Laws Concerning Your Neighbor

Leviticus 19 and the Sundry Laws

We press on and actually should conclude our study of Leviticus chapter 19 this evening. Leviticus chapter 19, we worked through the first 30, well, we worked through verses 19 through 31. We only have a small number of verses to handle this evening, but once again, they do speak to us of important things.

So let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our time together. Now, Father, as we open your word, we would ask that you would protect us from distraction. You would focus our hearts and minds upon your truth.

Lord, once again, we do realize that we live in a day when we need to be sharp instruments in your hand. If we are going to be light and salt and do all the things that you would call us to do. So Lord, help us to learn, help us to understand.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. This morning, we began looking at Leviticus chapter 19. Well, we had, of course, done the first 18 verses just a few weeks ago. But we began reading in verse 19, worked through verse 31.

And so I would like to read, actually, I'll repeat verse 31 through the end of the chapter to remind us of where we are in the context. Do not turn to mediums or spiritists. Do not seek them out to be defiled by them.

I am Yahweh your God. You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged. And you shall revere your God. I am Yahweh. When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you and you shall love him as yourself. For you are aliens in land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight or capacity.

You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hymn. I am Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. You shall thus observe all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them.

I am Yahweh. And so here we have the last section of the, well, once again, the sundry laws. As one Bible translation puts it, the sundry laws. You may recall that in the preceding section we had some rather diverse exhortations.

That might be the term that we would use there. And that included a fair amount of exhortation to avoid giving in to the temptation, the constant temptation to begin to act like the world around you. And I guess I can't resist, given the scripture reading this evening in Deuteronomy, pointing out the comparison that would exist between those two sections.

Because, surely, practicing divination, soothsaying, turning to mediums or spiritists, in any way engaging in the kind of worship that was prevalent in that day, you heard what was just said in the law in Deuteronomy.

It doesn't matter who calls you to that kind of worship. You are not to spare or pity them in the land of Israel. This was a capital offense. Why would that be a capital offense? I mean, today this would be considered something that everyone should have the freedom to do.

Because, I mean, we all need to be religious pluralists. We need to allow for everybody, every religious perspective to have equal say, right? That's certainly what is being said in our land today. But these were a covenanted people.

These were a people who had taken a covenant, an oath, to worship Yahweh and to worship Him alone. And, likewise, you need to remember, it's been a number of months since we mentioned this, but you need to remember the fact that the idea of a singular God, who is the creator of all things, who is sovereign over all things, who is the origin and source of all things, was extremely unusual in that land at that time.

And so to, in essence, counsel rebellion and to counsel a scandalous rejection of God's right over His people is what was involved in someone, even your son, your daughter, your mother, your father, your wife, your closest friend.

I mean, remember the language? It was close to you as your own soul. If any of them would say, let us go after other gods, even secretly say, let us go after other gods, it was the duty of the Israelite to say not only no, but to expose that person.

And if an entire city did it, and of course, remember, cities back then were not exactly the size of cities today, but even if an entire city engaged in this, and it was specifically researched and discovered to be true, what were they to do?

Destroy that city and never rebuild it. It's very serious. And for people today who do not take the worship of God seriously, do not take the word of God seriously, oh, that's just terrible. What a horrible god you have.

But of course, anyone who has had an Isaiah-like experience of seeing God for who He is, not just an exalted man, the grandfather in the sky, but the God of all creation, when you consider the immensity of this creation, the power of this creation, and yet He is the one who called it into being by His very word.

Once you consider the reality of who He truly is, then you can understand why these laws say what they say. And so here in chapter 19, we had seen the exhortation, the law against doing anything that would involve false worship, seeking out the dead, questioning God's care and God's power over such things, along with the positive exhortation, you shall keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary.

And I think that part of that, to revere my sanctuary, when you think about it, what was one of the major issues that the children of Israel faced throughout their history? Sometimes you'll read of the high places, the high places.

These were alternative places of worship. And whenever Israel would start going into apostasy, the high places would be built up and they would become competitors with Jerusalem. And so what would you have happening?

