Conviction Versus Eviction

22 “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. 24 But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. 25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

27 “A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” – Leviticus 20:22-27 ESV

Long before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, God warned them that their stay there would be a short one if they failed to keep His commands. And God used very graphic terms to describe the consequences of their disobedience.

“You must keep all my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you as your new home will vomit you out.” – Leviticus 20:22 NLT

This rather grotesque-sounding eviction notice was intended to underscore the vile nature of the moral conditions in Canaan. Back in chapter 18, God used the same terminology to explain why He was planning to expel the land’s current occupants.

“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways. Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.” – Leviticus 18:24-25 NLT

According to God, the inhabitants of Canaan were guilty of all the sexual sins and morally repugnant behaviors He had just banned the Israelites from participating in. The lifestyle of the Canaanites was in direct opposition to the will of God and their presence in the land had left it defiled. The various people groups who had taken up residence in Canaan, including the Hivites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Amorites, Hittites, and Perizzites, were guilty of every one of the atrocities God had banned. Their immoral behavior had so “sickened” the land, that it was going to vomit them up in search of relief. The Hebrew word can literally be translated, “to vomit up, spue out, disgorge.”

Back in chapter 18, God described the land as being “defiled.” The Hebrew word is טָמֵא (ṭāmē'), and it means “to be foul, especially in a ceremonial or moral sense (contaminated)” ("H2930 - ṭāmē' - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)." Blue Letter Bible. Web. 12 Jul, 2023. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h2930/kjv/wlc/0-1/>). And God went on to explain that the land had become contaminated by the presence of the Canaanites. Their own defilement had left the land in a foul and morally corrupt state, leaving God with no other choice but to evict or disgorge the sickness from the land. And God warned the Israelites about mimicking the ways of the Canaanites.

“You must not imitate their way of life.” – Leviticus 18:2 NLT

Instead, the Israelites were to obey His decrees and regulations, so that they might “find life through them” (Leviticus 18:5 NLT). Rather than infecting the land with further moral sickness, the Israelites were to rejuvenate the land by living in obedience to the will of God. God reminds the Israelites that Canaan was the land of promise, an inheritance passed down from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“I have promised you, ‘You will possess their land because I will give it to you as your possession—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from all other people.’” – Leviticus 20:24 NLT

This rich, fertile land was intended to be a gift from God, but its fruitfulness had been diminished by the sinful exploits of the Canaanites. Their degraded behavior had left a stain on the land. But even in its morally compromised state, Canaan was to be the future home of God’s people, just as God had promised to Moses as his calling.

“I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.” – Exodus 3:17 NLT

God had kept His word and rescued the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt. He had led them to Mount Sinai, where He gave them the law, His plans for the Tabernacle, and the instructions concerning the sacrificial system. But Sinai was a temporary stop in their journey east. Their real destination was Canaan and God was going to keep His promise to give them the land as their possession.

Centuries earlier, after God had called Abraham out of Ur and led him to the land of Canaan, He revealed the future fate of His servant’s descendants.

“Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.” – Genesis 15:13 ESV

God predicted the Israelite’s 400-year stay in Egypt. But God also promised their eventual return to the land of Canaan.

“And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” – Genesis 15:16 ESV

God knew in advance that, during the Israelite’s absence from Canaan, the Amorites and all their pagan peers would turn the promised land into a moral wasteland. They would have four centuries to degrade and defile the land that God had set apart as the inheritance of Abraham’s offspring. And long before Moses and the people of Israel reached Sinai, God had assured His servant Abraham that the ownership of land would one day change hands.

“To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” – Genesis 15:18-21 ESV

But there was one condition:

“You must keep all my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you as your new home will vomit you out.” – Leviticus 20:22 NLT

If the Israelites dared to emulate the ways of the Canaanites, they would face the same fate. Their set-apart status as God’s chosen people would not immunize them from God’s judgment. If they failed to obey His commands, they too would face eviction from the land. God wanted them to understand that their privileged position as His treasured possession came with expectations.

“I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from all other people.” – Leviticus 20:24 NLT

God had “separated” them from all the other nations on earth. The Hebrew word is בָּדַל (bāḏal), and it means “to make a distinction or difference.” God had culled them from the rest of the nations, not because they were unique or deserving of His attention, but because He had determined to use them as an example of His grace, mercy, and love. He was going to do for them what they could never have accomplished on their own. He would set them apart, distinguishing them from the other nations by providing them with His laws to regulate their conduct, the Tabernacle to determine their worship, and the sacrificial system to maintain their right standing with Him. All of these things would set them apart as His chosen people. But none of it mattered if they failed to live up to their calling.

