Warnings Against the Sins of the Former Inhabitants
“hate no fellowship with the unfeoitful woeks of darkness, but eathee eepeove them: for it is a shame even to speak of those things which aee done of them in seceet. but all things that aee eepeovedaeb made manifest by the ught.” eph. v. 11-13.
Vers. 1, 2. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Again thou shalt say to the children of Israel.”
The Lord, knowing well the deep delusions of the heart, warns Israel against sins which had already been forbidden. But he does it here by a reference, throughout, to the former state of morality and idolatry in the land, lest Israel should say, “Let us try what was once done in the land before.” (See ver. 22, which is the key to this chapter.) How thoroughly the Lord knows the readiness of the corrupt heart to adopt a suggestion of evil! and how accurately he saw the tendency to what was afterwards really done by Israel.
Vers. 2, 3. “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 And I will set my f.ice against that t man, and will cut him off from among his people; becauM he bath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.”
How startling the determination expressed here I The Lord employs the people of the land as his executioners, and then seems to preside himself over the execution, “they shall stone him — and I will cut him off, setting my face against him.” And the sentence is fearful, stoning to death. What, then, is the sin? It is the worshipping of the god, Molech, whose imagined qualities seem to be the very antipodes of the true Grud. Molech was worshipped by revolting cruelties, and the cries of the sufferers were drowned in loud noise. An image of red-hot glowing brass was the form in which he was adored, and his arms received the children offered to him, forthwith consuming them by their red-hot touch. The child was put (” ««; “xofia nhirq nvQOi^’j “jnto a gaping hole, full of fire,” says an historian. Everything was savage and demoniacal; fiendish tyranny and hellish hate. What a contrast to Jehovah — “God is love I” His everlasting arms take up the little child to bless and to save; and never is his heart satisfied with his worshippers till they believe his love to them. Rather than that they should suffer woe, He stretched out his arms on the cross, and opened his side to (he spear, and made a way for the streams of the poured-out vial running over his own soul.
The man, therefore, who chose Molech in preference to Jehovah, proved himself to be in a state of most desperate enmity to God — “defiling his sanctuary,^^ casting contempt upon it by preferring Molech’s court; and” defiling his name,^^ by his awful choice; as if saying, that the perfections of God were so loathsome to him, that he would rather burn in the furnace heat of Molech’s image, than enjoy the sweet, holy love of the God of Israel, i
Vers. 4, 5..” 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: 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 them, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.”
Fearful truth to men that “have not the love of God in them.” Though you are not punished by the world, though the world is sheltering you and defending you, God is himself instituting a process against you. God was to become the prosecutor when the people of the land would not take measures against a worshipper of Molech. The Lord brought ruin on the man and his house, and all those who secreted the man and favored him.
The expression “whoredom with Molech,^^ is one of many similar phrases taken from the marriage-relation. It seems that the Lord thereby intimates that his view of our world is this — He came down in the person of Messiah to betroth and marry us; therefore, every turning aside to another Saviour and another God is breaking this marriage-union. It was in this form that, in Old Testament times, unbelief was spoken of. God’s covenant with Israel as a people tended to deepen this view of likeness to a marriage-union, as we find in Jer. iii. 14, “I am married unto you;” and Hos. ii. 19, “I will betroth thee unto me forever;’.’ and in Mai. ii. 11, the reverse,” Judah hath married the daughter of a strange God.” We may everywhere understand it as equivalent to the New Testament expression, “Making” God a liar” All our love to God begins by our perceiving the love of
God to us; therefore, a turning to other lovers is virv
364 WARNINGS AGAINST SINS OF FORJteR INHABITANTS.
tually a declaring that there is no satisfying love in God toward us.
Ver. 6.” And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I vrilL even set mj face against that soul, and will cut him off from among bis people.**
Though the people of the land entice you, and though you be in perplexity and laden with care, yet never must you go to other counsellors than the Lord. Has not the Lord wisdom enough to direct you? And love enough to reveal sufficient discoveries of the future? May you not be satisfied with his spreading a veil over much of your path, rather than run to wizards, whose familiarity with Satan may enable them to suggest extraordinary views of your future case?
