Leviticus 20
McGeeCHAPTER 20THEME: Capital punishment for those who offer their children to Molech; capital punishment for those who practice spiritism; capital punishment for those who curse father or mother; capital punishment for those who commit adultery; certain offenses which require lesser penalty; conclusion to the law of holinessDr. Andrew A. Bonar, in his book on Leviticus, calls this chapter “Warnings Against the Sins of the Former Inhabitants.” In other words, these were the sins of the Canaanites. It appears that the death penalty was exacted for breaking any one of the Ten Commandments. Not all of them are listed here under the penal code for the death penalty. Only a few are given as examples. For example, murder is not listed in this chapter, but we learn elsewhere about the death penalty for it. For this reason I infer that the penalty for breaking any of the Ten Commandments was death. God instituted capital punishment! He is just and righteous, and He applied the death penalty with unsparing severity. Nowhere in the Word of God is punishment given for the purpose of reforming the criminal. That was not the objective. Punishment of a crime is for the moral good of the people. Punishment of a crime is a deterrent to crime. It will cut down the crime rate. One of the reasons for the spread of lawlessness like a dreadful plague throughout this land is due to the fact that we have weak judges who will not enforce the law. We hear a great many sob sisters cry about the death penalty. God instituted capital punishment for good and sufficient reasons. There must be the satisfaction of outraged justice. Justice and righteousness demand punishment. The majesty, law, and holiness of God have been outraged, and so crime must be punished. If you don’t believe in the death penalty, let me ask you a question. Do you mean to say that you are better than God? God makes no apology for the death penalty. Listen to Him: “So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth that land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it” (Num_35:33). Remember that the Books of Matthew and Luke tell us that the blood of Abel cries out from the ground. Let me ask you another question. Suppose a sadistic criminal took your little child by the heels and dashed his head against a stone. What would you think should be done to him? I’m talking about yours now, not the children of someone else in another state. It’s easy to be theoretical and ideal as long as it doesn’t involve you. Here in California a man raped a girl and killed the fellow she was with. A crowd was parading at the governor’s mansion and parading at the penitentiary, protesting the death sentence. What about the girl? She is in a mental institution, a raving maniac. Her parents believe in capital punishment. I tell you, when you are talking about your own, that changes the color of the picture altogether. God says these people should be punished. Modern man in his efforts to be soft has abolished the death penalty in the name of this enlightened age. But it still stands in the Word of God as the most humanitarian procedure for the good of all men.
Leviticus 20:1
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR THOSE WHO OFFER THEIR CHILDREN TO MOLECHGod is speaking to Moses now, not to Aaron or the people. He is speaking to the lawgiver because this is about the penal code. Paul says that those in positions of authority who rule over us do not carry the sword in vain. They are to use it (Rom. 13). A judge has no right to let a sadistic criminal, a psychotic criminal, loose on society to endanger your family and mine. Someone will say that the electric chair is a mean old chair. That’s right, it is. In that day, they were executed by stoning. That’s not pretty either. No one has claimed it was pretty. It is an awful thing, a horrible thing. Don’t forget, the crime committed is also horrible.
Leviticus 20:2
The worship of Molech was savage, satanic, cruel, and brutal. Children were offered as sacrifices to the idol of Molech which was heated red hot. According to historians, the arms of the idol were outstretched and the child was cast “into a gaping hole, full of fire.” This was fiendish and demoniacal. What a contrast is Jesus who stretched out His arms to receive little children! “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat_19:14). Stoning to death was the penalty for this crime of “giving his seed to Molech,” and it is difficult to see how any would oppose the sentence. Stoning is almost too good for them. Friends, the child brutality today in our land could be curtailed if our judges would punish parents who brutally treat the little ones who can’t protect themselves. The judge should protect them.
Leviticus 20:3
This is the strongest language possible. “I will set my face against that man.” Was this an unpardonable sin? I don’t know, but every word is a terrible invective. “I will cut him off from among his people.” This sin was a sin against God. It defiles His sanctuary and profanes His holy name. In Eze_23:37-39, we find that the children of Israel did just this, and it was one of the reasons that God’s judgment came upon them. Remember that idolatry was high treason in a nation that was a theocracy.
Leviticus 20:4
For a man to remain silent when a neighbor worshiped Molech by offering his child was to make him a partner in crime. To be soft-hearted and soft-headed in executing the penalty made a man guilty. He was to be cut off from the people, which was tantamount to the death penalty.
