And thou shalt not lie with mankind as one lieth with a woman it is an abomination.
Leviticus 18 gives command after command about sexual conduct, and this verse names one act and calls it an abomination. The God who speaks here is Israel's own God, and He warns that a land can throw out the people living in it.
The chapter opens by naming two countries: one Israel had left, one they were walking toward.
The opening verses of Leviticus 18 show that the Lord was looking back on Egypt and forward to Canaan. Both lands were in the grip of very degrading idolatry. So Israel met that infection both before and after their journey through the wilderness. They were not to follow the evil but to keep God's statutes and judgments, and by doing so they would live in them.
These commands guard an order God set in nature, and He holds His people to it.
In Leviticus 18 God now treats the people as a holy people, and He firmly and solemnly forbids everything that goes against the order of God in nature. It is important to hold the same principle always. God does not release anyone from what offends His natural order. Grace may bring us into a higher place, where we do not take up the freedom nature allows; but God still keeps His own order there, and so should we… Neither Egypt nor Canaan may set the practice of Israel: the One who spoke to them was Jehovah their God. He laid down the broadest principles, and He also knew how to go down into the smallest details that concerned His people.
The verse forbids an act, and it also guards a gift God gave: marriage.
Closely connected with this is the strong prohibition of the abominable practice of homosexuality (v. 22). God has provided the honorable institution of marriage between a man and a woman. Yet out of sheer selfishness people dare to abuse the very best that God has given. We know too that such things bring painful repercussions (Rom. 1:26-27). God is not mocked. People may feel they get away with evildoing, but whatever one sows he will also reap (Gal. 6:7).
This was not a rare or hidden practice. Whole nations carried it on openly, and God found the same act more offensive in His own people than in anyone else.
The unnatural cruelties of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough. What is less known is how shamelessly the nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What abomination!… So God punished the land for its sin. The land threw out the people living in it. Israel had to be careful, then, not only for themselves but for any foreigner living among them… Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, and the Christian world later forgot it too. God keeps souls from evil through the good He gives — His word, and above all His Christ.
One writer traces such acts back to what people do with God's revelation.
The most unnatural crimes and vile things mentioned in verses 22-23 belonged to the idol worship of the nations around Israel. Egypt and Canaan both practised them. Romans 1:18-32 gives the inspired history of the degradation of the Gentile world. Idolatry and moral degradation always go together… Rejection of God's revelation leads into idolatry (not necessarily idols of wood and stone) and moral decline.
The New Testament names these sins again, and then turns to people who had once lived in them.
"Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers… nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And these things were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11). How real and great is the depravity of man left to himself and Satan! How real and still greater is the delivering grace of God in the name of the Lord Jesus and by His own Spirit!
- Order. God set an order in nature, and He does not release anyone from what offends it. Grace may lift a person higher, but it never overturns that order.
- Gift. The verse refuses the abuse of a gift — marriage between a man and a woman, the very best God has provided.
- Pressure. Israel stood between Egypt behind and Canaan ahead, both gripped by degrading idolatry. Neither country could set the standard for God's people.
- Consequence. The land grew unclean and threw out the people living in it. God finds the same evil even more offensive in His own people.
- Rescue. The New Testament list of such sins ends with people who had lived that way and were then washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Man's depravity is real; God's delivering grace is greater still.
And thou shalt lie with no beast to become unclean therewith; and a woman shall not stand before a beast to lie down with it it is confusion.
Leviticus 18 stands between two lands: the Egypt Israel left and the Canaan they were entering. God tells them to copy neither. Verse 23 stands at the end of that list, naming an act that God Himself labels with a single word: perversion.
God built an order into creation, and He does not bend it. One writer points out that this chapter treats Israel as a holy people, so everything cutting across that order is shut down:
In Leviticus 18 God treats the people as a holy people. So everything that went against God's order in nature is firmly and solemnly forbidden here. It is important to hold this same principle always. God does not excuse what offends His natural order. Grace may bring us into a higher place, where we do not use our freedom in matters of nature. But God still keeps His own order there, and so should we.
