Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 19:19

19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

Verse 19 is about keeping things separate and pure, not mixing parts together. It can be seen as a continuation of the laws against eating unclean meat and not using leaven during the Passover. All of this, of course, is a symbol of being a separate and chosen people. Though Israel would necessarily live alongside pagan cultures, they were not to mix faiths, not to corrupt their worship of God. Unfortunately, Israel would on many occasions fall into this very error and would lose their kingdom because of it.

Of course, we cannot judge them too harshly. Corruption of the faith is a very real problem in our day, too. There are many “Christians” who are more converted to the trends of our current society than their actual doctrine, seeking to blend fabrics of love and tolerance with sins like homosexuality, to give just one example. Mankind has ever been too concerned with looking right according to the current social standard, and not in being right in God’s eyes.

It is interesting that it is this particular verse has become a favorite go-to for those wanting to discount the Bible’s commandments against homosexuality. “Why do you hold to the Bible’s condemnation of gay people, but you still wear clothes with mixed fabrics?” The answer is that, as previously mentioned, the mixed fabric law was part of the unclean meats and leaven laws, which was explicitly withdrawn in Acts 10, whereas the sins of sexual immorality have never been rescinded. Still, it is ironic and poetic that people attempt to justify homosexuality by referencing the very category of commandments that symbolically opposed the mingling of faith with the immoral trends of the day.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 18:21-23

21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord. 

22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 

23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

We come to one of the first passages explicitly forbidding homosexuality here in Leviticus 18:22. I find it very compelling to consider the immediate context this commandment is found within. It is right after the commandment to not sacrifice human children, and right before the commandment to not commit bestiality. That makes it very clear the category of sin that this behavior occupies and the foolishness in thinking that it would ever be rescinded. Many like to compare it to the commandments to not eat pork or wear mixed fabrics, but that is not the context in which it actually appears. Rather, it is listed among the most perverse and evil acts imaginable.

Speaking of which, it seems like it should hardly be necessary to declare that one should not burn their children as a sacrifice or have sexual relations with animals. Even absent commandments from God, these should universally be considered perverse and evil acts. Still, there is value in having God call them out directly anyway. None can say, “well God never spoke on it.” He spoke on it in our hearts, and He spoke on it in His word just to be sure that there could be no excuse. And yet these behaviors are still performed and are still excused, even today. In fact, child murder has become more standardized and ritualized in our abortion culture than perhaps any culture that came before. It may be the same with homosexuality as well. So far, at least, bestiality has remained only a dark, fringe practice…but who knows what the future holds.

The presence of the darkest sins imaginable in our modern society does raise the question of whether we are not on the brink of a divine scourging. The deepest depravity of man recorded in the scriptures we see manifested in our day, so it may not be long before the judgments of God recorded in the scriptures we see manifested also.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 18:1-5

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. 

3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 

4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. 

5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.

Over the next 3 chapters we will have a long series of evil practices explicitly forbidden by God. These will include some of the darkest and most corrosive behaviors that man can engage in, from sexual immorality to child sacrifice to occult practices. Of course, these lists of sins should not be considered as exhaustive, as man ever finds new and ingenious ways to desecrate the sanctity of one another.

That is, indeed, what the sins described in these chapters largely are: desecrations of the divinity in one another. Elsewhere God has forbidden behaviors that desecrate our relationship with Him. Sins that are contrary to the first great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” In these next chapters He will now forbid those relative to the second great commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

It is popular in today’s culture to point out that some of the Mosaic Laws do not apply to Christians today, such as the wearing of mixed threads, and thus why are other laws, like those against homosexuality, “arbitrarily” chosen to still be in force? These arguments are made in ignorance (sometimes genuine, sometimes willful) of how these laws are actually separated in the text. Over the next few chapters, we will see both of these commandments, and it will be clear that those against homosexuality are located in the midst of the most extreme sins, the ones focused on the desecration of one another’s sanctity. Meanwhile, the ones of wearing mixed threads are in a totally separate section of symbolic anti-mingling laws. There is an explicit revocation of those symbolic anti-mingling laws in Acts 10, and absolutely no precedent for any of the laws against the desecration of one another ever being rescinded, and for obvious reason! The laws against the desecration of one another will remain in force so long as the members of the human race are children of God, carrying a divine spark within them that must not be violated.