Leviticus 18 Summary: A Short Breakdown in 5 Minutes

Leviticus 18 Summary - A Quick Overview

WHEN:

• Leviticus picks up where Exodus left off. The children of Israel are on their way through the wilderness to the Canaan land.

• According to Leviticus 8, the Tabernacle had already been erected, which would place the year at approximately 1490 B.C. (one year after the Israelites left Egypt).

DEFINITIONS:

• Molech – The name Molech appears several times in the Bible and is called the “abomination of the Ammonites” in 1 Kings. Molech was a false god worshiped by the Canaanites. The worship of Molech involved burning children as sacrifices to him (2 Kings 23:10). Anyone Israelite who offered their child as a sacrifice to Molech was to be put to death by stoning (Lev 20:2).

TABERNACLE DIAGRAM

OUTLINE:

• LAWS ABOUT SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS (18:1-30):

  • The Israelite’s morality wasn’t to be based on that of the Egyptians or the Canaanites, rather they were to live according to God’s statutes.

  • One way God wanted them to be distinct was in their sexual relationships. He didn’t want the immorality of the pagan nations to be embraced by the Hebrews.

  • The Israelites were forbidden from having sexual relationships with close relatives.

  • A person was not to “uncover the nakedness” of their mother, step-mother, sister, step-sister, granddaughter, aunt, daughter-in-law, or sister-in-law.

  • A man was not to have a sexual relationship with a woman and her daughter or a woman and her granddaughter.

  • A man was not allowed to marry two sisters.

  • A man could not have sex with a woman when she was menstruating.

  • Men were not to sleep with their neighbor’s wives.

  • If a child was conceived through sexual union, the Israelites were prohibited from offering the child to Molech, to do so was to profane the name of God.

  • Homosexual relationships were forbidden as an “abomination.”

  • Bestiality (sexual relationship between a human and animal) was condemned as a “perversion.”

  • God told the Israelites He would give them the land of Canaan and the land would vomit out its current inhabitants because they practiced all these wicked sexual sins.

  • God gave them these laws so they wouldn’t make themselves unclean and suffer the same fate.

APPLICATION:

• Evidently, there is a tipping point of wickedness a nation must not surpass if they hope to remain successful.

• Interestingly, when God promised the country of Canaan to Abraham, He was waiting for the Canaanites to reach a level of wickedness at which He would pour out His judgement.

• God told Abraham he would give Canaan to his descendants when the “iniquity of the Amorites” was complete (Genesis 15:16).

• This gives us some insight into how God governs the nations of the world.

• As one nation is filling their cup of iniquity, God may be raising up another nation to overthrow them.

• The earth, which is under God’s direction, will eventually vomit out those who multiply perverseness on it.

• A land that once flourished for the provision and protection of a nation will grow sick of the poison of sin and vomit out the pollutants (Romans 8:19-21).

• God limits how long and how severely a nation can persist in wickedness before He humbles its leaders and its inhabitants.