Day 6 (Part 2): Leviticus 20:1-7 (Study Notes)
Day 6 (Part 2): Leviticus 20:1-7
(Leviticus 20:1-3)
Connecting with the unjust practices of Pagan lands, Hashem then commands Jews not to give our children to Molech. Anyone who gives his or her child to Molech
Shall be put to death by stoning.
Hashem will set His face against the person.
The person will be cut off.
(This is the order in which the punishments are listed. However, number 1 has to come last. It is listed first to draw attention to the grave consequences of giving your child to Molech).
Molech was a pagan god to whom babies were sacrificed in fires. Meaning human babies were offered as the sacrifice to foreign gods.
While Molech is specifically named, offering a Jewish child (of any age) to any foreign gods as a sacrifice is an offense and abomination to Hashem. Such a sacrifice of a Jew requires death as a punishment, it does not save or lead to life. This is because the sacrifice is murder, so the guilt of bloodshed remains on the offenders head.
Thus, redemption, salvation, and forgiveness cannot come from any form of human sacrifice, especially not the sacrifice of a Jew (even is sacrificed as an adult).
(Leviticus 20:4)
Hashem declares that anyone who shuts their eyes when a fellow Jew offers their child (or any Jew—child of Hashem) to Molech, the one who shuts their eyes is also guilty and they too will be put to death. They are guilty by inaction.
(Leviticus 20:5)
Just as with the one who offers their Jew to Molech as a human sacrifice, the onlooker who says nothing will suffer the same punishment:
Hashem will turn His back.
Hashem will cut the person off.
Death by stoning is the ultimate punishment.
(Leviticus 20:6)
Connected with the above is the repeated command not to turn to ghosts nor familiar spirits.
Hashem equates these two practices with human sacrifice to Molech. Indeed in many other religions, the ideologies and practices are connected. All of these are forms of idolatry and lead to spiritual harlotry, which are punishable by death according to Torah.
(Leviticus 20:7-8)
After forbidden pagan practices and idol worship, Hashem gives the positive commands to:
“Sanctify yourselves and be holy for ‘I the LIRD am your God.’ You shall faithfully observe my laws. ‘I THE LORD MAKE YOU HOLY.’”
When Hashemite calls His people to be holy, He does not expect perfection. He remembers that we are dust. But, at the same time He reminds us that we have a spark of Hashem in us. Since He is holy and since we hold His holy spark inside, we are capable of radiating His holy light. With practice, study, self-restraint, and commitment to the hold of Heaven, the holy spark can be fanned into a flame. That flame can grow into a fire that ignite holiness in the world around us.
It is a process. At times we are like a candle. As our flames burn, we turn into a puddle of mere wax. Though melt down we must at times, our flames burn does not have to go out—we can transform our pain to rise again with brighter and hard-tested faith-filled glow.
One day, the flame will be made eternal by Hashem. In Ezekiel 26, He again promises that He will make us Holy by making us to keep His mitzvot. This will not be by force, but through an unending flow of wisdom and the provision of hearts and a spirit of understanding that can know, accept, and there fore choose to willingly do all that’s required. Not as a to-do list, but as vows—with love and great care so unending shalom will come between man and G-d again. Our will, like our hearts, will be one with Hashem, which will reproduce the life that once was in Gan Eden.
No suffering, no war, no pain, no death, no poverty, no power struggles, no hate. Just life and love, simcha and shalom. It will be global. It will be glorious.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Kimberly Davis