The Israelites were no different or better than the Hivites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Amorites, Hittites, and Perizzites. The only thing that distinguished them from the pagan occupants of Canaan was their relationship with Yahweh. They had been chosen by Him to serve as His “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Leviticus 19:6 ESV). But it was obedience to His commands that would truly set them apart. God had no use for disobedience priests of an unholy nation. The land of Canaan was already filled with those kinds of people. That’s why God reminds the Israelites, “You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own” (Leviticus 20:26 NLT).

God didn’t want the Israelites to misunderstand. Yes, holiness can be viewed as a status conferred by God. The Hebrew word for “holy” is קָדוֹשׁ (qāḏôš), and can be translated as “set apart” or “consecrated.” God had separated the Israelites from the rest of the nations by deeming them to be His treasured possession. But their set-apart status required a distinctive set of behaviors. As His kingdom of priests and His holy nation, they were expected to live in a way that differentiated them from everyone else on the planet. Holiness isn’t just a status, it is a calling, and it requires purity, commitment, obedience, and faithfulness. Holiness is an all-encompassing lifestyle that demonstrates one’s allegiance to and love for God. The apostle Peter describes it this way:

So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:13-16 NLT

God had redeemed Israel out of captivity, given them His law, provided the Tabernacle as His earthly dwelling place, and instituted the sacrificial system as a means of atoning for their sins and maintaining their ongoing access to His power and presence. But they were going to have to live as who they were: His holy people. Otherwise, they would eventually suffer the same fate as the Canaanites.

There is an interesting parallel to this passage found in the story of Jonah. This prophet of God had been ordered to travel to Ninevah in order to deliver a message.

“…go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” – Jonah 1:2 ESV

But Jonah refused to obey God. Fearing that God’s message might result in the repentance of the wicked people of Ninevah, Jonah ran in the other direction. He ended up on a ship, was caught in a storm, was cast into the sea by the sailors, and swallowed by a great fish. But what happens next is the truly interesting part. It seems that his time in the fish’s stomach brought Jonah to his senses and he prayed to God. But God’s means of deliverance was far from flattering or dignified. Notice what the text says:

And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. – Jonah 2:10 ESV

That is the same Hebrew word used in Leviticus 20. God had the fish “vomit” or unceremoniously disgorge Jonah onto dry land. Jonah’s disobedience made the fish sick. And God warns the people of Israel that the same fate awaits them if they fail to keep His commands. But in their case, it will be the land itself that vomits them up. And God ends this section with a statement that appears somewhat out of place.

“Men and women among you who act as mediums or who consult the spirits of the dead must be put to death by stoning. They are guilty of a capital offense.” – Leviticus 20:27 NLT

But this summary statement appears to be a not-so-subtle reminder that holiness is tied directly to obedience. The ways of the wicked are to be avoided at all costs. God’s lengthy list of prohibitions is meant to be obeyed, down to the last detail. God would not tolerate any concessions or compromises. And neither will Jesus. In His words to the church in Laodicea, recorded in the book of Revelation, Jesus has some strong words concerning their failure to remain wholeheartedly committed to His will.

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” – Revelation 3:15-16 NLT

The half-hearted obedience of His people is enough to make Jesus sick. Holiness demands a sold-out commitment to living set-apart lives that reveal the transformative power of God’s Word and will.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Self-Destructive Nature of Self-Determination

10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. 13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 14 If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. 15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. 16 If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

17 “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. 18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked one’s relative; they shall bear their iniquity. 20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” – Leviticus 20:10-21 ESV

Once again, chapter 20 mirrors chapter 18 but with one very important difference. While the earlier chapter contains a series of laws prohibiting immoral sexual activity, chapter 20 provides God’s judgments against any violations of those laws. To ensure that His covenant people took His commands seriously, God let them know exactly what the punishment would be if they chose to disobey.

That God had to go cover such a wide range of sexual sins reveals that He knew the scope of the dangers facing the Israelites when they arrived in Canaan. Yahweh was well aware of the decadent and depraved lifestyles of the land’s pagan inhabitants who regularly engaged in everything from adultery and incest to homosexuality and bestiality. He also knew that His chosen people would find the Canaanite’s no-holds-barred approach to sex to be highly alluring. Despite His clearly defined bans on such behavior, the Israelites would be tempted to adopt the more “progressive” ways of their more liberal neighbors. So, God let His people know the deadly consequences they would face if they chose to ignore His commands and emulate the ways of the lawless and licentious Canaanites.