Leviticus 20:6
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR THOSE WHO PRACTICE SPIRITISMThis was another practice of the Canaanites who were then in the land. This was false religion which was definitely satanic. Someone may object that it was not the real thing and lacked the supernatural. Frankly, there is supernaturalism manifested in Satan worship. The fact of the matter is that the Lord Jesus Himself warned that there would appear finally an antichrist who would be able to perform miracles, and that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect. Satan is a liar and the father of the lie. God says that He will set His face against the soul that turns to this kind of false worship.
Leviticus 20:7
These verses offer a good and sufficient reason for the death penalty. The people were to be holy because they belonged to God, and He was holy. Any deviation from this standard was a serious breach of conduct. To practice the abominations that have been named was to turn from God to Satan. It was spiritual adultery and treason. Today people do not seem to realize how serious that can be. This is God’s universe. God is a reality, friends. God’s statutes are never to be taken lightly.
Leviticus 20:9
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR THOSE WHO CURSE FATHER OR MOTHERThe fifth commandment was not to be considered of minor importance. In Lev_19:3 the Israelite was instructed to fear his father and mother. Now the death penalty was inflicted for cursing father and mother. In Rom_1:31 Paul spoke of those “without natural affection.” And we are told that in the last days children will be disobedient to parents, and men will be without natural affection (2Ti_3:2-3). This characterized the heathen of the past and will characterize the last days. The punishment stated here is extreme. We need to mention here that the Bible also offers grace in this regard. The Lord Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son who came home and was received by the father. That is grace. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9).
Leviticus 20:10
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR THOSE WHO COMMIT ADULTERYThis entire section contains unspeakable and even unbelievable sins. Adultery in every form and shape was punished with death. Sins of sex have caused the most powerful empires to topple. I would say that sex and liquor were the two causes of the fall of Babylon, Egypt, Rome, and France. What a warning this is for our nation! This is a rebuke against lax morals today. These sins brought down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the sins which cause God to give up a people (Rom_1:24-28). In spite of the awful immorality of these sins and the severity of the punishment, the Savior stands ready to forgive any who will come to Him. He put His sacrificial death between this sin and the woman taken in adultery. His sacrificial death atones for you, my friend, if you will come to him for forgiveness.
Leviticus 20:17
CERTAIN OFFENSES WHICH REQUIRE A LESSER PENALTYIncest with a full or half sister was forbidden and the penalty was to be executed publicly. God demanded cleanliness in every detail of his people’s lives; especially as it had to do with sexual relations. God forbade sexual relations between those who were near of kin. He did not say that they would not bear children, but that they should die childlessthe children would die before the parents who were guilty of this crime.
Leviticus 20:22
CONCLUSION TO THE LAW OF HOLINESSGod put the Canaanites out of the land because they committed these awful sins. He warns Israel that He will put them out of the land if they do the same things. God is no respecter of persons. Do you know that their failure to obey God brought on them the Babylonian captivity? Listen to the record: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem…. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel….
And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger…. Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel” (2Ki_21:1-2, 2Ki_21:6, 2Ki_21:9).
Leviticus 20:23
This should answer the question as to the justice of God in destroying some of the nations which occupied Palestine. As a result of these sins they were eaten up with social diseases. God forbade His people to take or touch anything in the city of Jericho at the time of the conquest. Evidently venereal diseases had reached epidemic proportions.
Leviticus 20:24
It was a land flowing with milk and honey. Timber covered that land. What happened to it? “Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day” (Deu_29:24-28). They are planting trees over there today. When I was there, I set out five trees; one for each member of my family, one for the church that I served, and one for a Jewish friend.
Leviticus 20:25
God reviews the statutes which were to make His people a different and a holy people. He began with their diet, and He concludes with it.
Leviticus 20:26
They are out of the land because they did not obey God. They were to be a holy nation like unto their God who is holy. “But,” you may say, “they are in the land.” May I ask how they are getting along? They have had trouble every minute they have been back in the land. Do you know what the problem is? They went back to the land but they did not return to God. When they do return to Godwhich they will do somedaythen there will be blessing in that land. God hasn’t changed His mind, friends. This should be a lesson to us and to our nation. God is high and holy, and He demands holiness. This is the key to Leviticus.
Leviticus 20:27
I bring this verse up into this section as it too deals with satanic superstition. Demon possession is a reality and has existed in all ages. In this modern age, many cults and “isms” are promoted by those who are demon possessed. This is all the work of Satan. The death penalty was exacted for participating in or practicing these satanic rites of the occult. Some people are surprised that worshipers of Satan have power. Sure, the devil has power! A departure from the Word of God and a departure from God always leads into error, and this gives rise to the false cults which we find today. Why did God exact the death penalty for participating in these satanic rites of the occult?