Leviticus 20 - Child Sacrifice and the Curse of Ham

What time is it? Ah, it's Tabernacle Talk time. I promise, one of these days I will get a less dumb intro, but today is not that day.

Today we're in Leviticus 20, and today we're going to be looking at some things highlighted from Chapter 18. So if you'll remember, that whole section was, here's God's design. Don't mess it up.

Like, don't use something that God has designed for something that he did not design it for. And in Chapter 20, it gives, here are the punishments. Here's what happens if you do go outside of God's design in these areas.

And especially as we look back with the mindset that we have right now of 2,000 years of Jesus' grace and a realization of the freedom of conscience that people have to follow God or to not follow God.

As we look back, we can see a natural reaction for us is to have some shock when we read chapter 20. We go, oh man, well, that seems really serious that that would be the consequence for some of these actions.

Some of the ones we get, but other ones we go, man, that seems like a really severe punishment. Couple things we need to know. Number one is that God values life very, very much.

So some of the things that we'll see even about child sacrifice, there is the punishment that was outlined in Genesis chapter nine of whether it's an animal or a person, if someone takes a human life, the punishment for that is death.

And we've even had some of that over the past many years in America with, you know, maybe mass murderers or things that then they get the death penalty.

And that was something that God had set up here in, all the way back in Genesis, but then continuing here of perhaps one of the worst things that we can do to people is to take their lives from them.

That it's not like they have passed from old age, it is someone took the place of God to say, you are no longer worthy or deserving of life on this earth. And God views that very seriously and justice demands that their life be given in exchange.

Secondly, we got to remember this is a very specific place and people in time and what that place is and who those people are is very important. So here, this is going to be the lineage of the Messiah.

So as we go through, we'll see if some of these laws were not in effect, then if you think about it, especially as you read the New Testament and you read about Jesus' lineage, if any of these types of things were to happen in Jesus' lineage, there

could be a, Jesus might not have existed. So the one that I'll mention here, you have homosexual relations, that if you have a person that is partaking in that, well, they're not going to have children.

So God says in his wisdom, I designed sexual intercourse to happen between one man and one woman for life. And so that's the command that I'm giving.

And creating life and creating life within the parameters that I have set is something that's vitally important. And it's not something that you can name yourself God and say, I know God said that. I know God said this is the way it's done.

I know God says this is who I do it with, but I'm going to ignore that. And I'm going to decide what I do with my body. And God says that is a sin.

There are very few sins in scripture that are worthy of death.

But the taking of life and the using of sexual intercourse in ways not prescribed by God are two of the things that, and idolatry, worshiping other gods, all of those things that have to do with God's nature as the giver of life, as the only one

authorized to take life or to say this is whose life needs to be taken. So all of that comes into play.

And again, through Jesus Christ, we have this new life that those that were once condemned to death, even as you think about the story of the woman caught in the adultery in John chapter eight, that those that were sentenced to be put to death when

Jesus comes, he's got a whole new outlook. And his whole new outlook is, okay, now forgiveness is here. Now grace is able to be spent. Well, why?

Don't these people still deserve punishment? Sure. But their punishment has now been met out on Christ.

And Christ would take the punishment for sin, and there is no punishment, no condemnation left for us. Okay, so those are kind of some big picture things. As we look at why are these sins judged and condemned so severely?

Why is the punishment so big? It's because it's people putting themselves in the place of God, people worshiping other gods, and inviting death on themselves. I've mentioned it several times before.

God is life himself. And when you reject life, the only thing left for you is death. If you say, I'm not breathing oxygen anymore, you're going to die.

And the same is very, very true with God's nature. Okay, Leviticus 20 and verse 1. Yahweh spoke to Moses, say to the Israelites, any Israelite or alien residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death.

So I think I mentioned this back in chapter 18. This would be one of those sacrifices. There's, it's honestly deeply shocking and evil.

And this happened before Israel came into the land. And it was still happening and was one of the reasons why God exiled them back to Babylon, was because they were still participating in this horrible worship thing.

You had an idol that had kind of an open belly compartment with a fire that was underneath. And so the belly was, I think, stone, if I remember correctly. And so it would just be superheated.

