As the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, God spoke to Moses concerning His statutes and judgments they were to obey once they entered the Promised Land in order to receive His blessings. God spelled out for them what they should eat (Leviticus 11), how to curb the spread of leprosy (Leviticus 13-14), the importance of personal hygiene (Leviticus 15), and how to conduct themselves in the new land they would inherit (Leviticus 19).
God’s words to Moses to speak to the Children of Israel included the familiar “Ye shall not steal;” “Neither lie one to another;” “Neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God,” (Leviticus 19:11-12). The LORD further related to Moses the Children of Israel were not to turn to idols (v.4), they were to give their offerings to Him of their own free will (v.5), pay those they hired (v.13), and were not to be talebearers (v.16). They were also not to eat anything with the blood, use enchantments, nor observe times of supposedly good days or bad days for human activity (v.26).
In order to “Be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy,” (v.2), God instructed Moses to “not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind,” (v.19). From the days of Creation each animal was designed by God to reproduce after its kind. The mixing of different animals to produce a new type of animal was forbidden by God. The same applied to different seeds being “mingled” together to form a new type of plant, or a garment made of an alternative type of fabric that combined linen with wool. In order to keep the strains pure, God instructed Moses to admonish the Children of Israel to abstain from any attempts at these practices, which were part of idol worship taking place in the land they would inherit.
Included in the idol worship of the Canaanites was the rounding of the corners of their heads and marring the corners of their beards, cutting themselves to mourn the dead, and printing marks upon themselves. God forbade the Children of Israel to participate in any form of idol worship, for “I am the LORD” (vs.27-28).
God’s instructions to the Children of Israel to “keep all My statutes, and all My judgments, and do them,” was to cause them not to be spewed out of the land as was happening to those He was removing for them to occupy the land. God said, “Ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.” The inheritance of the Children of Israel of the land flowing with milk and honey for which God laid out strict instructions was for His people to know, “I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people… I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine,” (Leviticus 20:22-26).
Building My Faith 