Leviticus 17

Notes

[Ver. 4. This law has been the source of much perplexity to two of the most learned commentators, Michaelis and Boothroyd. Michaelis considers it as requiring that every animal killed for common food must first be brought to the door of the tabernacle, and have the blood sprinkled, and the fat consumed as a peace-offering; and this he considers as a temporary law, intended for the wilderness, and afterwards repealed, De. 12. 13, on the entrance to Canaan. Boothroyd proposes to reconcile the passages by supplying a clause found in the Samaritan and Septuagint versions, and which provides, not that animals for common food should be first offered as peace-offerings, but that no peace-offering should be killed anywhere but at the door of the tabernacle. Now an addition to or explanation of a divine law, it is easy to comprehend; but a direct repeal is a reflection on the legislator not to be admitted. The opinion of Michaelis is therefore to be rejected. Neither is it desirable to derive our expositions with Boothroyd from foreign sources. Let us therefore examine whether such resort be necessary. From ver. 5 we learn that the end of the law was, 'that the children of Israel might bring their sacrifices which they offered in the open field to the door of the tabernacle.' Now, as the preamble of an act of parliament explains, and confines the enactment to its proper object; so this exposition of the design of the law, though following after in place, is yet the virtual preamble not to a temporary provision, but to a 'statute for ever, throughout their generations.' The ordinance in Deuteronomy is therefore no repeal, but a mere declaratory enactment to remove any doubts that might arise as to the intention and limits of the former law. C.]

Ver. 7. [Devils, literally hairy ones. The Egyptians worshipped an imaginary deity called Pan—which means everything; because, in their mythology, he was considered the principle of all things: he was represented under the figure of a goat, his lower extremities covered with hair; hence the description in the text. Pan and his lascivious crew of satyrs and fauns (pictured as covered with hair) were the woodland deities of a degrading idolatry—and, to preserve Israel from its contagion, sacrifices in the open field were forbidden; and where circumstances permitted, were strictly confined to the door of the tabernacle. The phrase of abhorrence with which this worship is described, is not merely figurative but literal. In every system of idolatry down to this day, prostitution constitutes a part of the impure and satanic worship. C.]

Reflections.—How high is the wisdom of God, by which he can enact what laws of worship, and means of access to him as are best! But to worship him according to our own inventions, to neglect the way of his appointing, so far from being acceptable before God, is both dangerous to ourselves, and considered by him as nearly connected with the idolatrous worship of devils. It is necessary, therefore, on every worshipping occasion, to cleave close to Jesus, as our altar and high-priest, and to the communion of his saints; and, for the preventing of false worship, for the honour of divinely-instituted ordinances, and for the uniting of the church, to adhere strictly to God's appointment, even in things circumstantial; and to prefer public ordinances to private. In this blood of animals, so noted because made an atonement for men, I behold the blood of the new covenant enjoined to me—the blood of Jesus Christ shed for me. Let me, therefore, impressed with the repeated commandments of Heaven, maintain the deepest reverence for it, and everything connected with it, and detest everything murderous or cruel! And let nothing deathful, dead, or dying, nothing that can be torn in pieces, or torn from me, but the ever-living Jesus, and JEHOVAH in him, be the provision of my soul and portion of my heart! If I am defiled by such things, either I must wash in Jesus' fountain opened, or perish in my sin.