The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 223

things were and are necessary: 1. Carefulness: scrupulous regard to the known laws .(vers. 32, 34, 38). 2. Self-sacrifice: things made unclean must be broken up, disused. cast away, at whatever cost (vers. 33, 35). IV. 'l'HE REMOVAL OF THE STAIN OF BIN, "It must be put into water; . • • 80 it shall be cleansed " (ver. 32). "There is a folliltain filled with blood," etc.-C. Ver. 44.-Sacred separation. "Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves." The root. thought of sanctity is separateness. A man sanctifies himself when he separates him- self from that which is evil and impure; so with a nation or a family. These strict laws concerning the clean and the llilclean had important reference to- I. NATIONAL SEPARATION. 1. God purposed to establish a holy nation. He designed, by various methods, to separate for himself a people free from the idolatry and the im- morality of the race. 2. He therefore determined to separate Israel from international intercourse. The people of God were not to have any outside social relations, were not to intermarry with neighbouring nations. 3. Therefore, beside geographical obstacles &nd positive prohibitions, God interposed a precise and separating dietary. This created a strong barrier between his people and all others. The Jaws of food affect us power- fully in our social relations. Free intercourse is impossible without hospitality, and hospitality is impossible where distinctions as to eating and drinking are not only numerous but sacred and binding. A Hebrew could not sit down to the table of an Egyptian or an Arab without offending his host and sinning against his God. More- over, such distinctions would generate and foster feelings of moral aversion toward those who did not observe them, and this would be another strong fence, helping to maintain separateness. The Jews may have carried this far beyond the original intention o( the Divine Legislator; but at that point in the religious history of the world, all considera- tions were second, longo intervallo, to the one supreme end of keeping Israel separate and pure. God has, in his providence, divided the human race into nations by separating seas and mountains; there are many obvious advantages in this: it makes government, and therefore order and security, a possible thing. It makes possible national influence for good. How much of benefit and blessing to Europe and the world has arisen and will arise from the fact that he who is Lord of the sea and the rock has cut a channel and filled it with the dividing waters between the continent and this Heaven- taught land of ours (Ps. cxlvii. 20) I II. FAMILY SEPARATION, "God setteth the solitary in families" (Ps. ~ - 6). But he thereby not only makes the lonely to be social and joyous; he separates one small group of souls from all others. The family unites its members into one fellowship; it also divides the nation into separate circles. It is a fence which shuts out as well as it shuts in. It is one of the most imperative and sacred duties which God lays upon us who are parents to eee that no injurious, no poisonous, no ruinous element, in the shape of a contaminating human soul, is admitted within the gates of family life. III. INDIVIDUAL BEPABATION, With us (speaking generally) God wills how separate the nation shall be; the human parent determines how separate the family shall be; each individual soul must decide how separate he and his life shall be. There is a sin-stained, corrupted world encompassing us; we must choose, for ourselves, how far we will enter it, how free our intercourse with it shall be. There are, however, some general principles. 1. We must have something to do with it (John xvii. 15; 1 Cor. v. 9). 2. We must impose some restraints on ourselves; we must draw some lines of limitation; we must "sanctify (separate) ourselves." 3. We should refrain from familiar association with the openly ungodly; for by such familiarity we should identify ourselves with their principles and countenance their evil ways. 4. We should avoid intimacy with the irreligious and undecided; for if we mingle continually with those who walk on lower spiritual ground, we shall surely fall to their level (Prov. xiii. 20).-C. Ver. 45.-High reasons/or holinesa. The height of human character depends on the nature of the motives by which men allow themselves to be governed. It is certain (1) that we are all actuated by a great variety:of motives; (2) that we are affected by many considerations in our choice of the better path; (3) that of the right motives which actuate us some are much higher than others.; (4) that while it is well to be 18'3 'fllE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [ea. xr. 1--47~