The Promised Land

All these detestable activities are practiced by the people of the land where I am taking you, and this is how the land has become defiled. [Leviticus 18.27]

"All these detestable sins" are: having sex with a close relative, having sex with your mother, having sex with any of your father's wives, having sex with your sister or half sister, having sex with your granddaughter, having sex with your step sister, having sex with your aunt (father's or mother's or sister or uncle's wife), having sex with your daughter-in-law, having sex with your sister-in-law, having sex with both a mother and her daughter or granddaughter, having sex with your living wife's sister, having sex with a woman on her menstrual cycle, having sex with another man's wife, sacrificing children to Molech, having sex with another man (homosexuality), and having sex with an animal.

What a nasty list, right? And yet, we should understand that the land of Canaan, the Land of Promise, was full of this sinfulness. Every battle Israel engaged in when taking the land was against people who were fully engaged in the sins above as lifestyles.

Now, it is prudent to remember also that God said on more than one occasion that he was punishing the people in the land of Canaan for their gross sinfulness as well as blessing Israel to give them the land.

Is it not interesting that most of the sins in the list I compiled above are about sex? 

Even the offering of children to Molech is indirectly related to sex because children are the result of sex. Frankly, I could imagine with all the twisted, out-of-bounds sexual activity in Canaan, there were quite likely myriads of unwanted children resultant to these sinful relationships. And, as one could imagine, these children were likely seen as disposable. This ancient picture is all too similar to our modern practice we call abortion.

So, what do we learn from this? That sex is bad? No. Sex is not bad, but sex has boundaries.

The boundaries of sex have everything to do with self-control. Self-control has everything to do with self. When "self" is not controlled, it becomes perverted and goes awry.

I want to make an observation about the list above. My list was taken from the 18th chapter of Leviticus in the order it was presented there. My observation is this: the progression (if, perhaps, the list is in any particular order) starts at home with our most intimate initial relationship in life - our parents. From there, it progresses to other family members, then to people outside of marriage, then to killing babies, then to same-sex relations, and finally to bestiality (sex with animals).

Does any other national citizen besides me worry about their country when considering the progression of this list?

Question: were there good people in Canaan? Put another way, were there people in that land of Canaan who did not practice the sins listed above?

Answer: Probably.

Father, my answer above is worrisome. If, in fact, there were good and righteous people in the Promised Land, what was their outcome?