Speak unto all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Holy shall ye be, for I Jehovah your God am holy.
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Ye shall reverence every man his mother, and his father, and my sabbaths shall ye keep I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 19 opens with God's call to be holy, because He is holy. The first thing that call touches is the home and the day of rest. One sentence holds two duties: respect for a mother and father, and keeping God's Sabbaths. God signs both with the same words: I am the LORD your God.
The chapter carries holiness into ordinary living, and this verse sets the tone for what follows.
In this chapter we see the teaching of holiness applied to the everyday life of the Israelite. It touches his home life, his worship, his dealings with his neighbours, his farming of the ground, and his behaviour towards the stranger. It starts with a reminder to cherish the fear a child owes his parents, and to keep the LORD's sabbaths. Both lessons would have been practised even if the fall had never happened. The lawgiver then goes on to warn against idolatry.
But holiness is not an abstract idea. It takes its shape from where a person stands.
Always keep this in mind, for the principle holds good everywhere: holiness is and must be according to the relationship in which one stands. So the character of holiness varies according to our place.
The order in which the two parents are named is not an accident.
"Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father." The verse begins with the one who might be held in less awe, and for this very reason it brings her unexpectedly into special prominence. Every change in the word of God, however small, has some ground of divine wisdom and beauty as its purpose and its sanction.
The placing is sharper still because of the chapter just before this one.
In the chapter before, woman figured so largely through the corrupt lusts of fallen nature, even to unnatural vileness. So it is striking that here we begin with, "Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father..." The mother has the first place... Of course the father is in no way forgotten, and if remembered would have his place of just authority.
The verse does not treat home life and God's claims as two separate departments. One writer points out that Scripture deliberately puts them side by side.
First, I would direct the reader's attention to the place which the Spirit of God in Holy Scripture assigns to parents, as to their place of authority, in closest connection with the holy reverence due to God.
The reason lies in what a parent is. A father and mother are not simply older people with more experience; they occupy a position God Himself set up.
God has established this as the first and original bond of authority. The will comes into subjection, and honour, obligation and respect come in. The parent is the source of the path of the child, in contrast with his own will. It is not a law made to meet and break his will... but to instruct, form and guide, yet with authority. The parent is still honoured and respected by the child, as holding God's place, and with affections that produce willingness instead of self-will.
Most people can feel the rightness of honouring parents. The Sabbath command is different.
It is worth noting that Jehovah adds here, "and you shall keep my Sabbaths." The sabbath was not a moral duty, but a matter of divine authority. So it mattered greatly as a question of relationship with Jehovah, and it was therefore the sign of His people Israel. If we as Christians own the Lord's day, Israel will truly honour the sabbath in the age to come when Jehovah reigns.
That is what makes it such a searching command.
In various other scriptures the sabbath is singled out and given special prominence — a precious link between Jehovah and Israel, a seal of His covenant with them, and a powerful test of their devotedness to Him. Everyone could recognise the moral wrong of theft and murder; only those who loved Jehovah and His word would love and honour His sabbath.
The verse ends the way much of the chapter ends — with God naming Himself.
The nineteenth chapter shows the duties that flow from covenant-relationship. "I am Jehovah," repeated fifteen times, is the declaration that enforces every commandment. Fellowship with a holy God must be in holiness.
- Holy — God's call to be holy reaches the house before the altar. Holiness takes the shape of the relationship you stand in.
- Home — holiness starts with a child's respect for mother and father. That duty would have held good even if the fall had never happened.
- Mother — she is named before the father. That lifts into prominence the one who might be held in less awe, right after a chapter full of corrupt lusts.
- Sabbath — respect at home is tied to God's day, a matter of pure divine authority. Anyone can see the wrong in theft; only a heart that loves God honours His Sabbath.
- Signature — the same words seal every duty: I am the LORD your God, repeated fifteen times in the chapter. Obedience at home and rest on His day flow from one relationship.
Ye shall not turn unto idols, and ye shall not make to yourselves molten gods I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 19 lists the everyday duties of God's people: parents, sabbaths, harvest, wages, honest scales. Why does a ban on idols and metal gods sit in the middle of that ordinary list, tied to the words "I am the LORD your God"?
The same short phrase runs through the whole chapter. One writer counts how often it comes back, and what it does to the commands around it.
Chapter 19 shows the duties that flow from covenant-relationship. "I am the LORD," repeated fifteen times, is the declaration that enforces every commandment. Fellowship with a holy God must be in holiness: "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy."
So the reason given against idols is not an argument but a Person.
Notice how in this book, when the LORD judges the details of evil, He puts Himself forward in person — "I am the LORD." His character rejects these things at once, and makes them impossible for His people. The people were in relationship with Him. He sanctified them.
The verse is not a stray warning. It sits between the duty owed to parents and the rules for worship by sacrifice.
Chapter 19 applies the call to holiness to the everyday life of the Israelite: his home life, his worship, his dealings with his neighbours, his farming, and his behaviour towards the stranger. It starts with a reminder to cherish the fear a child owes a parent, and to keep the LORD's sabbaths. Then the lawgiver warns against idolatry, and deals with the spirit of worship. Without that spirit the Lord would not allow them to have communion with Himself by sacrifice (4-8).
Commentators note the tone of the wording itself. Most of this chapter urges good on a people who belong to God. That makes the scorn in verse 4 stand out.
Here the subject is not the detestable things they were warned against. It is the good urged on them because of their relationship to the LORD: what they should do, rather than what they should not. The negative side still has its place here and there... How pointedly verse 4 pours contempt on "gods of cast metal"!
The contempt sits in the word itself. "Idols" is no neutral name for a statue.
"Idols," as used in that verse, is a very remarkable word. It means "nonentities" — and this chapter stresses the greatness of God Himself.
Israel had already heard this at Sinai. One writer explains why God says it again.
So God firmly forbids idolatry (v. 4). He had already said this in the ten commandments, but He repeats it often, because He knew Israel's tendency to disobey.
The warning reaches past carved and cast images. A letter written to people who bowed to no statues ends with the same caution.
How remarkable is the closing appeal in John's first letter! "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." We cannot imagine that those he wrote to bowed down to images of gold or silver, wood or stone. There was a more subtle form of the evil that the apostle feared for believers in his day. Nothing shows the danger more powerfully than this: the same letter that opens with the fullest showing of the true God in our Lord Jesus, bringing us into fellowship with the Father and with His Son, ends with such a warning. When anything outside the Godhead now known in Christ becomes an object of religious devotion to the heart, it is an idol.
- Relationship first. God backs the command with a declaration, not an argument: "I am the LORD your God," repeated through the chapter as the reason for every duty in it.
- Character next. God puts Himself forward in person: His character rejects these things, and makes them impossible for a people He has set apart.
- Nothings. The word for "idols" means nonentities, and verse 4 pours contempt on gods made by pouring metal into a mould.
- Repeated on purpose. Israel had heard this at Sinai. God says it again because He knew they tended to disobey.
- Still ours. The last verse of 1 John warns believers who owned no images. Anything outside God that becomes an object of religious devotion is an idol.