Leviticus 19:1

This great chapter is the O.T. equivalent of the N.T. Sermon on the Mount, or the practical phase of living the holy life as outlined by Paul in the Romans 12. At no other place in the O.T. is there achieved so high a plane of morality as that which appears here, where Israel was commanded to "Love thy neighbor as thyself," and to include also the alien stranger in the same affection. Coleman wrote that, "it is one of the greatest chapters in the O.T., a Mosaic anticipation of the Sermon on the Mount."[1]

The appearance of "I am the Lord your God" no less than sixteen times in this single chapter[2] shows the relationship of the material in it to the Decalogue and other covenant portions of the Pentateuch, and precepts here are in several instances extensions of Commandments I, II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII, IX, and X. In fact, if "Love thy neighbor" is looked upon as the antithesis of "Thou shalt not kill," then there are echoes herein of the entire Decalogue. In spite of such close connection with other portions of the Pentateuch, however, the chapter remains in a practical sense "a repetition of sundry laws,"[3] most of which have received full comment in this series in Exodus and previous chapters of Leviticus.

Many thoughtless commentators have mentioned the disconnected and haphazard arrangement of the various admonitions in it, making of it a mere hodgepodge of rules and regulations without rhyme or reason, but we are indebted to Gordon J. Wenham for a remarkably sufficient outline of it. There are sixteen paragraphs in it, each one of them ending with the message "I am the Lord (your) God"; and these paragraphs fall into three divisions, the first detailing religious duties, the second stressing obligations to "thy neighbor," and the third mentioning miscellaneous duties directed mainly to the purpose of keeping Israel "separate" from the heathen.[4] The sixteen sub-paragraphs fit into this larger structure in a 4,4, and 8 arrangement, thus:

<MONO><SIZE=2>SPECIAL PHASES OF HOLINESS

Introduction (Leviticus 19:1-2a)

I. Religious duties (Leviticus 19:2b-10)

a. Be holy (Leviticus 19:2b)

b. Honor parents and Sabbath (Leviticus 19:3)

100Abhor idols (Leviticus 19:4)

d. Food and sacrifices (Leviticus 19:5-10)

II. Duty to one's neighbor (Leviticus 19:11-18)

a. Be honest with him (Leviticus 19:11-12)

b. Do not exploit him (Leviticus 19:13-14)

100Do not hate him (Leviticus 19:13-14)

d. Love him as yourself (Leviticus 19:17-18)

III. Miscellaneous duties (Leviticus 19:19-37)

a. No mixed breeding (Leviticus 19:19-25)

b. No pagan practices (Leviticus 19:26-28)

100No sacred prostitution (Leviticus 19:29-30)

d. No necromancy (Leviticus 19:31)

e. No disrespect of the aged (Leviticus 19:32)

f. Love even the alien (Leviticus 19:33-34)

g. No false scales, etc. (Leviticus 19:35-36)

h. Closing exhortation (Leviticus 19:37)MONO>

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel."

The fact of this chapter's being addressed to the entire congregation of the children of Israel "is unique in Leviticus."[5] Note also the continued and constant tying of all human obligations to the will and authority of God. In fact, there is no other real basis of requiring human beings to do anything.

"The effort to preserve morality in a nation without religious sanction is like the attempt to keep alive the flame of fire when the fuel from which the flame derives has been removed. `I am the Lord' is a basis for morality that never fails."[6]

Such a view is not merely "preacher talk." Will and Ariel Durant's remarkable summary of all human history has this: "There is no significant example in history (before our time) of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion!"[7] One might suppose from the parenthesis which we have imposed upon Durant's quotation that the learned historian might have believed that our "own times" are an exception to the universal experience of all history, because many theological liberals of that period (in the 1960's) were actually advocating such views. That was indeed a period when many thought we were getting rid of religion and yet were maintaining all the sacred fruits of Christian ethics without a faith in God, but look what has happened since! Widespread crime and violence have multiplied. Corruption in some of the highest echelons of government has appeared everywhere. And, as this is being written, another governor of one of our sovereign states has been indicted for fraud and racketeering. The home itself is seriously threatened. Blinded fools are talking about a "new morality." And theft is so general that most department stores include a fifteen percent increase in the price of everything that they sell in order to try to live with it. If anybody ever believed for a moment the Satanic lie that America today can maintain a viable and acceptable society apart from "I am the Lord your God," he can now forget it. Individually, and as a nation, we must return to God or perish!