SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 15
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
1. Another day of cleansing laws. Verse 31 seems to summarize the point. ‘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.’ The plain sense of these words is that our being unclean defiles God, Who symbolically lives among them in His tent.
2. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. [Matthew 10:28] It seems that the deeper lesson behind these purity laws was how the people approached God. They were to go out of their way to make sure that they were washed and clean and prepared and serious about their encounters with God. God is no trivial matter, we are talking about the Ultimate Reality.
3. The specific concerns mentioned here (monthly periods, semen emissions) are, I am guessing, natural body functions, not the result of sin. The warning about being unclean is maybe more about reminding ourselves about how holy God is. The same for when they gathered at Mount Sinai, and were to consecrate (i.e. make themselves holy) by washing up and abstaining from sexual relations [Exodus 19:14-15].
4. These are all guesses on my part. What I hear in these detailed instructions is a call to take God seriously, very seriously. Be more concerned about Him than about the things that can just harm our bodies.
5. That’s the message I am taking from this today. So for me, I ought to abstain from something, and devote myself to some specific time for God. Do we prepare ourselves for spending time with God, or do we just straggle in when it suits us…
PRAYER:
Lord, help me to search my heart, to see what ‘unclean’ things I am harbouring there, and make a serious effort to cleanse my heart by repentance.
I found this online: “The Jewish day is of no fixed length. The Jewish day is modeled on the reference to “…there was evening and there was morning…” in the creation story. Accordingly, it runs from sunset (start of “the evening”) to the next sunset.” The Jews did not follow the clock like we do. It was not a legalistic ‘day’ or ‘time’, but a sense that being unclean lasted for the full day. Not until the next day were you considered clean.
Not sure I have more to offer here. Hope that helps.
I get it about the unclean parts.. What I don’t get is the .. until evening part.. Does that mean that a person has a bath and is physically clean but is said to be spiritually unclean until night fall > what time of night would it be.. 7.8 pm or 12 noon..??
How would one know what time? Would it be relvant to even ask if there was a certain time.. or was it presumed through the whole night..?
Or is this just a symbolism..Why at night?
It just doesn’t make it clear here.. Perhaps you may have the answer
Thanks
Carol