Leviticus 19:1-2 & 37, “And the LORD
spoke to Moses, saying, (2) "Speak to all the congregation of the
people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am
holy… (37) And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them:
I am the LORD.”
This is yet another chapter that
contains a long list of varied commandments and instructions, which the people
of Israel were to obey. When we read chapters such as this, it is difficult for
us not to feel somewhat wearied by all the do and don’ts, it seems to be a list
of rules that are almost impossible to keep. Therefore the temptation to skim
through, or even skip over chapters such as these is great. This weariness and
temptation to skim or skip these chapters reveals much about our hearts, it
demonstrates how opposed to rules, laws and commandments we are, unless they
are ones of our own making or choosing. It demonstrates how opposed we are to
God’s rule and authority, how reluctant we are to be obedient towards God.
Furthermore it demonstrates that we love sin, more than we love God and more
than we see the value and benefit of living in accordance with God’s
commandments. This then prompts the question, if God knows that this is how we
think, feel, react and respond to Him and all His commandments, laws and rules,
why then does He give them to us, and why does He expect us to keep them even
though we cannot and we don’t desire to?
The purpose of chapters such as these
is not to simply give a list of rules that we can never attain to, rather their
design is to reveal to us the nature of God, the reason for which we should
obey God and finally our great need of God and specifically our great need of
God’s strength and help.
In verse 2 we find the statement, “for I the
LORD your God am holy…”, this tells us about the nature and character of God. He is a holy
God, a God of absolute perfection and who demands the same perfection and
holiness of all those who would seek to come into His presence and kingdom. If
the people of Israel desire to be called and known as the people of God, then
they need to be imitators of the God they serve. God’s character and person is
that of complete holiness in all things, at all times, throughout all of
eternity.
When the nation of
Israel stood before God at Mount Sinai, they entered into a covenant with God.
God promised that He would be their God, He would provide for, prosper and
bless them. The people of Israel promised that they would be His people, a holy
nation belonging to God, they promised to love, serve, worship and obey Him and
only Him. Therefore by virtue of this covenant the people of Israel were
pledging themselves to obey all of God’s commands so as to become a holy
nation. Their obedience to God is part of the terms of the covenant. If they
truly regard themselves as God’s people and God as being their God, then they
will obey, they will need no further motivation to obey God other than the fact
that He is their God. We notice in this chapter that the phrases “I
am the LORD” and “I am the LORD your
God” are repeated numerous times throughout this passage. In this statement
God is reminding the people that He is not just God, but by virtue of the
covenant He is their God, and they have pledged to obey Him.
But as they would have read through all
of these laws and then sought to obey them, they would have soon realised the
impossibility of it all. To fail in one area, was to fail altogether and render
one as imperfect and sinful in God’s sight. So is God being unrealistic, even
unfair, setting them up for failure? Certainly not! It may seem strange to say
this, but this is an act of grace. God wants the people of Israel to realise
their own inability to keep all of God’s commandments, to understand that they
cannot work their way to righteousness or holiness, nor can their good deeds
repay the sinful deeds. God’s desire is for the people to realise their need of
salvation, their need of God’s grace to deal with their sinful hearts, their
need for God to work in them so as to make them holy and their need for God and
His Spirit to strengthen, guide and equip them to walk in greater obedience and
holiness. God wants them to see their great need of a Saviour and of salvation
from their sin. The giving of Law was primarily to reveal more about the character
of God, the sinful nature of man, and therefore man’s desperate need of God’s
grace, and for God to act so as to save us.
As a result of this we should be
grateful for chapters such as Leviticus 19, for God has plainly shown us who He
is, who we are, our great need of Him and He has provided for that need through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Had God never revealed Himself, or shown us our
sinfulness and need of Him, we would have never understood why Christ had to
come, nor would we know why we needed Him to save us and then enable us to walk
in greater obedience and holiness.
Holy and gracious God, we thank You for who You are, holy, perfect,
righteous and true in all Your ways. Thank You for Your law that teaches us
about who You are and who we are, thank You that You have helped us to
understand our great need of You. Thank You most of all that You have provided
for our great need through the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ to be our
salvation. Thank You that now because of Him, we are seen as righteous in Your
sight and are filled with Your Spirit who leads, guides, strengthens, equips
and helps us to walk in greater obedience. May we count it a joy this week to
walk in obedience to Your commands and to seek to be imitators of You. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment