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 verse 2: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy."This sentence is the motto of Leviticus (cf. 11:44-45; 20:26; Matt. 5:48; 1 Pet. 1:16).

"Every biblical statement about God carries with it an implied demand upon men to imitate Him in daily living."²¹⁸

"Leviticus 19 has been called the highest development of ethics in the Old Testament.²¹⁹This chapter perhaps better than any other in the Bible, explains what it meant for Israel to be a holy nation (Exod 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."²²⁰

"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."²²¹

"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."²²²

This chapter contains quotations from or allusions to all ten of the Ten Commandments.²²³Its structure is chiastic. The first and last sections deal with a person's relationship to God (vv. 3-8, 32-36), and the second and fourth with one's relationship to his fellow man (vv. 9-18, 30-31). The central section deals with man's relationship to himself (vv. 19-29).²²⁴

 Holiness precepts 19:1-18

"This section . . . consists of a list of twenty-one (3x7) laws. These laws are broken up into smaller units by the sevenfold repetition of the phrase I am the LORD (your God)' (19:3, 4, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18)."²²⁵

"I am the Lord"reminded the Israelites that God was their ultimate judge.

19:1-10 Respect for parents and Sabbath observance (v. 3) were the foundations for moral government and social well-being respectively.²²⁶

Idolatry and image making (v. 4) broke the first and second commandments. This verse recalls the golden calf incident (Exod. 32).

Regarding the sacrifices, the main expression of worship, as holy (vv. 5-8) revealed true loyalty to God contrasted with the idolatry of verse 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 (vv. 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.²²⁷

19:11-18 "The statements in the law were intended as a reliable guide with general applicability--not a technical description of all possible conditions one could imagine. . . . The deaf' and the blind' are merely selected examples of all persons whose physical weaknesses demand that they be respected rather than despised."²²⁸

God commanded proper attitudes as well as correct actions (vv. 17, 18; cf. Matt. 18:15-17; 19:19).²²⁹

"To take the name of God in vain (KJV [v. 12]) is not merely to use it as a curse word but to invoke the name of God to support an oath that is not going to be kept."²³⁰

Verses 17 and 18 show that the Mosaic Law did not just deal with external behavior. When Jesus Christ commented on verse 18 in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:43), He did not invest it with a new spiritual meaning. He corrected the Pharisees' interpretation of it that limited it to external action.

 Statutes and judgments 19:19-37

"This section is introduced with the admonition You shall keep my statutes' (v. 19a) and concludes with a similar admonition, You shall keep all my statutes and all my judgments' (v. 37a), and the statement I am the LORD' (19:37b). Like the preceding section of laws, it consists of a list of twenty-one (3x7) laws. These laws also are broken up into smaller units by a sevenfold repetition of the phrase I am the LORD (your God)' (19:25, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36)."²³¹

19:19-32 The opening words of this section indicate a change of subject.

God called on His people to honor the order of nature by not mixing things that God had separated in creation (v. 19). God probably intended these practices to distinguish the Israelites from the Canaanites too.²³²

"As God separated Israel from among the nations to be his own possession, so they must maintain their holy identity by not intermarrying with the nations (Deut. 7:3-6)."²³³

Yahweh upheld the rights of slaves (vv. 20-22). A man was not to mix with a female slave engaged to another man by having sexual intercourse with her. The Israelites considered engaged people virtually married.

By allowing three years to pass before someone ate the fruit on a tree the tree could establish itself and be more productive in the long run (vv. 23-25).

God's people were to avoid pagan practices that characterized the Canaanites (vv. 26-32). These included eating blood (v. 26), cutting their hair in the style of the pagan priests (v. 27), and disfiguring their bodies that God had created (v. 28). They were not to disfigure the divine likeness in them by scarring their bodies. These foreign practices also included devoting one's daughter to prostitution (v. 29), seeking knowledge of the future from a medium (v. 31), and failing to honor the aged (v. 32).

". . . there are indications of ancestor worship in Old Testament times but there was no ancestor worship in Israel."²³⁴

That is, God did not permit it, though the Israelites may have practiced it to a limited extent as a result of pagan influence.

19:33-37 This list concludes with commands to practice honesty in judicial matters. Verse 37 is a summary exhortation.

Since the church contains people of every nation it is no longer necessary for Christians to observe the laws that typified Israel's uniqueness among the other nations. Nevertheless God still calls Christians to imitate Himself (cf. Matt. 5:48; 1 Cor. 11:1), to "be holy, for I am holy"(1 Pet. 1:16). Application of the imperatives in this chapter is different for Christians, but the fundamental principles of holy living remain the same.