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INTRODUCTION

Part of what the leprosy laws proclaim to us is that the central, highest calling of man is to worship his maker. Worship is central. Worship moves the world. When God restores men and women to worship, He is restoring their humanity, which in turn, by His grace, restores the world. Christ is saving the world by drawing the world to worship.

THE TEXT

“This shall the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest…” (Lev. 13-14)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

A number of skin diseases and blemishes are described, requiring the priests to examine and reexamine over time to determine whether an Israelite was clean or unclean (13:1-44). If the person is determined to be unclean in an ongoing way, he was declared “utterly unclean,” and he was required to be quarantined outside the camp (13:44-46). Garments could also be infected by plague, and these needed to be examined and tested (13:47-59). For cleansing, two living birds were chosen: one was killed in an earthen vessel over water, the other was dipped together with cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop in the blood of the bird that was killed; it would be sprinkled on the one being cleansed and then the living bird would be released (13:1-7). The cleansed leper was completely shaved and washed and brought back into the camp, but waited for seven days, before being shaved and washed again (13:8-10). On the eighth day, three lambs were chosen, one for a trespass offering, one for a sin offering, and one for an ascension offering: some of the blood of the trespass offering was put on the right ear, the right hand, and the right big toe of the one being cleansed (14:11-14). And the same thing was done with oil (14:15-20). Finally, provisions were made for those who could not afford the lambs (14:21-32).

CLEANSING FOR WORSHIP

Remember that the designations for “clean/unclean” primarily designate who could draw near to God in worship. The clearest indication of this is the fact that the cleansing of the lepers almost exactly mirrors the ordination of the priests (cf. Lev. 8), particularly the seven days and the blood on the earlobes, thumbs, and big toes (Lev. 14:14). God was certainly using this ceremonial code to teach Israel about basic hygiene and health, but the primary point was that God is the source of all life and health and blessing. “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (Psa. 103:3). This means we ought rather to obey God than do what seems right to us. Remember Naaman the Syrian leper who was initially offended by the prophet’s instruction to bathe in a dirty Jordan River seven times (2 Kgs. 5:10). If we live in a land full of idolatry and perversion, failing to worship the Living God in the beauty of holiness, how can we be surprised if we are struck with diseases (cf. Dt. 28:60)? If Jesus says we ought be baptized, then we ought to be baptized. If He tells us to sing the Psalms, we ought to sing the Psalms. If He tells us to share bread and wine with joy, we ought to obey Him. Worship and its efficacy are God’s prerogative, not ours.

JESUS REVERSES THE CURSE

One of the great lessons of the purity codes of Israel was that under the Old Covenant, the curse of sin was infectious. In the New Covenant, sin can still be very deadly (2 Cor. 6:17); bitterness still defiles many (Heb. 12:15). But because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, grace and healing have become more infectious. Where sin had abounded, grace abounds still more (Rom. 5:20). This is demonstrated when Jesus touches lepers or is touched by the unclean, and instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the unclean are cleansed: “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, ‘I will; be thou clean’” (Mk. 1:41, cf. Mk. 3:10). Remember the woman with the flow of blood who touched Jesus, but instead of making Him (or his garment) unclean, power went out from Him and cleansed her (Mk. 5:28-30). This is because Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5).

CONCLUSIONS

Quarantines for the sick are biblical, but quarantines for the healthy are wicked. We see in these texts that God made the world such that there are visible indicators of infection and disease. The scientific ramifications for Leviticus 13 are tremendous. While there is much that we still do not understand, and there will no doubt be deep mysteries into the resurrection, the world is rational and knowable because God is rational and knowable, not random or capricious.

The heart of true worship is gratitude. Remember the Samaritan leper who was cleansed and came back and worshiped Jesus (Lk. 17:16). Our reasons for gratitude are manifold: gratitude for health and medicine, all of creation and beauty, answered prayers and our families, and every detail that points to our cleansing and redemption in the blood of Jesus. Jesus died that we might be sprinkled and set free. Jesus died that we might be sprinkled and drawn near to the Living God with His blessing on our lives, so that all things might be made new.

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INTRODUCTION

The Israelite purity codes point out potent, momentous elements of life and tell Israel to pay careful attention. Go slow here. Warning. There is something glorious here. What you eat, what you touch, your bodies, death and dying, sexuality, and childbearing are potent, powerful forces in the world that God made. Under God’s blessing, they are forces for good, but in our fallen state, they naturally become forces for evil, harm, and destruction. Uncleanness points to our natural fallen state, and points to our need for a new Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, and urges care, wisdom, repentance, worship, and obedience in all things.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying if a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days” (Lev. 12:1-8).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When a woman gave birth to a son, she was ceremonially unclean for seven days, the son was to be circumcised on the 8^th day, and then she continued in a state of purifying for another 33 days, for a total of 40 days (12:1-4). When a woman bore a daughter, she was unclean for fourteen days, and then continued in a state of purifying for another 66 days, for a total of 80 days (12:5). At the end of the time of purifying, the new mother was to bring an ascension offering and a sin offering to the tabernacle, one for atonement and one for cleansing from her blood, with a provision for the poor (12:6-8).