The Lord “set his face against that soul and out him off.” As in the case of King Saul; he followed him to Endor, and there met him with a message of ruin. Is there not a tendency to this same sin in us when we refuse to sit still under apprehended evils — when we run backward and forward seeking intelligence — when we stop hastily in our prayer or meditation to rush away to some new sources of information that have occurred to us? Is all this running to and fro, this restless, unbelieving haste, this diving into every deep, this pulling at the veil over the future as if we could thus force it aside, — is not all this a going after wizards? “He thai believeth shall not make haste.”
Vera. 7, 8. “Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you.”
Some make this an appendix to the preceding; but it ’s rather a preface to the following precepts — as appears by “for” in the beginning of ver. 9. And yet in one view it has a retrospective reference also. It is placed in the position of a commemorative sign-post, to attract the eye, and to tell that this road was once in a deplorable state, but is now altered through the great kindness of their King: therefore, none of his fences must be broken through. These calls to holiness often occur. 0! how the Lord longs to see his people holy! And how tender and persuasive the argument which he uses with them! It is always this — I, your God and Father, desire it! It is I, the Lord, who sanctify you I He knows that they who love the Lord, love to be like him! “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness” (Ps. xvii. 15) — but never wholly till then.
And now begins a dark and dismal scene! The Lord’s holiness is set before us as if to make the after-gloom more deep; or, the after-gloom is meant to make the Lord’s holiness the sweeter by its contrast. The rainbow is reflected from the thick dark cloud!
Ver. 9. “For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.”
Like the heathen in Paul’s days, the people of Canaan had lost ^’■natural affection.’’^ (Rom. i. 31.) Israel needs to be warned against their sin. And as this is the strongest tie of duty towards any earthly friend, if it be snapt, then the whole other duties and feelings of relationship between men are gone. “He hath cursed his f other V “Ae hath cursed his mother I’’’’ seems written to mark the crime as eminently heinous! It is so nearly allied, also, to the’ utter renunciation of all our ties to God our father, who has nourished and brought up ohil- 366 WARNINGS AGAINST SINS OF FORMER INHABITANTS.
dren. The son has become a prodigal I The son has gone to a fur country I The son wishes to erase the very memory of his father’s home! “Be astonished, 0 ye heavens, at this, and be very desolate!”
This is the porch. Novr enter the chambers where deeds are done in the dark, of which it is a shame to speak; but which even the camp of Israel might be led to commit with greediness. Is it so? Are there sins of which it is a shame to speak? Then surely God’s Israel cannot need to be warned against these? Alas! They need it like other men. The Lord sees their hearts’ depraved tendencies, and how Satan will clear the channels for their easy flow. Amazing grace! Jehovah chooses for the fellowship of his bosom throughout eternity persons whose nature he knew to be capable of the foulest, filthiest, darkest profligacy! 0! what must Jesus be who “saves his people /row their sms.”
Vers. 10, 11, 12, 13, U, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. “And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father’s wife, hath uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely bo put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them. If a man also lio with mankind, as be lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is a wickedness: they shall be burned with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death; and ye shall slay the beast And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Arid if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; lie hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people. And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless. ’
What sins are here, and what sounds of the stroke of the sword of wrath! ‘■’■Put to death — their blood upon them /” “Burnt with fire /” “Cut off in the sight of their people’’’’ (ver. 17) — that all may see and fear, like the witnesses of Babylon’s destruction.” Cut off from among their people;’’^ driven out of holy fellowship. (Rev, xviii. 10.) ‘■’■Die childless,’’^ — some left living as monuments of wrath, seen by all like a leafless, fruitless tree which the lightning of God has blasted. Many are the arrows in his quiver, shot even on earth upon transgressors! What, then, when his “bow is made quite naked?”
But what a land of sin! Its cities and its plains crying up to heaven! Children curse their parents! Neighbors and relatives live in adultery with each other! The son dishonors the bed of his step-mother; the father-in-law that of his daughter-in-law! Men burn in unnatural lust (Rom. i. 27); and the same man takes mother and daughter as his wives. Men and women go to the very beasts to gratify lusts.* Brothers disregard
* In ver. 15, Patriclf observes that the slaying of the beast was quite accordant with our feelings; just as they used to hang a forger with hia the holy ties that forbade him approach to sisters and step-sisters. Aunts, and brothers’ wives, in short, all relations in torn, seem only to be fuel to lust, which consumes the fence, and rages till it expire in its own indulgence.
