Chapter 18
Laws about sex. Mostly, they say you shouldn't have sex with any of your close relatives. Certainly at least through first cousin, even if only a half- first-cousin. Then there is this about homosexuality:
22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. [Lev 18:22 ESV] Really hard to get around this one, to make it mean something else. Of course, we don't follow very many things from the Levitical law today. We eat blood and pork, we no longer sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled the law, freeing us from all it's details. This is not to say that what was sin in the OT is no longer sin. We need NT condemnation of these sins though to be consistent. There are several NT repetitions of this law against homosexuality.
MSB says that "uncover the nakedness" is a euphemism for having sex with someone. How is that the case when one of Jacob's sons uncovered his nakedness? Does this really mean he had sex with his drunk passed out father? I have never heard it called this before. I thought it meant literally that you were not supposed to ever see these people naked. I though it meant no communal showers or baths or things like that. This would open up a whole new perspective on things, and many verses will read differently with this "meaning".
2022 - It likely means that the son had sex with his father's wife - though probably not his own mother. Could be that while both Jacob and this wife were passed out drunk, Reuben came in and had sex with the unconscious - or barely aware - wife. That is what Reuben did.
2023 - I think MSB has it right (big surprise!). Look at this verse, where it is pretty much spelled out:
8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. [Lev 18:8 ESV], and this one even moreso:
16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness. [Lev 18:16 ESV] Having sex with your sister-in-law uncovers her nakedness, but uncovers his also.
If you read these in detail, you see that it is not always about genetics as I thought it was. Some of this "don't uncover the nakedness of" is about people who are not blood relatives at all, as in vs 16. In-laws in many cases are forbidden. That truly does seem like a bad idea, but it is not about genetics. Your brother and your sister-in-law are one in the sight of God, because they are married. So uncovering one uncovers the other. Is that how these work? Maybe...7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. [Lev 18:7 ESV]. It fits for this verse. But it does not hold up for this verse: 9 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. [Lev 18:9 ESV]. This one might be about genetics. And then this one, which is pretty convoluted: 10 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. [Lev 18:10 ESV]. So...you are not to have sex with yourself? Your granddaughter's nakedness is your own nakedness? This one also seems more about genetics than about marriage making two people one.
2023 - So...when Jacob married Rachel AND Leah, he violated this law...though it was not yet codified: 18 And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. [Lev 18:18 ESV]
2023 - 18 And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. [Lev 18:18 ESV]. Clearly not genetics. And really, not about two people being one. This is just plain about ethical behavior.
This theme, which is repeated in Dt. 18:9-14:
24 'Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. 25 'For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. [Lev 18:24-25 NASB]
God gave Canaan to Israel because those already in Canaan were abominable to God. Their practices were perverted, far from God's law. Noah would have passed on the kinds of things going on in the world before the flood took land away from those who practiced such things. All knew this was wrong...or they had been perverted for so long that they were no longer sensitive to how perverted such practices were. The sin and corruption of the people living in Canaan was so awful and so prevalent that the land itself will regurgitate them, and "aid" in removing them from itself. There are a number of places where we see that what happens in/on/to the land comes to God's attention. Abel's blood cried out to God from the land was I think the first instance of this, but there are many others.
Abortion pollutes the land itself. Shedding any innocent blood does this. And sooner or later, the land will cry out.
2022 - "26 But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you ... 28 lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ... 30 So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God."" [Lev 18:26, 28, 30 ESV]
Homosexuality and bestiality are specifically mentioned in the verses that come just before this, as was sex with relatives. At least that is not rampant in the US! But when you look at the wording here, it says that if these kinds of things are going on, the land becomes unclean to the point of vomiting out those who live there. Surely this points to conquest...displacement is probably a more accurate word...of the nation that incorporates such practices, such abominations. The land itself gets so sick of this kind of behavior that it pushes them out. I am thinking drought, diseases, famine, storms, rampaging animals...all those sorts of "natural disasters". Look at what is going on worldwide with covid-19...yet 1918 and the Spanish flu was worse...
I think you have to look at these things as "birth pangs". I think the frequency and ferocity of these natural disasters tells us where we are, tells us how bad things really are. Very difficult to quantify...but isn't it interesting that all the screaming about offsetting global warming - because it is making the earth revolt against us - is missing the point entirely. The "data" is correct, the "predictions" are correct, but the cause is completely misunderstood. And isn't it interesting that it is "global" warming, not "Israel" warming, or "United States" warming, but global warming. What is happening is worldwide, as it must be as things approach the way they were "in the days of Noah".
Possible FB post.