“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the LORD your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. [Leviticus 18.2-3]
Three other very similar statements follow the passage above in the same chapter:
“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways. [Leviticus 18.24]
“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]
So obey my instructions, and do not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practices that were committed by the people who lived in the land before you. I am the LORD your God.” [Leviticus 18.30]
The people God would displace from Canaan were in fact being punished for their defiled lifestyle which notably included sexual relations:
- with their close relatives
- with their own mothers
- with their father's other wives
- with their sisters and half-sisters
- with their granddaughters
- with their stepsisters
- with their father's sisters
- with their mother's sisters
- with their father's brother's wives
- with their daughters-in-law
- with their brother's wives
- with a women and her daughters and her granddaughters
- with their wives' sisters
- with menstruating women
- with their neighbor's wives
- offering children as sacrifices to Molech
- with their same gender
- with animals
Aside from the obvious understanding about how God feels about uncontrolled sex, including with family members, what do we really do with this passage and how do we find Jesus in it?
As we consider Leviticus 18 in the larger context of all the Old Testament, we understand that Israel consistently struggled with idolatry. In fact, we have the mention, and therefore the correlation, of an idol in the list above in the prohibition against child sacrifices to Molech. As sexual activity is often associated with idol worship, the worship of Molech would necessarily encourage unrestrained sexual activity as a perverted convenience to keep "disposable children" coming. Defiled lifestyle and idolatry are never out of each other's grasp.
Unwanted pregnancies are the inconvenient result of immoderate sex. However, if this is viewed from a totally different and fallen perspective (like, that of Satan), such prolific sex would be necessary to produce disposable children to sacrifice to Molech. The similarities of this to the sexually-unbridled, abortion-minded society in which we live today should cause us great concern!
Whether it's called "abortion" or "worship of Molech" matters not as the end result is children sacrificed for the sake of sex!
What is said above is one thing, however, if we consider how Jesus factors in to all this, we can see that Jesus represents the fulfillment of the law of Moses and must be the only Way to God thus forsaking not only the worship of Molech but all others.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. [John 14.6]
Father, may we see and understand from the uncomfortable passages in Leviticus 18 that Jesus is the only Way for us to worship You and You alone. May we not be seduced into lifestyles that ultimately translate into idol worship. May our focus be on Jesus and His Cross - our cross - to keep our eyes off all others. So be it.
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