And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for all these things have they done, and they became an abomination to me.
Leviticus 20 ends by giving the reason behind the long list of laws before it. The nations already living in Canaan had done these things, and God had turned against them for it. So the chapter raises a sharp question. If God drove them out for such conduct, what happens to Israel if Israel copies it?
The word covers settled national practice, not stray misconduct. One writer traces how the religion of Canaan itself made these things habitual:
Unnatural evils as well as idolatries had become their "customs." Their own religion always bound these abominations on them, so Israel had to be kept away from them. This was no question of cruelty. It was Israel's fault that they did not wipe them out as fully as the Lord commanded. The ones they spared went on to trap and corrupt the chosen people into the same infamy.
The nations were driven out for what they did. Their removal was a sentence, and God chose to carry it out through Israel's own hands:
The land itself was spewing them out for their abominations. In this Israel was only the executioner of divine judgment, not of their own passion or greed for land. God could have destroyed them Himself, by plague or famine. Instead He chose Israel to do the work. In that way He gave His own people the most solemn lesson they could receive — the holiness of His own nature, and what sin is before Him.
The warning points at Israel too, not only at the nations they replaced. The land was God's before it belonged to anyone living on it, and it would treat Israel as it had treated them:
If they did not keep God's statutes, then the land would "vomit you out." For God had set the land apart as His own "holy land." That land would expel the nations living in it, 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. Israel was scattered from their land for centuries after they rejected Christ, their promised Messiah.
The command not to walk in their customs is only one half of God's way. The other half is a call to God Himself, and the two always run together:
Ever since sin came into the world, separation has been God's principle of blessing. When God separates people for blessing, two principles are at work. There is separation from the corrupt mass that lies under the judgment of God, and separation to God Himself. The nature of this separation decides the nature of their holiness.
The reason given is not that these customs are crude. The reason is who God is:
In Leviticus 20 God forbids them to follow the brutal and superstitious customs of idolatry, into which Satan had degraded man. He also warns them against all impurity, which was always inseparable from idolatry, and to which the influence of the devil gave licence. Here we have a simple and beautiful statement of the principle that was to govern them: "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you." They must be holy, and set themselves apart in practice, because they live in God's house, and the Master of that house is holy.
The land, the statutes and the penalties belonged to Israel. Yet the principle underneath still speaks:
Christians are a heavenly people, with a calling on high, which the New Testament defines and explains. Their responsibility is completely distinct, because they are under grace, not law, as Israel was... Yet we have the privilege of learning from the older Scriptures. We can draw out the divine principles that lie under even the smallest shadow of the Levitical system.
What survives the change of era is the refusal to copy the crowd:
How many of us are content to take our cue from the world? We run after its fashions. We let its tide carry us along without resisting. We do things just because "everybody's doing it." Yet when "everybody's doing it," that ought to be a plain signal to us that we would do far better not to do it.
- Custom — these sins were not rare slips. They were the settled habits of a whole culture, bound on it by its own religion.
- Cause — God removed the nations for what they did. Israel carried out the sentence, but Israel was not the reason for it.
- Warning — the same standard that emptied the land could empty it again. Israel's later scattering shows the threat was real.
- Gift — separation is God's way of blessing. He calls His people out of the corrupt mass and to Himself.
- Ground — the reason is God Himself. Those who live in His house must match its Master. That is why copying the crowd is still worth resisting.
And I have said unto you, Ye shall possess their land, and I will give it unto you for a possession; a land flowing with milk and honey I am Jehovah your God, who have separated you from the peoples.
God speaks here as the One who gives the land and the One who marks out the people who will hold it. It holds two things together: a rich inheritance, and a line drawn between one people and all others.
One writer takes the verse clause by clause. Each clause is a promise from God.
On the authority of God's word and promise the land was set before Israel, "I have said to you." They were the people of God's choice, "You shall inherit their land." It was the Lord of heaven and earth who gave it to them, "I have given it to you." And though enemies had to be driven out and there would be conflict, the mighty God guaranteed His intervention on their side, "You shall possess it." What is more, it was an inheritance well worth getting, whatever exercises were needed to enjoy it, "a land flowing with milk and honey."
This writer follows an older translation. Where he cites "I have given it to you," the ESV reads "I will give it to you to possess."
Milk and honey are not just poetic words. Each one carries a meaning.
It is not a land of narrowness, as Egypt is — and heaven is not limited by the needs and struggles of earth. The "river" is not at war with the desert there. There is all "fatness," which the word for milk literally means, and all sweetness, as the honey implies. Salvation for us must end in satisfaction, or it is not salvation.
The verse promises Israel a land where other nations already lived. Those nations lost it, and the same standard hung over Israel.