And so you would take the children and you would place them in that furnace and they would be burned alive as a sacrifice to this god, Molech. So an awful, awful thing.

And God says, anyone that sacrifices their children, you need to put them to death. He says, I will turn against that man and cut him off from his people because he gave his offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.

But if the people of the country look the other way when that man gives any of his children to Molech and do not put him to death, then I will turn against that man and his family and cut off from their people both him and all who follow in

prostituting themselves with Molech. God says, if you're engaging in child sacrifice, you are worthy of death.

That would be one of the reasons why we hold to a pro-life position that we do not have the authority from God to freely say, I want this kid, I don't want this kid. Again, medical exemptions and things are an entirely different matter.

That's not, I don't want to have a child. That's, there might be two deaths instead of one if I carry this particular child to term. You can think of things like a tubal pregnancy or things like that.

That's not what's in effect. But if it's just elective, I choose this, I don't choose this. God says, no, no, your children are a gift from me.

And when you in this day and age sacrifice them to this particular God, maybe in our day, the thing that's been connected is you're offering your child as perhaps a financial sacrifice.

I don't really think that I could financially provide for them or I want a more free lifestyle, perhaps sacrificing to the God of convenience. Elective killing of children is not something that God's people are to do.

And God says, and it's so serious, he says that even though this is happening in some other place out in the country where this idol is, he says, when you have done that, it pollutes the entire land.

He says it defiles my sanctuary, the place where I am living. He says it profanes my holy name. It's a slap to the reputation of God that his people would worship other gods and destroy the children that he gave them.

And he says, and anyone that knows that the person is doing that and doesn't, again, here in this particular time period, they would go to those that were in charge of enforcing God's law and say, hey, this person did that.

He says, anyone that knows that this is happening and just says nothing, completely allows it to happen, looks the other way, he says, they're going to bear the same guilt as that person.

Then verse number six, whoever turns to mediums or spiritists and prostitutes himself with them, I will turn against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God.

Keep my statutes and do them. I am Yahweh who sets you apart. He says, don't look to the witchcraft.

Don't look to the palm readers. Don't look to a Ouija board in order to find things out. He says, go to God.

God's word is sufficient here at that time. You had prophets, you had priests, you had Levites, all these people that know God's word. And so he says, rely on me.

Don't rely on trying to contact other spiritual beings besides God in order to try and get your answers. Verse number nine, if anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother.

His death is his own fault. That was the other thing I was going to mention earlier. Many of these things, even though they're outlined like, hey, on God's cosmic justice scale, here is the punishment for right and for wrong.

These things did not happen in Israel. So though people knew, okay, if I do this thing, I deserve death, they still did them anyway.

And because of Israel's wickedness, as with our wickedness, that we are incapable many times of meeting out good justice. We either go way beyond and we're too extreme or we're way too lenient.

And so even though these were on the cosmic justice scale, these are serious sins. If one curses their father or their mother.

Here, I think I've mentioned it before, this isn't necessarily cursing in the way that we think of cursing today where it's like insulting words at someone. It's more serious. It's a complete like demeaning and like shredding down of a person.

Sometimes even implicating others in calling on spiritual beings or demons to bring them harm.

We say the phrase, break a leg as like kind of a funny, good thing, but it would be somewhat of a curse of like, hey, you know, Molech, foul your crops or something.

That kind of using the name or the authority or the threat of spiritual beings in order to tear down or think down on your parents is something that was very, very bad.

Here, it's not just if you tell someone, you know, well, I'm not going to use any illustrations. It's not just a verbal cuss word like we think about it today.

Here, it's invoking spiritual authority, demonic spiritual authority in order to tear down someone else or hoping that they genuinely are cursed or that harm befalls them as a result of that spiritual being.

Verse number 10, if a man commits adultery with a married woman, if he commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

Again, mentioning rape was not something that both parties would be killed for. It would just be the man. But here, a consensual adultery is worthy of death.

And that's what happened in John 8, where Jesus then forgives her. And again, we read all of these things, understanding there is punishment for sin.

Jesus took the punishment for sin, but that doesn't make sin okay and that we should just flippantly partake in it. Verse number 11, if a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has violated the intimacy that belongs to his father.