Syncretism, syncretism. Oh, we still worship Yahweh. We love Yahweh. But we also engage in this kind of worship. We engage in that kind of worship. And this is one of the major issues. And of course, then when you want to see Israel reaching the depth of degradation, what happens then?

Well, then you have the idols being brought into Jerusalem and into the temple itself. Now you have the ultimate syncretism where Yahweh is just reduced to one of many gods being worshipped in that one particular place.

And so this is a very important theme that is repeated in many different ways in the Old Testament text. It all comes back to the fact these are words that are being spoken to a covenant of people who have said, you are our God, we will be your people.

And therefore, what does it look like to be the people of God? Well, these are the things you do, these are the things you do not do. Then you'll notice beginning in verse 32. You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged.

You shall revere your God, I am Yahweh. Now, I suppose on, is there such a thing as a grandparent's day? I think there probably is, but I'm afraid I've been missing it because I is one. So I evidently have been missing granddaddy's day or whatever else it is.

But certainly we recognize that it is a biblically appropriate thing to recognize the wisdom that we are supposed to gain over the course of our lives. And there is no wiser young person than the young person who seeks out the elderly for their advice and their insight into life.

You want to know when a young person is starting to grow up, when they realize that mom and dad really aren't that stupid after all. And in fact, grandma and grandpa have some insights that they would benefit greatly from.

That is not the attitude that we have of many people in our society today, sadly. There is a tremendous disrespect for the wisdom that comes with age. But those of us who have snow upon the roof, or nothing upon the roof at all, the roof caved in, those of us who are on the far side of the half century, Marcus put it that way, we will also have to admit something.

We'll have to admit that our generations have not done a lot to necessarily exalt ourselves in our wisdom either. Because when you live your life focused upon yourself primarily, you don't gain a lot of that wisdom.

You don't show yourself to be overly wise. And so there are a number of things working in our society today that certainly have led to the fact that the young people in our generation have basically decided that they are much wiser than anyone before them.

And that's why they're just so freely throwing off the yoke of the old ways and are willing to basically say, yeah, everybody before us was completely wrong on fundamental foundational issues even like marriage and what gender is.

They're willing to throw all of that off. Those of us who are a little older might say you're going to destroy your own future, but they're not interested in listening. They're willing to even silence us.

We are told here that you shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged. It is a biblical principle to recognize that God gives us individuals in our lives and if we will but listen, the wisdom that we can gain and garner.

I'll tell you one thing, young folks. Once you lose those folks, you really begin to think about how much more you wish you had spoken with them, how much more you had learned, how much more you had been able to have conversations with them and to gather wisdom from them.

And so I know in my experience, certainly once I became a parent, that's when I really started realizing the treasure that I had in my own parents. But if you're wise, you'll realize that even before then and you will gather for yourselves some true treasures by seeking out those who have lived many decades and many years longer than you have.

There is something fundamentally disordered about a society where the aged are dismissed, where the aged are ignored. There's also something sad when we recognize that when God's judgment lays upon a people, very often even the older people do not act with maturity and wisdom any longer.

They focus upon themselves rather than serving others. It is a blessing from God when you have proper relationships between the generations. And I know that certainly within the church, we should not have the kinds of divisions that often exist, especially within very large churches.

This has been my observation. Many of the young people never have any conversation with or interaction with the older people at all. They could go to church. They could go to church regularly. And the only interaction they might have might be with some people who are just a little bit older than them because, well, you stick the real young people with the young people.

The young people teach the young people, right? And the division that exists as a result, I think, is extremely negative for the church and extremely negative for the young people. So just some thoughts from a rather obvious statement that is made here in regards to honoring the aged.

And, of course, you have the basic statement, and you shall revere your God. You would think that that would not need to be stated. But there is a danger of becoming so accustomed to bearing the name of God and to being engaged in the worship of God that we can become disrespectful toward God.

Now, it's a line that takes a great deal of discernment because you can become so formal in your worship that the worship becomes apathetic and empty. Just simply the following after of externalized rights.