0! what a land! Who wonders that its people were rooted out! The only wonder is that the Lord could have borne the very sight of the land any more! Should he not blot it out from his creation? He did so to Sodom and Gomorrah. But, lo! he rather will purge it, and people it with a new race! I think I can see in this how Jehovah gave a token that even so will he deal with this whole wicked earth I He will not blot it out of creation — nay, it shall remain forever a monument of his long-suffering. He will cleanse it soon by the appearance of Joshua in flaming fire; and then shall it be “the New Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness!”
Even thus, also, 0 sinner, with thy polluted soul! Every sin and vice, and lust, and passion has had its seed in thee — if not its spring-time when it grew to flower and baneful fruit. But the Lord, instead of destroying thee, can cleanse and save! The priest on his throne comes in to thee: thou art washed! “Be holy, for ho is holy!”
Vers. 22, 23, 24. “Ye Bhall therefore keep all my statute*, and all my judgments, and do them; that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out And ye vhall not walk in the manners of the nations, which I cast oat before you: for they committed all these tilings, and therefore I abhor them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a limd that flowcth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your Ood, which have separated you from other people.”
pen and counterfeit seals, and a conjuror with his magical book a and characters.
The Lord tells them of the inheritance he has provided for his Israel. They are to walk on the banks of streams whose verdant banks are fed upon by flocks and herds; and in climbing their rocks they are to find honey flowing forth for their use. “Milk and honey are representatives of all abundance. It is a land which the Lord is not ashamed to give them. (Heb. xi. 16.) But here they are to walk in holiness- — separated from other people. The former inhabitants were “abhorred” by the Lord for their sins; they are to be loved, and to love in return. Israel’s land is to be a theatre whereon heavenly character and heavenly joy shall be displayed, and the eye of the Lord shall look with delight on holy deeds and holy desires. All this is to be produced by their being made to feel free grace and flowing love. They do not get the land on conditions. It is given freely; and, being given, they are then commanded to be holy. The God of grace is visibly at work here — placing them in the midst of blessing, and then saying, “Now wilt thou surely love me.” “He first loved us /” must be the spring of Israel’s obedience. What strength there must be in that spring! It is sufficient to counteract all the sinful propensities of Canaan! Sinai’s loud thunder failed, but the silent love of Zion overcomes!
Vers. 25, 26. “Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.”
It is instructiv to observe that God enjoins the observance of the ritual of worship very strictly; and this .^ is done with the view of severving them more completely (ver. 26) from the people of the land. The form of church government is not in any way the essence of the truth, but it is the fence around the truth. It is not the jewel, but it is the precious case that enclases the more precious jewel. Whatever form of worship is best fitted to effect this purpose is surely the best for our adoption. If people, on the other hand, are led to mistake the case for the jewel, then the great design is lost. In Popery and Puseyism, and whenever the forms of worship are such as engross the eye and the heart, the truth is lost, out of sight. Our unattractive Presbyterianism is a rough case in the view of many; but it certainly answers the blessed end of preventing any from resting in it as if itself were the jewel. Its very plainness leads the inquirer to go deeper in, and find the glorious view of God manifest in flesh, which it is intended to fence and guard. How uninviting to Israel these laws as to” clean and unclean’^ — and yet their observance led to humble and solid inquiry after the Holy One.
Ver. 27. “A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that ia a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall etone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”
This is not the same as ver. 6. This is the case of the wizards themselves, not of those who go to consult them. If found, wizards, and all of that class, are to be put to death. Israel is to remove stumbling-blocks. Israel must keep so far from the evil as even to extirpate it. None but Jehovah shall be honored.
Israel must live in open and avowed enmity with the serpent and the seed of the serpent. There is to be no compromise. And this shall throw them entirely upon the Lord for strength. They are to wage war with Satan; to storm his strongholds; to crush the adder and dragon in their den; to refuse any offer of peace on the part of their great foe. Hell would hate no portion of earth so intensely as Canaan in the days of believing Israel. And yet no region on earth was half so secure; for the strength of heaven — the breadth of heaven’s shield, and the edge of heaven’s keen sword, became Israel’s safety. “The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.” “Happy art thou, 0 Israel! 0 people saved of the Lord!”