Leviticus 18:24-25
“Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. `For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.”
In Leviticus 18:24-25, two factors come together: Sin and God’s sovereignty. Because the earth requires maintenance and therefore dominion, and because God gave dominion to mankind, the rest of creation shares in the way mankind lives. Thus, when mankind sins, nature will be affected and react to some extent. In verse 25, God personifies the land as a living creature that violently rejects what it dislikes.
The context shows the sin to be spiritual and that God is personally involved in what happens when mankind sins. This confronts us again with whether God actively governs this world. Has He, as it appears in Leviticus 18, set limits on the evil mankind can do?
Suppose mankind is totally free to choose as they please, and it is impossible to compel or coerce them without destroying this freedom. If so, it follows that mankind is sovereign, doing as they please and the designer and architect of their destiny. Given mankind’s history, we can have no assurance whatsoever that morality will not gradually disappear, and that anarchy, barbarism, and eventual genocide will not arise in its absence. It is absolutely imperative that God be sovereign to govern the limits of the very creatures He created! His reaction in the Flood and at the Tower of Babel is strong evidence of His willingness to place limits on His creation.
