Commentary - Leviticus 18:19-23

Bird's-eye view

In this section of the Holiness Code, the Lord lays down a series of foundational prohibitions that function as boundary markers for His covenant people. Having just detailed the sins of incest, God now turns to other practices that would defile both the individual and the land. These are not arbitrary rules; they are a direct repudiation of the customs of Egypt and Canaan. The surrounding pagan cultures were saturated with sexual confusion and death cults, and God is establishing His people as a holy alternative. The laws in this passage address menstrual purity, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. Each one strikes at the heart of pagan worship and worldview. The underlying principle is that worship and life are inextricably linked. How a nation behaves in the bedroom is a direct reflection of which god they serve in the sanctuary. These commands are given to protect Israel from the defilements that cause the land itself to vomit out its inhabitants, setting the stage for a culture of life, fidelity, and holiness under the lordship of Yahweh.

The thread connecting these seemingly disparate laws is the rejection of all that is chaotic, death-oriented, and contrary to God's created order. Adultery violates the covenant of marriage. Child sacrifice is the ultimate worship of death. Homosexuality and bestiality are profound confusions of God's created design for mankind. Even the prohibition regarding menstrual impurity, while ceremonial in its application, points to the sanctity of life and blood. God is teaching His people to make distinctions, to honor boundaries, and to live in a way that reflects His own holy character. For the Christian, these laws point us to Christ, who is the true embodiment of holiness and who cleanses us from all defilement, establishing a new covenant people whose hearts are circumcised and whose lives are to be set apart from the corruptions of the world.

Outline

Context In Leviticus

Leviticus 18 is a central chapter in what is known as the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26). The book up to this point has established the sacrificial system and the priesthood, the means by which a holy God can dwell among a sinful people. Now, the focus shifts to the practical outworking of that holiness in the daily life of the Israelite. Chapter 18 begins with a stark warning: "You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you" (Lev 18:3). The laws that follow, therefore, are not given in a vacuum. They are a direct antithesis to the prevailing pagan cultures. The preceding verses (vv. 6-18) deal with a long list of incestuous relationships. The verses that follow our text (vv. 24-30) warn that these very practices are what defiled the Canaanites and caused the land to spew them out. This entire chapter, then, is a charter for covenantal living, defining what it means to be the people of Yahweh in a world given over to every form of sexual and religious corruption.

Key Issues

The Grammar of Holiness

We must understand that the Holiness Code was a kind of grammar school for the Israelites. God was teaching His people the basic vocabulary and sentence structure of what it meant to be holy. Much of this was done through what we would call ceremonial or ritual laws. These laws were audio-visual aids, designed to teach deep spiritual truths through tangible, everyday practices. They taught the people to make distinctions: clean and unclean, holy and common, Israelite and pagan.

Some of these laws, like the prohibition of adultery, are clearly moral and therefore permanent, rooted in God's unchanging character. Others, like the laws concerning ritual impurity, were typological, pointing forward to the work of Christ. When Christ came, the audio-visual aids were taken down because the reality they depicted had arrived. However, this does not mean the lessons they taught are irrelevant. The principle behind the ceremonial law is still binding. For example, we are no longer bound by the specific dietary laws, but the principle that God's people are to be distinct from the world in their appetites remains. As we approach this text, we must ask of each command: what is the permanent moral principle this law is teaching? What aspect of God's created order is it protecting? And how does it point us to our need for the ultimate cleansing found only in Jesus Christ?

Verse by Verse Commentary

19 ‘Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her menstrual impurity.

This prohibition is first and foremost a ceremonial law. In the Levitical system, contact with blood or other bodily discharges rendered a person ceremonially unclean (Lev. 15). This was not because these things were sinful, but because they were potent symbols of life and death. Blood, in particular, belonged to God, for the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). This law taught Israel to treat the very wellsprings of life with reverence and respect. It set apart the marital act from any association with the pagan fertility cults, which often incorporated blood and ritual sex in their attempts to manipulate the gods. While the ceremonial aspect of this law was fulfilled in Christ, who makes us truly clean, the underlying principle remains. It teaches a tender respect within marriage, and it upholds the sanctity of life. It guards against a crass, merely utilitarian view of sex and reminds us that even our most intimate moments are lived out before a holy God.

20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her.

