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SQUEEZED BETWEEN EGYPT & CANAAN!
I have never met
Minnie Warburton, nor do I know very much about her. In fact, all I know
about her is that the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus spoke to her as if God
was speaking through a megaphone. In her book Letting the Voice of Leviticus
Speak she began her story with these words:
"I remember very clearly the moment. Sunlight
coming in the window onto my desk . . . and the words leaping out at me . .
. "You shall not have intercourse with . . ." Incest taboos. One
after another. I slammed the book shut. I was shocked. I
had no idea that was in the Bible. I never imagined it might be mentioned
there. I was reeling . . .
If you've been around the block two or three
times, or if you know anything about Colorado City on the border of Arizona
and Utah, then perhaps Leviticus 18 won't shock you as it shocked Ms. Warburton. But
whether it does or not, take a moment and read Leviticus 18. It reads:
Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 "Say
this to your people, the Israelites: I, the LORD, am your God. 3 So do
not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people
of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. 4
You must obey all my regulations and be careful to keep my laws, for I, the
LORD, am your God. 5 If you obey my laws and regulations, you will find
life through them. I am the LORD.
"You must never have sexual intercourse
with a close relative, for I am the LORD. 7 Do not violate your father
by having sexual intercourse with your mother. She is your mother; you must
never have intercourse with her. 8 Do not have sexual intercourse with
any of your father's wives, for this would violate your father.
"Do not have sexual intercourse with your
sister or half sister, whether she is your father's daughter or your mother's
daughter, whether she was brought up in the same family or somewhere else.
"Do not have sexual intercourse with your
granddaughter, whether your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that
would violate you. 11 Do not have sexual intercourse with the daughter
of any of your father's wives; she is your half sister. 12 Do not have
intercourse with your aunt, your father's sister, because she is your father's
close relative. 13 Do not have sexual intercourse with your aunt, your
mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative. 14 And
do not violate your uncle, your father's brother, by having sexual intercourse
with his wife; she also is your aunt. 15 Do not have sexual intercourse
with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife. 16 Do not have intercourse
with your brother's wife; this would violate your brother.
"Do not have sexual intercourse with both
a woman and her daughter or marry both a woman and her granddaughter, whether
her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter. They are close relatives, and
to do this would be a horrible wickedness.
"Do not marry a woman and her sister because
they will be rivals. But if your wife dies, then it is all right to marry her
sister.
"Do not violate a woman by having sexual
intercourse with her during her period of menstrual impurity.
"Do not defile yourself by having sexual
intercourse with your neighbor's wife.
"Do not give any of your children as a
sacrifice to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the
LORD.
"Do not practice homosexuality; it is a
detestable sin.
"A man must never defile himself by having
sexual intercourse with an animal, and a woman must never present herself to
a male animal in order to have intercourse with it; this is a terrible perversion.
"Do not defile yourselves in any of these
ways, because this is how the people I am expelling from the Promised Land
have defiled themselves. 25 As a result, the entire land has become defiled.
That is why I am punishing the people who live there, and the land will soon
vomit them out. 26 You must strictly obey all of my laws and regulations,
and you must not do any of these detestable things. This applies both to you
who are Israelites by birth and to the foreigners living among you.
"All these detestable activities are practiced
by the people of the land where I am taking you, and the land has become defiled. 28
Do not give the land a reason to vomit you out for defiling it, as it will
vomit out the people who live there now. 29 Whoever does any of these
detestable things will be cut off from the community of Israel. 30 So
be careful to obey my laws, and do not practice any of these detestable activities.
Do not defile yourselves by doing any of them, for I, the LORD, am your God."
Two men were dashing to catch the last taxi
in sight. The smaller of the two men, about my size, exactly my size,
became rather insistent that he be allowed to take the taxi. The other
guy, of average size and weight, in a semi-threatening tone said, "Give
me one good reason why I should let you have this taxi instead of me." To
which I replied, "Because I'm late for my karate class!"
It is one thing to hear the words, "Do
not . . .", it's quite another thing to hear the words, "Do not get
into that cab because I am the Lord your God." Well, that is not
quite how the introductory remarks of Leviticus 18 read, nor were the words
spoken in a threatening manner. Nevertheless, this introductory formula
of "I am the Lord your God" served as a reminder as to why the Israelites
should obey the commands given to them in this chapter.
They should obey because God is the one who
rescued them from the dominion of darkness. They should obey not because
God knows karate, although he does, but because of his grace and mercy. They
should obey because He called them to imitate Him, and not the world. He
said, "Be holy, because I am holy" (11:44). And they should
obey because in doing so they would discover life itself (v. 5b).
It is interesting to note at this point that
Israel was being squeezed into the world's mold by the practices they had seen
in Egypt and were about to be squeezed into that same mold by the practices
of the Canaanites. In light of the fact that the world unceasingly worked
at squeezing them into its mold, God challenged the Israelites to not let this
happen to them.
How about us? Are we expected to obey
the "Do not" commands of this chapter? I mean, we're not expected
to obey the ceremonial laws of the previous chapters. So why should we
be expected to obey these laws? The reason, of course, lies in our situation. As
believers our situation is quite different from the Israelites of yesteryear. We
know, in the light of Christ, there is no need for bulls, lambs, and goats
to be sacrificed again and again.
