Leviticus Chapter 15: The Laws Regarding Male and Female Discharges
The first 15 verses are instructions on how to deal with male ‘discharges’. Verses 16-18 deal with a man’s ‘seminal ‘emissions’.
Verses 19-30 deal with instructions on how to deal with a female ‘discharge’.
In both all cases, the instructions follow processes very similar to those with respect to leprosy – some isolation, washing, sacrifices, and presentation to the priest.
Verses 31 gives God’s rationale for these laws:
“Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.”
The last two verses of the chapter describe again the areas this law covers:
This is the law for the one with a discharge, and for the man who has a seminal emission so that he is unclean by it, and for the woman who is ill because of menstrual impurity and for the one who has a discharge, whether a male or a female, or a man who lies with an unclean woman.
Thoughts on the Passage
Chuck Smith sees this as primarily a chapter about boils, at least initially. It is about running sores and the necessary hygiene to deal with them. I like this line of his:
“Now the Bible doesn't say that cleanliness is next to Godliness in those words. Those words are found in the Koran, but not in the Bible.”
And he then goes on to show how important it is for the Bible-believer as well.
David Guzik has some most interesting perspectives. He writes:
None of these discharges made a man or a woman sinful, only ceremonially unclean. [So,] This did promote hygiene in ancient Israel, yet discharges of semen and menstruation were so regarded, not because there was anything inherently wrong with them, but because the two are connected with symbols of life and redemption, blood and seed.
The phrase in verse 31, “My tabernacle that is among them” Guzik says,
. . . made an obvious separation between sex and the worship of God. To the modern world this seems normal, but in the ancient world it was common to worship the gods by having sex with temple prostitutes. God did not want this association in His worship.
He continues:
It is important for us to regard these laws of cleanliness in a New Testament perspective. In Mark 7:1-9 Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their over-emphasis on ceremonial cleanliness and their lack of regard for internal cleanliness. These laws were meant to have both hygienic reasons and spiritual applications; they were never intended as the way to be right with God.
In Acts 15, the early Christian community properly discerned the work and will of God in the New Covenant: that under the New Covenant, the believer was not bound to these laws of ritual purity. One could be a follower of Jesus without the ritual conformity to the Mosaic Law. Yet we need to remember that spiritual cleanliness in worship is important today. We also remember that Jesus is the One who makes us clean and fit for fellowship: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
And, of course, 1 John 1:7-9 tells us that our cleanliness is “complete” as we abide in Jesus.
Robert Jamieson makes the following statement of interest on this chapter:
[God] He required of them complete purity, and did not allow them to come before Him when defiled, even by involuntary or secret impurities, as a want of respect due to His majesty. And when we bear in mind that God was training a people to live in His presence in some measure as priests devoted to His service, we shall not consider these rules for the maintenance of personal purity either too stringent or too minute (1 Thess.4:4).
And lastly, Matthew Henry adds to our understanding of this chapter’s purposes. Here is a sample of his thoughts on this passage:
· This was to separate the children of Israel and their servants and proselytes or those who converted to their faith.
o By these laws they were taught their privilege and honor, that they were purified unto God a peculiar people, and “were intended by the holy God for a kingdom of priests, a holy nation; for that was a defilement to them which was not so to others.
· In all these laws there seems to be a special regard had to the honor of the tabernacle, to which none must approach in their uncleanness. . .. Now that the tabernacle of God was with men familiarity would be apt to breed contempt, and “therefore the law made so many things of frequent incidence to be ceremonial pollutions, and to involve an incapacity of drawing near to the sanctuary (making death the penalty), that so they might not approach without great caution, and reverence, and serious preparation, and fear of being found unfit.
That takes us to the lessons we might learn from these verses today. First, we can thank God we are no longer under all those Mosaic Laws. Secondly, we need to remain pure in our hearts as we deal with God, abstaining from sin to the extent we are able to. Third, we need to recognize the indispensable necessity (as Henry says) of real holiness to our future happiness. This requires getting our hearts purified by faith, “that we may see God.”
Henry ends his comments with the following:
Perhaps it is in allusion to these laws which forbade the unclean to approach the sanctuary that when it is asked, “Who shall stand in God’s holy place?” it is answered, “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” (Psalm 24:3,4); for “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
May we see God.
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