The Discipline of Separation

Leviticus 20 and the Call to Holiness

Our scripture lesson this evening is shockingly found in the book of Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 20 will be beginning toward the end of the chapter, but before we once again look to God's word, let us ask his blessing upon our time together.

Once again, our Heavenly Father, as we desire to handle your word aright and to be instructed therein, we would ask that you would guide and direct, that you would protect us from distraction, that you would give us insight and understanding.

And once again, Father, we confess that we live in a world that each and every week chips away at our faith that you indeed have spoken to us. And so we would ask that you would help our faith, that you would once again by your spirit speak to our hearts, warm our hearts at the fire of your word.

May we truly believe that we are handling your word, your truth, and as such bring honor and glory to the name of Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. If you have been with us during the course of our study, you know that we have been working through what we're calling the Holiness Code that has specific application to a particular portion of the book of Leviticus.

But we are going beyond that. We will be looking at sections of the book of Deuteronomy as well, seeking to struggle with the issue of God's law and its application to our day. Well, last week we had looked at the beginning portions of Leviticus 20, the last Lord's Day evening, a little bit more of that.

And then this morning we worked through Leviticus 20 and specifically looking at verse 13. And we noted that the majority of this particular chapter does parallel what we saw in Leviticus chapter 18. This morning we looked a little bit at what the phrase their blood guiltiness will be upon them meant.

And then we, of course, of necessity, had to take some time to rather thoroughly look at verse 13 and its meaning in light of so many of the revisionist books that are out there in the world today. And, of course, on the Internet you can simply throw that text into Google or if there is another search engine out there.

I suppose if you have Microsoft you might once in a while end up on Bing or something like that. But you will find all sorts of articles seeking to redefine and to explain away what Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 is saying.

Leviticus 20:22-26 and the Separation of God's People

This evening what I would like to do in the fairly brief exhortation that we have is to look at the application provided by Leviticus 20 itself, specifically looking at verses 22 and following as sort of a summary of, again, why we should have the attitude that we need to have toward God's law.

There we read these words beginning in verse 22. You are therefore to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you.

For they did all these things and therefore I have abhorred them. Hence, I have said to you, you are to possess their land and I myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I am Yahweh your God who has separated you from the peoples. You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.

Thus, you are to be holy to me, for I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine. Now, once again, these are words which seem rather familiar to us. It is a refrain that is repeated over and over again.

But I remind you that Peter, in his first epistle, reminded us of these very words and made application of them to us as Christian believers. I may have mentioned it sometime in the past, but I remember very, very clearly an incident in my Christian life when, in high school, we were given the opportunity of sort of taking over from the teachers, which, of course, in a high school situation might have been, of course, a recipe for anarchy.

But in my instance, I was tasked with coming up with a Bible study, and I ended up utilizing those words from Peter's pen, drawing from the Old Testament text, you are to be holy, for I am holy. And I remember very vividly, even in that day, at that time, the necessity of seeking to not only speak to myself, but to my fellow high school students in a Christian church, of the necessity of taking seriously the call to holiness that has always been a defining mark of God's people.

And if you're wondering how well that went over, well, it really wasn't what you found in the Southern Baptist Quarterly very often, so it was sort of an unusual thing to have that kind of a rather straightforward call to holiness.

But I did make the point that Peter was not saying something new. This went back as far back as what we have here in the book of Leviticus. It was a constant theme, but there certainly was the emphasis is that followers of Christ should seek to walk in his footsteps, and therefore this idea of holiness was not merely an external thing, but it had to have an internal reality for it truly to speak to our hearts, and that's always been the case.

Even here, when we look at this particular commandment, we know that the only way that anyone in the days of Moses, anyone who could have heard these words coming forth from their God, the only way that they could want to desire to do these things is if they internally have been changed.

The heart of stone might, for its own purposes, outwardly conform to certain legal parameters, but there will never be a true love for the God of the law or a true inward desire to be conformed to what his law says unless there has been that inward change.

And so we read the words, you are therefore to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them. Why? Well, here's one reason that's given. So that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out.

Now, we remember the centrality of this theme in Leviticus chapter 18, that the reason that these people, and we just read from Deuteronomy 20, the very objectionable on the part of many people command that in the driving out of the nations that were being dispossessed that there was to be a complete obliteration of these nations.

