Spiritual Harlotry and the God Who Makes Holy Text: Leviticus 20:6-8
Introduction: Choosing Your Spiritual Authority
We live in a spiritually schizophrenic age. On the one hand, our secular overlords insist that the material world is all there is. There is no God, no devil, no angels, no demons, nothing but atoms and the void. But on the other hand, our culture is absolutely drowning in a swamp of pagan spirituality. People who would scoff at the resurrection of Jesus Christ will check their horoscopes with breakfast, burn sage to cleanse their apartment of bad vibes, and talk unironically about their "spirit animal." The very same people who dismiss the God of the Bible as a cruel myth will gladly pay money to have a medium contact their dead grandmother.
This is not a new phenomenon. It is the ancient rebellion of mankind, dressed up in new clothes. Man is an inescapably religious creature. He will worship. The only question is what he will worship. He will either worship the transcendent, triune God who created him, or he will worship some part of the creation. And when a man turns from the Creator, he does not find enlightened autonomy. He finds degradation. He finds himself bowing down to things lower than himself, whether that is a block of wood, the stars in the sky, or the whispers of a familiar spirit.
The book of Leviticus, and particularly this section which is part of the Holiness Code, is God's gracious instruction to His covenant people on how to be sane in an insane world. It is a firewall against the spiritual madness of the surrounding pagan nations. God is establishing a people for Himself, a holy nation, and holiness means separation. It means being set apart from the world's defilement and set apart to God for His purposes. And here, in our text, God addresses one of the most direct forms of spiritual rebellion: trafficking with the occult. This is not a quaint, Bronze Age superstition. This is a direct assault on the First Commandment. It is an act of spiritual adultery, and God, the jealous husband of His people, will not tolerate rivals.
These verses lay out a stark choice. You can seek guidance from the dead, or you can seek it from the living God. You can prostitute your soul to the darkness, or you can consecrate your soul to the Holy One. You can attempt to make yourself holy through pagan rituals, or you can submit to the God who alone makes you holy. There is no middle ground. There is no syncretism. You must choose your spiritual authority.
The Text
‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
Therefore, you shall set yourselves apart as holy and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God.
And you shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
(Leviticus 20:6-8 LSB)
The Treason of the Occult (v. 6)
We begin with the prohibition and the penalty in verse 6:
"‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people." (Leviticus 20:6)
God takes necromancy, divination, and all forms of occult practice with the utmost seriousness. To "turn to" mediums and spiritists is to seek counsel, guidance, and information from a forbidden source. It is an act of profound distrust in God. It is saying that God's Word is insufficient, that His guidance is unclear, and that His promises are not enough. It is a man looking at the clear fountain of living water that God provides and deciding he would rather drink from a polluted cistern.
Notice the language God uses. He calls it playing the harlot. This is not accidental. Throughout Scripture, idolatry is equated with spiritual adultery. God has entered into a covenant with His people, a relationship as intimate and exclusive as a marriage. When Israel goes after other gods, or in this case, other spiritual powers, it is an act of infidelity. They are cheating on their Divine Husband. This is why the punishment is so severe. This is not merely a quirky hobby; it is high treason against the covenant Lord.
And what is the penalty? "I will also set My face against that person." In Scripture, the blessing of God is for His face to shine upon you (Numbers 6:25). For God to set His face against you is the ultimate curse. It means His settled, determined, judicial opposition. It is a terrifying thing to have the Creator of the universe set His face against you. And the result is that He "will cut him off from among his people." This refers to excommunication, being put out of the covenant community. In the Old Testament, this often meant capital punishment, as we see elsewhere. But the ultimate reality behind the physical act is spiritual separation from God and His people. It is to be declared an outsider, an apostate.
This is not because God is afraid of mediums. It is because He loves His people and is protecting them from demonic deceit. These practices are not neutral. They are a doorway to the demonic realm. When King Saul, in his desperation, consulted the medium at En Dor, it was the final act of his apostasy, and it sealed his doom (1 Chronicles 10:13-14). He had rejected the word of the Lord, so he turned to another word, a lying word from the darkness. We must be clear: all occult activity is a rejection of the sole authority of God and His Word, and it is an invitation for demonic influence.
The Command to Consecrate (v. 7)
In response to this temptation to spiritual pollution, God gives a positive command.
