Page 80 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

Even today we have no cure. An Israelite would be miserable, indefinitely living outside the camp. When
healing came, it came from God’s hand. In coming out of Egypt, they had been taught to view Yahweh as
their only healer (Exodus 15:26, cf. Deuteronomy 32:39). The ceremony that brought them back into the
camp and allowed them to worship again emphasized both atonement and the joy of return. Among
other steps, blood was applied to the cleansed person’s right ear, right thumb, and right big toe
signifying atonement. Oil was also applied to these same three places welcoming the whole person
joyfully back into the community of faith (Lev. 14:14, 17).

While the theme is muted in the Pentateuch, God’s desire is to reclaim all
creation. He does not just want to transform the everyday for his use. He
wants to bring even the profane into his presence through cleansing. What
refuses to be cleansed will finally be cast away. The prophets wrote with
some surprise about daily items becoming special. “On that day HOLY TO THE
LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses and the cooking pots in the
LORD’S house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar (Zech. 14:20).”
They envisioned a highway back to God. “The unclean will not go about on
it,” but the “ransomed of the LORD will return” and “will enter Zion with Fig. 53: HOLY TO THE LORD
singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads (Isa. 35:8, 10).” The issue is
serious for “nothing impure will ever enter” the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:27).

One day “there will be no disease, no corruption, no illness, no bodily defects, no births, no unclean
thing at all. Why, because all such things are incompatible with the holiness of the LORD. That is the
principle that lies behind the laws of Lev. 12-15. So when the law required worshipers in ancient Israel to
go through the purification and atoning process in order to enter his courts, the LORD was beginning to
reveal his greater plan of what it takes for humans to be in his presence eternally.”
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When we turn from clean/unclean to holy/common, the key idea is knowing what is special and
knowing how to treat the special in a proper manner. As we have already noted, a relationship with
YHWH is special. He gives his people special/holy ways to live that are quite distinct from the ordinary
ways of sinful humans. When one of his people fails to distinguish between the holy and the common,
treating the holy in a common fashion, that person is in rebellion against God. The verb form of
“common” in the OT is usually translated with words like “desecrate” or “profane” or “pervert.” These
words communicate the seriousness of the action. The word does not appear in the earlier or later
chapters of Leviticus but is heavily used in our section on “daily” ethics. See 18:21; 19:8, 12, 29; 20:3;
21:6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 15, 23; 22:2, 9, 15, 32.

God says to Moses. “Speak to the Israelites and say
to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not do
as they do in Egypt (18:2, 3).” He then gives a string
of instructions about sexual relationships. Each
demonstrates how to reduce the holiness of God’s
gift of sex. A variety of words are added to describe
the devaluing of the acts: dishonor, wickedness,
uncleanness, detestable, etc. The nations of
Palestine did these things, just one of the reasons

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Fig. 54: Moral and
Ibid., 275. physical pollution
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