These rules are not random. They protect man from degrading himself, and one writer ties that back to Romans 1:
Leviticus 18 keeps them from dishonouring themselves in the things that belong to nature itself — to what man ought to be in his natural relationships, so that he would not dishonour himself. Man ought not to do it. But because he did not honour God, he has been left to dishonour himself (compare Rom. 1)... The things forbidden here are the ones Satan plunged man into, through the satanic and unnatural indulgence of the flesh.
An older translation renders that verdict "confusion." A man who erases the line between himself and an animal does not rise by it:
They changed the truth of God into a lie. They put the creature in the place of the Creator as an object of worship. So they are allowed to fall below the creatures they worshipped. Men sank below the animals. It has been well said that an animal is not a moral creature, but a man brought down to an animal's level becomes immoral. His affections are corrupted and twisted out of their natural course into what is against nature.
Readers often ask why such a law was needed at all. These things were happening — and among peoples far from primitive:
It may be painful to read. But it is healthy to learn what human nature fell into among pagan peoples as civilized as Egypt and Canaan. And God knew that His people, if they treated His word lightly, might follow them both.
Another writer makes the same point. Israel needed the warning spelled out because the nations around them did it:
Israelites even had to be warned against the disgusting wickedness of having sexual relations with an animal (v. 23). Yet this, along with the other evils named earlier, was practised among the nations God was about to drive out of Canaan (v. 24).
The verses that follow give the consequence, and it falls on everyone alike. The Canaanites lost the land for these very things, and the ground would treat Israel no differently:
The unnatural cruelties of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough. But people may not know how shamelessly the pagan nations did them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What an abomination! It is confusion, says the Lord... The land itself was made unclean, so He punished its sin. The earth vomited out those who lived in it, and Israel must beware... Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, as Christendom did later.
The verse names both the man and the woman, and a later chapter sets the penalty. It reaches the animal as well:
If a human and an animal had sexual relations, both were to be put to death (vv. 15-16).
Right through the chapter God signs the commands with His own name. One writer draws out what that means:
Notice how in this book, when God judges the details of evil, the Lord puts Himself forward as the One whose character rejects these things at once and makes them impossible for His people — "I am the Lord." The people were in relationship with Him. He sanctified them.
The way out is not just resisting evil. It is taking in something better:
Souls are kept from evil by receiving the good that comes from God — His word, and above all His Christ.
- Order — God built a natural order into creation, and grace never cancels it. He "does not excuse what offends His natural order."
- Dishonour — the chapter keeps man from degrading himself. Having refused to honour God, he is left to dishonour himself.
- Confusion — the word marks a line God drew being erased. A man who sinks to an animal's level does not become innocent like an animal. He becomes immoral.
- Consequence — the Canaanites lost the land for exactly this. Israel was told the same ground would spit them out too. God's standard is heavier on His own people, not lighter.
- Cure — the answer is not just avoiding evil. It is taking in what is good from God: His word, and above all His Christ.
Make not yourselves unclean in any of these things; for in all these have the nations which I am casting out before you made themselves unclean.
Leviticus 18 lists what God forbids His people. Verse 24 gives the reason: the nations of Canaan did these very things, and God is driving them out for it. So the verse raises two hard questions. Why does God call these acts unclean and not just wrong? And could Israel expect any better treatment than the nations it replaced?
The chapter is not a random list of rules. One writer sees God guarding people from degrading themselves in the natural relationships He gave them.
Leviticus 18 keeps them from dishonouring themselves in the things that belong to nature itself. It guards what man ought to be in his natural relations, so that he would not dishonour himself. Man ought not to do it; but, not having honoured God, he has been left to dishonour himself (compare Romans 1). The people of God, being brought near to Him, are taught on this subject. They were separated from the evil of the world they were called out of. They were separated, too, from the reckless immorality into which Satan had driven degraded man, using him as his plaything.
