Leviticus 20 "Holiness and Inheritance"



Chapter 20 is closely related to the previous chapters.

It sets forth some of the penalties for certain sins in chapters 18-19,

and it concludes the section on the holiness of Israel from 17-20.

Chapters 11-20 have set forth the distinctions between clean and unclean,

profane and holy.

Those things that the priests are to teach Israel.

The following chapters will turn to the holiness of the priests.



Israel needs to understand that their continued inheritance

depends upon the maintenance of holiness.

Life in the promised land is contingent upon being holy even as God is holy.



There are three basic sections to this chapter:

the penalties for idolatry (1-8),

the penalties for sexual immorality (9-21),

and a concluding call to holiness (22-27).



First, we see that death is the penalty for idolatry.

The examples used here include offering a child to Molech (2-5),

and turning to mediums or wizards (6, 27).

18:21 has already condemned offering children to Molech.

Here we see the penalty for that crime.

The one who offered his child as a human sacrifice to Molech is to be stoned to death.

It does not matter whether the person is an Israelite or a stranger.

If you live in the holy land, then you may not worship another god.

Verse 3 speaks also of what God will do (read).

This may be in the case of a secret idolater,

whose sin is not known to the community.

Verses 4-5 point out that if the people fail to remove the evil from among them,

then God himself will avenge his holy name,

by destroying the families of the leaders of Israel.

There is no place in the holy people for one who worships false gods.



19:31 has condemned consulting mediums and wizards.

Now we learn that such persons must be cut off from their people.

This verse says nothing about public punishment for such consultations

(possibly due to the difficulty of ascertaining the truth in such matters),

but certainly verse 27 requires the execution of mediums and wizards.

In fact, it is possible that verse 27 was originally after verse 6,

and that a careless copyist omitted it, and after realizing his mistake,

simply put it at the end of the chapter (a common practice).

Christians should take heed to these warnings.

It is inconsistent with your identity as the people of God to turn to idols.

You cannot be a Christian and seek out fortune tellers, and their ilk.

And those who do will be cut off from the people of God.



"Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.

Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you." (7-8)

Israel was called to be a holy people.

They were called to be different from the nations around them.

They were supposed to resemble their God,

as a son resembles his father.

As one commentator says,

"Israel was to be fully conscious of the absolute antithesis between the service of the Lord

and that of other gods and spirits, for it had to make a choice between these two.

If the people chose for the holy Yahweh,

they were to know that they had to conduct themselves as a holy nation

by scrupulously observing his decrees,

for these were nothing less than a blueprint for the manner of life

that was appropriate to such a holy people." (Noordtzij, 210)

Do you see how God viewed Israel?

Israel was holy.

They were positionally holy.

They were set apart for the service of Yahweh.

Now they were called to live according to that holy standard.

Ethical holiness is the result of positional holiness.

Or to put it another way: progressive sanctification

is the result of definitive sanctification.



The second section deals with sexual immorality.

The first law may seem out of place (verse 9).

Why is cursing father and mother included here?

I would suggest that it is because of the importance of the seed that we saw in chapter 18.

Chapter 19 associated honoring father and mother with the condemnation of idolatry.

Chapter 20 places it as the transition from idolatry to adultery.

Cursing your parents is not some minor matter.

We have seen that the spoken word is considered a thing of great weight.

To curse a deaf man is a great evil,

because he cannot defend himself from such a curse-

any more than a blind man can defend himself from a stumbling block (19:14).

Qillel (to curse) means to speak of something as worthless,

and is the opposite of honor (which carries the idea of weight).

To curse your parents is to take them lightly.

God declares that those who curse their parents "shall surely be put to death."



The same penalty is decreed for those who commit sexual immorality.

Both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.

These penalties deal with the sins of chapter 18.

Incest is forbidden upon pain of death,

along with homosexuality, beastiality and adultery.

The language of being "cut off from among their people"

certainly seems to suggest the death penalty as well,

but in verses 19-21 "bear their iniquity" may suggest

that God alone would carry out the punishment,

especially in rendering the guilty childless in verses 20-21.

Verse 21, of course, assumes that the brother is still alive,

since Deuteronomy 25:5 speaks of the law of levirate marriage,

where a brother could be required to marry his deceased brother's wife.

