Clean Me Up
Leviticus 11-13
By Pastor Fernando Cabrera
1. What makes an animal clean or unclean?
The animal world is divided into three spheres:
• Fly in the air
“…let the birds fly above the earth in the
open expanse of the heavens” (Genesis 1:20)
• Walk in land
“God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind…” (Genesis 1:25)
• Swim in the seas
“God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind…” (Genesis 1:21)
Three Form of Moving and motion:
• Birds – two wings to fly and two feet to walk
• Fish – fins and scales to swim
• Land animals – hoofs to run with
Clean animals are those…
Which are pure to their type
Unclean animals are those…
Which are not pure to their type
Principle #1: Cleanness is the normal condition of most things and persons
Clean means normal
Mixed crops, mixed clothing, and mixed marriages are incompatible with holiness (18:23; 19:19)
Priests had to be free from physical deformity ( 21:5-6, 17ff.)
Principle #2: Holiness means wholeness and completeness (Lev. 21:17-21)
Holiness is exemplified by completeness
Principle #3: Unclean and holy must never come in contact
Principle #4: when the unclean met the holy, it merits death.
When a sinner mets a holy God, he merits hell
Principle #5: Sanctification can elevate the clean to the holy
Principle #6: Holy things may be defiled and become common, and even polluted and making them unclean
Principle #7: There are two aspects of sanctification: Divine act and human action
“I am the Lord your sanctifier” (Lev. 21:8)
“You must sanctify him…for I the Lord sanctify you” (Lev. 21:8, Ex. 20:8, 11)
2. Why make the distinction between unclean, clean and holy?
Reason #1: There were three types of animals: unclean, clean and sacrificial
Corresponding to those excluded from the camp, majority of Israel and the priest
Reason #2: Their diet was limited to certain meats in imitation of their God, who had restricted his choice among nations to Israel
Election and clean animals are mentioned together (Deut. 14:1-2)
Reason #3: They were to be a holy nation
Clean animals: how righteous ought to behave
Unclean animals: unrighteous
3. Creatures which the Israelites may or may not eat
Land Creatures (v. 1-8)
Edible (v.2-3)
Chew the cud and divide hoof
Different from the modern meaning – it meant to chew their food very thoroughly like true ruminants
Inedible (v. 4-8)
Water Creatures (v. 9-12)
Edible (v. 9)
Fins and scales (swim normally)
Inedible (v.10-12)
Flying Creatures (v. 13-23)
Inedible birds (v. 13-19)
Clean: Two wings and two feet
Unclean: These (v. 13-19) typified man’s sinfulness, destructive and murderous instincts – taking what does not belong to them
Preying on other animals – blood drinkers, thus they break the law
Insects (v. 20-23): detestable (v.20), edible (v. 21-22), detestable (v.23)
Clean – those which are more like a bird with its wings and two feet
They have motion appropriate to their sphere, they are clean
Swarming – move in an unpredictable fashion, thus moving in chaos, out of order
