, but of legality-a very different thing! The ideal expressed in this command, “Ye shall be holy,” must have come, not from Israel, not even from Moses, as if originated by him, but from the Holy God Himself, even as the chapter in its first verse testifies.
The position of this command at the head of the long list of precepts which follows, is most significant and instructive. It sets before us the object of the whole ceremonial and moral law, and, we may add, the supreme object of the Gospel also, namely, to produce a certain type of moral and spiritual character, a HOLY manhood; it, moreover, precisely interprets this term, so universally misunderstood and misapplied among all nations, as essentially consisting in a spiritual likeness to God: “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.” These words evidently at once define holiness and declare the supreme motive to the attainment and maintenance of a holy character. This then is brought before us as the central thought in which all the diverse precepts and prohibitions which follow find their unity; and, accordingly, we find this keynote of the whole law echoing, as it were, all through this chapter, in the constant refrain, repeated herein no less than fourteen-twice seven-times: “I am the Lord (Heb. Jehovah)!” “I am the Lord your God!”
The first division of the law of holiness which follows (Lev 19:3-8) deals with two duties of fundamental importance in the social and the religious life: the one, honour to parents; the other, reverence to God.
If we are surprised, at first, to see this place of honour in the law of holiness given to the fifth commandment (Lev 19:3), our surprise will lessen when we remember how, taking the individual in the development of his personal life, he learns to fear God, first of all, through fearing and honouring his parents. In the earliest beginnings of life, the parent-to speak with reverence-stands to his child, in a very peculiar sense, for and in the place of God. We gain the conception of the Father in heaven first from our experience of fatherhood on earth; and so it may be said of this commandment, in a sense in which it cannot be said of any other, that it is the foundation of all religion. Alas for the child who contemns the instruction of his father and the command of his mother! for by so doing he puts himself out of the possibility of coming into the knowledge and experience of the Fatherhood of God.
The principle of reverence toward God is inculcated, not here by direct precept, but by three injunctions, obedience to which presupposes the fear of God in the heart. These are, first (Lev 19:3), the keeping of the sabbaths; the possessive, “My sabbaths,” reminding us tersely of Gods claim upon the seventh part of all our time as His time. Then is commanded the avoidance of idolatry (Lev 19:4); and, lastly (Lev 19:5-8), a charge as to the observance of the law of the peace offering.
One reason seems to have determined the selection of each of these three injunctions, namely, that Israel would be more liable to fail in obedience to these than perhaps any other duties of the law. As for the sabbath, this, like the law of the peace offering, was a positive, not a moral law; that is, it depended for its authority primarily on the explicit ordinance of God, instead of the intuition of the natural conscience. Hence it was certain that it would only be kept in so far as man retained a vivid consciousness of the Divine personality and moral authority. Moreover, as all history has shown, the law of the sabbath rest from labour constantly comes into conflict with mans love of gain and eager haste to make money. It is a life picture, true for men of every generation, when Amos {Amo 8:5} brings before us the Israelites of his day as saying, in their insatiate worldly greed, “When will the sabbath be gone, that we may set forth wheat?” As regards the selection of the second commandment, one can easily see that Israels loyalty, surrounded as they were on every side with idolaters, was to be tested with peculiar severity on this point, whether they would indeed worship the living God alone and without the intervention of idols.
The circumstances, as regards the peace offering, were different; but the same principle of choice can be discovered in this also. For among all the various ordinances of sacrificial worship there was none in which the requisitions of the law were more likely to be neglected; partly because these were the most frequent of all offerings, and also because the Israelite would often be tempted, through a short-sighted economy and worldly thriftiness, to use the meat of the peace offering for food, if any remained until the third day, instead of burning it, in such case, as the Lord commanded. Hence the reminder of the law on this subject, teaching that he who will be holy must not seek to save at the expense of obedience to the holy God.
The second section of this chapter (Lev 19:9-18) consists of five groups, each of five precepts, all relating to duties which the law of holiness requires from man to man, and each of them closing with the characteristic and impressive refrain, “I am the Lord.”
The first of these pentads (Lev 19:9-10) requires habitual care for the poor: we read, “Thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the stranger.”
