CHAPTER 20

(1490 B.C.)

SEVERE PENALTIES

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying (the constant use of this statement proclaims that all of this is the Word of the Lord and, therefore, must not be changed in any manner, and must be adhered to strictly),

²Again, you shall say to the Children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the Children of Israel, or of the strangers (Gentiles) who sojourn in Israel, who gives any of his seed (his children) unto Molech (as stated, the Ammonite god); he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones (this particular sin was looked at as a capital crime, which, if continued, would destroy Israel, which sadly it ultimately did; its penalty was death by stoning).

³And I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people (if he does not repent, he will be eternally lost); because he has given of his seed unto Molech, to defile My Sanctuary, and to profane My Holy Name (under the New Covenant, the Sanctuary of the Lord is the physical body and mind of the Believer; idolatry, which this is, and which presently stands for anything in which one places ones faith other than Christ and the Cross, will ultimately bring destruction on the individual, if Repentance is not forthcoming [I Cor. 3:16-17]).

⁴And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he gives of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:

⁵Then I will set My face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people (the present meaning is that if a true Preacher of the Gospel does not stand up against false doctrine, God will ultimately visit such a Preacher with judgment, with the possibility being that he could definitely lose his soul [Ezek. 3:17-21]).

THE OCCULT

⁶And the soul who turns after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go whoring after them, I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people (presently, any direction thats not Christ and Him Crucified falls, in one way or the other, into occultism, irrespective of the religious face it carries [I Cor. 1:17-18, 23; 2:2]).

HOLINESS

⁷Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

⁸And you shall keep My Statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you (Israel could sanctify themselves only by trying to obey the Lord; if their hearts were in the Word, and their Faith was anchored in what the Sacrifices represented, namely the coming Redeemer, on that basis the Lord would sanctify them, but only on that basis [Lev. 9:22-24]).

PARENTAL DISRESPECT

⁹For every one who curses his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him (death for cursing ones parents may seem harsh; however, Israel was being prepared to bring the Messiah into the world; consequently, great restrictions were placed upon them, for the obvious reasons; Godly parents were to be looked at as a symbol of God; in other words, if children would curse their parents, they would as well curse God, for the former symbolized the latter).

DEATH FOR ADULTERY

¹⁰And the man who commits adultery with another mans wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbours wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death (these penalties are not carried over into the New Covenant; but let the Reader understand that while adultery may not bring on physical death under the New Covenant, it definitely will bring on spiritual death, that is, if one continues such a course, thereby refusing to repent).

DEATH FOR INCEST

¹¹And the man who lies with his fathers wife has uncovered his fathers nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

¹²And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them (the idea of the statement, their blood shall be upon them, pertains to the fact that the penalty for the crime is the fault of the perpetrator).

DEATH FOR HOMOSEXUALITY

¹³If a man also lie with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them (the Lord speaks here of homosexuality as an abomination; the word Abomination, in the Hebrew, is towebah, and means something disgusting, an abhorrence).

DEATH FOR INCEST

¹⁴And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you (the necessity of the Lord having to give these Commands and Warnings portrays to us the glaring fact of mans total depravity).

DEATH FOR BESTIALITY

¹⁵And if a man lie (engage in intercourse) with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and you shall kill the beast.

¹⁶And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, you shall kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

DEATH FOR OTHER SEXUAL SINS

¹⁷And if a man shall take his sister, his fathers daughter, or his mothers daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he has uncovered his sisters nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁸And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness (monthly period), and shall uncover her nakedness; he has discovered her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people (the monthly discharge of the feminine gender speaks of impurity, and harks back to the original sin of Eve; to engage in intercourse at such a time, in essence, was a denial of the Fall and its cause; due to Christ and what He did at the Cross, this particular prohibition no longer applies, at least in the sense that it did before the Cross; nevertheless, it still should be held to in principle, and for all the obvious reasons).

¹⁹And you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mothers sister, nor of your fathers sister: for he uncovers his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity (all of this, as is obvious, pertains to incest, which was common among the surrounding nations).

²⁰And if a man shall lie with his uncles wife, he has uncovered his uncles nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless (which was a great reproach).

²¹And if a man shall take his brothers wife, it is an unclean thing: he has uncovered his brothers nakedness; they shall be childless.

COMMANDS

²²You shall therefore keep all My Statutes, and all My Judgments, and do them: that the land, where I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out (the Commands of the Lord were to be the guiding structure of Israel, and not the ways of the heathen nations which surrounded them; it is the same presently under the New Covenant).

²³And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them (God hates sin, wherever it is found).

²⁴But I have said unto you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people (this is carried over into the New Covenant, as well, with the Holy Spirit, through Paul, stating basically the same thing [II Cor. 6:14-18]; the Lord here plainly says that one cannot at the same time have milk and honey and sin).

²⁵You shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean (certain prohibitions were leveled against Israel that are not carried over into the New Covenant, because Israel was to be the womb of the Messiah, so to speak).

²⁶And you shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that you should be Mine (Israel was to belong to the Lord, and to belong to the Lord exclusively; it is the same with Believers presently).

MEDIUMS AND WIZARDS

²⁷A man also or woman who has a familiar spirit, or who is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them (the greater gist of this Verse is that Israel look exclusively to the Lord for leading and guidance, and not to other means, especially the means of the powers of darkness).