The condition described in this verse was not humanity's starting point. It was the end of a long slide away from God.
What thick moral darkness man was in, that the Lord was unknown to so many! What depths of degradation and filth they were found in! That is why God had to warn Israel against the ways of the nations of the land, both social and religious (18:24-28). Because of those ways the land would vomit them out like something sickening. What had man become, man made in the image of God, and originally in His likeness too? But how had this come about? … God made man upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29).
Verse 24 also answers an objection people still raise. Was it fair for God to drive out the Canaanites? The timing of the judgment answers it.
Those nations filled that land with gross corruption. That was more than enough to strip them of any decent claim to keep it. In Abraham's day the cup of their wickedness was not yet full (Genesis 15:16). It was overflowing when Israel's armies came upon them as God's executioners. Does anyone doubt whether it was right to dispossess those nations to make room for the Lord's chosen people? It is enough to quote Leviticus 18:25: "And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants."
The land expelled its former residents for these things. Being God's people gave Israel no cover. Nearness to God made them more guilty, not less.
Israel were not to make themselves unclean by any of these things. The nations of Canaan did all of them, and He drove those nations out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! … So Israel had to beware — not only for themselves, but for any foreigner living among them. Otherwise the land would vomit them out, as it had the nations who lived there before Israel. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes. It was even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot this truth, and Christendom forgot it later.
This was not a threat about the Canaanites alone. Israel's own history settled the question.
A solemn warning closes this chapter. The inhabitants of Canaan were to be driven out because of their vileness. The Lord would not spare His own people if they practised these things. They did commit all this wickedness. Israel, driven out of the land, the homeless wanderer, is a witness that this solemn warning was fulfilled.
The chapter opens with two places: the land Israel left and the land they were entering. One writer applies both to believers today.
First, God told them not to do the evil practices they had seen in Egypt. Second, when they entered the land of Canaan they were not to do as the Canaanites did (vv. 2-3). The world was living in moral corruption, as it still is today, and the believer is not to conform to this kind of thing. They had come out of Egypt, as believers today have left the world that ignores the living God. So let them take no part of the world with them. … Such circumstances distress someone called by God to a path of obedience. But we should treat circumstances as a proving ground.
- Defiling. These acts do more than break a rule. They make a person unclean, because they dishonour the nature God gave. Man would not honour God, so he was left to dishonour himself.
- Descending. Humanity did not begin this way. God made man upright, and the filth of the nations was the end of a long fall away from Him.
- Dispossessed. God waited until the Canaanites' wickedness was full. No one can call their removal unjust.
- Doubly guilty. The same standard fell on Israel. Evil was even more offensive in God's own people than in anyone else.
- Displaced. Israel did what the nations did. Their scattering proved that God's warning was not empty.
And the land hath become unclean; and I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out its inhabitants.
Leviticus 18 lists sins so vile that God says the land could no longer hold the people who did them. This verse is His verdict on Canaan, and it raises a hard question: was God right to give one nation's land to another?
The verse closes a long list of forbidden acts. One commentator shows how the guilt of the people spread to the ground they lived on:
The unnatural brutalities of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough, but you may not know how shamelessly the pagan nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What an abomination! It is confusion, says Jehovah. Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things, as all the nations of Canaan did whom He drove out before them. How much more guilty then would Israel be! The very land was made unclean. Therefore He had visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel must beware, and not only for themselves but for any stranger living among them. Otherwise the land would vomit them out, as it had the nations who lived there before them. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else… It is by receiving the good that comes from God — His word and above all His Christ — that souls are kept from evil.
