Leviticus 18:19–30

Here is a somewhat different character of defilement, but one leading on to still viler abominations. There is no need to dwell on any of them, though we can be sure God is wise and holy in every word He lays down. In fact Hebrews 13:4 calls Christian Jews, and in principle everyone concerned, to take heed. Its words take in verses 19 and 20 of our chapter. Marriage is to be honourable in all respects, as well as among all, of course. Christian light and love are meant to reach even the most intimate of relationships. They cleanse from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Whether Jews or Gentiles, we need reminding that the Lord avenges all such wrongs.

Chapters 13 and 14 deal with the worst form of defilement. It usually lasted a lifetime and shut a person out of the camp of Israel, where God was pleased to dwell. Leviticus 15 deals with a variety of lesser defilements. These brought a temporary separation and careful washings before a person could return to the camp and its privileges. They sprang from the weakness of human nature. They also sprang from conditions as they exist today, as a result of the fall. Many of them were unavoidable, yet Israel still had to recognise them as defiling and treat them as such. In this way Israel learned the holiness of their God, and learned that everything defiling must go if they were to enjoy His presence.

Against unions or liberties such as those indicated here, Jehovah sets His face. His name, from the beginning of the chapter to the end, is the solemn warrant against them all. If an Israelite let passion carry him away, it was rebellion against Jehovah and at his own peril.

Notice how this book judges the details of evil. Jehovah puts Himself forward in person as the One whose character rejects these things and makes them impossible for His people — "I am the Lord." The people were in relationship with Him; He sanctified them.

Leviticus 18 keeps them from dishonouring themselves in what belongs to nature itself — in what a person ought to be in their natural relations... God brings His people near to Him and teaches them on this subject. They were separated from the evil of the world they were called out of. They were separated too from the reckless immorality into which Satan had driven degraded man as his plaything... The comeliness of nature is maintained; what defiles is forbidden.

God's people are to be shaped by what He has revealed of Himself. Their conduct rests on what He is, not on what they are in themselves... The Egyptians and the Canaanites were all wrong. How was Israel to know this? Who told them?... Jehovah's word settled every question of right and wrong for every member of the Israel of God. This was not one Israelite's judgement against an Egyptian's or a Canaanite's; it was the judgement of God above all. Egypt might have her practices and opinions, and so might Canaan; but Israel were to have the opinions and practices laid down in the word of God.

These laws deal with matters that are morally wrong and are still wrong today. Though the believer is not in any sense "under law" but "under grace," this does not mean he is free to break the bounds of morality. Rather, grace gives him both the desire and the ability to carry out the righteousness the law required. He does this without seeing himself as under the law's authority (Rom. 8:3-4).

Leviticus 18 keeps them from dishonouring themselves in the things that belong to nature itself. It holds them to what man ought to be in his natural relations, so that he would not dishonour himself. Man ought not to dishonour himself. But since he did not honour God, God left him to do it (compare Rom. 1). God brought His people near to Himself, and so He teaches them about this. He set them apart from the evil of the world He called them out of. He also set them apart from the reckless immorality into which Satan had driven degraded man for his sport.

The warnings given to Israel show us what uncleanness they were in danger of falling into, if left to themselves. Without a revelation from God they had no right standard to guide their conduct in matters that so closely affected their happiness and the purity of family life.

Adultery is just as evil as is incest (v. 20), and similarly forbidden.

Marriage is only honourable where people keep God's will. Hebrews 13:4 in no way approves or sanctifies a forbidden union. The true rendering is: let marriage be honourable "in all things," and the bed be undefiled. It is a command, not a statement of fact. Against unions or liberties such as those listed here, Jehovah sets His face. His name from beginning to end of the chapter is the solemn warrant against them all. If an Israelite allowed passion to carry him away, it was rebellion against Jehovah and at his own peril.

Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things. The nations of Canaan did all of them, and He drove those nations out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! These sins made the very land unclean, so He brought judgment on it for that guilt. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel had to beware, both for themselves and for any stranger living among them, in case the land should vomit them out too, as it had the nations who lived there before Israel. For such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else.

