And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying… As we come to the Word of God, let Psalm 19:11 be our meditation: “Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” We have already seen the goodness, the richness, and the sweetness of God’s law, but this verse calls us to consider the benefits of obeying God’s commandments. They are warnings to us, and they also point us toward a great reward. In other words, they point us away from the path of death and toward the path of life.
Of course, in life after the Fall, we do not trust God’s commands but choose our own path instead. Especially with the types of sin that we will discuss this morning, we can easily become like Adam and Eve and think that God is withholding pleasures and glories from us. We think that He is trying to rob us of happiness. Yet I think of Gandalf’s words to Bilbo: “I am not trying to rob you; I am trying to help you.” God’s commands are warnings from a loving Father to His foolish children, but they also illuminate the only path of life, the road to true and everlasting joy and reward.
As we talked about last week, our text belongs to what theologians call the Holiness Code. The first half of Leviticus was building toward the Day of Atonement. Everything up to that point showed how God’s people were to draw near to Him, how sinful people could dwell in the presence of the holy God. Now, beginning in chapter 17, we see what life looks like after atonement, how they were to live as a people among whom God Himself dwells.
Chapter 17 acted as a kind of bridge between the two halves of the book. Its main theme was that God’s people must be completely devoted to Him. Remember that holiness has two forms. God, as the Creator and only uncreated being, is holy in Himself. Everything else, whether people, time, places, or objects, are only considered holy when they are set apart exclusively to God’s purposes. And that is the calling upon God’s people: to be set apart to Him.
In chapter 17, we studied two commands, where they were to make sacrifices and the prohibition against eating blood. Both showed that their worship and even their eating were to be wholly given to God. Holiness was not to be compartmentalized.
While those commands were ritual in form, they carried deep moral implications, and now in chapter 18, we move fully into the moral aspect of Israel’s holiness: their separation from the nations around them.
Chapters 18-20 form a mini-unit within the Holiness Code. Chapters 18 and 20 parallel one another, both warning Israel not to imitate the sinful practices of the nations around them. Chapter 19, right in the middle, shows the positive commands: what living as God’s people looks like. Or we can say it like this. Chapters 18 and 20 tell Israel what not to do; chapter 19 tells them what they should do.
Chapter 18 itself is structured much like many ancient covenants, and we can divide it into three sections. Verses 1-5 form the preamble or introduction, where God identifies Himself as their covenant Lord and calls them to obedience. Verses 6-23 is the main body of the law, listing the abominable practices of the nations around Israel. Finally, verses 24-30 are the conclusion and final warnings of what will befall Israel if they follow the sin of the Canaanites.
THE PREAMBLE // VERSES 1-5
In verse 2, God tells this to Moses: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the LORD your God.’ This opening echoes the beginning of Exodus 20. There, at Mount Sinai, God descended upon the mountain in smoke, fire, and thunder and spoke audibly to the entire nation: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” That same refrain (I am Yahweh your God) is repeated throughout this chapter because God is emphasizing His covenant relationship to His people.
Indeed, that was the central theme of Exodus: God making Himself known to His people. The Hebrew title is Names, and the revelation of God’s name is the unveiling of His character to His people. Now, Leviticus 18 brings that theme back to the forefront. Yahweh is their God, their Redeemer, their Shepherd, and their Lord.
Verse 3 is really the thesis of the whole chapter. You shall not do as they do in 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.
Rather than imitate the pagans around them, verses 4-5 summon them to obey the LORD:
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.
They were to reject the moral chaos of the surrounding nations and to choose God’s life-giving commands. They were to be the way of life for those who dwell in the presence of the living God.
Yet notice that verse 3 calls the ways of the Egyptians and Canaanites statutes. Of course, both groups had a legal system with laws, but most of the practices condemned in this chapter were probably not formally coded into law. They were simply behaviors that were accepted as normal within those cultures.
And yet, God still calls them statutes. Why? Because every culture, whether it writes its rules down or not, lives by laws, spoken or unspoken. Every society has governing principles that define what is acceptable and what is shameful, what is honored and what is despised. As I have noted elsewhere, our society’s statutes are largely rooted in expressive individualism, which makes each individual the ultimate authority of their own happiness and wellbeing. That belief is the foundational rot that has led to the overall moral degradation that we see today. But whatever the cultural standard, we are all either obeying or disobeying those cultural statutes.
We see this on a smaller scale in the home. A household is, as Aristotle observed (and as Scripture itself implies), society in miniature. The household is the foundational unit of society, and as households go, so goes a nation. Thus, just like society as a whole, each household has its own set of statutes. If you have not thought about those rules, it does not mean that they are not there. It just means that you operate on unspoken rules, rules that you have absorbed and practiced without actually thinking through them.