Or very literally, okay, verse 11, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. Now, why would you, why would you quote the literal translation? Okay, a man's not to sleep with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's nakedness.

Because words are tied together in scripture and where you see specific phrases used are meant to tie you back into other stories and other places. So, where would we read about someone uncovering their father's nakedness?

The very first time it's mentioned is in Genesis and in chapter 9. And in there, you have Noah. He's got his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

And they are, they've just come off of the ark. God's given a blessing to them saying, hey, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. I'm never going to flood the earth again.

I want you all to have this dominion over the birds and over the beasts and over the things. Life is valuable. If an animal or a person kills a person, they need to be punished with death for that.

And then it tells a story. Noah gets drunk with wine. And he falls asleep in his tent.

And it says that Ham went into the tent, saw his father's nakedness, went out, told his brothers what he had done. They went in with a blanket. They walked in backwards.

It says they did not see their father's nakedness. And when Noah woke up, found out what had been done, he then curses this kid of Ham named Canaan. And as you're reading the story, you go, well, why is Canaan getting cursed?

Like, I thought Ham saw his, Ham uncovered his father's nakedness. And it's meant, bring it back to Leviticus 20, where it says, if you sleep with your father's wife, it is uncovering your father's nakedness.

And so, at least from all of the words that are used in scripture and tying the passages together, the assumption that we come away with is that Ham slept with Noah's wife and as a result, had a son named Canaan.

And so, then Noah curses Canaan to say, he is going to be a servant of Shem and Japheth, that he's not going to have like this honorable place as like, oh yeah, I'm just exactly the same, exactly the same in power and authority as these other sons of

Noah's wife. He says, no, no, you're going to be subservient to them. Now again, in God's grace and God's kindness, one of Jesus' ancestors is Rahab the harlot, who was a Philistine, who was a Canaanite.

And so, even from there, like God still blesses and brings people from condemned or outside places into a loving relationship with him and into the lineage even of Christ. But that doesn't excuse sin. It doesn't say, you should do this.

God says, if someone does this, they are to be put to death. Says, if a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have acted perversely.

Their death is their own fault. If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable act. They must be put to death.

Their death is their own fault. I do want to mention, this is not the same outlook on life as the New Testament has in the sense of these things are something you are to be put to death for.

So in the New Testament, especially in the city of Corinth, a very sexually immoral place, you have the person that is sleeping with his stepmother, his father's wife, and Paul says, hey, like send him out of the church until he repents because he is

doing this and still wanting to like be a part of the people of God. And he says, let him know, you cannot have both of those things.

You can either choose your sin or your God, and right now you are choosing your sins, so you are not welcome in this church.

He does not say, put him to death, as the scripture says, or same in another passage in Corinth where he's listing a bunch of sins, two of which are those that are effeminate, those that, I've got the King James wording in my head, abusers of

themselves with mankind, it's men who have sex with men. He says, some of you were like that. He says, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you have now entered into a new way of living.

And so he doesn't say, hey, kill those that have engaged in this just like the Old Testament says. Again, this is God's cosmic justice that has now been met on Jesus.

It does not excuse sin, but it does give us a different outlook in how we interact with these types of sins and sinners. He says, if a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depraved.

So here, polygamy and especially like a really wrong type of polygamy. He says, both he and they must be burned so that there will be no depravity among you. He says, this is not the way I designed it.

It's one man, one woman for life. And joining in a mother and her daughter is uniquely depraved. He says, if a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death.

You are also to kill the animal. You go, the animal hasn't sinned. Again, it goes back to some of the other things.

God doesn't view animal life as equal to human life. Humans are made in the image of God. Animals are not.

And there's a defilement that has resulted with the animal. And many other things could be said. But verse number 16, if a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you are to kill the woman and the animal.

They must be put to death. Their death is their own fault. If a man marries his sister, whether his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace.

They are to be cut off publicly from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister. He will bear his iniquity.

So here's something that was not prescribed earlier in Scripture. So if you have Adam and Eve and then their sons, Cain and Abel and Seth and others, the only people that those people could marry would be their sisters.