In several places the phrase is used,

"Their blood is upon them." (Verses 9, 11-13, 16, 27)

This means that the community is guiltless for putting them to death.

In ordinary murder cases, the nearest relative could seek out the murderer and kill him.

But here it is made clear that no such right of revenge exists

for those who commit sexual immorality.

Why are these penalties to be enforced by Israel?

Verses 22-26.

If they do not enforce these penalties,

then the land itself will become defiled and will vomit them out.

The nations have committed these abominations and depravity,

and so God is driving them out before Israel.

He is bringing a foretaste of the final judgment upon the nations,

so that they might see what their sin deserves.

Israel is called to be different-to be holy.

And God has promised that they will inherit this land-a land flowing with milk and honey

"I am Yahweh your God, who have separated you from the peoples."

Because you are holy, God has given you an inheritance.

But therefore, you must live in accordance with this holy identity.

If are you no different than the nations,

then your inheritance will be forfeit.

"You shall be holy to me, for I, Yahweh, am holy

and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine."

Verse 25 suddenly turns our focus back to the distinctions between clean and unclean animals.

While this seems somewhat out of place,

it reminds us of the importance of maintaining the distinction

between clean and unclean, profane and holy.

Chapters 11-20 focus on these distinctions,

which the priests were to teach to Israel (10:10-11),

so perhaps this brief reference to clean and unclean signals the end of the section.



Israel is a holy people,

but their continued life as the heirs of God depends upon their covenant keeping.

They must walk in the holiness that God has given them.



How do we as the New Testament people of God hear this?

Peter echoes the language of Leviticus in 1 Peter 1:14-16 (read)

Just as Israel was called to be holy-so also are you called to be holy.

But there is also a difference (read 1:17-21).

Remember that this is addressed to the elect exiles of the dispersion.

Probably a mostly Jewish audience.

And yet Peter says that they were ransomed

from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.

The OT sacrificial system which was set up to convey the forgiveness of sins to Israel

is now seen in the light of Christ to be futile.

Jesus is the cornerstone of a new temple (2:4-8) which will endure

because Jesus is the one who was foreknown from the beginning,

and yet made manifest in the last days.

Therefore Peter says that you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people for his own possession." (2:9)

The obligation to be holy as God is holy remains the same.

But there is no longer the threat that the holy people will lose their inheritance.

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

He has received the inheritance from the Father,

and therefore there is no way that the inheritance can be lost.

The heavenly kingdom will never vomit out those who belong to Jesus.



Therefore those who belong to Christ will be holy as he is holy.

And yes, the church of Jesus Christ is to be separate from the nations.

We are not to live like the Americans around us.

The customs of the nation around us are detestable to God.

Therefore Revelation 18:4-5 echoes the language of Isaiah and Jeremiah,

calling out "Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins,

lest you share in her plagues;

for her sins are heaped high as heaven,

and God has remembered her iniquities."

We are called to come out of Babylon-to be different from the pagans around us-

and to live as the holy people of God.

Those who fall prey to Babylon-those who insist upon returning to their sins,

like dogs returning to their vomit-

they will indeed be spat out.

There is no place in the kingdom of heaven, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,

for the unholy.

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,

nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards,

nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

Those who practice such things have no place in the inheritance of the saints.

But if you are guilty of such sins, do not lose hope.

For those who repent of their sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and are baptized will be saved, as Paul continues in verse 11:

"And such were some of you.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified

in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."



Brothers and sisters,

our culture has surrendered itself to every manner of perversion.

Sexual immorality, violence, and every other form of wickedness, fills the airwaves,

movies, and the internet.

Beware!

Remember what Paul says in verse 12 of 1 Cor 6:

"All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything."

Your bodies were created for the Lord and now members of Christ.

You must use your bodies in his service.

What you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears,

All that you do, is to be done in the service of Christ.

If you would be holy as he is holy,

then everything must start with the question,

"How can I be most useful for the kingdom of Christ?"

For six days each week you must labor in his service.

And on the seventh-on the first day of the week-you must rest in his service.

Therefore glorify God in your bodies.



Let us pray.