MH page 280

“The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy.” Deuteronomy 23:14 .

God's presence among His people demands holiness and order in their camp. The paragraph consists almost entirely of a biblical quotation emphasizing divine presence and camp holiness.

The distinction between clean and unclean was made in all matters of diet:

Divine dietary distinctions were established for the Israelites. It introduces a historical and scriptural narrative regarding dietary laws.

“I am the Lord thy God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing, ... which I have separated from you as unclean.” Leviticus 20:24, 25 .

Israel was separated from other nations through specific dietary instructions. The paragraph is a direct biblical quotation regarding ceremonial and dietary separation.

Many articles of food eaten freely by the heathen about them were forbidden to the Israelites. It was no arbitrary distinction that was made. The things prohibited were unwholesome. And the fact that they were pronounced unclean taught the lesson that the use of injurious foods is defiling. That which corrupts the body tends to corrupt the soul. It unfits the user for communion with God, unfits him for high and holy service.

Prohibited foods were unwholesome, and injurious physical habits corrupt spiritual capacity. It mixes historical commentary on diet with spiritual lessons on bodily and spiritual purity.

In the Promised Land the discipline begun in the wilderness was continued under circumstances favorable to the formation of right habits. The people were not crowded together in cities, but each family had its own landed possession, ensuring to all the health-giving blessings of a natural, unperverted life.

Living in family land holdings rather than crowded cities promotes health and natural living. It combines historical settlement patterns with empirical claims about urban crowding, land ownership, and health.

Concerning the cruel, licentious practices of the Canaanites, who were dispossessed by Israel, the Lord said:

God condemned the cruel and licentious practices of the Canaanite nations. It provides a narrative transition to scripture regarding historical judgments against nations.

“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.” Verse 23 . “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it.” Deuteronomy 7:26 .

Israel was commanded to avoid the corrupt customs and abominations of dispossessed nations. This paragraph consists entirely of biblical quotations prohibiting foreign abominations.