Leviticus 11 – 15: Sanctification

Sanctification: Set apart for religious purpose; to free from sin

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Levitical Sanctification

• 11: Food• 12: Child Birth & Menustration• 13 – 14: Leprosy• 15: Bodily Discharges

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Sanctification

• Animals are divided into the same categories in the Creation account, Genesis 1: 20 – 30

• Exodus 13: 2; 13 and 34: 12 – 15 • Laws of the Living God are not arbitrary but reflects structure

and truth in natural world• Unclean: occurs over 100 times in Lev 11 – 15 • Failure to obey God’s Law = sin• The Laws:

– Reflect God’s holiness– Keep the Israelites “set apart” from idolatrous peoples– Help maintain good physical health

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READ Leviticus 11: Clean and Unclean Animals

• 1-8: Mammals• 9-12: Water Animals• 13-19: Birds• 20-23: Insects• 24-30: More on Clean and Unclean Animals• 31-38: Transmission of Uncleanness by Unclean Animals• 39-40: Carcasses of Clean Animals• 41-43: Creeping Animals• 44-47: Purpose of God’s Dietary laws

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Leviticus 11: 1-8 Mammals

• Can eat animals with cloven hooves and chew the cud, except– Camels: cud– Rock Hyrax: cud– The Hare: cud– Swine: cloven hoof– All above are unclean

• Not Kosher: Paws; single hoof; no cud• Not new Rules for Israel: Gen 7:2; 8:20 – 21

Rock Hyrax; MENA region

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Leviticus 11: 9 – 12 Water Animals

• May eat if in water, has fins and scales, whether in rivers, seas

• All others are an abomination to the Hebrews

• So…catfish, crayfish, clams, crabs, oysters, lobsters are unclean– Bottom Dwellers: Function as filters in cleaning

the filth out of water

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Leviticus 11: 13 – 19 Birds

• Unclean: eagle, vulture, buzzard, kite, falcon, raven, ostrich, short-eared owl, sea gull, hawk, little owl, fisher owl, screech owl, white owl, jackdaw, carrion vulture, stork, heron, hoopoe, bat

• What is the Common Thread? – Predators or scavengers

Jackdaw

Hoopoe

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Leviticus 11: 20 – 23 Insects

• All flying insects that creep on all fours are an abomination

• May eat flying insects that creep on all fours that have jointed legs above their feet and leap– EX: locust, cricket, grasshopper

Desert Locust Desert Cricket

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Leviticus 11: 24 – 28 Unclean Carcasses

• Become unclean til evening if touch any animal with:– Divided foot but not cloven or does not chew the cud– Whatever goes on paws– Animals that go on all fours

• Whoever carries unclean carcass must wash clothes

• Ceremonial impurity vice sin• In A Nut Shell: A wash and a brief quarantine

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Leviticus 11: 29 - 30 More Unclean Animals

• Creeping Things: – Mouse– Mole – Large Lizards– Geckos– Monitor Lizard– Sand Reptile– Sand Lizard– Chameleon

Mole

MediterraneanHouse GeckoNile Monitor Lizard

Namib Chameleon

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Leviticus 11: 31 – 38 Transmission of Uncleanness

• From a hygienic standpoint, laws were very important:– If rodent crawled into a bowl,

bowl had to be broken; any disease carried such as bubonic plaque could not be passed by use of bowl

– Promoted health & welfare of the family and home

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Leviticus 11: 39 – 40 Carcasses of Clean Animals

• If any clean animal dies, whoever touches carcass is unclean until evening

• Whoever eats or carries the carcass shall wash clothes and be unclean until evening

• Seems to apply to natural death of clean animals; ceremonially unclean and requires a washing and quarantine

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Leviticus 11: 41 – 43 Unclean Creeping Animals

• Every creeping thing that creeps is an abomination; shall not be eaten

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Purpose of Dietary Laws• Make an unholy, unclean people able to commune with a holy

and clean God• Set the Hebrews apart by distinguishing from the clean and the

unclean and the animal that may and may not be eaten• Sanctify: set apart as in Daniel 1: 8 – 21• God has sovereignty over every aspect of our lives to include

what we eat• Unclean defiled you spiritually and hygienically; Israel/Jews

spared many diseases, plagues• READ: Acts 10: 9 – 16; Acts 15: 28 – 29; 1 Corinthians 8• 1 Tim 4: 1, 3-5 Eat whatever you want• Christians free to eat or not eat as they please; however no one

should think themselves “holier than thou” because of what you eat or don’t eat

Leviticus 12

Child Birth

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Leviticus 12 Childbirth• Read Genesis 3: 15 – 19 • 1-4: Son– Circumcised on 8th day, the mother is unclean for 40

days• 5: Daughter: Unclean two weeks plus 60 days more• Menstruation: Concern is not strictly related to

children but flow of woman’s blood; seen as unclean• 6-7: Mother bring yearling lamb to priest as burnt

offering or young pigeon, turtledove– Lk 2: 22 – 24 Jesus’ family offered pair of turtle doves at

birth; family not wealthy

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Leviticus 12

• Why the difference in length of impurity for boy vs girl birth? Read Genesis 3:15

• What is the cost of losing the spirituality of our physical bodies?

