Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

Sin and the Land

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Lesson: 34

Track: 34

Dictation Name: RR172S34

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near to the Throne of Grace with true hearts in full assurance of faith. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up.

Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, we come unto Thee in the time of trouble, in a time when the heathen take counsel together and the nations rage against Thee. We come into Thy presence rejoicing that Thou art on the Throne, that Thou does hold them in derision, that in due time Thou shalt smite them with a rod of iron. Give us grace, our Father, to walk day by day in the confidence of Thy government and in the knowledge of Thy victory, so that in all things we may be more than conquerors through Christ our King. In His name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is one verse from Leviticus 18:19, and then Ezekiel 18:5-9. Our subject; “Sin and the Land.” First, Leviticus 18:19, “Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.” And again in Ezekiel 18:5-9, “5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, 6 and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, 5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,

6 And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,

7 And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;

8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man,

9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.,7 and hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; 8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, 9 hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord.”

By citing Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel declares this to be one of the marks of a just man. He tells us how important it is in the sight of God. This particular law is of special importance in our time, because for a variety of reasons, it represents something that is commonly practiced. Feminists are very prone to insist on sexual relations during menstruation, and similarly some men, to require of a woman something that is unpleasant, have insisted on the same. There are other references to this law in scripture as in Leviticus 12:2, 15:25, 20:18, and also again in Ezekiel 22:10. There is in this sphere a marked difference between animals and human beings, as Burns has written, “With female animals who ovulate, this second period is often accompanied at its close by a flow of blood from the vagina; but make no mistake, this is not true menstruation. Ovulation, bleeding and menstrual bleeding are basically different phenomena, although some nature writers have confused them as being the same. Menstruation does not occur in mammals below primates, with these sub primates, vaginal bleeding occurs at the time of heat and ovulation, rather than during the period of infertility as in the human female, when the unfertilized ovum is sloughed off, accompanied by the discharge of blood.” In other words, God has put a difference between man and the rest of creation. To confuse this division is an act of lawlessness.

The interesting fact is that little is said about this particular law by the commentators—almost nothing. The medieval Jewish commentator, Maimonides did go into the matter at great length, but not entirely well at points. The reference I this law is to both menstrual and after childbirth bleeding and discharge. The reference to it in Leviticus 15:24 was to its ceremonial uncleanness and here to the moral offense.

A few years back, eighty thousand women were studied (and men) in terms of faithfulness or unfaithfulness to this particular law. What did come through loud and clear was that there was a dramatically lower rate of uterine cancer among the women who did not violate this law. And an even lower rate of cancer among the husbands. In the last two, three years there has been a savage assault on that bit of research. Although it was more extensive than almost any piece of research in this century, involving more people; however, the only thing that can be said about it is, since the women studied were on the whole Orthodox Jewish women, that is, those who were faithful to the law (and men also), all you could say is, perhaps it was not only obedience to this law but to the whole spectrum of laws, dietary and otherwise. At any rate, what cannot be undermined is that obedience to the whole law results in better health. For the unwitting violation of this law, the man was ceremonial unclean for seven days according to Leviticus 15:24. For willful violation, there was excommunication or exile.

Now, Ezekiel tells us how serious this law is regarded. In Ezekiel 18:4, the verse immediately preceding this passage, we are told, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” In the verses, 5-9 of Ezekiel 18, we are given the conditions of life; the meaning of justice, the meaning of obedience to God’s Law. The heart of the matter is set forth in verse 9, “such a person hath walked in my statutes and kept my judgments to deal truly; he is just. He shall surely live, saith the Lord.” Obedience in word, thought and deed, in faith and life, is thus required to the whole of God’s Law.

Now in this passage in Ezekiel, the specific law cited by Ezekiel in verses 6-8 are first idolatry. The reference is to syncretistic religions. The eating upon the mountains was taking part in the communion meals of pagan religions: idolatry. And then again, adultery—“…neither hath come near to a menstruous woman…” All these are listed together with violence to others, theft, failure to be charitable, a man who is an extortioner, and so on. It is interesting that one statement that is listed, “… hath executed true judgment between man and man…” can be better translated in modern English as “arbitrated faithfully between men.” This means that justice is given, not peace at any price.

So we have a number of things from the sphere of money, from the sphere of justice, from the sphere of charity, from the sexual sphere put together to say that all these are marks of justice, marks of a godly man. Ezekiel speaks of these offenses that are sexual as defilement. The Hebrew word ‘tamai’ means “to pollute; to make unclean.” The same word is used in a number of places in Ezekiel and in Leviticus.

