Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Leviticus 20:22-27 comments: God's condition for the Israelites to inherit Canaan

 

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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