The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 219

could not be a type of Christ, who died voluntarily, for he had no sin of his own to doom him to die. All intercourse of Christians should be in Christ, who is our life. 2. The polluting of tliings. (1) Vessels of any sort are rendered unclean by contact with the carcase of an unclean thing. These represent human beings in the capacity of servants, whether to God or man (Rom. ix. 21; 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21). Some being polluted are to be broken, to show that sin leads to destruction (Rom. ix. 22). Others may be purified by water, to show that sin may be removed by the sanctifying grace of the Spirit of God. There is a happy time coming (see Zech. xiv. 20, 21). (2) Clean meat may become polluted by contact with anything nnclean. This law teaches that "evil com- munications corrupt good manners." (3) If an unclean thing fall into a fountain or well in which there is plenty of water, it does not render the water unclean (ver. 36). The living water is an emblem of the Holy Spirit, who cannot be rendered unholy by anything that sinners may do. For a like reason, perhaps, seed that is to be sown, which is a figure of Christ, cannot be rendered impure (ver. 37). But if water be put upon the seed for any other purpose, the figure is changed and the case is altered {ver. 38).-J. A. M. Vers. 11-13.-The abominable thing. All the" unclean" animals were spoken of a.a "abominable." The Israelites were to learn to regard all creatures which were forbidden for food as offensive in their sight. Many of those prohibited were, for one reason or another, objects of natural aversion; fitting, therefore, to be types and pictures of" that abominable thing which God bates" (Jer. xliv. 4). Probably nothing in nature affords such a vivid conception of that which is loathsome and disgusting as certain members of the animal world. "The ugliness and spitefulness of the camel, . . . the filthy 11ensuality of the bog, the voracious appetency of the dog, the wolf, and the hyena, the savage ferocity of the tiger, the sluggishness of the sloth, the eagle clutching innocence in its talons, the vulture gorging on putrescence, the slimy fish that creeps among the mud, the snake watching in the grass, the scaly thing that crawls on all the land and in all the sea;"-here we ha,·e a striking and almost terrible picture of the repulsive- ness of sin. The training of the Hebrew mind to look on "unclean" animals with greatest aversion helped them to view sin in the light in which God would have us regard it, viz.- I. As A THING WHIOB BE HATES UTI'ERLY. "It is even an abomination unto him," it is "that abominable thing which he hates." He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." The falseness, the impurity, the grossness, the oppression, the selfishness, the profanity, the ingratitude of human nature, are a.a unen- durable in God's sight-things from which he turns with as pained and troubled an eye- as are the most revolting actions of the unclean among the beasts of the field or the reptiles that crawl on the earth, in our esteem. Language fails to express the idea; the vilest habits of the lowest creatures will alone convey the thought of the repulsiveness of sin in the sight of God. II. As A THING WHICH THE HOLY BATE. Holy angels, the "spirits or just men made perfect," holy men on earth,-all holy spirits, like the Holy One himself, he.te sin, shrink from the sight of it, regard it "even as an abomination." David records for us his intolerance of iniquity (Ps. ci.). Peter tolls us of the vexation of Lot's righteous soul with the unlawful deeds and filthy conversation or the wicked (2 Pet. ii. 7, 8). The message that comes from the attitude of the holy is," Ye that love the Lord, hate evil" (Ps. xcvii. 10). III. As A THING WHICH WE MUST LEARN TO HATE. 1. If we are numbered among the holy, we are hating sin; as far as our spirit is sanctified by the truth and by the Spirit of God, so far sin is to us "that abominable thing." 2. But we need to learn more of its hideousness, and to shrink from it with more of Divine repugnance. 3. And if we are practising any evil habit, e.nd therefore cherishing it, and not only enduring but even loving it, there must come a time of disenchantment when the evil thing will assume to our eye its own hateful aspect. It is (1) a painful, thing to consider that we may be, with so many others, liking that which we should be loathing; choosing and cherishing that which we should be indignantly repelling or expelling. (2) A needful thing to keep an open eye to see that to which we may now be blind; to be willing to learn that which our true friends may have to teach us; to be ready  'l'HE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [cu. XI, 1--47