The law covers the three chief products of their agriculture: the grain, the product of the vine, and the fruit of the trees, -largely olive trees, which were often planted in the vineyard. So often as God blessed them with the harvest, they were to remember the poor, and also “the stranger,” who according to the law could have a legal claim to no land in Israel. Apart from the benefit to the poor, one can readily see what an admirable discipline against mans natural selfishness, and in loyalty to God, this regulation, faithfully observed, must have been. Behind these commands lies the principle, elsewhere explicitly expressed, {Lev 25:23} that the land which the Israelite tilled was not his own, but the Lords; and it is as the Owner of the land that He thus charges them that as His tenants they shall not regard themselves as entitled to everything that the land produces, but bear in mind that He intends a portion of every acre of each Israelite to be reserved for the poor. And so the labourer in the harvest field was continually reminded that in his husbandry he was merely Gods steward, bound to apply the product of the land, the use of which was given him, in such a way as should please the Lord.
If the law is not in force as to the letter, let us not forget that it is of full validity as to its spirit. God is still the God of the poor and needy; and we are still every one, as truly as the Hebrew in those days, the stewards of God. And the poor we have with us always; perhaps never more than in these days, in which so great masses of helpless humanity are crowded together in our immense cities, did the cry of the poor and needy so ascend to heaven. And that the Apostles, acting under Divine direction, and abolishing the letter of the theocratic law, yet steadily maintained the spirit and intention of that law in care for the poor, is testified with abundant fulness in the New Testament. One of the first fruits of Pentecost in the lives of believers was just this, that “all that believed had all things common,” {Act 2:44-45} so that, going even beyond the letter of the old law, “they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need,” And the one only charge which the Apostles at Jerusalem gave unto Paul is reported by him in these words: {Gal 2:10} “Only they would that we should remember the poor; which very thing I was also zealous to do.” Let the believer then remember this who has plenty: the corners of his fields are to be kept for the poor, and the gleanings of his vineyards; and let the believer also take the peculiar comfort from this law, if he is poor, that God, his heavenly Father, has a kindly care, not merely for his spiritual wants, but also for his temporal necessities.
The second pentad (Lev 19:11-12) in the letter refers to three of the ten commandments, but is really concerned, primarily, with stealing and defrauding; for the lying and false swearing is here regarded only as commonly connected with theft and fraud, because often necessary to secure the result of a mans plunder. The pentad is in this form: “Ye shall not steal; neither shall ye deal falsely, nor lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by My name falsely, so that thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord!”
Close upon stinginess and the careless greed which neglects the poor, with eager grasping after the last grape on the vine, follows the active effort to get, not only the uttermost that might by any stretch of charity be regarded as our own, but also to get something more that belongs to our neighbour. There is thus a very close connection in thought, as well as in position, in these two groups of precepts. And the sequence of thought in this group suggests what is, indeed, markedly true of stealing, but also of other sins. sin rarely goes alone; one sin, by almost a necessity, leads straight on to another sin. He who steals, or deals falsely in regard to anything committed to his trust, will most naturally be led on at once to lie about it; and when his lie is challenged, as it is likely to be, he is impelled by a fatal pressure to go yet further, and fortify his lie, and consummate his sin, by appealing by an oath to the Holy God, as witness to the truth of his lie. Thus, the sin which in the beginning is directed only toward a fellowman, too often causes one to sin immediately against God, in profanation of the name of the God of truth, by calling on Him as witness to a lie! Of this tendency of sin, stealing is a single illustration; but let us ever remember that it is a law of all sin that sin ever begets more sin.
This second group has dealt with injury to the neighbour in the way of guile and fraud; the third pentad (Lev 19:13-14), progressing further, speaks of wrong committed in ways of oppression and violence. “Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but thou shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord!” In these commands, again it is still the helpless and defenceless in whose behalf the Lord is speaking. The words regard a man as having it in his power to press hard upon his neighbour; as when an employer, seeing that a man must needs have work at any price, takes advantage of his need to employ him at less than fair wages; or as when he who holds a mortgage against his neighbour, seeing an opportunity to possess himself of a field or an estate for a trifle, by pressing his technical legal rights, strips his poor debtor needlessly. No end of illustrations, evidently, could be given out of our modern life. Mans nature is the same now as in the days of Moses. But all dealings of this kind, whether then or now, the law of holiness sternly prohibits.