The letter to the Hebrews (13:4) calls Christian Jews, and in principle everyone concerned, to take heed. Its words cover verses 19 and 20 of this chapter. Marriage is to be honourable in all respects, and among all people too. Christian light and love should reach even the most intimate relationships and cleanse them from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Jews and Gentiles alike need the reminder that the Lord avenges all such wrongs.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:27-28). Where is the law set aside here? Nowhere — He upheld it. The law was content to forbid the act itself. The Lord went further and forbade the inward desire as well as the outward act.

Then the laws move from wives to children, and to that most inhuman rite. Parents were so blinded by Satan that they offered their own children as sacrifices to Molech or Moloch, and likely to Malcham or Milcom. It was the guardian god of the Ammonites. Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, differed little from it. Fürst takes that name to mean "fire," while Molech and the rest mean "King." … How awful that Solomon gave in to his pagan wives.

Passing their children through the fire might seem to mean that parents dedicated them to the idol by moving them quickly through a fire without burning them. This may have happened. But some passages do not allow that reading. Of the Canaanites Scripture says, "they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:31). Israel is recorded doing the same: they made the sons they bore to God pass through the fire, to be devoured; and after killing their children for their idols, they came into His sanctuary the same day to profane it (Ezekiel 23:37, 39).

People called this a sacrifice. But it did not come from unselfish love for Molech. It came from the selfish evil of wanting to get rid of a child. How evil it is today that many want to get rid of a child before it is born! Molech was an image with its arms stretched out. People would place their children in those arms, and a fire burned underneath. Drums and noisy music drowned out the cries of the child as the fire burned it to death. So this religious wickedness made the torture and murder of an unwanted child look holy!

This verse is only one of many solemn bans on a horror that lasted down to Josiah's day. Ahaz had been a notable patron of it long before. … It was the fullest, though not the only, profanation of the name of Israel's God. Jehovah accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller sacrifice. Satan, under these names, demanded their sons.

Notice how in this book, when the details of evil are judged, Jehovah puts Himself forward in person. He is the One whose character both rejects these things and makes them impossible for His people — "I am the LORD." The people were in relationship with Him. He sanctified them.

One of the first steps in this downward progress was burning the little ones of Judah in the fire of Molech. What a fearful thought for a parent's heart! A believer's backsliding sin and worldliness today may sacrifice his children to everlasting burning, unless grace prevents it. … I believe we cannot turn one step away from God without affecting our children. In that case it is no use praying for their conversion. That only hardens their hearts, if we ourselves are leading them into Satan's paths.

The opening verses of Leviticus 18 show that the Lord was looking back on Egypt and forward to Canaan. Both lands were in the grip of very degrading idolatry. So Israel met that infection both before and after their journey through the wilderness. They were not to follow the evil but to keep God's statutes and judgments, and by doing so they would live in them.

In Leviticus 18 God now treats the people as a holy people, and He firmly and solemnly forbids everything that goes against the order of God in nature. It is important to hold the same principle always. God does not release anyone from what offends His natural order. Grace may bring us into a higher place, where we do not take up the freedom nature allows; but God still keeps His own order there, and so should we… Neither Egypt nor Canaan may set the practice of Israel: the One who spoke to them was Jehovah their God. He laid down the broadest principles, and He also knew how to go down into the smallest details that concerned His people.

Closely connected with this is the strong prohibition of the abominable practice of homosexuality (v. 22). God has provided the honorable institution of marriage between a man and a woman. Yet out of sheer selfishness people dare to abuse the very best that God has given. We know too that such things bring painful repercussions (Rom. 1:26-27). God is not mocked. People may feel they get away with evildoing, but whatever one sows he will also reap (Gal. 6:7).

The unnatural cruelties of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough. What is less known is how shamelessly the nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What abomination!… So God punished the land for its sin. The land threw out the people living in it. Israel had to be careful, then, not only for themselves but for any foreigner living among them… Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, and the Christian world later forgot it too. God keeps souls from evil through the good He gives — His word, and above all His Christ.