But at the same time, that's the one ditch you can fall into. The other ditch over here is the kind of Jesus is my girlfriend type stuff where there is such a professed intimacy that the idea of reverence and fear and a recognition that you're dealing with the very God who made you and sustains you becomes lost.

Obviously, what the Word exhorts us to is balance and provides us with that balance if we will but avail ourselves of the resources the Word gives to us. Then we have in verses 33 and 34, When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. So here you have a statement made to the nation as a whole that the nation is not to adopt an idea of what we might call patriotic supremacy where if you have a stranger residing amongst you.

Obviously, a stranger comes in. The system was such that if a person were to come into the land of Israel, the place where they dwelt would have to give them permission to be there. This was not, as some people have turned it into, this is the open borders text for many people.

There shouldn't be any borders except the same Bible establishes borders. If you know how the law laid things out, one of the reasons that, for example, there was to be justice for orphans and widows was because the land was passed down in a hereditary fashion.

It's not like land today. We don't even view land as something you buy some acres and stuff, but the government still controls pretty much all of it when you really think about it. But in that day, the land was something that was passed down through your family.

It was an inheritance. That was what the very term inheritance referred to. And you'll encounter numerous laws that exhort us to fairness in any land transactions to try to keep people from... There would be people who would unjustly try to gather up the land of others and oppress the orphan and widow and take their land from them and things like that.

So these who are being referred to here, the stranger is a non-Israelite, but a non-Israelite who is there amongst the people in a legal fashion who is not seeking to cause them to go after false gods, etc., etc.

But is there... Maybe they have certain skills that they are engaged in business, whatever the situation might be. And the point is that if they are there, the stranger resides in your land, you shall do him no wrong.

It's not talking about the other nations that they are to drive out and things like that. It is talking about the fact that that individual is to be treated justly. There is to be justice in the land, and it is not just supposed to be for one group of people.

When you have only one group of people getting justice, but then they act unjustly toward others, that does not reflect Yahweh's glory and the fact that Yahweh is a just God and that Yahweh will judge justly in the future when all things are brought before Him and when He renders a verdict upon every man's life.

And so notice that it is said, you shall love Him as yourself. That echoes back to verse 18. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So it's not just you shall love your Jewish neighbor as yourself.

But if your neighbor doesn't happen to be part of the covenant people of Israel, you shall still love him. You shall still extend to that individual a concern for his life. You shall not cheat him, as the next few verses are going to say.

You shall not cheat anyone. What you really have in verses 33 through 36 is an exhortation to justice and general equity within the nation of Israel, within the bounds of the land. That there is not to be any acceptance of the kind of lawlessness that comes with cheating and with the kind of theft that might even become institutionalized in many ways.

Now this is important, I think, to recognize in Leviticus 19 that this is being spoken of the stranger residing in your land. Because it certainly raises all sorts of questions given the fact that so much of the law assumes a covenanted relationship between those who are in the land and God Himself.

And we cannot really get into the subject overly deeply this evening, but we can only note the reality that there is to be an expression of love, an expression of fairness, an expression of equity toward anyone, even those that would not be considered to be a part of the congregation, who would not be going up to the temple for worship, etc., etc.

And the basis of this is you're to do this for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. And so there is to be a recognition that we look back upon our history and we are to allow what we've experienced to influence what we do and how we think.

And even if these individuals, I mean obviously these words would be read by individuals who had not themselves been aliens in the land of Egypt. And so what that means is when you are a part of a people, when you recognize that you're a part of a people, it is appropriate to take from that relationship and to better your own experience and better your own behavior in light of what has happened to those who've gone before you.

Now, notice I said better yourself. In other words, you could say, I suppose, well, you know, if any Egyptians end up amongst you, well, you can just treat them like dirt. Because look what they did to you.

We were victims once, so now we get our revenge. No, that's not what it's saying at all. Instead, you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You knew what would have been justice. You weren't given justice, but you knew what you wanted.

Therefore, we sort of have sort of a, somewhat of a statement of the golden rule here. Treat others as you would have them to treat yourself. If you knew that when you were aliens in Egypt that it would have been appropriate to treat you in such a way, now that you are in the ascendancy in this place, then this is how you should behave.

