Leviticus 19 "You Shall Be Holy"

While this may appear to be a strange combination of laws,

blending civil, moral, and ceremonial matters,

that is because the law itself is one.

You may have noticed that the chapter divisions in Leviticus are pretty clear.

Starting in chapter 11, each chapter begins, "And the LORD spoke to Moses..."

Later on this structure will begin to break down,

but in the middle of Leviticus, this is a very helpful literary structure,

because it tells us that chapter 19 is a literary unit.

I could easily preach 15 sermons on Leviticus 19.

And I believe that could be profitable,

but tonight I want you to see the unity of chapter 19.

The organizing principle, around which the whole chapter is built,

is verse 2: "You shall be holy, for I Yahweh your God am holy."

There are two basic sections:

the call to love God and neighbor in verses 3-18,

and the call to keep God's statutes in verses 19-37.

The phrase, "I am Yahweh" appears 16 times in this chapter

The rationale for Israel's holiness is found not in themselves, but in their God.

Since you are the holy people of God,

be holy-just as your God is holy.

Be separate-consecrated to his service as a holy priesthood.

As the chapter concludes,

Israel's holiness is rooted in their redemption from Egypt.

They are not delivered from bondage because they were holy,

they are holy because they were delivered from bondage.

Verses 1-2 set forth the basic context of these commands.

"Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel."

Israel is addressed here in its covenantal identity as the theocratic kingdom,

as the national/religious entity that God has chosen for himself.

Because of your covenant relation to a holy God,

all of life must be sanctified for his glory.

While we have seen in previous chapters the importance of ritual purity and ceremonial holiness,

chapters 18-20 make it perfectly clear that ethical holiness is equally important.

Ethical demands are "placed on anyone who would have fellowship with the Holy One."

[Noordtzij, 192]

The first section of the chapter is very closely related to the 10 Commandments

(Though not in the same order).

Since Moses is setting forth the basic ethical holiness that God requires,

it is not surprising that his first eight commands

are rooted in the fundamental covenant law.

The first three have to do with the first table of the law, most of which end, "I am the LORD:

1) Holiness demands that you fear your mother and father, and observe the Sabbath (v3)

The fifth commandment says to honor your father and mother,

while the fourth commandments says to remember the Sabbath.

While the fifth commandment is often grouped with love toward neighbor,

its placement here suggests that we are to fear our parents

in an analogous way to how we fear God.

The one who does not respect his parents does not respect God.

And one particular way that we fear God is by observing the Sabbath.

"Observance" is the practical outworking of remembering,

just as revering is the practical outworking of honoring.

2) Holiness also demands that you not turn to any idol (v4)

Idolatry and holiness are fundamentally incompatible.

This includes both the condemnation of idols per se,

as well as the condemnation of worshiping Yahweh by any image.

And 3) Holiness requires that you offer your sacrifices properly (v5-8).

This seems a bit odd.

God has already set forth this regulation in 7:15-18.

But now it reappears in a section that is focused on ethical holiness.

This is designed to teach Israel that God's liturgical commands

are as much a part of ethical holiness as his ethical commands.

How you worship is a part of your moral duty.

This is part of why a hard and fast distinction

between moral, ceremonial, and civil is not always easy to make.

As those who are in Christ we recognize these distinctions.

That which is moral remains binding.

That which is ceremonial was pointing to Christ, and is abrogated.

That which is civil expired with Israel, and is no longer binding.

But the Israelites themselves would not have seen those distinctions in the law itself.

They understood their ceremonial laws as a part of the civil law of the land,

and as a part of the moral duty that God required.

When you consider the fact that the peace offering

was the one sacrifice that the priests had little control over,

it makes more sense that it was included here.

Once the priest gives the meat to the worshiper,

it is entirely up to the worshiper to follow the proper liturgical rules

and consume the meat within the next two days.

The Israelites needed to understand that true love for God,

proper worship, can only be demonstrated by faithful obedience.

Verses 9-18 then provide five expressions of love toward neighbor.

The refrain, "I am Yahweh," reminds Israel that God is their judge.

If they fail to exhibit holiness in their relations with one another,

they will one day stand before God.

His character must be the standard for their lives.

1) Holiness requires leaving a portion of your harvest for the poor (v9-10).

If your God is Yahweh, then you must care for the poor.

"Your" harvest isn't really yours.

We must teach our children that they are to care for those in need.

Which also means that we must teach them to accept help from others.

We must learn to be generous in giving, and gracious in receiving.

Ruth 2:19-"The man whom I have favored is Boaz."

Ruth blessed Boaz by gleaning in his field,

because her gleaning enabled him to obey God.

We ought to thank the poor for enabling us to obey God.

2) Holiness also requires us not to steal, either by act of theft, or by word of deceit (v11-12).

God condemns all sleight of hand or tongue.

To put it positively,

we should be able to entrust both our goods and our names to one another.

If your agenda is to get what you want from others,

then your agenda is crooked and perverse.

I should point out that the "one another" here restricts the command to Israel.

