- Land will not Spit you out
Leviticus 18:28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
The conditional promise in this chapter is conditional: if you keep the laws of God and do no sexual abominations, then the land will not vomit you out. The context of Lev. 18 is all kinds of sexual abominations, like incest, adultery, homosexuality, and such. These kinds of things the pagans living in the land were doing regularly and so the Lord would vomit them out. (God did this through Joshua and the armies of Israel.) The Lord is giving you the land, but the uncleanness, defilement, and abomination of sin must be cleared out first.
After the people conquered the Land and drove out the pagans, they are warned to beware that they do not follow the same abominations themselves or God will vomit them out of the land. “Land” is defiled by sexual sin, and other sins, and it becomes unclean so that the Lord cannot dwell there. This physical image symbolizes the spiritual truth that the Kingdom of God comes into the heart by faith. This is the land we enter by faith in Christ. The Spirit of God cannot dwell in a land of filth, and after a time the unbelieving, defiled person will be vomited out of God’s Presence. Eventually, the people of God were “spued out” of the geographical Land in the captivity and exile.
This warning is a negative threat that can be turned around into a positive promise, namely: The Lord will keep you in His kingdom if you are “clean.”However, we know that we become polluted quickly just living in this alien world. But the “blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” We must be constantly cleansed to remain dwelling in the blessed kingdom of God. Repentance and faith keep us there. It is possible to drift away from God and His Kingdom by allowing defilements to live and grow and thrive in a cleansed soul. Therefore, we repent before abominations get a strong hold on us. And God promises, “The kingdom will not vomit you out.” I will keep you, hold you, and finish what I started. “You shall be holy,” and the Lord makes us holy. Then we stay in the “Land.”