Leviticus 20 Summary: A Short Breakdown in 5 Minutes

Leviticus 20 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).

• Necromancer – Someone who uses magic to conjure the spirits of the dead.

TABERNACLE DIAGRAM

OUTLINE:

• CHILD SACRIFICE, MEDIUMS, AND NECROMANCERS (20:1-9):

  • If any Israelite or person who lived among the Israelites sacrificed their child to the idol Molech, they were to be put to death by stoning.

  • Additionally, God would punish anyone who had knowledge of a person sacrificing to Molech and didn’t report it.

  • The Israelites were forbidden from consulting with mediums and necromancers.

  • God told Moses He would set His face against anyone who participated in these things and cut them off from their people.

• LAWS REGARDING SEXUAL IMMORALITY (20:10-21):

  • Several kinds of sexual immorality were punishable by death, including: adultery, sexual relations between close relatives, homosexuality, and bestiality.

  • Relationships between step-brothers and step-sisters were forbidden as disgraceful.

  • Relationships with aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews were prohibited.

  • God also restricted sexual relations during a woman’s menstrual period.

  • Finally, there were to be no sexual relationships between brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws.

• HOLINESS VS UNCLEANLINESS (20:22-27):

  • The Israelites were to shun the pagan practices and immoralities of the nations who lived in Canaan prior to them.

  • God gave them these restrictions to separate them from those nations (20:24).

  • If the Israelites would keep God’s commands and strive for holiness, Canaan would not “vomit” them out like it was going to do to its current inhabitants. 

  • “You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine” (20:26).

APPLICATION:

• God’s laws in the Old Testament were intended to separate the Israelites from the surrounding nations.

• This intention is repeated in the commands of Jesus and His Apostles (2 Corinthians 6:17).

• Christians are separate from the world.

• God wants a distinct people, a people that stand out against the backdrop of a sinful culture.

• We should embrace and come to terms with the fact that we will not look like the people around us.

• They pattern their lives off the things the world idolizes, we pattern our lives after the holiness of Jesus.

• It should not be our mission to make a disciple look as similar to an unbeliever as possible. 

• It should not be our mission to make the life of a disciple more palatable to an unbelieving world.

• Rather, we should embrace the privilege of stepping into the distinct identity God has prepared for us and realize our differences are a good thing, a holy thing.