Leviticus 20
Leviticus 20 Overview
It has been the tendency of mankind ever since we left the garden of Eden to degenerate both individually and corporately into ever-increasing darkness and depravity. Therefore, in this chapter we see God enumerating some of the more heinous sins that can be committed and we see Him prescribing appropriate punishments for things such as human sacrifice, incest, bestiality and occult practices. God does not lay down these commandments out of anger against the people that commit these sins or because of His sense of justice. Instead, He makes these laws and punishments to protect His chosen people from destroying themselves through the law, which by necessity, was their external moral compass. For us as Christians today, we are supernaturally grafted into God’s family, and we now have the law ‘’written on our hearts’’ (Jeremiah 31:33). The best thing we can do to combat temptation and sin in our own lives is to stay connected with God through His Word: “I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Psalms 119:11 NIV
“Keep My decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.” Leviticus 20:8 NIV
There is much in this chapter that engenders fear. BUT, I like verse 8, which says: “Keep My decrees and follow them. For I am the Lord who makes you holy.” Regardless of God’s reasons for using the Israelites, (by painfully refining them so that they would be a blessing to all nations) our holiness originates from our Creator, not from our own efforts. Our own efforts at holiness are self-righteousness and only serve to heighten our dependence on God and our need for grace. We were initially made holy, and to return to holiness we must renew our minds to the reality of who we truly are in Christ – the righteousness and glory of God: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is in the spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).