This week we
will continue to study the Book of Leviticus.
From Chapter 11 through Chapter 15, the Lord speaks through Moses and/or Aaron about Uncleanness and its Treatment:
I. Dietary rules — three categories
- Land creatures (11:1-8)
- Sea creatures (11:9-12), and
- Air-flying creatures (11:13-23)
II. Pollution and its Treatment
- Land creatures (11:24-28)
- Swarm creatures (11:29-43), and
- Reason given (11:44-45)
III. Summary Exhortation (11:46-47)
Let’s combine each type and consider it briefly and reflectively:
(1) Eating of Animals on land (11:1-8 and 11:24-28)
a. What are the three criteria given in v.3?
b. Partially meeting these three criteria is not sufficient; the animals are still considered ceremonially unclean.
c. Why do the following not qualify?
d. What other animals are being added to this category by v. 27?
e. What results if they are eaten or their carcasses are touched?
f. For how long is it and what should one do? (11:24-25)
(2) Eating of fish and water creatures(11:9-12)
a. Which water creatures are not to be eaten?
b. While a creature is not allowed for eating, why is it to be “detested”? (v. 10)
(3) Eating of flying creatures (birds—11:13-19; flying insects—11:20-23)
a. Read the list of “detested” birds given in vv. 13-19. You may or may not see what might be common among them, but give it a try.
b. What kind of flying creatures that hop can be eaten?
(4) Eating of ground animals (the swarming animals—11:29-38; others—11:41-43)
a. Read the list of prohibited swarming animals in vv. 29-30. They are normally not eaten anyway in civilized society. What might be the common-sense reason for not eating them?
b. Since these are small and creeping animals that could be found inside or around the house, what additional rules are being given for contact with their carcasses? What might be the common-sense reason for their treatment?
c. What are being reiterated and added concerning the ground animals (vv. 41-43)?
(5) Clean, but dead animals (11:39-40)
a. If a clean animal is dead, why can't a person eat or touch it?
b. What should one do if such a rule is infringed upon?
(6) Having read these dietary rules and prohibitions above, consider the following:
a. What impressions do you have?
- More specifically, what questions have they raised?
- What emphases might be apparent to you?
b. What reason is being given by God in vv. 44-45 and 47?
c. What might result in the absence of such rules for the nation of Israel?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note:
You may wish to read today’s meditative reflection article for more food for thought.
As we read these regulations concerning childbirth, it may be helpful to read from the lens of the sacredness of life and the importance of both the symbolic and real function of blood:
(1) What might cause a woman to be ceremonially unclean because of pregnancy and childbirth (see Lev. 15:18-19 also)?
(2) How many days in total would she remain unclean if she gives birth to a son?
(3) How many days in total would she remain unclean if she gives birth to a daughter?
(4) What can she not do during the period of uncleanness (or days of purification)?
(5) Upon the completion of her days of purification, what sacrifice does she need to make to atone for her sin? Why does she need to atone for sin?
(6) Do you think that her
period of uncleanness is necessarily an unfair treatment of a woman, or that it served one of the following purposes?
a. It is a recognition of the sacredness of the giving of a new life through the woman.
b. It is a time for recuperation for a woman after childbirth (which involves the loss of blood).
c. It is a time of protection of the woman from being touched or having to resume household or pastoral work after giving birth.
(7) What do the ceremonies required for her purification point to?
(8) Why do you think the time of uncleanness for the birth of a daughter is longer than that for a boy?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
As we reflect on the regulations concerning skin disease, allow me to point out that the Hebrew word for “skin disease” in my NIV Bible is exactly the same word for “spreading mildew” on clothing. This Hebrew word, tsara, is translated in the Greek Bible (LXX) as lepra, from which the English word leprosy is derived. But it is clear from the description of this chapter that the kinds of disease being addressed are not leprosy, but some other kinds of skin disease (the principle of their dealing obviously applies to leprosy as well).
13:2-46—Human skin disease
(1) Twenty-one cases of skin diseases are being mentioned in these verses (Wenham). It is not important for us in our days to distinguish them one by one. But as you read, see if you discern a certain pattern in these instructions, especially to the priests.
(2) Given the ancient times, how important were these instructions in the following areas?
a. Early detection of infectious skin disease
b. The prevention of misdiagnosis
c. The proper treatment if it proved to be the case
(3) How are these “lepers" treated? What impact would these diseases have on them socially, economically, emotionally and spiritually?