The end of the chapter presses on the people's consciences how vital it is to keep all God's statutes and judgments. If they did not keep them, the land would "vomit you out." For God had separated the land as His own "holy land." That land would expel the nations living in it, 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. Israel was scattered from their land for centuries after they rejected Christ, their promised Messiah.
The chapter's many rules rest on who God is:
God gave the many statutes so that Israel would be completely different from the corrupted nations whose land they were entering. God's holiness is stressed again and again, and it is striking how often the words "I am the LORD your God" repeat.
Being separated from the nations is only half of what the verse says. It is God who separates, and He separates to Himself.
Ever since sin came into the world, separation has been God's principle of blessing. When God separates people to blessing, He sets two principles in motion. One is separation from the corrupt mass that stands under God's judgment. The other is separation to God Himself. The kind of separation decides the kind of holiness in those separated. So it pleased God to separate a people, Israel, from other peoples, to be His own treasured people. A holiness went with this. It marked them as separated from other peoples, and as separated to God as a worshipping people.
This verse is the first of three mentions of separation in the passage. One writer ranks them.
The third reference to separation is in Lev. 20:26. After all, the greatest object of our separation is not our blessings (verse 24), nor our purity (verse 25), but that we might be wholly for Him. He wants our affection, He wants us entirely for His own heart's pleasure. "Holy to Me" is His language here. "I have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine." Could anything work in our hearts like this?
Does this separation set the rule for Christians? One writer says no, and still values the passage.
Enemies, and sometimes even friends, make the great mistake of treating this as a question for Christians. For Israel it really was such a question. Christians are a heavenly people. Their calling is on high, and the New Testament defines and explains it. Their responsibility is entirely distinct, being under grace, not law, as Israel was. Yet it is our privilege to learn from the older scriptures. We can draw out the divine principles that lie under even the smallest shadow of the Levitical system.
- Given. The verse is a chain of promises: I have said, you shall inherit, I will give, you shall possess. The land is God's gift before it is Israel's conquest.
- Rich. Milk means fatness and honey means sweetness. The inheritance was meant to end in satisfaction, not bare survival.
- Holy. The land was God's own, and it expelled its earlier peoples for worshipping idols and evil spirits. God warned Israel it could expel them too.
- Separated. God's way of blessing has always had two sides: away from what stands under judgment, and toward Himself.
- His. Blessing (v. 24) and purity (v. 25) are not the summit; being wholly for Him is (v. 26).
And ye shall make a separation between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean, and ye shall not make yourselves an abomination by beast, or by fowl, or by anything that creepeth on the ground which I have separated for you, declaring [it] as unclean.
God's food laws for Israel close this chapter with a claim of ownership, not a health warning. The God who set Israel apart now tells them to split the animal world in two — but why call unclean the creatures He made, and what changes once Christ has come?
This command came to people who were already walking apart from the world. Commentators call it a different kind of separation:
This is separation with a view to purity or holiness. Here, as you will notice, it was not a matter of one nation being separated from other nations outside. It was rather a moral education for those already walking in that path of outward separation from the world. In the land of Canaan, God was wonderfully known. Even there His people still needed trained consciences and minds — above all about the character of God, and about the company that suits that character.
The verse says God set these creatures apart "for you to hold unclean." The uncleanness lies in the relation, not in the creature:
So with the unclean beasts, or birds, or creeping things: they were His own creation, His own work. Yet He separated these things from them as unclean. He did this for the reasons already given, and to test whether His people would submit and stay loyal to His will for them. They were unclean for those to whom God had forbidden them.
An animal fit for food had to pass two tests at once. One writer reads them as truth digested inside and a clean walk outside:
For the land animals allowed as food, the essential condition was this. There had to be a clean and firm walk, and with it mature digestion. If either was missing, it was not fitting food for an Israelite. Suppose a person grasps truth very clearly, but has no conscience about his daily walk. It is all good for nothing. Or take a person whose walk is blameless, but does not flow from the truth at all. It is all good for nothing.
The verse treats diet as more than diet. What a person feeds on shapes what he becomes:
Spiritually, our food declares our character, as it also forms it. He who eats Christ shall not only live by Him, but his life will also be made like His in practice. So the food God allows His people here pictures the spiritual life of His people.
The word "therefore" ties this verse to the one before it. The animals stand for more than dinner:
They had been separated by God from all other peoples (v. 24). Therefore they were to clearly discern between clean and unclean (v. 25). These verses plainly imply that unclean animals and birds were symbols of unclean people. God had separated Israel from those people.
Commentators are firm that the food rule itself has ended. They point to what God showed Peter:
Under law certain meats were indeed forbidden to Israelites (Lev. 11); but not because eating those meats was in itself sinful. Rather, it was a symbolic lesson to the Jews about keeping a distinct separation from the Gentile nations, and to press on them how rigid the legal covenant was. Acts 10 shows this plainly. God gave Peter a vision of every kind of animal in a container lowered from heaven, and told him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." When Peter objected, God told him, "What God has made clean, do not call common." This happened three times, to stress how important it was. The age of law was over. No one should carry its rules into Christianity. The cross broke down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles.
