Days 50-51, Chronological Bible Study Timeline. Map. Go to today’s Bible reading (use your browser arrow to return): Leviticus 11–15
Note: Today’s Bible study is extended over two days because of the uninterrupted theme. You may wish to read the Scripture on February 19 and read the study on February 20.
Healthcare and Holiness
In most places worldwide, there is a significant concern for good healthcare. We have sterile environments in our hospitals and laboratories. We may wear face coverings, distance ourselves from sick people, and have disinfecting soaps, sprays, and gels in our homes, schools, institutions, and workplaces. We hope these preventative measures will keep us from getting sick. Also, we have special diets to promote the healing and maintenance of our bodies. This two-day Bible study is about healthcare and holiness. What do they have to do with one another?
God wants us to be Holy and Spiritually Healthy
God is holy—so very, very, holy—there is nothing unclean or impure about him—he is perfect and righteous in every way! The LORD wants his people to worship him in holiness. He wants us to be set apart from all sin and wickedness and totally dedicate ourselves to him—not just on Sunday but on every day of the week.
How is that possible? First of all, we need him to cleanse and save us from our sins so we can be made pure and clean (more). However, even after God washes and makes us clean, we all get dirty again; we make mistakes and sin. What do we do about that? The Apostle John wrote, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9, NIV).
Second, we should make a commitment to honor the LORD. Our daily lives should express reverence to God in the way we live to experience his joy, pleasure, and blessings.
While the Israelites camped at Mt. Sinai, God gave them instructions for the tabernacle, priests, and offerings with specific instructions to honor him. Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons, were careless and didn’t honor the LORD in their worship before the people. For this, God put them to death! Leviticus 10:9 may suggest they were drunk.
After this incident, God told Moses, “You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean” (Leviticus 10:10, NIV). The natural question which follows this command is—what is clean or unclean?
Dietary Restrictions
There are wild animals, birds, insects, reptiles in the desert, and in water holes or rivers, there are fish. God said some creatures are clean, i.e., they may be eaten; others are not, i.e., they may not be eaten. Why is this? There are two schools of thought about these limitations:
The restrictions were for better dietary health
Some people have written articles or books from the dietary guide given to the Israelites. However, there is no Biblical explanation why each of these creatures can or cannot be eaten. Animals, which have completely divided hoofs and chew their cud (oxen, sheep, deer, antelope, and goats), are permitted to be eaten. Animals with paws are not allowed to be eaten, and crawling creatures are forbidden. Certain insects like flies and mosquitoes carry diseases and are not consumed. Locust-type creatures, however, are considered clean, so the Israelites may eat them.The people of Israel are also forbidden from eating things with blood. Perhaps, this is why birds of prey are not allowed to be eaten—blood carries disease. Sea creatures and fish without scales are also not permitted for food, although the reason is not given.
Even though these dietary restrictions were still observed by the Jews in Jesus’ day, some think he canceled them when he declared: “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean” (Matthew 15:11, NIV). In that context, however, Jesus is pointing out that eating food with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean, but words coming out of him might (see Matthew 15:18-20).Unrestrained words found in gossip and slander are damaging. Cursing, berating, or insulting words are also unclean speech. God loves us, and as Christians, we should try to love others, too. What we say should come out of a loving heart, which is clean speech. We know this is easy to say but not always easy to do. We need God’s help—the tongue is hard to tame!
Restrictions were to prevent idol worship
The other school of thought for dietary restrictions was the prevention of idolatry. The unclean animals and other creatures may have been worship ped by surrounding nations. God wants his people to worship him. Therefore, God wants his people to be holy even in their diets (Leviticus 11:44-45).Praise the LORD that it is now through the sacrifice of Christ that we are made holy and able to approach the very throne room of God! We can’t do it ourselves! The writer of the book of Hebrews says, “…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10, NIV). He continues,
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19-22a, NIV).
Dealing with Disease and Holiness
Isolation
Disease is another kind of uncleanness. If anyone among the Israelites is suspected of having an infection, he must go to the priest for an examination. If the priest is unsure, he quarantines him for a week and then re-examines him. If the infection is worse, he is isolated from the camp and not allowed to come to the tabernacle for worship until the condition disappears.
Recovery and Readmittance
Can he ever rejoin the assembly once an Israelite is isolated from the camp? Yes, if he no longer has the disease. Leviticus 14 details a process that an unclean (diseased) person has to go through to be accepted back into Israel’s congregation.
First, the priest inspects him thoroughly outside the camp to make sure he no longer has a disease. If there is no evidence of it, he is ceremonially cleansed in a strange way that resembles the scapegoat ceremony (Leviticus 16:7-10), only it is with birds. The sprinkling of a dead bird's blood with cedar wood, a red yarn and hyssop on the man (or woman) to be cleansed has no magical healing power—it is a sign of cleansing for the benefit of the community.
After the cleansing ceremony, the candidate is shaved from head to toe, bathed, and his clothes are washed. Then he must wait a week and be re-examined, and the process is repeated before he is allowed to come back into camp.
Then, like the rest of the congregation, he offers a burnt offering, sin offering, grain offering, and a guilt offering (for unintentional sins). Perhaps, this is to make up for the time he could not offer them in the tabernacle and be holy (pure and separated to God).
Last, he goes through another ceremony that resembles Aaron and his sons’ ordination ceremony (Exodus 29:19-20a). The purpose of this is unclear, but perhaps it is a sign of his approval and acceptance into the congregation of Israel as being clean and re-dedicated to God.Spiritually speaking, we Christians can praise God that we don’t have to go through ceremonies to be accepted by him. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26, NIV). Through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are made clean and approved by God. Our changed lives show others that we are clean and have spiritual life. Still, it is helpful when others give testimony to our changed life, so we are quickly accepted.
Miscellaneous Regulations for Cleanliness
The LORD institutes other regulations for dealing with dead bodies, purification after childbirth, purification from bodily discharges, and ridding mildew from homes and clothing. These are partially for their health and partly for another reason. God says, “you must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them” (Leviticus 15:31, NIV).
Our Cleanliness (Holiness)
As Christians, we live in the Grace age, but limitations are also put on us for our benefit. The Apostle Paul writes,
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:5-6,8, NIV).
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2Corinthians 6:14, NIV)
Holiness is the issue of being spiritually and morally clean. After Christ cleanses us from sin, we have personal responsibilities to keep pure and holy before God (1Peter 1:15-16). Keep reading about and living the will of God from the Bible (just as you are doing today).
Discussion
How are we made holy? Do we have any responsibilities to keep ourselves holy? Explain
What are the purposes of diets? Spiritually speaking, how does limiting our actions and words and feeding on the good stuff help us live holy lives?
Focus Verse
Leviticus 11:44a (NIV) “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”
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Looking Ahead: We have talked about Healthcare and Holiness, and now it is time to do something about it. It's Time for a Cleanup! Join us for our Next Lesson to find out what this involves.
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