Was Israel to live holy lives? Did holiness include how they treated parents, Sabbath, idolatry, peace offerings, the poor, telling the truth, immigrants, stock breeding, clothing quality, sex, harvesting fruit, pagan practices, the elderly, foreigners, and honesty in business? How holy are our lives? Let’s look at a discussion of holiness in Leviticus 19.
How important was holiness to God under the old covenant?
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’” (Leviticus 19:1-2 NKJV)
How did honoring parents, Sabbath keeping and avoiding idolatry make for holy living?
Each of you must show great respect for your mother and father, and you must always observe my Sabbath days of rest. I am the Lord your God. Do not put your trust in idols or make metal images of gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:3-4 NLT)
How were peace offerings to be holy? Was it also a meal?
When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day. If anything remains until the third day, it shall be burned with fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination. It will not be accepted; but everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the holy thing of Yahweh, and that soul shall be cut off from his people. (Leviticus 19:5-8 WEB)
How could they treat the poor and immigrants in a holy manner?
When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10 CEB)
How were truth telling and fulfilling promises holy living?
Do not steal or tell lies or cheat others. Do not misuse my name by making promises you don't intend to keep. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:11-12 CEV)
What were some practical ways to be holy in showing love to a neighbor?
You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:13-18 ESV)
Are quality stock breeding and clothing ways to be holy?
You are to keep My statutes. You must not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock, sow your fields with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment made of two kinds of material. (Leviticus 19:19 HCSB)
Can an engaged person be both holy and sexually unfaithful?
When a person has sexual relations with a woman servant who is engaged to another man, but she has not been completely redeemed nor has her freedom been granted to her, there is to be an inquiry, but they won’t be put to death, since she has not been freed. The perpetrator is to bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting—that is, a ram as a guilt offering. Then the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering in the Lord’s presence on account of his sin which he has committed, but which will be forgiven him. (Leviticus 19:20-22 ISV)
Was holiness applicable even to harvesting fruit only when the tree was ready?
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. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. 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. (Leviticus 19:23-25 KJV)
Was it holy to avoid common pagan practices like eating blood, shaping beards, cutting the body, prostituting daughters, profaning Sabbaths and witchcraft?
You shall not eat anything with the blood nor interpret omens or soothsaying. You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. And you shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am Yahweh. Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness. You shall keep My sabbaths and fear My sanctuary; I am Yahweh. Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God. (Leviticus 19:26-31 LSB)
Is it holy to treat the elderly and foreigners well and to be honest in business?
You shall stand up in the presence of the grayheaded and honor elders, and you shall fear your God; I am the Lord. When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or volume. You shall have accurate balances, accurate weights, an accurate ephah, and an accurate hin; I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. So you shall keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them; I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:32-37 NASB)
Are we Christians also to be holy in all that we do?
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2)
Was Israel to live holy lives? Did holiness include how they treated parents, Sabbath, idolatry, peace offerings, the poor, telling the truth, immigrants, stock breeding, clothing quality, sex, harvesting fruit, pagan practices, the elderly, foreigners, and honesty in business? How holy are our lives? You decide!
