Happy weekend, Dear Reader.
I’ve been endeavoring to fight off some kind of cold or flu so I have a bit of NyQuil in my system. One does not write at one’s best with an antihistamine-laden, sleep-inducing cocktail flowing through one’s veins – particularly when faced with SUCH a topic as today’s. I therefore warn you to expect a rather chopped up (but hopefully still coherent) series of comments. I wish you luck in piecing them together into something like sense.
Let us begin… 🤧
This chapter covers out-of-bounds sexual relationships. It’s interesting because there are relationships that are forbidden here that God hasn’t said anything about before – like Abram marrying his half-sister Sarai or Jacob taking two sisters as wives.
The oft-pondered question: “Where did Cain get his wife?” isn’t as mysterious as most people think. He would’ve married a sister. Seth too. In fact, all of Adam and Eve’s children would’ve married one another. The gene pool was pristine and deep at that point and they had the model of their own parents. Eve was made of genetic material from Adam. The person most genetically like you is a full sibling. To borrow language from the Song of Songs, Eve was to Adam, “My sister, my bride.” This models the relationship of Christ and the Church. Christ is both the firstborn among many brethren and the bridegroom.
But I digress… 🤧
God seems to have permitted these relationships in the beginning (to get the human race started), but now forbids them in the interest of genetic health, sexual health (no STDs), and the sanctity of His people and their sexual relationships.
Anyone who has studied the history of the famous (infamous?) Habsburg Family knows how physically deformed and ill they became from years of inbred marriages. In addition to the practical matter of genetic health, the Lord states His “Why” at the beginning of this discourse:
“You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 18:3-5 ESV
This isn’t complicated. Do not do as they do. This is still an absolutely crucial mindset for God’s people today.
How often does the Church look at Corporate America or the Entertainment Industry and say, “We ought to do it that way. Look at the results they get!” But God’s people are to be different from everyone else. Just because Society decides to hurl itself off the cliff of morality like a bunch of lemmings doesn’t mean we need to join in – no matter how popular or expected it may be.
And there is life to be found in doing things God’s way. Life.
In the middle of this list of forbidden sexual relationships that includes incest, homosexuality, beastiality, and polygamy there is this:
“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 ESV
It seems rather out of place; unless its placement here is meant to inform us of a connection with sexual sin.
Don’t feel sorry for the Canaanites. When we get to Joshua and many of them are killed, be carful to not assume that they were kind and peaceful hunter-gatherers who lived in harmony with the earth or some such nonsense. They were demonized. And violent. They practiced horrific child sacrifice. I’ll not get graphic here about exactly what they did but here is another verse about the reforms of young King Josiah that will shed some light on it:
“And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.” 2 Kings 23:10 ESV
The forces of Evil are bloodthirsty. And they seem to favor the blood of innocents. And the more violent the better.
My opinion: I believe abortion to be the modern equivalent of offering a child to Molech. Only instead of calling it Molech it’s usually called convenience or fear or pressure or selfishness or pride. No matter. They’re all on the same team.
And there is absolutely forgiving grace for anyone who has been there. But that doesn’t mean we should pretend it is ok. Abortion is a spiritual stronghold that will only be defeated with spiritual weapons.
Oh – and before I move completely past it – I’m pretty sure that forbidding beastiality is connected to the Genesis 6 mess. The fallen angels may have taken animal-like forms (if non-biblical ancient writings are any clue). Also – it may have been an attempt at genetic modification – to create animal-human hybrids. We know that “all flesh” was corrupted on earth. That includes the animals. That’s why Noah rescued the few uncorrupted ones and the rest were destroyed.
I recall while visiting Banias (the Grotto of Pan) at the foot of Mount Hermon in Israel that we saw the ruins of a place where they kept – I kid you not – “dancing goats.” If I understand correctly, people would dance with their sacrificial goats to be offered to the god Pan. Some would engage in perverted sexual acts with the goats (and since we’re talking Ancient Rome here, it’s not a stretch to speculate they engaged in some kinky things with one another too.)
The point is – there is a reason for this prohibition. Like the warning on a table saw: “Do not attempt to stop saw with hand.” Some idiot out there apparently did. Hence the warning.
The phrase used repeatedly in this chapter is “uncovering nakedness.”
It makes me immediately think of Genesis 3:10 when Adam tells God “I was naked and I hid myself.” Nakedness was revealed for the first time because the humans believed a lie that something good was being withheld from them and that partaking of the fruit would not, in fact, bring death.
Uncovering nakedness was born in deceit and selfish desire and it has borne those traits ever since. Incest always involves them. Grooming children toward gender confusion and sexual behavior always involves them. In any sexual sin or perversion you will find deceit and selfish desire. You name it – adultery, pornography, fornication of any kind…. Deceit and selfish desire.
There’s an interesting idea suggested by this chapter: A person’s nakedness isn’t confined to his or her own body. If you are married, your spouse’s nakedness is also yours because you are one.
This chapter is helpful for understanding the post-flood event with Noah being “uncovered” in his tent in Gen. 9. Ham saw his father’s nakedness. The cursing of Canaan may indicate that he was the offspring of Ham from an incestuous relationship with his own mother.
Homosexuality has become shockingly common just in my lifetime. But the reason it is a perversion is not just because it is a rebellion against God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, but also because it is the manifestation of a lie.
Marriage is meant to be a picture of Christ and the Church. Jesus is God in-flesh. God is not the same as we are. Not “homo” (meaning same). God is the life-giver, humans are the receivers of His life. God gave the “seed” of Christ to humanity. Humans receive that seed We do not generate it. Humanity did not generate Jesus. God did. This truth cannot be reflected in homosexual relationships or behavior.
The popular argument today might be that a same-sex couple “loves” one another. There is such a thing as “love” that is wrong.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
1 John 2:15-16 ESV
This chapter calls God’s people to be separate from the world – to not love the world; not love as they love or do as they do.
This is all part of what it means to be “holy.” And that is what the next chapter will be about.
🤧 bless you.
To The Reader 