So it was for the Egyptians and Canaanites. Their pattern of behavior functioned as a cultural law. Thus, the question for every person is: Whose statutes are you walking in?
In Romans 6, Paul says that we can either be slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Those are the two options. Every human being serves something. We will bow to something. Will it be the Creator of heaven and earth, who designed us for His glory and our good? Or something lesser?
That is the choice that Leviticus 18 gave to Israel and still gives to us today.
THE ABOMINABLE PRACTICES // VERSES 6-23
Now we come to the central section of the chapter, where God details the abominable practices that Israel must avoid. There are two sections here. Verses 6-17 prohibit incestuous relationships, while verses 18-23 forbid other sins.
Incestuous Relationships // Verses 6-17
There is a phrase that is repeated in each verse of 6-17: to uncover the nakedness of… This is clearly a euphemism for something much more than simply seeing someone unclothed. Indeed, while in Eden nakedness represented innocence and sinlessness, after Eden, nakedness represents shame and vulnerability. Thus, this is subtly referring to illicit, very likely abusive, relations.
Indeed, the Bible is consistent in using euphemistic language when addressing these topics, and that is a wise pattern to replicate, especially from the pulpit or in mixed company settings. Scripture speaks plainly enough that we understand what is meant, yet it never speaks in a voyeuristic or crude manner. We should follow God’s example. We can speak truthfully about God’s design for sexuality without discarding the discretion that Scripture models for us. What Scripture intentionally veils, we should leave veiled.
Notice also that these laws are given specifically to men. Does that mean that women were not responsible for keeping them? Women certainly were. In Genesis 19, we see Lot’s daughters violating these commandments, and Proverbs 5-7 repeatedly warns against the adulteress or seductress. So, women are certainly capable of sexual immorality.
Why then are the commands given to men? The most obvious answer is that men were the heads of their households. The husband and father was responsible for the moral order of his family. But I can think of two other reasons as well.
First, these commands anchored men into the bond of the family, a bond that women often feel more deeply and naturally. Historically, men have frequently been drawn away from the home, especially seasonally, for their vocations, whether hunting, warfare, shepherding, farming, etc. Women, on the other hand, have typically been rooted in the home, exercising the title that Paul gives them οικοδεσποτεω, literally “to rule the house” (1 Timothy 5:14).
Because women are, by design, more directly connected to the rhythms of family life, these commands serve to anchor men to their family as well. They are bound to their families, accountable to God for their leadership, and responsible for the moral health of their families.
Second, these commands also summon men to be protectors of those who are more sexually vulnerable than themselves. Kevin DeYoung notes that these laws exist so that “women and children should not have to worry that men in their own households or family network will see them as potential sexual partners.”
That is a sobering reality, but even today, statistics show that child abuse is highest when a non-related man is introduced into the home. The most common abusers of children are men who are within or near the household but are not covenantally bound to protect them.
God’s design in Leviticus 18 is meant to safeguard against such wickedness. Men are to be guardians, not threats. Shepherds, not wolves. The home is meant to be a place of refuge and safety, not fear and exploitation. These commands implicitly summon men to use their strength for protection, not for predation.
It is also worth noting that this list of laws is not exhaustive. These are case laws, which give us examples of sexual immorality. They were not intended to be an encyclopedia of every possible violation.
Indeed, when we come to the New Testament, the teaching is even more succinct. One word is most commonly used: πορνεια (sexual immorality). It is a comprehensive word that covers every kind of sexual sin. And there are two important principles for understanding what falls under that category. First, if a sexual act is committed outside of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, it is sin. Second, if it is not done in love for one’s spouse, even in marriage, it is sin. That is the entire moral framework. All sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage or contrary to love within that covenant is πορνεια.
Other Abominations // Verses 18-23
Verses 18-23 give us a list of other pagan practices to avoid.
In verse 18, we read: You shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. Of course, we see this tragedy in the life of Jacob. Now, he did not choose to take two sisters but was deceived into it. Nevertheless, Scripture records the pain and damage that this practice caused.
We may, of course, wonder why polygamy is not listed here, and why it was tolerated in the Old Testament. The short answer, I believe, is that it often provided women with the least bad option in the ancient world. To understand the difficulty for women back then, we only need to consider Tamar’s plea to Amnon after being violated by him and then sent away. She says that being sent away was a greater sin than the violation. To be husbandless in the ancient world was to be incredibly vulnerable. God seems to have tolerated polygamy because at times it was the least bad option available for women.
Verse 19 commands: You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. Two factors make this wicked. First, by deliberately relating to his wife during her menstruation, he is treating ritual defilement as a sufficient price to pay for his own pleasure. Second, as with verses 6-17, the phrase uncovering her nakedness may very well imply abusive coercion. In other words, he is not honoring the holiness of God nor showing love to his wife.
