And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. Leviticus 18:1-5.
I am the LORD your God. This name LORD is repeated four times in these five verses. The name, God, is repeated twice. Eight times personal pronouns refer to the LORD God. The LORD had an opinion on the way Israel was to live and He expected them to follow what He told them to do. The name LORD is God’s personal name (Yahweh / Adonai). This is the name the LORD revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. It is used to reflect the personal presence of the LORD to His people. The name of God is Elohim which reflects the transcendent, all-powerful God, used to refer to God in Genesis 1-2 to speak of the creator who brought all things into being. This is the LORD God who called Israel out of Egypt and now expected them to live according to His Law, His truth, His values. God had a right to dictate the way Israel was to live from here on out.
We have that same relationship with that same God through Christ. God has saved us through the sacrifice of His Son and for all who surrender to God through faith in Christ now belong to Him. That being said, in the same way it was right for God to have expectations on Israel on how they were to live, He has the same expectations and demands on how we are to live. God expects us to live according to His truth, His precepts, His principles, values, and priorities. He did not just save us from being separated from Him; He wants to save us from the ongoing clutter of the values of the world.
The LORD God called Israel to a different way of life. Israel was now to “unlearn” all the beliefs, values and priorities they had learned in Egypt, where they had become a nation. They were also to not adopt the behaviors, habits, and character of the people of Canaan, the place where Israel would inherit the LORD God’s promises to His people. When we place faith in Christ we are called to live in a way that honors God which is not in harmony with the values and practices of the culture.
Leviticus may not be your favorite book but it is a spectacular blueprint to help us understand how God called Israel to “keep on being saved” in the real world in which they were living. While this calling may be difficult there was a clear expectation from the LORD God that His people can resist and reject the ways of the world and cling to the behaviors and character of God – in any other terms, God expected his people to live a holy life, set apart to honor God by the way they are to live.
There is much we can learn from this calling God had on Israel. Suffice it say that we are also called to live holy lives – we are to embrace God’s values, priorities and behaviors for life. We are to reject the inclinations of the culture we were saved from (personal / family / community / country) and learn God’s way of life. He did not “save us” from being enslaved by sin to setting us free just to turn back to live like we did while living in the world.
The bottom line is that we are to follow God and not our culture. We are to follow His Word and not our own understanding. We are to cling to His truth and not our own insights. We are to be faithful to Him even above our loyalty to our own families and their “way of doing things” in our own home. We are called by the LORD God Himself to follow Him.
In Christ,
Pastor Brad Little
