LEVITICUS
Week 5 Clean and unclean
Ch.11, Food laws, Ch.12 Childbirth, Chs.13-14 Leprosy, Ch. 15 Discharges
Discuss Study Questions Week 4
1.Over and over, God commands us to be holy because He is holy. To be holy means to be separate, distinct and different from the general population. To be clear, we are not to APPEAR holy, but to BE holy. Jesus came and lived a sinless life, a holy life. He is our role model in how to live. What about Jesus marked Him as different, what did he say, do, think, for example? What are things He said or did that we can emulate?
2. In the Talmud, the interpretation of Hebrew scripture by generations of rabbis, they discuss at length how long before going into the tent of meeting could they drink strong drink. An hour? A half day? etc. What is wrong with quantifying such measures? Why doesn’t God ever give us a specific level of observance that is acceptable to Him?
3. Have you ever said or done what you thought was right and it turned up wrong? What was the outcome? How does knowing that God looks at your heart, rather than what comes out of your mouth or what you do affect the way you live?
Chapter 11 Food LawsMost of these foods we would not think of eating.
1. About the list and about what is and is not food Read Lev. 11:1-23 and 29-30
-Verses 3-23 No animals which are predators, eat other’s’ flesh, or are
omnivore (will eat anything) or “bottom dwellers, eating God only knows
what. In all but the fish, only herbivores.
Examples of predators. No cats. Not just wild cats, even house cats are
predators. (In Tucson our cat used to bring animals as presents, mice usually,
once a bat)
No dogs. They can be both predators, like coyotes, or omnivores, like dogs.
Our dog loves raw carrots as well as any meat.
No eagles, falcons, kites or ravens.
No sharks.
Examples of omnivores and bottom dwellers. No rodents. They eat anything.
No pigs. They eat anything.
No badgers.
No vultures or buzzards
No catfish
No shell fish, clams, lobsters, shrimp.. I tell folks, “I’m not shellfish
No jellyfish
CAN EAT meat eaters among the fish, anything with both fins and scales.
Verses 20-23 Only herbivores. Of all the insects, only the locusts, crickets and grasshoppers are herbivores.
God says over and over these are abhorrent, detestable to us. They are “unclean”. To eat them or even touch them renders the person unclean. Anything they touch becomes unclean.
Keeping this list: Why I keep to this list.
-NOT because I think eating them makes me unclean. Read Acts 10:9-16
-IS because the reason God gives for our obedience in this.
-READ verses 43-45
-To remind myself Who God is, the Lord, God Almighty (verse 44)
-To remind myself what God has done for me (vs. 45)
-To remind myself to keep myself from anything which truly is unclean.
Mental Pollution: We allow no R-rated movies in our house.
-To remind us that our obedience matters to Him.
Chapter 12 Childbirth
Read Lev. 12:1-4 Birth of son
-Notice the husband is not to touch her for 7 days and NOT DURING
HER MENSTRUATION.
-Verse 3 8th day, circumcision Read Luke 2:21-22 -Verse 12:4 33
Days of “Purification”, days she could not touch anything consecrated -
including have sexual relations with her husband. Too bad for a horny
husband. Marked difference from surrounding cultures and much of the
world today! God’s laws protect and honor women.
Read 12:5 Birth of a daughter unclean and untouchable twice as long. Don’t know why. Maybe God knew girls are twice as hard to take care of, so He gave the moms more time off.
Read 12:6-8 Sin offerings result of childbirth.
-Same for son and daughter
-Burnt offering and sin offering
-verse 8 God makes allowance if they cannot afford a lamb
Read Luke 2:21 and 24 Notice, they could not afford a lamb
-Discuss what the sin is for - My guess, It is that it is on behalf of the child, who has a sin, that is selfish, prideful, nature from birth.
Chapters 13 - 14 Leprosy
From New American Standard Bible, The New Open Bible Study Edition, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990 (Parentheses are my notes)
“Leprosy, a disease mentioned often in the Bible, was a dreaded skin affliction in ancient times. Modern medicine has isolated several different types of leprosy, variously characterized by the formation of nodules, ulcers, deformities, and loss of feeling in the skin. In Old Testament times, a symptom used to diagnose the disease was the persistence of shiny white spots under the skin, and the hair turning white. (Remember there were no blondes among the Israelites).