Verse 20 prohibits adultery: You shall not lie with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. Notice the uncleanness here is certainly moral. This is a violation of the 7th Commandment, after all.
Moral impurity is a fitting description for at least two reasons. First, impurity and holiness are opposites, and this type of impurity comes from actions that are the opposite of God’s holy character and holy intention for his world. Second, humans commonly experience feeling “dirty” after committing wrong, so immoral action is naturally linked with the language of defilement and impurity. Unlike chapters 11-15, this is not merely contact with the effects of sin; this is sin. This is moral defilement, not merely ritual defilement.
Verse 21 seems as though it might not belong here: You shall not give your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
Some argue that passing children through to Molech was dedicating children to the temple service of this false god, which would likely have involved actions that fit with the rest of this chapter. But children were likely offered as actual sacrifices to Molech as well, being burned alive in the arms of his statue.
Either way, this verse fits with the theme of Leviticus 18. Even today, parents still sell the sexuality of their children for profit, and abortion is intimately connected to the sexual revolution. Child sacrifice still exists; it has just been sanitized and legalized. Verse 21 has the same idolatrous root as the rest of the chapter: to use others, even our own children, to serve our desires rather than to honor God.
Verse 22 forbids homosexuality: You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. Today, the question is commonly raised as to how this law can still be in effect while the laws against eating blood and unclean animals are no longer in effect. As we have noted, none of the law has passed away, and all of it is still applicable to us still. Yet there clearly is a distinction to how the ritual and moral commandments are applied today. The ritual commandments have been fulfilled in Christ. They were shadows that pointed forward to Him. They have not passed away, but they have transcended their original function.
Moral commands are another story. They are not transcended; they are simply reaffirmed in the New Testament. Indeed, Christ took the 7th Commandment and applied it to the heart. Likewise, child sacrifice is a matter of ritual but of morality. Homosexuality is the same. It is a violation of God’s good design.
Notice the phrasing “with a male as with a woman.” This implies a created, normal pattern, a man with a woman. Of course, as we have seen, there is only one valid circumstance in which a man can lie with a woman, but that is never the case with two men. It is always sinful because it is always disordered. Indeed, Paul takes two Greek words from the Septuagint’s verse 22 (αρσην – male, κοιτη – bed/lying) and creates a new word for men who practice homosexuality: aρσενοκοιται. This means that Paul clearly saw this prohibition as still being for Christians.
Verse 23: And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it; neither shall woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.
Thankfully, even with all the moral confusion in our society today, bestiality is still recognized as wicked. In the Canaanite culture, that was not the case. Some animals were off-limits, but others were not.
One commentator makes an excellent point by noting that every society is going to chafe against God’s laws. There is no nation, no time period, and no people group whose cultural norms perfectly align with God’s statutes. So, whenever God’s Word pushes against our cultural values, we should remember that it does so for everyone. Every culture must submit to God’s law.
Just imagine a Canaanite convert like Rahab hearing these laws for the first time. What seems obvious to us, may have earth-shattering to her at first. But that is what holiness always does. It calls us to leave the world’s values in order to embrace God’s good design.
KEEP MY CHARGE // VERSES 24-30
This brings us to the final section. First, God reminds Israel that the Canaanites practiced these abominations and defiled the land. They violated God’s created design, and God says that the land itself vomited them out. It is as though creation itself rejects their sin.
Each of the sins listed here violates the created order that God established. Bestiality violates the human-animal distinction. Homosexuality and adultery violate God’s design for marriage. The others violate God’s design for the family and for men as protectors rather than predators. Therefore, they are all rightly called perversions, for they are not merely individual moral failings but are attacks upon the very structure of reality.
But even though verse 23 says perversion, the KJV calls it confusion, which is also a valid and helpful translation. Sin certainly is perversion because it twists and distorts reality. But it is also confusion because it darkens the mind, making us foolish.
Doug Wilson once noted how we can become frustrated with people who are descending into sin, wondering how they cannot see the obvious consequences of their actions. But he notes that it doesn’t get any easier to see the further down you go into the pit.
A perfect biblical example is Pharaoh. The more he hardened his heart against God, the more foolish he became. Eventually, he watched Israel walk across the Red Sea on dry ground, and it never occurred to him that he was in danger. His sin made him blind. God didn’t even hide the trap from him, but he still charged straight into his own destruction.
That is what sin does. It blinds and confuses. It turns us into fools and would eventually turn us all into Pharaoh, trapped by our own folly. And this is why our culture is as confused as it is. We practice the very sins that God forbids, so we should not be surprised that confusion follows.
