Leviticus 18:24–25

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.