Clean and Unclean - Part One

Studies in Leviticus
Clean and Unclean
Lev. 11 - 15

This morning we are going to be looking at five chapters in our study of Leviticus. We don‟t normally cover this much material in a single service, but as you read these chapters you see that they are somewhat repetitive. They aren‟t as bad as a genealogy (actually, they are somewhat intriguing), but they do seem to go on and on about a topic that doesn‟t have a whole lot of immediate relevance to us today. In fact, the specifics of these chapters are unique in that they were abrogated by Christ and the New Covenant. But it would be a great mistake not to address them because we are going to see that there is a timeless principle being taught in them. So while the specifics may not apply to us, the overall teaching is critical to our maintaining fellowship with God and a testimony in the world. But before we go any further, let‟s say our memory project together.

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, „Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, „I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.‟”

As we follow the flow of the book of Leviticus, God starts by establishing a means by which his people could draw near to Him. It was the sacrificial system (chs. 1-7), and it was designed to bridge the fellowship gap. God was holy and the people weren‟t, so if there were going to be any kind of relationship between them, something had to be done. The sacrifices erased the estrangement between the two parties. Then God established the priesthood (chs. 8-9), which was designed to bridge the communication gap. The High Priest was God‟s spokesman to the nation. The people looked to him for guidance and instruction, so God communed with the High Priest who communicated God‟s words to God‟s people.

Last week we saw a tragic failure in chapter 10 where two of the newly ordained priests lost their lives because they treated God as common and lightweight. God is holy, not common; and He is to be honored, not taken lightly. And when Nadab and Abihu diminished God‟s holiness and honor, fire came out from the presence of the Lord and slew them. That was a powerful, vivid object lesson to the entire nation concerning the holiness of God.

This brings us up to where we are today, and the issue that God is dealing with from Lev. 11 through 15 is the concept of “clean” versus “unclean.” This is something that might be foreign to us as followers of Christ living under the guidelines of the New Covenant, but this matter of clean and unclean comprised a significant dimension of the Old Covenant.

What is the concept behind the clean and unclean? The simplest explanation I have come across is the note in the MacArthur Study Bible which says, “God used the tangible issues of life which He labeled clean or unclean to repeatedly impress upon Israel the difference between what was holy and unholy. “Clean” means acceptable to God, “unclean” means unacceptable to God.” And when a person violated these guidelines, he himself became “unclean.”

When a person was in this state of uncleanness, several things happened. Let‟s say for example that a husband and wife are intimate one night. That made them both unclean. The man was unclean because of his seminal discharge, and his wife is unclean because it touched her. Here is what happened. First of all, they were barred from the Tabernacle. The person who had violated God‟s laws of cleanliness was physically estranged from God and all things holy. Secondly, the clothes they were wearing became unclean. The furniture they touched became unclean. In other words, the uncleanness was spreadable. If an unclean person spit on a clean person, that person became unclean as well! And finally, they had to go through a special ritual to remove the “uncleanness.” In this case, they could bathe and at the end of the day, and everything was back to normal.

What God is doing with these guidelines about things clean and unclean is showing his people the effects of violating God‟s standards. It doesn‟t matter if the violation of the standard occurred 5000 years ago in Israel or this morning in East Durham, NY, when we violate the standard, we are estranged from God. And what‟s more, our actions and the consequences of those actions spread. They aren‟t limited to the perpetrator alone. And finally, reconciliation is possible when we follow the protocol God has established to deal with the violation.

So with that little introduction to clean and unclean, let‟s move quickly over these five chapters.

Chapter 11 deals with clean and unclean animals, fish, insects, and birds. Let‟s read the first 8 verses which will give you a sense of the entire five chapters. “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2 "Say to the Israelites: 'Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: 3 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud. 4 " 'There are some that only chew the cud or only have a split hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you. 5 The coney [other versions call this the “rock hydrax” or the “rock badger” – a rodent that was a delicacy in that part of the world], though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you. 6 The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you. 7 And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, dos not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses [in other words, touching a live rabbit did not make you unclean]; they are unclean for you.” I think you get the idea. Certain animals were on the list, and other animals weren‟t.

God then deals with clean and unclean fish starting in verse 9. Generally speaking, bottom dwelling, scavenging fish and seafood were unclean. Clean and unclean birds are described starting in verse 13, and the list seems to focus on predatory and scavenging birds. Note that in verse 19 the bat is mentioned. Something to keep in mind is that God is communicating to His people in general terms, not biologically technical ones. We all know that bats are mammals and not birds, but they fly through the air with wings and have the bodily shape of a bird. So God included bats in the bird category. Starting in verse 20, God starts the list of clean and unclean insects. So that is chapter 11.

