Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

Reverence

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Lesson: 44

Track: 44

Dictation Name: RR172X44

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and earth.

Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, our help is in Thee, for Thou art the Lord. All things come from Thee, and Thou who art the Lord of Heaven and earth hast made all things for Thy purpose and glory. Give us grace day by day to trust in Thee, to know that it is Thy purpose that shall be accomplished, Thy will that shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Keep us from the fear of men. Keep us oh Lord from despair, from lack of hope, from lack of faith and make us more than conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture this morning is Leviticus 19:32-37. Our subject: “Reverence.” Leviticus 19:32-37:

“32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.

33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him or oppress him.

34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.

36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

37 therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.”

Biblical Law takes far less space than any modern law book, yet it covers life totally. Biblical Law governs not only our actions, but our words, our thoughts and our attitudes. We are also warned in scripture not to put our trust in princes, nor in the son of Adam in whom there is no help. When men turn to God to trust and to obey Him, then God is our help and our government with far-reaching benefits. Psalm 146:5-10 makes clear what this means.

“5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:

6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth forever:

7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners:

8 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:

9 The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

10 The Lord shall reign forever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.”

The stranger, the fatherless, the widows, the oppressed, the hungry, the unjustly imprisoned or captives, the blind, and all of these and more—are the objects of God’s care and must be cared for by us also. And this is not all. Our text begins by declaring that the aged must be honored, even as parents are honored. Years give authority and a generation that will not honor its forbearers will be despised and condemned by God. In other words, one aspect of respect for the people who are older than us is respect for authority. Another is respect for the past. Nowhere in scripture are we told to despise the past.

We are the product of the past and we are to build on the past. The old saying, “the world was not empty when we came into it and we must not leave it more empty when we leave” is very true. And whenever you have a contempt for the past, for the aged, you have then a contempt for the past. And every revolutionary era in history has been preceded by a contempt for the faith of the fathers and the fathers and those who preceded them. So that one of the tempers that precedes a revolution is precisely that mentality. A generation before the Russian Revolution, Russia had its hippies. And their appearance and their behavior was very much like those of our hippies in the 60s.

Thus, there is a commandment very clearly stated, we must rise when the aged come into our presence. And this law is reinforced by the notice, “I am the Lord.” There was a time when I was young when this was routine, at least here in California, when older people came into the room, as well as all women, everyone stood. If someone who was a scholar entered the room, everyone stood. This was a part of respect for that which is of the past and which will shape the future.

For children to oppress elders and women to rule over men is declared in Isaiah 3:5, 12 (and other passages), as the mark of the end of a culture, as the coming of judgment. And in such a day, Isaiah declares, “Men who are capable will refuse positions of authority in civil government because they recognize the temper of the times spells only judgment, and men will not hear sound counsel.” Thus it is obvious that the modern cult of youth is not biblical. Emphatically not biblical, rather it is revolutionary.

J.R. Porter said of this passage, “Reverence for the aged is not primarily on humanitarian grounds. It is rooted in the divine ordering of society and hence is coupled with the injunction, ‘fear your God.’” The law thus connects very clearly reverence for the aged with the fear of God.

The biblical goal for us is age with wisdom and justice. And it is this that scripture declares again and again to be beauty: age with wisdom and justice. For example, Proverbs 16:31 declares, “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Again, Proverbs 20:29, “The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.” The biblical goal for men and women is age with wisdom and justice or righteousness, whereas, the modern goal is perpetual youth with hedonistic pursuits and pleasures. The sad fact is that it has not even occurred to modern scholars because of their thorough going of naturalism, of materialism, that this depreciation of maturity and age may be one reason why so many men become impotent even in their 40s. Calvin said of this passage, “Many old men indeed! Either by their own levity or lewdness or sloth, subvert their own dignity. Yet although gray hairs may not always be accompanied by courteous wisdom, still in itself, age is venerable according to God’s command.”

The Bible gives us examples of a great many sins. All kinds of depravities are recorded. But there’s only one case of open disrespect for age. A very obvious case, by Elihu in Job 32:9, when he says, “Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment,” as he began his statement expressing his contempt for Job’s three friends. Now, Job’s three friends were in the wrong; but Elihu was totally contemptuous. And God rebuked Eliphaz the Temanite and his two friends, declaring, “Ye have not spoken of me the things that are right, as my servant Job hath.” But God totally ignored Elihu. God accepted Job’s three friends after they made sacrifices of repentance and the Lord also accepted Job, but again, Elihu is bypassed as a nothing, because of his disrespect for his seniors.

We see today all over the world this revolutionary temperament—a contempt for the past and therefore a contempt for age and for authority. But this is clearly required in the whole of scripture. And Paul tells Timothy that a young pastor such as himself, while having a nominal authority over older members of the church, must also defer to them even when duty requires some comment or some discipline at his hand. In I Timothy 5:1,2 Paul tells Timothy, “1Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; 2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.”

