Read Leviticus 19:1-20:27 at Bible Gateway.
lev 16:1-20:27, acharei mot + kedoshim chiastic structure 2012 may 05
lev 18-19, the importance of obedience 2011 feb 24
lev 20-21, finding messiah in leviticus 2011 feb 25
the teaching tools of scripture
The paragraph divisions for kedoshim “holiness” are:
Lev 19:1-22 {p} Be holy for the LORD your God is holy + statues for holiness
Lev 19:23-32 {s} Statutes: re the land, to not defile the land + Fear the Lord your God
Lev 19:33-37 {p} Statutes re: strangers dwelling with Israel, to not defile the land + I am the LORD
Lev 20:1-27 {p} Punishment for violations of the LORD’s holy statutes just expressed
This year I was able to find the chiastic structure formed the Lev 20:1-27 strong paragraph:
1a) Lev 201:1-6, Any man who turns to Molech, or mediums + familiar spirits, shall be put to death/ stoned with stones:
1a.1) Lev 20:1-2, Any man who gives his seed to Molech shall be put to death; the people shall stone him with stones;
1a.2) Lev 20:3a, I will set My face against that man + cut him off from his people because he gave his seed to Molech;
central axis) Lev 20:3b, To defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name;
2a.1) Lev 20:4, If the people ignore the man when he gives his seed to Molech, and do not kill him;
2a.2) Lev 20:5-6, I will set My face against the man + cut him off from his people who prostitutes himself:
1a) Lev 20:5a, I will set My face against that man and his family + cut him off from his people;
1b) Lev 20:5b, And all who prostitute themselves with him;
1c) Lev 20:5c, To commit harlotry with Molech;
2c) Lev 20:6a, And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits;
2b) Lev 20:6b, To prostitute himself with them;
2a) Lev 20:6c, I will set My face against that person + cut him off from his people.
1b) Lev 20:7-8, Be holy, for I am the Lord/ Keep My statutes + do them/ I am the Lord who sanctifies you:
1a) Lev 20:7a, Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy;
1b) Lev 20:7b, For I am the Lord your God;
central axis) Lev 20:8a, You shall keep My statutes, and perform them;
2b) Lev 20:8b, I am the Lord;
2a) Lev 20:8c, Who sanctifies you.
central axis) Lev 20:10-21, Forbidden, wicked, abominable relations;
2b) Lev 20:22-26, You shall keep My statutes + be holy, for I am your God/ you are My people:
1a) Lev 20:22-23, You shall keep My statutes, not the statutes of the nations:
1a) Lev 20:22a, You shall therefore keep all My statutes + judgments to perform them;
1b) Lev 20:22b, That the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out;
central axis) Lev 20:23a, And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation;
2b) Lev 20:23b, Which I am casting out before you (the land is vomiting them out);
2a) Lev 20:23c, For they perform all these things, therefore I abhor them;
central axis) Lev 20:24a, “You shall inherit their land/ I will give it to you to possess;”
2a) Lev 20:24b-26, For I am your God who has distinguished you from the peoples to be My people:
1a) Lev 20:24b, I am the Lord your God;
1b) Lev 20:24c, Who has separated you from the peoples;
central axis) Lev 20:25-26a, You shall therefore distinguish between clean + unclean/ be holy to Me, for I am holy;
2b) Lev 20:26b, And have separated you from the peoples;
2a) Lev 20:26c, That you should be Mine (you are My people);
2a) Lev 20:27, Any medium or person with familiar spirits shall surely be put to death/ stoned with stones.
Please note that Lev 20:9, ‘For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him,’ is a loose end which does not find a place in this structure that I can see. We have seen this before in Torah, where loose ends end up being matching pairs to a greater structure (and I suspect this one is the matching pair to Lev 19:3, in the single chiastic structure formed by kedoshim, which continued to elude me this year).
This passage is one of the sore spot passages in Torah, that people turn to when they make a case that the God of the Old Testament is vengeful, wrathful, angry, and judgmental. Some wickedness is so heinous that the only just and merciful course is capital punishment. God is smarter than we are, and He understands the long term effects, over the course of several generations, that allowing these behaviors to flourish in a society has. We are on the front end of a society which allows some of these. We do not know what the end result of our little societal experiment in flaunting God’s standards will be. Our great- great- grandchildren may very well, through the grief of experience, realize what merciful wisdom it would have been if we had paid heed to these statutes of the Lord.
At any rate, the people who suffer the most when these standards of holiness in intimacy and relations are ignored, are the children who are produced by them, or who are enslaved to feed the appetites thus unleashed. They become the true victims of instability, negligence, and abuse. May the Lord send His Spirit of repentance and humility through this land!
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