Page 78 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

removed. Sometimes the infected area must be removed. Here again two birds are used to purify an
infected house to make “atonement” for the house (14:53).

We are not done yet. People can have “unusual discharges” (15:1-33), both men and women. Their
discharges make anything they touch unclean: clothes, bed, spit, clay pots, and people. Pigeons are
again sacrificed to make a person clean. The concern is God’s presence. “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 (15:31).” The danger is the nearness of God. Uncleanness brought
into his presence is an affront.

Ouch! After Nadab and Abihu we begin to wonder if anyone can survive this holy God.

Bible experts are divided in their teaching on these chapters. The material written about Leviticus is
large and can only be illustrated without a thorough discussion. Each approach has its problems and
inconsistencies.

1.) Some have suggested a connection with other religions. The specifics of clean and unclean are God’s
way of putting a barrier between Israel and the idolatrous nations. Philistines, it has been discovered,
used pigs in their worship, so pigs were unclean for Israel. Yet cattle, permissible to eat for Israel, were
used in Egyptian worship.

2.) Other scholars propose a health reason behind these laws. Breaking any of the instructions would
damage one’s body in some way. Skin diseases, for example, could spread to others and cause hardship
for many in the community. But the same situations existed in the day of Jesus. He had no refrigerator,
yet we find him disregarding these laws for the church.

3.) Another suggestion highlights ethics. Warnings are intended to guide us in our relationships with
other people. A woman after giving birth is in a vulnerable condition. Being declared unclean is actually
a protection for her from mistreatment. Certainly some of the distinctions are ethically connected, but it
is difficult to understand many in this way.

4.) A newer suggestion seems to focus on the fine distinctions required of people to separate clean from
unclean. God is once again training his people, refining their thought processes. By asking them to
discern between fabrics with mold, he is exercising their capability to discern also between people who
are committed to God and people who are not. The discernment is, or course, directed at oneself as well
as others. This suggestion seems too distant from the setting of a given law. How does looking at a
reddish-white sore on the bald head of a man sharpen one’s understanding of sin and sinners?

It is probably best to see all of these options operating in the laws about clean and unclean. Some laws
can be traced back to the reason behind them. Some cannot. Throughout the law, Israel was called to be
holy or separate in all of these ways. They were not to follow other religions in practice. They were to be
careful of their bodies. They were to treat one another with love. They were to think thoroughly about
the causes and cures of sin.

Some basic definitions might help at this point. The condition of anything can be identified in three
ways: holy, common/clean, and unclean. Certain items are reserved for God. Most of the rest is for daily
life. Some things are fairly useless and need to be avoided. Status can change, depending on how a
person approaches an item. Terms like “cleanse” or “sanctify” and “profane” or “pollute” describe these

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