So also with the injunction concerning the retention of wages after it is due. I have not fulfilled the law of love toward the man or woman whom I employ merely by paying fair wages; I must also pay promptly. The Deuteronomic law repeats the command, and, with a peculiar touch of sympathetic tenderness, adds the reason: {Lev 24:15} “for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it.” I must therefore give the labourer his wages “in his day.” A sin this is, of the rich especially, and, most of all, of rich corporations, with which the sense of personal responsibility to God is too often reduced to a minimum. Yet it is often, no doubt, committed through sheer thoughtlessness. Men who are themselves blessed with such abundance that they are not seriously incommoded by a delay in receiving some small sum, too often forget how a great part of the poor live, as the saying is, “from hand to mouth,” so that the failure to get what is due to them at the exact time appointed is frequently a sore trial; and, moreover, by forcing them to buy on credit instead of for cash, of necessity increases the expense of their living, and so really robs them of that which is their own.
The thought is still of care for the helpless, in the words concerning the deaf and the blind, which, of course, are of perpetual force, and, in the principle involved, reach indefinitely beyond these single illustrations. We are not to take advantage of any mans helplessness, and, especially, of such disabilities as he cannot help, to wrong him. Even the common conscience of men recognises this as both wicked and mean; and this verdict of conscience is here emphasised by the reminder “I am the Lord,” – suggesting that the labourer who reaps the fields, yea, the blind also and the deaf, are His creatures; and that He, the merciful and just One, will not disown the relation, but will plead their cause.
Each of these groups of precepts has kept the poor and the needy in a special way, though not exclusively, before the conscience. And yet no man is to imagine that therefore God will be partial toward the poor, and that hence, although one may not wrong the poor, one may wrong the rich with impunity. Many of our modern social reformers, in their zeal for the betterment of the poor, seem to imagine that because a poor man has rights which are too frequently ignored by the rich, and thus often suffers grievous wrongs, therefore a rich man has no rights which the poor man is bound to respect. The next pentad of precepts therefore guards against any such false inference from Gods special concern for the poor, and reminds us that the absolute righteousness of the Holy One requires that the rights of the rich be observed no less than the rights of the poor, those of the employer no less than those of the employed. It deals especially with this matter as it comes up in questions requiring legal adjudication. We read (Lev 19:15-16), “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord!”
A plain warning lies here for an increasing class of reformers in our day, who loudly express their special concern for the poor, but who in their zeal for social reform and the diminishing of poverty are forgetful of righteousness and equity. It applies, for instance, to all who would affirm and teach with Marx that “capital is robbery”; or who, not yet quite ready for so plain and candid words, yet would, in any way, in order to right the wrongs of the poor, advocate legislation involving practical confiscation of the estates of the rich.
In close connection with the foregoing, the next precept forbids, not precisely “tale bearing,” but “slander,” as the word is elsewhere rendered, even in the Revised Version. In the court of judgment, slander is not to be uttered nor listened to. The clause which follows is obscure; but means either, “Thou shalt not, by such slanderous testimony, seek in the court of judgment thy neighbours life,” which best suits the parallelism; or, perhaps, as the Talmud and most modern Jewish versions interpret, “Thou shalt not stand silent by, when thy neighbours life is in danger in the court of judgment, and thy testimony might save him.” And then again comes in the customary refrain, reminding the Israelite that in every court, noting every act of judgment, and listening to every witness, is a judge unseen, omniscient, absolutely righteous, under whose final review, for confirmation or reversal, shall come all earthly decisions: “I,” who thus speak, “am the Lord!”
