L
E V I T I C U S
CHAP. XX.
The
laws which before were made are in this chapter repeated and penalties annexed
to them, that those who would not be deterred from sin by the fear of God
might be deterred from it by the fear of punishment. If we will not avoid such
and such practices because the law has made them sin (and it is most
acceptable when we go on that principle of religion), surely we shall avoid
them when the law has made them death, from a principle of self-preservation.
In this chapter we have, I. Many particular crimes that are made capital. I.
Giving their children to Moloch, ver. 1-5. 2. Consulting witches, ver. 6, 27.
3. Cursing parents, ver. 9. 4. Adultery, ver. 10. 5. Incest, ver. 11, 12, 14,
17, 19-21. 6. Unnatural lusts, ver. 13, 15, 16, 18. II. General commands given
to be holy, ver. 7, 8, 22-26.
1 And the LORD
spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Again, thou shalt say to the children
of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the
strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto
Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone
him with stones. 3 And I will set my face against that man, and
will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto
Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 4 And
if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he
giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: 5 Then I will
set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off,
and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from
among their people. 6 And the soul that turneth after such as have
familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even
set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his
people. 7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am
the LORD
your God. 8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am
the LORD
which sanctify you. 9 For every one that curseth his father or his
mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother;
his blood shall be upon him.
Moses is here directed to say that again to the children of Israel which he
had in effect said before, v. 2. We are sure it was no vain repetition,
but very necessary, that they might give the more earnest heed to the
things that were spoken, and might believe them to be of great
consequence, being so often inculcated. God speaketh once, yea, twice,
and what he orders to be said again we must be willing to hear again, because for
us it is safe, Phil. iii. 1.
I. Three sins are in these verses threatened with death:--
1. Parents abusing their children, by sacrificing them to Moloch, v. 2,
3. There is the grossest absurdity that can be in all the rites of idolatry,
and they are all a great reproach to men's reason; but none trampled upon all
the honours of human nature as this did, the burning of children in the fire
to the honour of a dunghill-god. It was a plain evidence that their gods were
devils, who desired and delighted in the misery and ruin of mankind, and that
the worshippers were worse than the beasts that perish, perfectly stripped,
not only of reason, but of natural affection. Abraham's offering Isaac could
not give countenance, much less could it give rise to this barbarous practice,
since, though that was commanded, it was immediately countermanded. Yet such
was the power of the god of this world over the children of disobedience that
this monstrous piece of inhumanity was generally practised; and even the
Israelites were in danger of being drawn into it, which made it necessary that
this severe law should be made against it. It was not enough to tell them they
might spare their children (the fruit of their body should never be accepted
for the sin of their soul), but they must be told, (1.) That the criminal
himself should be put to death as a murderer: The people of the land shall
stone him with stones (v. 2), which was looked upon as the worst of
capital punishments among the Jews. If the children were sacrificed to the
malice of the devil, the parents must be sacrificed to the justice of God.
And, if either the fact could not be proved or the magistrates did not do
their duty, God would take the work into his own hands: I will cut him off,
v. 3. Note, Those that escape punishment from men, yet shall not escape
the righteous judgments of God; so wretchedly do those deceive themselves that
promise themselves impunity in sin. How can those escape against whom God sets
his face, that is, whom he frowns upon, meets as an enemy, and fights against?
The heinousness of the crime is here set forth to justify the doom: it defiles
the sanctuary, and profanes the holy name of God, for the honour of
both which he is jealous. Observe, The malignity of the sin is laid upon that
in it which was peculiar to Israel. When the Gentiles sacrificed their
children they were guilty of murder and idolatry; but, if the Israelites did
it, they incurred the additional guilt of defiling the sanctuary (which they
attended upon even when they lay under this guilt, as if there might be an
agreement between the temple of God and idols), and of profaning the holy
name of God, by which they were called, as if he allowed his worshippers
to do such things, Rom. ii. 23, 24. (2.) That all his aiders and abetters
should be cut off likewise by the righteous hand of God. If his neighbours
concealed him, and would not come in as witnesses against him,--if the
magistrates connived at him, and would not pass sentence upon him, rather
pitying his folly than hating his impiety,--God himself would reckon with
them, v. 4, 5. Misprision of idolatry is a crime cognizable in the
court of heaven, and which shall not go unpunished: I will set my face
against that man (that magistrate, Jer. v. 1) and against his family.
Note, [1.] The wickedness of the master of a family often brings ruin upon a
family; and he that should be the house-keeper proves the house-breaker. [2.]
If magistrates will not do justice upon offenders, God will do justice upon
them, because there is danger that many will go a whoring after those
who do but countenance sin by winking at it. And, if the sins of leaders be
leading sins, it is fit that their punishments should be exemplary
punishments.
2. Children's abusing their parents, by cursing them, v. 9. If children
should speak ill of their parents, or wish ill to them, or carry it scornfully
or spitefully towards them, it was an iniquity to be punished by the judges,
who were employed as conservators both of God's honour and of the public
peace, which were both attacked by this unnatural insolence. See Prov. xxx.