THE PROMISE OF THE SEED

While these ceremonies can seem strange or even offensive to modern ears, there really is a logic to it all and something profoundly glorious is going on here. Remember, that God blessed Adam and Eve with the command to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and ruling over all the creatures (Gen. 1:28). This means that conception and childbearing was originally blessed by God and is part of what God pronounced “very good” (Gen. 1:31). But Adam sinned, and God pronounced curses on the ground that man worked and greater pain in a woman’s childbearing, and promised that now death would come upon all (Gen. 3:16-19). This general curse of sin and death in the world is what theologians call “original sin,” and all people (except for Jesus) are conceived and born with this covenantal guilt and natural proclivity to sin and corruption (Ps. 51: 5, Is. 48:8, Rom. 3:23, 5:12-19, 6:23). This is part of what God was teaching Israel in their purity codes: sin and death infects everything to some extent, and Israel cannot approach God unless He makes a way of cleansing. However, God also promised Adam and Eve a “seed” (a descendent) who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). God promised that through the seed of the woman, the curse would be reversed.

FULFILLED IN JESUS

This text is fulfilled in the gospel initially in the circumcision of Jesus and Mary’s purification (Lk. 2:21-24). Circumcision was the Old Covenant sign that pictured the need for the shedding of blood for our sins and the cutting off of our sinful flesh. This is why the time for purification is cut in half for a baby boy because the baby boy at least symbolically shared the other half of the purification process. Jesus did not need to receive the sign of removal of sin for any personal sins anymore than He needed to be baptized for the remission of any sins, but in both cases it was to stand with us as our representative (covenant) head, to fulfill all righteousness (cf. Mt. 3:15). All of this was completely fulfilled in the cross, which Paul figuratively calls “the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11), where our sins and the “uncircumcision” of our flesh was forgiven and all the condemnation of the law was nailed to His cross (Col. 2:13-14).

CONCLUSIONS

It’s particularly glorious that Jesus rose from the dead on the “8^th Day,” the day of circumcision, which is of course also the first day of the week, the day of new creation, the day of the removal of the curse.

Part of what this text underlines and which is highly offensive to modern sensibilities is the inequality of the sexes. We have been catechized and discipled by modern secularism to jump at every hint of inequality and to presume that this necessarily implies inequality of value. But men and women are gloriously unequal (1 Cor. 11:3, 7-11), and both bear the image of God equally in creation and are co-heirs of the grace of life in Christ (Gen. 1:27, 1 Pet. 3:7).

God loves the glorious differences and inequalities of male and female, and He loves how they image Him. And so should we, and therefore we hate the sexual promiscuity that makes light of this glory, the utter fruitlessness and impossibility of homosexuality, and the utter confusion and blasphemy of transgenderism.

This text points us to the glory of childbearing, the profound beauty of motherhood, the way that the curse of sin and death has attempted to infect it, and it all points to the glory of Christ who is now in the process of redeeming it all. By His blood, He has removed the ceremonial curse, and while we still battle with the presence of the curse in this world and in our bodies, Christ has commandeered death itself, such that even the remaining signs of the curse are turned into marks of the cross for those who are in Christ Jesus (cf. Gal. 6:17).

The reason our culture rages against motherhood is because it is so beautiful and powerful (Ps. 139). There is nothing more potent in this world than people made in the image of God. This is why marriage and the gift of children are so central to the working out of the gospel. This is why the Bible even says that a woman may be “saved through childbirth” (1 Tim. 2:15). This does not mean that a single or barren woman cannot be saved, but it does mean that all women are called to embrace by faith the vocation of motherhood. Whether or not you bear your own children, you are to be fruitful in your home, cultivate beauty, feed the hungry, and in all of it, be the glory of man.

