PROHIBITIONS AGAINST ILLEGITIMATE FAMILY WORSHIP PROHIBITION AGAINST SPIRITISTS AND MEDIUMS EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS AND OBEDIENCE

1 PROHIBITIONS AGAINST ILLEGITIMATE FAMILY WORSHIP PROHIBITION AGAINST SPIRITISTS AND MEDIUMS EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS AND OBEDIENCE FAMILY LIFE AND SEXUAL PROHIBITIONS EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS AND OBEDIENCE PROHIBITION AGAINST SPIRITISTS AND MEDIUMS LEVITICUS 20:1-27

2 PROHIBITIONS AGAINST ILLEGITIMATE FAMILY WORSHIP Text: PROHIBITION AGAINST SPIRITISTS AND MEDIUMS EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS AND OBEDIENCE FAMILY LIFE AND SEXUAL PROHIBITIONS EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS AND OBEDIENCE PROHIBITION AGAINST SPIRITISTS AND MEDIUMS Leviticus 20:1-27, 1. The LORD spoke to Moses: 2. You are to say to the Israelites, Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. 3. I myself will set my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. 4. If, however, the people of the land shut their eyes to that man when he gives some of his children to Molech so that they do not put him to death,

3 5. I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. 6. The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people. 7. You must sanctify yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. 8. You must be sure to obey my statutes. I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 9. If anyone curses his father and mother he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. 10. If a man commits adultery with his neighbor s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 11. If a man has sexual intercourse with his father s wife, he has exposed his father s nakedness. Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 12. If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-inlaw, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; their blood guilt is on themselves. 13. If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 14. If a man has sexual intercourse with both a woman and her mother, it is lewdness. Both he and they must be burned to death, so there is no lewdness in your midst.

4 15. If a man has sexual intercourse with any animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 16. If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 17. If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has exposed his sister s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. 18. If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them must be cut off from the midst of their people. 19. You must not expose the nakedness of your mother s sister and your father s sister, for such a person has laid bare his own close relative. They must bear their punishment for iniquity. 20. If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle s nakedness; they must bear responsibility for their sin, they will die childless. 21. If a man has sexual intercourse with his brother s wife, it is indecency. He has exposed his brother s nakedness; they will be childless. 22. You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, so that the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out. 23. You must not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am about to drive out before you, because they have

5 done all these things and I am filled with disgust against them. 24. So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. 25. Therefore you must distinguish between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground creatures I have distinguished for you as unclean. 26. You must be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine. 27. A man or woman who has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; their blood guilt is on themselves. (NET) Introduction: Chapter 20 is a list of sins that require either the death penalty, expulsion from the camp or result in childlessness. As a modern person reads the list, their jaw might drop! Some of these sins listed seem to us very trivial, while others are still in tune with our modern civilization. Death to the one who burns their children to death seems logical while death to one who curses his parents seems out of balance. The punishment seems out of proportion with the act!

6 Part of the answer lies in the fact that the initial and universal punishment for sin is death. Both Testaments attest to that fact. Genesis 2:16-17, And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (NET) Ezekeil 18:4, Indeed! All lives are mine the life of the father as well as the life of the son is mine. The one who sins will die. (NET) Romans 6:23, For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NET) In setting forth a list of acts worthy of capital punishment God is making His point clear He does not wish to see his people sink to the level of the Egyptians from whence they came nor the Canaanites to which they were going! Unfortunately, even this extreme measure of punishment for imitating the practices of the heathen around them did not prevent the Israelites from assimilating the culture they came into! Judges 3:5-6, The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They took the Canaanites daughters as wives and gave their daughters to the Canaanites; they worshiped their gods as well. (NET)

