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.
What a profound statement, “I am the Lord your God”. Is the Lord your God? Who is leading you; your flesh? The world? At various times all of us Christians have our “Self” on the throne of our hearts. It is a daily and constant struggle to exalt and glorify our Creator over ourselves. We even pretend to be honoring our Creator while we are, in fact, honoring Self.
We need true worship, true obedience. My flesh is very powerful and it does not diminish its power as I grow old. Its demands hardly change. I want the Lord to be my God in every thing. My flesh demands worship. The world insists on it.
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.
We are not to be like the world we came out of and we are not to live the way they live.
4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
If we are to have the Lord as our God we are to obey him and keep his testimonies and ordinances.
Psalm 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
For the Christian, there is this warning akin to this verse;
Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Lest you think that you have won a great victory because you haven’t done the following things in your body, keep this admonition to the Christian in mind;
2Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
In this I have failed repeatedly. How about you?
6 ¶ None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.
Here is a Biblical euphemism for sexual contact; to uncover someone’s nakedness. Note this in Genesis;
Genesis 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
The nakedness of one’s mother is called “thy father’s nakedness” in verse 8. This will give you a hint as to the origin of the American black slang word, “mother......”. Ham’s sin is very clear on this regard. He either saw his mother naked or he had sex with her, indicating his lack of sexual impulse control, his basic tendency toward deliberate immoral behavior.
7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
It is very clear here that sex with father or mother is forbidden, or, for that matter, to even see them naked.
8 The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
Even though the father’s wife might not be one’s actual mother, it is forbidden to have sexual contact with her.
9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.
One’s sister, whether she be step or half sister, no matter where she is from is not an appropriate sexual partner.
10 The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.
Your granddaughter is not an appropriate sexual partner.
11 The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
Your half sister is still your sister.
12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.
It is forbidden to have sexual contact with your aunt.
13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman.
Again, this is about your aunt on your mother’s side.
14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.
This is very clear.
15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
Okay, your daughter in law is out of bounds.
16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
So is your sister in law.
17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
Taking a woman and her daughter, or her daughter in law, or her granddaughter is forbidden.
18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
Your wife’s sister is out of bounds.
19 ¶ Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.
As was a woman in menstruation.
20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.
Here, our common understanding of adultery is clearly shown.
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.
The ancient near eastern religious practice, as some scholars point claim, of putting your infant into the arms of a superheated statue of Baal while trumpets and drums drowned out the screams of the dying baby, to appease the Devil, was forbidden. It is in this way, it has been said that 300 babies were killed in one day in Carthage during a siege.
Our passion for aborting our babies on the altar of affluence and ease of living is similar. Only we kill 4,000 a day on a regular basis.
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Male homosexual behavior is here condemned.
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.
What we call bestiality is condemned.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
It is clear that these things were practiced by the nations, ethnic groups, which resided in Canaan and which God had chosen to be displaced. These things are also openly practiced in America and the West today. There is no reason for us to assume that God won’t judge us similarly.
26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
True submission to God involves obedience. Doing the above mentioned sins, even in thought, is not obedience. We can’t come close to obedience because we haven’t learned to submit to Christ as our authority and as our Master.
29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
These are some of the restrictions that set the Hebrews off from other peoples and that set Christians off from non-Christians.
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