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The eviction was not sudden. God left His own people in Egypt for four hundred years while the guilt of Canaan filled up:
Here the critic of God's Word, and the one who scoffs at His ways, steps up and charges Him with cruelty and injustice. But they are shallow thinkers and dishonest judges; they jump to conclusions without examining the evidence. He had assigned that land to Israel, yet He kept them in the fiery furnace of Egypt for four hundred years. All that time He was patient with the wicked inhabitants of Canaan. He did not carry out His judgment on their horrible breaking of all His laws until the cup of their iniquity was full. Leviticus 18:25 describes the state of the land and gives the reason for God's way. So God's judgment of them was justified.
God never told Israel that He was rewarding them. He gave a different reason:
Israel was told exactly why these nations were judged: "Not because of your righteousness ... but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you" (Deuteronomy 9:5; 18:12). Leviticus 18 states this truth in the strongest possible way, warning Israel not to fall into the same abominations. So God lets a people ripen to the full height of their wickedness. Then He takes them as the occasion for showing His righteous anger and power. It is a great public sample of God's full judgment on the earth.
So what was Israel's role? Not that of a conqueror grabbing land:
The land itself was spewing them out for their abominations. In this Israel was only the executioner of divine judgment. They did not act from their own passion or greed for territory. He could have destroyed them by plague or famine. Instead He chose Israel to do this work. In this way He gave His people the most solemn lesson possible: the holiness of His own nature, and what sin is before Him. They themselves would come under similar awful judgments if they followed those nations in their sin.
Behind the eviction lies a question of ownership:
The Land — "My Land," whatever its state or divisions. It is Jehovah's Land, and if the people fail in every way, it falls into His hands. It was only entrusted to Israel.
God gave Israel the same warning, and history proved it real:
For these sins the land they were going to was casting out its inhabitants. They are warned that if they do the same things, it would cast them out too. God's righteousness is the same toward all His creatures. Israel, now cast out of their land, are witnesses to it.
- Defiled — the sins in this chapter did not stay private. They made the land itself unclean, and God judged the land.
- Delayed — judgment came only after four hundred years of patience, when the cup of iniquity was full. The charge of cruelty ignores the evidence.
- Deserved — Israel entered not for their own righteousness, but because of the wickedness of those nations. The conquest is a public sample of God's judgment on the earth.
- Delegated — Israel acted as executioner of a sentence already passed, not from greed. The task taught them the holiness of God, and the land stayed His own.
- Doubled back — God's righteousness is the same toward all. Israel was later cast out of that same land, proving the warning was real.
But *ye* shall observe my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of all these abominations the home-born, and the stranger that sojourneth among you;
Verse 26 turns from description to command: the land itself throws out those who defile it, so Israel must not copy the people who lived there before — native-born and foreigner alike. That raises two questions: why does a piece of ground react to human sin, and what keeps a people from sliding into the same evils?
Israel had lived in one corrupt culture and was walking toward another.
The opening verses of Leviticus 18 show that the Lord was looking back on Egypt and forward to Canaan. Very degrading idol worship gripped both these lands. So Israel faced that infection both before and after their journey through the wilderness. They were not to follow the evil, but to keep God's statutes and judgments. If they did, they would live in them. The Apostle quotes this statement in Galatians 3:12. This doing was not "of faith," and obedience would secure not heaven but continued life on earth.
The command rests on a judgment already carried out, and God did not leave Israel guessing why.
God told Israel plainly why those nations were judged: "Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out before you." Leviticus 18 states this truth in the strongest possible way. It warns Israel not to fall into the same abominations… So God let a people ripen to their full height of wickedness, and then used them as the occasion to show His righteous wrath and power. He warned Israel fully and told them the principle He acted on.
The verse names two groups: the native-born and the foreigner living among them. One writer shows why the warning had to reach that far.
Israel must not make themselves unclean in any of these ways. The nations of Canaan did all these things, and He cast those nations out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land was made unclean. Therefore He had visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel had to be careful — not only for themselves, but for any foreigner staying among them — in case the land should vomit them out too, as it had the nations that lived there before them. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes. It offended Him even more in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, and Christendom forgot it later.
The acts listed earlier in the chapter were not random vices. They came with the religion of the nations around Israel.
