Uncovering Nakedness (2) – The Seventh Commandment

Uncovering Nakedness (2)

The Seventh Commandment

Leviticus 20:17

“If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.”

Here is another example of how the home was designed to serve as a training-ground for moral living in society. Presumably, this statute would have been applied from the earliest stages of life, thus training children to live modestly and with respect for one another all the days of their lives. For a man then—teen-aged and above—to look upon his sister’s nakedness would be to violate both the seventh commandment and the fifth, for he would show disdain for his parents’ teaching by deliberately acting against what he had been taught all his life.

This offense was to be punished by the guilty party(ies) being “cut off” from the community, perhaps for a season, until they understood the gravity of their offense and came to repentance. As in the case of the man in Corinth, re-institution of an offender into the community was to be sought both by the guilty sinner and the community as a whole. The purpose of the Law is to create a good and just society. It guides the believing community in the standards of godliness; serves to bring conviction of sin; and, through the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, provides the righteousness for repentant believers to grow in grace.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.