Now, I know that there are even Christian apologists today, rather well-known ones, that try to say that that's a form of Hebrew hyperbole and that it does not actually mean what it says. I'm not sure how in Deuteronomy 20 you can come up with that because it talks about how you're to engage in war with those that are far away, and then it changes that when you're talking about those that you're dispossessing.

I'm not sure how you can read hyperbole into that, but there are people who say no, no. It just means to have a complete victory. I don't buy that. Israel was the means by which God brought his judgment against these nations, and there is a theme through the Old Testament, even all the way back when Israel was going into Egypt.

Remember what it said in Genesis chapter 15? Their iniquity was not yet full. Well, their iniquity became full. And unless you are squeamish about the fact that God can bring judgment to bear upon an entire people, that an entire people can become so enamored with their sin and so much under the wrath of God that the nation as a whole is destroyed, well, if you've got a problem with that, I think you're going to have a problem with everything that underlies the whole concept of the cross itself, the necessity of God's wrath coming against sin, the fulfillment of God's law.

You're going to have a problem with all of these things. And so here you have this idea, and now it's been said the land has spewed these people out for doing these things, but if you do them, then the land will spew you out as well.

And so you have the warning. Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. I have abhorred them.

That's very, very, very strong language that God uses in regards to his attitude toward these individuals and their behavior, and the fact that God's wrath is not just simply a judicial thing, but there is an abhorrence of those who love sin and love rebellion.

But then you have this interesting phrase. Hence I have said to you, you are to possess their land, and I myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, I happen to like both of those items, milk and honey.

In fact, today we have every kind of milk. Have you noticed that, you know, when I was a kid, you had milk. And I think maybe they might have come up with, like, 2 milk or something like that at some point, but milk was just milk.

And I remember my mom. Oh, I don't know how many times my mom would talk about hearing the clip-clop of the horse drawn dairyman who would come and deliver the milk to the home. I remember she just loved...

Of course, she also went 10 miles uphill both ways to school in the snow, but even in July. So, you know, I'm not exactly certain about how accurate all that was, but she liked to talk about that milk.

Well, you know what? You go to the grocery store today. How many kinds of milk do we have now? I haven't tried it yet, but I've now seen cashew milk. How do you get milk out of cashews? I've not really quite figured that part out, but I'll have to admit, I'm pretty partial to almond milk.

It is really, really good. Now, I'm not sure if that's a really effective means of getting milk, but it's tasty. I like it, and I love honey, too. I have a sweet tooth. Oh, my. You all have seen me wandering up there to the dessert table every once in a while, and I love all sorts of different kinds of honey.

That's great stuff. That's great stuff. Well, some of you might recognize a similar like amongst yourselves, and so when you think of a land flowing with milk and honey, it's a land that is filled with the good things of life.

And God has promised that they are going to possess this land. I, myself, will give it to you to possess it. It's a good land. It is a land that can bring forth the things that you really want and desire, but obviously this is stated within the context of a covenant.

Notice it's, Hence, I have said to you. But you see, there's a connection. And if you want the land flowing with milk and honey, you need to notice and recognize and live in light of who it is that is giving you all of these things.

And a people who are given a land, and God blesses it, and they experience the blessings of that land and the good things that land can provide, that do not keep in mind that that land has been given to them by God, are a people who themselves will experience God's wrath.

They themselves will find themselves driven out of that land. There needs to be a thankfulness to God. This is a principle found throughout Scripture, recognizing that everything that we possess is given to us by God, and when a people refuse to give thanks to God, I'm awful glad we still have Thanksgiving in our land, but every time that wonderful day rolls around, every one of us is struck with the reality that the worldview and the nation and the culture that gave birth to that holiday doesn't exist anymore.

Can you imagine that holiday being started now? Can you imagine a president of the United States now calling for a day of giving of thanks? Maybe it could happen, but the problem is the object of the giving of thanks would be to Gaia or, you know, the great spirit of global warming or whatever it would be, I don't know.

It certainly wouldn't be the context, the Christian context, that was a part of the original proclamation of that day. Then that promise is followed by these words, I am Yahweh your God who has separated you from the peoples.

Now, this is where, and maybe some of your translations will have notes or something like that, but I looked up a few translations. I didn't have time to look at all of them, so I don't know if any translations tried to communicate what's really being said here.

I am Yahweh your God who has separated you from the peoples. You are therefore, and almost all translations will say, to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean. Well, I don't know how you could do this without making it very stilted and awkward, but the reality is, the underlying original language text is saying, I'm Yahweh your God, I separated you from the peoples, therefore you are to make separation, you are to make a distinction between clean animal and unclean.

