Leviticus 19:19

The Bible says in Leviticus 19:19, “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.” This restriction about mixing things has an important spiritual meaning. In the world there is good and evil. There is good because God exists and He is good. There is evil because the devil exists and the devil is evil. Human beings end up following one or the other. If you follow God, you will come to faith in Christ. If you follow evil, something will keep you from faith in Christ. And so there is this great difference among human beings: some are children of Light and some are children of darkness. Their views of life are different, and their spirits are different. God wants that difference to be known. The fact that you are different from the people of the world is your testimony for Jesus Christ. People should be able to look at your life and know that you are a Christian. They will not be able to do that if you mix too much with unbelievers and live the way they do. Love them, but do not join in with their ungodly activities. It says in Second Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?”

The Bible says in Leviticus 19:20, “And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.” In the strict punishments of the law normally both the man and woman who committed adultery were given the death penalty, but not in this circumstance. In this verse a working woman’s situation is given consideration. Historically women have been taken advantage of when you have an aggressive man and a woman in a situation with limited choices. And so in this situation the law says, “they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.” This was not rape. It was consensual, but the emphasis is on the limited choices and lack of freedom of the woman involved. Think of the woman in this situation. Do not judge her.

But sin is still sin. And so it says in Leviticus 19:21-22, “And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering.[22] And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.” Notice the last phrase of verse 22, “the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.” In this case the man is responsible for what happened, not the woman. At least the man had we what we also have: the promise of forgiveness. That is true of every sin that is confessed to the Lord Jesus. Jesus will always forgive your sins no matter how often you need to ask Him and no matter how bad the sins are.

The Bible says in Leviticus 19:23-25, “And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.[24] But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal.[25] And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.” Remember that one of the reasons that the Israelites were given this land is because of how wicked the Canaanites were who lived in the land before them. And so for four years the children of Israel would see the fruit growing on the trees, but know that they could not touch it, and they would be reminded of God’s will that they live a holy life.

The Bible says in Leviticus 19:26-31, “Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.[27] Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.[28] Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.[29] Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.[30] Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.[31] Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” This is a list of things that the children of Israel would have seen among the heathen. People are like sheep. We tend to see what other people are doing and then we copy what we see. The heathen ate blood and ate meat with blood, but the Israelites were commanded not to do that. “Enchantment” as mentioned in verse 26 and observing “times” had to do with the false religious practices of the heathen, and so did “familiar spirits” and “wizards” as mentioned in verse 31. The way to avoid the false religious teachings of the world is to know Jesus as Savior and to study the Bible and become knowledgeable as enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Verse 27 has to do with hair styles and the shape of the beard. This demonstrates that God wants us to be careful about conforming to the world too much. We should even be concerned about the way we dress and groom ourselves. Notice what verse 28 says about the body: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.” When there is little or no Christianity in a culture, you will often see more tattooing, more body piercing, and other marring of the body. It says in First Corinthians 6:19-20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?[20] For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

Leviticus 19:29 makes an important statement about prostitution: “Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.” The will of God is that every woman and every man have a life that is according to God’s plan. Most people will get married. God will bring a man and a woman together, give them love for each other, and will unite them in the marriage bond. And then they remain united and faithful to each other for the rest of their lives. Those who do not get married remain chaste for the rest of their lives, God having a different plan for their lives, enabling them to use their time for other things rather than the time they spend with a spouse. One of those two things is the plan of God for absolutely everyone on this earth. That leaves no room for prostitution. Prostitution is a corruption of God’s will for the human race. It corrupts both the whore and the whoremonger. A strong argument can be made that those who chase after prostitutes (the whoremongers) are worse than the prostitutes themselves. A whore could not be a whore if there were no customers. Prostitution not only corrupts the men and women involved, but it also corrupts an entire country because it helps to destroy the family unit. It says in verse 29, “lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.”

It says in verse 29, “Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore.” This implies that prostitutes are led into prostitution by someone. We know about pimps and traffickers, but this verse talks about parents. Can a girl eventually becoming a prostitute be the fault of her parents: yes, indeed. Every prostitute is someone’s daughter. Is that how you would want your daughter to end up? God have mercy on us because of all the people involved when one woman or one man becomes a prostitute.

The Bible says in Leviticus 19:32-37, “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.[33] And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.[34] But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.[35] Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.[36] Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.[37] Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.” These verses have to do with how to treat other people. Verse twenty-two tells us to honor older people. Older means wiser, or at last it should. An older person might have trouble walking or opening a door and we should be ready to help. An older person helped make the good things of society that we now enjoy, and they deserve our appreciation.

A “stranger” is vulnerable because they are in a new place, and therefore they do not have the support of family and friends. In this context “stranger” means “foreigner:” someone who has legally travelled from a foreign country. They are even more vulnerable because of language and cultural differences. Christians should feel compassion for those who are in such situations. The Israelites certainly should know what that is like because they were foreigners in Egypt, and they were taken advantage of and suffered much. God tells us that we should treat foreigners as though they were not foreigners: “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you.”

In verses 35 and 36 God tells us that we should be honest in commercial and business dealings. You should be known by all who do business with you that you are an honest person. You should never cheat anyone. That is why it says in verse thirty-six to use “Just balances, just weights.”

Why should believers be careful to treat other people properly? The reason is clear: God has done wonderful things for us when we were in a time of need. God said at the end of verse thirty-six and in verse thirty-seven: “I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.[37] Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.” When we put our faith in Jesus, He saved us. Therefore, we owe Him everything, and we should be more than willing to remember these teachings and to want to put them into practice in our lives. A true Christian knows what it is like to be lost, because we were lost before we were saved. Therefore, we should have compassion on those who are outside of the Kingdom of God.

The Bible says in Leviticus 20:1-5, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,[2] Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.[3] And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.[4] And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:[5] Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.” There were two reasons that God told the children of Israel that no one should give “his seed unto Molech.” The first is because the “seed” refers to their children. The religion of Molech sacrificed children in the fire. Of course, that was a terrible thing for anyone to do such a thing to their own children. The second reason is that God condemns all false religion, and this was a false religion that was practiced by the people who were near the Israelites. One of the wrong ideas that is common in the world is that all religions lead to God. No they do not. There are many false religions. God wants the people of the world to know the truth. That is why God gave us the Bible: so that we will know about the love of God as manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Jesus also said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.”

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