The fifth and last pentad (Lev 19:17-18) fitly closes the series, by its five precepts, of which, three, reaching behind all such outward acts as are required or forbidden in the foregoing, deal with the state of the heart toward our neighbour which the law of holiness requires, as the soul and the root of all righteousness. It closes with the familiar words, so simple that all can understand them, so comprehensive that in obedience to them is comprehended all morality and righteousness toward man: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” The verses read, “Thou shall not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children oil thy people, but thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord!”
Most instructive it is to find it suggested by this order, as the best evidence of the absence of hate, and the truest expression of love to our neighbour, that when we see him doing wrong we shall rebuke him. The Apostle Paul has enjoined upon Christians the same duty, indicating also the spirit in which it is to be performed: {Gal 6:1} “Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Thus, if we will be holy, it is not to be a matter of no concern to us that our neighbour does wrong, even though that wrong do not directly affect our personal well being. Instead of this, we are to remember that if we rebuke him not, we ourselves “bear sin, because of him”; that is, we ourselves, in a degree, become guilty with him, because of that wrong doing of his which we sought not in any way to hinder. But although, on the one hand, I am to rebuke the wrongdoer, even when his wrong does not touch me personally, yet, the law adds, I am not to take into my own hands the avenging of wrongs, even when myself injured; neither am I to be envious and grudge any neighbour the good he may have; no, not though he be an ill-doer and deserve it not; but be he friend or foe, well-doer or ill-doer, I must love him as myself.
What an admirable epitome of the whole law of righteousness! a Mosaic anticipation of the very spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. Evidently, the same mind speaks in both alike; the law the same, the object and aim of the law the same, both in Leviticus and in the Gospel. In this law we hear: “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy”; in the Sermon on the Mount: “Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The third division of this chapter (Lev 19:19-32) opens with a general charge to obedience: “Ye shall keep My statutes”; very possibly, because several of the commands which immediately follow might seem in themselves of little consequence, and so be lightly disobeyed. The law of Lev 19:19 prohibits raising hybrid animals, as, for example, mules; the next command apparently refers to the chance, through sowing a field with mingled seed, of giving rise to hybrid forms in the vegetable kingdom. The last command in this verse is obscure both in meaning and intention. It reads (R.V), “Neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together.” Most probably the reference is to different materials, interwoven in the yarn of which the dress was made; but a difficulty still remains in the fact that such admixture was ordered in the garments of the priests. Perhaps the best explanation is that of Josephus, that the law here was only intended for the laity; which, as no question of intrinsic morality was involved, might easily have been. But when we inquire as to the reason of these prohibitions, and especially of this last one, it must be confessed that it is hard for us now to speak with confidence. Most probable it appears that they were intended for an educational purpose, to cultivate in the mind of the people the sentiment of reverence for the order established in nature by God. For what the world calls the order of nature is really an order appointed by God, as the infinitely wise and perfect One; hence, as nature is thus a manifestation of God, the Hebrew was forbidden to seek to bring about that which is not according to nature, unnatural corn mixtures; and from this point of view, the last of the three precepts appears to be a symbolic reminder of the same duty, namely, reverence for the order of nature, as being an order determined by God.
The law which is laid down in Lev 19:20-22, regarding the sin of connection with a bondwoman betrothed to a husband, apparently refers to such a case as is mentioned in Exo 21:7-8, where the bond maid is betrothed to her master, while yet, because of her condition of bondage, the marriage has not been consummated. For the same sin in the case of a free woman, where both were proved guilty, for each of them the punishment was death. {Deu 22:23-24} In this case, because the womans position, inasmuch as she was not free, was rather that of a concubine than of a full wife, the lighter penalty of scourging is ordered for both of the guilty persons. Also, since this was a case of trespass as well, in which the rights of the master to whom she was espoused were involved, a guilt offering was in addition required, as the condition of pardon.
