Leviticus 18:24, commentary and pictures

Defilement with the forbidden practices named in the chapter was forbidden to Israel because the nations in the land had defiled themselves in all those things and God drove them out and cast them out before Israel. Those nations were guilty before God for their wickedness and defilement, so their destruction and rejection was judgment and not cruelty. Those acts bring real defilement and sin by God's moral standard, not merely Jewish or ceremonial pollution, and their condemnation among the Gentiles shows they rest on a moral principle binding on nations beyond Israel. The prohibitions on sexual relations and marriage between close relatives remain in force because they are based on moral considerations, and they were already sins before Sinai, with ignorance offering no excuse. The defilement of the nations cast out included licentious heathen worship, witchcraft, necromancy, enchantment, and dealing with familiar spirits founded on consulting the dead, evils comparable to modern Spiritualism and illustrating the danger of spiritual deception in the last days.

Warning and Canaanite Judgment

Defilement here means taking part in the abominations listed in the chapter, and Israel is warned not to defile itself in any of those things. The nations that lived in the land were defiled in all these forbidden practices, and that defilement is given as the reason God drove them out and cast them out before Israel. Their practicing of what was prohibited made them defiled, and because those practices were abominable to God they were cast out.

The Canaanite nations were defiled in all the forbidden practices named in the preceding verses and stood guilty before God, so they were not a peaceable and good people. God was not cruel in destroying them, but in abhorring them and casting them out before Israel He judged them for their wickedness and defilement. Their sin was not excused by ignorance, for they had known God and His judgment but turned from that knowledge and became darkened in understanding, and their conduct was transgression of God's law which already existed before it was given at Sinai.

The law's warning against these practices applied particularly to the circumstances of Israel confronted with the Canaanites. The related prohibitions in Leviticus 20 also concern unions that could explain the exclusion described in Deuteronomy 23:2.

Universal Moral Obligation

The acts named in the chapter defile those who do them and are real sin by God's moral standard, including incest and forbidden sexual relations. They are not merely Jewish pollutions, ceremonial pollutions, or temporary Jewish customs, since the nations were defiled by them and the land vomited out its earlier inhabitants. The Canaanite nations were defiled by these forbidden sexual practices and God cast them out and drove them out of the land because of them. Their being condemned among the Gentiles and regarded as abominable among other peoples shows these were not merely ceremonial or uniquely Jewish laws applying only to the Jews, but matters resting on a moral principle binding on nations beyond Israel.

The prohibitions about sexual relationships in Leviticus 18:6-24 are still in force because they are all based on moral considerations. The laws against marriage between close relatives rest on that binding moral principle. The chapter lists the relationships in which marriage is forbidden, and marriage between cousins is not among them. Marrying an uncle's widow, even with no blood connection, is at the very least exceedingly bad taste because it mixes up relationships and confuses the mind and spiritual discernment. It makes a man step-father and cousin to children, a woman aunt and wife to her husband and mother and cousin-by-marriage to her own children, and children both half-siblings and cousins to one another.

The same moral obligations applied to Jews and Greeks alike, with no different standards of righteousness for people in different places or ages. Gentiles too are accountable to God's law for sins such as idolatry and adultery, and God's people must not follow the nations' sinful practices. His commandments are a good, spiritual law, not a yoke of bondage, but can be a delight to the inner person. Those practices were already sins before the law was given at Sinai, which is evidence that the commandments were known and binding before Sinai. The nations' sin was not excused by ignorance, for they had known God and His judgment but turned from that knowledge and became darkened in understanding, and their conduct was transgression of God's law which existed before Sinai.

Witchcraft and Modern Application

The defilement of the nations driven out before Israel included abominable licentiousness, heathen worship, heathen darkness, witchcraft, and dealing with familiar spirits, including practices concerning the seventh commandment. Their immorality and corrupt morals were linked with witchcraft and show the moral character of ancient witchcraft and the setting in which such practices flourished. Their conduct was morally corrupt, and the account of ancient witchcraft stands as comparable to the practices of modern spiritualism, which is no purer.

Their licentious heathen worship and witchcraft rested on the belief that the dead remain conscious and can be consulted, and that the soul remains conscious after death. This belief supplied the basis for witchcraft, for necromancy, enchantment, and purported communion with the dead. Necromancy was divining by means of the dead, enchantment made nonexistent things appear real, and dealing with familiar spirits pretended to communicate with the dead. The warning against taking part reflects their deceitful, ruinous, and dangerous character, and witchcraft is prohibited by God as a morally corrupt and dangerous practice that defiles those who engage in it.

The chapter, read with Deuteronomy 18:9-14 and Leviticus 20, shows the grave evil associated with those nations' practices, including the dangers of Spiritualism. Those chapters show the grave evil such practices bring, and the same kinds of evil illustrate the danger of spiritual deception in the last days. The cities of the modern world repeat the immoral vices described in that chapter, and this spread of sin burdens the earth.

The verse shows the exceeding sinfulness of sin, giving a mighty object-lesson not to defile oneself with the things for which the nations were cast out. It is to be read remembering that all the sacrifices were types of Jesus Christ and all the slain beasts pointed forward to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, which gives new life to dry details of laws and makes them a blessing. It is also to be read remembering the yearly round of service closing on the tenth day of the seventh month, when sins remembered day by day in the sanctuary were brought out, placed on the head of the scapegoat, and sent away to a land of forgetfulness, in a judgment-day typical of the great final judgment-day when every soul not in living connection with God is cut off.