The most unnatural crimes and vile acts named in verses 22-23 belonged to the idol worship of the nations around Israel. People did these things in Egypt and in Canaan… Idol worship and moral degradation always go together. The fearful road of the apostasy in Christendom is no exception. When people reject what God has revealed, they slide into idolatry — not always idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.
Israel did not stand outside the standard God gave them. Their own later history shows He kept to the same measure with them.
The land they were going to was casting out its inhabitants for these sins. They are warned that if they practised such things, it would cast them out too. God's righteousness is the same towards all His creatures. Israel, now cast out of their land, are witnesses to it.
The chapter opens and closes with the same words about who is speaking. One writer treats that repeated sentence, not the list of bans, as the real protection.
Just as this chapter begins, so it ends with the positive declaration, "I am the LORD your God" (v. 30). If only Israel would recognise this wonderful, positive blessing as they should, it would keep them from all the negative evils of this chapter.
Kelly ends his comments on the chapter with the same point, stated positively: "It is by receiving the good that comes from God, His word and above all His Christ, that souls are kept from evil."
- Cause. The nations lost the land for what they did in it. God told Israel the reason plainly, so no one could think the land was a reward for Israel's goodness.
- Command. Israel had left one corrupt culture and was walking into another. The answer was not just avoidance but obedience: keep His statutes.
- Reach. The rule covers the native-born and the foreigner alike. It weighs heavier, not lighter, on God's own people.
- Root. These evils came with idol worship. When people reject what God has revealed, moral collapse follows — and Christendom is no exception.
- Result. Israel, scattered from their land, became the witness that God's righteousness is the same towards everyone. Their one safeguard was the sentence that frames the chapter: "I am the LORD your God."
(for all these abominations have the men of the land done, who were before you, and the land hath been made unclean);
Leviticus 18 ends its long list of forbidden practices with a reason, not a new rule. Canaan's earlier residents had done these things, and their sin defiled the land itself. That raises the hardest questions in the chapter. Why did God drive out whole nations? Would He treat Israel any differently?
Israel had just left one corrupt country. They were walking toward another.
The opening verses of Leviticus 18 show that the Lord was looking back on Egypt and forward to Canaan. Both these lands were in the grip of very degrading idolatry, and so Israel was exposed to the infection both before and after their wilderness journey.
These sins stain the ground, not only the people who commit them. The point then turns back on Israel.
Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things. That is what the nations of Canaan did, and He drove them out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land became unclean. So He visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel must beware, both for themselves and for any foreigner living among them. The land might vomit them out, as it had the nations that lived there before them. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else.
Canaan lost the land through its own conduct. Israel's arrival was not the reason for the eviction.
Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer put up with them. So He was going to drive them out, quite apart from the incoming tenants. Whoever was going to take possession of the property, these dreadful tenants had to go... He had put up with the wickedness of the seven nations until it became unbearable. The very land itself could not bear it.
God's judgment on Canaan did not fall the moment its sin began.
God had assigned that land to His people. Yet in His patience with the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, He kept them in the fiery furnace of Egypt for four hundred years. He did not carry out His judgment on their horrible breaking of all His laws until the cup of their iniquity was full. Leviticus 18:25 describes the condition of the land and gives the reason for God's way: "And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants." So God's judgment of them was just.
This warning pointed at Israel too. Their own history proved it.
Because of these sins the land they were going to was casting out its inhabitants. The warning to Israel was this: if they practised such things, it would cast them out too. God's righteousness is the same toward all His creatures. Israel, now cast out of their land, are witnesses to it.
These practices were not random vices. They went together with the false worship of the surrounding nations.
The most unnatural crimes and vile things in verses 22–23 belonged to the idolatries of the nations around Israel. People practised these things in Egypt and in Canaan. Romans 1:18–32 gives the inspired history of the degradation of the Gentile world. Idolatry and moral degradation always go together... When people reject God's revelation, they fall into idolatry — not necessarily idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.
