We are in chapter twenty-two of Exodus with our word for today. שָׁכַב lie down, lie, lie asleep, lie sick, to have sexual intercourse. It is used 213 times in the Old Testament. Most of the uses of our word are in the literal sense of lying down. For example, when Uriah and Elijah slept. 2 Samuel 11:9 But Uriah וַיִּשְׁכַּ֣בslept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 1 Kings 19:3, 5 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life… וַיִּשְׁכַּב֙ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. Another example is when one dies. 2 Kings 4:20-21 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up וַתַּשְׁכִּבֵ֔הוּ and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. About a quarter of the uses of our word are used in the figurative way to mean sexual intercourse. We see this with Noah’s daughters and what Potiphar’s wife tried to entice Joseph to do. Genesis 19:32 Let’s get our father to drink wine וְנִשְׁכְּבָ֣ה and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father. Genesis 39:6-7, 10, 12 Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, שִׁכְבָ֥ה “Come to bed with me!”… And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused לִשְׁכַּ֥ב to go to bed with her or even be with her… She caught him by his cloak and said, שִׁכְבָ֣ה “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. This is the sense of how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 22:19 Whoever שֹׁכֵ֥ב lies with an animal shall be put to death. Deuteronomy 27:21 Cursed is anyone who שֹׁכֵ֖ב has sexual relations with any animal. Leviticus gives us more understanding of how one is cursed when engaging in such actions. Leviticus 18:23-25 Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Did you see the description of this sin as a perversion. This is something that God wants stopped which is why the command to punish with death. Then later in the next couple of verses he gives us the reason for this drastic measure. Leviticus 18:24-25 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. This sin became so bad that God had to destroy the whole group of people.
Did you also notice in Leviticus the insight that it defiles a person? This is also similar to what the Holy Spirit says in the New Testament through Paul writing to the Corinthian churches. 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. There is something about sexual sin that really destroys a person’s inner being their soul. The command to run away is the best course of action. As we saw earlier Joseph ran away from the temptation as should we. Because Jesus thought that we were worth dying for we need also to see our value and offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. I’ll close with that great reminder. Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
