Lev 14:1-15:33
Unclean!! Unclean!!
The regulations continue for what is clean and what is unclean from Infectious Skin Diseases, Mildew in the house to the NIV attempts for a title for chapter 15 “Discharges Causing Uncleanness”.
Your unclean… now your clean… wait seven days… your clean… but you’re unclean. It can be pretty confusing. However the purpose of all this appears in Lev 15:31:
31 ” ‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’ ”
God’s people must not violate the holy God who dwells within their midst, remember Lev 11:44:
44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.
Yet what does all this mean for us as God’s people today? When we see mildew in the house we just get out the “exit mould”. We know these regulations do not stand for us today but how are we to understand this. God is still holy… isn’t he???
God is still holy. Do you know this holy God no longer dwells in a place like the tabernacle. He actually dwells within us! Listen to the apostle Paul in 1 Cor 6:19-20:
19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The atoning death of Christ was the way in which the holy God could dwell amongst unholy people. Now as Gods people cleansed by the blood of Christ, his spirit dwells within us.
Let us not defile Gods dwelling place.
Thanks for your thoughts Stew, I need to think hard about the pollution my sin makes in God’s holy dwelling.It’s ugly. I was pretty confused after reading today, and almost feeling a little down wondering what on earth all this blood sprinkling is about, especially to be called unclean after giving birth(such a positive thing)? Anyway, today we received a letter from the Iedema’s, updating their ministry for the year with a verse from Hebrews written out – “therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty consience and having our bodies washed with pure water”. Wow, I’ve read these verses before, but they hit me with such force today because i could see so clearly how Jesus fulfils the requirements God sets out in Leviticus. THankyou Jesus for sprinkling my heart with your cleansing blood. To be honest, I still don’t understand why all the detail of Levitcus, but i can praise God for his love for us in doing both sides of the contract he established with his people.