The most unnatural crimes and vile things mentioned in verses 22-23 belonged to the idol worship of the nations around Israel. Egypt and Canaan both practised them. Romans 1:18-32 gives the inspired history of the degradation of the Gentile world. Idolatry and moral degradation always go together… Rejection of God's revelation leads into idolatry (not necessarily idols of wood and stone) and moral decline.

"Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers… nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And these things were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11). How real and great is the depravity of man left to himself and Satan! How real and still greater is the delivering grace of God in the name of the Lord Jesus and by His own Spirit!

In Leviticus 18 God treats the people as a holy people. So everything that went against God's order in nature is firmly and solemnly forbidden here. It is important to hold this same principle always. God does not excuse what offends His natural order. Grace may bring us into a higher place, where we do not use our freedom in matters of nature. But God still keeps His own order there, and so should we.

Leviticus 18 keeps them from dishonouring themselves in the things that belong to nature itself — to what man ought to be in his natural relationships, so that he would not dishonour himself. Man ought not to do it. But because he did not honour God, he has been left to dishonour himself (compare Rom. 1)... The things forbidden here are the ones Satan plunged man into, through the satanic and unnatural indulgence of the flesh.

They changed the truth of God into a lie. They put the creature in the place of the Creator as an object of worship. So they are allowed to fall below the creatures they worshipped. Men sank below the animals. It has been well said that an animal is not a moral creature, but a man brought down to an animal's level becomes immoral. His affections are corrupted and twisted out of their natural course into what is against nature.

It may be painful to read. But it is healthy to learn what human nature fell into among pagan peoples as civilized as Egypt and Canaan. And God knew that His people, if they treated His word lightly, might follow them both.

Israelites even had to be warned against the disgusting wickedness of having sexual relations with an animal (v. 23). Yet this, along with the other evils named earlier, was practised among the nations God was about to drive out of Canaan (v. 24).

The unnatural cruelties of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough. But people may not know how shamelessly the pagan nations did them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What an abomination! It is confusion, says the Lord... The land itself was made unclean, so He punished its sin. The earth vomited out those who lived in it, and Israel must beware... Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, as Christendom did later.

If a human and an animal had sexual relations, both were to be put to death (vv. 15-16).

Notice how in this book, when God judges the details of evil, the Lord puts Himself forward as the One whose character rejects these things at once and makes them impossible for His people — "I am the Lord." The people were in relationship with Him. He sanctified them.

Souls are kept from evil by receiving the good that comes from God — His word, and above all His Christ.

Leviticus 18 keeps them from dishonouring themselves in the things that belong to nature itself. It guards what man ought to be in his natural relations, so that he would not dishonour himself. Man ought not to do it; but, not having honoured God, he has been left to dishonour himself (compare Romans 1). The people of God, being brought near to Him, are taught on this subject. They were separated from the evil of the world they were called out of. They were separated, too, from the reckless immorality into which Satan had driven degraded man, using him as his plaything.

What thick moral darkness man was in, that the Lord was unknown to so many! What depths of degradation and filth they were found in! That is why God had to warn Israel against the ways of the nations of the land, both social and religious (18:24-28). Because of those ways the land would vomit them out like something sickening. What had man become, man made in the image of God, and originally in His likeness too? But how had this come about? … God made man upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

Those nations filled that land with gross corruption. That was more than enough to strip them of any decent claim to keep it. In Abraham's day the cup of their wickedness was not yet full (Genesis 15:16). It was overflowing when Israel's armies came upon them as God's executioners. Does anyone doubt whether it was right to dispossess those nations to make room for the Lord's chosen people? It is enough to quote Leviticus 18:25: "And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants."

Israel were not to make themselves unclean by any of these things. The nations of Canaan did all of them, and He drove those nations out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! … So Israel had to beware — not only for themselves, but for any foreigner living among them. Otherwise the land would vomit them out, as it had the nations who lived there before Israel. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes. It was even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot this truth, and Christendom forgot it later.

A solemn warning closes this chapter. The inhabitants of Canaan were to be driven out because of their vileness. The Lord would not spare His own people if they practised these things. They did commit all this wickedness. Israel, driven out of the land, the homeless wanderer, is a witness that this solemn warning was fulfilled.