7 One of those gods was Molech. Molech is first mentioned in Leviticus 18:21, You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, so that you do not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD! (NET) Child sacrifice is an ancient practice and has been carried out in various ways through the centuries. In all cultures where it has been and those where it still is practiced, no regard is given to the value of human life, especially the life of children. In Egypt they were thrown to the crocodiles in the Nile. In Canaan and surrounding countries they were placed in the receiving arms of the god Molech, an image made of brass whose belly was a furnace kept red-hot. The living child (newborn up to four years) was placed in his arms where the heat quickly caused the body to convulse and fall into the fire below. Many years later, the weeping prophet Jeremiah speaks for God and says: They set up their disgusting idols in the temple which I have claimed for my own and defiled it. They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered my mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment. Jeremiah 32:34-35 (NET) Today children are sacrificed in much more humane ways. Instead of some detestable god called Molech, children are sacrificed to the gods of convenience, choice, freedom and greed. Instead of throwing them into the river or into the furnace, they are allowed to be killed in the womb and their remains disposed

8 of as if they were garbage. We are, of course, referring to the detestable practice of abortion! In the USA alone more than a million babies are sacrificed each year. This is usually for the convenience of the parent who does not want a baby at this time. The abortion industry (and that is exactly what it is) is extremely lucrative and has powerful allies in places that insure that the practice will go on as long as it is generating huge profits. We are not that far from Canaan! With that said, let us look at the text of chapter 20. Commentary: Prohibitions Against Illegitimate Family Worship Leviticus 20:1-5, The LORD spoke to Moses: You are to say to the Israelites, Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If, however, the people of the land shut their eyes to that man when he gives some of his children to Molech so that they do not put him to death, I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. (NET)

9 Verses 4 & 5 let the people know that if such behavior is winked at or goes unreported that the LORD Himself will turn on the offender! As the New Testament book of Hebrews says: It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31 Prohibition Against Spiritists and Mediums Leviticus 20:6, The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people. (NET) The Bible is consistent from cover to cover in its opposition to the practice of witchcraft, the consulting of the dead by means of a medium and other such practices. Many practitioners of such are charlatans, but that does not mean that there are not forces of evil out there that we should avoid. When Scripture refers to the principalities and powers of the air it is not mere rhetoric. Ephesians 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. (NET) Colossians 2:14-15, He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (NET)

10 Revelation 12:7-9, Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. So that huge dragon the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him. (NET) God still wants his people to depend on him and not get involved with Satan and his minions! Exhortation to Holiness and Obedience Leviticus 20:7, You must sanctify yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. You must be sure to obey my statutes. I am the LORD who sanctifies you. (NET) Here we have sanctify again. The concept is the same as holy which means set apart. God wants his people to be different from the world culture about them, and well we should be! There is death out there and we are not talking about physical death because, for the duration of this age, physical death is the common lot of man. Here we are speaking of a death far worse than losing one s physical life! We are speaking of the separation from the fellowship of God and the spirit life that this fellowship brings. Without God we are the walking dead!

11 Family Life and Sexual Prohibitions Leviticus 20:9-21, If anyone curses his father and mother he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. If a man commits adultery with his neighbor s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. If a man has sexual intercourse with his father s wife, he has exposed his father s nakedness. Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; their blood guilt is on themselves. If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. If a man has sexual intercourse with both a woman and her mother, it is lewdness. Both he and they must be burned to death, so there is no lewdness in your midst. If a man has sexual intercourse with any animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has exposed his sister s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has

12 laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them must be cut off from the midst of their people. You must not expose the nakedness of your mother s sister and your father s sister, for such a person has laid bare his own close relative. They must bear their punishment for iniquity. If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle s nakedness; they must bear responsibility for their sin, they will die childless. If a man has sexual intercourse with his brother s wife, it is indecency. He has exposed his brother s nakedness; they will be childless. (NET) Above is a list of death penalty sins, all but one of which are sexual deviations. Actually, all sin is a deviation or perversion of something good that God created and gave to us. Verses 17-21 is another list of sexual sins, but they do not call for death. One quickly gets the impression that sexuality among the heathen cultures around Israel was at the lowest level possible. Rather than creating a Utopia of sexual freedom and enjoyment, it created a slime pit of disease and brutality. Women and children of both sexes were mere objects for man s use. God wanted something far better for His people! Exhortation to Holiness and Obedience Leviticus 20:22-26, You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, so that the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out. You must not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am about to drive out before you, because

