Bible Study Notes in Leviticus- Chapter 18

Leviticus 18

 

-This section can be labeled “Standards for the People concerning Moral Relationships.” Because the LORD is Israel’s God, He speaks to Moses, His prophet, and directs in how to have proper family roles and responsibilities in moral issues of purity. God has high expectations for His people to fulfill His judgments and statutes. He commands them not to walk in the way of their pagan past in Egypt nor in the way of the nations that they will dispossess in Canaan. Their lives depend on doing the will of God for their well-being. In verse five, the LORD makes it clear that if any can keep His judgments and statutes they will live well by His perfect standards. Problem is, the children of Israel never could quite come up to His holiness and fulfill the Law. This is why the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ had to intervene. The perfect sacrifice for the imperfect individuals (1 Peter 3:18).  

-Uncovering the nakedness of blood relatives was prohibited. Incest with father, mother, another wife of the father, sister, another wife’s daughter, an aunt, an uncle or his wife, daughter-in-law, brother’s wife was outlawed. Relations with both a woman and her daughter were forbidden as well as the wife of the son of a woman. It was taboo to marry a sister as a rival as long as the wife was alive. A good example of why this is important can be found in Israel’s (Jacob’s) life with Leah and Rachel (Genesis 29-30). Approaching a woman in her menstrual impurity was disdained. Adultery, child sacrifices, paganistic sexual practices, homosexuality, and bestiality were all understandable abominations in the LORD’s sight that would absolutely defile them and the land they were seeking to inherit (Leviticus 18:6-25). The native and the sojourning alien among them were expected to keep these sacred Laws for purity. Any who transgressed these ethics were to “be cut off from among their people (Leviticus 18:29).” The children of Israel were given high standards to keep the charge of the LORD their God so as not to “practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced” before them. Holiness in being set apart was leading into a new era of morality in God’s chosen people.

-*Application* The Law restrains evil, but it cannot impute righteousness once that Law is broken. Only God can restore a broken individual. He has the power through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. By His scourging we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). None of us are righteous by our own merits (Romans 3:23). God’s way is the best for any society, including our own here in America. The breakdown of our family structures could be easily reversed if we would get back to the sexual principles laid out here in the text. The biblical plan is one man for one woman for one lifetime with healthy and pure relationships with relatives, children, other people, and even animals. How far have we deteriorated from that ideal? What should be done to remedy our thinking in this area? One thing is for sure, we desperately need an awakening of the Holy Spirit to be poured out into the lives of people teaching and instructing on the proper ways to act sexually.

 

Verse to Memorize: Leviticus 18:5