First, God told them not to do the evil practices they had seen in Egypt. Second, when they entered the land of Canaan they were not to do as the Canaanites did (vv. 2-3). The world was living in moral corruption, as it still is today, and the believer is not to conform to this kind of thing. They had come out of Egypt, as believers today have left the world that ignores the living God. So let them take no part of the world with them. … Such circumstances distress someone called by God to a path of obedience. But we should treat circumstances as a proving ground.

The unnatural brutalities of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough, but you may not know how shamelessly the pagan nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What an abomination! It is confusion, says Jehovah. Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things, as all the nations of Canaan did whom He drove out before them. How much more guilty then would Israel be! The very land was made unclean. Therefore He had visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel must beware, and not only for themselves but for any stranger living among them. Otherwise the land would vomit them out, as it had the nations who lived there before them. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else… It is by receiving the good that comes from God — His word and above all His Christ — that souls are kept from evil.

Here the critic of God's Word, and the one who scoffs at His ways, steps up and charges Him with cruelty and injustice. But they are shallow thinkers and dishonest judges; they jump to conclusions without examining the evidence. He had assigned that land to Israel, yet He kept them in the fiery furnace of Egypt for four hundred years. All that time He was patient with the wicked inhabitants of Canaan. He did not carry out His judgment on their horrible breaking of all His laws until the cup of their iniquity was full. Leviticus 18:25 describes the state of the land and gives the reason for God's way. So God's judgment of them was justified.

Israel was told exactly why these nations were judged: "Not because of your righteousness ... but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you" (Deuteronomy 9:5; 18:12). Leviticus 18 states this truth in the strongest possible way, warning Israel not to fall into the same abominations. So God lets a people ripen to the full height of their wickedness. Then He takes them as the occasion for showing His righteous anger and power. It is a great public sample of God's full judgment on the earth.

The land itself was spewing them out for their abominations. In this Israel was only the executioner of divine judgment. They did not act from their own passion or greed for territory. He could have destroyed them by plague or famine. Instead He chose Israel to do this work. In this way He gave His people the most solemn lesson possible: the holiness of His own nature, and what sin is before Him. They themselves would come under similar awful judgments if they followed those nations in their sin.

The Land — "My Land," whatever its state or divisions. It is Jehovah's Land, and if the people fail in every way, it falls into His hands. It was only entrusted to Israel.

For these sins the land they were going to was casting out its inhabitants. They are warned that if they do the same things, it would cast them out too. God's righteousness is the same toward all His creatures. Israel, now cast out of their land, are witnesses to it.

The opening verses of Leviticus 18 show that the Lord was looking back on Egypt and forward to Canaan. Very degrading idol worship gripped both these lands. So Israel faced that infection both before and after their journey through the wilderness. They were not to follow the evil, but to keep God's statutes and judgments. If they did, they would live in them. The Apostle quotes this statement in Galatians 3:12. This doing was not "of faith," and obedience would secure not heaven but continued life on earth.

God told Israel plainly why those nations were judged: "Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out before you." Leviticus 18 states this truth in the strongest possible way. It warns Israel not to fall into the same abominations… So God let a people ripen to their full height of wickedness, and then used them as the occasion to show His righteous wrath and power. He warned Israel fully and told them the principle He acted on.

Israel must not make themselves unclean in any of these ways. The nations of Canaan did all these things, and He cast those nations out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land was made unclean. Therefore He had visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel had to be careful — not only for themselves, but for any foreigner staying among them — in case the land should vomit them out too, as it had the nations that lived there before them. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes. It offended Him even more in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, and Christendom forgot it later.

The most unnatural crimes and vile acts named in verses 22-23 belonged to the idol worship of the nations around Israel. People did these things in Egypt and in Canaan… Idol worship and moral degradation always go together. The fearful road of the apostasy in Christendom is no exception. When people reject what God has revealed, they slide into idolatry — not always idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.

The land they were going to was casting out its inhabitants for these sins. They are warned that if they practised such things, it would cast them out too. God's righteousness is the same towards all His creatures. Israel, now cast out of their land, are witnesses to it.

