In Lev 18 and 19 the sentences "I am the Lord" and "I am the Lord your God" are repeated frequently. These are short forms of "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. God had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and become their new master. He brought them out of Egypt to a new life, an abundant life in the land promised to Abraham (Lev 18:5)
To thrive in the Promised Land, the Israelites would need to be different from the Egyptians and the Canaanites. In all aspects of life, they were to reflect the character of God. In particular, strong families would be important.
Israelites would often marry within their tribes and clans, but marriages with close relatives would be forbidden--v. 6.
There are examples in the Bible illustrating why the forbidden pairings are bad ideas. For example, notice v. 18: "And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive." There are two possible understandings of "her sister" in this verse. It can either mean "her female sibling", or it have the broader meaning of an additional wife in general. Either way, the example of Jacob and his marriages to Rachel and Leah is relevant. Jealousy and rivalry led to much strife in that extended family.
Another example is the marriage of Herod Antipas to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Mark 6;14-29). John the Baptist's condemnation of that marriage (based on Lev 18:16) resulted in his imprisonment and beheading.
In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on February 12, 2022, Rob Wilson suggested that John's death may have been what prompted Jesus to start his final trip toward Jerusalem and his own martyrdom (Luke 9:51).
Other Canaanite and Egyptian practices (homosexuality, bestiality, child sacrifice) are also condemened in Lev 18.
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