(4) In what ways does such a disease portray “sin” in us?
(5) Why should such a responsibility fall on the priests?
13:47-59—Spreading mildew on clothing
(6) In our treatment of fungus or mildew on clothing, what will we normally do?
(7) As for Israel, they are not to wash it right away, but take it to the priest for examination. Why?
(8) In the course of his examination, what should the priest do?
(9) If the priest determines that the article in question is indeed unclean, what should be done to the article?
(10) What spiritual lessons can you draw from the above in the dealing with sin (yours and another’s) which could affect the entire faith community?
(11) What is the main message to you today and how can you apply it to your life?
The rituals involved in the restoration of a person healed of his infectious disease are amazingly complex, highlighting, perhaps, the joy and significance of being restored both to a right relationship with God and to the community. If the contracting of the disease amounts to being a living dead, then its healing is to be a resurrection from the dead:
14:1-9—Examination outside the camp
(2) Once a person is examined and determined to have been healed, a ceremony is to be held to pronounce him clean. The priest orders the following:
a. Kill one clean bird over fresh (living) water in a clay pot;
b. Dip a live bird into the blood of the killed bird together with cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop;
c. Sprinkle (blood) on the healed person 7 times;
d. Then pronounce him clean
e. Release the live bird into the open field (see similarity to the scape goat in 16:21-22)
Since this ceremony is not part of any of the “standard" sacrifices that follow, what might be the meaning and significance of this ceremony?
(3) After he is pronounced clean, the person is to do the following:
a. He still has to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water.
b. Then he will be ceremonially clean and allowed to enter the camp, but not his home.
c. He will have to stay outside his tent (home) for 7 days.
d. On the 7th day, he must shave again—this time his head, his beard, his eyebrows and the rest of his hair.
e. He must wash his clothes and bathe with water (again).
f. Then, he will be clean!
What are the extra seven days meant for?
What might be the reasons for the re-shaving, re-washing and re-bathing?
14:10-32—Sacrifices subsequent to his being pronounced clean:
(4) Guilt offering: (14:12-18)
a. Consists of one male lamb + log of oil = The priest waves them (as wave offering)
b. Belongs to the priest = As most holy (7:7)
c. Some of the blood (of lamb) is put on right earlobe, right hand thumb and right big toe of offerer (see Priest’s ordination in 8:23).
d. Oil is sprinkled before the Lord 7 times.
e. Oil is put (on top of the blood) on the offerer’s earlobe, right hand thumb and right big toe; then the rest of the oil is put on his head.
Such an act resembling the anointing of the priest is obviously significant. What might be the message here?
(5) 14:19-31—Sin offering, burnt offering and cereal offering:
a. They are made with the remaining one male lamb, one ewe lamb and 3/10 of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil;
b. The poor can substitute the lambs with two doves or two young pigeons—one for sin offering, the other one for burnt offering.
(6) Guilt offering is made for unintentional offense against “holy things” (5:14) or intentional defrauding against neighbors (6:2-3). How might this occasion fit in?
(7) The putting of blood on the right earlobe etc. is part of the ordination ceremony for the priest. Why is it done here to the person now pronounced clean?
(8) What’s more, oil is being put on top of the blood as well. What does it signify?
(9) Before the offering of these sacrifices, the person is declared clean (14:7) and ceremonially clean already (14:8) outside the camp. What then is the purpose and significance of all these sacrifices and ceremonies at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting?
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
These instructions are rather unique in that they deal with regulations that the people have to observe when they enter into the Promised Land. Therefore, they serve not only as laws and regulations but also as a promise.
(1) Read v. 33-34 carefully: Why would the Lord say that it is He that puts “a spreading mildew in a house”?
(2) What criteria should the priest use in his judgment?
(3) Apart from closing the house for 7 days, what would the priest do as the mildew has spread on the walls? (14:40-42)
(4) Commentators of former generations see significant spiritual lessons from the above. What spiritual applications can you draw from the above concerning how to deal with sins?
(5) What should be done to the entire house if the mildew reappears? What is the importance of such an action, from both practical and spiritual perspectives?
(6) What are the procedures for atoning and for pronouncing the house clean?