It will be said, and truly, that by this law slavery and concubinage are to a certain extent recognised by the law; and upon this fact has been raised an objection bearing on the holiness of the law giver, and, by consequence, on the Divine origin and inspiration of the law. Is it conceivable that the holy God should have given a law for the regulation of two so evil institutions? The answer has been furnished us, in principle, by our Lord, {Mat 19:8} in that which He said concerning the analogous case of the law of Moses touching divorce; which law, He tells us, although not according to the perfect ideal of right, was yet given “because of the hardness of mens hearts.” That is, although it was not the best law ideally, it was the best practically, in view of the low moral tone of the people to whom it was given. Precisely so it was in this case. Abstractly, one might say that the case was in nothing different from the case of a free woman, mentioned Deu 22:23-24, for which death was the appointed punishment; but practically, in a community where slavery and concubinage were long-settled institutions, and the moral standard was still low, the cases were not parallel. A law which would carry with it the moral support of the people in the one case, and which it would thus be possible to carry into effect, would not be in like manner supported and carried into effect in the other; so that the result of greater strictness in theory would, in actual practice, be the removal thereby of all restriction on license. On the other hand, by thus appointing herein a penalty for both the guilty parties such as the public conscience would approve, God taught the Hebrews the fundamental lesson that a slave girl is not regarded by God as a mere chattel; and that if, because of the hardness of their hearts, concubinage was tolerated for a time, still the slave girl must not be treated as a thing, but as a person, and indiscriminate license could not be permitted. And thus, it is of greatest moment to observe, a principle was introduced into the legislation, which in its ultimate logical application would require and effect-as in due time it has-the total abolition of the institution of slavery wherever the authority of the living God is truly recognised.
The principle of the Divine government which is here illustrated is one of exceeding practical importance as a model for us. We live in an age when, everywhere in Christendom, the cry is “Reform”; and there are many who think that if once it be proved that a thing is wrong, it follows by necessary consequence that the immediate and unqualified legal prohibition of that wrong, under such penalty as the wrong may deserve, is the only thing that any Christian man has a right to think of. And yet, according to the principle illustrated in this legislation, this conclusion in such cases can by no means be taken for granted. That is not always the best law practically which is the best law abstractly. That law is the best which shall be most effective in diminishing a given evil, under the existing moral condition of the community; and it is often a matter of such exceeding difficulty to determine what legislation against admitted sins and evils may be the most productive of good in a community whose moral sense is dull concerning them, that it is not strange that the best of men are often found to differ. Remembering this, we may well commend the duty of a more charitable judgment, in such cases, than one often hears from such radical reformers, who seem to imagine that in order to remove an evil all that is necessary is to pass a law at once and forever prohibiting it; and who therefore hold up to obloquy all who doubt as to the wisdom and duty of so doing, as the enemies of truth and of righteousness. Moses, acting under direct instruction from the God of supreme wisdom and of perfect holiness, was far wiser than such well-meaning but sadly mistaken social reformers, who would fain be wiser than God.
Next follows a law (Lev 19:23-25) directing that when any fruit tree is planted, the Israelite shall not eat of its fruit for the first three years; that the fruit of the fourth year shall be wholly consecrated to the Lord, “for giving praise unto Jehovah”; and that only after that, in the fifth year of its bearing, shall the husbandman himself first eat of its fruit.
The explanation of this peculiar regulation is to be found in a special application of the principle which rules throughout the law; that the first fruit, whether the firstborn of man or beast, or the first fruits of the field, shall always be consecrated unto God. But in this case the application of the principle is modified by the familiar fact that the fruit of a young tree, for the first few years of its bearing, is apt to be imperfect; it is not yet sufficiently grown to yield its best possible product. Because of this, in those years it could not be given to the Lord, for He must never be served with any but the best of everything; and thus until the fruit should reach its best, so as to be worthy of presentation to the Lord, the Israelite was meanwhile debarred from using it. During these three years the trees are said to be “as uncircumcised”; i.e., they were to be regarded as in a condition analogous to that of the child who has not yet been consecrated, by the act of circumcision, to the Lord. In the fourth year, however, the trees were regarded as having now so grown as to yield fruit in perfection; hence, the principle of the consecration of the first fruit now applies, and all the fourth years product is given to the Lord, as an offering of thankful praise to Him whose power in nature is the secret of all growth, fruitfulness, and increase. The last words of this law, “that it may yield unto you its increase.” evidently refer to all that precedes. Israel is to obey this law, using nothing till first consecrated to the Lord, in order to a blessing in these very gifts of God.
