The children of Israel were a people separated unto Jehovah (Lev. 20:26). Sanctification, if interpreted literally, means to be made holy; practically, it implies separation from this world and a walk in association with God. Throughout chapter 19 of Leviticus, every injunction is followed by the statement, “I am Jehovah your God.” They were to be holy, not because they were better than everyone else, but because Jehovah was their God. “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). Chapter 18 plainly declares what this meant: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances” (Lev. 18:23). They were a sanctified people, separated unto Jehovah, and they were not to behave like the nations.
It is little wonder that Ezra was overwhelmed by the state of the people that he found in the land — one not dissimilar to that which preceded their Babylonian captivity (Ezra 9:3). They had not separated themselves from the people of the land — the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites — but were doing according to their abominations. Worse yet, they had encouraged their sons to marry the daughters of the land. In so doing, they had “mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass” (Ezra 9:2). Perhaps, saddest of all, those in responsibility were chief in this unfaithfulness.
How vividly this translates to our present day. God’s injunction to be holy remains true as we have already observed: “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16), and why? Not because we are under law, but because we have “been redeemed ... with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
It may seem presumptive to say that Israel’s seed was any more holy than that of the nations, but they were a people redeemed by God, delivered from Egypt, and separated unto Himself through the sprinkling of blood — all vivid types as to our position in Christ. Paul makes it perfectly clear in his second letter to the Corinthians what this means to us: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers ... come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:14,17-18).