I think we have it pretty much backwards amongst many people groups today. You look back at what happened in the past, and you go, tell you what, my people were treated this way 300 years ago, and so now I need to be treated this way because I'm a victim because of what happened back then.

No, that's not what this is saying at all. I just finished a book this week. I really do, in the midst of all the, I read a lot of unenjoyable stuff. I'm afraid I have read more books promoting, quote, gay Christianity, unquote, than almost anybody else I know other than maybe Bob Gagnon and Michael Brown probably.

There's a few other people too, but I've got to read that stuff when it comes out. It's not enjoyable. It's not enjoyable. It's not a pleasant task. So once in a while I read something enjoyable. Once in a while I read something fun.

I like the Michael Shara historical novels, especially about the Civil War, and I'll read a lot of those, and that's interesting. But I read a lot about World War II, especially the Pacific Theater, but for some reason I picked up a book, I finished it this week, about Colonel Hans von Lucke.

Colonel Hans von Lucke was with the 121st Panzer Division. He saw action in France and in the Russian front and in North Africa with Rommel, and so I read his book, Panzer Commander, and it was fascinating.

It really was. Now my parents, my parents lived through World War II. They were alive during World War II, and I don't think my parents would want to read that book. I really don't think that they would want to read that book, and they still refer to certain nations and nationalities with epithets that were used during World War II, but what I found interesting was toward the end of the book, and he spent four years in a Russian prison camp in Georgia and then outside of Kiev, over the years, he met many of the people that he had fought, especially after the D-Day invasion, Normandy.

He was in charge of some of the very first elements that opposed the Normandy invasion, and it was amazing the reconciliation and even the camaraderie that developed between those individuals who recognized each other as worthy opponents on the battlefield, shall we say.

And so it was interesting to see that even amongst secular individuals, there was a recognition that, you know, if we just store these things up, if we live for vengeance, it does not help us to move forward at all.

It does not make us better people. And so when the scriptures tell us, remember, you were aliens in the land of Egypt. That's not a basis for keeping a chip on your shoulder and looking back and, okay, my people group has experienced all this kind of stuff, and so we can take it out on others.

That's not what is being said at all. Instead, the exhortation is you were once there, and therefore, as the people of God, you are to behave in such a way, not like maybe you were treated. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

You don't take vengeance. You leave that to the Lord. Instead, you are to live in a way that is consistent with those who name the name of the Lord their God, Yahweh, and bring honor and glory to Him.

Now, in verses 35 and 36, very briefly, you certainly see exactly what is being said here, and I don't know if there's a whole lot else in this chapter that could have more relevance in any culture than the need for a general equity and sense of justice to exist.

You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight or capacity. Now, some of us go, measurement of weight or capacity? Remember, the entire economic system of that day was based upon, well, you notice, you shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hymn.

What's that all about? Well, you went in the marketplace and you needed to buy food. You needed to buy grain. You needed to buy the very basic things of life. And it didn't come, believe it or not, in the nice packages in the air-conditioned fries supermarket.

That's a pretty modern thing that we've got there, and it's nice. And instead, you know, the farmer brings in his grain and he would have scales. And you would buy an ephah or a hymn of oil. There was liquid measurement and there was dry measurement.

And please don't ask me to analyze all that for you because it's been a while since I had to look at that stuff. But you had different ways of measuring these things out. And, of course, you had to have a just scale.

A just scale. Now, most of us today don't like scales, actually. Scales are negative things. They're evil things. Necessary, but they're there. But I bought a kitchen scale recently. I bought it. She's using it.

So I'm still using it, but she's found out, yeah, that was probably a pretty decent investment because, believe it or not, I actually, I'll take my cereal and I'll look at the thing and I go, hmm, 33 grams.

Okay, all right. And you turn it on. You put the bowl there and then you turn it on so it zeroes out with the bowl on it and then you got your 33 grams. At the end of the day, I know pretty much exactly how many calories I brought in.

That's how I got to do it. I wish I had some of you guys, you young people's metabolism, but the fact of the matter is I don't and so if I don't want to carry an extra 10 pounds up some of those mountains I'm going to be climbing in July, including Mount Evans, which is 14 ,130 feet, then I need to use a kitchen scale.

