Leviticus 19: This section of Leviticus is one of the most practical sections in Scripture. These commandments of Elohim are explained in terms of social life and action. Elohim intended His Torah to be demonstrated in the lives of those that believe and trust in Him.
(Lev 19:1 NASB) Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
(Lev 19:2 NASB) “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
Lev 19:2: We are to be holy because Elohim is holy. That command has not changed (2 Cor. 6:14-16, 1 Pet. 1:14-16, Matt. 5:48).
(Lev 19:3 NASB) ‘Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:3: Elohim starts out by reminding us that we are to honor our father and mother. The reason for this is that, in many ways, the parents stand in the place of Elohim for the child. That is how the child first learns how to obey Elohim is through obeying his parents. It all starts at home.
Elohim then mentions, “Keep my Sabbaths.” Elohim commands one seventh of your time. Don’t steal from Him. It doesn’t pay off.
What is the purpose of the Sabbath? It serves many purposes for us, but one main thing is that He uses it to sanctify us (Ezek. 20:12).
(Lev 19:4 NASB) ‘Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:4: Heathen worship appealed to the eye with it’s pomp and ceremony. Many of today’s religions look like a pageant in their rituals. Elohim doesn’t want your ritual and ceremony. He wants your obedience.
(Lev 19:5 NASB) ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.
(Lev 19:6 NASB) ‘It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and the next day; but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire.
(Lev 19:7 NASB) ‘So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an offense; it will not be accepted.
(Lev 19:8 NASB) ‘And everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from his people.
Lev 19:8: This concerns the peace offering which were covered in chapter 3. This is a voluntary offering. But because the offering is voluntary, that doesn’t mean that the offeror could be lazy in following the rules. The one presenting the voluntary offering had to follow the rules to a “T.”
Elohim says, “If you are going to do this voluntarily for Me, then do it right!”
(Lev 19:9 NASB) ‘Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.
(Lev 19:10 NASB) ‘Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:10: This is Elohim’s provision for the poor. He did not allow the Israelites to reap their fields but one time. This left 10% or more of their original harvest in the field. This allowed the poor to go out and pick their own food. Elohim gave them opportunity to gather their own food. This applied to a vineyard also.
The Torah is not a burden to man as most Christian churches make it out to be. Torah is the opposite of selfishness and hatred. Torah is gracious, merciful, caring, and loving.
(Lev 19:11 NASB) ‘You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
Lev 19:11: We are not to be deceptive in our business tactics. The follower of Yeshua is to be totally honest and up front.
(Lev 19:12 NASB) ‘And you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.
Lev 19:12: His name is holy and sacred. His people are not to be swearing falsely by His name and are not to be using His name improperly.
(Lev 19:13 NASB) ‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.
Lev 19:13: We are to pay those that work for us adequately and on time. If the agreement is to pay someone at a certain time, then we are to pay them on time and not one day later.
(Lev 19:14 NASB) ‘You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the LORD.
Lev 19:14: One badge of the follower of Messiah is how he treats the disabled and the handicapped. Elohim has a deep concern for those disadvantaged and He rebukes the hardheartedness of man.
Elohim gives His people the privilege of showing His love to those who are disadvantaged.
(Lev 19:15 NASB) ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
Lev 19:15: This command is one of the foundations of a civilized people. But we have made a mockery of it in this day. Our judicial system is pathetic and seems to be getting worse every year. We are a heathen nation that is now reaping the effects of turning our backs on the Torah of Elohim.
(Lev 19:16 NASB) ‘You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD.
(Lev 19:17 NASB) ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.
Lev 19:17: We are not to hate our neighbor, or brother, in any way. We are not to slander, act against his life, or hate him in any way.
(Lev 19:18 NASB) ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
Lev 19:18: If we cannot speak well of those who are our neighbors, we should not say anything.
Yeshua said this and Deut. 6:4-5 are the epitome (brief summary) of Torah.
(Lev 19:19 NASB) ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.
Lev 19:19: This is an interesting verse. Elohim’s creation is not to be corrupted. Different kinds of cattle are not to be bred together. This was a prohibition against man forcing cattle of different kinds to mate. Cattle do not usually, of themselves, mate with a diverse kind, unless directed and solicited to it, as a male of one kind with a female of another.
The mixing of different seeds will result in poor crop or the destruction of the crop. Garments are not to consist of linen and wool combined together (Deut. 22:9-11).
