Penalties (Leviticus 20)

Were there penalties for breaking God’s law? What are some examples? How do we handle such immorality in our churches? Let’s review Leviticus 20.

Moloch was a Canaanite god or the name of a sacrifice of little children in which they were passed through fire. Can you imagine the grieving parents deluded into this insanity?

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name. And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives some of his descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech. (Leviticus 20:1-5 NKJV)

What is spiritual prostitution or whoring after pagan gods? Was the covenant frequently viewed like a marriage contract, God married to Israel?

I will also turn against those who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community. So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy. (Leviticus 20:6-8 NLT)

How important was honoring parents under the old covenant?

For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon himself. (Leviticus 20:9 WEB)

How important was marital faithfulness under the old covenant?

If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with a neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be executed. If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be executed. They have acted perversely; their blood is on their own heads. If a man has sexual intercourse with a man as he would with a woman, the two of them have done something detestable. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. If a man marries a woman and her mother as well, it is shameful. They will be burned with fire—the man and the two women—so that no such shameful thing will be found among you. If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be executed and you must kill the animal. If a woman approaches any kind of animal to mate with it, you must kill the woman and the animal. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. (Leviticus 20:10-16 CEB)

Adam and Eve’s children must have married sister and brother, but after the gene pool spread out it became illegal due to the dangers of incest. What was the punishment for this?

If you marry one of your sisters, you will be punished, and the two of you will be disgraced by being openly forced out of the community. If you have sex with a woman during her monthly period, both you and the woman will be cut off from the people of Israel. The sisters of your father and mother are your own relatives, and you will be punished for having sex with any of them. If you have sex with your uncle's wife, neither you nor she will ever have any children. And if you marry your sister-in-law, neither of you will ever have any children. (Leviticus 20:17-21 CEV)

God had vomited out the Canaanites due to perverse religious things like sacrificing their children to Moloch. What would God do to Israel if they in turn acted the same?

You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. (Leviticus 20:22-26 ESV)