Leviticus 18:30

_DEFILE NOT YE YOURSELVES IN ANY OF THESE THINGS: FOR IN ALL THESE THE NATIONS ARE DEFILED WHICH I CAST OUT BEFORE YOU:_ In all these the nations are defiled ... Ancient history gives many appalling proofs that the enormous vices described in this chapter were very prevalent-nay, were regularly practiced from religious motives in the temples of Egypt and the groves of Canaan; and it was these gigantic social disorders that occasioned the expulsion of which the Israelites were, in the hands of a righteous and retributive Providence, the appointed instruments (Genesis 15:16). The strongly figurative language of 'the land itself vomiting out her inhabitants,' as the stomach disgorges a deadly poison, shows the hopeless depth of their moral corruption. Verse 30. THEREFORE SHALL YE KEEP MINE ORDINANCE. In giving the Israelites these particular institutions, God w

Verse 30. _SHALL YE KEEP MINE ORDINANCE_] The only way to be preserved from all false worship is seriously to consider and devoutly to observe the ordinances of the true religion. He who in the things of God goes no farther than he can say, _Thus it is_ _written, and thus it behoves me to do_, is never likely to receive a false creed, nor perform a superstitious act of worship. 1. How true is that word, _The law of the Lord is_ PERFECT! In a small compass, and in a most minute detail, it comprises every thing that is calculated to _instruct, direct, convince, correct_, and _fortify_ the mind of man. Whatever has a tendency to corrupt or injure man, that it _forbids_; whatever is calculated to comfort him, promote and secure his best interests, that it _commands_. It takes him in all possible _states_, views him in all _connections_, and provides for his present and eternal happiness....

The land designed and consecrated for His people by Yahweh Leviticus 25:23 is here impersonated, and represented as vomiting forth its present inhabitants, in consequence of their indulgence in the abominations that have been mentioned. The iniquity of the Canaanites was now full. See Genesis 15:16; compare Isaiah 24:1. The Israelites in this place, and throughout the chapter, are exhorted to a pure and holy life, on the ground that Yahweh, the Holy One, is their God and that they are His people. Compare Leviticus 19:2. It is upon this high sanction that they are peremptorily forbidden to defile themselves wi

PART III. SECTION III. EXPOSITION MORAL UNCLEANNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This being the subject of the three following chapters (chapters 18-20), they naturally form a sequence to chapters 11-17, which have dealt with ceremonial uncleanness and its purification. It is a remarkable thing that, except by implication in connection with the sin offerings and the trespass offerings and the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, there has not yet been a single moral precept, as such, in the Book of Leviticus, and there has been very little recognition of sin as distinct from pollution. All has been ceremonial. But the ceremonial is typical of the moral, and from the consideration of ceremonial uncleanness and its remedy, we now proceed to the consideration of moral uncleanness and its penalty. It is to be noticed

THEREFORE SHALL YE KEEP MINE ORDINANCE,.... Whatever the Lord appointed them and commanded, whether contained in this chapter, or elsewhere: THAT [YE] COMMIT NOT [ANYONE] OF THESE ABOMINABLE CUSTOMS; for attending to the ordinances of God, and a close in them, they would be preserved from the commission of such abominable things, and giving in to such detestable customs as before warned against: WHICH WERE COMMITTED BEFORE YOU; by the inhabitants of Canaan; and by the punishment on them for them they might be deterred from doing the same: AND THAT YE DEFILE NOT YOURSELVES THEREIN; for though the land is so often said to be defiled, yet, properly speaking, and chiefly, it was the inhabitants that were defiled by their abominable customs; and so would the Israelites also, should they observe the same, and thereby become abominable in the sight of God, and incur his displeasure, and be l...

V. PRACTICAL HOLINESS IN DAILY LIFE 1. Different Unholy Relationships CHAPTER 18 _ 1. Separation and obedience (Leviticus 18:1)_ 2. Unholy relationships (Leviticus 18:6) 3. Vile and abominable practices (Leviticus 18:19) 4. Judgment threatened (Leviticus 18:24) This section of Leviticus contains the words of Jehovah addressed to His people, whom He had redeemed and in whose midst He dwelt. They are to be a holy people. About thirty times in this section we find the solemn word “I am Jehovah. Ye shall be holy: for I, Jehovah your God, am holy.” This is Jehovah's cal

EPILOGUE. These sins mean defilement for those who commit them, whether Canaanites or Israelites, and also for the land itself. Hence the land also must be punished, and will vomit out its inhabitants as so much unclean or noisome food (_cf._ Ezekiel 36:6 ff., Ezekiel 36:17). Leviticus 18:26 is parallel to Leviticus 18:30, which forms an impressive conclusion to the whole chapter; Leviticus 18:29, however, where alone in this chapter an actual punishment is stated, is rather in the manner of Leviticus 17 and Leviticus 20....

KEEP MINE ORDINANCE. This is the Figure of speech _Polyptoton_ (App-6). "observe My observance", but, Eng. keep My charge. CUSTOMS. statutes: because they were legal enactments of the land, Compare Leviticus 18:3. The word is rendered "statutes" in Deuteronomy 6:24; Deuteronomy 16:12, and Deuteronomy 26:16. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD. This body of laws (Leviticus 18) is emphasized and solemnized by beginning and ending with the same expression. Figure of speech _Epanadiplosis._ See App-6....

See general note at the beginning of the ch. These _vv._are probably expanded from earlier materials. After the warning in Leviticus 18:24 the standpoint changes, and the remainder of the passage is a reflection on the past, the verbs being really in the past tense, _were_defiled, _was_defiled, I _visited_, (the land) _vomited_....

ABOMINABLE CUSTOMS— Hebrew, _statutes of abomination;_ whereby, says Dr. Beaumont, are meant sinful practices, which, through custom, grew to be as laws among them. It is to be observed, that God, who is no respecter of persons, threatens to the Israelites the same ejection from the land, out of which the Canaanites were now about to be expelled, if they committed similar offences; Leviticus 18:28. And as they did commit such offences, so were they punished. See Jeremiah 9:19. Ezekiel 36:17. And hence we see the reasons and necessity of these laws. REFLECTIONS.—1. It is among the dire proofs of the desperate corruptness of man's nature that ever such wretches should exist, or that such prohibi