Now Leviticus 19:32 is not placed accidentally where it is in this chapter. In verse 30 we have the commandment of the Sabbath rest and respect for God’s sanctuary. Because God is our creator and our sustainer and our future, we must respect His day and His sanctuary. Then, in verse 31, evil attempts to read the future outside of God are condemned. The future has a causal relationship to our past and present in terms of God’s Law. Then in verse 32, respect for our past and present—our elders, is commanded as a manifestation of our fear of God. Then, having earlier given the Law in verse 18 of Leviticus 19, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” we have it repeated in a new form in verses 33 and 34. “33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him or oppress him. 34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” The Law specifies strangers or aliens and it refers to their captivity in Egypt to indicate that what, that this is what a godless treatment of aliens can be. It is surprising that in spite of this plain passage there are commentators who say that the commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” meant only those who were fellow Israelites. This is by no means possible, because in verses 33 and 34, the alien is specified. As Jamieson wrote, “The Israelites were to hold out encouragement to strangers that settled among them, that these might be brought to the knowledge and worship of the true God. And with this view they were enjoined to treat such persons not as aliens, but as friends, on the ground that they themselves were strangers in Egypt who were at first kindly and hospitably received in that country.”

Now, it is an important fact historically demonstrated again and again that when a culture is strong, when its faith is strong, all the outsiders who migrate into that area, whatever their race or color, very soon become strong proponents of that culture. They recognize better than the natives what they left as bad and what they’ve come into as good and that’s what draws them there, and they become very often its leaders, its greatest proponents, its greatest defenders. Very early, Rome lost the power to defend itself, but it was foreigners who became its troops because the foreigners found Rome worthwhile. It was only when Rome was no longer able to communicate its strength to the new immigrants that the immigrants began to drag it down. Up to that point, they were a source of strength. When the culture weakens, when its faith weakens, both aliens and citizens begin to desert it.

How seriously this law is regarded by God appears in Deuteronomy27:19, “Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment (or the justice) of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.” In Matthew 25:40 our Lord says, “… Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” As we treat our fellow believers in need so we treat Christ. Now Paul and the apostolic fellowship make the same point in a different way and declare in Hebrews 13:1, 2 “1Let brotherly love continue. 2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” The reference here of course is to Genesis 18, Abraham and the three strangers.

In verses 35-37, justice in commercial dealings is required. The ephah was the standard dry measure, and the hin a liquid measure, about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ gallons, although some authorities would differ. Snaith said of these verses, “These verses are against false measurements of length, weight and quantity. Scales were used not only for weighing what was sold but also for weighing the money paid, the coins, such as they were.” Now, to add a note to what Snaith said, coins were not used then, but weights were of gold and silver and so the law with regard to weights has primary reference to gold and silver. Porter noted, “Dishonesty in commercial transactions would be a sign of injustice throughout the whole society, generally at the expense of the poor. So it is often condemned in the prophets and elsewhere in the Old Testament.” Dishonesty in commerce is evidence of bad character and an absence of godliness. The alternative to such dishonesty is not a withdrawal from the world but integrity within it. Thus, those who have sought either an ascetic withdrawal from the world or a pietistic one are not true to scripture.

Leviticus 19 begins and ends with the declaration, “I am the Lord.” This is the Lord’s Word, and if we submit to Him as Lord, we submit to His Word. We cannot separate the two. We show our reverence for the triune God in the way we treat our elders, all strangers or foreigners and all men with whom we have commercial transactions. We manifest thereby whether or not we fear God. As Harrison has commented, “Obedience to the divine will is the key to blessings in life.” Obedience to the divine will is the key to blessing in life. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thou has set the way of obedience and blessing before us. Give us grace to walk therein, to do Thy will and to rejoice in Thy way and in Thy justice. We thank Thee our Father that Thy judgment is abroad in the world and Thy judgment shall bring forth Thy justice and truth. Give us patience, strength and hope that in these troubled times, we may stand fast in terms of Thy Word. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes, John.

[John] I take it that the, the just weights and measures and things of that nature have to do with whatever your weight or measure is.

[Rushdoony] Yes

[John] You don’t vary it or change it or debase it or adjust it, ah, ah, and things of that nature.

[Rushdoony] Exactly! And it, ah, therefore deals with what you’re selling and the money that you are using and both, you see, were put on the scales in all transactions.

[Audience] That’s why the insistence on adherence to the bi-metal standard, the gold and silver standard, uh, in the pure state, they had specific weights which everybody knew.

[Rushdoony] Yes. And that’s why in this country, in terms of this law, as I’ve pointed out before, one of our earliest gold coins did not even have a denomination on it; it was just a weight of gold, and even after we started to designate them as so many dollars, we did it in terms of weight. So that the double eagle is an ounce .90 fine, the $10 gold piece, .50 ounce and so on down. In the trade dollars, we would go so far as to list the actual number of grains in the trade dollar which was used in the Pacific.

Any other questions or comments?

Yes.

[Audience] …course going into the debased currency business, so far as I know there is not a government in the entire world today that has an honest currency.

[Rushdoony] Yes, and although many economic scholars cite, I believe it was Lydia that first began actual coining, and they cite that as an example of progress. It was the reverse, because it instituted State control of money. And then, the next step was State adulteration, whereas before, it was simply in terms of weight.

[Audience] I don’t believe such a period has ever before existed; since the invention of money, it has never been universally debased before.

[Rushdoony] I think you’re probably right. There was an attempt in the last century, in Queen Victoria’s day to go back to money as weight and the Hong Kong currency would be a slug of silver with a stamp on it, “.999 fineness” and Queen Victoria’s picture, since it would be certified at some agency. But those now are rather rare; a lot of those have been melted down, represented a flight from suspicious currencies, and they functioned very, very successfully.

[Audience] Well, there’s a similar fight now and bullion’s being sold in increasing quantities.

[Rushdoony] Um-hm, yes.

Well, if there are no further comments or questions, let us conclude with prayer.

Recall us, oh Lord to Thy Word, to just weights and measures in all things, that we may again be a land wherein justice dwells. 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.