1. 1. Be holy to the Lord

The precepts and statutes in this section are designed to teach and reinforce devotion to the Lord. God’s people are called to discipline their hearts to love and fear Him, their consciences to prefer and choose Him, and all their practices to serve Him. Thus would they be a people holy to the Lord, separated unto Him for the praise of the glory of His grace.

Deuteronomy 11.1, 2

“You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.

Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Leviticus 18.1-5

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.

Leviticus 19.19

“You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.”

1. 1. Honor no other gods

God’s people are to honor no other gods – no other ultimate sources of counsel or truth, and no other objects of veneration or devotion. They must guard against any inclination to turn to other gods or other counselors; He alone must be their God.

Deuteronomy 23.17-18

“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.”

1.3 Exercise stewardship unto the Lord

Believers are called to be good stewards unto the Lord, to use their personal property as a way of demonstrating and reinforcing their separateness unto the Lord. The tithe, the selling and redeeming of the land,, and the practice of devoting things to the Lord all provided ways for the Lord to remind His people that the earth and everything in it are His, and that they must express in tangible ways that they are a people holy to the Lord.

Leviticus 27.30-33

“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s; it is holy to the LORD. If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. ³²And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the LORD. One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

Deuteronomy 14.22, 23

“You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.”

Leviticus 27.28, 29

“But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD. No one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.”