The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 320

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 from the Christian Church, and even to banishment from all decent and honourable society. The Church, the family, and the social circle must exclude the wanton offender for the sake of their pure and innocent members. 2. Also that by continuance in deliberate sin whether open or secret, whether of the body or of the soul, we shall be rejected fro~ the city of God. "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination" (Rev. xxi. 27).-C. ' Vers. 1-30.-Ver. 5, "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my jud!mlents: 0 which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord." I. THE TRUE MORALITY IS BASED UPON THE TRUE RELIGION. 1. Special need of insisting on this in times when men seek to make light of religious obligation. 2. Historical confirmation: Egypt, Persia, Grecce,'Ilome,-all corrupt because degenerate. No protection, as luxury increases, from relaxation of manners save in religious safe- guards. 3. The life of faith is life in commandments. The Lord is both the Object of faith and the Ruler of life. The commandments do not give faith or dispense with it, but reveal, test, and approve it. II. THE WORLD WITHOUT GoD IS A WORLD OF ABOMINATIONS AND DEATH, All God's laws contribute to health and happiness. His judgments on the nations were the clearing away of moral filth and disorder. The state of the heathen is an indisputable evidence of man's natural depravity and ruin. Intellect, physical prowess, wealth, learning,-all were rendered useless, and worse than useless, by moral weakness. III. JUDGMENT A:t."D MERCY WENT BAND m BAND m THE D1vmE DISPENSATION. The offender was excommunicated that he might have opportunity for repentance- which made a warning to all. '.l'he land was to be kept from defilement that it might be the land of God's people. The sanctity of the bodily life, of personal purity, of domestic relationship, of the family, and so of the nation, are all made to depend on the sanctity of the first and deepest of all relations-that between man and God. "I am the Lord." The land is mine first, then yours. The Law is your safety and peace.-R. Vers. 1-5.-0bedience enjoined. A nation's importance is not to be reckoned according to its size, but more according to the character of its people and of the great men who have belonged to it. That must ever be a distinguished nation which has had a Moses ruling over it, a man with whom God spoke face to face, instructing him by what rules to govern the people. Those rules form a code second to none in history for purity, justice, and completeness. At the head of a number of separate precepts stands the special injunction of the text, calling upon the Israelites to respect the entire Law. l. A REMINDER THAT m EVERY PLACE THERE ARE EVIL PRACTICES TO BE SHUNNED. The present position of every individual is an isthmus connecting the continent of the past and the future. Israel in the wilderness journeying from Egypt to Canaan was but like many between youth and manhood, school and business! activity and retire- me1,t. Such a transition state may be profitably used as a time of thought and resolution. In no position must we expect freedom from temptation. The conduct of the Egyptians and of the Canaanites must alike be avoided (ver. 3). And those who defer religious decision until a season of immunity from danger arrives, may tarry in vain. The wilderness has its lawless manners as well as the settled country. How necessary to be upon our guard lest we be corrup?3d by . the customs o~ our neighbours! Happy the college, the mart, the home, that 1s less likely to contammate than to purify I II. CoMPLIANCE WITH THE LAWS OF Goo IS TlIE DEBT PRESERVATIVE AGAmBT IMITATING SINFUL CUSTOMS. He runs quickest away from evil who pursues the good in front of him. Simply to retreat from danger, backing from it, is a slow and insecure method. We want more than negative righteousness, we need positive fulfilment of holy commands to ensure us against adopting odious habits. It ia not safe _to tuka ,nen ae our palterns of behaviour, "Be ye imitators of God as beloved children" CII, XVIII. 1-30.] TIIE noo~ OF LEVITICUS. 285