37. Holiness and Community (Leviticus 19:1-8)

• Jun, 23 2025

Chapter Thirty-SevenHoliness and Community (Leviticus 19:1–8)1. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2. Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. 3. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 4. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God. 5. And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will. 6. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. 7. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. 8. Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. (Leviticus 19:1–8)Leviticus 19 is sometimes called the Old Testament Sermon on the Mount because of its many familiar laws, in particular, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself “(v. 18). These laws have a strong emphasis on community life. The foundation of community life is holiness: hence the command, “Ye shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (v. 2). Community life begins with communion with God. All the modern political efforts to establish the Great Community worldwide on humanistic and political foundations are thus doomed to fail. The foundation of all true community requires community with God, and it begins with our holiness. The foundations of social order are theological; attempts at social peace and unity apart from the triune God are merely repetitions of the fallacy of the Tower of Babel, and, like it, are doomed to confusion. Then, because the family is the basic social unit under God, we are immediately told, “Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father” (v. 3). The Hebrew word fear is yare, (yawray), meaning to dread, revere, fear. In the Ten Commandments, the word is honor (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16). We are not required to love our parents, because they may be unlovable, nor is this a blanket requirement of obedience, because obedience is not required of adults, nor is there any right for parents to require of children an obedience in evil. The honor, fear, or reverence is a parental due for the Lord’s sake and because of the institution of the family. Parental authority is theological, and it is a sin on the part of parents to see their position in humanistic terms. In this law, as in Leviticus 20:19 and 21:2, the order of the Ten Commandments is reversed; instead of “thy father and thy mother,” it is mother and then father. Because we have here the law of holiness, priority is given to the mother. Holiness in Scripture is not an abstract fact but a very personal one. Hence holiness with respect to family life requires a particular honor and respect for the mother. The normal usage of the word yare is with respect to God. God is the Creator of all life, and the mother is the immediate source of our lives, and hence the common term. This is a law of holiness; it means that our conduct towards our parents is not governed by personal considerations but by God’s law. Scott said of holiness, thatHoliness consists in separation from sin, devotedness to God, and conformity to his moral excellences, which are also transcribed in his holy law. Without holiness we cannot walk with God, or have fellowship with him; and, though an external, or ceremonial, purity was called being “holy to the LORD;” yet it was only an emblem of that purity of heart which was especially intended.Though “the LORD is rich in mercy and goodness,” yet his perfect holiness renders it impossible that we should be happy in him, or that he should delight in us, unless we be made holy also; those therefore, whomso he especially loves, he effectually sanctifies.It is important to note that in v. 3, in a single statement, we have the requirement of reverence for parents and the observance of the Sabbath. The common theme is rest. The Sabbath is to be a day of rest, and, in Ruth 3:1, marriage is called rest. For modern man, rest means inactivity, whereas for Scripture it means, in part, being where we belong, in God’s appointed place for us and under His law-word. Marriage is our rest, because it is God’s plan for us. The Sabbath is a day of rest because it is a part of our relocation, the refocusing of our lives, in God’s purpose. The God who made us ordained both marriage and the Sabbath in terms of our beings and requirements. Revolutionary movements have struck at both marriage and the Sabbath; the ancient Mozdakites abolished marriage, and the French and Russian Revolutions, the Sabbath, only to their own detriment. In v. 4, idolatry is forbidden. The usual interpretation of the word for idols, elilim, is that it means nothings; Wenham has suggested that it means godlings, or weaklings, a reference to the impotence of pagan gods. In vv. 5–8, we have a reference to peace offerings (Lev. 3:1–17; 7:11–26). The peace offering, a voluntary offering, was made at the sanctuary. It was a communal meal, shared with the Levites and with all servants and workers as well as with the members of one’s family (Deut. 12:12, 18–19). At the same time, certain portions were given to the priest (Lev. 7:14, 30–36). The sanctuary thus was not only a place for sacrifice and worship, but also a place for community life, one in which God’s teachers, the Levites as well as the priests, had a share. At the same time, the law very strictly forbids retaining any of the sacrificial animal to the third day. In other words, the sacrificing family could not plan on using their peace offering continuously for themselves. The lamb or bullock offered as a peace offering obviously contained food enough to satisfy a family many days, together with the bread also offered. A man going to the sanctuary could plan to make his peace with God and feast well for many days, were it not for this law. In thankfully reaffirming his peace with God, a man had to develop community with God’s servants. Because all the food remaining on the second day had to be burned on the third day on penalty of excommunication (v. 8), it was much the more logical choice for a man to share his food than to burn it up. This is not a popular law with modern man, but it is a law which is sharply indicative of God’s assessment of man. A regular objection to Biblical law holds, “You can’t compel people to be good.” This is a fallacy, because laws do precisely this, in an external yet necessary way. Laws against murder do not abolish murder, but they certainly restrain murder when well enforced. Would men be less murderous if all laws against murder were abolished? Or would men be less prone to steal if laws against theft were dropped? The U.S. Internal Revenue Service code was not set up by Congress with benevolent intentions, but, by recognizing the deductibility of religious and charitable constitutions, it has avoided impeding such gifts. Countries where no such deductions are allowed show a markedly lower rate of giving per person. Community is a necessity to the Kingdom of God and for the business of living. God does not leave the matter up to the individual’s conscience except to a limited degree. The law reads, “If ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will” (v. 5). There is nothing mandatory about the peace offering except that, if we offer it, we must do so on God’s terms, not ours. That condition is that we manifest our community with His servants. There is no communion without community. In other laws, as in the next two verses (Lev. 19:9–10), our community with the needy is required. Community begins with God, but it cannot stop there.Rousas John Rushdoony, Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Leviticus (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 2005), 209–212.

Author

R.J. Rushdoony

Chalcedon Founder

Narrated by

Nathan F. Conkey

Narrator, teacher, missionary