Day 46 – Leviticus 11-13

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2011-13&version=NIV


Clean and Unclean. The Bible talks a lot about this and particularly in Leviticus chapter 11.

Bob Deffinbaugh from Bible.org writes,

“Author G. J. Wenham, in a footnote in one of his commentaries, says that unclean and its cognates occurs 132 times in the Old Testament; over 50 percent of these are Leviticus. So the sense of uncleanness is a predominate theme, and the word clean, along with its related terms, occurs 74 times in Leviticus, which is over one-third of the uses found in the Old Testament. All of that says to us that if we are going to begin to get some kind of grasp of Leviticus, we must have some kind of grasp over what clean and unclean means and how these words apply to the Israelite.”

Cleanness and Uncleanness in Leviticus has to do primarily with the following: cleanness and uncleanness in chapter 11 has to do principally with food, cleanness and uncleanness is a matter of category rather than condition (for example: your heart may be physically clean but unclean in a spiritual sense), cleanness is that which is defined by God and declared by the priests, and cleanness is the state of access to God ( a priest could not fulfill his duties if he was unclean, it restricts one’s fellowship with God and it restricts one’s fellowship from men).

Cleanness is important because it is related to being holy. Deffinbaugh states, “When we get down to the basic reason why an Israelite is to make these distinctions between clean and unclean, it is because God says, “You are to be holy, for I am holy.” For the first time in history—for the first time in the Old Testament—men and women are to observe these distinctions because God has made them. Therefore cleanliness is related to God’s holiness, and Israel is to observe it because of the holiness of God. Twice it is repeated in this chapter. Therefore there is a direct relationship between what is clean and what is holy in Scripture. What is unclean can never be holy. Some things that are clean may be consecrated and set apart as holy, but nothing which is holy is unclean; only that which is clean can become holy.”

We as Christians should try to live lives that are clean. Clean, not in the sense of following these Levitical laws, as we are no longer under the law. But clean in the sense of being holy before God, in living a life that is pleasing to Him.

I would like to make one last comment on these dietary laws. A lot of people say that the Jews were not sick or less sick because the diet God gave them was for health reasons. Undoubtedly, God did spare the people of Israel from eating some foods that were not healthy. But, we must realize that in the New Testament Jesus told Peter that He made these things clean. (See Acts 10:15)

Some of these people who have made diets based on Old Testament laws have good intentions, based on bad theology. Deffinbaugh hits this right on the head as to why the Israelites and why we must obey the things of the Lord:

“If God’s distinctions between clean and unclean are arbitrary, then there are no good reasons for obeying Him other than that He is God. We have a choice to make. The decision is based not on whether something makes sense, but on who God is. It is as though a young man is dating a beautiful young lady, and he finds out that she hates liver and onions. Now, not only will that young man not order liver and onions for his date, but he won’t order it for himself. Why? Because it is detestable to her. If Israel is to have that same sense of abhorrence toward unclean things, they must begin to feel about things the way God feels about them. It is ultimately Israel’s love for God that is at issue. If God thinks something is unclean, if He abhors it, then I abhor it! I don’t care if there is no reason for it! I don’t care if it isn’t healthy to do it. I only care that God says that is what He hates, and this is what He loves, and I’m going to do what He loves and avoid what He hates.

Loving God! That is the motive for doing something—whether God’s commands are arbitrary or not. Whether we can find out a reason for them or not, if God hates it, I hate it; if God loves it, I love it! Loving God is the key.”

God said things were clean or unclean. The Jews probably did not understand why some things were unclean. Yet, they obeyed God because the categorization of clean and unclean came from Him.

In the same way, today as New Testament believers we should follow all of the teachings of the Word of God (specifically, those that relate to the New Covenant, yet we should still study the Old Covenant for a better understanding of the blessings we have in the New), and not be selective in what we folllow. We may not understand everything, but because the teachings are from God, that is enough.

10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil,
for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is shed upon the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous,
and praise his holy name.

Psalm 97:10-12

Soli Deo Gloria

Today’s post was submitted by Russ Shellhamer