In Lev. 19:19, the word for mixed garments is “sha’atnez sha’atnez.” H8162. sha’atnez, shah-at-naze’; prob. of for. der.; linsey-woolsey, i.e. cloth of linen and wool carded and spun together:–garment of divers sorts, linen and woolen.
The KJV and NKJV seem to have correctly interpreted this to mean “linen and wool. (Lev 19:19 NKJV) ‘You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.
(Lev 19:20 NASB) ‘Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed, nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free.
(Lev 19:21 NASB) ‘And he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD to the doorway of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering.
(Lev 19:22 NASB) ‘The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the LORD for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him.
Lev 19:22: This is about a woman who is a slave of a man, but is betrothed to another man. They will be punished (or scourged), but they will not be put to death because she was owned by that man as a slave. He will pay the man for the loss of the marriagable girl plus he must present a guilt offering.
(Lev 19:23 NASB) ‘And when you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten.
(Lev 19:24 NASB) ‘But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD.
(Lev 19:25 NASB) ‘And in the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:25: The branches of fruit trees need the fruit to stay on the branches the first few years because the weight strengthens the branches. Oftentimes, if the fruit is taken off fruit trees in the first years, the branches will not have the strength to support an abundance of crop in later years.
Remember also, the firstfruits belong to Elohim.
(Lev 19:26 NASB) ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying.
Lev 19:26: Verses 26-28 describe pagan things practiced by the Canaanites and other idolators. They were prohibited because they reflect those pagan cultures. That is why they are prohibited today also (2 Cor. 6:16-17).
(Lev 19:27 NASB) ‘You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads, nor harm the edges of your beard.
Lev 19:27: This is a very controversial passage. Different scholars say it means different things. Some say it is a prohibition against shaving the sides of your head. But the word for “sides” is pe’ah which has references to around the mouth. H6285. pe’ah, pay-aw’; fem. of H6311; prop. mouth in a fig. sense, i.e. direction, region, extremity:–corner, end, quarter, side. Therefore, some people say that men should not shave around their mouths. That is the interpretation that I believe it to be.
(Lev 19:28 NASB) ‘You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.
Lev 19:28: These commands condemn the practices and superstitions of the heathen. We are not to make any cuts on our bodies for the dead. This is a common practice of Islam:
“The observance of Ashoura is one of the most important events in the Shia calender. Ashoura marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in what is now Kerbala, Iraq. The death of Husayn was the beginning of the Sunni/Shia split, which persists in Islam to this day.
In the past, many Shia men have demonstrated their devotion to Husayn by letting their blood flow freely from self-inflicted wounds. Today, however, many governments have tried to ban this practice, with varying degrees of success. In Lebanon, the practice is permitted, and a bloody commemoration of Ashoura takes place in Nabatieh every year.
Most participants make a small cut on their head, and then beat the wound with their palm–or in this case a sword–to keep the wound open and bleeding.
Participants then march in groups around the town, yelling chants to express their devotion to Husayn and the Prophet. […]
Plus we are not to get any tattoos.
(Lev 19:29 NASB) ‘Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land may not fall to harlotry, and the land become full of lewdness.
Lev 19:29: If the other parts of Torah are no longer applicable, then why must this one be followed? If we throw out Torah, we throw this command out also. (That is ridiculous of course.) We are to follow all of Elohim’s Torah.
(Lev 19:30 NASB) ‘You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the LORD.
Lev 19:30: He wants to make sure we do not miss this one.
(Lev 19:31 NASB) ‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:31: We are not to be involved in the occult in any way. This is a constant theme in Torah and all of Scripture. Paul gives his endorsement of Torah in the book of Galatians (Gal. 5:19-21).
(Lev 19:32 NASB) ‘You shall rise up before the grayheaded, and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the LORD.
Lev 19:32: We must show respect for the elderly. There is no doubt that we do less of this all the time.
(Lev 19:33 NASB) ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
(Lev 19:34 NASB) ‘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 aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 19:34: We are to be a hospitable people to all strangers. The stranger was a reminder that the Israelites were strangers in Egypt. The stranger is also a reminder that you too, were once a stranger from Elohim.
(Lev 19:35 NASB) ‘You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity.
(Lev 19:36 NASB) ‘You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt.
Lev 19:36: We must deal honestly in business. We represent Elohim when we transact business. If we do not conduct business in a just and honorable manner, then we place the value of money above our desire to please Elohim.
(Lev 19:37 NASB) ‘You shall thus observe all My statutes, and all My ordinances, and do them: I am the LORD.'”
Lev 19:37: Why should we obey His Torah? Because He is Yahweh!
Patrick McGuire