In each case, the penalty was the same: Death. In the case of adultery, both the man and the woman were to face capital punishment. Their violation of God’s command concerning the sanctity of marriage was not to be taken lightly. From the very beginning, God had proclaimed, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24 ESV). Jesus picked up on this theme when He spoke to the Pharisees concerning divorce.

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” – Matthew 19:4-6 ESV

The apostle Paul also quoted from Genesis when he called the believing husbands in the city of Ephesus to love their wives as Christ loved the church.

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” – Ephesians 5:28-31 ESV

The author of Hebrews provides further insight into God’s views on the sanctity of the marriage relationship.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. – Hebrews 13:4 ESV

God intended marriage to be between one man and one woman. But a host of aberrations involving human sexual activity had sprung up ever since the fall. Mankind had come up with all kinds of ways to take what God had ordained and pervert it. And the apostle Paul describes how God allowed the deviant desires of fallen humanity to run their course, eventually resulting in the very behaviors outlined in this chapter.

God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. – Romans 1:26-27 NLT

But the Israelites were to be different. The laws given to them by God were to regulate their behavior and keep them from going down the same sordid path as the rest of the world’s inhabitants. They were not allowed to be promiscuous or perverse in their pursuit of sexual pleasure. Adultery was off-limits. All forms of incest were strictly forbidden. Homosexuality, while acceptable among the pagans, was not to be practiced by God’s people. And something as grotesque and off-putting as bestiality was to be viewed as a direct violation of God’s order of creation.

The important thing to consider is that these activities were being practiced among the inhabitants of Canaan. They were not imaginary or hypothetical cases but real-life examples of human behavior apart from a relationship with God. With no guidance or oversight from the Creator God, mankind was left to operate according to its own selfish and self-satisfying passions.

God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. – Romans 1:24 NLT

In Canaan, adultery was de rigueur, an everyday part of daily life. It was acceptable and even preferable. Any and all boundaries on sexual activity had long ago been abandoned. Mankind had made recreation the primary purpose behind sex instead of procreation. God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” had been replaced with the more self-serving mantra of “if it feels good do it.” Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes and according to their own perverse passions.

This free-for-all behavior among the pagans is what led God to provide His people with detailed laws that prohibited their emulation and carried a high price for any violation. Disobedience was punishable by death because God knew that if this kind of behavior was left unchecked it would spread like cancer among His people. Sexual sin is insatiable and those who engage in it are never satisfied. What was once considered perverse becomes preferable and pleasurable. The taboos of yesterday eventually become tolerable and normal. Nothing is off-limits. No desire is left unmet and no rules are allowed to deny one’s passions.  

As always, for God the issue was holiness. His people were to live set-apart lives that mirrored His will and demonstrated His divine plan for humanity. All of the perversions mentioned in this chapter are meant to illustrate just how far the human race had fallen from grace. These immoral behaviors provided ample evidence that humanity had followed the example of the first couple, who in their desire to be like God, succumbed to the enemy’s lies and ate of the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve sought to know good and evil, the capacity to determine their own moral fate. They longed to be the autonomous arbiters of righteousness, making their own decisions about what was right and wrong. And that dangerous desire for self-determination had plagued mankind ever since. This is why God provided His people with a new and expanded set of laws designed to make it clear that He alone held the right to regulate human behavior. 

And in the closing verses of this chapter, God will reiterate His call to holy living. The Israelites had been set apart by God so that they might demonstrate what righteousness looks like in everyday life. Adam and Eve had failed to live in obedience to God’s commands. Now, the nation of Israel had the opportunity to “be fruitful and multiply” in the land of Canaan, demonstrating to the world the benefits and blessings of living according to God’s will rather than the desires of the flesh. But for their lives to stand out, they would have to wholeheartedly buy into God’s commands or suffer the consequences.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Path to Holiness

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. 4 And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5 then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.

6 “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. 7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 9 For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.” – Leviticus 20:1-9 ESV

The laws outlined in chapters 18 and 19 declare all those things that the Israelites were forbidden to do. But in chapter 19, God provides the consequences that were to accompany the violation of some of those very laws. Back in Leviticus 18, Moses recorded God’s ban on the practice of child sacrifice.

“You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 18:21 ESV

Now, in chapter 20, God provides the penalty for violating this command: Death.

“Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.” – Leviticus 20:2 ESV

The law prescribed in chapter 18 clearly prohibited the Israelites from offering their children as human sacrifices to the Canaanite god, Molech. This law was incontestable and binding. But the only outcome for violating this law was the profaning of God’s name. Yet chapter 20 adds the deadly consequences for daring to break this particular command.

