We will be concluding Chapter 18 in today's and tomorrow's study. Then on Tuesday we will move on into the study of the various other laws given to the people by the Lord through Moses. The Israelites are going to be setting up a society and a government in the promised land and they will need all these laws and regulations and moral codes to guide them.
Chapter 18 deals with sexual unions that are forbidden by the Lord. Some are forbidden due to close familial relationships. Some are forbidden due to close legal relationships. Some are forbidden because they are unseemly, or ungodly, or unprofitable for the continuation of the human race, or unkind to others (for example, having an affair with someone else's spouse or luring their spouse away from them).
Do you recall a Bible character who ended up in a relationship like the following one? "Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still living." (Leviticus 18:18)
Jacob was married to two sisters, though not by his own choice. He was tricked into marrying Leah, whom he did not love, when her father Laban substituted her for Rachel under the bridal veil. Jacob didn't know he was marrying the wrong woman. He thought he was marrying Rachel, for whom he had already worked seven years to pay her father the bride price. After he found out he'd been deceived, he was still able to marry Rachel after living with Leah for seven days, but Laban made him work an additional seven years for Rachel, using the first seven years of Jacob's labor as the bride price for Leah. Being married to two sisters caused a great deal of unhappiness in Jacob's family. It drove a wedge between the sisters so that they couldn't stand each other. It created jealousy between the children of Leah and the children of Rachel. Neither Jacob nor any of his family lived a very peaceful life due to this arrangement. Although God's plan for marriage was demonstrated when He created Adam and Eve and made them husband and wife, sometimes we find wealthier men of the Bible having more than one wife. If a man chooses to have more than one wife he must not marry sisters. A man could marry his wife's sister if his wife died, but he can't be married to his wife's sister while his wife is still living.
Verse 19 is just a hygiene reminder about something we studied in Leviticus 15. If you missed that session you can find it in the archived posts for Day 45 and Day 46. "Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period." (Leviticus 18:19)
"Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her." (Leviticus 18:20) This is adultery. The woman is already married to someone else. It is a very serious sin in the eyes of God (and included in the ten commandments) for a person to have relations with the spouse of someone else. The Lord gave this stern warning about allowing oneself to gaze upon and think about and covet what belongs to someone else: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17)
We aren't to allow ourselves to have thoughts like this: "I wish my husband was like Sharon's husband. He's so thoughtful and attentive. He's always bringing flowers and gifts home to her for no reason at all. My husband never even remembers my birthday." I've known a few women whose husbands were continually bringing gifts home all the time due to guilty consciences because they were being unfaithful and trying to hide it. The grass may look greener on the other side, but if we had to trade places with "Sharon" we might find ourselves miserable. And if the grass isn't green enough on our side of the fence, we need to work harder on our marriage. If we feel like we're doing all the work or if our spouse isn't very interested in making any changes, that's something we should be bringing to the Lord in prayer every day. The Lord is more than able to change our spouse's heart and give an attitude adjustment wherever needed. The Lord can fix things that are beyond our human ability to fix. Daily praying to the Lord to help us love our spouse, and to help our spouse love us, and to help us display a Christlike attitude in the home, will go a long way toward helping us achieve the kind of marriage we want.
I am by no means an expert on marriage. During most of mine and my husband's twenty-six year marriage, we've been more of an example of what not to do. Several times over the years we considered divorce. There was one occasion when the only reason I didn't file for divorce was because I didn't have the money to pay half the legal fees up front, which was a non-refundable deposit of about $3,000. Lawyers typically charge fees like this because so many people back out of divorces after the lawyers have already put a fair amount of work into the case. In the year 2010 I wouldn't have given my marriage more than a 10% chance of surviving. The only reason I gave it a chance at all was in case the Lord came through with a miracle. And do you know what? He did! I'm not promising anyone that the Lord will keep your marriage from falling apart, because if one person resists the Lord's will and refuses to repent or change their ways, they have been given free will as a human being to make their own choices. They may decide to walk away no matter what the Lord says. If one or both parties to the marriage is unwilling to let the Lord change what's wrong and fix what's broken, divorce may be unavoidable. But what I am saying is that my husband and I are in the same house right now because the Lord did mighty and awesome things for us. He is the one who softened our hearts toward each other and toward Him. It is by His grace alone, and literally nothing else, that we are together today.
In the last portion of text we'll look at this morning, we find the Lord inserting a warning against an idolatrous practice into the long list of sexual prohibitions. At first glance the idolatrous practice does not appear to be related to the sexual prohibitions. But we must consider this fact: When we begin to loosen our standards in any area of our lives, it becomes that much easier to further loosen our standards in all areas of our lives. The next thing you know, we may find ourselves living in a number of ways that don't honor the Lord. The Lord is warning the Israelites, before they arrive in the promised land, not to engage in any of the sexual practices that go on there. If they start to regard these unholy unions as commonplace and acceptable, they will gradually regard more and more unholy things as commonplace and acceptable. They run the risk in joining in with some of the idolatrous religious practices of Canaan, including the most heinous practice of all: "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord." (Leviticus 18:21)
It might seem like a pretty big leap to go from talking about immoral sexual practices to talking about child sacrifice. It might appear as if a lot of steps would have to take place between one thing and the other, and that's true, but sin is a slippery slope. Suppose the people enter the promised land and begin to compromise on small things. Then they begin to compromise on medium sized things. Then gradually they become so spiritually reprobate that they begin to compromise on enormous things. It's true a person probably doesn't leap straight from committing a sexual sin to committing an abominable sin like sacrificing a child to a pagan idol. But the more comfortable a person becomes with having sin in their life, the easier it is to go on to commit bigger and more frequent sins. The more a person shuts his ears to the warnings of his conscience and the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, the easier it becomes to turn a deaf ear to all moral, spiritual, legal, and sensible instruction. A time can come when no amount of sin bothers that person. I am sure when the Israelites heard the warning about not sacrificing their children to Molek they never dreamed they'd ever do such a thing. But they did. Some did.
You and I could commit sins we never dreamed we'd ever commit (I confess to this in my own life) simply because we first began to compromise our faith in small ways, then we gradually began to compromise in medium sized ways, and then finally we committed a sin that we would never in a million years have pictured ourselves committing. We'd have called anyone crazy who even suggested we might ever do such a thing. And yet that's where we find ourselves.
Sin is a slippery slope and it's a slope the Lord doesn't want His people Israel sliding down. The prohibitions in Leviticus 18 are profitable for them if they will take them to heart and obey them. If they do not take them to heart and obey them, not only will they be violating the laws contained in Leviticus 18, but they will go on to violate other laws.
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