Leviticus 20:7-8 “ ‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
There is often debate about what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. We read about it in the news every day. Even the courts of our land make rulings about issues that are moral issues, but about which the Constitution did not directly address.
Why is it that we get so fired up about moral issues in a country that has turned away from the moral foundation on which we were built! If there is no standard, why get upset when someone practices a different moral value than you hold? Isn’t that just their right?
Many hold that position until their family member is murdered or raped. Then they want a moral standard enforced. When their house is broken into and their items are stolen, they want justice. When it becomes personal, then the moral values come into view. Selective moral value application is no moral value!
Our text gives us the moral value behind the laws outlined in this section of Leviticus. All these laws are the working out of the LORD’s holy character. He is the One who has the right to say what is right and wrong for the community which He has brought out of Egyptian slavery. But even more than that, He is the One who created humanity for a purpose: to act as His regents in this world.
Notice that the LORD is holy and we were created to reflect that holiness in the way that we rule and reign here on earth. We were His representatives. We have a specific job here: represent Him well.
So as the Israelites are part of the LORD’s restart of humanity, He wants them to pick up the original mandate: be holy, be like the LORD Himself. But notice who makes the Israelites holy. It is the LORD who does that, not the actions of the people. It isn’t our actions that make us holy. It is our relationship with Him that make us holy. Our actions are an outgrowth of our relationship.
The Israelites have been anything but holy in their actions following their deliverance from Egypt. Rebellion is their normal behavior. The grumble and complain, they make idols and worship them, they complain about their leadership and they want to return to the good old days of slavery. Not the kind of people we would label as holy, are they!
That is because they are holy because the LORD has set them apart. It is His action that makes all the difference. Stay in relationship with Him, and we are holy. So as a holy people already, actions follow that reflect our acknowledgement of that relationship. We want to please Him.
Too often we think being accepted before the LORD is dependent on us, on our behavior, on our adherence to a set of rules. We become the center of our relationship with the LORD. That is a big mistake. He is the center, we are secondary.
He is the One who makes us holy. It is His action in the past that guarantees His action in the future. And when we trust that fact, then we want to reflect His character in the way we conduct our lives here in this world. We act more in line with His character.
So we must do the thing with which this verse begins. We must consecrate ourselves. We must give ourselves wholly to Him, thought, word and deed. We are no longer our own having been bought at a price. Just like Israel, we are here because of Him.
The Arnold Journey 