Homosexuality
Leviticus 18:22-23 and 20:13
Homosexuality DIG: What does God’s Word say about homosexuality? What do you do when your feelings are at odds with God’s Word? Which do you obey? Is homosexuality the unforgivable sin? Why? Why not? How did Adam and Eve turn into Adam and Steve?
REFLECT: How can you protect your family against the homosexual lobby and the assault on our Godly culture? Yeshua said to count the costs when following Him. What will it cost you to uphold the standard of holiness that ADONAI expects from each and every believer?
God holds men, as heads of households, directly accountable for such sins.
Coming on the heels of the high, holy chapters of purity (to see link click Bj – The Mitzvot of Purification), it seems strange to plunge into a litany of forbidden sexual relationships. They are commandments which define sexual morality. The main thrust of the chapter is a lengthy list of detailed statutes (Hebrew: hachukkim, meaning to write into law permanently) and ordinances (Hebrew: hammishpatim, meaning a judgment of the court) about abstaining from the abhorrent sexual acts and the curses resulting from their violation (18:6-23). It is a jarring transition to go from the sublime imagery of the high priest emerging from the Most Holy Place to the blunt prohibitions on incest and other uncleanness. But these are also purity mitzvot. They are different from the previous ones because they come with a moral and ethical component.309
I hold no ill-will against homosexuals; however, a rigorous critique of same-sex intercourse can have the unintended effect of bringing personal pain to homosexuals, some of whom are already prone to self-loathing (see Ae – The Bible and Homosexual Practice). This is why it needs to be stated right up front that to feel homosexual impulses does not make one a bad person. Whatever one thinks about the immorality of homosexual behavior, or about the abhorrent of elements within the homosexual lobby, homosexual impulses are just like all other sinful impulses of the flesh (Romans 7:14-25). A homosexual impulse cannot give birth to sin unless one gives in to it (James 1:13-15). The person with homosexual temptation, or practice, should evoke our concern, sympathy, help, and understanding, not our scorn or hatred.
Homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin. Yeshua said: I tell you that people will be forgiven any sin and blasphemy, but blaspheming the Ruach Ha’Kodesh (the rejection of the Holy Spirit) will not be forgiven (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Em – Whoever Blasphemes Against the Holy Spirit Will Never Be Forgiven). Therefore, according to God’s Word, a person can be a believer, struggle with, and practice homosexuality, and still have that sin forgiven. Now, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be consequences in the sinner’s life, just like any other kind of sin. But we should love the sinner, and hate the sin.
Today, many churches are not teaching that homosexuality is a sin. They want to be “inclusive.” So, they avoid the topic. Jesus didn’t avoid it. Just after describing the destruction of the world by the Flood, Messiah said: Likewise, as it was in the time of Lot – people ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built; but the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all (see the commentary on Genesis Fa – The LORD Rained Down Burning Sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah). That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:28-30). This conforms with John’s prophecy that the “church” during the Great Tribulation will be an apostate church, spewing out lies and false doctrine (see the commentary on Revelation Bf – The Church at Laodicea).
Homosexuality (18:22): Homosexuality is forbidden in the strongest of terms. It is condemned more harshly than all other forms of immorality and sexual deviancy forbidden in the Torah, which refers to it as a toevah, meaning an abomination to YHVH. Lesbian activists often point out that the prohibition says nothing in regard to women, but from 18:6 onwards, it is understood that the prohibitions apply to both genders. Paul shows that he is without prejudice or bias by soundly condemning both genders of homosexuality. This is why God has given them up to degrading passions; so that their women exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural; and likewise, the men, giving up natural relations with the opposite sex, burn with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with other men and receiving in their own persons the penalty appropriate to their perversion. In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things (Romans 1:26-28).
