Penalties for Breaking the Law
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name. And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives some of his descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech.
‘And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ‘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.
‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed perversion. Their blood shall be upon them. If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you. If a man mates with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them.
‘If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked thing. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people. (Put to death) He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness. He shall bear his guilt. If a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from their people. (Put to death)
‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister nor of your father’s sister, for that would uncover his near of kin. They shall bear their guilt. 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. If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.
‘You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. 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. You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean, between unclean birds and clean, and you shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird, or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.
‘A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.’ ”
Reading this list of penalties, you quickly realize that God is not messing around! Offering children to Molech, sexual misconduct, witchcraft, and fortune-telling – all these things were punishable by death. Being “cut off from his people” really meant being put to death. Why is God so strict about these regulations?
God is dealing with people who will push the envelope as far as possible; nothing short of a death penalty will restrain them. And God knows better than do the Israelites what they will encounter in Canaan. God wants His people be holy, but He also knows how morally and spiritually weak they are.
APPLICATION: We might read this list and think, “So what? I’m not going to do any of this stuff.” But are there some modern equivalents? Although a parent might not hand his/her baby over to be burned at the statue of Molech, are we guarding our children and their innocence? As a life-long afficionado of cartoons, I can testify that children’s cartoons today are generally far more violent than in previous decades. Some of the cartoon characters are frankly demonic, teaching children to enjoy the ugly and the cruel. What about allowing children access to the internet or Netflix? Child traffickers are enjoying great success recruiting on social media; are we protecting our children sufficiently? Even if we put parental controls on our computers, have our kids already figured out how to get around those controls? A child’s innocence is a rare and precious thing and easily lost. Once lost, it will be gone forever.
Why not teach your children that there are other means of entertainment apart from electronic media. Hobbies, sports, board games, language learning, and even household chores can be fun for kids if you will spend time with them while they are doing those things. And social media can isolate, robbing children-and adults- of the close personal contact we all need. Going back to the cartoons, there are several cartoons that describe children as selfish brats dependent on their parents for even simple things such as peanut butter sandwiches. These children have had things done FOR them but not WITH them.
My parents raised three children on a busy Midwestern farm. Not only did we learn how to drive tractors or care for animals, but we also learned how to cook, clean house, and do our own washing and ironing. My mother taught me how to sew, how to knit, and how to crochet. The summer I was eighteen, my parents took off on a trip to New York state on a few minutes’ notice. For the next week, my brothers, ages fifteen and thirteen, ran the farm while I ran the household. I had begun handling the housekeeping during the summer at age eleven when my mother was commuting to school to complete her Bachelor’s Degree. There were no cell phones in those days, and thrifty people didn’t waste money on long distance phone calls, so helicopter parenting wasn’t an option. My parents were free to travel because they could trust us, trust that had been built over years of working with us.
As our parents taught us to work, they also inculcated their moral and spiritual values. I remain deeply grateful for that early teaching because even when I wandered away from God as a young adult, that teaching pulled me back from the brink of disaster on many occasions. Because of that early background, I will haul myself out of bed in the middle of the night to do emergency operations or care for a dying patient.
My original title for this devotional was “God is not Santa Claus.” We want Santa to give us things no matter how bad we have been. But one song about Santa goes “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake!” Traditionally, Santa will bring bad children only lumps of coal.
Santa Claus is a fictional character; however, the Lord God Almighty, Creator of the Universe, is very real. God wants us to live happy healthy lives, but He also wants those lives to be holy. Let us pursue holiness for ourselves and for our families!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives and to teach our children to do so also. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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