Leviticus 18:3, commentary and pictures

The verse forbids copying the practices and religious ordinances of Egypt where Israel had lived and of Canaan where God was leading them. It stands at the head of the prohibitions of unlawful sexual and marital unions that follow. It calls Israel to be holy and set apart in conduct by rejecting sinful customs and walking in God's ordinances. Those forbidden doings were not mere ceremonial defilements but violations of God's moral standard, including the Ten Commandments, for which the former inhabitants were abhorred and cast out of the land. That standard was known from Creation before Sinai and remains binding on all men, warning God's people in the last days to stay distinct and not take the world's standards as their own.

Separate From Heathen Customs

After the doings of Egypt where Israel had dwelt and after the doings of Canaan where God was bringing them Israel was not to do, nor to walk in their ordinances, including their customs and religious practices. The prohibition stands as preface to the list of prohibited sins beginning in Leviticus 18:6 and closed by Leviticus 20:22-26, where disobedience causes the land to vomit out its inhabitants. The only reason given for abhorring and casting out the nations before Israel is that they did all these things. Their persistent iniquity in pagan abominations brought judgment.

How often and how minutely God is particular about details is shown here. The laws distinguish Israel's conduct from the customs of the nations around them, that Israel should be holy and set apart. Israel was to reject the sinful customs and ordinances of Egypt and Canaan and instead to walk in God's ordinances. The exhortation follows the scape-goat ceremony as a call to forsake sin and live righteously after atonement has been made.

The chapter's laws against marriage between close relatives set forth a moral principle binding on all nations, not Israel alone, and such practices were among the abominations for which the Canaanites were driven from the land. Leviticus 18 gives the prohibited degrees for marriage, and since marriage between cousins is not among them, no Scripture forbids cousins marrying. The same prohibitions of sexual and marital relationships explain why Deuteronomy 23:2 may refer especially to children of incest or unions forbidden by the laws of affinity, rather than to every child born out of wedlock.

The practices thus introduced include abominations that defiled the people and the land and brought God's judgment, including profaning God's name. The surrounding verses identify those practices as abominations that defiled the land. They also include the sun-worship condemned as an abomination. The book of Leviticus thereby gives mighty object-lessons emphasizing the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

Moral Law For All Nations

The forbidden sexual practices are not merely Jewish ceremonial pollutions but sins by God's moral standard, for the land vomited out its earlier inhabitants because of them and the peoples of the land were judged for them. Israel was forbidden to follow the practices and ordinances of Egypt where they had dwelt or of Canaan where God was bringing them, and in the laws against marriage between close relatives stands a moral principle binding on all nations and not Israel alone. Those laws belong to statutes distinguishing Israel's conduct from the customs of the surrounding nations, whose customs included pagan abominations and whose persistent iniquity brought judgment.

The chapter is the preface to the list of prohibited sins beginning in Leviticus 18:6 and closed by Leviticus 20:22-26, where the land is to vomit out disobedience and Israel is to be holy and set apart. The only reason given for abhorring and casting out the nations before Israel is that they did all these things, and for doing them they were abhorred, cast out, and driven from the land. They were driven out for breaking God's law through idolatry, adultery, and many other such sins, which proves the nations were under obligation to God's law and that the command warns against adopting the surrounding nations' sinful ways. God was angry with them and drove them out for breaking it, so Gentiles stand blamed in Scripture for breach of the Ten Commandments and those commandments were not limited to Jews.

Those doings included violations of every command of the Decalogue, proving that the Egyptians and Canaanites as Gentiles in the fullest sense were held accountable to the Ten Commandments and punished for breaking them before the law was spoken from Sinai. Among them was profaning the Lord's name in violation of the third commandment, conduct that defiled the people and the land, brought God's judgment, and was an abomination even before the law was given to Israel. The Canaanites' profaning of God's name was among the sins for which they were destroyed, showing their conduct violated an existing law. The command to avoid profaning God's name is one example of moral requirements already known and violated before Sinai, and it is cited as an instance of the third commandment being broken before public proclamation. The absence of an earlier written record of a command does not mean people were free of that obligation.

The verse is evidence that the principles of the Ten Commandments were known from the time of Creation and before the law was publicly proclaimed at Sinai. Its warning against following the practices of Egypt and Canaan shows conduct could be judged by a moral standard already known to people, and the forbidden practices of the nations in Canaan were sins even before Sinai so the people were not without knowledge of God's law. The passage with verses 21-27 specifies a commandment supporting that God's law was known before Sinai, and the nations' sinful practices were judged by a law that existed before Israel received it there.

The law was therefore binding on all men at that time and known to all where conscience had not been seared by persistent disobedience. It was not local or for a special people then, and it is no more so now, but still stands to be used by the Spirit in convincing the world of sin.

Faithfulness And Present Warning

After the doings of Egypt where Israel had dwelt and of Canaan where God was bringing them, Israel was not to follow their customs and religious practices, but was required to remain faithful to His service and distinct from nations that did not fear Him. Contact with idolatrous customs and teachings corrupts morals and makes idol worship attractive, so distinctness was commanded for protection. The exhortation stands after the scape-goat ceremony as a call to reject the sinful customs and ordinances of Egypt and Canaan and instead to walk in God's ordinances. It calls those for whom atonement has been made to forsake sin and live righteously.

Turning from God's commandment to follow heathen customs is forbidden, including following the religious practices and ordinances of nations among whom His people have lived or to whom they are going. Adopting pagan rites into worship violates divine law, as seen in the Jews' use of pagan ceremonies in the temple and in the Christian church's adoption of pagan customs in celebrating Easter, and such conduct is rebellion against God. The forbidden practices include the sun-worship condemned as an abomination.

The chapter exposes the evil associated with the practices of the nations in Canaan, which Israel must not follow. Those practices were sexual and moral sins commanded not to be imitated. The same kinds of sexual vice, moral sin, vice and crime are present in the cities of the present time. The command also warns God's people in the last days not to take the world's standards as their own, but to separate from sin and sinners.