Here we move from the ceremonial to the plainly moral. Adultery is a violation of the seventh commandment and a direct assault on the covenant of marriage. Marriage is the cornerstone of a stable society, and it is a picture of the covenant relationship between Christ and His church. To commit adultery is to profane that picture. It is a lie in action. The text says it is "to be defiled with her." Sin pollutes. It stains the conscience and corrupts the soul. Adultery is not a private matter between two consenting adults; it is a public act of treason against God, against one's spouse, against one's family, and against the entire community. It introduces chaos, confusion, and heartbreak into the very place where there should be trust, security, and faithfulness. This is a timeless prohibition because the covenant of marriage is a creation ordinance, foundational to God's design for humanity.

21 And you shall not give any of your seed to pass them over to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.

This is one of the most chilling prohibitions in all of Scripture. Molech was a pagan deity, likely an Ammonite god, whose worship involved the sacrifice of children. This could have meant literal immolation, or a dedication of the child to a life of cultic prostitution. Either way, it was the ultimate act of devotion to a death cult. To give your "seed," your offspring, to a false god is the most profound form of spiritual adultery. It is a rejection of the God of life in favor of a god of death. Notice the connection God makes: doing this profanes His name. Why? Because Israel was God's covenant people. Their children were covenant children, marked out as holy to the Lord. To hand them over to Molech was to treat the holy as common, to drag God's name through the mud of pagan idolatry. This is the ultimate inversion: instead of parents giving their lives for their children, they sacrifice their children for their own twisted spiritual or personal gratification. We should not think ourselves above this. Every society that embraces abortion on demand is, in effect, building altars to Molech. They are sacrificing their children for the sake of convenience, career, and sexual freedom. And in doing so, they profane the name of the God who says, "I am Yahweh."

22 And you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.

This is a clear and unambiguous prohibition of homosexual practice. The language is direct. Such an act is called an abomination, a toevah in Hebrew. This is a strong word, often used to describe idolatrous and detestable practices. This is not a ceremonial issue, like eating shellfish. This is a moral issue, rooted in the created order. God created mankind in His own image, "male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:27). The sexual union of a man and a woman is a living icon of this created reality, and in marriage, it is a picture of the union between Christ and the Church. Homosexual practice is a confusion of this created design. It is an attempt to find sexual union outside of the complementary nature of male and female that God ordained. It is, as I have said elsewhere, a form of sexual iconoclasm. It strikes at the image of God. The modern attempt to bless what God calls an abomination is a sign of a culture that has given itself over to a debased mind, as Paul argues in Romans 1.

23 Also you shall not lie with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

The final prohibition in this section addresses bestiality. This is called a perversion, or tevel in Hebrew, meaning a confusion or violation of the natural order. This sin obliterates the boundary between man and beast. Man was created in the image of God and given dominion over the animals (Gen. 1:26-28). To engage in sexual relations with an animal is a grotesque abdication of that role. It is for man to sink below his own created dignity into utter degradation. This was a known practice in the pagan world, often connected to their mythology and worship. For God's people, it is an unthinkable defilement. It represents the complete breakdown of all created distinctions, the surrender to a chaotic and base impulse that denies the very definition of what it means to be human. Both men and women are forbidden from this, showing that the responsibility to uphold God's created order applies to all.

Application

The modern world, and sadly, much of the modern church, wants to dismiss these verses as archaic and irrelevant. But they are anything but. These five prohibitions are a line in the sand, marking the difference between a culture of life and a culture of death. Our society has crossed every single one of these lines with gusto. We have embraced adultery as a common lifestyle. We sacrifice our children by the millions on the altar of self. We celebrate as a virtue what God calls an abomination. And while bestiality is still on the fringes, the logic that got us here is pushing relentlessly in that direction. We have become the very Canaanites that the land vomited out.

The application for the Christian is first to repent. We must confess that we have allowed the world to catechize us in its sexual chaos. We must recover a robust, biblical theology of creation, of marriage, and of holiness. We must teach our children that God's law is a delight, a guardrail that keeps us on the path of life. Secondly, we must not despair. The point of Leviticus is to show us our need for a sacrifice. The law reveals our defilement, but it cannot cleanse us. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. He is the one who was perfectly holy, who fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. He went outside the camp, bearing our uncleanness, so that we might be made clean. He took the curse for our perversions so that we might be restored to God's created design. Our response, therefore, is not to try and keep these laws in our own strength to earn God's favor, but rather to flee to Christ in faith, receive His cleansing, and then, out of gratitude and love, walk in the newness of life He provides, a life that is set apart from the defilements of this present evil age.