17, The eye that mocks at his father the ravens of the valley shall pick
out, which intimates that such wicked children were in a fair way to be
not only hanged, but hanged in chains. This law of Moses Christ quotes and
confirms (Matt. xv. 4), for it is as direct a breach of the fifth commandment
as wilful murder is of the sixth. The same law which requires parents to be
tender of their children requires children to be respectful to their parents.
He that despitefully uses his parents, the instruments of his being, flies in
the face of God himself, the author of his being, who will not see the
paternal dignity and authority insulted and trampled upon.
3. Persons abusing themselves by consulting such as have familiar spirits,
v. 6. By this, as much as any thing, a man diminishes, disparages, and
deceives himself, and so abuses himself. What greater madness can there be
than for a man to go to a liar for information, and to an enemy for advice?
Those do so who turn after those that deal in the black art, and know the
depths of Satan. This is spiritual adultery as much as idolatry is, giving
that honour to the devil which is due to God only; and the jealous God will
give a bill of divorce to those that thus go a whoring from him, and
will cut them off, they having first cut themselves off from him.
II. In the midst of these particular laws comes in that general charge, v.
7, 8, where we have,
1. The duties required; and they are two:-- (1.) That in our principles,
affections, and aims, we be holy: Sanctify yourselves and be you holy.
We must cleanse ourselves from all the pollutions of sin, consecrate ourselves
to the service and honour of God, and conform ourselves in every thing to his
holy will and image: this is to sanctify ourselves. (2.) That in all
our actions, and in the whole course of our conversation, we be obedient to
the laws of God: You shall keep my statutes. By this only can we make
it to appear that we have sanctified ourselves and are holy, even by our
keeping God's commandments; the tree is known by its fruit. Nor can we keep
God's statutes, as we ought, unless we first sanctify ourselves, and be
holy. Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good.
2. The reasons to enforce these duties. (1.) "I am the Lord your God;
therefore be holy, that you may resemble him whose people you are, and may be
pleasing to him. Holiness becomes his house and household." (2.) I am
the Lord who sanctifieth you. God sanctified them by peculiar privileges,
laws, and favours, which distinguished them from all other nations, and
dignified them as a people set apart for God. He gave them his word and
ordinances to be means of their sanctification, and his good Spirit to
instruct them; therefore they must be holy, else they received the grace of
God herein in vain. Note, [1.] God's people are, and must be, persons of
distinction. God has distinguished them by his holy covenant, and therefore
they ought to distinguish themselves by their holy conversation. [2.] God's
sanctifying us is a good reason why we should sanctify ourselves, that we may
comply with the designs of his grace, and not walk contrary to them. If it be
the Lord that sanctifies us, we may hope the work shall be done, though it be
difficult: the manner of expression is like that, 2 Cor. v. 5, He that hath
wrought us for the self-same thing is God. And his grace is so far from
superseding our care and endeavour that it most strongly engages and
encourages them. Work out your salvation, for it is God that worketh in
you.
10 And the man that
committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that
committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the
adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 And the man that lieth
with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them
shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put
to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon
them. 13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman,
both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death;
their blood shall be upon them. 14 And if a man take a wife
and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both
he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. 15 And if a
man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the
beast. 16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down
thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to
death; their blood shall be upon them. 17 And if a man
shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and
see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and
they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his
sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. 18 And if a man
shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness;
he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her
blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy
father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their
iniquity. 20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath
uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die
childless. 21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is
an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be
childless.
Sins against the seventh commandment are here ordered to be severely punished.
These are sins which, of all others, fools are most apt to make a mock at; but
God would teach those the heinousness of the guilt by the extremity of the
punishment that would not otherwise be taught it.
I. Lying with another man's wife was made a capital crime. The adulterer and
the adulteress that had joined in the sin must fall alike under the sentence:
they shall both be put to death, v. 10. Long before this, even
in Job's time, this was reputed a heinous crime and an iniquity to
be punished by the judges, Job xxxi. 11. It is a presumptuous contempt of
an ordinance of God, and a violation of his covenant, Prov. ii. 17. It is an
irreparable wrong to the injured husband, and debauches the mind and
conscience of both the offenders as much as any thing. It is a sin which
headstrong and unbridled lusts hurry men violently to, and therefore it needs
such a powerful restraint as this. It is a sin which defiles a land and brings
down God's judgments upon it, which disquiets families, and tends to the ruin
of all virtue and religion, and therefore is fit to be animadverted upon by
the conservators of the public peace: but see John viii. 3-11.
II. Incestuous connections, whether by marriage or not. 1. Some of them were
to be punished with death, as a man's lying with his father's wife, v.
