If you’re even a little bit familiar with Leviticus, you’re probably aware that the book talks a lot about different ritual states: clean, unclean, and holy.
But what does it mean if a person becomes unclean?
First, it must be said that being clean or unclean has nothing to do with cleanliness. Becoming unclean was not a matter of hygiene. Second, becoming unclean, clean, or holy was not a matter of morality. Becoming unclean wasn’t usually sinful. Likewise when a person became holy, it did not mean that they were suddenly more righteous than those around them.
Ritual states had to do with your ability to participate in public worship. Only those who were clean (or becoming clean) could bring sacrifices to the tabernacle and participate in the fellowship offering. And only those who were holy could lead worship in the tabernacle (namely the priests). Those who were unclean would need to become clean before they were permitted to rejoin in public worship.
But why did any of this matter? Why was it so important that a person be clean in order to participate in public worship?
It was important because showing due reverence to the covenant King was important. For various reasons, worshiping while unclean would defile the Lord’s tabernacle and profane the Lord’s holiness. It was also important because the people of God were to be set apart from the rest of the world. Their worship of the true God needed to look different than the worship of pagan gods. They were to be a light and an example to a watching world.
That being said, sometimes we just don’t know why certain actions made a person unclean. There are many theories as to why certain things made one unclean, but no one really knows for sure because the Bible just doesn’t say. The important thing to remember is, if the reasons aren’t explicitly stated in God’s Word, then it must not be important for us to know. What is important for us to remember is that all of these laws were in place to allow an unholy people to dwell in the presence of a holy God and to set them apart as a kingdom unlike any of the kingdoms the world had ever known.
Clean and Unclean Animals (Ch.11)
One of the ways God called his people to be different than the nations around them was in the way they consumed meat. Certain animals were perfectly acceptable to eat and others were not. Touching a deceased animal would make you unclean (it was not wrong to touch a dead animal, sometimes this was necessary, you just needed to undergo the ritual procedures for becoming clean again). Eating an unclean animal however was prohibited.
The Bible doesn’t say why certain animals were clean or unclean. What we do know is that now, after Jesus death and resurrection, the restrictions on unclean animals have been lifted. We no longer need to follow these dietary laws to set us apart as God’s people (read the application below to see what kind of things do set us apart).
If you’re following along in your workbook, I’ve included a table on clean and unclean animals in the Observation section for chapters 11-16 (workbook page 27).
You can click here to download my table to see how I filled it in.
Ritual Laws for Childbirth (Ch.12)
Giving birth to a baby made a woman unclean.
I have a friend who is very upset by this law. How could something so wonderful and so natural make a woman unclean? That doesn’t seem fair!
First, let’s remember that being unclean was not necessarily tied to sinfulness. In this law, it most certainly was not sinful to become unclean through childbirth. Childbirth in ancient Israel was a joyous occasion. People celebrated the birth of a child.
So why did it cause a woman to become ritually unclean?
Jay Sklar (2014) points out that the words “in the blood of her purifying” make it clear to us that it was the blood loss during and after childbirth that made the woman unclean and not the birth of the child. Blood = life (Leviticus 17:11,14) therefore losing blood was very ritually defiling. Worship of the God of all life could have nothing to do with the loss of life.
But Sklar gives another reason why losing blood during childbirth might make a woman unclean,
“…such laws had the practical benefit of providing women with a socially acceptable way of withdrawing from others in order to rest and recuperate, which may have been especially welcome in a world without medication to help with pain and discomfort (p. 176).”
In a world where women were valued only for their usefulness in household matters, these laws legally gave women the opportunity to rest and recover after giving birth. What a gracious provision from a compassionate God!
The question you may be wondering now is, why are the days of purifying longer for the birth of a girl than they are for a boy?
I’m going to give you my go-to answer for this section of chapters in Leviticus: we just don’t know! But it certainly was not because boys were seen as more valuable than girls. The offerings required at the end of the woman’s purification period were the same for girls and boys. If boys were somehow more valuable, the required offerings would reflect that (Sklar, 2014). There was perhaps a reason that the waiting time for girls was longer than for boys that made perfect sense to the Israelites but is lost to us today.
In the Observation section for chapters 11-16, there is a table that outlines the purification procedures required for each of the ritual laws included in these chapters (workbook page 28):
You can download my table with my answers here.
