The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 338

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 the land o~ Canaan. I_t was of th_e last importan~ that the people of God should be guarded in every possible way ao-arnst infection and guilt. Therefore the wise and holy Lawgiver instituted various mea~ures by which his people should be perpetually reminded that they must be absolutely free from these heinous crimes. And therefore precepts which intimated the will of Jehovah in this matter were bound up with their daily callings and their domestic life. Our text is an illustration. In t~e manage?1ent of their cattle, in _the ~ulti_vatio~ of their fields, in the making and wearmg of their clothes, God was wh1spenng rn their ear," Be pure of heart and life." Everything impressed upon their minds-these precise injunctions among other statutes-that there must be no joining together of that which God bad put asunder, no mingling of those who should keep apart, no "defilement" (see Deut. xxii. 9), no "confusion" (eh. xx. 12). By laws which had such continually recurring illustration they would have inwrought into the very texture of their minds the idea that, if they wished to retain their place as the people of God, they must be pure of heart and life. II. SECONDARY TRUTHS WHICH THIS LA w SUGGESTS. 1. It suggests simplicity in worship; there may be such an admixture of the divinely appointed and the humanly imported, of the spiritual and the artistic, of the heavenly and the worldly, that the excellency and the acceptableness will be lost and gone. 2. It suggests sincerity in service; in the ser~ice of the sanctuary or the sabbath school, or in any sphere of sacred usefulness, there may be such a mingling of the higher and the lower motives, of the generous and the selfish, of the nobler and the meaner, that the "wood, hay, and stubble" weigh more than the "gold, silver, and precious stones" in the balances of heaven, and then the workman will "lose his reward." 3. It suggests also the wisdom of taking special securities against specially strong temptations. God gave his people very many and (what seem to us) even singular securities against the rampant and deadly evil which had ruined their predecessorR and might reach and slay them also. The circumstances and conditions of the time demanded them. Exceptional and imperious necessity not only justifies but demands unusual securities. Let those who are tempted by powerful and masterful allurements to (1) intemperance, (2) avarice, (3) worldliness, (4) passion, take those special measures, lay upon themselves those exceptional restraints which others do not need, but without which they themselves would be in danger of transgression.-C. Vers. 23-25.-The range of sin and the rule of God. There is much uncertainty as to the intention of the Lord in this prohibition. I regard it as a lesson concerning- L THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF THE TAINT OF BIN. The Israelites were to regnrd the very soil of Canaan as so polluted by the sins of its former inhabitants that the fruit which came from it must be treated "as uncircumcised" (ver. 23). Idolatry and impurity-the two flagrant sins of the Cana.anites-are evils which stri_ke deep and last long in the taint which they confer. '!'heir cousequences a.re penetra.tmg and fnr- 1,preading. So, in larger or lesser degree, is all sin. It leaves a. taint behind; it pollutes the mind; it mars the life ; it makes its fruit, its natural growth and outcome, to be "as uncircumcised " to be unholy and unclean. And this is to an extent beyond our human estimate. 'If the Israelites bad concluded that the iniquities of the Canaa.nites were to be regarded as polluting the very soil, they would not have reckoned that three years would be required to free the land from the taint of evil. But G~d ma.~e the purifying process extend ove1 this protracted time. He knows that the sta.m of sin goes deeper and lasts longer tl.&n we think it does. What an argument this for ~xpelling the idolatrous and unclean from our heart a.nd life, for cultivating and cherish- ing the holy and the pure I II. THE Bil!GE OF Goo's CLAIMS. (Ver. 24.) Jehovah claimed the firstfruits of th: land when the soil was cleansed: "all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord. It ~va.s to be given (probably) to the priests. Thus G~d reasserted and eonfirme_d his claim to all the produce of the land. This law would remind them that the whole soil was <JB. UL 1-37.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 303