Context No. 4025 of 4322 · Leviticus

Leviticus 20:16-20: in context

16“‘If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. 17“‘If a man takes his sister—his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter—and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful thing. They shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness. He shall bear his iniquity. 18“‘If a man lies with a woman having her monthly period, and uncovers her nakedness, he has made her fountain naked, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19“‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, nor of your father’s sister, for he has made his close relative naked. They shall bear their iniquity. 20If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. They shall bear their sin. They shall die childless.

This passage sits within a section of laws setting boundaries around family and sexual relationships, laws we read across a great distance of time and culture, and whose ancient penalties are severe. We do not dwell on the specific offenses, but we can hear the concern that runs beneath them.

God cared, and cares, about the holiness and integrity of the family and of sexual relationships. These boundaries were meant to protect the sanctity of the family, to guard the vulnerable within it, and to keep his people distinct from the surrounding cultures that had abandoned such limits. There is an enduring truth here beneath the ancient particulars. God is not indifferent to how we conduct our closest relationships. He sets boundaries around sexuality and family, not to spoil human life, but because these relationships are meant to be holy, and because crossing certain lines does real harm to persons and to the fabric of the family. The call to his people has always been to honor the boundaries he has set, treating the family and the body as things to be kept holy before him.

Do I honor the boundaries God has set around sexuality and the family as belonging to his concern for holiness, treating my closest relationships and my body as things to be kept holy before him rather than as boundless private matters?

Sources

Leviticus 20:26: "You shall be holy to me; for I, the LORD, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine."
Leviticus 20:17: "It is a shameful thing... He shall bear his iniquity."
1 Thessalonians 4:3-4: "For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor."