The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 307

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 marriage and of forbidden sins of lust. The formal and solemn declaration, I am the form a sequence to chs. xi.-xvii., which Lord your God, is made three times in these have dealt with ceremonio.l uncleanness and five verses. This places before the people its purification. It is a remarkable thing the two thoughts: I. That the Lord is that, except by implication in connection holy, aud they ought to be like him with the sin offerings and the trespa.ss offer- in holiness; 2. That the Lord has com- ma.nded holiness, and they ought to obey ings and the ceremonies of the Day of him by being holy. Because the Lord is Atonement, there has not yet been a single their God, nnd they are his people, they moral precept, as such, in the Dook of nre, negntively, to refrain frow the vicious Leviticus, and there ho.a been very little habits and lnx customs prevo.lent in the land recognition of sin a.s distinct from pollution. of Egypt wherein they dwelt, and in the All ho.s been ceremonial. But the cere- land of Canaan whither they were going, the sensuality of which is indirectly condemned monio.1 is typioal of the moral, and from the by the injunctions which command pmity considemtion of ceremonial uncleanness o.nd in contrast to their doings; a.nd, positively, its remedy, we now proceed to the con- they are to keep God's statutes, and his judg- sideration of moml uncleo.nness and its menta, as la.id down in the following code, penalty. It is to be noticed too that, while whioh if a man do, he shall live in them. The latter ela.use is of special importo.nce, the ensuing laws are commanded as the because it is ropcated in the same connection positive injunction of God (vers. 2, 30), which by Ezekiel (Ezek. xx. 11, 13, 21), o.nd in the of itself is sufficient to give them their Levitical con fess ion in the Book of N ebemiah authority and force, they are still foundod, (Neh. ix. 29), and is quoted by St. Paul in like the ceremonial prohibitions, upon the n controvorsial sense (Rom. x. 5; Go.I. iii. 12). feelings of repugno.nce implo.nted in the Its full meaning is that by obedience to God's commands man 11ttains to a stato of mind of mo.n. To enter into the marriage existence which nlono deserves to be called relation with, near relo.tives is abhorrent to a true life-" the life which connects him with sentiment in mankind so widely spread that Jehovah through his obedience" (Cla.rk). it may be deemed to have been origino.lly And this involves the further truth that universal, and the same abhorrence is enter- disobedience resulta in dco.tb. Accordingly, St. Paul uses the text as being the testimony tained towards other foul sins of lust. Ugli- of the LJ.w with regard to itself, that snlvn- ness, which creates disgust by its ugliness, tion by it is of works in contrast with faith. symbolizes sin; immomlity, which inspires (Of. Luke x. 28.) We have no evidence to ~bhorrence by its immoml character, proves tell us what were the doing• of the land of itself thereby to be sin. The section deals first Canaan in respect to the marrio.ge relation, but this chapter is enough to show that th(} with sin in the marriage relation, next with utmost laxity prevniled in it, and we may sexual impurities connected with marriago, be sure that their religious rites, like thoso then with other cases of immorality, and of Midio.n (Numb. uv.), were ponet.rated f72 'fHE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [err. xvm. 1-30.