Chapter 20
Leviticus 20 - GENERAL REMARKS - I find it interesting that not every offense was worthy of death, however, in some instances, the Lord even specifies the type of death. Furthermore, if you put chapter 18 next to chapter 20, you will find remarkable similarities. The main difference is that chapter 20 gives the punishment for sins mentioned in both chapters.
In what follows, I name the punishment followed by those whom should receive it:
-Cut off from the people: Those who seek necromancers; those who do not put to death people who sacrifice their children to Molech; intercourse during menstrual cycle; sex with sister-in-law;
-Stoned: Mediums and necromancers;
-Put to death (general): One cursing father or mother; sacrificing children to Molech; adultery with neighbor's wife; sex with mother-in-law; sex with daughter-in-law; homosexuality; sex with animals;
-Burned alive: A man that marries mother and daughter (see note on Lev. 20:14)
-Die childless: Sex with deceased uncle's wife; Sex with deceased brother's wife (unless it is to fulfill the law of propagating your dead brother's family line, which is within bods of marriage and not fornication);
-Unspecified punishment: Sex with an aunt.
Leviticus 20:2 - It is significant that the Lord includes sojourners in the land in the prohibition of sacrificing to Molech. Later in the verse, God instructs that "the people of the land" should stone the offender. Note that He did not say just the Israelites, but that even the sojourners should take up stones to kill the ones polluting the land with such horrible practices. Can you see it? A sojourner would pick up stones against an Israelite to kill him for sacrificing to Molech.
Why include sojourners in the prohibition and execution? Such evil pollutes the land, which the sojourner must live in as well. This gives Christians living as a religious minority in countries the right to speak out against atrocities. Evil pollutes a land, and as Christians we must stand up against it, because we will suffer along with the rest of the land.
Another reason to include sojourners is because they might influence the Israelites to the practice. Thus, no one was allowed to sacrifice to Molech to prevent pollution of the land or leading astray the Israelites.
Leviticus 20:3 - "I will set my face against that man..." There is an emphatic inclusion of the personal pronoun "I" that is meant to convey, "I, yes, even I will set me face..." The Lord does not often say this. As best as I can tell, it occurs: 5 - Leviticus; 2 - Jeremiah; 2 - Ezekiel. In every instance, there is some grave sin involved. There is no worse punishment in this life than the Lord setting His face against you.
Leviticus 20:4-5 - The greatest service the people of the land could do to a family whose member sacrificed to Molech is to kill the offending person. If they did not kill that person, then look what the Lord will do: He will not only set His face against the offender but also the entire family.
Leviticus 20:8 - "I am the Lord who sanctifies you" (NASB). That is to say, "I am the One who makes you different from everyone else."
Leviticus 20:9 - The word "curse" in the Hebrew is different from "curse" in English. If someone says a four-letter word in English, they have "cursed." But in Hebrew, to curse someone is to call on some spiritual power (either God or devils) to ruin the life of another person. God says this sin is the ultimate of depravity, and the person deserves to die.
Leviticus 20:13 - God specifically says that in the homosexual act, both parties (passive and active) are guilty of committing an abomination and should die. In the Greco-Roman world, they differentiated between the active and passive partners. There were rules governing who could take which role. Only if someone violated those laws could guilt be imputed. But the homosexual act was not considered a sin unless it violated regulatory laws. Here, God says any homosexual act is an abomination and both violators deserve to die.
Leviticus 20:14 - The Targum of Jonathan actually prescribes that the three of them should be killed by pouring molten lead into their mouths (Section 30, Kedoshim). It should be noted that the Israelites were not very good at following through with capital punishment.
Leviticus 20:23 - There is a nuance in this verse that you have to look to the footnotes of the English translation to see. The word "customs" (NASB) is literally the word "statutes" that is used also in the previous verse. The significance is this: In verse 22, the Lord says, "You must keep all my statutes." Then in verse 23 He says, "Do not walk in the statutes of the pagan nations." He is saying they have a choice of statutes to follow, but they are to follow His only.
The Lord says, "I loathed them." This is a very strong statement in the Hebrew. There is a preposition Bet (second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) in front of "them", which is used in extreme circumstances. My Hebrew professor always said, "You never want to see a Bet in front of your name! If you did, that meant you were in big trouble."