It's the same term. It's the same underlying root. And the original readers would have seen that and made the immediate connection, oh, the reason that we are to make these distinctions. And aren't these distinctions one of the main things that people like to go, ah, law.

Why in the world would you make these kinds of distinctions and you have to worry about shellfish, but you can have this kind of fish, and this kind of animal, no, you can't have that. Those poor Jewish folks, they could never have bacon.

And bacon's such a wonderful thing, and so many of us are just, I mean, I imagine in front of me there are some bacon addicts. There are some people that just absolutely would have had to give serious thought if you had lived before the days of Christ as to what you were going to choose, because you just love your bacon.

And it's so easy for people to say, well, this was all just arbitrary. I mean, on any kind of biological level, the proteins that you get from eating pork are no really different than the proteins you get from eating beef.

So why do this? Well, I don't know about you, but this seems to be one of the clearest statements that I've encountered in the Old Testament scriptures as to why they were to do these things. And it is, I am Yahweh your God, God's covenant name, and I have separated you from the peoples.

And it's not because we know so many other places. It's not because you were mightier. It's not because you were greater. It's not because you were more numerous. It's not because you were a holy or righteous people.

In fact, you're a stiff-necked people. Always have been. But I have separated you from the peoples. And don't we see that? Don't we see Israel being treated in a very, very, very different way from the peoples?

They're warned. Prophets are sent to them. So much guidance and light given to them. They're given so many blessings despite the fact that they don't earn them. Anyone who believes in some kind of works righteousness system really hasn't thought very thoroughly, very clearly about what has taken place in the history of Israel.

It is God, Yahweh their God, who has separated them from the peoples, given them His covenant, given them His word, given them the fathers and the promises. All these things given to them and it was not any of their doing.

It was not some type of synergistic thing. God has separated you from the peoples. Therefore, He has made a distinction between them and the peoples. And therefore, as a result, they are to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, between the unclean bird and the clean.

And you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps in the ground, which I have separated for you, made a distinction for you as unclean, thus you are to be holy to me.

There's the reasoning. There's the thinking. We spend so much time going, well, you know, pork was subject to one kind of possible disease. Well, actually, beef could have all sorts of other diseases too.

I know, I understand the desire to try to find some kind of external reason for why these distinctions are made, but even if there is such a reasoning that we could track down in some way, the point is this.

God says, I have separated you from the peoples. And because of that, I have the right to say, this is how you're going to demonstrate that you are different from the peoples. And part of that is a discipline.

It is a spiritual discipline. And if you happen to be a bacon lover, you better love Yahweh your God more. There's where the distinction is. You are to be holy to me, for I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine.

Now, there are tremendous blessings that come with that. But only the changed heart will value those blessings. You want to see what happens when great spiritual blessings are placed before hearts of stone?

Read the history of Israel. Read the history of Israel. Because not only will you have so many people that will turn aside to other gods, will turn aside to syncretism, will turn aside to just full-blown apostasy, but you also get that range of the response of the stony heart that results in the Pharisees, that results in the abuse of God's law and the elevation of one over others in the sense of those many things that Jesus brought to light amongst the Pharisees of His day.

So you can have a wide variety of responses, but when God's great blessing is presented before the heart of stone, the response is not love. The response is not willful obedience. The response will be some kind of rebellion, either a religious style or a syncretistic or idolatry or just whole-scale rebellion.

It all depends. But to the person, for the heart of that believing Israelite that has been changed by God's grace, there you have the individual who will recognize the great blessings and will want to embrace Yahweh as their God and as a result of that will not chafe when God says this is how you demonstrate to the nations that you are My people and will desire the discipline of God.

It took discipline. It took time for the Israelite to fulfill the law that had been given to him. And from a human perspective, there were so many little things that just did not seem to make any sense unless you recognize that that kind of spiritual discipline can be an act of love on the part of the person who truly desires to be pleasing to God, who does not desire to stand up and say I'm going to examine everything that God says to me on some kind of external basis and if there's anything that just doesn't fit with my judgment then I just don't think I need to do that.

Oh, what an attitude that we are surrounded with every single day. The secular humanist is an arrogant creature. From the Christian worldview, the secular humanist is an arrogant teacup, an arrogant plate, an arrogant pot.

What in the world is an arrogant pot? Isn't that an absurdity in and of itself? It is. But that's exactly what our culture is filled with. People whose every breath and every heartbeat comes from God's hand and yet they're in such rebellion and in such darkness that they actually can stand up and demand that God justify himself to them.

