Unlawful Sexual Relations
April 5, 2021
Commentary
Chapter 18 deals with the sanctity of sex. The Lord told Moses to tell the people of Israel: I am the Lord your God (vv. 1-2)! So don’t follow the customs of Egypt where you used to live or those of Canaan where I am bringing you (v. 3). I am the Lord your God, and you must obey my teachings (v. 4). Obey them and you will live. I am the Lord (v. 5). Don’t have sex with any of your close relatives, especially your own mother(vv. 6-7). This would disgrace your father. And don’t disgrace him by having sex with any of his other wives (v. 8). Don’t have sex with your sister or stepsister, whether you grew up together or not (v. 9). Don’t disgrace yourself by having sex with your granddaughter (v. 10) or half sister (v. 11) or a sister of your father or mother (vv. 12-13). Don’t disgrace your uncle by having sexwith his wife (v. 14). Don’t have sex with your daughter-in-law or sister-in-law (vv. 15-16). And don’t have sexwith the daughter or granddaughter of any woman that you have earlier had sex with (v. 17).
You may be having sex with a relative, and that would make you unclean. As long as your wife is alive, don’t cause trouble for her by taking one of her sisters as a second wife (v. 18). When a wife is having her monthly period, she is unclean, so don’t have sex with her (v. 19). Don’t have sex with another man’s wife, that would make you unclean (v. 20). Don’t sacrifice your children on the altar fires to the god Molech. I am the Lord your God, and that would disgrace me (v. 21). It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man (v. 22). Anyone who has sex with an animal is unclean (v. 23). Don’t make yourselves unclean by any of these disgusting practices of those nations that I am forcing out of the land for you (v. 24). They made themselves and the land so unclean, that I punished the land because of their sins, and I made it vomit them up (v. 25). Now don’t do these sickening things that make the land filthy(vv. 26-27). Instead, obey my laws and teachings. Then the land won’t become sick of you and vomit you up, just as it did them (v. 28). If any of you do these vulgar, disgusting things, you will be unclean and no longer belong to my people (vv. 29-30). I am the Lord your God, and I forbid you to follow their sickening way of life.
Application
Improper sexual relationships have plagued people from the beginning. Lord help me to stay pure!
Leviticus 18:1– 30 (NET)
1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God! 3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; you must not walk in their statutes. 4 You must observe my regulations and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. I am the Lord your God. 5 So you must keep my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. I am the Lord.
6 “‘No man is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations with her. I am the Lord. 7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. 8 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; she is your father’s nakedness. 9 You must not have sexual relations with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; you must not have sexual relations with either of them. 10 You must not expose the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter by having sexual relations with them, because they are your own nakedness. 11 You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have sexual relations with her. 12 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. 13 You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s flesh. 14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not approach his wife to have marital relations with her. She is your aunt. 15 You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have sexual relations with her. 16 You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 17 You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have sexual relations with them. They are closely related to her —it is lewdness. 18 You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual relations with her.
19 “‘You must not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity to have sexual relations with her. 20 You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow citizen to become unclean with her. 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! 22 You must not have sexual relations with a male as one has sexual relations with a woman; it is a detestable act. 23 You must not have sexual relations with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual relations with it; it is a perversion.
24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations that I am about to drive out before you have been defiled with all these things. 25 Therefore the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 26 You yourselves must obey my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, 27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become unclean. 28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it just as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. 29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, that person who does them will be cut off from the midst of the people. 30 You must obey my charge not to practice any of the abominable statutes that have been done before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”
Illustration: High Percentage of People Commit Adultery
The Kinney Institute estimates that, during their married lives, 37 percent of American males will prove sexually unfaithful to their wives and 29 percent of American wives will commit adultery (June M. Reinisch, St. Martins Press, New York, 1990, p. 7).