PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus
Frederick Meyrick [1827-1906] · 410,653 words · 472 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 301
sacrifice" is a principle of vast range, and the atonement of JJsus is but a single appli- cation of it. Ill THE BECOGNITION OF Goo IN EVERY PLEABUBE WILL HAKE IT DOUBLY DELIGHTFUL. It is evident that God contemplated hunting as something which might be enjoyed religiously. The blood of the animal was to be carefully …
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in its power of mainblining its temperature against the extremes of boat and cold. The lesson of this reason is to teach us the value of life. Hence in connection with the Noachian precept prohibiting the eating of blood, we have also the law guarding the life of man by the penalty of death to the murderer. (2) That" i…
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should the feast be dedkated? Homage to the demons of the field could not be sanctioned, it was a breach at once of the first and seventh commandments. It is frequently forgotten that a neutral attitude in respect of God is impossible; we are either on his side or against him. Intellectualism, materialism, scientifi…
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Christ we should bring, beside this, our adoration, praise, gratitude, trust, love, conse- cration, etc. 2. We must learn to connect daily blessings with the Divine hand. We should, in thought though not in act, bring everything we have to "the door of the tabernacle," trace each good thing we enjoy to the generous Giv…
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possible our own sabbath oC bodily rest. We should make it a religious duty to pro- tect them from injury and suffering. In so far as we use them for food, an offering of them should not be to the god of sensuality, but to him whose Law requires temperance, self-restraint, and reverence for the lower nature, that it ma…
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Legis~ator. This is especia~ly the case _w~~n, ~s here, the Lawgiver condescends to explam the reason upon which the proh1b1t1on 1s founded. Such expll\nation ought to secure intelligent obse!'V".ince of the enactment. And that e·nactment wl\s but the reissue of the former decree that gave animals t.o man for food, …
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EXPOSITION. lastly with the penalties inflicted on these CHAPTER XVIII. sins in their chnracter of crimes. MODAL UNOLEANNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT, Vera. 1-5 form an introduction to the This being the subject of the three follow- Hebrew code of l?rohibited degrees of ing chapters ( chs. xviii-:n.), they naturally marri…
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with the spirit of Iicentiousnen. With from the eon to the mother, two degrees to regard t-0 tho doings of th.s land of Egypt, we tho grandmother; ono degree from the father ha'l'e fuller information. We know that to the daughter, two degrees to the gro.nd- among the Egyptians marriage with sisters dnughtcr. But thi…
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wife's daughter, the stepmother, tho daugh- concubines n was re_gmded as the fln11l act ter-in-law, would be in the first degree of which made reconciliation with his father afll.nity. The sister and the granddaughter impossible (2 Sam. xvi 22: xx. 3). The would be in the second degree of consan- history of the Church …
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commanded as a duty in Deuteronomy?" daughter being nearest of kin, this oom- Bishop Wordsworth replies, "In a special mand was sufficient without further speoift- case, for a special reason applicable only to ootion. The niece and probably the wife's the Jews, God was pleased to dispense with sister are forbidden b…
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the difficulty? Let us examine each word capital crime. The imperial code and the of the Law. Neither shalt thou take one wife canon law were framed upon the Mosaio to another, to 11n, to uncooer her nakedne111 and the Roman tables, and under them no upon her in her life time. The two words, to question arose, except a…
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seven dr.ys is death if committed wilfully whioh the child wee placed and burnt with (eh. xx. 18) ; if fallen into unknowingly, a fire, while the priests were hen.tin.,. drums ceremonial penalty of seven days' unclean- in order to drown the noise of its° shrieks: ness is incurred (eh. xv. 24). It is twice lest the f…
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feelings, to make place for a passionless calm. God's Law and the doctrine of the Church declare that it is the abuse, not the use, of the body that is wrong ; and, like the better forms of philosophy, occupy themselves with regulating, controlling, ruling man's passions, instead of vaialy attempting to kill them. "…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Unworlalineu. Ch. xviii.; cf. Rom. xii. 2. The next element in the morality required of the Lord's people is non-conformity to this world. We are such imitative creatures that we are prone to do as our neighbours do, without questioning the pro- priety of their conduct. Whenever we adopt t…
