Leviticus 20:9-26 - Honouring God in marriage and sexual relationship

These verses began with God reiterated the call to honor one’s father and mother. Here we see God forbids a child from cursing his or her parents. So severe was such an offense that He pronounced a death sentence on one who had committed this offense. Why did God view this wrongdoing so severely?  It’s probably because parents are figures of authority. If one cannot honor one’s parents how will he be able to respect God? Besides, denigrating the authority of parents would weaken the fabric of the homes. God wants the role of parents in one’s life to be respected.

From these verses on, God was dealing largely with His call to holy living by not engaging in a sexual relationship with any other member of one’s family. Implied in His dealing with these aberrant sexual relationships is God’s call to honor the marriage bed. One must only engage in sexual intimacy with one’s own spouse. Apart from forbidding adultery (verse 10), God also strongly rejected the consanguineous sexual relationships. He forbade incest with one’s mother, stepmother, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law (verses 11-12, 14). He also showed his disapproval of homosexual acts and sodomy (verse 13). And in verses 15-16, God forbade sexual engagement with animals commonly known as bestiality. In verse 17, sex with one’s sister or half-sister was disavowed. Verse 18 showed that a sexual relationship with a woman during her menstruation is disallowed.  Sexual union with other relationships such as one’s aunty or aunty-in-law, one’s sister-in-law was also strongly renounced in verses 19-20.   

God prescribed severe punishment for these sexual sins. In many of them, capital punishment was called for. God wanted them to be His distinct people. He would not allow them to emulate the conduct of the people of Canaan. They must consecrate themselves and showed themselves as God’s separated people. God wanted them to be a pure community that would reflect His holiness. Like Israel, we are also called out of the world to witness to the holy God. We must conduct our lives in such a way, especially in the area of sexual relationships, so that we will also bring glory to His name.