After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their customs.
God tells Israel to look back at the country they left and ahead to the country they are about to enter. They must copy neither one. Two questions follow. What gives God the right to set their standard? And how could Israel know that everyone else was wrong?
The verse follows the words that open the chapter, and everything rests on them. What Israel was to do came out of who had become their God — not out of any claim to be better than their neighbours.
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 any better than other people. By no means. The Egyptians or Canaanites might have thought the Israelites were setting themselves up as something superior. After all, Israel refused to adopt the habits of either nation. But no. These words laid the foundation of their distinct way of life and moral standard: "I am the LORD your God."
Egypt was memory; Canaan was destination. The danger sat at both ends of the journey.
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. So Israel faced the infection both before and after their wilderness journey. They were not to follow the evil, but to keep God's statutes and judgments, and in doing so they would live in them.
The verse ends with their statutes — the settled customs of both lands. Israel had nothing to carry out of the one and nothing to take up in the other.
They were far from getting a single good institution from the one they left or the other among whom they came. The LORD's ordinances and statutes they were to observe and walk in: the man that did these should live. When in fact they turned from Him in disobedience, the evil ways of both were their utter ruin.
This verse condemns two whole nations at once. That is a bold claim. The chapter says where the verdict came from.
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?… The LORD's word was the standard. By it every member of the Israel of God was to settle every question of right and wrong. It was in no way the judgement of an Israelite 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. But Israel were to hold the opinions and practices laid down in the word of God.
The list of sins that follows verse 3 is ugly reading. Its very existence tells us something about the human heart.
It is clear that the Spirit of God could never make laws to prevent evils that do not exist. He does not build a dam where there is no flood to hold back. He does not deal with abstract ideas, but with real facts. Man is indeed capable of committing each and every one of the shameful crimes named in this most faithful section of Leviticus. If he were not, why should he be told not to do so?
One writer applies both lands to believers today:
They had come out of Egypt, as believers today have left the world that ignores the living God. Let them then take no part of the world with them.
- Ground. Conduct starts with "I am the LORD your God." Behaviour flows from relationship, not from any claim to be better than others.
- Backward. Egypt's ways are the habits of the place God brought you out of. They must not travel with you.
- Forward. Canaan's ways are the habits of the place you are going to. Arriving there does not mean adopting what you find.
- Standard. Israel knew both nations were wrong because God's word said so. They did not learn it by comparing themselves with anyone.
- Realism. God does not build a dam where there is no flood. He forbids these sins because the human heart can commit them.
Mine ordinances shall ye do and my statutes shall ye observe to walk therein I am Jehovah your God.
Verse 4 turns from what Israel must not copy to what they must do. It ends with the line that opened the chapter: I am the LORD your God. Why should a people's daily habits rest on who their God is, and not on what the nations around them do?
One writer finds the foundation of these chapters in that one line.
"I am the LORD your God." Here we have the foundation of the entire structure of moral conduct that these chapters present. Israel's actions were to take their character from this: the LORD was their God. They were called to behave in a manner worthy of so high and holy a position.
The same name appears when the chapter names specific evils. One writer sees God Himself confronting them.
Notice this in the book. When it judges the details of evil, the LORD puts Himself forward in person — "I am the LORD." His character rejects these things at once, and makes them all impossible for His people. The people were in relationship with Him — He sanctified them.
If Israel was to keep God's rules rather than the customs of Egypt or Canaan, someone had to tell them which was which.
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? … The LORD's word was the standard. By it every member of the Israel of God was to settle all questions of right and wrong. This was not an Israelite's judgement against an Egyptian's or a Canaanite's; it was the judgement of God above all.
No neighbouring nation could claim Israel's place.
So the ways, the habits, the customs of men were no guide for them. How could they be? Israel were what neither the Egyptians nor the Canaanites could boast of, or ever become: the LORD's own people, whom He had chosen for Himself.
The rule in verse 4 is fenced by two named places — the country Israel had left and the country they were entering.
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. They were not to follow the evil but keep God's statutes and judgments.
One writer applies both halves to believers today, and reads the promised land as no safer than the land left behind.
They had come out of Egypt, as believers today have left the world that ignores the living God. Let them then take no part of the world with them. They were going to Canaan, but the Canaanites were living in corruption fully as bad as Egypt… Such circumstances distress anyone whom God has called to a path of obedience to Him. But we should regard circumstances as a proving ground. Israel was tested in Canaan, and we cannot escape testing, but we have the Word of God to guard us and to strengthen us (vv. 4-5).
The command is not to admire the statutes but to walk in them. Israel's later history shows the cost of turning away.
