Leviticus 19:30 - Meaning and Application

Here is a law to protect the honor of the time and place set apart for God’s service, Leviticus 19:30. It would help keep Israel from the idolatries and superstitions of the nations around them, and also from immoral living. The Sabbath was to be kept holy, not those times mentioned earlier that the heathen treated with empty reverence (Leviticus 19:26). The sanctuary was also to be treated with respect, with careful preparation to come before the tabernacle, the sacred tent where God met with his people, and with humility, decency, and focused attention in the presence of such a holy majesty.

Though there is now no place made holy by direct divine command like the tabernacle and temple were, this rule still teaches us to respect Christian gatherings for worship. Christ has promised his special presence when his people meet in his name, so we should act with proper reverence in those assemblies. We should also give careful attention while holy ordinances are being administered, and conduct ourselves suitably in worship (Ecclesiastes 5:1).

There is also a warning against any contact with witches and those who claimed to have familiar spirits, that is, spirits they said helped them know hidden things. “Do not turn to them or look for them,” means do not fear them, hope in them, listen to their claims, or go to them for guidance. If people do that, they stain themselves with sin and make themselves hateful both to God and to their own consciences. This was the sin that completed Saul’s wickedness and led to his rejection by God, 1 Chronicles 10:13.

Young people are then charged to show respect to the aged: “Stand up before the gray head,” Leviticus 19:32. Age itself is honorable, and the Ancient of Days, God himself, requires honor to be shown to it. Gray hair is a crown of glory, and those whom God has blessed with long life should receive the special respect due to them. If they are also wise and godly, they deserve even more honor: their comfort should be cared for, their experience should be used, and their advice should be sought and listened to (Job 32:6, 7).

Some take “the old man” here to mean an older man in office, just as “gray head” refers to an elderly person by age. Both should be respected as fathers, and that respect should be given in the fear of God, who has placed some of his own honor on both. Religion teaches good manners, and it binds us to give honor where honor is due. It is a sign of deep decay in a nation when children act proudly toward the elderly, and the lowly toward the honorable (Isaiah 3:5; Job 30:1, 12). It is right for older people to receive this honor, and for younger people to give it, because humility and respect are fitting ornaments of youth.

The Israelites are also charged to be especially kind to strangers, Leviticus 19:33, 34. God had greatly honored Israel by his law and by his providence, but that did not give them permission to trample on everyone else. They were not to mistreat a stranger, but to love him as themselves, as though he were one of their own people. This stranger was likely not an idolater, but a worshiper of the God of Israel, though not fully circumcised, at least a proselyte of the gate, one who accepted Israel’s God without fully joining the covenant people.

If such a person lived among them, they must not oppress him, overcharge him, or take advantage of his ignorance of their laws and customs in a trade. Cheating a stranger was as serious as cheating an Israelite. The Jewish teachers even said they must not remind him harshly that he was once a stranger and an idolater. Strangers are under God’s special care, just as widows and orphans are, because it is his honor to help the helpless (Psalm 146:9). So it is dangerous to wrong them or make life hard for them.

Strangers will be welcomed by God’s grace, and we should do what we can to draw them toward it and to speak well of religion to them. Kindness to strangers shows a generous spirit and a godly respect for God, who is the common Father of all. People from different lands, customs, and languages are all made from one blood. The Jews had one added reason for this kindness: they themselves had been strangers in Egypt. God had shown them favor then, so they should now show favor to others and treat them as they once wanted to be treated. They had been strangers and had still been lifted up so highly, so they could not know what good could yet come to these strangers whom they were inclined to despise.

Justice in weights and measures is also commanded here, with no cheating allowed, Leviticus 19:35, 36. Their weights and measures were to be exact. In selling and measuring, people may claim they are simply giving others what belongs to them, but false weights and measures turn justice into fraud. It is a hidden kind of wrongdoing that cheats under the cover of fairness. To deceive someone that way is worse than picking his pocket or robbing him on the road.

The seller must give the full amount of the goods, and the buyer must pay the full agreed price. That cannot be done without honest balances, weights, and measures. No one should go beyond or defraud his brother, because even if people do not see it, God sees it, and he is the avenger of all such wrongs.

The chapter ends with a general command: “You shall keep all my statutes and do them,” Leviticus 19:37. We are not likely to obey God’s statutes unless we first pay close attention to them and think carefully about them. Yet it is not enough just to notice God’s commands, we must also make it our duty to obey them. What good is it to understand them well if we do not live them out faithfully?

A sincere heart gives attention to all of God’s commandments (Psalm 119:6). Even when we fail in practice, our eyes should still be fixed on all that God requires. We are not allowed to choose which duties we like and ignore the rest. Our aim must be to stand complete in all the will of God.