But as human beings our moral situation isn't
all that different from the Israelites of old. As in the past, the world
continuously tries to squeeze us into its mold. Day-in and day-out we're
bombarded with sexual messages that run contrary to God's standards. We're
told that:
-
what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
-
sexually transmitted diseases are simply a nuisance.
-
sex between consenting adults is one of our rights.
- we
ought to respect one another's sexual orientation.
-
deviant sexual behavior is okay as long as no one is hurt.
-
-
In regards to the regulations laid down for
us in this chapter I want you to note that the author made no attempt to justify
them. For example, no where does the author tell us that these laws represent
what it means to love your neighbor. Instead they are simply referred
to as laws and the Hebrew word for "law" as found in vv. 4, 5, and
26 contains the idea of "givenness." It's as if they were given
to us by a judge.
The things to be avoided are enumerated in vv.
7 - 23. They range from the sin if incest to the perversion of bestiality. MEN
- DO NOT:1
-
have sexual relations with your mother.
-
have sexual relations with your stepmother.
-
have sexual relations with your sister or half-sister.
-
have sexual relations with your granddaughter.
-
have sexual relations with your stepsister.
-
have sexual relations with your aunt.
-
have sexual relations with your aunt by marriage.
-
have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law.
-
have sexual relations with your sister-in-law.
-
have sexual relations with your stepdaughter.
-
have sexual relations with your step-granddaughter.
-
have sexual relations with your wife's sister.
-
have sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period.
-
have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife.
-
have sexual relations with a man.
-
have sexual relations with an animal.2
As I'm looking at this list I'm asking myself
the question: "Who in the world would even consider having sexual
relations with their mother, their daughter, their sister, their aunt, another
man, or an animal?" Sure, I can see being tempted to have sexual
relations with my neighbor's wife. And yes, Jacob married two sisters
but this wasn't his original plan. But in general, I can't imagine this
list being a problem to men.
And that is exactly why we need to look at the
rest of Minnie Warburton's story. It reads:
"It didn't matter that my father by now
was six years dead. Nor did it matter that long before he'd died, I'd
confronted him on the things he had done to me. Nor did it matter that
he'd continued to deny them until the day he did die. . . . I never knew that
what he did was condemned by his God before he ever did it. I never knew
he was breaking God's law. But there it was, clear as anything. . . .
I will never be able to explain what that moment
was like, that discovery of Leviticus 18. I wanted to call up everyone
I knew and say, "It was wrong. What he did was wrong. It says
so right here, in the Bible." Therapists had told me, my own instincts
told me, everything had told me --- yet nothing told me the way Leviticus told
me. Wrong. Condemned. Hateful in the eyes of God. Even
as I wanted to yell out, I was struck dumb, speechless. It was wrong,
truly truly wrong. And for the first time I felt utterly and absolutely
vindicated. For the first time, I felt clean. For the first time
I felt that what had happened was between him and his God and he'd have to
make expiation however he did it. I felt absolved. I felt released."3
It happens! What is worse, it happens
within families which means the most vulnerable within those families either
believe it is normal or it is in someway their fault. Furthermore, the
guilty are normally protected by the mere fact that as an adult they are not
to be questioned. They are also protected by other adults within the
family who either don't want to know the truth, because of the shame it would
bring upon them within the community, or would not believe the truth even if
it hit them right between the eyes. But Leviticus tells the victums of
sexual abuse that it is wrong!4
A final note. When you consider how our
culture bombards us with messages that run counter to some of these laws and
the fact that homosexuality has been accepted by many as being right for some,
it's clear that the world continues to push its agenda. An agenda that
is in direct oppostion to God's moral laws. If nothing else, this chapter
ought to remind us that our adversary is relentless.
1 The general priniciple is stated in v.6. where
the phrase "close relative" is literally "flesh of his flesh" and
a more literal translation of " to have sexual intercourse" is "to
uncover the nakedness of." This latter phrase covers
intercourse within marriage and outside it. So if we look at these laws
from the standpoint of a man wanting to get married they rule out mothers,
sisters, aunts, etc.
2 There is one glaring omission in this list. Having
sexual relations with our own daughter! This was probably because it
was already accepted that such a union was totally inadvisable. For
just as Jacob's marital circumstances served as an early warning to anyone
who entertained the idea that marrying two sisters sounded like a good idea,
Lot's sexual relationship with his two daughters served as a constant reminder
of its illegitimate nature. (See Genesis 19:30 - 38)
3 Minnie Warburton, "Letting the Voice of Leviticus
Speak," 1994, pp. 166 - 167.
4 This chapter doesn't specifically spell out the consequences
for those who break themselves upon these laws. That is left for Leviticus
20. For example, 20:11 reads: "If a man sleeps with his father's
wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman must be
put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." Today, on
their behalf, we would argue that they were simply consenting adults.LEVITICUS
- GOD'S GUIDEBOOK TO WORSHIP 5/14/06 1
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