And they reached far beyond Canaan.
It may not be known how openly these things were practised among the nations, even by the Greeks and the Romans. What abomination!
- Defiled — The sins in this chapter pollute the land itself, until the ground can no longer bear the people living on it.
- Patient — God waited four hundred years while Canaan's iniquity filled up. He evicted these tenants only when His patience had run its course.
- Equal — The righteousness that removed the Canaanites also faced Israel. God's standard does not change with the tenant, and Israel's later exile proved it.
- Rooted — These practices travelled with idolatry. Reject God's revelation, and moral collapse follows — in Canaan or anywhere else.
- Guarded — Israel stood between Egypt behind and Canaan ahead. The same sin offends God more, not less, in His own people.
that the land vomit you not out, when ye make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
Leviticus 18 ends with a warning: the land Israel was entering had already thrown off one set of tenants, and it could do the same to them. The image is physical — a land so sickened by what happens on it that it heaves out the people living there.
Scripture describes the removal of the Canaanites in the strongest terms. God did not take them by surprise. He had warned them over a long stretch of history before the sentence fell.
Every Christian must feel that the Lord was fully right to punish the Canaanites for their sin. In the vivid language of Scripture, the land could not help vomiting out the people living on it. Their idolatry was detestable, and their unnatural crimes were almost too vile to name. They had many warnings too. God judged the most notorious people in the land at the start of His ways with the fathers. He warned them again at the end, when He brought the children out of Egypt and through the wilderness, with wonders that spoke to their consciences — however much they defied it all at the last.
The verse looks back on an expulsion that had already started. God sent Israel in to finish a sentence He had passed, and the task itself taught them something about Him.
The land itself was spewing them out for their detestable practices. In this Israel only carried out God's judgment. They were not acting out of their own passion or greed for land. God could have destroyed the Canaanites by plague or famine. Instead He chose Israel to do the work. In this way He taught His people the most solemn lesson possible about the holiness of His own nature, and about what sin is before Him. They would come under the same awful judgments themselves if they followed the Canaanites in their sin.
The verse names no exception. Israel had to watch themselves and any foreigner living among them, and their place as God's people made the danger sharper, not softer.
Those practices made the land itself unclean, and so He punished the land for that sin. The earth vomited out the people living on it. So Israel had to beware, not only for themselves, but for any foreigner staying among them, in case the land should vomit them out too, as it had the nations that lived there before Israel. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and even more offensive in His own people than in anyone else — a truth soon forgotten among the Jews, and later in Christendom. What keeps souls from evil is receiving the good that comes from God — His word, and above all His Christ.
Behind the threat lies a question of ownership. The land was never Israel's to keep.
The Land — "My Land," whatever its condition or divisions. It is the Lord's Land. If the people fail in every way, it falls back into His hands. He had only entrusted it to Israel.
The threat was not for the Canaanites only. Israel's own history shows God held them to the same standard.
If they did not keep God's statutes and judgments, the land would "vomit you out." God had set that land apart as His own "holy land." It would expel the nations living there, because they worshipped idols and evil spirits. It could do the same to Israel if they sank to a similar level. History has proved this true in the scattering of Israel from their land for centuries after they rejected Christ, their promised Messiah.
The rules of this chapter are not there for their own sake. They aim at a distinct people, unlike the country Israel left and unlike the country they were entering.
Leviticus 18 speaks of the purity that separates the people of God from the corruption of Egypt and of Canaan. "Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."
- The land defiled. The practices in this chapter made the ground itself unclean. Throwing out the people living on it followed naturally.
- The land God's. God entrusted Canaan to Israel; He never signed it over. It stays "My Land," and failure returns it to His hands.
- The land warning. God told Israel the rule in advance. The fate of the Canaanites showed them what sin is before Him.
- The land impartial. The warning spared no one, Israelite or foreigner. The same evil offended God more in His own people than in anyone else.