The moral teaching of this law, when it is thus read in the light of the general principle of the consecration of the first fruits, is very plain. It teaches, as in all analogous cases, that God is always to be served before ourselves; and that not grudgingly, as if an irksome tax were to be paid to the Majesty of heaven, but in the spirit of thanksgiving and praise to Him, as the Giver of “every good and perfect gift.” It further instructs us in this particular instance, that the people of God are to recognise this as being true even of all those good things which come to us under the forms of products of nature.
The lesson is not an easy one for faith; for the constant tendency, never stronger than in our own time, is to substitute “Nature” for the God of nature, as if nature were a power in itself and apart from God, immanent in all nature, the present and efficient energy in all her manifold operations. Very fittingly, thus, do we find here again (Lev 19:25) the sanction affixed to this law, “I am the Lord your God!” Jehovah, your God who redeemed you, who therefore am worthy of all thanksgiving and praise! Jehovah, your God in covenant, who gives the fruitful seasons! filling your hearts with joy and gladness! Jehovah, your God, who as the Lord of Nature, and the Power in nature, am abundantly able to fulfil the promise affixed to this command!
The next six commands are evidently grouped together as referring to various distinctively heathenish customs, from which Israel, as a people holy to the Lord, was to abstain. The prohibition of blood (Lev 19:26) is repeated again, not, as has been said, in a stronger form than before, but probably, because the eating of blood was connected with certain heathenish ceremonies, both among the Shemitic tribes and others. The next two precepts (Lev 19:26) prohibit every kind of divination and augury; practices notoriously common with the heathen everywhere, in ancient and in modern times. The two precepts which follow, forbidding certain fashions of trimming the hair and beard, may appear trivial to many, but they will not seem so to anyone who will remember how common among heathen peoples has been the custom, as in those days among the Arabs, and in our time among the Hindoos to trim the hair or beard in a particular way, in order thus visibly to mark a person as of a certain religion, or as a worshipper of a certain god. The command means that the Israelite was not only to worship God alone, but he was not to adopt a fashion in dress which, because commonly associated with idolatry, might thus misrepresent his real position as a worshipper of the only living and true God.
“Cutting the flesh for the dead” (Lev 19:28) has been very widely practised by heathen peoples in all ages. Such immoderate and unseemly expressions of grief were prohibited to the Israelite, as unworthy of a people who were in a blessed covenant relation with the God of life and of death. Rather, recognising that death is of Gods ordination, he was to accept in patience and humility the stroke of Gods hand; not, indeed, without sorrow, but yet in meekness and quietness of spirit, trusting in the God of life. The thought is only a less clear expression of the New Testament word {1Th 4:13} that the believer “sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope.” Also, probably, in this prohibition, as certainly in the next (Lev 19:28), it is suggested that as the Israelite was to be distinguished from the heathen by full consecration, not only of the soul, but also of the body, to the Lord, he was by that fact inhibited from marring or defacing in any way the integrity of his body.
In general, we may say, then, that the central thought which binds this group of precepts together, is the obligation, not merely to abstain from everything directly idolatrous, but also from all such customs as are, in fact, rooted in or closely associated with idolatry. On the same principle, the Christian is to beware of all fashions and practices, even though they may be in themselves indifferent, which yet, as a matter of fact, are specially characteristic of the worldly and ungodly element in society. The principle assumed in these prohibitions thus imposes upon all who would be holy to the Lord, in all ages, a firm restriction. The thoughtless desire of many, at any risk, to be “in the fashion,” must be unwaveringly denied. The reason which is so often given by professing Christians for indulgence in such cases, that “all the world does so,” may often be the strongest possible reason for declining to follow the fashion. No servant of God should ever be seen in any part of the livery of Satans servants. That God does not think these “little things” always of trifling consequence, we are reminded by the repetition here, for the tenth time in this chapter, of the words, “I am the Lord!”
Next (Lev 19:29) follows the prohibition of the horrible custom, still practised among heathen peoples, of the prostitution of a daughter by a parent. It is here enforced by the consideration of the public weal: “lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.” Assuredly, that a land in which such harlotry as this, in which all the most sacred relations of life are trampled in the mire, would be nothing less than a land full of wickedness, is so evident as to require no comment.