Yet the progressive thinkers of the modern age often raise the objection that a person does not choose a gay or lesbian lifestyle; they are born with it. But there is no “gay gene.” Wouldn’t it be unfair of YHVH to make human beings homosexual and then forbid them to engage in homosexual behavior? What if someone said they were born with a “rape gene?” Or a “pedophilia gene?” Or a “murder gene?” Would that be Ok? Would society put up with that? People with urges to rape, commit pedophilia, or murder must suppress that urge just like the person with an inclination to commit adultery must suppress that urge. They used the “gay gene” theory to avoid taking responsibility for their sinful choices. But sin is still sin.
In support of their position, apologists for the gay community claim that Messiah never talked about homosexuality. In doing so, they unwittingly or not, separate the godhead, which is, of course, impossible. Yeshua is the author of Leviticus and the Word of God (John 1:1-2). This is what Messiah says about homosexuality: You are not to go to bed with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination (18:22). God holds the men, as heads of households, directly accountable for such sins. Leviticus 18:22a addresses the men in the second person; Leviticus 18:22b addresses the women in the less direct, third person.310 But God’s Word went even further in the Dispensation of Torah (see the commentary on Exodus Da – The Dispensation of the Torah), saying: If a man goes to bed with a man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death . . . their blood is on them (Leviticus 20:13). This punishment was reserved for only the most serious of offenses to Ha’Shem.
In addition, a common defense of the gay lobby also claims that it’s only the judgmental, “mean” God of the “Old Testament” who condemns homosexuality; but the loving Yeshua doesn’t say anything about it in the “New Testament.” Nothing could be further from the truth. There are eleven scriptures that directly address homosexuality in the Bible; seven in the TaNaKh (Genesis 19:1-11; Leviticus 18:22, 29-30, and 20:13; Judges 19:16-24; First Kings 14:24 and 15:12; and Second Kings 23:7), and four in the B’rit Chadashah (Romans 1:18-32; First Corinthians 6:9-11; First Timothy 1:8-10; and Jude 7).
These are the words and phrases that God uses to describe this deviant practice: cut off, detestable, wicked, vile, an outrageous thing, godlessness, without excuse, fools, sinful desires, impurity, degrading their bodies, shameful lusts, unnatural relations, penalty, deceived, sexually immoral, sinful, the unholy, irreligious, perversions, a lie exposed as a warning of the everlasting fire awaiting those who must undergo punishment. Lastly, ADONAI has set up the world for healthy things to reproduce. Healthy plants reproduce, healthy animals reproduce, and healthy people reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce. This alone is an indictment of their lifestyle. Or as YHVH says: It is an abomination.
Bestiality (18:23): You are not to have sexual relations with any kind of animal. Sexual relations between humans and animals are expressly forbidden and referred to as a perversion (Hebrew: tevel is from the root bll, which means to mix). This indicates that this sexual practice involves improper mixing together of the different species, stepping over the boundaries that YHVH has established (Genesis 1:1 to 2:3). It is significant that the Bible puts sex with animals in the same context as homosexuality. Today, many people think bestiality is unnatural and the Bible equates homosexuality and bestiality.311 In fact, to show God’s distain for homosexuality, the context of this verse includes all sorts or sexual deviations, including bestiality. By the end of the chapter, Ha’Shem declares: For those who engage in any of these disgusting practices, whoever they may be, will be cut off from their people (18:29). With this, the mitzvot of forbidden sexual activity are complete. The closing section (18:24-30) is an admonition against violating any of the sexual prohibitions stated in this chapter.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise and thank You that in Your great love to bless all, especially Your children, You have withheld no good thing. No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalms 84:11c). I am so grateful for Your love that always seeks to give the best. No rule that You make is ever made to hurt anyone but only to bless and You love to bless! You desire to give fullness of life. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10)! I know that You work out all that happens in my life for good! Now we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Your love is so deep that you gave the costliest gift that You could give – Your only son to painfully die in our place. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Nothing can separate us from God’s great and gracious love! . . . But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord. Romans 8:27-39). We love you! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of resurrection. Amen
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