That does not empty the verse. The rule has gone, but the principle under it has not:
The great error of enemies, and sometimes even of friends, is making this a question for Christians. It was a real question for Israel... Yet we have the privilege of profiting from the teaching of the older Scriptures. From them we can draw out the divine principles that underlie even the smallest shadow of the Levitical system.
- Separated first. God's act comes before Israel's duty. He had divided them from the peoples, so they were to divide clean from unclean.
- Separated for purity. This separation trains the conscience of people already set apart. It is moral education, not a border.
- Separated by test. The forbidden creatures were God's own work. God called them unclean to test His people's loyalty to His will.
- Separated by feeding. Clean meant two marks together: truth digested inside and a firm walk outside. Either one alone is worth nothing.
- Separated still. The food rule ended at the cross, and commentators warn against making it a Christian law. But the principle behind it still teaches us.
And ye shall be holy unto me; for I Jehovah am holy, and have separated you from the peoples to be mine.
Leviticus 20 warns again and again against the practices of the nearby nations. This closing line gives the reason, and raises two questions: what makes a people holy, and what God wants from the separation He makes.
The call to holiness at the end is not one more rule. It names the principle behind all the warnings before it.
Leviticus 20 guards more against the evil and corruption found among the nations. Both chapters call them to be holy. Chapter 19 does it more in line with the character of God. Chapter 20 tells them to keep apart from idols and evil, because the LORD had set them apart for Himself. It insists on purity in every respect.
The same writer notes that the command assumes something already true of them. Holiness is not how they get near God. It is what living near Him calls for.
They are bound to holiness, and bound to set themselves apart in practice, because they are in the house and its Master is holy. Sanctification assumed they were already in a recognised relationship with God. He wants those living in His house clean, matching His own cleanness.
The standard is not other people. It is God Himself. That leaves no room for feeling superior, and puts the reason outside the person obeying.
The personal holiness of God's people — their complete separation from every kind of uncleanness — flows out of their relationship to Him. It does not work on the principle of "stand back, I am holier than you." It is simply this: "God is holy." So everyone He brings into association with Him must be holy too. It is in every way worthy of God that His people should be holy… Suppose someone long ago had asked an Israelite, "Why do you shrink back from that reptile crawling along the path?" He would have answered: "The LORD is holy, and I belong to Him. He has said, 'Do not touch.'" Ask a Christian today why he keeps clear of the ten thousand things the people of this world take part in. His answer should simply be: "My Father is holy." This is the true foundation of personal holiness.
Being cut off from something is only half of what the verse describes. The other half is what they are cut off for.
Ever since sin came into the world, separation has been God's principle of blessing. When God has separated people to blessing, two principles start working — separation from the corrupt mass that lies under God's judgment, and separation to God Himself. The character of the separation sets the character of their holiness. So it pleased God to separate Israel from other peoples, to be His own possession. Their holiness marked them out twice: separated from other people, and separated to God as a worshipping people.
Verse 24 spoke of blessing, verse 25 of purity. Verse 26 goes past both to something God wants for Himself.
After all, the greatest object of our separation is not our blessings (verse 24), nor our purity (verse 25), but that we might be wholly for Him. He wants our affection, He wants us entirely for His own heart's pleasure. "Holy to Me" is His language here… Could anything so work on our hearts as this? In Titus 2:13-14 we read of "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession" — that He might have us for Himself.
The verse also draws a line between Israel and every other nation. What happened to that line?
Notice that God has "broken down" the wall which He Himself put up long ago — it would have been sin for anyone else to do so. The LORD said to His people, "I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine" (Leviticus 20:26). The godly gloried in this… But such distinctions belong to the past. God's present work is the forming of the one body.
What has not changed is the call itself. The New Testament repeats it, but on new ground.
Was this an unheard-of requirement on God's part? Far from it… The apostle repeats it: "You shall be holy, for I am holy" — quoting Leviticus 11:44; see also Leviticus 19:2 and 20:7, 26… In His person Christ brought in grace and truth, and redemption enables us to live that way in the Spirit. We are now the children of God the Father, not of the fathers, and our standing is not in flesh but in Christ. The holiness rises according to the place and relationship.
- Cause — God's own holiness is the reason given. The standard is never comparison with other people.
- Claim — separation was God's act before it was Israel's duty. They were bound to be holy because they already lived in His house.
- Direction — every true separation moves twice: away from what lies under judgment, and toward God. The second decides the worth of the first.
- Goal — blessing and purity were real, but neither is the aim of the verse. "That you should be mine" is.
- Continuation — the One who built the wall between Israel and the nations has taken it down. The call to be holy remains, raised to match a closer relationship.