Herewith now begins the fourth and last division of this chapter (Lev 19:30-37), with a repetition of the injunction to keep the Sabbaths of the Lord, and reverence His sanctuary. The emphasis on this command, shown by its repetition in this chapter, and the very prominent place which it occupies both in the law and the prophets, certainly suggest that in the mind of God, reverence for the Sabbath and for the place where God is worshipped, has much to do with the promotion of holiness of life, and the maintenance of a high degree of domestic and social morality. Nor is it difficult to see why this should be so. For however the day of holy rest may be kept, and the place of Divine worship be regarded with only an outward reverence by many, yet the fact cannot be disputed, that the observance of a weekly sabbatic rest from ordinary secular occupations, and the maintenance of a spirit of reverence for sacred places or for sacred times, has, and must have, a certain and most happy tendency to keep the God of the Sabbath and the God of the sanctuary before the mind of men, and thus imposes an effective check upon unrestrained godlessness and reckless excesses of iniquity. The diverse condition of things in various parts of modern Christendom, as related to the more or less careful observance of the weekly religious rest, is full of both instruction and warning to any candid mind upon this subject. There is no restraint on immorality like the frequent remembrance of God and the spirit of reverence for Him.
Lev 19:31 prohibits all inquiring of them that “have familiar spirits,” and of “wizards,” who pretend to make revelations through the help of supernatural powers. According to 1Sa 28:7-11, and Isa 8:19, the “familiar spirit” is a supposed spirit of a dead man, from whom one professes to be able to give communications to the living. This pretended commerce with the spirits of the dead has been common enough in heathenism always, and it is not strange to find it mentioned here, when Israel was to be in so intimate relations with heathen peoples. But it is truly most extraordinary that in Christian lands, as especially in the United States of America, and that in the full light, religious and intellectual, of the last half of the nineteenth century, such a prohibition should be fully as pertinent as in Israel! For no words could more precisely describe the pretensions of the so-called modern spiritualism, which within the last half century has led away hundreds of thousands of deluded souls, and those, in many cases, not from the ignorant and degraded, but from circles which boast of more than average culture and intellectual enlightenment. And inasmuch as experience sadly shows that even those who profess to be disciples of Christ are in danger of being led away by our modern wizards and traffickers with familiar spirits, it is by no means unnecessary to observe that there is not the slightest reason to believe that this which was rigidly forbidden by God in the fifteenth century B.C.., can now be well pleasing to Him in the nineteenth century A.D. And those who have most carefully watched the moral developments of this latter-day delusion, will most appreciate the added phrase which speaks of this as “defiling” a man.
Lev 19:32 enjoins reverence for the aged, and closely connects it with the fear of God. “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and thou shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.”
A virtue this is which-it must be with shame confessed-although often displayed in an illustrious manner among the heathen, in many parts of Christendom has sadly decayed. In many lands one only needs to travel in any crowded conveyance to observe how far it is from the thoughts of many of the young “to rise up before the hoary head. and honour the face of the old man.” So manifest are the facts that ore bears from competent and thoughtful observers of the tendencies of our times no lamentation more frequently than just this, for the concurrent decay of reverence for the aged and reverence for God. No more beautiful remarks on these words have we found than the words quoted by Dr. H. Bonar, commenting on this verse: “Lo the shadow of eternity! for one cometh who is almost in eternity already. His head and his beard, white as snow, indicate his speedy appearance before the Ancient of Days, the hair of whose head is as pure wool.”