Well, I'm trusting that thing. I hope it's right. I mean, it's digital, so it must be right, right? Well, I don't know. I mean, I assume it's within a certain percentage, but man, if someone sent me a bad scale, that would really have an impact on the stuff that I'm trying to do.

And so, obviously, one of the dangers in those days was put a little something under the scale, maybe put a few grains over here in the pan on this side, and instead of you getting an ephah of flour, you get .95 of an ephah of flour, but you paid for the whole ephah and you can make a little money on the side that way, is the whole idea.

And, of course, this has been an element of human existence from the very beginning, as soon as people began to trade with one another. The people of God are to do no wrong in judgment and measurement of weight or capacity.

Now, judgment, there might be just standard judgment in regards to the laws of the land, but probably in this context, it's in regards to the economic activity of the people. They're to have just balances.

They may know that when they go across the border, that they may not be treated this way. It doesn't matter. It does not make it right for you to do that to them when they come over here. We are to stand apart.

We are to, as the people of God, to be different, and you can imagine all of the applications we can make within our own lives. Many of you work in businesses where you know that because of your Christian commitment, because of your commitment to do right before God, you are put at a disadvantage in regards to your compatriots who are willing to cheat and to lie and to utilize methodologies that are simply not a part of what we can do.

You all recognize that reality, and that reality may become even more prevalent in the not-too-distant future when there's going to be more examination of people's viewpoints as to when they are going to be allowed to advance in their jobs and things like that.

But simple, God-honoring honesty is what is being referred to here. Being a just person in business. Now, obviously, we know God has blessed many people. There's all sorts of stories about how people have sworn to their own hurt.

They've bypassed the easy buck and been willing to do what was right, and God has blessed them. Okay, that may be your experience, but you know what? In this life, sometimes you just get the raw end of the deal, and justice is only done in eternity.

And you know what? If that happens to you, you give it to God, and you continue to be faithful. You give it to God, and you continue to be faithful. You can't always say, well, I heard about somebody else, and they were patient in adversity, and as a result, God blessed them.

Well, with what? Well, they got the promotion. Okay, well, what if He just blessed them with a real sense of His presence, and they didn't get the promotion? Would that be enough for you? Should be. Needs to be.

Must be. Because in all of this, in keeping the proper scales and the proper weight, and in not mixing fibers, it was all a matter of God saying, this is how I want My people to represent My name in this world.

This is how I want My people to represent My name. And our concern should be, first and foremost, what is pleasing to God? Not to anyone else on this planet, but what is pleasing to God? At the end of the day, do we ever ask ourselves, is God pleased with me as His servant this day?

That's a tough question to ask. Because it's so easy most of the time, if we even take the time to reflect, to think about all the things we could have done, should have done, things we shouldn't have done.

But when you really think about it, the ordering principle, we talk about glorifying God, yes. But if you want to just see what that is in an everyday thing, was God pleased with me as His servant this day?

Pleasing God. That's really what God is helping the Israelites to understand in this text, is this is what it looks like to be pleasing in my sight. So it concludes, you shall thus observe all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them.

I am Yahweh. It's not a burden. It's guidance. It's light upon the path. It's giving us an idea of what is pleasing to God. And what we've learned is we shouldn't look like the world. We shouldn't desire to look like the world.

We shouldn't desire to blend in. We should be willing to stand out, not in self-righteousness, but in seeking to please God. That should be our goal. Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we once again have looked into Your Word, we have received light and guidance and understanding of what You would have us to be and to do.

We would ask that as we enter into this week of service and ministry to You that You would cause us to be servants of Yours that are pleasing in Your sight. For each one of us, that will look different in the sense that You've called us to different places of ministry and service.

But in another sense, it will all look the same. Because each one of us will be seeking to have Christ formed within us and to behave in such a way that we reflect the work of Your Spirit in our hearts and minds.

We thank You for this day. We thank You for our fellowship. We pray for those that are away from us as they are traveling that You would give them traveling mercies and bring them back safely to us. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.