What an amazing situation. And so we have in this idea of separation distinction. We have an explanation given by God here. I have chosen you. I have granted you blessings that you were not under... I was not under any obligation to give you these things.

See, that's where so much of our problem comes in. We think that there can be some way in which God is placed under obligation to give to us grace and blessings. There is no such obligation. If it's going to be grace, it has to be free.

That's always been the case. And God says, I have separated you from the nations, therefore I have given to you these, my laws, and by obeying them you demonstrate that you are my people and you reflect my holiness to all of those around you.

You are to be my covenant people. What an honor that is. And now, as believers in our day, now as the redeemed, now as those who have direct access into the presence of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, through His self-sacrifice, because we have so much more revelation that has been given to us since this time.

I mean, we have... Can you imagine? Can you imagine what it was like for the psalmist who pens Psalm 119? What little amount of God's revelation he had to meditate upon in comparison to what we have. And yet what great love he expressed for that.

What would Psalm 119 be like if he had Ephesians? If he had Romans 8? If he had John 6? Or John 17? Maybe that's why it had to be written then because it's already very long. Can you imagine how long it would have been?

It would have been a book of the Bible unto itself. It is a book of the Bible unto itself already, I suppose. It is longer than some books of the Bible. But can you imagine what we should be able to say?

The joy that should well up in our hearts when we meditate upon all of this that God has given to us and it gives us so much more understanding of what it means to be called to be God's people and the necessity of having that heart that has been washed clean, that being born again, that washing with the water and the Word, Titus 3, all of the fact that there is something inside of us that needs to be changed.

I don't know how anybody can really look into the law of God and not be driven to understand the necessity of the grace of God. I mean, if you can be a legalist, if you can look at this law and then not recognize the need to have your heart changed, what blindness is that?

The standard is so high and if we know anything about ourselves, if we know anything about our own hearts, we cry out for the very mercy and grace of God. Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.

You know, when Isaiah had that driven home, what was the result? When a very prophet of God had these words driven home when he saw God upon His throne, he saw and recognized His holiness, his immediate response was, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips.

I live amongst a people of unclean lips. I don't know how anyone could ever look at the holiness of God as revealed in His law and do anything other but to fall down and say, have mercy upon me. That's exactly the point of the Pharisee and the Publican.

Is it not? The Pharisee knew these words, but did not feel their weight. The Publican may not have known the words nearly as well as the Pharisee did, but he felt the weight. And even to feel the weight of these words requires the work of the Spirit of God within us.

And so there was separation. And what the people of God were to do in making the distinctions and separations that they did was simply a discipline that reflected His holiness. Why did they so often stop doing that?

Why did they so often break His commandments? Well, because the only way to continue to continue in a day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, year-by-year walk of faithfulness is to have a heart that desires to do what is right before God.

The law never had the power to change the heart, but God always had that power. He always has that power. He continues to have that power. And even as we seek to present God's law to people around us today, to warn and to be a prophetic voice amongst people, we always recognize, we always recognize our absolute dependence upon the Spirit of God to open hearts and minds.

It doesn't matter how clearly we make the proclamation. Unless the Spirit of God opens that heart, opens that mind, we're talking to a brick wall. Never go into any type of witnessing situation without praying, Oh God, have mercy.

Have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon this one. We must always recognize the spiritual nature of the battle that is ours. And even that battle of discipline, even that battle of being holy, seeking to live in that way that reflects God's holiness, it all goes back to a recognition of how dependent we are.

How dependent we are upon the very Spirit of our God. Let's pray together. Once again, our Heavenly Father, we have been reminded of our dependence upon you. And Lord, you are holy. You are the holy God.

And you've called us to be holy. You actually desire us to reflect your holiness to those around us. Lord, every person in this room, we know in and of ourselves we cannot do this. We think of how many times we have set out with a desire to do what was right, and we've stumbled in our ignorance or even in our open rebellion.

We are so thankful for the Gospel that tells us there was the Holy One. And that we are in Him. The righteousness which we have, which avails before you, is in Him. And you continue to work in our lives so that we can honestly pray, Lord, make us holy in this coming week.

May our speech, our dress, our actions reflect your holiness to the world around us. We know how the world responds to that. We know what the cost may be. But Lord, indeed, may we be holy to your honor and your glory in this coming week.

We pray in Christ's name.