Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. – Leviticus 18:25

Today's Scripture Reading (November 15, 2021): Leviticus 18

In "Twelve Steps to Happiness," Joe Klaas writes, "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." Unfortunately, he is correct, and that is probably why we often seem to run in the other direction in the presence of the truth. We don't want to hear it, and often we are afraid to speak it. But we need to listen to it. In fact, without truth, there is no health, and everything begins to fall apart. Truth is essential, especially when it is hard to hear.

Leviticus gets descriptive as it describes how the land has been defiled. And it pronounces its judgment with a personification of the land, saying that "the land will vomit out its inhabitants" because it has been defiled. It was a descriptive way of describing what would happen to the inhabitants of Canaan if the children of Israel would only commit to God's ways. Anything else would constitute a tarnishing of the very image of their Creator.

We sometimes struggle with the intrusive nature of the sexual restrictions present in Jewish Law. But, most of the limitations are understandable, even to our scientific culture. There are diseases and a weakening of the genetic code that directly result from our sexual conduct. There are still sexual activities that are against even our contemporary morals. Having sexual relations with people to whom we are related, even if we are not genetically connected, is something that we still hold to be wrong.

Yet, there are a few sexual restrictions with which we struggle and argue. We don't understand. But maybe the one thing that all of these restrictions have in common is that sexual sin, even the parts with which we struggle, leads us to a life that often requires us to cease to be people of truth. We are forced to hide our behavior and lie to those closest to us to keep doing those forbidden things. 

And in our lack of truth, we defile both ourselves and the land that we inhabit. And the land will not tolerate that lack of honesty, and if the dishonesty continues, the land will eventually vomit us out so that honesty can inhabit the land and bring health to the nation and all those who live in that space.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 19