Days 47 & 48.  Reading Leviticus 11 – 13 and Leviticus 14 – 15. 

Read the scripture for today. What do you learn about God? Share what you learn with others.

Leviticus 11.

God gives Israel dietary laws about clean and unclean creatures.

• To keep them distinct from other nations? 
• To make socializing with idolatrous people difficult?
• To keep them healthy?
• To test their obedience to God? 
• Maybe all of the above.

In general they were to eat only animals that had parted hooves, cloven feet, AND chewed the cud. If the creature had only one or the other, they were not clean to eat. Animals with paws were not clean. No animal that had died of unknown causes was to be eaten.

For sea creatures, they could only eat finned and scaled fish. No shell fish.

For fowl/poultry, only those that ate grain & bugs, nothing that ate carrion (road kill).

And the edible insects (yes, bugs!) had to have wings AND jointed legs so they could “hop” on the ground. These include locusts and grasshoppers and excluded ants, bees, and spiders. 

No rodents or reptiles were clean to eat.

“For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”   “This is the law about beast, bird, and every living creature on earth, in the water, or that swarms in the air, to make a distinction between the clean and unclean; to be eaten or not eaten.”

Leviticus 12.

God gives purification laws for women after childbirth. It is related to the blood and afterbirth, and not the child. As in menstruation, a woman shall be “unclean” for 40 days after the birth of a male child. (At the 8th day, the boy baby shall be circumcised.)  After these “days of purification” she shall bring a Burnt Offering to the priest, depending on how much she can afford. Then she will be clean.

She will remain “unclean” for 80 days after the birth of a daughter. (Perhaps because the daughter will then be able to give birth later in life.)  Both the 40 days and the 80 days give the woman’s body rest from the possibility of conception.

Leviticus 13.

This chapter is necessary, and puts priests in the position of being doctors concerning skin disease. If they follow these guideline, they will be able to distinguish between what is contagious (and therefore unclean and to be avoided, such as leprosy), and what is harmless, nothing to worry about (such as boils and pimples).  I do not envy this portion of their priestly duties. Some instances must be really gross. But God desires holy, clean people, in body, soul and spirit. 

To be “unclean” does not mean God rejects a person. It is only for health reasons that they are to be separated from the body of Israel… and for a time until they are healed, or maybe always.

Curiously, garments of wool, linen or leather can also be contaminated by the discharge of contagious diseases, and must be washed, or even burned to prevent the spread.

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Leviticus 14. 

CAUTION: Don’t read or listen to these next two chapters while eating!

First praise! This chapter gives hope to lepers because it tells what you must do to “prove” you have been cleansed. Cleansing (healing, remission) IS POSSIBLE! Hallelujah!

First, the priest must go outside the camp where the leper lives and check him. If the leprosy looks like it’s gone, the priest will command them (friends, family, or other priests?) to bring a pair of clean birds, with cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. One bird is killed over a clay vessel with fresh water. The live bird, wood, yarn, and hyssop are then dipped in the blood. Then live bird is released and the blood is sprinkled seven times on the cleansed person. After that, he has to shave off all his hair, wash his clothes, and bathe himself. And he is … CLEAN!

He can come into the camp but must not enter his family tent for seven days. On the eighth day, he is to bring two male lambs, a ewe lamb, a grain offering, and oil to the priest. These are for the sin, guilt, and burnt offerings. The priest will take some of the blood and the oil and put it on the ex-leper’s right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe. After this atonement, the priest will pronounce him “CLEAN.”

NOTE: In Luke 17:11-14, when Jesus healed the lepers, He told them to first “Go show themselves to the priest.” This is what these men had to do.

This chapter also covers “leprosy” (or dangerous mold) found in their house once they are in the Promised Land. The remedies include tearing out and replacing the plaster and stones, or even tearing down the entire house and disposing the materials in an unclean place! Appropriate sacrifices were then made to make atonement for the house.

Leviticus 15.

This chapter is about “Bodily Discharges,” both the natural and unnatural kinds. It details ways the people had to deal with them. The priests also had to have checklists for their diagnoses. Hygiene and health were super important in a desert camp crowded with people (and later when living in cities).

“Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling My Tabernacle that is in their midst.”