It is here that Israel developed the idea that they were to love their neighbors,

but hate their enemies.

It would take Jesus' teaching regarding "who is my neighbor?"

to extend such neighborliness to the nations.

3) Holiness also requires us not to defraud or cheat our neighbors in any way (v13-14)

The simple way to say this is that

"no one who fears God may take advantage

of another person's ignorance or helplessness." (Noordtzij, 197)

The day laborer is in view in verse 13.

In an agricultural society, there was no guarantee that a day laborer

would return to the same employer the next day

(recall Jesus' parable of the man who went out to look for workers)

If you don't pay him today, you might not see him tomorrow.

Just imagine how an unscrupulous employer might use this to his advantage!

To curse the deaf and to put a stumbling block before the blind is considered equivalent.

Just as a blessing has real power, so also a curse.

The deaf man would be unaware of the curse, and so could not counteract it

(recall all the movies with a Jewish grandmother

who immediately speaks up every time someone says something gloomy)

The power of the spoken word is here upheld.

To curse a deaf man is as wicked as it is to trip a blind man.

Word and deed are woven together.

4) Holiness requires that we defend the good name of others (v15-16).

Those whose God is Yahweh must not show partiality to rich or poor,

but must judge righteously.

And if you know something that could save the innocent,

you must stand up and defend them.

5) All of this comes down to one basic principle:

"Do not hate your brother in your heart....but love your neighbor as yourself.

I am Yahweh." (v17-18)

But notice what else is included in this.

You are to rebuke your neighbor-lest you share in his guilt.

Holiness is not a half-baked passivity.

You must be active in your love for your neighbor.

And remember what Jesus has done for the definition of neighbor!

It is not enough for you to love all of us here at MCC.

It is not enough for you to love all Christians.

You must love all those with whom you come in contact.

Who is your neighbor?

It's the drug dealer down the street.

Love for God and neighbor is the essence of holiness.

God then sets forth nine more statutes that illuminate holiness for us.

1) do not mix your cattle, your crops, or your garments (v19)

Those who are holy must not get mixed up with those which are unholy.

2) do not execute a man who sleeps with another man's slave woman (v20-22).

If she has been set free (Ex 21:7-11), then they would be executed.

But if she is a concubine then neither she nor her lover shall be executed.

If you don't understand that context,

then you might think this is some horrible double standard

that allows for the mistreatment of slave women.

It actually provides for the protection of concubines.

Since she is not a free wife, she is not guilty of adultery.

This is one indication that slavery is not considered something good.

The adultery laws for marriage do not apply to concubines.

Concubines were not expected to maintain the same level of fidelity as wives.

The man was to be punished (the word translated "make a distinction" in verse 20

probably has something to do with being beaten.)

3) you shall not eat the fruit of a newly planted tree for three years;

the fourth year its fruit is holy-and the fifth year you may eat it (v23-25).

The word "forbidden" is actually related to the word "uncircumcised."

God demands that Israel recognize that all of the fruit of the land comes from him.

And just as the firstborn of every animal was to be offered to Yahweh,

so also the first harvest of every tree.

By the fourth year there would be a good harvest,

and so the first good harvest would go to God.

4) this is the fourth prohibition of eating blood in Leviticus! (v26-28)

This, together with divination, sorcery and other pagan practices, is condemned.

The one who is holy-consecrated to Yahweh's service-

has no business engaging in pagan rites.

5) you shall not make your daughter a prostitute-but you shall keep my Sabbaths (v29-30)

This is an interesting juxtaposition.

Religious prostitution was nearly universal in the ANE.

Cult prostitutes were called qedesah,

which is derived from the same root as qadosh-the Hebrew word for holy.

Cult prostitutes were called holy women.

God declares that such prostitution is far from holy-it is depravity.

To allow such prostitutes to profane the sanctuary

would be to violate the entirety of God's holy worship.

Further, God commands that parents are to give their children rest on the Sabbath.

Your daughters are to rest with you.

They are not to be sent out as harlots.

Do not profane your daughters, but reverence my sanctuary.

It makes more sense than it may have appeared.

6) you shall not seek out wizards or mediums-they would make you unclean,

because they deal with the dead.

Nowhere are they called fakes, quacks, or pretenders.

It is assumed that they do indeed have some contact with the dead,

and thus they are unclean, and they would render you unclean.

The living have no business with the dead.

7) you shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of the old man (v32).

In the context of all the discussion of worship and holiness,

this is quite interesting.

As we saw at the beginning, we are fear our mother and father.

Respect for the aged is not optional.

8) love the stranger among you (v33-34)

You were once strangers in Egypt-and did you like how you were treated?

Israel is to be a hospitable people.

While the Gentiles were generally despised,

Israel was to be kind to those Gentiles who lived among them.

You are to treat the sojourner as one of yourselves.

9) you are to use just and fair weights and measures (v35-36)

Your economic relations are to be governed by God's holy character.

He is the one who brought you out of Egypt,

therefore you must act with the same even-handed justice that he does.

"And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am Yahweh." (v37)