Monday, June 13, 2016

Monday - Leviticus 18 - The Naked Truth

Babies are born naked. God made Adam and Eve naked. Jesus hung on the cross naked (John 19:23). Nuptial nakedness is approved of God (Hebrews 13:4 & all of the Song of Solomon). Everything is naked in the eyes of God (Hebrews 4:13). God commanded Isaiah to preach naked for 3 years (Isaiah 20:2-4). Yet, with all of the aforementioned nakedness, clearly it is a problematic bane under most circumstances.

To be clear, this chapter is not about voyeurism, exhibitionism, naturism or pornography - although those things would certainly be included by implication.  The phrase "uncover the nakedness" was obviously a relatively couth way for the AV translators to communicate God's word concerning the illicit carnal activities that   dominated Egypt and Canaan in the days of Moses (Leviticus 18:3, 24 & 27).  Still, in the midst of the archaic tone of Leviticus 18, the horror of sin is still unmistakable.  So, here it is in brief form...

Incest was both defined and condemned in verses 6-18. In addition to incest, relations during menstruation were forbidden. Also, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality (and, by extension, all such perversions and pollutions of God's holy procreative order) were capital offenses (Leviticus 18:29). And, to show just how abominable and appalling these reprobate customs were in His sight, He listed ritualistic infanticide right in the middle of the mix to emphasize His utter disdain for such filth. God condemns ANY deviation from His ordained plan concerning the proper expression of our sexuality (that is, within a societally recognized lifelong monogamous heterosexual relationship - Matthew 5:28 and Deuteronomy 5:21). 

No comments:

Post a Comment