Ritually Defiling Diseases (Ch. 13-15)
The laws regarding ritually defiling diseases can be tough to read. It’s easy to get lost in all of the details.
Chapter 13 starts out by describing 7 different scenarios in which a skin disease would make a person unclean. The ESV titles this section “Laws About Leprosy,” but this title is misleading. The disease we call leprosy today was most likely not included in the diseases described in chapter 13 (Sklar, 2014). All the diseases described are diseases of the skin. The instructions in chapter 13 were given to the priests who were charged with diagnosing the skin disease as making a person clean or unclean.
Below is a table outlining the symptoms of ritually defiling skin diseases that would disqualify a person from participating in worship until they were made clean.
A person who was found to be unclean because of the skin disease was required to do three things while the disease persisted:
- Change their appearance: wear torn clothes, have unkempt hair, and cover part of their face
- Call out “Unclean, unclean”
- Live alone outside the camp
I filled in my table with the procedures required for a person with a skin disease to become clean again. I also outline the procedures required for addressing a defiling disease in a garment and in a house in my table (workbook page 28).
You can see my table with my answers by clicking here.
Laws About Bodily Discharges
Certain bodily discharges made a person unclean. Again, we’re not really sure why (except for menstruation which involved the loss of blood which was equated to loss of life). Chapter 15 involves normal and abnormal bodily discharges for both men and women. The table below outlines the symptoms for all cases (note the chiasm).
Abnormal discharges and menstruation were ritually contagious. Therefore anyone touching someone with one of these types of discharges (or sitting on something that a person with a discharge has sat on) would be considered ritually unclean until evening. With an abnormal male discharge any vessels he touched (without first washing his hands) needed to be either broken or rinsed with water because the vessels themselves became unclean.
I’ve included the procedures for cleansing for each of the types of discharges in my table (workbook page 28).
You can see my table by clicking here.
Application
How are we supposed to apply the laws about ritual purity today?
The short answer: we don’t.
We no longer need to follow the laws about ritual purity. Christ’s atoning work on the cross has made us permanently ritually clean. Through his blood he has brought us to God (1 Peter 3:18) and made our hearts a dwelling place for God himself through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). Therefore there in now no more “clean” or “unclean” (Romans 14:14).
However, although it is true that we no longer need to worry about ritual purity we are called (just like the Israelites of old) to be morally pure.
1 Peter 2: 9 – 12 says:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Leviticus 11-15 should remind us that although we no longer need to follow the laws regarding ritual purity, we are just as responsible as the Israelites were to live lives that are set apart. We are still called to be God’s Kingdom on earth. We are still called to be a light and example to a watching world.
What does this look like? Here are several ways we might “live apart” as God’s kingdom on earth:
Live apart in conduct. What does this look like now that we are no longer required to follow the laws of Leviticus 11-15? 1 Corinthians explains:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (10:31).
Likewise Colossians 3:17 says,
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We are to do everything for the glory of God. Whether we’re working, playing, eating, or drinking – we do it all, not for our own glory, but for God’s. We represent to the world who God is in our conduct as we go about our day.
Live apart in speech. The way we speak should look different than the way the world speaks. James 1 says this:
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless (1:26).
The tongue is a powerful tool. We are cautioned to reign it in. With it we can build others up or tear each other down. Colossians 4 tells us to
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person (4:6).
Live apart in the way we love. We are not to love as the world loves. The world’s love is a consumerist love. It loves only for it’s own benefit. The world’s love is not unconditional. It is conditional on the basis of the happiness of the love-giver.
Godly love is
…patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
We are called to moral purity so that we might have an abundant joyful life in Christ during our time here on this earth. But we are also called to moral purity so that we might point others to the way of an abundant joyful life. We know that this kind of life is only found in Jesus.
So let us live in a way that magnifies Christ and points others to the greatness of our God.
To be continued…The Day of Atonement
The Day of Atonement was such an important day in Ancient Israel that it deserves its own separate post.
If you’ve already studied chapter 16, then click here to be taken to the post on the Day of Atonement.
If you haven’t studied chapter 16 yet, take your time in observing, interpreting, and applying the chapter, then click the link above to read the post.
In the next part of our study, we’ll look at chapters 17-20. Your homework is below.
Homework Assignment #5
Read Leviticus chapters 17-20 and complete Observation, Interpretation, and Application for these chapters (workbook pages 34-39)
Works Cited
Sklar, J. (2014). Leviticus: An introduction and commentary. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