"Therefore, you shall set yourselves apart as holy and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God." (Leviticus 20:7 LSB)
The "therefore" connects this command directly to the prohibition before it. Because trafficking with the occult is spiritual harlotry that defiles you and brings God's judgment, you must therefore do the opposite. You must consecrate yourselves. The word for "set yourselves apart as holy" is the word for sanctification. It carries the dual meaning of being separated from sin and impurity, and being dedicated to God for His service.
Notice the two parts of the command: "set yourselves apart as holy AND be holy." There is an active responsibility on our part. We are to actively separate ourselves from the pagan practices of the world. We are to make choices. We are to guard our hearts and minds. We are to refuse to participate in the works of darkness. This is the active component of our sanctification. We are to pursue holiness.
But the basis for this command is not our own inherent ability. The reason we are to be holy is given right at the end of the verse: "for I am Yahweh your God." This is the foundation. Our holiness is to be a reflection of His holiness. We are to be like our Father. God is not asking us to generate a holiness out of our own resources. He is commanding us to live in accordance with the reality of who He is and who we are in covenant with Him. He is holy, and because we belong to Him, we must be holy. Peter quotes this very principle in the New Testament: "as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:15-16). Our identity dictates our activity.
The Source of Sanctification (v. 8)
Verse 8 clarifies the relationship between our effort and God's sovereign work. It shows us the divine engine that drives our obedience.
"And you shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy." (Leviticus 20:8 LSB)
Here we see the beautiful paradox of sanctification that runs throughout the entire Bible. First, there is our responsibility: "you shall keep My statutes and do them." Obedience is not optional. The Christian life is not a passive drift. We are called to actively, diligently, and faithfully obey the commands of God. Our sanctification involves effort. We are to mortify sin. We are to put on righteousness. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
But this is not legalism. Why? Because of the second half of the verse, which is the foundation for the first half: "I am Yahweh who makes you holy." The Hebrew is Yahweh Mekoddishkem, the Lord who sanctifies you. Our effort is not the ultimate cause of our holiness; God's grace is. We work because He is working in us. As Paul says in the very next verse in Philippians, "work out your own salvation... for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).
This is crucial. If we only focus on the first part, "keep my statutes," we fall into the trap of self-righteous legalism, trying to pull ourselves up by our own moral bootstraps, which always ends in failure and either pride or despair. If we only focus on the second part, "I am the Lord who makes you holy," we can fall into a quietist passivity, thinking we have nothing to do but wait for God to zap us with holiness. The Bible holds both together. God's sovereign, sanctifying grace does not negate our responsibility; it enables it. He works in us so that we can work out. He makes us holy, and the evidence that He is making us holy is that we begin, however imperfectly, to keep His statutes.
The Gospel in the Holiness Code
So how does a Christian, living under the new covenant, read a passage like this? Do we simply avoid tarot cards and Ouija boards and call it a day? No, the principle here goes much deeper and finds its ultimate fulfillment in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The ultimate act of "playing the harlot" is to reject Jesus Christ, the true bridegroom, and seek spiritual life, guidance, or comfort from any other source. Any system of works-righteousness, any self-help guru, any political ideology that promises salvation, any worldly philosophy that we turn to for ultimate answers is a modern form of turning to mediums and spiritists. It is seeking life from the dead. It is looking for answers in the darkness instead of from the one who is the Light of the World.
And what is the gospel but the ultimate expression of this passage? We could not make ourselves holy. We were defiled, adulterous, and dead in our sins. God's face was rightly set against us. We deserved to be "cut off" forever. But God, in His mercy, did not abandon us to our spiritual harlotry. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our holiness.
Jesus is the one who was perfectly consecrated, perfectly holy, perfectly separate from sin. And on the cross, He endured the ultimate curse. God "set His face against" His own Son, and Jesus was "cut off" from the presence of the Father so that we, the spiritual adulterers, could be forgiven and welcomed back. He took our defilement so that we could receive His holiness.
Therefore, our sanctification is now grounded entirely in our union with Him. We are commanded to "be holy" because in Christ, we have already been declared holy. And the Lord who makes us holy is no longer just Yahweh Mekoddishkem in a general sense; He is God the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son to dwell inside of us. He is the one who works in us, conforming us to the image of Christ. He writes God's statutes on our hearts, enabling us to keep and do them, not out of slavish fear, but out of grateful love.
So we fight sin and we reject the occult, not to make ourselves holy, but because God in Christ has already made us holy. We live out the reality that He has established. We are His, and we will have no other spiritual authorities before Him.