God also warns Israel not to be like the Canaanites, lest they suffer the same judgment. The land would vomit them out as well. Therefore, if anyone committed these sins, that person must be cut off from the people. Whether this meant execution or exile, the point was this: purge the evil from among you.
Leviticus 18 then ends with one last call for obedience. Follow God and avoid being vomited out by the land, be faithful to Yahweh’s covenant and reject the paganism around them.
A WARNING AND A PLEA
Although this chapter discusses so many taboo topics, we can paradoxically find that comforting. After all, most of us are probably not guilty of the sins listed here; so, we can breathe a sigh of relief and relax that none of this applies to us. Of course, the culture around us is just as pagan as the Canaanites, which is why the land seems to be also vomiting them up. But thank God that we are not like those pagans and tax-collectors, right?
Hopefully, that is not our reaction to this chapter, but in case we feel that sentiment rising within our souls, let us conclude by briefly examining a parallel passage in the New Testament.
In Revelation 2-3, Jesus gives letters to seven churches in Asia through John. The final letter is to the church in Laodicea. Here is how it begins:
To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Now a common interpretation says that hot means being on fire for the Lord, and cold means spiritual indifference. And Jesus would rather you be either than in the mushy middle. Well, the overall point about spiritual apathy is correct, but that is not exactly what the metaphor means. Jesus is not saying that He prefers people to be outright cold toward Him. The picture is that both cold and hot water are beneficial. Cold water is refreshing on a hot day. Hot water is soothing on a cold day. but lukewarm water is useless and unpleasant. And that is the point: an apathetic, lukewarm faith is disgusting to Jesus, for He is intentionally using language similar to Leviticus 18.
But why does Jesus find that as vile as the sins of Leviticus 18? Because a refusal to follow Christ always means that we are still following something else. There is no spiritual neutrality. We can confess Christ by name, but if we are not walking in obedience to Him, then we are walking in obedience to the world around us. All that is not obedience is idolatry.
Apathetic religion says what the Laodiceans said in verse 16, “I’m fine. I believe in God. I’m healthy, wealthy, and good.” But Jesus’ answer to that confidence is: “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” That is what a lukewarm faith looks like: self-satisfied, self-sufficient, and blind to its need for grace.
But we are needy. In Romans 1, Paul shows that there are only two religions in the world. We can worship the Creator or some part of creation. Those are the only two options. And that is why Hebrews warns us not to drift away from the faith. The image is of a boat on a river. To go upstream, the boat must be rowed, but to go downstream requires only the absence of effort.
That is the Christian life. If we do nothing, we drift backward into creation worship, into paganism. Remember, after all, that there are only two roads. The road to life is narrow and hard, and few find it. The road to destruction is broad and easy. In fact, it is so broad that it looks like thousands of smaller roads, but they all lead to the same wide-open gate. Spiritual sloth is just as damning as child sacrifice and bestiality. As Lewis said through the mouth of Screwtape, “Cards are as good as murder if cards do the trick.”
Yet notice Jesus’ message to the church in Laodicea does not end with condemnation but with a call to repentance:
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Brothers and sisters, the glorious news of the gospel is that none of the sins of paganism place us beyond redemption. Remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians after listing a host of sins: “And such were some of you.”
Even the most grievous of sins, like those of child sacrifice to Molech, are not beyond the reach of God’s mercy. Consider King Manasseh, Judah’s most wicked king. He offered his own sons to Molech and was so wicked that God fixed the Babylonian exile to come. Yet when Manasseh was captured and taken to Babylon, he humbled himself, called upon the Lord, and repented. And Yahweh forgave him. Even this man, who had sent his children to the fires of Molech, was not beyond grace when he humbled himself in repentance.
This is the beauty of the gospel: all of us were pagans. All of us were born with pagan hearts. As Paul says, we were children of wrath, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. We were Canaanites. We were Egyptians. And yet God, in His mercy, rescued us.
Christ calls to each of us, “Come to me. Be zealous and repent. See that you are poor, blind, and naked. Buy my gold, my garments, and my salve.”
So, as we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, may we come as beggars, knowing that we are no better than the Egyptians and Canaanites whom God judged. Left to ourselves, we are capable of the same sins, if not worse. Our only hope is Christ.
That is why we come to this Table, to remember Christ’s body was broken and His blood was shed for us, that we might have forgiveness in Him. If God’s Word has exposed your poverty, your nakedness, or your blindness, it is only so that looking to Christ you might find true gold, white linens to cover the greatest of shames, and salve to make the blind see. For such were each and every one of us. Therefore, as we eat this bread and drink this cup, may we taste and see the goodness of our God, who has rescued us from the ways of the world and made us into His own treasured possession.
B. C. Newton 