Just as this chapter begins, so it ends with the positive declaration, "I am the LORD your God" (v. 30). If only Israel would recognise this wonderful, positive blessing as they should, it would keep them from all the negative evils of this chapter.

The opening verses of Leviticus 18 show that the Lord was looking back on Egypt and forward to Canaan. Both these lands were in the grip of very degrading idolatry, and so Israel was exposed to the infection both before and after their wilderness journey.

Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things. That is what the nations of Canaan did, and He drove them out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land became unclean. So He visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel must beware, both for themselves and for any foreigner living among them. The land might vomit them out, as it had the nations that lived there before them. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else.

Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer put up with them. So He was going to drive them out, quite apart from the incoming tenants. Whoever was going to take possession of the property, these dreadful tenants had to go... He had put up with the wickedness of the seven nations until it became unbearable. The very land itself could not bear it.

God had assigned that land to His people. Yet in His patience with the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, He kept them in the fiery furnace of Egypt for four hundred years. He did not carry out His judgment on their horrible breaking of all His laws until the cup of their iniquity was full. Leviticus 18:25 describes the condition of the land and gives the reason for God's way: "And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants." So God's judgment of them was just.

Because of these sins the land they were going to was casting out its inhabitants. The warning to Israel was this: if they practised such things, it would cast them out too. God's righteousness is the same toward all His creatures. Israel, now cast out of their land, are witnesses to it.

The most unnatural crimes and vile things in verses 22–23 belonged to the idolatries of the nations around Israel. People practised these things in Egypt and in Canaan. Romans 1:18–32 gives the inspired history of the degradation of the Gentile world. Idolatry and moral degradation always go together... When people reject God's revelation, they fall into idolatry — not necessarily idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.

It may not be known how openly these things were practised among the nations, even by the Greeks and the Romans. What abomination!

Every Christian must feel that the Lord was fully right to punish the Canaanites for their sin. In the vivid language of Scripture, the land could not help vomiting out the people living on it. Their idolatry was detestable, and their unnatural crimes were almost too vile to name. They had many warnings too. God judged the most notorious people in the land at the start of His ways with the fathers. He warned them again at the end, when He brought the children out of Egypt and through the wilderness, with wonders that spoke to their consciences — however much they defied it all at the last.

The land itself was spewing them out for their detestable practices. In this Israel only carried out God's judgment. They were not acting out of their own passion or greed for land. God could have destroyed the Canaanites by plague or famine. Instead He chose Israel to do the work. In this way He taught His people the most solemn lesson possible about the holiness of His own nature, and about what sin is before Him. They would come under the same awful judgments themselves if they followed the Canaanites in their sin.

Those practices made the land itself unclean, and so He punished the land for that sin. The earth vomited out the people living on it. So Israel had to beware, not only for themselves, but for any foreigner staying among them, in case the land should vomit them out too, as it had the nations that lived there before Israel. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else — a truth soon forgotten among the Jews, and later in Christendom. What keeps souls from evil is receiving the good that comes from God — His word, and above all His Christ.

The Land — "My Land," whatever its condition or divisions. It is the Lord's Land. If the people fail in every way, it falls back into His hands. He had only entrusted it to Israel.

If they did not keep God's statutes and judgments, the land would "vomit you out." God had set that land apart as His own "holy land." It would expel the nations living there, because they worshipped idols and evil spirits. It could do the same to Israel if they sank to a similar level. History has proved this true in the scattering of Israel from their land for centuries after they rejected Christ, their promised Messiah.

Leviticus 18 speaks of the purity that separates the people of God from the corruption of Egypt and of Canaan. "Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."

This chapter ends the way it begins, with the positive declaration, "I am the LORD your God" (v. 30). If Israel would only see this wonderful, positive blessing for what it is, it would keep them from all the negative evils of this chapter.

The worship of the god Molech is forbidden. Read 1 Kings 5:7; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35; 7:31 and 19:5. These passages describe the awful worship of Molech. The most unnatural crimes and vile things named in verses 22-23 belonged to the idol worship of the nations around Israel. Egypt and Canaan both practised them. Romans 1:18-32 gives the inspired history of how the Gentile world sank. Idolatry and moral degradation always go together... Rejecting God's revelation leads into idolatry — not necessarily idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.