In this last command is also, no doubt, contained the thought of the comparative weakness and physical infirmity of the aged, which is thus commended in a special way to our tender regard. And thus this sentiment of kindly sympathy for all who are subject to any kind of disability naturally prepares the way for the injunction (Lev 19:33-34) to regard “the stranger” in the midst of Israel, who was debarred from holding land, and from many privileges, with special feelings of goodwill. “If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
The Israelite was not to misinterpret, then, the restrictions which the theocratic law imposed upon such. These might be no doubt necessary for a moral reason; but, nevertheless, no man was to argue that the law justified him in dealing hardly with aliens. So far from this, the Israelite was to regard the stranger with the same kindly feelings as if he were one of his own people. And it is most instructive to observe that this particular case is made the occasion of repeating that most perfect and comprehensive law of universal love, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”; and this the more they. were to do that they too had been “strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Last of all the injunctions in this chapter (Lev 19:35-36) comes the command to absolute righteousness in the administration of justice, and in all matters of buying and selling; followed (Lev 19:37) by a concluding charge to obedience, thus: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 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. And ye shall observe all My statutes, and all My judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.”
The ephah is named here, of course, as a standard of dry measure, and the hin as a standard of liquid measure. These commandments are illustrated in a graphic way by the parallel passage in Deu 25:13-14, which reads: “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small”; i.e., one set for use in buying, and another set for use in selling. This charge is there enforced by the same promise to honesty in trade which is annexed to the fifth commandment, namely, length of days; and, furthermore, by the declaration that all who thus cheat in trade “are an abomination unto the Lord.”
How much Israel needed this law all their history has shown. In the days of Amos it was a part of his charge against the ten tribes, {Amo 8:5} for which the Lord declares that He will “make the land to tremble, and everyone in it to mourn,” that they “make the ephah small, and the shekel great,” and “deal falsely with balances of deceit.” So also Micah, a little later, represents the Lord as calling Judah to account for supposing that God, the Holy One, can be satisfied with burnt offerings and guilt offerings; indignantly asking, {Mic 6:10-11} “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?”
But it is not Israel alone which has needed, and still needs, to hear iterated this command, for the sin is found in every people, even in every city, one might say in every town, in Christendom; and-we have to say it-often with men who make a certain profession of regard for religion. All such, however religious in certain ways, have special need to remember that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord”; and that holiness is now exactly what it was-when the Levitical law was given out. As, on the one side, it is inspired by reverence and fear toward God, so, on the other hand, it requires love to the neighbour as to ones self, and such conduct as that will secure. It is of no account, therefore, to keep the Sabbath-in a way – and reverence-outwardly-the sanctuary, and then on the weekday water milk, adulterate medicines, sugars, and other foods, slip the yardstick in measuring, tip the balance in weighing, and buy with one weight or measure and sell with another, “water” stocks and gamble in “margins,” as the manner of many is. God hates, and even honest atheists despise, religion of this kind. Strange notions, truly, of religion have men who have not yet discovered that it has to do with just such commonplace, everyday matters as these, and have never yet understood how certain it is that a religion which is only used on Sundays has no holiness in it; and therefore, when the day comes, as it is coming, that shall try every mans work as by fire, it will, in the fierce heat of Jehovahs judgment, be shrivelled into ashes as a spiders web in a flame, and the man and his work shall perish together.
And herewith this chapter closes. Such is the law of holiness! Obligatory, let us not forget, in the spirit of all its requirements, today, unchanged and unchangeable, because the Holy God, whose law it is, is Himself unchangeable. Man may be sinful, and because of sin be weak; but there is not a hint of compromise with sin, on this account, by any abatement of its claims. At every step of life this law confronts us. Whether we be in the House of God, in acts of worship, it challenges us there; or in the field, at our work, it commands us there; in social intercourse with our fellow men, in our business in bank or shop, with our friends or with strangers and aliens, at home or abroad, we are never out of the reach of its requirements. We can no more escape from under its authority than from under the overarching heaven! What sobering thoughts are these for sinners! What self-humiliation should this law cause us, when we think what we are! what intensity of aspiration, when we think of what the Holy One would have us be, holy like Himself!
The closing words above given (Lev 19:37) assert the authority of the Law giver, and, by their reminder of the great deliverance from Egypt, appeal, as a motive to faithful and holy obedience, to the purest sentiment of grateful love for undeserved and distinguishing mercy. And this is only the Old Testament form of a New Testament argument. For we read, concerning our deliverance from a worse than Egyptian bondage: {1Pe 1:15-19} “Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each mans work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear: knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver or gold but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.”