And if a man lie with a beast for copulation, he shall certainly be put to death; and ye shall kill the beast.
Leviticus 20 goes back over ground already covered in chapter 18, but with one difference: here God attaches the penalty. One writer points out that the repetition is deliberate and useful.
Chapter 20 requires everyone in the land to avoid gross impurities, for it pictures the people already settled in Canaan. Much of what is forbidden here was forbidden in chapter 18. Yet chapter 20 is no empty repetition of it. It tells us what the other did not — the penalties attached to the various acts of impurity they are so solemnly warned about here.
Many readers ask why such a law needed writing. The answer given is that God does not pass laws against crimes nobody would commit.
The Spirit of God could never make laws to prevent evils that do not exist. He does not build a dam where there is no flood to hold back. He does not deal with abstract ideas, but with real things. Man really is capable of carrying out every one of the shameful crimes named in this most faithful section of Leviticus. If he were not, why tell him not to do them? Such a code would be wholly unsuitable for angels, since they cannot commit these sins. But it suits man, because he has the seeds of those sins in his nature.
The parallel passage in chapter 18 gives God's name for the act, and adds that the practice was not rare among the surrounding peoples.
The unnatural brutalities of verses 22 and 23 are plain enough. But few people know how shamelessly the nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What abomination! It is confusion, says Jehovah... The very land became unclean. Therefore He had visited the iniquity on it. Earth vomited out its inhabitants; so that Israel must beware... For such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and yet more offensive in His own people than in any other.
"Confusion" is the word used by the older translation this writer quotes.
The verse condemns the animal too. One writer traces how worship of the creature ends with the worshipper falling below it.
They changed the truth of God into a lie. They set up the creature in place of the Creator as an object of worship. So God lets them fall beneath the creatures they worshipped. Men sank below the beasts. It has been truly said that a beast is not a moral creature. But a man degraded to the level of a beast becomes immoral. His affections are corrupted and turned aside from their natural course into what is contrary to nature.
Modern readers often flinch at the sentence itself. One writer meets that objection directly.
This chapter reveals the justice of God in dealing with criminals. The death penalty stands out most... Men now argue for abolishing the death penalty. They never consider the outraged justice of a holy God. Jehovah imposed these severe penalties to satisfy justice and to vindicate a law that had been broken. Look closely at these warnings and the penalties attached to them. You will see how serious these offences were against the government God Himself set up in Israel, and how perfectly just every penalty was.
The sentence was part of Israel's law, but the moral judgment behind it did not expire.
God does not ask the governments of other nations to enforce Israel's laws. But these evils are no less wicked wherever they are found. Meanwhile, God is delaying punishment, and today He commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Those who repent will be saved from the punishment they deserve. Those who refuse will face not only death, but eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Kelly does not leave the reader with the sentence alone. He points to the Saviour.
The Lord Jesus is in every way the Saviour, not from divine punishment only but from sins. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offences according to the riches of God's grace. But in Him we have life also — eternal life. He is the Son, and He gives nothing less than this life to everyone who believes on Him.
- Law names it — Chapter 20 is not a repeat of chapter 18; it supplies the penalty the earlier chapter withheld.
- Because man can — God never dams a river that does not flow; the law exists because the seed of this sin is in human nature.
- Confusion — God's own word for the act. It made the land itself unclean, and it offends Him most in His own people.
- Downward — A beast cannot be immoral; a man who sinks to that level can, and does.
- Delay, not repeal — God does not ask today's governments to enforce Israel's penalties, yet the evil still stands condemned. He delays punishment and calls everyone to repent. Christ saves not only from punishment, but from sins.
And if a woman approach unto any beast to gender therewith, thou shalt kill the woman and the beast they shall certainly be put to death; their blood is upon them.
Leviticus 20 lists crime after crime and sentences each one to death. This verse names one of the darkest, and it raises two questions: why write such a law at all, and how is such a sentence just?
God writes laws against real dangers, not imaginary ones. One writer draws a humbling conclusion about human nature.
It is clear that the Spirit of God could never make laws to prevent evils that do not exist. He does not build a dam where there is no flood to hold back. He does not deal with abstract ideas, but with real facts. Man is indeed capable of every one of the shameful crimes named in this most honest section of the book of Leviticus. If he were not, why would God tell him not to do them? Such a code would not suit angels at all, since they cannot commit these sins. But it suits man, because he has the seeds of those sins in his nature.
Why should Israel keep such rules at all? One writer answers from their standing before God, not from any claim to be better.
God brought them into a relationship with Himself, and 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 one bit better than other people.
Leviticus names this sin earlier as well, and there God gives it a name of His own. Older translations render that name "confusion." One writer adds what most readers do not know: the nations around Israel practised such things openly, and the land itself paid for it.
These unnatural brutalities are plain enough. But few people know how openly the nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What an abomination! It is confusion, says the LORD. Israel were not to make themselves unclean by any of these things. All the nations of Canaan did them, and He drove those nations out before Israel. How much more guilty would Israel be! Such things made the very land unclean, so He visited the iniquity on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. So Israel must beware, both for themselves and for any stranger living among them, in case the land should vomit them out, as it had the nations who lived there before them.
One writer takes verses 15 and 16 together. The law makes no distinction here — not between man and woman, and not between human and animal.
A human and an animal having sexual relations were both to be killed (vv. 15-16).
Many readers today recoil at the death penalty here. One writer answers that the objection leaves the holiness of God out of account.
This chapter reveals the justice of God in dealing with criminals. The death penalty is most prominent... Men now argue for abolishing the death penalty without considering the outraged justice of a holy God. The LORD imposed these severe penalties to satisfy justice and to vindicate a broken law. Look closely at these warnings and the penalties attached to them. You will see how serious these offences were against the government God set up in Israel, and how perfectly just every penalty was.
It would be easy to read this list as a law about other nations. One writer points instead to what every person carries inside.
Flesh is the same root of vileness in a Jew as in a Gentile. Restraint may stop it breaking out. But evil desires are there, ready to carry the impulsive and headstrong past all limits.
A law can name a sin and punish it. It cannot give a new life. The same writer points past the penalty to Christ.
The Lord Jesus is in every way the Saviour, not only from divine punishment but from sins. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offences according to the riches of God's grace. But in Him we have life as well — life eternal. He is the Son, and He gives nothing less than this life to everyone who believes in Him.
- Honest. God does not build a dam where there is no flood; the law exists because man is capable of the sin.
- Grounded. "I am the LORD your God" is the reason for every command here. Israel had to live in a way worthy of Him, not merely better than their neighbours.
- Named. God Himself calls the act confusion, and the land vomited out the nations that did it.
- Sentenced. Both woman and animal die. The penalty satisfies justice and vindicates a broken law.
- Answered. The same root of evil is in every person. So the chapter drives you to Christ, who saves not only from punishment but from sins.