Leviticus 20:10-21--Punishments for Sexual Immorality

Leviticus 20:10-21
English Standard Version

Punishments for Sexual Immorality
10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. 13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 14 If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. 15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. 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 is upon them.

​17 “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. 18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, 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 or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked one's relative; they shall bear their iniquity. 20 If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

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Now we're really getting into the part of Leviticus that people today don't like to talk about, but all these prohibitions are repeated by Jesus and/or the writers of the New Testament epistles.  These are not just laws for the Jews, but for the Church as well.

Marriage and sexuality and big deals to God.  God created us male and female to have a sexual identity that is determined by genetic--not a sexual orientation or a sexual preference or any of the other word games that people play today.  The purpose of the difference between the sexes is obvious from nature--procreation, the closest that we get to displaying God's creative nature and abilities.  But there is something different between the relationship between man and woman than there is between the male and female of any other sexual creatures that were made.  We have an intimacy that is beyond physical and is spiritual, and it is a relationship that is meant to display the kind of love that God has for us that goes beyond the physical, but an unconditional and sacrificial love that we see ultimately fulfilled at the cross of Christ.  If we mess this up, then we ruin one of the great pictures God gave us to show the world who He is and how He loves us.

For this reason, sins concerning sexual identity and sexual relationships are "high crimes" in God's law as they are openly rebelling against God and His authority and the order He has created in nature and the identity He has given us and the boundaries He has set for us.  These are not simply "trespasses" where you accidently crossed a boundary line that you didn't know was there--these are "transgressions" and "iniquity" where we are living in open rebellion.  I've met so many that try to be "Christian" and live in these sins, and I tell all of them that they will eventually reach a point where they will be honest and they will choose their sin or they will choose God, but they cannot claim to be a child of God and live in open rebellion to God's law.  In every case that I can think of, the person has chosen their sin because this is a very strong attraction and passion (as most of us know).  It is not something to play around with, just like you don't play around with a loaded gun--firearms have their good purposes when pointed in a safe direction and handled safely, but the issue here is not about "safe sex" as our culture tries to define it.  All sex that happens outside of the confines of marriage is sin and makes us "unclean" according to the Law, and those who have been in those situations usually describe themselves as feeling "dirty" when engaging in such behavior, which is exactly what our hearts feel like when we are "unclean" and the Spirit of God convicts us directly or uses or consciences to do so.

The man who commits adultery and the one whom willingly commits adultery with him are both to be put to death.  The same goes for anyone who commits incest or engages in any of the other forbidden relationships that we discussed in Leviticus 18.  This includes the death penalty for same-sex relationships (remember that only male-to-male homosexuality happened at that time, but if female-to-female homosexuality existed at that time, it too would have been forbidden here, but it is clearly forbidden in the New Testament).  Only homosexuality is called an abomination, but the penalty is sure and certain for all of these sins.  The people committing them must die according to the Law.  As we said before, the death penalty--they are all sexual sins that are open rebellion against God, but homosexuality is also rebellion "against nature" as Romans 1 tells us.

If a man takes both a woman and her mother both as wives (has sexual relations with them whether of not they actually get married), this is depravity and all of them are to be burned.  This is the first time here in the list that the means by which the person is to die is specified.  We typically see the punishment for rebellion being stoning and then being hung up on a tree because "accursed is any man who hangs upon a tree," but God sees this particular sin differently.  If a man or woman has relations with an animal, then the person committing beastiality and the animal are to be killed.

Again, in almost all these cases, the death penalty was executed by stoning and we will see the New Testament where we see a woman that was caught in adultery who was brought before Jesus to be stoned--interesting in this case that they were watching the woman and caught her in the act, but they did nothing to apprehend the man and bring him to be stoned even though the punishment is the same for both the man and woman in adultery.  These laws have nothing to do with if a woman gets raped--that will be covered later as God will provide a way to determine if the relations were consensual or if the woman was attacked and it was non-consensual.

The punishments for uncovering the nakedness of a close relative or for taking a close relative as a wife go from "he will bear his iniquity" (meaning that there is no sacrifice that can be made for such rebellion) to becoming barren (not able to bear children) or excommunication from among the people.  All of these close relationship still appear to be forbidden as does even looking on the nakedness of a close relative (lusting after them sexually, even if you do not actually have sex with them).  These were the acts of the wicked Canaanites that only saw their daughters and sisters and mothers as sexual objects and it has no place amongst God's people.  This profanes the holy name of God that His people bear and slanders His good name and assassinates His good character.  This is why these sins that are "high-handed" sins of rebellion are such a big deal to God.  You don't "accidently" stumble into adultery or beastiality or homosexuality.  You also don't accidently look at your close relatives as sexual objects or have sexual relationships with them.  These are unclean passions that are given time and space to take root before they produce fruit.  While a person's passions are strong, they are not something that "just happens."  People put themselves into the situation where they invite it to happen (with the exception of the people that are attacked like we talked about before--that will be covered later).