Day 47: Leviticus 11-13

Welcome to five -minute Bible your daily guide for your daily reading today's February the 16th, and we'll be looking at Leviticus 11 through 13 now today's reading takes holiness out of the

Tabernacle and into the kitchen and into the nursery and into the bedroom and even into the walls of your house

Leviticus 11 through 13 deals with the clean and the unclean laws about Animals and childbirth and skin diseases and mildew and at first glance it feels very strange and and even a little over Technical, but I want you to remember the setting

God's visible glory has come down from Mount Sinai and is now dwelling in the midst of Israel's camp

The Holy One is living among them. So the pressing question that we've been wrestling with is becoming unavoidable

How does a redeemed people but not perfect people live with safety?

and with wisdom in the daily presence of a thrice Holy God a holiness in fact that is dangerous and Leviticus is going to answer that question by training

Israel to think differently than the nation's do about things like purity order and life itself

Leviticus 11 therefore Distinguishes between the clean and the unclean animals and these are strange sections because we don't really fully

Understand what made an animal clean or unclean but we do have some clues For instance land animals must both chew the cud and have divided hooves those are clean for people to eat sea creatures must have both fins and scales which makes them clean to eat and birds of prey on the other hand and scavengers are forbidden to eat and These categories aren't really random

They reflect the creation order clean animals fully fit inside of their created category whereas unclean animals blur the distinctions and they feed on death or they embody some kind of disorder and Israel's being trained to notice that distinction to notice which animals feast on death in which animals feast on vegetation the point is

Israel is supposed to value wholeness and to avoid anything that symbolizes death decay and chaos

So therefore holiness touches their dinner table Leviticus 12 then addresses

Purification after childbirth childbirth is obviously not a sin It's a blessing from God But it involves blood in the loss of life and the realities of mortality in a fallen world

You see in a camp where God dwells even natural Processes require careful attention and the message is not shame.

It's awareness that life and death Exists side by side in a world that is still marked by the curse

And if the people of Israel want to be in the presence of God, then they need to purify themselves from anything

That symbolizes death and the shedding of blood and childbirth is certainly one of those things

Leviticus 13 then turns to skin diseases and mildew and the priest example spreading conditions carefully

He goes into the house and he sees that a spot that is spread is declared Unclean and a house infected with mold is quarantined and if decay spreads then

Stones are even removed and the underlying principle and all of this is consistent impurity spreads decay

Spreads disorder spreads and when God dwells in the center of your camp those realities must be confronted

Honestly and handled carefully now as you read the passage today. I want you to ask the following question

Why does God care so much about clean and unclean things in everyday life and Leviticus 11 through 13?

Shows us that holiness is not just a weekend activity. It is a way of seeing and living in Totality in a world where God is

King now the central pattern in these chapters is distinction for the sake of presence

God is not obsessed with dietary charts or patterns He's forming the people's instincts every meal every inspection every quarantine is training

Israel to think in categories of clean and unclean life and death order and Chaos, you see many unclean animals actually feed on carcasses many forbidden birds or birds that consume blood

Skin diseases resemble spreading corruption of sin Mildew spreads silently through the wash just like sin spreads silently through the soul you see under the

Old Covenant impurity spreads faster than holiness If you touch a corpse then you become unclean if you contact with decay what you require

Cleansing and this intersects directly with our daily life today Even though the Old Covenant is long far and gone because we often reduce holiness to avoiding obvious sins

But Leviticus expands the vision holiness involves attentiveness it involves discernment it involves

Recognizing that corruption spreads quietly if it is left unchecked and God in the

Old Testament Especially here in Leviticus is teaching his people to take things that decay

Seriously, because he is the one who's dwelling among them and in this way in Leviticus 11 through 13 points

Unmistakably to Jesus Christ because under the Levitical system the unclean things must be quarantined

Well under Jesus the unclean are actually the ones who are touched and restored Lepers run towards Jesus not away from him instead of their impurity spreading to him his purity actually spreads to them

And that marks a turning point in redemptive history because there's now on earth

Something that will reverse decay and will cause holiness to spread and overtake the decay

You see the food laws trained Israel to think in terms of order and distinction

But in Christ the ceremonial boundaries have fallen away because the deeper cleansing has come and as Jesus later declares

It's not what enters into a man that defiles him But it's what comes from the heart The skin diseases that spread in Leviticus become a picture of sin that spreads within the soul and yet Christ the great high priest

Is the one who doesn't merely diagnose the corruption? He removes it by his finished work on the cross

Where impurity once spread faster than holiness Christ is reversing that pattern life is now overcoming death

Cleanliness is overcoming corruption resurrection is overcoming decay So what we see here in Leviticus is this is how you live in the presence of a holy

God But when Christ comes he's gonna do such a more powerful work That clean and unclean distinctions now fall away because under the power of his resurrected life

Even death is being pushed back. Now as you read Leviticus 11 through 13 today

Don't rush past the details They're forming categories in your mind so that you'll know even the reason why

Jesus came Tomorrow, we're gonna see how this cleansing is declared and restored and we're gonna see how fellowship with God Continues after impurity has been addressed.

But with that Read your Bible carefully devotionally and joyfully today

Enjoy Leviticus 11 through 13 and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow