Leviticus Series #3
Cleanliness Laws
Leviticus 11-15
CHCC: June 27, 2010
Visual aids: Magnifying Mirror, Hand Sanitizer, and Matryoshkas (nesting doll from Russia)
INTRODUCTION:
Put hand sanitizer on hands and wash them, then pat face, then look in mirror (small side). Make a comment about how you’re looking pretty good!
How many of you carry hand sanitizer with you wherever you go? Are your hands really clean after you use it? How about 10 minutes later? What if you sneeze into your hand?
The book of Leviticus gives page after page of instructions on how to get clean, how to stay clean, how to clean up when you’re not clean. We’re going to see today that would be a full time job for the Jews to follow these cleanliness laws.
And how many of you look in a mirror before you leave home in the morning? You may think your skin looks clean and clear, but what if you have a mirror like this one --- the other side shows 8X magnification. Look in that side and the magnification shows the flaws and imperfections you couldn’t see before. (Naked Gospel, Andrew Farley, p.67)
That’s what the LAW does. It gives instructions about how to get temporarily clean … then it magnifies our flaws to show we are never as clean as we think we are.
1. Getting Clean by your Own Efforts
Leviticus Chapters 11-15 focuses on various laws that deal with Cleansing. These laws were given for the following reasons:
· Sanitation – this was practical – Israel was a nation of millions of people, living close together in tents … they needed some sanitation rules!
· Separation – these laws helped to distinguish God’s people from other Nations
· Sanctification – these rituals helped to draw God’s people close to Him
· And Succession – these Laws helped insure there would be accurate records of a pure lineage and accurate for the Messiah (Gregory Neill)
These cleansing laws were also divided into two realms:
· Ceremonial – These are rituals that reminded the people to be pure and to put God first
· And Communal - These Cleanliness Instructions protected the nation from health dangers
This part of Leviticus was a very practical Manual on Sanitary Living. It may not be all that interesting, but these laws were essential to the Physical and Spiritual Health of this new nation. If the nation of Israel wanted to be a clean nation they had to consider 4 important principles:
1. Be careful about what comes into the body (ch. 11)
2. Be careful about new births in the body (ch. 12)
3. Be careful about what touches the body (ch. 13-14)
4. Be careful about what comes out of the body (ch. 15) (Gregory Neill)
Many years ago, I read a fascinating book called None of These Diseases. The author took the title from this promise from God in Exodus 15:26 "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
The book, None of These Diseases was written by Dr. S.I. McMillen --- a physician who examined how the Old Testament Cleanliness and Dietary Laws would affect human health. One reviewer summed the book up this way: “It took man 4,000 years to find remedies that God had already prescribed. The remedy for many diseases such as leprosy, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, heart attacks, strokes, and mental breakdowns are all in the "Book of books," if man would only take the time to read the Word.”
I’ll share just one example from McMillen’s book. He talked about the Bible’s simple admonition to thoroughly wash your hands after touching a diseased or dead body. This Law about hand washing was completely ignored by the medical establishment even up to the 1800’s and beyond. McMillen documented a case in a hospital in Vienna during the 1840’s. Dr. Ignaz Sammelweis was in charge of the Maternity Ward --- where 5 out of 6 women ended up dying while in the hospital. He noticed that women who died were the ones being treated by doctors and students who came from the morgue where they were doing autopsies or teaching lessons using cadavers.
Dr. Sammelweis hypothesized that infections had been carried on the hands of the doctors from the corpses to their patients So, he made a strange new rule … that doctors in his Ward had to wash their hands before treating the patients. And, amazingly, deaths in his Ward dropped by over 80%.
But the other doctors in that hospital didn’t buy into this crazy new theory. They scorned Sammelweis as a kook … and his contract was not renewed. The real irony is that sanitation practices outlined in Leviticus (like hand-washing) weren’t made part of Medical Law until … are you ready for this … 1960. (McMillen, p. 14-16)
What we learn from McMillen’s book is that Levitical Laws weren’t useless regulations. God gave these laws to protect Israel from sickness, to promote purity, and to separate the Jews from the practices of the other nations around them. We don’t live under these laws today, but they are still full of wisdom. Many of the laws for ceremonial cleanness can help prevent illness and infection.
But here’s the real problem. As helpful as these Levitical Laws were, they couldn’t do anything about the deepest human need. These Laws couldn’t get rid of the stain of sin. For over a thousand years, the Jews TRIED to follow all the Cleanliness Laws, but the Law had no power to keep them clean. The LAW was like looking into the Magnifying Mirror … All the Law could do was Magnify their Flaws and Imperfections!