And all these sins that defile, defile the land also, we are told. We shall deal with that more next week when the defilement of the land—what happens to the land when there is a moral decline is set forth. But we need to recognize that the Bible makes very clear that there is a symbiotic relationship between man and the earth. We know that there is one between, let us say, the trees and the weather. When the land is stripped of trees, the rainfall decreases. In one portion of Mexico that was cleared some years ago to open it up for farming, a lush area, semi-tropical with lots of rainfall, became a desert. The rainclouds began to pass over it to other areas. There are scholars today who say that the problem of the continuing drought throughout Africa is a result of the senseless stripping of forestlands of Brazil; lands that are not adaptable to farming. There is a very definite relationship between trees and rainfall.

But there is a stronger relationship, the scripture declares, between man’s moral nature (his obedience to God’s Law), and the defilement and the destruction of the land. So that we are of a peace with our environment in God’s sight. We determine what that environment is going to be by our respect for it or our destruction of it.

Ezekiel tells us that the righteous do not take part in these idolatrous feasts, sacrifices, nor look to idols, nor commit adultery nor violate this law with regard to menstruous women. Other areas which are cited deal with our relationship to other people in commerce and in charity, neighborly relationships, debt exploitation, interest, and so on; the maltreatment of people and the like. The stress in all these statements by Ezekiel is on action. Faith reveals itself in action. One of the greatest heresies that has ever hit the church is the easy believism of our time. The opinion that you have to have it in your heart—well it’s not in your heart if it isn’t in your actions. Faith without works is dead. “By their fruits,” our Lord says, “ye shall know them.” And yet the strange, the horrifying fact is that in a seminary known the world-over as one of the best, and some would say, the very best, in the past decade dropped its top theologian because he said that there must be works. That faith without works is dead. And they accused him of heresy, of being on the road to Rome and so on. Of course, Rome has abandoned the same concept. They’ve gone in for the same kind of easy believism; devotions taking the place of action. “By their fruits,” our Lord says, “ye shall know them.” If you want to know what’s in the heart of a man or a woman, look at their actions. The idea that there is something in the heart that is good, when the actions are evil is soap opera; it is part of the evil sentimentality that is so destructive of the whole world. It leads people to be ready to believe, for example, that in spite of all the evil that Marxism has brought into the world, it is somehow a noble doctrine, a noble concept. It has never failed to bring evil! And yet, it is regularly argued that it has been the misapplication by these people. Faith without works is dead.

And so the Law is specific. The Law is down-graded now. It is set aside. And laws like this, especially, because, well, they’re not too nice to talk about. And so, we have easy believism. We are drowning in an ocean of sentimentalized religion, where feeling good is the essence of being morally right. C.S. Lewis, who was far from being Orthodox in many areas, but he had a real awareness of the meaning of the faith because he said the morning after he was converted, he was the sorriest man in all of England. He knew what a responsibility he’d assumed by becoming a Christian. Before that, as a contented Humanist, he had a good position at the university, he had an easy life with his friends, what happened in the world around him was of no concern. Now, he had a mandate to action! Faith requires something—that’s why the Law is specific. That’s why the Bible does not speak in the glittering generalities that prevail by and large in the pulpit in our time. Faith without work is dead. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Faith without works is nonexistent. Nonexistent—that’s what James is saying. He says very bluntly, ‘don’t tell me you have faith, if you haven’t demonstrated it in concrete acts, if you tell the hungry man God bless you, I’ll pray for you.’ That’s what James says. Read him carefully. You have no faith. Phariseeism and Pietism both in their own way have subverted the reality of God’s Word.

But another means of invading the plain meaning of the Law is symbolic interpretation. I need not call your attention to one particular group that is very much given to that in our time, but let me cite the roots—it’s in Phariseeism. For example, Eisman, following the Talmudic interpretation of Ezekiel 18:6 which reads, “And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,” says that this is talking about a just man or a tzadik, and I quote from Eisman, “Surely a person would have to go beyond these simple requirements to be considered a true tzadik, thus, the man who does not eat upon the mountains is a man so completely good that he can stand completely on his own merits. He does not have to draw upon the merits of his fathers.” And Eisman goes on to describe the meaning of defiling a neighbor’s wife as, “interfering with his livelihood.” And approaching a menstruous woman sexually is, according to Eisman, “permitting oneself to be supported by charity.”