(7) In the dealings with infectious diseases, whether in the case of individual skin disease on clothing or mildew in a house, how do these regulations given by the Lord differ from ancient pagan practices?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
This chapter brings the regulations on uncleanness to a conclusion, and in the view of most commentators, it deals with the defilement associated with the reproductive process:
15:2-18—Discharges by men
(1) Longer-term discharge—the symptoms (15:2-3): Since no blood is mentioned, hemorrhoids are being ruled out by most commentators who view the entire section as dealing with sexual organs. Gonorrhea (a sexually transmitted, contagious disease which can also be contracted through saliva), may be the subject. Its symptoms seem to fit the description of these verses. If this is the case, this is a disease which “occurs most often in people who have many sex partners” (WebMD). Do you then agree that such discharge should make a person unclean?
(2) The consequences
of longer-term discharge (15:4-15): It makes the following unclean:
a. The bed he lies on
b. Anything he sits on or rides on
c. Any person who touches his bed or anything he sits or rides on
d. Anyone who touches him
e. Anyone who is being spat on by him
f. Anyone being touched by his un-rinsed hands
- What should the contaminated person do?
- What should be done to the clay pot so touched?
- What is the rationale behind the above?
g. Upon being cleansed from his discharge, apart from the waiting period of 7 days, what needs to be done by him?
h. What is the purpose of these rituals?
(3) Short-term discharge (15:16-18):
a. In the reproductive process, how important is the discharge of semen?
b. Upon its discharge, what is the reason for uncleanness that affects the man, and even the woman?
c. What is the practical result for being declared unclean until the evening (especially in terms of not being able to participate in the worship of the Lord)?
d. How does such a regulation distinguish Yahweh worship from pagan worship in their temples, many of which involved prostitution?
15:19-30—Discharges by women
(4) Short-term discharge (15:19-24):
a. Why would the discharge of blood make her unclean? (see Lev. 17:11)
b. How does the “monthly period” serve as a relief for the woman and a deterrence of unrestrained sexual activities?
c. What is the consequence for a man who lies with a woman during her period?
d. The regulation here simply defines uncleanness, but Leviticus 18:19, 29 and 20:18 impose a very severe penalty. What do you think is the reason for the severity of the penalty?
(5) Longer-term discharge (15:25-30): Unlike gonorrhea, such longer-term discharge of blood by a woman is usually not contagious, and yet the treatment is similar to 15:13-15. What might be the reason?
15:31-33—The purpose of these regulations
(6) The emphasis appears to be focused on not defiling God’s “dwelling place”; read Exodus 19:10-15 as well. How do these regulations caution us about sexual purity?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
For the significance of the Day of Atonement in Judaism, read the meditative reflection article for today:
16:1-2—Introduction
(1) Why was this Day of Atonement given with the death of the two sons of Aaron as background?
(2) Why couldn’t Aaron, being the High Priest, enter the Holy of Holies as he “chooses”?
(3) What does the “atonement cover” represent?
16:3-5—Personal preparation
(4) Aaron's preparation before he could enter into the sanctuary:
a. What sacrifices should he prepare for himself?
b. What sacrifices should he prepare for the people?
c. Why is it important for him to put on his sacred garment?
16:6-10—Summary of Liturgy for this Day
(5) What is the purpose of the bull?
(6) What is the purpose of the first goat?
(7) What is the purpose of the second goat?
(8) How does the death of Christ on the cross fulfill the functions of the two goats? (See how powerful a symbol the 2nd goat was to David in Ps. 103:12.)
16:11-19—Outline of the order of the ritual (Part I)
(9) The bull is to be sacrificed first: Why should Aaron make atonement for himself (and his household) first before he could atone for the sin of the people?
(10) How does the smoke from the censer prevent Aaron from death before the Lord?
(11) In what significant ways does our Lord Jesus differ from Aaron as the High Priest? (See Heb. 4:14-16; 7:27)
(12) After having atoned for his own sin, Aaron is to atone for the sins of the people:
a. What kinds of sin are being mentioned?
b. How important, therefore, is the Day of Atonement for the Israelites?
c. What is Aaron to do with goat #1?
(13) Apart from the Holy of Holies, the rest of the Tent of Meeting and especially the altar were to be sanctified by the sprinkling of both the bull’s and the goat’s blood seven times, and the wiping of the blood on all the horns. Why is the sanctification of the altar of such importance? What important lesson may we learn from such an emphasis?
(14) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?