In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews explains how Jesus --- our new High Priest --- has performed the ultimate cleansing ceremony. Hebrews 1:3 says, When Jesus had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven …
2. The Cleansing Power of Christ
These ceremonies were nothing more than symbols for the complete cleansing that Jesus would bring for us. Jesus is the only one who has ever lived a completely pure and clean life, and He has performed the final cleansing ceremony.
Christians understand that Jesus has made us clean … but do we really understand that He KEEPS us clean? Too many Christians live in a constant state of anxiety because … while we believe Jesus made us clean … we don’t really understand that He also has the power to KEEP us clean.
We rely on Jesus to save us … but we think we can “live the Christian life” on our own power. That’s never going to work! In fact, that’s what takes the Joy out of being a Christian. It’s what makes some Christians carry their Christianity like it was a headache. They are always trying (and failing) to keep themselves pure. They feel like the OUGHT to be a whole lot better than they are. So they pretend to be better than they really are --- or they rev up their will power and try to be more disciplined --- or they get frustrated and give up.
This problem is what Paul was addressing in Galatians 3:2-3. The Christians there were trying to make a bunch of laws that they could try to live up to. Paul asked them this: I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
In college, I was always relieved when we had a multiple choice test --- I always found those easier than open-ended essay questions. Paul kept things simple here. He gave a multiple choice test, with only 2 choices … A or B:
We could put it this way:
Question 1: - How did you get clean in the first place?
A. By keeping the law
B. By trusting in Jesus
Question 2: - So how do you plan to live a clean life?
A. By human effort (using my will power to do the right thing all the time)
B. By trusting in Jesus (letting Him live His life in me)
(Adapted from The Naked Gospel, p. 72)
Trying to be perfect on your own power never worked under the LAW, and it won't work under GRACE either. Some mistakenly think that living the Christian Life is a matter of using your own will power to struggle against sin. If you think that is how Christianity works, let me ask you: How’s that been workin’ for ya so far?
George Orwell once observed, "On the whole human beings want to be good --- but not too good --- and not quite all the time."
That’s the best any of us can hope for on our own --- to be sort of good some of the time. If we rely on our own power, we can’t be perfect … in fact, half the time we can’t be we can’t even WANT to be perfect!
The Apostle Paul gave the answer to this dilemma in Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You see, Paul stopped trying to live the Christian life on his own power. Instead, he put his effort toward trusting in Jesus. This allowed Christ to live HIS life in Paul. Instead of trying harder, Paul trusted in the indwelling presence of Christ and lived “by faith in the Son of God.” This is not just high sounding talk. This is real. Christ lives IN you.
And that’s not all!
As a Christian, Christ is in you, AND you are in Christ. In fact, the New Testament talks about us being IN Christ about 6 times more often than about Christ being in us. Obviously this is an important truth.
Colossians 3:1-3 says, Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
This is an important truth to grasp. It makes all the difference between living a FRUSTRATED life … and living a FULFILLED life.
I purchased this doll a few years back when I visited in Russia. It’s called a Matryoshka doll. (taking dolls apart) If you’re familiar with these dolls, you know that you open up one and there’s another inside … and so on and so on.
This continues until you get to the last and smallest doll.
My grandkids love to play with these dolls --- which is why this one is cracked and taped!
The point is that what happens to the original doll happens to all of them.
(Put them back together while talking, stop at the broken one)
If you put it up high on a shelf (which is what we do to limit access to little hands) then all the other dolls go with it. If you throw it in the trash, then all the other dolls go with it.
Whether you are big or small, old or young, rich or poor, having a good day or a bad day … it doesn’t matter because your life is HIDDEN IN CHRIST. Maybe you feel like this one … cracked and taped up … (put broken one in) but it doesn’t matter … because we are HIDDEN IN CHRIST.
· Where He is, you are.
· What He does, you will do.
· You are completely covered by His perfection.
· Your identity is In Him.
Jesus wants to live His resurrected life in You, and at the same time, He will cover you with HIS perfection.
CONCLUSION:
Remember that Jesus came to set us free from a LAW that we could never keep on our own. Jesus has the power to make you clean and to keep you clean.
Stop relying on your own willpower to fight against sin. Use your willpower, but use it for one thing … Put all your effort toward staying close to Jesus.
· Keep your focus on Jesus.
· Read His Word.
· Hang out with His Followers.
· Talk to Him during the day.
· Listen to the guidance His Spirit will give you.
You’ve trusted in Christ to SAVE your life. Will you learn how to trust in HIM day by day to LIVE His life in you?
