Leviticus 19-20

Leviticus 19-20

The laws laid out in Leviticus 19 seem to be an in depth explanation on how to live out the Ten Commandments.  It is easy to see how the two are intertwined.  

The thing to remember is that God was calling Israel to be a holy people, set apart from the surrounding world, because the people already living in the surrounding areas were corrupt and evil.  It was important that the hearts of the Israelites not be easily swayed by the temptations of the world. 

God was also going to set Israel apart by their kindness and generosity towards the strangers.  He desired for Israel to treat the aliens of the land with love.  It is important to never forget what God saved us from.  We have a responsibility to love everyone, for we were once just like them, slaves to our sins.  

God lays out His rules about sexual purity in regards to incest, bestiality, adultery, and homosexuality.  These were things that the Israelites were going to encounter on a regular basis.  And these were things that God was sure to make very clear that He did not want His people to participate in.  God repeats the refrain, “You are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine” (v26).  God has set us apart to be holy just as He is holy.  To live lives holy and pleasing towards Him.  It is important for us to remember that God is Holy and He alone deserves our praise.  In the words of John Wesley:

Holy as Thou, O Lord, is none;

Thy holiness is all Thine own;

A drop of that unbounded sea

Is ours—a drop derived from Thee.

And when Thy purity we share,

Thine only glory we declare;

And, humbled into nothing, own,

Holy and pure is God alone.

Sole, self-existing God and Lord,

By all Thy heav’nly hosts adored,

Let all on earth bow down to Thee,

And own Thy peerless majesty.

Thy power unparalleled confess,

Established on the Rock of peace;

The Rock that never shall remove,

The Rock of pure, almighty, love.