13 they have done all these things and I am filled with disgust against them. So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. Therefore you must distinguish between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground creatures I have distinguished for you as unclean. You must be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine. (NET) In Genesis 15:12-16 we find God explaining to Abraham what would happen to his descendants before God would bring them back to the Promised Land. Apparently the long delay was to allow the Amorites to let their wickedness fully develop to the point that the land would vomit them out. Pick up the reading with verse 12: As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. (Emphasis mine, PA) (NIV)

14 The warning is very clear in verses 22-23 that if Israel sank to the level of the Amorites, they too would be vomited out of the land. This chapter ends with yet another warning against consulting the dead instead of the Living God whose voice was available through the High Priest and the Urim and the Thummim. Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums Leviticus 20:27, A man or woman who has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; their blood guilt is on themselves. (NET)

15 Questions on Leviticus 20:1-27 1. What is the original and universal consequence of sin? 2. Cite an Old Testament passage that teaches that the consequence of sin is death. 3. Cite a New Testament passage that pronounces the sentence of death for sin. 4. What detestable practice did Israel begin because they worshiped the gods of the land they conquered?

16 5. What form of child sacrifice is practiced in modern times? 6. What gods are worshipped by this practice? 7. What should happen if one became aware that children were being sacrificed to Molech? 8. What practice is condemned twice in chapter twenty?

17 9. How was the death penalty to be administered to those guilty of child sacrifice or consulting spirits? 10. Who were the combatants in the War in Heaven? 11. How did the dragon (Satan) and his angels come to be on the earth? 12. To whom does the expression rulers of this darkness refer?

18 13. What is the meaning of holy or sanctified? 14. In the matter of sexual sins where death is the penalty, which party is to be put to death? 15. What is the punishment for a man or woman that has sexual intercourse with an animal? 16. What is to be done with an animal that has been used for human sexual gratification?

19 17. Having to be so specific about sexual behavior indicates what about the cultures around Israel? 18. Sexual licentiousness leads to what kind of social environment? 19. Why did God not give the Promised Land to Abraham at the time he arrived there instead of waiting more than four hundred years? 20. What did God say could cause Israel to lose their place in the Promised Land?

20 Answers to Questions on Leviticus 20:1-27 1. What is the original and universal consequence of sin? Death. 2. Cite Old Testament passages that teach that the consequence of sin is death. Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4.

21 3. Cite a New Testament passage that pronounces the sentence of death for sin. Romans 6:23. 4. What detestable practice did Israel begin because they worshiped the gods of the land they conquered? Child sacrifice by fire. 5. What form of child sacrifice is practiced in modern times? Abortion. 6. What gods are worshipped by this practice? Convenience, choice, freedom and greed.

22 7. What should happen if one became aware that children were being sacrificed to Molech? Those who were sacrificing the children were to be stoned. 8. What practice is condemned twice in chapter twenty? Child sacrifice. 9. How was the death penalty to be administered to those guilty of child sacrifice or consulting spirits? Stoning. 10. Who were the combatants in the War in Heaven? Revelation 12:7, Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels;

23 11. How did the dragon (Satan) and his angels come to be on the earth? Lost the war and were cast down to earth. 12. To whom does the expression rulers of this darkness refer? Satan and his followers. 13. What is the meaning of holy or sanctified? Set apart different from this world. 14. In the matter of sexual sins where death is the penalty, which party is to be put to death? Both.

24 15. What is the punishment for a man or woman that has sexual intercourse with an animal? Death. 16. What is to be done with an animal that has been used for human sexual gratification? Killed. 17. Having to be so specific about sexual behavior indicates what about the cultures around Israel? They were at the lowest level possible morally. 18. Sexual licentiousness leads to what kind of social environment? A pit of brutality and disease.

25 19. Why did God not give the Promised Land to Abraham at the time he arrived there instead of waiting more than four hundred years? To allow the Ammorites to sink to the fullness of depravity. 20. What did God say could cause Israel to lose their place in the Promised Land? If Israel sank to the level of the Ammorites.