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INTRODUCTION

Humanists can only offer unity without holiness, which is unity without wholeness. Humanistic unity, because it rejects God, must ultimately destroy our humanity. But God is determined to heal our enmity through holiness. He is determined to reconcile all things in Christ, and when they are reconciled they will be fully and completely whole. Some of this was pictured in the distinctions Israel was required to make between those clean animals they could eat and the unclean animals prohibited.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying unto them, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, these are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beast that are on the earth…” (Lev. 11:1-47)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Following the warning that the priests must be sober in order to teach the Israelites to distinguish between clean and unclean (Lev. 10:10-11), this chapter explains the clean animals that God allowed Israel to eat and the unclean animals they were forbidden from eating (11:1-2). Clean land animals chew the cud and have divided hooves (11:3-8). In the waters, Israel could eat the fish that had scales and fins, but the others are to be abominations to them (11:9-12). Among the birds, a number of specific species are prohibited (11:13-19). Among swarming flying creatures, only the hopping locusts, beetles, and grasshoppers may be eaten (11:20-23). Finally, we learn that all animals that die (except for those killed for sacrifice or eating) become unclean, and whatever their carcasses touch become unclean and the various requirements for cleansing (11:24-43). All of these instructions are given because God is the Lord of Israel, and they are to be holy just as He is holy (11:44-47).

WHAT MAKES THEM CLEAN OR UNCLEAN?

The great question is: what made certain animals clean or unclean? The leading contenders for answers are: A. It’s a mystery only God knows, B. It was hygienic and health related, C. It was symbolic. But I’ll add a fourth option that I lean towards, which is a combination of all three, with C (symbolism) being primary. Many of the unclean animals seem to be associated with predators, eaters of carrion, or in some way associated with death or the serpent that goes on its belly in the cursed dust (Lev. 11:42). But we should always interpret Scripture in light of Scripture, and especially the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.

One of the clearest and most extended passages in the New Testament on clean and unclean animals is found in Acts 10 where Peter sees a vision of a great sheet being let down to the earth, full of beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air (Acts 10:11-12). Then Peter heard a voice that said, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat” (Acts 10:13). But Peter, being a faithful Jew refused saying, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean” (Acts 10:14). To which the voice replied, “What God hath cleansed, do not call common,” and it says that this happened three times (Acts 10:15-16). Immediately after this vision, Peter is asked to go to the house of a Gentile Centurion named Cornelius, and the Spirit gives the same command “rise” (Acts 10:20). Arriving at the house of the Centurion, Peter explains the vision to Cornelius, explaining that it would have ordinarily been unlawful for him as a Jew to keep company with a Gentile, but he says, “God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). After preaching the death and resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, the Spirit came upon all those listening, and Peter called for their baptism (Acts 10:44-48).

THE ANIMALS ARE PEOPLE

All of this tells us that one of the primary purposes of the designation of clean and unclean animals was to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles. But with the coming of Christ, God was announcing that the salvation offered to Israel in the Old Covenant was now being proclaimed to all of the nations of the earth. This was prophesied in Isaiah: the wolf [unclean] will dwell with the lamb [clean], the leopard [unclean] shall lie down with the young goat [clean], etc. (Is. 11:6, cf. 65:25). The warring predatory nations shall be at peace with Israel and one another.

A great deal of the New Testament is taken up with the inclusion of the Gentiles in the New Covenant, and many Jews for any number of reasons (personal preference, ignorance, or fear) continued following the food codes, and so right on schedule there were conflicts in the early churches. Paul notes an example in Galatians 2 where even Peter withdrew from eating with Gentiles when certain Jews came into town, and Paul rebuked Peter openly because he was not walking according to the truth of the gospel – making something more than faith in Jesus Christ necessary for justification and therefore fellowship (Gal. 2:11-16). Later, in Acts 15 a more formal appeal was made to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and their decision made it clear that Gentiles were only to be required to keep themselves from idols, sexual immorality, and the only food restrictions were related to offerings to idols (Acts 15:20, 29).

So the animals represent people, particularly Jews and Gentiles, and therefore, so long as the Jews were the only people of God, the Jews could only eat “Jewish” animals. But once God made himself the God of all the nations, then God’s people were free to eat all the animals. The principle is that we must be holy as God is holy. In the Old Covenant, the primary focus was on distinguishing Israel from the other nations of the earth, but in the New Covenant, the primary focus is on reconciling the nations of the earth. “For [Christ Jesus] is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of the two, one new man, so making peace” (Eph. 2:13-14).

CONCLUSION

Unbelievers promises unity and peace apart from Christ, which means letting sinners keep certain sins and demanding uniformity. When the enmity inevitably increases, they demand to be given more power to enforce more uniformity. But Christ is bringing unity through His holiness. Christ is bringing unity and peace through removing our sins and restoring us to our full humanity. Christ is reconciling the lions and the lambs of the nations by removing the enmity, not by turning us all into generic land animals. Humanists try to pacify our lust for sin and deform our humanity. Only Christ can remove our sin and make us more human. This requires faith in Christ, and obedience to His Word. This means husbands and wives, parents and children, pastors and parishioners, magistrates and citizens trusting and obeying Christ.

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