The leper, considered ceremonially unclean, was isolated and forced to live apart from others. Detailed instructions are given in these 2 chapters on how to recognize leprosy and how others were to be protected from those unfortunate enough to contract the disease. The leper was cast outside the camp (Lev. 13”46) required to wear mourning clothes, and to cry out “Unclean! Unclean!” to keep others at a safe distance (Lev. 13: 45-46)
Several miraculous cures of leprosy are reported in the Bible. Both times with Moses (Read Ex. 4: 1-9) God is showing Moses He can do anything and saying that He can and will keep doing miracles until they believe. When John the Baptist was in prison and through his followers he asked Jesus if he was the one, Jesus told went word back of the miracles He did. Matt. 11: 2-6. When he was telling the Jewish leaders who He was when they confronted Him about healing on the Sabbath, He cited the Witness of John the Baptist, The witness of His Father and of the scriptures, and the witness of His works. (John 5: 36.) and Miriam (Read Num. 12) Aaron and Miriam rebel. God inflicts Leprosy and punishment, and heals because of their repentant hearts. Illness is rarely God’s punishment and true repentance does not alway bring healing from physical illnesses. Yet, the lessons here are
a) God will punish disobedience
b) He will allow us to come to harm to get us to turn to Him
c) He is able to completely restore us
They were not the only ones who were afflicted with leprosy and cured by the Lord. God used Elisha to heal Naaman, a Syrian military officer, of his leprosy. (Read 2Kin. 5:1-14.) The lesson here is that obedience does not have to be hard or complicated. If it seems too easy, it is because it is. Our salvation does not even require us to bathe in a river and that from which we are being saved is much bigger than leprosy. In an expression of compassion, ( and doing His Father’s work) Jesus healed ten lepers, then told them to “show yourselves to the priests” (Luke 17:14) for specific instructions on how to reenter society. This miraculous healing of the ten lepers was a clear sign of Jesus’ messiahship, since leprosy was curable only by divine intervention.
Chapter 14 is all about the sacrifices, the cleansing of the lepers and their houses. I find this completely confusing. They might go through all these sacrifices and not be healed of the leprosy, Yet, the priests would declare them clean. (Lev.14:20,31-32) For the wealthy man, there is one set of required sacrifices and for the poor, “He shall offer what he can afford.” Lev. 14:31
In what sense are they clean, if they still have leprosy? Perhaps, as some think, these are the sacrifices required for the guilt, sin , peace, etc. offerings every one else gives. Or may it is the they most go through all of this before they can give the other sacrifices. They couldn’t offer sacrifices until they were declared clean. I don’t know.
But I do know we all have the leprosy of the soul. We have an infection, called sin, that no only destroys us, but is contagious. As in Biblical times, the only cure is God’s work. The sacrifice has been made, but we must, with the same repentant heart of Aaron and Miriam, go to God in prayer an He will cleanse you.
Chapter 15 Male and Female Discharges
Male Discharges
The Lord distinguishes in the male between seminal discharges (vs. 16-18) and other kinds of discharges (vs. 1-15) I have no idea what kind of discharges the latter would be, but God take them very seriously. Unlike when the discharge is seminal, and the male, and if he is lying with a female, the female, and anything which the fluid touches is unclean and the remedy is only that they are to be washed and be unclean until evening, the other discharge seems to be much more than just a one time thing.
Read. Lev. 15:1-12
Anything he touches is unclean. Because he is unclean, his clothes are
unclean and anything on which he sits becomes unclean.
Read Lev. 15:13-15
The remedy also shows the distinction God makes. He is not only to wash
everything and destroy any earthenware vessel he touches, he is to wait 8
days after the discharge stops and offer a sacrifice of 2 turtle doves or 2
pigeons.
Female Discharges
Read Lev. 15: 24
She is out of bounds during her period. Unlike with the males discharges,
only her clothes and those things on which she lies and sits are unclean and
need to be washed. If her husband lies with her he is unclean for 7 days too.
Ha. That will teach you guys to mess with us during our periods! If the discharge is for more than 7 days, it is the same as if she was still on her period. In any case on the 8th day or on the eighth day after her discharge stops, she too is to take a sacrifice of 2 turtle doves or 2 pigeons to the priest.
The reason given for for all of this is that in our everyday lives we are to be conscious of the need to keep ourselves clean, spiritually clean as well as physically clean.
Historical Note: Because of all these laws involving washing and keeping clean, the Jews in the diaspora avoided many of the illness that affected their gentile neighbors. The result was they were suspected of starting them. There were huge massacres of the Jews during the black and bubonic plagues because the Jews were scrupulous about keeping vermin, like rats, out of their homes and washing themselves. Today, of course, we know that we are to wash our hands often.
LEVITICUS
Week 5 Study Questions Chs. 11-15
1. Which of the forbidden foods would you eat and which would you not even consider? Why for each category?
2. What things do you do or say to help you remember Who God is and what He has done for you, to keep you humble and grateful? Are they successful?
3. The speakers of the so called Feminist Movement hate these scriptures. Do you find them objectionable? Why? Why not?
4. What ceremonies/rituals are done in churches today that reflect these laws? How do you feel about them?
5. Our sin is like leprosy. It eats at us. It renders us unclean. And sin is contagious. Describe a time someone else’s sin affected you. Describe a time your sin affected someone else.
6. Lev. 15:31 makes it clear we are to keep ourselves clean, physically and spiritually. The Holy Spirit is within us. We are His temple. How is this different from the way the world values bodies? What are things that we, as Christians can do to be good stewards of the temple He has given us? What are things the world does we should not do?