Does this all set a higher standard, as Eisman said, a higher standard than the plain Word of God, or is it twisting God’s Law? This is what Phariseeism is all about. And Phariseeism is not simply an attribute of Judaism, but also of Christianity. Wherever the plain meaning of God’s Word is set aside, there you have Phariseeism, where men impose their higher wisdom upon it. The emphasis in all the Law of God is on the inescapable connection between man’s morality and the physical world around him and on the inescapable connection between what is in a man’s heart and what comes out in his life. So that what a man believes will reveal itself in his actions and it will alter the world! You want to change the world, begin with your heart. And when the heart of the millions of people the world over in the Church is changed, the world will very quickly change. Without a recognition of this relationship, there can be no true understanding of scripture of or Christ’s work. Scripture speaks very plainly about things hidden and open, about what is in the heart of man, and is in the hand of man. Faith is a total thing, and faith governs the world. And if the faith is not governing the world today, it is because Phariseeism and unbelief mark the life of the Church rather than a living faith. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thy Word is Truth and Thy Word speaks to our condition. We pray Lord that men and women, nations may begin to believe and obey so that their heart, mind, their actions and the world around them may be what these things should be, that we may see a revitalization of all things—all things made new in terms of Thy Word. Grant us this we beseech Thee, in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes.

[Audience] Maybe this is why novelists and playwrights always associate the weather with the scenes they describe. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar’s remember that when Caesar was on his way to the capital and they told him about omens, the lions in the streets.

[Rushdoony] Yes, a very, very important point, and we have to remember that, ah, as a generation or more ago, it was shown, Shakespeare knew a great deal of the Bible by heart. Because, in his day, first attendance at church was mandatory, so everyone knew the language of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. And second, ah, it’s not talked about much nowadays, but whatever Shakespeare was, his father was a puritan. And, eh, got himself into some trouble because he was a very vocal puritan. So that, ah, Shakespeare was brought up to know these things and to believe them. Moreover, although, again, it’s not written about much in our day, if you go back in history you find that there is in every time of crisis in World History, all kinds of natural disturbances. In the weather, volcanic, earthquakes, and so on—so there is a relationship. Now, ah, it isn’t pleasant for people to think about it anymore, and the Romans and other people recognized there was a relationship but they insisted on reversing the order of the relationship. In other words, there were omens out there, and those created the problem. Whereas with Christianity, man creates the bad earth, the fallen earth, the bad weather. His heart determines his actions and the world around him. A very interesting book could be written on the history of that idea. Perhaps sometime you can do it, Otto; it’s a very, very neglected subject, and the literary material is tremendous there in the past.

[Otto] I remember on the eve of the French Revolution, all kinds of geological disturbances at the time.

[Rushdoony] Yes, I’d forgotten about that. That’s very true.

[Otto] They had a {?}stic season.

[Rushdoony] So the signs are there, and people have refused to look at them.

Yes, John…

[John] That really connects into kind of a Humanistic Pietism, uh, in the sense that um, uh, the Humanists, the Humanists can see the same signs everybody else sees, just as the Christian Pietist sees the same signs everyone else sees. But each reach their own preferred implications and places blame in a totally different place, on the surface, but in reality end up in the same place, simply because if you properly interpret the signs or the acts, or the works, then you know where the person is really coming from, so thus the advantage in separating man from direct responsibility from the environment in terms of Humanism, an thus the, the need in Pietism to separate the Law from the man’s state of the heart. That way there’s no standard by which anyone can be held because if everyone interpreted reality accurately on the basis of scripture, then any act would send bells and whistles and alarms going off in everybody’s mind.

[Rushdoony] Yes. There are two poles in this situation. One is to say that all these things begin with the moral responsibility of man under God. The other is environmentalism, to ascribe everything to the environment and we are the victims of it.

Yes.

[Otto] Well, technology is supposed to handle the environment.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s the whole point of the Humanistic approach to technology, to command the environment, as though this were the solution rather than dealing with man.

All the forecasts of the 20th century that were in the various periodicals in January of 1900 dealt with technology and how technology was going to create the good future. Nothing about man.

Yes?

[Audience] Technocrats and environmentalists are at each other’s throats for the wrong reasons.

[Laughter]

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments?

Well, if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, Thy Word is Truth and Thy Word is a lamp and a light. Grant that we may walk in Thy light, that in faithfulness to Thee we will by Thy grace be more than conquerors. And now, go in peace. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.