There is also uncleanness from other causes, and worse abominations against nature, and the LORD warns against them. It may be painful to read. But it is healthy for us to learn how far human nature fell among pagan peoples as civilized as Egypt and Canaan. God knew that His people, if they treated His word lightly, might follow them both.

Israel was not to make itself unclean in any of these ways, as the nations of Canaan did — the nations He drove out before them. How much guiltier would Israel be if they did! The land itself was made unclean, so He punished it for that sin... Such evil was unbearable in His eyes, and it was more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, and the Christian world forgot it later... It is by receiving the good that comes from God, His word and above all His Christ, that souls are kept from evil.

The word "excommunication" never appears in the older English Bible, yet Scripture clearly teaches the duty of putting wicked people out of Israel, and out of the church as the house of God. Again and again in the Old Testament we read that for certain sins "that person shall be cut off from Israel" or "cut off from his people." Ex. 12:15; Ex. 30:33, 38; Lev. 7:20-21, 25, 27; Num. 9:13; Ezra 10:8; etc.

In fact, God was punishing the people of the land with death or expulsion because these things had so grossly defiled it. If anyone in Israel was found guilty of such things, that would bring the death penalty too.

A solemn warning ends this chapter. God would cast the people of Canaan out because of their vileness. He would not spare His own people if they practised these things. And they did commit all this wickedness. Israel, cast out of the land and wandering homeless, is the witness that this solemn warning came true.

The letter to the Hebrews (13:4) calls Christian Jews, and in principle everyone concerned, to take care. Its words cover verses 19 and 20 of our chapter. Marriage is to be held in honour in every respect, and of course among all people. Christian light and love are meant to reach even the most intimate relationships, and to cleanse from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we need reminding that the Lord is the avenger of all such wrongs.

Just as this chapter begins, so it ends by the positive declaration, "I am the Lord your God" (v. 30). If only Israel would recognize this wonderful, positive blessing! That would keep them from all the negative evils of this chapter.

When this book judges the details of evil, notice how Jehovah puts Himself forward as the One whose character rejects them at once. That same character makes all these things impossible for His people — "I am the Lord." The people were in relationship with Him. He sanctified them.

God brought them into a certain relationship with Himself. That relationship had its own privileges and responsibilities. "I am the Lord your God." This was to be the ground of their conduct. They were to act in a way worthy of the One who had become their God, and made them His people. It was not that they were the least bit better than other people. Not at all. Israel refused to adopt the habits of either nation. The Egyptians or Canaanites might have thought they were setting themselves up as something superior. But no; these words laid the foundation of their distinctive conduct and morality: "I am the Lord your God."

The Egyptians and the Canaanites were all wrong. How was Israel to know this? Who told them? How did they come to be right, and everyone else wrong? … Jehovah's word was the standard. Every member of the Israel of God was to settle all questions of right and wrong by it. This was not one Israelite's judgement set against the judgement of an Egyptian or a Canaanite. It was the judgement of God above all. Egypt might have her practices and her opinions, and so might Canaan. Israel were to hold the opinions and practices that the word of God laid down.

Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things. The nations of Canaan did all these things, and He drove them out ahead of Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land became unclean, so He punished it for its sin. The land vomited out the people living there. Israel had to beware, for themselves and for any foreigner living among them, in case the land vomited them out too… Such evil was intolerable in His eyes. It was still more offensive in His own people than in anyone else — a truth the Jews soon forgot, as Christendom did later… What keeps souls from evil is receiving the good that comes from God: His word, and above all His Christ.

A solemn warning concludes this chapter. The inhabitants of Canaan were to be cast out because of their vileness. Jehovah would not spare His people if they practised these things. They did commit all this wickedness. Israel, cast out of the land and now a homeless wanderer, bears witness that this solemn warning came true.

These laws deal with matters that are morally wrong and are still wrong today. The believer is not in any sense "under law," but "under grace." That does not mean he is free to break through the bounds of morality. Instead, grace gives him both the desire and the ability to carry out the righteousness the law required. He does this without seeing himself as under the law's authority (Rom. 8:3-4).