Context No. 2747 of 4322 · Leviticus

Leviticus 20:21-27: in context

21“‘If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless. 22“‘You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. 23You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples. 25“‘You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean. You shall not make yourselves abominable by animal, or by bird, or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have separated from you as unclean for you. 26You shall be holy to me, for I, the LORD, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine. 27“‘A man or a woman that is a medium or is a wizard shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones. Their blood shall be upon themselves.’”

These verses come near the end of the holiness laws, with their severe penalties, and the frame around them is the key. Keep my statutes, God says, so the land does not spit you out. Do not follow the customs of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them. You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be mine.

The death penalties this chapter attaches to certain sins belonged to a particular covenant and a harsh age, and the New Testament will lead the people of God away from stoning toward the mercy of Christ, who told a waiting crowd to drop its stones. What endures is the call underneath: to be set apart, distinct, belonging wholly to God rather than blending into whatever the surrounding culture happens to do. Holiness means difference, and difference always costs something.

In what ways am I called to be set apart for God, and where have I simply blended in with the customs around me?

Sources

Leviticus 20:26: "You shall be holy to me, for I, the LORD, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine."
1 Peter 1:16: "You shall be holy; for I am holy."
John 8:7: "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her."