Laws For Everyday Life (Leviticus 19: 1-37)

 In Exodus, the commandments are given, and now in the book of Leviticus, we see them applied to various situations and scenarios. In Exodus chapter 20, Moses lists the 10 commandments, and then at the end of that chapter he starts giving the judgments based on those commandments for situations that might come up, providing judgments.

Now, in Leviticus 19, Moses does something similar to that. He is essentially covering the 10 commandments, but not in the original  order this time. However there are quotations and allusions to all ten, just in a different order than they were in Exodus 20. So there is a kind of loose association between these two chapters Ex 20 and Lev 19.

With that in mind, let's look at what in effect is the application of the 10 commandments. One commentator I read said, I quote, “This chapter is the highest development of ethics in all of the Old Testament”. 

The first verse couple of verses are a sort of an introduction to the chapter. It says that.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I am the Lord your God.' 

This is the introduction to the first section of this chapter, which will include verses one through 18. In the verses that follow there are 21 prohibitions mentioned. The basic principles of the 10 commandments are incorporated in the whole chapter but expanded upon by example and in a different order this time, but always with the same emphasis. 

Another thing you need to note is that he says, 'For I am the Lord your God, and I am holy.' As a matter of fact, that little phrase crops up over and over and over again throughout this chapter. It marks many of the paragraphs.

Now, what happens as we travel through the chapter is it gives commandments pertaining to their relationship to God, then it follows with commandments in relationship to your neighbour. And the third thing he does is give commandments that you might say apply basically to yourself.

The first part, relationship to God, begins in verse three and goes down through verse eight. He talks about revere your mother and his father and keeping the Sabbaths.' There it is. 'I am the Lord your God.' Almost after every point it adds the clause, 'For I am the Lord,' to remind them that the reason they are to do this is because of their relationship to the Lord. I think that's really interesting because we're going to see that pop up over and over throughout the chapter.

Human morality is ultimately based on the nature of God. So, he is saying, in essence, 'I want you to be holy because I am the Lord your God.' So, our ethics, our morality, is based on our relationship to the Lord. In fact, some argue, and I would agree that if there is no God, what is the basis of morality? There is no logical basis of arriving at a view of any sort of morality. I would argue, that we can’t be truly moral without believing in God. 

How can we know if our ethical standards are right or wrong? It's subjective at best. Your chosen just selectively choosing what you think is right or wrong. But if you're going to abide by some standard that is universal, that you're going to appeal to God. If not we're going to have as many different ethical standards as we have people, and that's about what we got for people who don't know the Lord. So, he's constantly saying, 'You do this because of my relationship to you.' So, the first has to do with parents; the second has to do with keeping the Sabbath day holy; the third is about not turning to idols or make for yourself man mad gods.

So, three of the Ten Commandments are in these opening few verses: honouring your parents, keeping the Sabbath, and avoiding idolatry. 

I think it's interesting. So, I think it's significant that he starts with parents and then he moves to honouring God and then avoiding idolatry. 

When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned up.'

(Lev 19: 5-6)

The penalty for violating this and all you did is not eat it on the third day is being cut off. 

If you've been with me for the last month as we've been going through Leviticus you will know this, 'cut off' means death, the death penalty. 

That seems like a pretty severe penalty. But again, this is in the context of your relationship to the Lord, and the severity of the penalty indicates the seriousness of this, as far as the Lord is concerned. So, don't tamper with the way you worship Him.

You know, there's something similar in the New Testament. The idea is, in the context in I Corinthians when this issue appeared is people we're doing this as part of a fellowship meal, the Lord’s Supper, in fact.Some were over indulging and some were going hungry, and some were even getting drunk. In other words, they were acting in an unloving manner at the Lord's table. And Paul comes down and says, 'What you're doing, have you forgotten this is the Lord's table.' And because you're partaking in a non-worthy manner, meaning unloving, some of you are weak, some of you were sick, and some of you are asleep, which means some of you are dead. So, tampering with the way you honour the Lord corporately is a serious offense. The penalty was death in the Old Testament, and the penalty is a type of death also in some cases in the New Testament as well.

Alright, that's the first section of this book. The next section has to do with the relationship to your neighbour. The first had to do with your relationship to God. Now it's going to be a relationship to your neighbour—how do you treat your neighbour? So, look at verse 9.

'When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of the field, nor should you gather the gleanings of your field. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor should you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.' [Here it is again]: 'I am the Lord.'

(Lev 19: 9-10) 

Now, what this amounts to is really rather simple. You're a farmer, and you have a crop. Verse nine is talking about harvesting the land, and verse ten is talking about harvesting the vineyard. And those two are symbolic of any crops you might have. 