God was making it painfully clear to the Israelites that He was serious about their obedience and holiness. He expected His people to distinguish themselves from the nations of Canaan by adhering to His laws and avoiding any temptation to assimilate their pagan practices and customs.

It seems strange that God would place so much emphasis on forbidding child sacrifice. After all, the very thought of willingly putting your child to death to appease a god is repugnant to our modern sensibilities. It seems barbaric and inhumane. How could any loving Israelite parent ever consider the thought of sacrificing their child to a foreign god? Yet, God knew that His chosen people would eventually find even this repulsive act to be acceptable and even preferable. The Scriptures reveal that the day came when infant sacrifice became common practice among the Israelites, with the king himself setting the standard for this egregious behavior.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.  – 2 Kings 16:2-3 ESV

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.…And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. – 2 Kings 21:1-2, 6 ESV

Even the great king, Solomon, the son of David, promoted the worship of Molech along with a host of other false gods introduced to him by his many foreign wives.

So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. – 1 Kings 11:6-8 ESV

These injunctions by God were absolutely necessary because the people of Israel were predisposed to disobedience and fully capable of committing sins of the worst kind. Upon hearing God’s ban on child sacrifice, it’s likely that the Israelites were appalled that God would consider them capable of such a heinous sin. But God knew His people well and He understood the depravity of the human heart.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” – Jeremiahs 17:9 NLT

The path to apostasy begins with a single step, a minor concession that, at first glance, appears innocent enough but that eventually leads ends in death. No self-respecting Israelite would have ever considered himself capable of committing such a despicable sin, yet God knew it was not only possible but inevitable. Even with His commands carefully articulated and the consequences for disobedience clearly communicated, the people of Israel would still choose to disobey and suffer the penalty for doing so, and that penalty was severe. The guilty individual was to be stoned to death. No questions asked, no excuses accepted, and no exceptions made. And God gives the reason this sin was unforgivable and demanded death.

“…because they have defiled my sanctuary and brought shame on my holy name by offering their children to Molech.” – Leviticus 20:3 NLT

Any pagan religious practice the Israelites incorporated was an affront to God because it diminished the sanctity of the Tabernacle and cast doubt on the all-sufficient nature of God Himself. By offering sacrifices to false gods, the Israelites were demonstrating their lack of faith in Yahweh. He was not enough. By sacrificing their children to Molech, they would be denigrating God’s gift of the fruit of the womb, one of the many blessings the Israelites could expect to receive from Him in the land of Canaan.

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.” – Deuteronomy 28:1-6 NLT

To take a gift given by God and to sacrifice it to a false god was the ultimate slap in Yahweh’s face. These kinds of actions revealed a lack of belief in God’s goodness and demonstrated an underlying doubt in the efficacy of the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system He had provided.

The primary issue, as always, was holiness. God’s people were to live set-apart lives, determined by God’s laws and regulated by His sacrificial system. God knew His people would fail to keep all His laws. That’s why He provided the sacrificial system as a means of receiving atonement and forgiveness for sins. But there were certain sins that, when committed, were unforgivable and for which atonement was unavailable. These included child sacrifice as well as any involvement with mediums and necromancers. 

“I will also turn against those who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community.” – Leviticus 20:6 NLT

“The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular.” – NET Bible Study Notes

God was placing off-limits any of the cultic practices of the Canaanites. This included the worship or veneration of the dead. Canaanites believed that following physical death, the soul departed from the body to the land of Mot (Death). Through the use of mediums and necromancers, they believed they could communicate with deceased relatives, offering them food and drink in return for help. God forbade these kinds of superstitious practices among His people because they displayed a blatant disregard for His sovereignty.

How ludicrous it sounds to seek help from the dead when you have the power of the living God at your disposal. But the author of Hebrews reminds us just how easy it is to turn your back on God and seek assistance from the dead and powerless things of this world.

Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. – Hebrews 3:12-13 NLT

God alone brings life. He is the only reliable source of hope and help. And He calls His people to keep His commands so that they might enjoy the ongoing blessing of His presence and the benefit of His incomparable power.

“So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy.” – Leviticus 20:7-8 NLT

The worship of Molech would not make them holy, but it would cut them off from the community of faith and place them under the judgment of a holy and righteous God. Rather than enjoying life, they would experience death. The ways of the Canaanites might appear attractive and potentially beneficial, but they would prove to be dangerous and deadly. The path to holiness was paved with the commandments of God and led to a life of blessing and joy. But the world always offers alternative routes that promise a shortcut to the desired end. But as Jesus articulated in His sermon on the mount, the ways of the world may seem tempting and tantalizingly easy, but they all lead to the wrong destination.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” – Matthew 7:13-14 ESV

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.