Chapter 12 deals with childbirth. In a nutshell, if a woman gave birth to a male child, she was unclean for 40 days, and if she gave birth to a female child, she was unclean for 80 days. During these days, verse 4 tells us “She must not touch anything sacred [any animals being raised for a sacrifice] or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over.” According to verse 6, “When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. 7 He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.”
This chapter has sparked quite a bit of discussion for two reasons. First of all, childbirth is a divine mandate (Gen. 1:22 – “be fruitful and multiply”), not to mention that it is actually God who opens and closes the womb (Ps. 127:3 – “the fruit of the womb is His reward”). Since conception is an act of obedience and God is responsible for allowing it, why did that act of obedience make a woman unclean, and why did it require a blood sacrifice for restoration to a state of cleanness? That is the first area of controversy.

The second issue of controversy is the time inequity. Why was she unclean for only 40 days for a baby boy, but twice that for a baby girl? Most likely, this inequity served as a reminder that it was through woman that sin entered the world. Paul alludes to this in 1 Tim. 2:14 when he says that it wasn‟t Adam that was deceived, but Eve. We are going to elaborate on this a little later, but for now just understand that in Israel, every time a new sinner was introduced into the world through childbirth, there was a 40 or 80 day period of reflection on the significance of what had just happened.

Chapters 13 and 14 address various skin diseases, mildew or mold, and the purification rites for becoming clean again. In 13:1 we read, “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2 "When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a bright spot on his skin that may become an infectious skin disease [some of you may have a version that translates this word as “leprous sore” or even “leprosy.” The NIV translates it as “infectious skin disease” because from the description we see in these chapters, this condition is not leprosy as we know it today. This condition involved things like boils (vv. 18-28), shingles, psoriasis, ringworm, etc.], he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. 3 The priest is to examine the sore on his skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious skin disease. When the priest examines him, he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean. 4 If the spot on his skin is white but does not appear to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest is to put the infected person in isolation for seven days. 5 On the seventh day the priest is to examine him, and if he sees that the sore is unchanged and has not spread in the skin, he is to keep him in isolation another seven days. 6 On the seventh day the priest is to examine him again, and if the sore has faded and has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a rash. The man must wash his clothes, and he will be clean.”

Starting in verse 47 there are guidelines for how to handle clothing that has been infected with the germs of the disease, and in chapter 14 verse 33 you have a discussion of how to handle things if you have an outbreak of mildew or mold in your house.

Chapter 15 addresses bodily discharges, both male and female. When you read this chapter, what you see is that there are two general categories of discharge; normal and abnormal. There are secretions that are the result of disease and there are secretions that are the result of simply being human. For a man, his normal discharge is nocturnal emissions and intercourse. The abnormal male discharge in this chapter is some kind of genital disease. We don‟t for certain what it was, but many scholars believe it to be gonorrhea. For a woman, the normal discharge involved her menstrual cycle, and the abnormal discharge involved some kind of genital hemorrhage.

So starting in verse 4 we see that “Every bed on which the person with the discharge lies becomes unclean, and everything on which he sits becomes unclean. 5 'Anyone, moreover, who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening; 6 and whoever sits on the thing on which the man with the discharge has been sitting, shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.” While this is specifically directed to the man with a discharge, the stipulations are basically the same for the woman.

So there you have the overview of the five chapters. But what does this mean for us today? To answer this, I want us to go back to chapter 11 and look at verse 44 where we see two things. In this verse we get first of all a glimpse into the mind of God concerning the rationale behind these rules for cleanliness and uncleanness. The second thing we see is a response on our part. And understand that even though the specific context of this verse concerns clean and unclean animals, the overarching principle applies to all the categories.'For [this is a critical word – it is alerting us to God‟s reasoning, it is a summary statement] I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy.

The rationale in this verse is, “I am the Lord your God.” This tells us that God has an unequivocal right to regulate the behavior of his people. As a father, from time to time I used the phrase, “because I said so.” That is the essence of this phrase, “I am the Lord your God.” The response is: “consecrate [separate – cf. Bill‟s scripture reading this morning] yourselves therefore, and be holy.” This tells us that Israel had a solemn responsibility to distinguish themselves from their surroundings. It was difficult if not impossible for the Israelites to develop any level of relationship with their neighboring nations when they followed the rules of clean and unclean. These two ideas of God‟s right to regulate Israel‟s behavior and Israel‟s responsibility to separate itself from its surroundings lies at the heart of these five chapters.

And when you think about it, this isn‟t the first time we‟ve seen this concept, is it? It sounds familiar because it is also at the heart of our memory passage. “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, „I am the LORD your God [rationale]. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived [responsibility], nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you [responsibility]; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes [rationale], to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God [He ends with a reiteration of the rationale]‟”.

Next week we are going to tie up some loose ends and look at a series of practical applications we can make from these chapters.