He says when you harvest them, you are not to harvest everything, but you are to leave something. You leave some of the crops in the field. Now, why would you do that? 

If you think about this, there was no supermarket. They didn't have any shops. You couldn't go to the store. You had to raise your crops, and some people were poor. They didn't have land, or they didn't have the ability to raise crops. The idea behind this is you ought to to show some love and respect for poor people. You leave some of the crop in the field so that they could come along and get some gleanings off of it.

Then he says in verse 11, I'm not sure I need to comment on that., it’s about as simple and plain as it gets. Don't steal. Don't deal falsely or lie to one another. Very similar to the 8th commandment: don't steal.  Also, he's going to say more, don't lie. So, we're here, and he says in verse 12, 'And you shall not swear by my name falsely, nor should you profane the name of your Lord, the Lord your God.' 

Here it is again. Now we're on the third commandment. I told you they weren't in order. You shouldn't take the name of God in vain. Now that's probably not just talking about swearing, although I think that's probably part of what is included. But it's invoking the name of the Lord to hide a falsehood or to strengthen the appearance of an oath that you won't keep. There was actually a commandment that said you couldn't take an oath using the Lord's name, because you couldn't do it and not fulfil the oath. That was the big deal. So, he says don't do it in vain, don't do it falsely, as the way it's stated in this verse.

He says in verse 13, 

'You shall not cheat your neighbour, nor rob him. The wages of him who hires shall not remain with you all night until morning.'

(Lev 19: 13)

Now, to understand this law, you have to understand that the laborers were to be paid daily at the end of the day. So, he says don't cheat them or rob them, and make sure that you pay them at the end of the day, that they do not go all night without being paid. 

"Alright," I said, "this chapter is divided into three parts. The first part is our relationship to God, the second part is our relationship to our neighbour, and the third is our relationship to ourselves. Beginning in verse 19 and going through the rest of the chapter, he is basically talking about our relationship to ourselves. This section consists of 21 laws that can be broken down in a number of ways. Again, he keeps saying 'do this because I am the Lord'. These laws don't involve your neighbour; they pertain to you. For example, verse 19 states.

'You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.'

(Lev 19: 19)

The point here is not to mix things that God separated in creation. He lists several examples, such as not breeding different kinds of livestock or sowing two kinds of seed in the same field. Furthermore, he advises against wearing clothing made of a mixture of wool and linen.

What is the point of this? God is making it known that He is the God of separation, using these physical everyday examples to teach people to separate themselves from ceremonial defilement and sin. In fact, the book of Leviticus primarily deals with ceremonial defilement, cleansing, and separation. The overarching theme is 'the Lord is holy, therefore you be holy'. These laws illustrate God's desire for us to be clean and separated unto Himself. That's the essence of the book of Leviticus, and this is a great illustration of it - don't mix linen and wool.

Moving on to verse 20, it states.

 'If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave. They shall not be put to death.”In this case, the penalty is not death but a scourging. Both the guilty man and woman should be scourged because she was not free, yet they were not put to death. This is an interesting distinction. According to the next chapter, if a man commits adultery with another man's wife, he should be put to death, but if the woman is not married, it's considered a less serious offense.

Verse 21 emphasizes bringing a trespass offering to the Lord, acknowledging the sin committed. It's clear that this is a sin, and a sin offering must be made to atone for it, but it does not warrant the death penalty, as in the case of adultery.

In verse 23, he introduces a unique law concerning fruit-bearing trees in the land.  Essentially, for the first three years, the fruit is considered unclean and must not be consumed.

Speculation surrounds this practice - some suggest it allows the tree to reestablish itself for better long-term productivity, while others view it as a moral lesson urging restraint in immediate gratification. The key point is that only from the fifth year onward can the fruit be consumed.

Verse 24 reiterates that in the fourth year, all the fruit shall be consecrated to praise the Lord and then finally, in the fifth year, you can eat the fruit and enjoy its increased yield.

This practice emphasizes patience and reverence for God's provisions. Modern-day applications might relate to managing our resources patiently and offering thanks to the Lord for His abundance."

Verse 26 talks about not eat anything with blood still in it and not to practice divination or soothsaying.' Now, that goes without saying—you shouldn't be consulting witches; you should be consulting the Lord. 

Then he says, in verse 27 is has a strange verse about men and their beards.

'You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard.'

