by erika haveman
Probably one of the most explicit books of the Bible is Leviticus. It makes crystal clear how the people of the Lord are supposed to live. Lucky for me, it has a whole chapter devoted to “Unlawful Sexual Relations” so I’ll focus a lot on what that has to say.
However before I expound on that I need to be clear on the purpose of Leviticus. It’s main goal was to ensure that the Israelites, as God’s chosen people, lived set apart. God is holy, and He wants to make His people holy. They have already been saved, but now they need to live like they believe they’re saved. They do this by being made holy by their God. The Lord God, the Great I am, Yahweh God of Israel does make those who follow Him holy. He does this by seeing to it that His people are different than any other people group that is on the earth. Followers of God are meant to follow God and not follow everything else around them.
“Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.” – Leviticus 18:21
The norms in the cultures surrounding Israel when Leviticus was written, regarding sexuality, were incredibly broken. Most influentially there was a god by the name of Molech (a god in Canaan). There is some debate over what Lev. 21:18 is referring to. It could refer to child sacrifice (parents throwing children into a raging fire) or parents offering their children to the temple priests so the children could be trained and raised up as temple prostitutes. Considering that the rest of Leviticus 18 is talking about sexuality, the latter definition is probably the option we can safely commit to. The reason I brielfy explain this is so you can see that the culture we are living in today is incredibly distracting and discouraging when it comes to sexuality, but we haven’t gone so far as to willingly give up children to be prostitutes all for the sake of serving a god. I realize one could argue that there are parents in cultures around the world who do sell their children into sexual slavery to pay a debt or simply to make money, and by extenion you could consider this for the sake of serving a god (money, fear of destitution etc…). On average, however, I would venture to guess most of us are not familiar with this particular way of life.
Life for the Israelites was just as, if not more, sexually broken than our world today (shocking, I know. I often thought of Israel as really great and perfect, but I have quickly learned that they just were really far from perfect. Kind of really like me. Or I am kind of really like them). The things God demanded of his people are very direct and easy to make sense of. In Leviticus 18:6-23 we are told who we are not allowed to have sex with. Most of this list only considers men, but you could apply the same principles to women as well. In these verses Moses writes that a person is not to have sex with their close relative (sibling, v.6, 11), parent (v.7), step [parent] (v.8), step [sibling] (v.9), grandchild (v.10), aunt [or uncle] (v. 12-14), daughter [or son] in law (v.15), sister [or brother] in law (v.16, 18), mother or daughter (v.17), a woman on her period (v.19), another man’s wife (v.20), people of the same sex (v.22) or animals (v. 23). That list is extensive, and I am not sure there leaves much, if any, room for leeway. Basically you should only have sex with your spouse. And, as we established last week, someone is only your spouse if you’ve said “I do” in front of witnesses.
What I found the most interesting in reading through Leviticus was how chapter 18 began. It starts off like this:
“The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.” – Lev. 18:1-5
Interesting? Not so interesting? I would definitely argue interesting because although Leviticus is packed full of laws, this chapter is the only one that bothers to stress that the LORD is God of Israel and that one must obey God. The rest of the chapters mostly begin with, “The LORD said to Moses, “Command this of the people”” or “The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites.”” Yet here “I am the LORD” is repeated 3 times in 5 verses. There isn’t much previous bother to really stress that the God of Israel has clear and definitive expectations of His people until He starts talking about sexuality. I think this is because sexuality really does involve an entire person. One’s physical, emotional, spiritual and sexual are involved when having sex or sexual relations.
What is also HUGE in this chapter is that God, I believe, is already foreshadowing to the day when one’s body would be God’s temple. At the time Leviticus was written the people of Israel worshiped God at the tabernacle, and once they settled in the Promised Land God had Solomon build God the temple. But the temple didn’t last forever, and was completely destroyed when Jerusalem was taken by Babylon in 539BC. God’s earthly temples for where the people were to worship was never meant to last. There wasn’t always going to be the need for a physical place because the Holy Spirit was going to come and dwell within man. Man’s body would become God’s temple.
It is your body which is the temple where God dwells within you that is involved when having sex. This is a serious deal. I think this is why, so early on, God sees unlawful sexual relations as a huge deal. God created man to be His reflection, His image, His representation on earth. The people of Israel needed to treat their bodies as something set apart to God.
Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 16:9). What I do with my body matters. I should not violate my body by giving it away to someone who is not my spouse. God has commanded me to only give my body, my sexuality, to my spouse and only my spouse. I honour man and I honour God when I treat my body as God’s temple.
How are you honouring your body as God’s temple? Do you treat your sexuality as something set apart to God?
This can be one the hardest things to live out in a world that bombards us with sexual temptation on every side. It can also be really hard when you are created with healthy sexual desire. But God is holy, and do I believe He made me holy? Do I really believe this? Do I try and live this way? I challenge you to ask this of yourself. I’m challenging myself with this on a daily basis. God is holy, He has made me holy, and I need to live like this in the way I think, the way I act, the way I love, and the way I view sex and sexuality. God will always know best.
This is part of a series going through the entire Bible to offer you a bigger picture on God’s standards for sexuality. The opening post can be found here.
the rambling missionary 