The Commonalities of Adultery, Child Sacrifice, Practicing Homosexuality, & Bestiality

Laws against – Adultery, Child Sacrifice, Practicing Homosexuality, & Bestiality

Leviticus 18:20-30

Day ten of our 14-day self-quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic. I would never want to suggest that the quantity of sin one commits has an impact on a person’s state of being a sinner or his/her need for forgiveness, but the thought did occur to me that with all this self-isolation and social distancing going on in the world, the amount of sin along the lines of our passage today that is taking place globally must have dropped somewhat. Maybe now is a good time for many to understand that finds all these things to be an abomination, period.

It is also interesting to note that this passage may have an explanation, not for the scientific physical reason for Covid-19, but perhaps the reason as to why God is allowing it. Read on and decide for yourself.

The Passage

^20 “You shall not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. ²² You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. ²³ Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸ so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the Lord your God.’”

Thoughts on the Passage

Adultery

Verse 20 is pretty straight-forward. We are not to have sexual relationships with the wife of another man. (And one could assume that is also true for the opposite sex – a woman is not to have sexual intercourse with the husband of another woman.) We already know from the first 19 verses of this chapter that we are not to have sexual relations with any of our kin related by blood or marriage. There is the issue of who is our “neighbor” and whether or not sexual intercourse is permissible with the wife of someone who is not our neighbor. I believe that God intended all of us to live in harmony around the world as, if not brothers and sisters, certainly as neighbors. We read in Romans 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” So, that means the emphasis in the lesson here in Leviticus 18:30 is not so much the idea of a ‘neighbor’s wife’ as it is that we are not to sleep with someone who is married, period. And that goes for single people sleeping with a person who is married to someone else. You can ignore what the Scripture says (at your own peril) but you can’t argue that it doesn’t say that.

Child Sacrifice and Abortion

Now in the very next verse (21) God says we are not to participate in any form of child sacrifice. That’s a no-no and I am sure that few, if any, of the readers of this study are involved in that. Most readers would find that to be an atrocity today and totally unacceptable to most men, let alone God.  And they would be right. The fact that we often miss, however, is where God places these things in His Word. The declaration of this abomination of child sacrifice (which most of us would not do) is sandwiched right in between the idea of adultery and homosexuality and then bestiality. God views all of these the same and to partake in them is to “profane the name of your God” (verse 21).

While we are on the subject of child sacrifice, I must admit that it is an easy leap for me to jump to thoughts of abortion. We may not see that as child sacrifice but think about it for a moment.  In the process of abortion, we are sacrificing the life of an unborn (or nowadays even a child that is about to be born). Yes, you say, but there is no idol god involved. Ah, but isn’t there? Isn’t the person having the abortion acting like a god? Or the father who is forcing the woman to have an abortion like a god? Or the whole idea of the warped concept of feminism, the god in this case? To me, at least, there are a lot of parallels.

Homosexuality

Then in verse 22 we come to the matter of sleeping with someone of the same sex. Now I do not want to get into the issue here of whether homosexuality or lesbianism is something a person is born with or something they acquire a need for due to their environmental upbringing. I have my own views on that, but I don’t pretend to solve the matter for the world when some brilliant minds on either side can’t come to an agreement, for a host of reasons. Nevertheless, whether there is a genetic or environmental cause to being non-heterosexual, it is not the condition that is being address in verse 22 of this chapter, but the practice of it. God finds the practice to be an abomination, period. I believe we can hold that view and still love a person who practices this sin just as we love any other type of sinner, or better still, just as we love ourselves.  And if you want the ultimate comparison, just as Christ loved and love us and them, when He died on the cross for them. That does not mean I condone what they are doing. Christ did not condone what the scribes and pharisees did, but He prayed to His heavenly father that they would be forgiven.  So we too are to views those we know who are homosexuals, even practicing ones, in that light.  We are to pray for their repentance, and forgiveness, but in the process, we are to continue to love them. I think you get the point.

Bestiality

Through social media and the Internet, we are becoming more and more aware of all things weird and not so wonderful. Bestiality seems to be one of those. But we note here that it has been around since the days the Israelites were in Egypt and then in the wilderness.  Verse 23 tells us to not even think of it. God calls it a perversion.  Sadly, much of mankind has lost its moral compass and perversion is what it seems to hunger for. One only needs to follow some of Hollywood’s less-brilliant celebrities (or even the smarter ones under the influence of Satan) these days to discover that.