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spirit of" simian imitation" is worldliness pure and simple. The hi;;hest civilization is not necessarily moral, much less religious : why should I conform to the demands of a capricious code of laws, which may have no valid moral principle within them at all'/ God surely has not given us reflection and conscience to b…
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Law, is to sacrifice our birthright of manliness for a mess of the rudest pottage.- R. M. E. Ve:s. 1---30.-.Abomina'ble doings. _This chapter contains laws against abominations prsct.1sed by the heathen, together with rcasona why the) must be avoided by the people of God. Foremost amongst these reasons is- I. THAT TH…
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Vera. 1~.-Two aspects of sin. There are many way:1 in which sin may i,e regarded. Directed by these words, we may look at it in- I. ITS UGLY ASPECT AB SEEN IN HUMAN ILLUSTRATIONS. The children of Israel were warned to separate themselves in every way from "the doings of the land of Egypt" and from "the doings of the l…
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and to serve him with all their heart and with all tneir soul" (Deut. x. 12; see also Deut. vi. 5 ; xi. 13; nx_. 16, 20).. They were not only to act righteously toward their neighbour, but to love him (eh. x1x. 18). They were to "afflict their souls" on the Day of At::mement and Reconciliation (eh. xvi. 29). There c…
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for it that the soul which once knew the innocency of childhood finds an awful pleasure in such shameful deeds? 'fhe answer is undoubtedly here. The very possi- bility of it is a part of the penalty of the sins which have been committed. Sins of impurity leave a stain upon the soul; the seducer has not only to suffer t…
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IV. THAT DY SIN WE ABE DETERMINING OUR DOOM. (Ver. 29.) Whether by beina "cut off from among the_people" we understand excommunication and exile or death"' the penalty is seve~e. It fs certain that ve_r. 28 points to stern rejection and uttc; destruction. 1. It 1s certam that by open sm we expose ourselves to exile …
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Egyptia~s and (!anaanites were equally unfit to be followed. The Apostle Paul did not set UJ? hlB ~wn life as a model except in so far as he also imitated Christ (1 Cor. xi. 1). Ob~dience is here descri"bed in three ways, as doing the judgments of God, keeping his ordi~ances, and wul~ing therein (ver. 4). Great is the…
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EXPOSITION. (4) the second. These four laws are, in their positive nspects, (1) the religioUB law CHAPTER XIL of social order, on which a commonwealtli rests; (2) the law of positive obedience to From the prohibition of moral unclean- God's command because it is his command; ness exhibiting itself in the form of …
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prehensive though not in so systematic a distinction is drawn between the peace manner ns the ten commandments. offerings that are thank offerings, which Ver. 2.-Ye ahall be holy: for I the Lord must be eaten on the first day, and the your God am holy. The religious motive is put peace offerings which are vow or vol…
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tation of insult; How, then, can a son sin gained thy brother. But if be will not hear gravely when be curses his father without thee, then take with thee one or two more, the latter's knowing it, or mocks at him that in the mouth of two or three witnesses behind his back, inasmuch as in that oaee every word may be es…
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verse hy the e.llegation the.t the high priest's 11, position simil11,r to th11,t of the bee.then, dress was me.de of mixed materials, is met that is, unclean, from not h11,ving been yet by the e.nswer the.t, if it were of mixed sanctified by the offering of the firstfruite. materie.ls (which ie ancertain, for wool is …
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Gv<l. The ..-el'l!e is repeated in eh. love him u thyself. "The royal law or nvi. 2. "When the Lord's day is kept ver. 18 is expressly extended lo the holy, and a holy reverence for the Lord's ltranger, and notwithstanding the national aanctuary lives in the heart, not only are narrowness necessary to preserve the t…
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will BUbmlt. 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…
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day of the week-the anmversary of Clmst s resurrection-and 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? "'l'he Jewish sa…
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VII. RESULTS OF ITS NEGLECT, 1. To the individual: (I) 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 hal1it of choosing which of God's ,commandments he will obey ; (3) a loss of religious op1,ortuniti…
