I’m reading through the Book of Leviticus as part of my read-through-the-Bible-then-start-all-over-again reading plan. Yesterday I came to Chapter Eighteen of Leviticus, in which the Lord told His people to keep His rules and statutes as they entered the land He had promised. If they did, they would find life.
“You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:5).1
He warned them what would happen if they did not obey His laws. He would do to them as He had done to the nations in the land they were to inhabit.
“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you” (Leviticus 18:24-28).
What were “these abominations” that made the nations unclean, caused the Lord to punish them, and the land to vomit them out? We begin with a summary of Leviticus 18:6-18.
One cannot have sexual relations with members of his family. Incestuous relations include those of a man with his mother, stepmother, sister or half-sister, granddaughter, stepsister, pattern or maternal aunt, paternal uncle’s wife, daughter-in-law, brother’s wife. stepdaughter or step-grand-daughter, or wife’s sister.
Incest blurs family lines and leads to the destruction of the family. A nation cannot exist if the family unit is not well defined, for the family is the foundation of society.
Second, men or women having sex with animals was forbidden.
“And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion” (Leviticus 18:23).
The Hebrew definition of perversion includes abominable confusion. The English word for this is bestiality.
Third, adultery was forbidden.
“And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her” (Leviticus 18:20).
Fourth, homosexuality was forbidden.
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
These words are within the galaxy of words that define abomination: detestable and loathsome.2
Fifth, the killing of infants was forbidden:
“You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:21).
Incest and bestiality are illegal activities in the United States. Homosexuality and the murder of infants were once illegal but are no more. Adultery has been illegal and still is in some states but rarely results in any significant punishment. This nation has made legal these three terrible sins which brought punishment to the land Israel was preparing to inhabit. Like them, our land has become unclean, and it will vomit us out. We should know, if we don’t already, that civil laws cannot stop people’s desire to do evil. If they desire evil strongly enough, they shall have it. We have compromised our laws to deal with the abundance of sin in our country.
Please pray for the United States. We are in serious trouble. We have left the Lord and are actively disobeying Him. The family unit is disintegrating. We have become a nation of abominations. Pray that the Lord will forgive us. Pray the He will, in His mercy and grace, bring sweeping repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ.
1The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Crossway Bibles.
2Thomas, R. L. (1998). In New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : updated edition. Foundation Publications, Inc.
Gif courtesy Edge images.
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