This type of thing as the practice of the heathen tribes around Cannan  There are indications of this in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah Chapter 9 and Ezekiel Chapter 5. So again, he's saying, you're separated, you meant to be different, don't dress or look like the heathen tribes. This will come be emphasized even more in a minute.

Verse 28,  'You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am the Lord.'

Did you know that the Old Testament says you shouldn't have a tattoo? Again, cutting the body and tattooing the body was done by the pagans of the day, and Moses is simply saying, you are not like them. But I must say that the principle underlying this is, apparently, don't be like the heathen. 

So when he says in verse 29, 'Do not prostitute your daughters’ Now obviously prostitution, of course, is sinful in itself, but there was religious prostitution among the local pagans tribes. So this is probably specifically dealing with prostitution of young girls so it had to do with worship, not just sexual sin.

Further reminder and prohibitions follow about keeping the sabbath sacred and not getting involves with the occult, mediums and familiar spirits. What he's doing here is forbidding seeking knowledge from the dead in general or from some dead relative or familiar spirits that you're praying to, to get some information. That's forbidden. He says in verse 32, points out it is Ok to respecting old people but not mistake their wisdom as some sort of divination of the future.   Now, there were some indications of ancestor worship in Old Testament times. So, he's saying, you can honour you family line but that falls short of worshipping them or seeking messages form them through occult divination.

'If a stranger dwells in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.'

(Lev 19: 33)

This one is a hot potato at the moment because it seems to be saying something about immigration. There are people who argue that we ought to have an open border because the Bible says you are to not mistreat a stranger, I personally don't think the comparable situation but if you want to know what the bible says about such things, well a whole book of the Bible was written just on that one issue. One whole book is written just to deal with the issue of legal and illegal aliens. It's called the book of Philemon. 

You shall not do injustice in judgment and measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, and honesty. Put an honest man: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

(Leviticus 19: 35)

Now, this is saying, have just measurements make sure whatever the measurement is, make sure it's legitimate.

Final verse.

Therefore, you shall observe all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them. [Here it is again] For I am the Lord.

We've covered a lot, 37 verses, but the sum is simple: many of the laws the Lord gave Israel are more specific than the Ten Commandments, pertaining to our relationship with Him, our relationship with the neighbour, and our relationship with ourselves. There were specifics, and by and large, in this case, far beyond the Ten Commandments.

Let's make a couple of observations. Holiness is not an abstract idea. It's not a mystical idea. It's not fleeing from the world to become a monk in a monastery. It's doing things justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly before our God. God's people must conform to His holiness by keeping His commandments and dealing with others in love, by living according to the standard of separation from the world and by announcing and demonstrating kindness and fairness and justice to all others. So, one of the things you can gather from this chapter is that little phrase, 'For I am the Lord.' This is all just saying we should imitate Him? 

I mean, isn't that the whole  thrust, of the New Testament? In fact, Peter in 1 Peter 1:16 says, 'Be holy, for I am holy,' meaning nothing more than we should be separated unto Him who is righteousness and love. And we should be also. 

Illustration.

A few years ago, there was an article in a little devotional book we still get in our house called, Our Daily Bread. This was an article, a daily devotional from that little book many years ago. The article said this: Did you use the term 'by hook or by crook'? Do you know where it came from? Do you know the origin of that expression? According to this article, it comes from forestry. In feudal times, all forests belonged to the Lord of the Manor. The peasants were not permitted to cut trees but had permission to secure, for heating and cooking, what underbrush, limbs, twigs, etc., they could reach by hook—that is, what they could cut down with a pruning hook and pull down with a shepherd's crook. This was a pretty low benchmark for  benevolent on the part of the feudal lords, as it served their purpose to keep the trees standing clear from undesired underbrush and superfluous dead limbs, which would need to be pruned anyway. This is the way we approach the Lord, we give that which he does not need or which he wishes to dispose of. We likes to bestow on others all manner of benevolent gestures which cater to his pride.

God's way of giving is different. Back when Leviticus was written, the Lord not only admonished Israel to bring Him their tithes and offerings, but even their giving was to be generous, sacrificial, and worthwhile. The corners of the field were to be left un-reaped, although they could have been more profitably harvested. Also, good grapes were to be left on the vine, so that the poor may help themselves to the rest. 

The Lord wanted cheerful, sacrificial givers who were rendering worthwhile benevolence, even to the needy strangers. If this was true under the law, it should doubly be our attitude under grace, especially in giving to Him to whom we owe our all. That's really the spirit of this chapter. God wants us to love our neighbour, be separated unto Him, and those two things are connected. As we're separated unto the Lord, we honour Him by respecting and serving one another.