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The man who leaves something for others that he might have taken for himself, such aH 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…
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as men,n 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 bath a right in justice to be done him that, as far as I can, what I speak be true; for else…
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L To SWEAR BY GoD'e NAME IS COMMANDED, AB REING A REOOGNITION Oil' HIM AB SUPREME LoRD. Thus in Deuteronomy we read, "Thou ehalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his Name" (vi. 13); in the Psalms," Every one that sweareth by him shall glory (or be commended)" (I.xiii. 11); in Isaiah, "He th&t…
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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 him1<elf, to swear by his Na.me falsely subverts the purpose of the command and insults the majesty of God. VIII. IBBEVEBENCE. Not only deliberate perjury but any k…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. ~crs. 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 2&-28, 30--32, 36, 31.-Religion and superstition. It is not al ways easy or even possible to distinguish between religion and superstition. We may fall into the latter when we are seeking to practise the former; or we may, from undue- fear of the latter, neglect th…
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can reach the heights of wisdom without laboriously climbing the steeps of experience. They find that they are wrong. Tirue 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 end learn nothing in t…
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reminds us of some truths which come home to ourselves. We may observe: I. That power is apt to be tyrann~cal. The history of nations, tribes, individuals, is the history of assertion and assumption, The strong have ever shown themselves ready to take advanuige of the weak. Hence the oppression and c,,uelty which da…
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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 …
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Ver. 19.-~ids to purity. We shall first consider- . . I. \VHAT WAS THE PRI~RY PU!lPCRT OF THIS TR~LE LAW. We need not be surprised if we find here another a1d to punty of heart and life, another fence thrown up a"ains& immorality. Idolatry and immorality, both of the very worst description" bad covered and dishonoured …
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,bis, and that he bad sovereign right to dispose of it as be willeil, everything being of him ·and belonging to him. God claims all as bis; and hie claim is rigbteo118. 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 hi…
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exhortation of vers. 9, 10, about leaving in harvest-time what would be a help to the. poor and the stranger. 'l'his 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 stumb!ina-b)ock io the way of the blind, but" thou sbalt fear thy God" (ver. 14). …
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V~rs, 1-8.-Purity in W<nship. The laws set out in this chapter were before com- mumca~ to Aaron and bis sons; now they are given to the people (vers. 1, 2). It is the priVJlege and duty of God's people to acquaint themselves with bis will. They should learn the Law from the lips of Moses. They should learn the gospel f…
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(:l) To return to the legal dispensation is now to provoke the e.nger of the Lord. Cyril of Alexandria argu~s t_hat those who fail to see any spiritual meaning in the Law are still bound to keep 1t. m 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,…
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the dust. They come Crom God OT' a.re permitted by him. To take a.cl vantage of them or to trifle with them is therefore to tempt the Lord. (2) The frar of the retributive justice of Heaven should restrain (see Luke xvii. 1). Biblical history abundantly proves that the law of retalia.tion is a law of God.-J. A. M. Ven…
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rated 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 (Deut. :xxii. 9). 'l'he land also is impoverished. (c) Garments of mingled flax and wool are not to bo worn. Tho mixture would induce el…
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Vere. 29-37.-The fear of God. Of this excellent things are spoken by Solomon. It is the "beginning of knowledge," "hatred to evil," "stron"0 confidence" & "fountain of life,"" prolongs days," and" gives riches and honour." So here- ' L IT IS A SOURCE OF PURITY. 1. To the family. (1) There is a connection between ve…
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I. THE UNIVERSAL REQUIREMENT. "8peak unto all the congregation," etc. 1. No, exception. "All have sinned." 2. The natura of man requires him to be holy. The relation be~wee1;1 ma~ ~nd ~ - The laws of God not mere a~bitrary decrees, but th~ express10n, m poslt)ve rel~t1on to the fre1;dom_ of man, of the ~ternal Reality …
