Leviticus 18 - Sexual purity
8/10/23
Introduction
We are in the second part of Leviticus that scholars call the Holiness Code. Notice that the second part of the book mirrors the first part…
Questions
Do you see the mirroring? What is central to the scroll? Why?
No other gods [vv1-5]
1 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘I am YHWH your God. 3 You must not ⌊carry do the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, and you must not do the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you; and you must not follow their statutes. 4 You must do my regulations, and you must keep my statutes by following them; I am YHWH your God. 5 And you shall keep my statutes and my regulations which the man does them and he shall live in them; I am YHWH.
How does this chapter begin [vv1-5] and end [vv21-30]?1
Who is your flesh [šeʾēr]? [vv6-13]
6 “ ‘None of you shall approach anyone who is the flesh of his body to expose nakedness; I am YHWH. 7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness—she is your mother; you must not expose her nakedness. 8 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife—it is your father’s nakedness. 9 As for your sister’s nakedness, whether your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad, you must not expose their nakedness. 10 As for the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, you must not expose their nakedness, because they are your nakedness. 11 As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, she is your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness. 12 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is the flesh of your father. 13 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, because she is flesh of your mother.
The prohibitions would agree with what would normally be considered wrong in our culture although marriage to a cousin is not forbidden.
Exposing a man’s nakedness [v14]
14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not approach—she is your aunt.
If you have sex with your aunt you are exposing your uncle’s nakedness.
Read Genesis 9:18-252 and 2 Samuel 16:15–23 and discuss. What is the significance in ANE culture of sleeping with a man’s wife or concubine?
The punish seems harsh. How would you respond?3
In-laws are flesh [šeʾēr]
15 You must not expose your daughter-in-law’s nakedness; she is your son’s wife; you must not expose her nakedness. 16 You must not expose the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 17 You must not expose the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; you must not take her as wife to expose her nakedness; they are flesh—that is wickedness. 18 And you must not take as wife a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during her life.
When was a Levirate marriage a requirement [Deuteronomy 25:5-10]? Is this an exception or can you marry your deceased sibling’ spouse [Romans 7:13]?
Sex and menstruation [v19]
19 “ ‘And you must not approach a woman to expose her nakedness during her menstrual uncleanness.
Adultery [v20]
20 And you shall not give your lying down for semen with your fellow neighbor’s wife, becoming unclean with her.
“No other gods” includes Molech [vv21-30]
21 “ ‘And you shall not give any of your offspring in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am YHWH.
Molech was a god of the Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Ammonites. The Israelites probably have encountered him yet. He was often depicted as a bull-headed idol with outstretched arms. Worshippers would heat up the idol with fire, and then infants or young children would be placed on the red-hot arms of the idol as a sacrificial offering to Molech.
22 And you shall not lie with a male as lying with a woman; that is a detestable thing. 23 And you shall not give your lying down with any animal, becoming unclean with it; and a woman shall not stand before [lit. “to the faces of”] an animal to copulate with it—that is a perversion.
Why does homosexuality and bestiality appear hear? What is our response to homosexuality today?
24 “ ‘You must not make yourself unclean in any of these things, because the nations whom I am driving out from your presence were made unclean by all of these. 25 And the land became unclean, and I have visited its guilt upon it, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 26 And you (neither the native nor the alien who is dwelling in your midst) shall keep my statutes and my regulations, and you shall not do any of these detestable things 27 (because the people of the land, who were before you, did all these detestable things, so the land became unclean), 28 so that the land will not vomit you out when you make it unclean just as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 Indeed, anyone who does any of these detestable things, even those persons who do so shall be cut off from the midst of their people. 30 And you shall keep my obligation to not do any of the statutes of the detestable things that they did before you, so that you will not make yourselves unclean by them; I am YHWH your God.’ ”
Does the land vomit out the inhabitants because idolatry and sexual sin today? Discuss.
More
Bible Project’s Guide to Leviticus»
Bible Project’s Leviticus Scroll podcasts»
Michael Heiser’s Naked Bible podcast 63: Introducing Leviticus»
The chapter begins [vv1-5] and ends [vv21-30] with warnings against serving other gods and their laws. Sandwiched in the middle are sexual prohibitions. Why? Core to the worship of these other gods was cultic sexual acts that were displeasing to YHWH. Forbidden and perverted sex is the liturgy of false religion. If we do these things we are going after other gods. We are following demon gods. These gods are to be outside the camp and outside sacred space. We cannot bring these things in.
Ham’s sin was sexual. There is a distinct possibility that Ham seeing AND telling others, i.e. uncovering, of his father’s nakedness means he had sex with his mother and the offspring of that act was Canaan who was cursed and the descendants of Canaan are be slaughtered by Israel when they enter the Promised Land [Exodus 23:23-24; Numbers 33:50-52; Deuteronomy 7:1-2].
Let’s us not forget Rahab of Jericho the Canaanite who hid the spies and Ruth the Moabitess, a cursed people, BUT both feared YHWH and were ancestors of King David and the son of David, Jesus! Then there were the Gibeonites, the inhabitants of Shechem, the widow of Zeraphath etc. Jesus “is able to save completely those who draw near to God through him, because he always lives in order to intercede on their behalf” [Hebrews 7:25]. Repentance is always the way back. Did Ham repent?