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.