Leviticus 18:4

_SPEAK UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND SAY UNTO THEM, I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD._ I am the Lord your God. This renewed mention of the divine sovereignty over the Israelites was intended to bear particularly on some laws that were widely different from the social customs that obtained both in Egypt and Canaan; because the enormities which the laws enumerated in this chapter were intended to put down were freely practiced or publicly sanctioned in both of those countries; and, indeed, the extermination of the ancient Canaanites is described as owing to the abominations with which they had polluted the land....

4._Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments_. Because it is no less difficult to correct vices, to which men have been long accustomed, than to cure diseases of long standing, especially because people in general so pertinaciously cleave to bad examples, God adduces His statutes, in order to recall the people from the errors of their evil habits into the right way. For nothing is more absurd than for us to fix our minds on the actions of men, and not on God’s word, in which is to be found the rule of a holy life. It is, therefore, just as if God would overthrow whatever had been received from long custom, and abolish the universal consent of the world by the authority of His doctrine. With this object He commands His Law to be regarded not once only, as we have already seen, lest the Israelites should abandon themselves to filthy lusts; but He diligently inculcates upon them,...

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

YE SHALL DO MY JUDGMENTS,.... Which are just and right, and according to the rules of justice and equity; these are things, as Jarchi observes, which are said in the law with judgment, or are laws framed with the highest reason, even by the judgment of God himself, whose judgment is always according to truth: Aben Ezra thinks, these are the judicial laws in Exodus 21:1; but though they may include them, they have more particular respect to the following laws: AND KEEP MINE ORDINANCES, TO WALK THEREIN: which he had ordained and appointed of his own will and pleasure, which Jarchi calls the decree of the king, or which he decreed and determined as a king, having absolute power over his subjects to enact and enjoin what he pleased; wherefore some think these refer to ceremonial laws, which depended upon the will of the lawgiver, and were not founded in any natural sense or reaso

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

GENERAL WARNING AGAINST CONFORMITY TO INDIGENOUS PRACTICES. The phrase I am Yahweh is characteristic of Ezek. and H, occurring twenty-one times in Leviticus 18-20. If a command is understood as coming from Yahweh, it is thereby authoritative, but the legislation is also doing explicitly what is implied in all the codes, viz. indicating traditional customs as the express order of Yahweh....

JUDGMENTS. regulations....

Laws dealing with various Moral Subjects These three chs. contain features common to two or all three of them, which are found nowhere else in the Pentateuch. Such are (1) a collection of laws combined with a hortatory introduction and summary (Leviticus 18:1-5; Leviticus 18:24-30; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 19:37; Leviticus 20:1-8; Leviticus 20:22-26), (2) the prohibition of magic ...

HOLINESS IN THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP 18:1-30 IMPRESSIVE INTRODUCTION TO THE SUBJECT 18:1-5 TEXT 18:1-5 1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am Jehovah your God. 3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes. 4 Mine ordinances shall ye do, and my statutes shall ye keep, to walk therein: I am Jehovah your God. 5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and mine ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am Jehovah. THOUGHT QUESTIONS 18:1-5 387. Why remind the children of Israel of the existence of God? Or is this the meaning of Leviticus 18:2? Discuss. 388. The total life

18:4 ordinances (i-2) Or 'judgments,' as ver. 5 and elsewhere....