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EXPOSITION. The phrase, bearing 1au Iniquity, means CHAPTER XX. that the man con tin nes in the state of a. The subject of oh. xviii. is resumed in criminal until he bas been cleansed either this chapter; but that which was before con- by snlfering the punishment of his offence sidered as sin only is now regarded as…
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which are in t.he valley of the son of Hinnom, mother llhall be surely put to death, Human to cause their BODS and their daughters to authority, incontrovertible throughout 11, pass through the fire unto Molech; which great part of Christendom, declares that I oommanded them not, neither came it into iu most cases it i…
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as when man is legislator; for man cannot venture to gauge the relative enormities of sins, and assign to them their respective punishments, except so far as he is led by .the hand by the revelation of God. He can only judge of wTOngs and injuries to his .fellow-men. In the present age of the world, when the State and …
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HOMILIBS BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Human IJQCrijius. Ch. xx. 1-:-5; c~. Gen. xxii. 1-19; Micah vi. 7. In this chapter- we come to a catalogue of capital crimes. Upon the whole list of cases we need not dwell; but the first has some interest as raising the question of "human 11&crifices." How early the terrible practice of o…
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him, God interposed with a provided substitute. All God required in Abraham's peculiar case was the spirit of surrender. He guards, therefore, his prerogative of deal- ing with life, and enjoins his people only to take human life away when he directs them. 'l'hey are not to presume to offer such a sacred gift aa human …
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Ver. 6.-Credulity and faith. This, also, is an injunction which Moses had given before, and which he was instructed to repeat (see eh. x.ix. 31). Our thought may be directed to- L THE PREVALENCE OF D[p()STUBE. There has never been a time nor a land without its "familiar spirits," its "wizards,'' or impostors of som…
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V. THE EXCELLENGY OF A REASONABLE FAITH. The children of Israel had auch access to the spiritual world and such knowledge of the future as it was good for men to have. Was not God himself, in manifested presence and in revealing grace, in. their camp? Was he not speaking to them as to the future that was before them? W…
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"His blood shall be upon him," he meant his penalty shall rest upon him-it shall not be borne and taken away by the blood of the substituted victim. In other words, •• He shall bear his iniquity," or the penalty of his iniquity, himself (see eh. vii. 18). There. have _always been, and there will always be, in the wo…
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with the wicked every day" (Ps. vii. 11); "the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers" (Zech. i. 2); " they vexed his Holy Spirit" (Isa. !xiii. 10); "he looked on them with anger" (Mark iii. 6); to "them that obey nnrighteousness" God will render "indignation and wrnth" (Rom. ii. 8). 2. It is impoS11ible w…
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interm1miages were strictly prohibited (Deut. vii. 3, 4); they were to maintain a studied separateness from all surrounding nations. The conscientious service of God our Saviour involves some separateness on our part-. 1. We have to form ourselves into separate societies1 Christian Churches. From these we are bound, …
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reproved I (2) He that "hides his eyes," in this case, is visited with excommunication. For complicity in this gross idolatry, here described as "whoredom," God, as a jealous husband, gives his writing of divorcement. " I will set my face against that man, . . . and will cut him off from among his people." Not only is …
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priest allowed to fake part in mourning tho.t he shall not defile himself, being a ohie/ ('eremonics for her or not? It is thought by man among his people, to 'J,'Tofane himself, Eome tbnt her case is met by ver. 4, But refers to the kind of me.me.ge which the he shall not defile himaelf, being a ohief me.n priest is…
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HOMILETICS. Vera. 7-9.-The marriage of ehe clergy, according to the discipline of the reformed Ch~rches, is one of the points on which the latter bear a marked 1JUperiority to the La~m Church, which forbids its bishops and priests to marry; and to the Greek Church, which expects its priests to be married before ord…
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which both classes are only distantly striving after. The yriests, by conforming to certain regulations, were r~lly s~o~ng ,to the people what al ehou_ld eventually be 39 the people of God, Keepmg this LD view, we may profitably notice three requisites of the priesthood. I. PHYSICAL PERFECTION. God ordained that he…
795 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.