Leviticus 18
McGeeCHAPTER 18THEME: Immorality condemned, amplification of the seventh commandmentpreamble to social prohibitions; sexual relations with relatives forbidden; sundry sexual sins prohibited; offspring forbidden to be offered to Molech; perversion of sex prohibited; nations in Palestine cast out for committing these sinsUp to this point the laws concerning ceremonial cleansing have been given. The rules regulated the ritual of religion. In chapters 18, 19, and 20, we find a special section which applies the Ten Commandments to life situations. God is now dealing with the moral aspects of the lives of His people. Friends, we are getting right down to the nitty-gritty. This section opens with a preamble in Lev_18:1-5 and closes with a formal postscript at the close of chapter 20. These are very important because they give the reason for the restrictions and regulations of the social life of His people. We are living in a day when the moral foundations have been broken up and removed. “Who makes the rules, and what is right and wrong?” asks the sneering skeptic. This preamble and postscript give us a twofold explanation: (1) Three times in the preamble, verses Lev_18:2, Lev_18:4, and Lev_18:5, the Word says, “I am the LORD.” God makes the rules! Breaking the Ten Commandments is wrong because God says it is wrong. (2) The postscript gives the second reason. “And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine” (Lev_20:26). God demands that His people be holy. Purity in all life’s situations is the command of God. This chapter deals with the seventh commandment primarily. It spells out in detail what is meant by adultery. Sexual sins are the subject. These are the sins which mark a decadent society and the decline and fall of empires.
Leviticus 18:1
PREAMBLE TO SOCIAL PROHIBITIONSThey have just come out of Egypt, and there they had done all these things which are forbidden. The disgusting sins which will be mentioned were a way of life for the Egyptians. God has to separate His people from the influence of that sinful environment. They were going to the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. But that isn’t all that was in Canaanthe Canaanites were there, and they also were immoral. God saw that the children of Israel were caught, as we would say, between the devil and the deep blue sea, or between a rock and a hard place. The Egyptians were behind them, the Canaanites were ahead of them, and both of them were grossly immoral. We are living in a day when they talk about a sexual revolution. I wonder whether people have read the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus. May I say to you, there is nothing new about sexual perversion at all. It is the same old immorality that they had in Egypt and in Canaan. God says, “I am the LORD your God,” and “I the LORD.” Who makes the rules? God makes the rules. Maybe someone says, “But I don’t want to follow them.” Well, that is up to you, but God still makes the rules! Breaking the Ten Commandments is wrong because God says it is wrong. That ought to be enough to satisfy the heart of the child of God. The skeptic would not be satisfied with any argument since he makes his own rules, and he is his own god. By the way, if you can create a whole universeand you will need a whole planetary system with a sun and a moon and a few starsthen you can make your own ten commandments. But as long as you are living in God’s world, breathing His air, using His sunshine, drinking His water, walking on His earth, and not even paying rent for it, you had better obey His commands. He tells us that if we break His commandments, we will pay for it. And, my friend, you will pay! You may not be arrested by the local police, but you will stand before Him some day. The things that God said were immoral are still immoral today. Listen to the New Testament: “Not in the lust of concupisence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” (1Th_4:5-7). “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph_4:17-19). “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat” (1Co_5:11). “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2Pe_1:4). These passages from the Epistles of the New Testament are speaking to you and to me. The child of God in any age is called to holy living. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1Co_3:16-17). “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph_1:4). “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1Pe_1:16). God is calling us to holiness. We need to emphasize holiness. God asks us to be holy. There is another truth that I do not want you to miss, friends. Many folk say that if you are going to reach the crowds, you’ve got to go down and live with them. You’ve got to be like they are. This has been tried, both by individuals and by groups. And do you know what? They don’t reach the crowd; they become a part of the crowd. May I say to you, God has called us to holiness. Folk who have really reached men for Christ have been those whose lives commended the gospel they preached. For example, England was a pretty wicked place during the eighteenth century, and they called the followers of John Wesley, “holy people.” In fact, they gave them the name “Methodists” because their methods were different from the methods of the world. God says, “I am Jehovah.” Someone may say, “Well, I’m not a Christian, and I’m just not interested.” May I say to you that God is declaring His sovereignty. God created this universe and He is the One who is running it. And He says, “I am your God.” He is a reconciled God. He knows our frame and yet He loves us. Friend, if you are reconciled to God, you will want to please Him. The child of God can be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he will not commit these sins of the flesh, but will produce the fruit of the Spirit.
Leviticus 18:6
SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH RELATIVES FORBIDDENThe blanket statement is made that no person is to have sexual relations with a near relative. This entire section amplifies the seventh commandment. Here it refers to anyone who has the same blood relationship as the other person. Now it goes on. God is specific. And the reason He gives is, “I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 18:7
This warns against disgusting incest. Yet this sin was in the Corinthian church. Paul condemned it with great feeling. “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife” (1Co_5:1). These are things that are talked about today, aren’t they? Well, God talks about them, too. Don’t tell me things are different today. God has spelled out exactly what is sin. Nobody can make a mistake about this, friends.