What All These Have in Common and the Outcome

In short, all the commands of chapter 18 are intended to preserve the honor of the marriage bed.

In verses 24-30 of the chapter, God makes the following clear about the practice of any of these things:

·      Doing any one of them causes us to be defiled. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being defiled in many ways. These include:

o   to make unclean or impure: such as

§  to corrupt the purity or perfection of

§  to violate the chastity or virginity of

§  to make physically unclean especially with something unpleasant or contaminating

§  to violate the sanctity of

§  to sully, dishonor (as one’s reputation)

o   pick your choice.

·      These things make “lands” defiled and God brings punishment on them (verse 25); punishment that causes the land to “spew” out its inhabitants (that is, they die)

·      We, on the other hand, are to keep His laws against these (verse 26) so that we do not get spewed out or die.

·      Committing these things does cut us off from being the people of God (verse 29)

·      And why, because as He says, “I am the Lord your God.” 

Does any of the above sound familiar to us today? There are a lot of practices of humanity that seem to defy God, but the violation of these laws seems to be so prevalent these days – it is even flaunted in many cases. Whether or not there is a connection between what is happening to our land once again, I will leave up to you to decide. Each one of us has their own views on that. And perhaps the real answer is not cut and dry one way or another.  But any correlation is worth it, especially if its consideration takes you, and me, and others closer, or back to, what God intended for us.  Hang in there but do think on these things.

Thankfully, while the practice of these things may cause defilement, God provides a way out for us through Jesus Christ. In that, we can rejoice.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

The Law Against Bestiality -- Short But Not So Sweet -- Exodus 22:19

--> Exodus 22:19: “Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.”

 

The Sanctuary of Pan at the Head of the Jordan River, Israel

This is a type of verse that you wish you did not have to deal with when doing a study of the Bible.  But it is there and since God does not mince words or speak unnecessarily, we need to fully regard what it says. 

Here is what we do know from various commentaries.  Bestiality was practiced in the ancient world (both in Egypt and Canaan), and it must have been prevalent enough for God to command against it here in the laws He gives His own people.

One of the things we can consider in light of bestiality is the fact that as David Guzik states, “If we reject God's Word when it comes to other areas of sexual morality, there is no other place to draw the line. We cannot say that sex with animals, children, or the dead is wrong if the ethic is ‘if it feels good, do it.’” In fact, based on what’s available on the Internet, we see that the voices of those speaking on behalf of such practices are indeed growing.

Matthew Henry suggests that a human involved with bestiality becomes a beast “in the shape of” a man.  And thus, we have God’s severe punishment for them.  There is strong belief that the practice was common in the days of Exodus in Egypt (why else would God raise it here) and that some New Testament era documents (Sonnini’s for example) refer to it even in the days of Paul and the apostles. 
This practice was ascribed to Baal, the pagan god. There are accounts of the practice continuing in the world and they are brought to light from time to time.  I am reminded of Jesus’s reference in Matthew 16:18 to the Gates of Hell.  Some believe it was a reference to a location in modern Israel at the head of the Jordan, in the caves of the mountainous rock nearby considered today to be the “Sanctuary or Pan”. I had the privilege of visiting there for a while as part of my pilgrimage to Israel.  There, in days past, the repugnant idolatrous acts were committed.  And Jesus was saying to Peter, “When I build My Church, My people, not even that place that is so evil will be able to conquer it.”  How blessed are those that believe His words and accept Him as Lord.

One would think this crime of bestiality is, as John Gill says in his commentary, “so detestable and abominable, so shocking and dishonorable to human nature, that one would think it could never be committed by any of the human species, and that there was no occasion for making a law against it.”

Unfortunately, that is not the case.  People, fallen to depravity and corruption, were the same from the beginning.  And God found this act so abhorrent that He shows them no mercy.  His judgment on them is short, but not sweet.

I believe that the only thing that has changed as a result of the New Testament -- the New Covenant, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins – is that by complete sincere repentance and a total change of life, anyone guilty of such acts today can still make peace with God.

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