But again, you have the very beginning of the genetic pool with the greatest amount of possible variety. So all the possible gene combinations of all humanity is there at the beginning of creation.

And so it wasn't something that now as millennia later as you arrive in Leviticus, now the gene pools have shrunk down a lot. It's why today there would be laws forbidding incest because you don't want some of the...

you don't want the complications, health complications to arise. That happens when you have people that are close in relationship. All of the possible sicknesses and diseases just are super compounded by marrying close relations.

And so God, now institutes, hey, if you do this, there are going to be problems that arise genetically from this. And he says it's not a death penalty here as with some of the other sins, but he says they are to be publicly cut off from their people.

They cannot come into the tabernacle. It is something that is wrong. Do not do this.

Verse 18, if a man sleeps with a menstruating woman and has sexual intercourse with her, he has exposed the source of her flow and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them are to be cut off from their people.

Again, this is God's designed things to work in a specific way. He has specific times that he wants specific things to happen. And here he is prescribing in the Old Testament, I don't want you to do this at this time.

Verse 19, you must not have sexual intercourse with your mother's sister or your father's sister, for it is exposing one's own blood relative. Both people will bear their iniquity.

If a man sleeps with his aunt, he has violated the intimacy that belongs to his uncle. They will bear their guilt and die childless. If a man marries his brother's wife, it is impurity.

He has violated the intimacy that belongs to his brother, they will be childless.

And I've seen some things that have mentioned some possibilities of what they will die childless or they will be childless, what that entails, whether that's castration or if it's them being put to death, as with other things, you're marrying, you're

having sexual intercourse with someone else's spouse. And so there's some wickedness happening there.

Or if this is like a divine judgment of I, like God himself, I'm going to make sure that this does not happen, that they are not able to bear children, which especially in this day and age would have been something very insulting, a thing of great

sadness that someone couldn't pass on their line. Verse 22. You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

You must not follow the statutes of the nations I'm driving out before you, for they did all these things and I abhorred them. And I promised you, you will inherit their land since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I am Yahweh, your God, who sets you apart from the peoples. Therefore, you are to distinguish between the clean animal from the unclean one and the unclean bird from the clean one.

Do not become contaminated by any land animal, bird or whatever crawls on the ground. I have set these apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to me because I, Yahweh, am holy.

And I have set you apart from the nations to be mine. A man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist must be put to death. They are to be stoned.

Their death is their own fault. So, again, this section of scripture comes on real heavy for us. We are very used to the gracious God who is able to be gracious because of Jesus receiving all the punishment for sin on his behalf.

I want to encourage you, maybe if you're one, again, this list today is more unique, and not everyone does these types of sins, but if you're maybe one who has experienced some of these types of sins in your life, I want you to know that there is no

condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. It doesn't instruct you to continue in that sin. Everything is fine. Jesus forgives you, so keep on doing it.

That's not what the Bible says. But if you are one, that you have delved into spiritual beings and witchcraft and things before, God has forgiveness for you.

And He's made a new way for you to have a relationship with Him, not through other spirits, but through the Holy Spirit.

If you're one that has committed sexual immorality or adultery or perhaps engaged in a homosexual actions, God has forgiveness for you. And you do not have to fear God. Turn to Him in faith.

And as you turn to Him, as you repent, as you say, God, I was wrong for what I did and I realize that. But I'm turning to you now and I'm going to follow your way and obey you. We can know with certainty that we're right with Him now.

And what an incredible thought that these people that were not allowed to be in the Tabernacle frankly weren't even allowed to live after their sins. Now those same types of people can have God's Spirit living and residing in them.

What a joy that now no longer does our sin alienate us from God, but now we can be reunited, reconciled to God through Jesus. Be grateful to Him and run from sin, turn from it. Thanks for tuning in today.

And I do believe that that's about the last chapter or so that we have some of these particular types of things.

We're going back into priests and sacrifice, holy festivals and holidays, blessings, and the Tabernacle is what's coming up over the next seven chapters or so. So I want to encourage you keep on listening.

Not every day is going to be like the last three or four. There is hope, there is some light and some goodness at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for tuning in.