- The land emptied. Centuries of scattering show God kept His word. The escape was never mere care, but receiving God's word and His Christ.
For whoever committeth any of these abominations, ... the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
Leviticus 18 lists the sexual and religious practices Israel must not copy. This verse is the sentence God attaches to that whole list, and it raises two hard questions: what were these "abominations," and what did being "cut off" mean?
The chapter does not close with a rule. It closes the way it began, with God naming Himself as the God of the people He is speaking to.
This chapter ends the way it begins, with the positive declaration, "I am the LORD your God" (v. 30). If Israel would only see this wonderful, positive blessing for what it is, it would keep them from all the negative evils of this chapter.
The acts behind the word belonged to the worship of the nations around Israel. One commentator traces the same pattern far beyond Israel's borders.
The worship of the god Molech is forbidden. Read 1 Kings 5:7; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35; 7:31 and 19:5. These passages describe the awful worship of Molech. The most unnatural crimes and vile things named in verses 22-23 belonged to the idol worship of the nations around Israel. Egypt and Canaan both practised them. Romans 1:18-32 gives the inspired history of how the Gentile world sank. Idolatry and moral degradation always go together... Rejecting God's revelation leads into idolatry — not necessarily idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.
The chapter is unpleasant to read. Another writer says why God put it in the Bible anyway.
There is also uncleanness from other causes, and worse abominations against nature, and the LORD warns against them. It may be painful to read. But it is healthy for us to learn how far human nature fell among pagan peoples as civilized as Egypt and Canaan. God knew that His people, if they treated His word lightly, might follow them both.
The penalty can look extreme. But God had already driven the nations of Canaan out of the land for these same acts.
Israel was not to make itself unclean in any of these ways, as the nations of Canaan did — the nations He drove out before them. How much guiltier would Israel be if they did! The land itself was made unclean, so He punished it for that sin... Such evil was unbearable in His eyes, and it was more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. The Jews soon forgot that truth, and the Christian world forgot it later... It is by receiving the good that comes from God, His word and above all His Christ, that souls are kept from evil.
Commentators differ on the exact penalty. Some read the phrase as being put out of the community — the same discipline the church later used.
The word "excommunication" never appears in the older English Bible, yet Scripture clearly teaches the duty of putting wicked people out of Israel, and out of the church as the house of God. Again and again in the Old Testament we read that for certain sins "that person shall be cut off from Israel" or "cut off from his people." Ex. 12:15; Ex. 30:33, 38; Lev. 7:20-21, 25, 27; Num. 9:13; Ezra 10:8; etc.
Others read it as death — the same judgment God was bringing on the Canaanites, now applied inside Israel.
In fact, God was punishing the people of the land with death or expulsion because these things had so grossly defiled it. If anyone in Israel was found guilty of such things, that would bring the death penalty too.
The threat did not stay on paper. One writer points to Israel's later history as the proof.
A solemn warning ends this chapter. God would cast the people of Canaan out because of their vileness. He would not spare His own people if they practised these things. And they did commit all this wickedness. Israel, cast out of the land and wandering homeless, is the witness that this solemn warning came true.
The New Testament covers some of the same ground for Christians. It attaches the same warning about an avenger.
The letter to the Hebrews (13:4) calls Christian Jews, and in principle everyone concerned, to take care. Its words cover verses 19 and 20 of our chapter. Marriage is to be held in honour in every respect, and of course among all people. Christian light and love are meant to reach even the most intimate relationships, and to cleanse from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we need reminding that the Lord is the avenger of all such wrongs.
- Belonging first. The chapter opens and closes with "I am the LORD your God." Holding that relationship is what would have kept Israel clear of every evil in the list.
- Belonging has rivals. The forbidden acts were the religion and habits of Egypt and Canaan. Idolatry and moral collapse travel together, as Romans 1 shows.
- Belonging does not excuse. God had already driven out the nations who lived there before. The same evil in His own people was more offensive, not less.
