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.