Leviticus 18:9
The different human relationships which are established by blood or marriage are dealt with specifically in this section. Relatives are thrown together in a domestic situation in which adultery could be practiced. God put up these barriers to prevent this. Egypt practiced these sins, especially those mentioned in verse Lev_18:9. The Pharaohs and the Ptolemies practiced intermarriage of brother and sister. In the beginning, there was no law against this. Cain and Seth had to marry their own sisters. Abraham married his half sister. However the Law now halts this practice.
Leviticus 18:16
There is an exception to this verse and that is in the law of the kinsman-redeemer as stated in Deu_25:5-10.
Leviticus 18:17
SUNDRY SEXUAL SINS PROHIBITEDThis relationship is not by blood, but by marriage. Because of the close relationship of the wife to a daughter or son, any marriage is forbidden. Evidently both of these verses have reference to having two wives at the same time. It is labeled incest here, instead of bigamy. Notice the Berkeley Version on these two verses: “Do not expose the nakedness of both a woman and her daughter; neither take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to expose her; they are blood relatives. It is incest. While your wife is still living do not take her sister for a rival to expose her nakedness” (Lev_18:17-18). This was the problem poor Jacob faced in having two sisters as wivesLeah and Rachel. The story of this family was certainly not a happy one. Remember, however, that Jacob lived before the Ten Commandments had been given.
Leviticus 18:19
Lawful marital relations of a husband and wife were forbidden at certain times. The sensual mind must be made subject to the Law of God.
Leviticus 18:20
Believe me, God is throwing up these bulwarks to protect the home from the licentious practices of the heathen round about them. The family on earth was to mirror the family in heaven (Eph_3:15). Purity of living was to be the badge of God’s family. There was a holy place in the tabernacle for worship; the home was a holy place in the nation for living. The New Testament also has a great deal about this. It would be well to read 1 Corinthians 7 in this connection.
Leviticus 18:21
OFFSPRING FORBIDDEN TO BE OFFERED TO MOLECH"Thy seed" means their children. This verse may seem to be out of place in this chapter, but the pagan worship of Molech was closely related with sex. The image of old Molech was heated red hot, and the bodies of children were placed in its arms. It is hard to imagine the horror of this. There are those who believe that such a thing could never have happened. However, the Scriptures make other references to this same practice. “…and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim” (2Ki_17:31). “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart” (Jer_7:31).
This terrible practice profanes the holy name of God (Lev_20:3). The unnatural brutality of this pagan rite was a deep profaning of the name of the true God. God’s love of children is evident in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The Lord Jesus said, “Let them come to Me.”
Leviticus 18:22
PERVERSION OF SEX PROHIBITEDIt is hard to believe that right here in downtown Los Angeles, a church put on a dance for sexual perverts. I am told they had over 700 people at that dance. It was so disgusting that a hard-boiled newspaper writer went down to write it up, but walked out. Yet a “church” engaged in that. My friend, God condemns it! In the Old Testament He condemns it; in the New Testament He condemns it. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.
Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom_1:24-28). The depravity that is mentioned here is common today. The United States is like Sodom and Gomorrah. It makes me weep to see the way my country is going. I love this country. It’s the land of my birth. I hate to see these dirty, filthy, immoral people bringing us into judgment. Believe me, friends, the judgment of God is already upon us today. We can’t have peace abroad and we can’t have peace at home, Why not? “There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked” (Isa_48:22).
Leviticus 18:23
This is indeed unspeakable. This was practiced in the fertility cults and nature worship. Licentiousness is always connected with idolatry in the most debased fashion. And if you think this is not being practiced today, then you should talk to the police department in a city like Los Angeles. They can tell you.
Leviticus 18:24
NATIONS IN PALESTINE CAST OUT FOR COMMITTING THESE SINSThe nations in Palestine were cast out because they committed these abominable and atrocious sins. That is the reason they were put off the land. A lot of soft-hearted and soft-headed preachers today weep because God put out the Canaanites. Here is the reason God put them out. God couldn’t tolerate what was taking place. The land of the Canaanites was eaten up with venereal disease. Why do you suppose God told them not to take even a wedge of gold or to touch a garment in the city of Jericho? They were guilty of the vilest sins imaginable. Don’t you think that God put them out for a good reason? After all, if the tenant doesn’t pay rent, he can be put out. God happened to own that land. My friend that is the way you and I occupy this earth down here. Our “three score years and ten” is just a lease. The land is God’s. It is His business and it would be well for us to make His business our business. His business is the one that will prevail.
Leviticus 18:26
God gives a double warning to His people that if they pursue a pattern similar to those who preceded them in the land, the same judgment, if not worse, would befall them. God’s land must be holy. God’s ultimate goal is that righteousness will cover the earth.