- Belonging can be lost. Commentators read "cut off" as being put out of the community, or as death — the same death or expulsion the Canaanites faced.
- Belonging was forfeited. Israel did these things and lost the land. The scattered nation still witnesses that the threat was real.
And ye shall observe my charge, that ye commit not [any] of the abominable customs which were committed before you; and ye shall not make yourselves unclean therein I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 18 ends by gathering many forbidden practices into a single charge: guard what God has entrusted to you. The chapter closes where it began — with "I am the LORD your God" — and that phrase, not the list, carries the weight.
One writer sees a blessing in the words that both open and close the chapter.
Just as this chapter begins, so it ends by the positive declaration, "I am the Lord your God" (v. 30). If only Israel would recognize this wonderful, positive blessing! That would keep them from all the negative evils of this chapter.
Another writer sees God's own character as the answer to evil in this book.
When this book judges the details of evil, notice how Jehovah puts Himself forward as the One whose character rejects them at once. That same character makes all these things impossible for His people — "I am the Lord." The people were in relationship with Him. He sanctified them.
Obedience here was never a claim to be better than the neighbouring nations.
God brought them into a certain relationship with Himself. That relationship had its own privileges and responsibilities. "I am the Lord your God." This was to be the ground of their conduct. They were to act in a way worthy of the One who had become their God, and made them His people. It was not that they were the least bit better than other people. Not at all. Israel refused to adopt the habits of either nation. The Egyptians or Canaanites might have thought they were setting themselves up as something superior. But no; these words laid the foundation of their distinctive conduct and morality: "I am the Lord your God."
Egypt and Canaan each had settled practices of their own. So who decides that one set is abominable?
The Egyptians and the Canaanites were all wrong. How was Israel to know this? Who told them? How did they come to be right, and everyone else wrong? … Jehovah's word was the standard. Every member of the Israel of God was to settle all questions of right and wrong by it. This was not one Israelite's judgement set against the judgement of an Egyptian or a Canaanite. It was the judgement of God above all. Egypt might have her practices and her opinions, and so might Canaan. Israel were to hold the opinions and practices that the word of God laid down.
One writer weighs Israel's guilt against the guilt of the nations. He then names what actually keeps souls from evil.
Israel were not to make themselves unclean in any of these things. The nations of Canaan did all these things, and He drove them out ahead of Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land became unclean, so He punished it for its sin. The land vomited out the people living there. Israel had to beware, for themselves and for any foreigner living among them, in case the land vomited them out too… Such evil was intolerable in His eyes. It was still more offensive in His own people than in anyone else — a truth the Jews soon forgot, as Christendom did later… What keeps souls from evil is receiving the good that comes from God: His word, and above all His Christ.
The warning attached to the charge was not theoretical. One writer reads Israel's later history as its fulfilment.
A solemn warning concludes this chapter. The inhabitants of Canaan were to be cast out because of their vileness. Jehovah would not spare His people if they practised these things. They did commit all this wickedness. Israel, cast out of the land and now a homeless wanderer, bears witness that this solemn warning came true.
One writer applies these laws to believers today.
These laws deal with matters that are morally wrong and are still wrong today. The believer is not in any sense "under law," but "under grace." That does not mean he is free to break through the bounds of morality. Instead, grace gives him both the desire and the ability to carry out the righteousness the law required. He does this without seeing himself as under the law's authority (Rom. 8:3-4).
- Relationship first. God does not argue Israel into purity. He names Himself as their God, and that relationship grounds everything the chapter forbids.
- Standard second. His word — not Egypt's habits or Canaan's opinions — settles what counts as an abominable custom.
- Nearness raises the stakes. The same evil is more offensive in His own people than in anyone else. Israel's exile from the land proved it.
- Guarding is positive. What keeps souls from evil is receiving what God gives — His word, and above all His Christ — not bans alone.
- Same charge, new power. The believer is not under law. Yet grace supplies both the desire and the ability to live out the righteousness the law required.