Leviticus 20:22 ¶ Ye shall
therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the
land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. 23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the
nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and
therefore I abhorred them. 24 But I have
said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to
possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your
God, which have separated you from other people. 25 Ye shall therefore put difference between
clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not
make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living
thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I
the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye
should be mine. 27 A man also or woman
that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death:
they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.
Two
things I want to mention first are that we have seen that there were places in
Canaan, as there is in Palestine today, where finding water was a chore and so
wells became points of contention in Abraham and Isaac’s time. And yet, much of
Canaan is said to be very fertile as alluded to in this passage. So, clearly
there was a varied climate in the region even then as the climate is varied now.
We’ll discuss the fertility of Canaan shortly.
The
other thing is that if you read Paul’s religious history of mankind in Romans,
chapter 1, and remember what we’ve studied in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus we
see that not only are the things God has told Moses matters of personal
morality, violations of these standards for the Hebrews were part of ancient
religious behavior and therefore practicing any of the things mentioned in
previous passages were gateway behaviors into the established idolatry of this
world.
God commands the Hebrews to follow all of His commands, His
standard of righteousness and not the way of the heathen. Verse 23 tells us
that the residents of Canaan are cursed and doomed because of their sexual
immoralities which are linked to their religious practices and cannot be
separated from them. First, see the prophecy.
Genesis 9:25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
The
descendants of Canaan were listed.
Genesis 10:15 ¶ And Canaan
begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, 16
And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, 17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the
Sinite, 18 And the Arvadite, and the
Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites
spread abroad. 19 And the border of the
Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest,
unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
Their descendants are the
Hittites, sons of Heth, and the rest of the inhabitants of Canaan. See the
promise to Abram/Abraham.
Genesis 15:12 ¶ And when
the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of
great darkness fell upon him. 13 And he
said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve
them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve,
will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace;
thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not
yet full.
And now their grossly immoral behavior and idolatry is being dealt
with. How can America, so steeped in sexual sins, have the nerve to plead, “God
bless America?” Judging by how depraved we are, how much of a Babylon we have
become, I wonder at how we are even held together as a nation. Our iniquity,
perhaps, is not yet full.
Verse 24 gives us two very important things to consider. The first
is that the climate of Palestine would have been milder at this time than now
as we know the earth was drying out after the Flood and continues to do so.
Canaan would have been a bountiful area. We must remember in this drying out
that in the Sahara Desert have been found rock carvings showing hippos,
crocodiles, leopards, and antelope found much further south than the seemingly
barren sands of the desert. We cannot look at all of Israel today and see what
was true in the distant past. Use the Bible as your guide.
The
earth has been drying out since the flood. Land use studies of the Ancient Near
East show the climate was cooler before 1,000 BC. and better suited to crops
and forests. The Scriptures themselves give evidence to this wetter, cooler
climate so unlike the arid landscape we see today. It is likened to the Garden
of Eden.
Genesis
13:10 ¶ And Lot lifted up his eyes, and
beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before
the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the
land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Exodus
3:7 ¶ And the LORD said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry
by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land
and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Josephus,
chronicler of the war against the Romans, tells of the climate himself at
Christ’s time.
Its nature is
wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all sorts of
trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all sorts of
trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very
well with those several sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest
air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best
in hot air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet require an air
that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature, where
it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another to agree
together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of them laid
claim to this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of autumnal
fruit beyond men’s expectation, but preserves them a great while; it supplies
men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually, during ten
months of the year and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together
through the whole year”
(The
Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 10:8).
So, no matter what you’ve been told the testimony
of Scripture and history shows that this area was once a fertile place that was
a great producer of food.
The most important thing about verse 24 is that it defines what it
means to inherit. A person who is chosen to inherit something is given that
something to possess. It is a grant, an act of grace. Israel has done nothing
to merit this gift as you have done nothing to merit everlasting life and the kingdom
of God but to receive it.
Verse 24 also speaks of how God has separated Israel from other
nations. Separation for God’s purpose, being made holy, is the meaning of
sanctification.
Exodus 13:2 Sanctify unto me all the firstborn,
whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
Israel was a chosen vessel through which God worked among men in
the world. It is through Israel that He would enter the lives of men and women
as the Lord Jesus Christ, born in poverty among common people.
Verse 25 taken with 24 in context suggests that one purpose of
having clean and unclean animals is to reinforce the idea of separation and of
making a distinction between the sacred and the profane, the holy and the
common, and even good and evil. Commentators write about verse 25 referring to
not eating the unclean thereby making one’s soul abominable. We must remember
that until Christ the sins of the flesh are condemning of the soul so that it
can be said when referring to a person that their soul does this or does that.
However, an operation is performed by God in Christ that separates our souls
from the sins of the flesh. It is a spiritual circumcision that we receive.
Colossians 2:11 In whom
also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
God calls the Hebrew to be holy as He is holy. He is separate from
His creation. While He is present everywhere He is not part of what He has
made. He is just, righteous, and the standard for all righteousness. They and
we are also called to be separate. God divides the light from the darkness. The
Hebrews, a nation of slaves, have been separated from the world around them,
from Egypt, Canaan, and every other culture.
God reinforces His commands regarding those who think they can
consort with the dead, call them up and ask them questions. See my comments of familiar spirits previously.
Each Christian is a type of the nation of Israel. We are called to
be separate and holy, apart from the world around us while, unlike the Hebrews
who were to form a special nation, we live in the world. Our neighbors,
often-time coworkers, and even members of our own family reject Christ’s offer
of forgiveness and we have no warrant to try to force anyone to receive Christ
nor are we to build some compound or buy some island so we don’t have to face
the unsaved world.
We have no nation on earth that is a Christian nation, whose
government serves Christ and does God’s will. Each individual Christian unites
with others to form the body of Christ on earth moving in the world but not of
the world.
Paul did, however, call Christians to be separate in their
behavior and in their fellowship in the church body.
1Corinthians 5:9 ¶ I wrote
unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of
this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then
must ye needs go out of the world. 11
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is
called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or
a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that
are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
We cannot worship together with people engaged in open sin, as God
defines sin. Like two oxen pulling in different directions under one yoke it
would be disastrous. In the context of the wicked world around them Paul
admonished the Corinthians.
2Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness?
15 And what concord hath
Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of
God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Known fornication, adultery, drunkenness, abuse of any kind cannot
be tolerated in a Christian congregation of believers. We must pray for the
fallen one but we also must confront them. In matters of church discipline we
can look at Jesus’ own words in Matthew 18.
Matthew 18:15 ¶ Moreover if
thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee
and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two
more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be
established. 17 And if he shall neglect
to hear them, tell it unto the
church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an
heathen man and a publican. 18 Verily I
say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be
done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
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