Leviticus 15

Today’s devotions is of a sensitive nature and so I recommend caution in sharing this devotion.

There are some things in the Bible that causes one to say why do we need to talk about this? Leviticus 15 is one of those that caused me to ask that question. It also caused me to say gross. We find in this chapter a discussion about discharges from male and females. We see that with the male it is dealing with discharges brought about by both disease and that of discharge of semen. For female it is dealing with the normal discharge caused by a period and one of excessive discharge not related to a woman’s period.

Obvious care should always be taken when dealing with discharges caused by disease. Modern science gives us reason for discharges from the male. The most common reason for a discharge from a male is because of a sexual transmitted disease. This type of discharge is unclean because of the disease but is also because the most common cause for it is because of it being a sexually transmitted disease most often caused by promiscuity. The other type of discharge comes from the discharge of semen. As I read this it does not matter if the discharge is from sexual intercourse or from a natural discharge designed to expel excess semen either way the discharge is considered unclean. When the discharge is through sexual intercourse both the man and wife is considered unclean.

For the woman chapter 15 seems to deal specifically with the discharge of blood connected to both her period and when not connected with her period. This brings to my remembrance of the woman who had the issue of blood.

Again we are dealing with distinguishing the children of Israel from everyone else. We also are dealing with discharge of body fluids. When there is a discharge there is risk of contamination. So besides being set aside as holy we also have the care over the spread of disease.

Application

Possibly the greatest challenge I have had with this chapter is what is the application. The understanding of the passage was challenging but simple. We are dealing with the fact of discharging of body fluids that alone says we need to be careful. We must look at the causes of some of these discharges. Sin. The discharges other than through sexual intercourse and natural emission often times generate from sin. More specifically sexual sin. We must guard our bodies from unclean discharges but more importantly we must guard ourselves from sexual sin. The thing that will destroy both our body and our spirit.

Leviticus 14

At the end of chapter 14 we find the purpose of chapter 13 and 14 is to help distinguish between what is clean and what is unclean. Chapter 14 is dealing more with the outcome once a person or an item has been declared clean. The first two thirds of the chapter deal with the requirements to be considered clean. What an individual is to bring to the priest for a sacrifice once it has been determined they are clean.

In reading this chapter you will see that there is two different requirements concerning an individual found clean of a skin disease. The second requirement is for those that are poor and cannot afford the requirements that were laid out in the first section.

The final section of this chapter deals with two things, the requirements once a home is declared clean and what to do if the house is unable to be declared clean. In the case of the house not being able to have the mildew removed the whole house is to be scraped of plaster and removed. Interesting much like one would have to do if mildew were not able to be removed in a home today. Once a home has been declared clean the owner must bring a sacrifice to be presented to God.

The Application

As we talked about yesterday there is an importance to protect ourselves physically as well as spiritual from being unclean. Today we may not need to bring a sacrifice for skin diseases but we need to seek forgiveness for those things that would destroy our spiritual man.

Leviticus 13

Leviticus 13 deals with two issues, skin diseases and mildew on clothing and leather.

In both of these we can look from the our position and say no kidding in dealing with the treatment of such things as mildew and skin conditions. We have modern science that tells us that skin conditions can be contagious and that mildew on things is unhealthy. They did not have that luxury back then. They simply were unsure of what to do with those things and so God set out a law to protect the people from things that would harm them or kill them.

When you consider mildew there are some mold that for some people just breathing it in let alone touching it can cause such breathing problems that it can kill them. There are skin diseases such as mrsa that is spread easily and can be very deadly. This is not about exclusion as much as it is about staying clean and holy to the Lord, even physically.

The Application

How do we apply this today. I see two very important applications one being the physical aspect of good hygiene and being careful around skin disease and mold. God not only wants us spiritually holy but physically well too. Often we ask for healing when we could have prevented the disease through careful medical care and not holding on to mildewed things. We instead are careless or think the thing is more important than our physical well being.

The other application is spiritual. There are spiritual skin disease and mildew that we need to remove from our midst. We need to stay away from it and declare it unclean and remove it. We think that we can play with sin a little and be okay with it. It is okay if I flirt with this woman, yet in doing so it slowly eats away at your marriage. Or it is okay if I have a little sex outside of marriage or multiple partners and yet it eats away at your soul and at times your physical body because of the disease that come from doing so.

Our bodies are a temple and we should maintain them that way spiritually and physically.