As we continue on in Leviticus 20 today we'll take a look at the penalties for the various sexual relations that were forbidden in Chapter 18. In Chapter 18 the Lord said, "Do not do it," and in Chapter 20 He tells the people how to deal with it if someone does commit these violations of His law.
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife---with the wife of his neighbor---both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death." (Leviticus 20:10) This was considered such a betrayal of a holy covenant, and such a crime against family life and against society, that it was a capital crime punishable by death by stoning---if two or more people caught the man and the woman in the act. Deuteronomy 17:6 states that there must be at least two or three witnesses to a capital crime, so that there can be absolutely no doubt of guilt. "On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness." It's probably safe to assume that not very many people in ancient Israel were stoned to death for committing adultery since this is an act is that is usually carried out in secret. The sinning couple would have to be caught by family members coming home unexpectedly and finding them in the act or they would have to be caught by persons encountering them in the act in some secluded outdoor place. People tend to go to great lengths to hide adulterous relationships. I'm fifty years old and can think of only one person I know who actually caught their spouse in the literal act of committing adultery, and even had these people lived in ancient Israel, the innocent spouse could not have had the guilty parties put to death because she was the lone witness to their sin.
In John 8 we find the Pharisees and the teachers of the law bringing a woman by force to Jesus and accusing her of adultery. They state she was caught "in the act" and they remind Him that adulterers caught in the act are to be stoned to death. They ask Him what He thinks should be done. They want to trap Him in a wrong answer. If He says the woman ought to be stoned to death, He'll be contradicting the law of Moses because both parties to the act of adultery were to be executed. These people haven't brought the man for judgment, only the woman. If He agrees she merits the death penalty then His enemies can say, "Aha, we knew You weren't a righteous man! The Lord told the people through Moses that both parties to the crime are to be put do death. You are violating the law by saying it's okay to only put the woman to death." In addition, Jesus would be breaking the law of Rome because Israel is under Roman rule during the lifetime of Jesus Christ and the Romans had taken away most of the rights of the Jews to punish religious infractions among their people. Jesus' enemies could have reported Him to the authorities if He allowed the woman to be put to death. Then He'd have been arrested and imprisoned, though not necessarily executed, and if executed not necessarily by crucifixion. The main objective of Jesus' enemies during this scene was either to discredit Him to the people by causing Him to contradict the law of Moses or to have Him taken out of the public eye by having Him thrown into a Roman dungeon.
Jesus masterfully took charge of the situation by saying, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7) He didn't engage in an argument with them. He didn't deny that the woman was guilty; He is God and He knew she was. He didn't accuse them of breaking the law by bringing only one guilty party to be judged. He simply turned their thoughts inward. Stricken by their consciences, "Those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there." (John 8:9) She's left alone with the only person present with the authority to condemn her to death, for as God the Lord Jesus Christ has no need of human witnesses to testify before Him; He knows she committed the act. He also knows she's sorry for committing the act. This moment is a turning point in her life and instead of condemning her the Lord says, "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:11b) This is exactly what she wants to hear: that she is forgiven for her life of sin. This is exactly what she wants to do: leave her life of sin and live for the Lord. Jesus handled this situation perfectly in a way that benefited everyone involved. The crowd went home and thought about their own sins, and no doubt many of them got down on their knees and got things right with the Lord. The woman left her old life of sin behind and became a new person with a new reason for living.
The remainder of our text today contains other sexual prohibitions that were listed in Leviticus 18 and we see that the death penalty was to be imposed upon those who were caught in the act (remember, by two or more witnesses) of violating these prohibitions.
"If a man has sexual relations with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:11) Presumably this is speaking of a man sleeping with his step-mother and not his own mother, though incestuous relationships may have existed between some men and their mothers in the land of Canaan where Israel is going.
"If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both of them are to be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:12) We have to keep in mind that in cases where both parties are judged guilty, both parties are legal adults and the relationship was consensual. The Lord is not talking about cases where a man has his way with a woman against her will.
"If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:13) Again we must keep in mind that this is speaking of two grown men entering into a consensual relationship with each other. Another thing to keep in mind is that they are not being treated more harshly than heterosexual people who are engaging in sex outside of marriage. In the Bible we do not find God's blessing being pronounced on any type of sexual union outside of marriage and we don't find Him considering marriage religiously valid unless it is between a male and a female. During the history of the nation of Israel, the Israelites lived near, among, and sometimes under the rule of nations where other types of marriage were legal: marriage between two men or two women, marriage between an adult and a child, incestuous marriage, and so on and so on. These marriages were valid according to the law of the land but not valid according to the law of the Lord.
Remember, in the chapters we've been studying lately, the Lord keeps urging the Israelites to be different. Yes, the tribes of Canaan engage in pretty much every sexual practice the human mind can think of, but the Israelites aren't to follow their example. They are to follow the laws the Lord is providing to them. He's saying something like, "So what if the Canaanites do these things? Does that mean you have to do them too? If all the Canaanites jumped off a cliff would you join them? You are to follow Me, not the culture. You are to be different. You are to stand out in the crowd. You are to swim against the stream. Then, when unbelievers start to notice you're different, they'll start to wonder why you're different, and then some of them will approach you to ask you about your God. Your 'differentness' can actually lead souls to Me for salvation."
"If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you." (Leviticus 20:14) At first glance the Lord appears to be ordering these people to be burned alive instead of stoned to death, but some Bible scholars disagree and think that branding these people with a hot iron is what's being described here. These scholars propose that those who violate this law were marked as sinners with a brand for everyone else to see. On the one hand, I'd prefer to think that's the case since the idea of dying by fire is so horrifying, but on the other hand our entire passage today deals with sexual crimes that are punishable by death. You would think if the death penalty is not what's intended by verse 14, then this particular sexual violation would be mentioned somewhere else in the Scriptures and not smack dab in the middle of a passage dealing with putting people to death.
It's difficult to come to a conclusion, but since a crime that carries the death penalty must be witnessed by two or more people, the sin the people have committed in verse 14 satisfies that rule since the man and his two wives are living openly as a group of married people in spite of the Lord's command for a man not to marry a mother and a daughter. Perhaps the brazen shamelessness of their crime is what causes a harsher form of execution to be called for. Perhaps---and this is what I suspect is happening---the relationship spoken of in Leviticus 14 is one in which all three parties to the marriage engage in sexual activity together. This form of plural marriage is not the same as when a man has two or more wives and spends time with each wife separately. (We could use the patriarch Jacob as an example for this; he had four wives and apparently four separate households. He spent time with only one wife at a time.) So not only has the man of Leviticus 14 married a woman and her mother, which is weird enough, but I personally believe the three of them are participating in sexual acts that require all three of them to be involved at the same time. We can see why this is considered a perversion in the law of the Lord and that might help to explain why their method of execution is harsher than the method of execution for the various other sexual violations mentioned in Leviticus 20.
Tomorrow we will conclude this portion of Leviticus and then on Friday we will move on into the regulations for how the priests of Israel are to live their lives.
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