Notice how the opening words of our chapter warn Israel against the doings of both Egypt and Canaan. They were far from getting a single good institution from the one they left or the other among whom they came. They were to keep the LORD's ordinances and statutes, and walk in them… When they did turn from Him in disobedience, the evil ways of both were their utter ruin.
God did not leave His redeemed people to arrange their own order.
A right sense of who He was, and of the sovereign favour He gave them, would make them deeply concerned to please Him. It would keep them wholly clear of anything different from His will for them. God did not bring them out of Egypt to be a disorderly crowd. Nor did He bring them out to work out for themselves the best way to order their conduct or movements. They were to be one nation under His rule and direction.
Living by a book, not by the culture around you, can look like arrogance. One writer adds a caution about how we hold our convictions.
There is great danger of attaching importance to an opinion just because we have adopted it. We must guard carefully against this. Self may creep in and show its ugliness when we defend our opinions, as much as anywhere else. But we must refuse it in every shape and form, and let "Thus says the Lord" govern us in all things.
- Whose you are. "I am the LORD your God" is the foundation of all conduct in these chapters. Behaviour flows from the relationship, not the other way round.
- Whose word. They belonged to Him, so His word settled every question of right and wrong — not the judgement of Egypt or Canaan.
- Whose habits. Egypt behind and Canaan ahead were both corrupt. Israel gained no good institution from either. The same testing meets believers who have left the world.
- Whose path. God gave the statutes to be walked in; turning from Him to the ways of those nations proved Israel's ruin.
- Whose voice. Submission to God's word must never harden into defence of our own opinions. The governing phrase stays "Thus says the Lord."
And ye shall observe my statutes and my judgments, by which the man that doeth them shall live I am Jehovah.
God opens the chapter by separating His people from the ways of Egypt behind them and Canaan ahead of them. This verse then sets the terms of life under law, and everything turns on one word: "does."
The verse is not floating advice. It closes an opening paragraph in which God names the two countries whose customs Israel must refuse.
First, God told them not to copy 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 it. They had come out of Egypt, as believers today have left the world that ignores the living God. Let them then take no part of the world with them.
The verse ends with a name, not an argument.
Notice how in this Book, when the Lord judges evil in detail, He puts Himself forward. His 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.
Everything hangs on how strictly we take the word "does."
When God gave the law He said, "You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD" (Lev. 18:5). "Does" does not mean doing his best or trying to do. It means DOING, without one lapse and without any reduction. So if a man PERFECTLY and ABSOLUTELY kept the law, he would not forfeit his natural life. He would live for ever on the earth. Has any man ever done this? Plainly, if any man is to be blessed, it cannot be by keeping the law.
Much depends on what kind of life the verse promises.
They were not to follow the evil but keep God's statutes and judgments, and so doing they should live in them. This is the statement that the Apostle quotes in Galatians 3:12. This doing was not "of faith," and obedience would ensure not heaven but continued life on earth.
Another writer draws out what such a promise assumes about the person hearing it.
If I said, "Do this and you will get a fortune," that would imply you do not have a fortune already. In the same way, you cannot say, "Do this and live," to a man who has life. When God said to man, "Do this and live," it implied that man was dead. Man did not think so. But it was the ministry of death and condemnation, because it demanded an obedience man could not give.
Paul sets this verse opposite another principle, and the contrast is his point.
Law and faith cannot be blended, because they are entirely different principles. Scripture says, "The righteous shall live by faith." The law does not speak that way. It speaks in the exact opposite way — the man who does shall live. How useless then to try to mix the two principles! Yet people do this from one end of Christendom to the other. It is rare to find souls who are not under law in one way or another.
The two are not rivals but have separate jobs.
The law as given by Moses made life depend on obedience. The failure did not lie in the law but in man, who was guilty, without strength, and, in short, lost. The two are given for completely different ends, and only in that way do they fit together: the law, to convince the sinner that he cannot be justified this way; faith, to assure the believer that he is justified this way.
The terms were genuine. The claimant never appeared.
Moses had said that the man who did the things commanded would live in them. But no one did them, so there was no one to claim the blessing. Death went on with its work, undisturbed by the creature's efforts to justify himself.
The way out did not come from the law.
Last, he showed how freedom from the law came about. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'" (Gal. 3:13).
- Terms. The verse states a real offer on a real condition: do these things, and live by them.
- Doing. "Does" means keeping the whole law without a single lapse — not trying, not doing one's best.
- Life. The promise was continued life on earth, not heaven.
- Verdict. No one ever did the law, so no one claimed the promise; the law meant for life became a ministry of death and condemnation.
- Rescue. Because law and faith are opposite principles, freedom came another way — Christ became a curse for us, and the righteous live by faith.