Leviticus 18 Devotional

Boundaries Set by a Rescuer

“You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God.”Leviticus 18:4 (BSB)

Leviticus 18 begins and ends by naming God as the LORD their God (18:2, 30). Before any command, he reminds Israel whose they are. They must not copy the customs of Egypt or of Canaan, but keep his statutes and live (18:3-5).

The laws that follow are frank but not graphic. They forbid sexual relations with close relatives and with a neighbor's wife, along with relations between men and with animals, and in the middle they forbid giving children to Molech (18:6-23). Several give their own reason: such acts would shame a father, a brother, a family (18:8, 10, 16). The land had vomited out the nations who did these things, and God's standard was no lower for Israel (18:24-28). Paul names similar sins and tells the Corinthians that some of them had lived that way, but had been washed, made holy, and justified in Jesus' name (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The God who draws these lines is also the God who cleanses those who have crossed them.

To think about: How does knowing that God both sets boundaries and washes people clean shape the way you think about your own past?