• Now visualize that you have a chronic disease in the Wilderness. You are outside the camp, separated from your people; same ranking as Gentiles, the dead. – How would this effect your relationship with God?– Read Hebrews 13: 12

Leviticus 13

Instructions for Diagnosing Leprosy

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Leviticus 13: 1 - 8• 1-8: Swelling, scab or bright spot; bring to Aaron or his sons

– Priest examine sore, if hair on sour turned white and sore appears deeper than skin of body

– Is a leprous sore; Priest announce him unclean– Conversely if not white or deeper than skin, quarantine for 7

days– Re-examined by priest:

• If sore same as was, quarantine additional week– If smaller after 2nd week, priest pronounce him clean;

wash clothes and be clean• If scab spreads over the skin, priest pronounce it is leprosy

• Priest: Not doctor is the public health official diagnosing with carefully defined criteria

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Leviticus 13: 9 – 44 More on Diagnosis of Leprosy

• Person with leprous sore, be brought to the priest• Priest examine; if swelling on skin is white, it is old

leprosy; pronounced as unclean, quarantine • If sores from head to foot and all turned white =

clean• If sores from head to foot and raw flesh appears =

Unclean– If turns white = Clean

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Leviticus 13: 45 – 46 Result of Leprosy

• Once diagnosis of leprosy confirmed:– Leper in perpetual state of mourning, disgrace and

isolation• Later, Jewish took this further:– Walking dead; Result of God’s punishment – Stay at least six feet away from leper– Do not even greet leper

• Jesus’ response:– Matthew 8: 1 – 4– Luke 17: 11 - 19

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Leviticus 13: 47 – 49 Leprosy In a Garment

• If garment has a leprous plague in it:– Allegedly, in O.T. times, term leprosy could include

some forms of mold or fungi– Some clothes made of flax; became moldy

• The priest shall examine the plague:– Had to carefully determine if might transmit a

contagious disease or if garment could still be used

Leviticus 14

Rituals on Cleansing a Leaper

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Leviticus 14: 1 – 9 Sacrifice for a Cleansed Leper

• 1 – 3: Why was the examination performed by a priest rather than a doctor? What does this tell us about the deeper meaning of the skin disease?

• 4 – 7: What happens to the two birds? Which one represents the healed person?

• 8 – 9: Why does the healed person need to get ride of old hair as well as washing body & clothes?

• 10 – 11: Why does new life begin on the eighth day? What offerings had to be brought before the LORD.

• 12 – 13, 19 – 20: Why does guilt offering need to be made because of physical disease? Why does disease need atonement? What has disease got to do with sin? Do we only become ill when we do things wrong?

• 14 – 18: Why are both blood and oil required to cleanse the person? Why do you think the blood and oil are applied to those body parts?

• 1 – 20: What does Lev 14 teach us about hos cleansing must be done? What is required to cleanse the world from disease?

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Mikveh

• Hebrew: collection; collection of water• Bath; fully body immersion for the purpose of

conversion to Judaism

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Lev 14: Symbols of Jesus?• Two Birds: Jesus died, was resurrected, ascended into heaven and

crucified outside the city• Cedar Wood: Acts 5: 30• Scarlet: Bounds cedar and hyssop together; color Isaiah 1: 18• Hyssop: Used to spread lamb’s blood on doorposts of Egyptian

Passover; traditional source of healing/cleansing oil• Unclean One (metzora): Sprinkled by water and blood, bathes and

washes clothes– 1 Jn 1: 7– Romans 6: 3

• Clay Pot and Living Water: – Jesus born as man (earthen vessel)– Living water flowed from Jesus (John 4: 10)

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Leviticus 14: 10 – 20 On the Eighth Day• On the 8th day he shall take two male lambs without blemish:

– Offerings were made– Sacrificial blood was applied to the right ear, the right thumb, and the right

big toe, to sanctify and consecrate the cleansed leper. – Q: Who else was consecrated in this way?

• And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed: – Oil also applied to the cleansed leper. Sprinkled on his body; then applied to

the ear, thumb, and toe just as the blood was– Therefore, a cleansed leper had a special calling and a special anointing– Leprosy: a picture of sin, see how this ritual has spiritual

application to every sinner set free by Jesus– Leprosy: no natural cure; when ritual was performed at the command of

Jesus (Luke 5:12-14), must have been a great testimony to the priests at the temple

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Leviticus 14: 21 – 32 Provisions for the Poor to Fulfill Ritual for Cleansed Leper

• One male lamb as Trespass Offering; one-tenth of an ephah

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Leviticus 14: 33 – 57 Leprosy in a House & Summation

• 33 – 42: Diagnosis of Leprosy in a House

• 45 – 53: Cleansing the Infested House

• 54 – 57: Summation of the Laws of Leprosy

Leviticus 15

Laws Concerning Bodily Discharges

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Leviticus 15 Laws Concerning Bodily Discharges

• 1 -18: From a Man

• 19 – 33: From a Woman

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Leviticus 15: 1 – 18 Bodily Discharges for a Man

• When any man has discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean– One reference: abnormal genital discharge indicating

some disease; man be isolated to not infect anyone else– After discharge stops, make sacrifice for atonement

• If man has emission of semen by himself or with wife: – Had to cleanse himself/themselves and observe brief

period of ceremonial impurity• Discharges did not make man (or woman) sinful, only

ceremonially unclean• Promoted hygiene

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Leviticus 15: 19 – 33Bodily Discharges for a Woman

• Any linkage to blood, redemption?

• Separation between sex and the worship of God– Mark 7: 1 – 9 – Acts 15– John 15:3 – 1 John 1: 7 – 9

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Thoughts on Leviticus 11 - 15

• The whole of created life is subject to the bondage of decay• We live in a fallen world; our spiritual condition is seen in

the physical world and in the community of man• Romans 3: 23, “ all have sinned and fall short of the glory of

God”• 1 John 3: 4 “ Everyone who practices sin also practices

lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”• Sin of mankind has implications for creation

– Genesis 3: 17 – 18; 6: 11 – 13– Deuteronomy 28: 24– Amos 4: 6 – 8 – Romans 8: 20