Read Leviticus 18
Background: God knew where Israel had been and where she was heading: the nation had been in pagan Egypt for over 400 years and was now heading to Canaan, where God was driving the people out due to their gross immorality. He wanted neither for His holy people. He begins by making a big deal about any kind of incest. The few quick pics we get of foreign palaces in scripture, as well as in secular writings, indicate all sorts of affairs went on among the royalty, which not only destroyed families, but brought down kingdoms.
Key verses: 20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her. 21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.
Thoughts: The common citizen might not have the dramatic life of royalty, but they would be tempted to fall into sinful practices against God's design for their families. Adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality have dangled their false promises in our own society today, and the acceptability of "sacrificing" children for personal, even deviant behavior is a tell-tale sign of our own decline. God then closes by reminding us why He commanded all this:
30 So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”
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