Day 47 —  We are in the second month! We’ve been reading for over a 1/12 of a year! Praise God! I hope that it’s become a GOOD habit that will continue.

   Day 47 – Leviticus 11 – 13  (Unclean things, skin disease)

In chapter 10, we read about how two newly-consecrated priests sinned so defiantly, that God burned them up on the spot. God is HOLY and want’s he people to be holy as well. In the next 3-4 chapters God will show what the people must do to be “clean” in His sight.  NOT SINLESS for that is impossible on earth.

First, in chapter 11, God lists the CLEAN and unclean animals on Israel’s menu. Some unclean items are what we as Americans can eat every day – bacon, ham, shrimp, clams, even rabbit. Other things we might distain are okay, like grasshoppers, locusts, crickets. (I ate a grasshopper in Africa, fried in oil. It tasted a bit like crunchy bits of straw.)

Why this detailed list for God’s people? The answer is in 11:44. God is Holy (set apart) and Israel was to be set apart among the nations as well. Chosen by God to represent Him.  Many of the forbidden foods were worshipped & eaten by the pagan nations that they would find and fight in Canaan.

(People have argued the health benefits of this diet as well.)

Chapter 12 talks about another kind of “uncleanness.”  It involves blood. God looks on blood in a different way than most of us do. It’s the LIFE of a creature (the first job of EMTs is to stop the bleeding).  Blood is also used in sacrifice and the atonement for sin (culminating in Jesus’ blood shed for us), and in consecrating people and things to God as holy.

So — not to denigrate women or childbirth in any way in this chapter — God speaks of a woman’s monthly “period” and the flow of blood in childbirth as being “unclean.” He tells Moses the ways she can be “purified” after childbirth and monthly bleeding are with lengths of time and with ritual offerings, depending on their financial statis.

(I’ve always personally believed that it is also a protection from infection and/or bruising etc. (and even abuse) for a woman whose hubby may wish to resume intercourse before she is “back to normal” inside – MY belief, not historically or spiritually stated here.)

Chapter 13, is HARD TO READ, especially for the squeamish.  It’s about the identification and the actions to be taken when leprosy and other skin diseases are found.  It’s pretty graphic and ugly, and the person (or thing) with a contagious skin disease is to be removed from the camp.

But, since leprosy is sometimes a vivid illustration for SIN in human lives, we also need to see to sin’s elimination in ourselves and guard against spread.  I think of 1 John 1:9 and other verses – the believer’s First Aid for the deadly disease of Sin.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing HOLINESS to completion in the fear of God.”  2 Corinthians 7:1

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Tomorrow’s reading will show the laws for the cleansing of leprosy and the re-introducing of the person back into the camp.”

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Ephesians 1:7