11. Reuben would have been put to death for his crime (Gen. xxxv. 22) if this
law had been then made. It was the sin of the incestuous Corinthian, for which
he was to be delivered unto Satan, 1 Cor. v. 1, 5. A man's debauching
his daughter-in-law, or his mother-in-law, or his sister, was likewise to be
punished with death, v. 12, 14, 17. 2. Others of them God would punish
with the curse of barrenness, as a man's defiling his aunt, or his brother's
wife (v. 19-21): They shall die childless. Those that keep not
within the divine rules of marriage forfeit the blessings of marriage: They
shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase, Hos. iv. 10. Nay it is
said, They shall bear their iniquity, that is, though they be not
immediately cut off by the hand either of God or man for this sin, yet the
guilt of it shall lie upon them, to be reckoned for another day, and not be
purged with sacrifice or offering.
III. The unnatural lusts of sodomy and bestiality (sins not to be mentioned
without horror) were to be punished with death, as they are at this day by our
law, v. 13, 15, 16. Even the beast that was thus abused was to be
killed with the sinner, who was thereby openly put to the greater shame: and
the villany was thus represented as in the highest degree execrable and
abominable, all occasions of the remembrance or mention of it being to be
taken away. Even the unseasonable use of the marriage, if presumptuous, and in
contempt of the law, would expose the offenders to the just judgment of God:
they shall be cut off, v. 18. For this is the will of God, that every
man should possess his vessel (and the wife is called the weaker vessel) in
sanctification and honour, as becomes saints.
22 Ye shall therefore
keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land,
whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. 23 And ye
shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for
they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24
But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto
you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD
your God, which have separated you from other people. 25 Ye
shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between
unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast,
or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground,
which I have separated from you as unclean. 26 And ye shall be
holy unto me: for I the LORD
am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should
be mine. 27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or
that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with
stones: their blood shall be upon them.
The last verse is a particular law, which comes in after the general
conclusion, as if omitted in its proper place: it is for the putting of those
to death that dealt with familiar spirits, v. 27. It would be an
affront to God and to his lively oracles, a scandal to the country, and a
temptation to ignorant bad people, to consult them, if such were known and
suffered to live among them. Those that are in league with the devil have in
effect made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, and so shall
their doom be.
The rest of these verses repeat and inculcate what had been said before; for
to that unthinking forgetful people it was requisite that there should be line
upon line, and that general rules, with their reasons, should be frequently
insisted on, for the enforcement of particular laws, and making them more
effectual. Three things we are here reminded of:--
I. Their dignity. 1. They had the Lord for their God, v. 24.
They were his, his care, his choice, his treasure, his jewels, his kingdom of
priests (v. 26): That you should be mine. Happy the people, and
truly great, that are in such a case. 2. Their God was a holy God (v.
26), infinitely advanced above all others. His holiness is his glory, and it
was their honour to be related to him, while their neighbours were the
infamous worshippers of impure and filthy spirits. 3. The great God had
separated them from other people (v. 24), and again, v. 26.
Other nations were the common; they were the enclosure, beautified and
enriched with peculiar privileges, and designed for peculiar honours; let them
therefore value themselves accordingly, preserve their honour, and not lay it
in the dust, by walking in the way of the heathen.
II. Their duty; this is inferred from their dignity. God had done more for
them than for others, and therefore expected more from them than from others.
And what is it that the Lord their God requires, in consideration of the great
things done and designed? 1. You shall keep all my statutes (v.
22); and there was all the reason in the world that they should, for the
statutes were their honour, and obedience to them would be their lasting
comfort. 2. You shall not walk in the manners of nations, v. 23.
Being separated from them, they must not associate with them, nor learn their
ways. The manners of the nations were bad enough in them, but would be much
worse in God's people. 3. You shall put a difference between clean and
unclean, v. 25. This is holiness, to discern between things that
differ, not to live at large, as if we might say and do any thing, but to
speak and act with caution. 4. You shall not make your souls abominable,
v. 25. Our constant care must be to preserve the honour, by preserving
the purity, of our own souls, and never to do any thing to make them
abominable to God and to our own consciences.
III. Their danger. 1. They were going into an infected place (v. 24): You
shall inherit their land, a land flowing with milk and honey, which
they would have the comfort of if they kept their integrity; but, withal, it
was a land full of idols, idolatries, and superstitious usages, which they
would be apt to fall in love with, having brought from Egypt with them a
strange disposition to take that infection. 2. If they took the infection, it
would be of pernicious consequence to them. The Canaanites were to be expelled
for these very sins: They committed all these things, therefore I abhorred
them, v. 23. See what an evil thing sin is; it provokes God to
abhor his own creatures, whereas otherwise he delights in the work of his
hands. And, if the Israelites trod in the steps of their impiety, they must
expect that the land would spue them out (v. 22), as he had told them
before, ch. xviii. 28. If God spared not the natural branches, but
broke them off, neither would he spare those who were grafted in, if they
degenerated. Thus the rejection of the Jews stands for a warning to all
Christian churches to take heed lest the kingdom of God be taken from them.
Those that sin like others must expect to smart like them; and their
profession of relation to God will be no security to them.
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