Read Leviticus 15
Questions from the Scripture text: To whom does YHWH speak (Leviticus 15:1)? To whom are they to speak (Leviticus 15:2)? What might come from them? What is unclean? Whose uncleanness is it (Leviticus 15:3)? In which two conditions? What other things become unclean (Leviticus 15:4, Leviticus 15:9, Leviticus 15:12)? Who else becomes unclean in what ways (Leviticus 15:5, Leviticus 15:6, Leviticus 15:7, Leviticus 15:8, Leviticus 15:10)? What must they do? When the discharge stops, how long does the one who had it have to wait (Leviticus 15:13, Leviticus 15:24, Leviticus 15:28)? What must he do on that day? Then what must he bring on the next day (Leviticus 15:29)? Before Whom? Where? And give to whom? What does the priest do (Leviticus 15:15, Leviticus 15:30)? Who have their own specific discharges (Leviticus 15:16-18, Leviticus 15:19-24, Leviticus 15:25-27)? How is Leviticus 15:31 a summary for chapters 11–15? Which particular discharges’ uncleanness were the main ones in this chapter (Leviticus 15:32-33)?
What defiles a sinner? Leviticus 15 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that what comes out of a sinner defiles him, requiring atonement.
What comes out of a sinner defiles him. The connection of Leviticus 12:2 to Genesis 3:16b–c emphasized to us that the problem is that we are sinners, and those who come from us are therefore sinners. Chapter 12, therefore, taught the same great lesson as Mark 7:1–23. What comes out of a man defiles him. “customary impurity” in Leviticus 12:2 hinted forward to this chapter and the same lesson. Now, in chapter 15, any sort of flow from a man makes him unclean in a way that requires an 8th day atonement, just as the cleansed leper (cf. Leviticus 14:10) needed to signify his “rebirth” into the sacred community. No diagnostic procedure, like those in chapters 13–14, is necessary. Any flow at all that comes out of him makes him unclean.
What comes out of a sinner defiles others. Whatever he wears or lays or sits upon becomes unclean. Whatever touches him, or touches something he has defiled, also becomes unclean. All of these must be washed (or in the case of pottery, be destroyed). We sinners make others unclean just by touching them, or their touching us. This is part of what makes the touching in Matthew 8:3 so amazing. Jesus not only has an internal cleanness that is so great that He cannot be defiled; but, His is so great that it can actually take away the defilement of others. No water ever cleansed like Jesus cleanses.
The need for new creation. As we noted above, the atonement that is required in this chapter is an “8th day” atonement (Leviticus 15:1, Leviticus 15:29). This corresponds to the day of circumcision (cf. Leviticus 12:3; Genesis 17:12), and the new heart that is needed for the new birth (cf. Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6). The 8th day is the 1st day of a second week, the 1st day of a new creation. It is the day that has become the Lord’s Day. When someone is kept out of the sacred assembly in a way that needs atonement, the Lord gives them to do so on the 8th day of their cleanness, a sign that teaches us about the new birth that is necessary for entering the new creation. Much of the chapter, then, focuses on those discharges that are related to a man’s fathering children or a woman’s conceiving children. In God’s providence, He has made these to be times of physical discharge that remind us that we and our children both desperately need to be born again—to become members of the new creation.
What is the great uncleanness about us? How can we be cleansed? What does this cleansing do for us?
Sample prayer: Lord, we confess that because we are sinners, whatever comes from us is unclean. Give us the new birth, we pray, and unite us to Christ so that much may come out of us that is from Him, rather than from us. And do this, also, for our children, we ask. For, they have come from sinful parents and need Christ, through Whom we ask it, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP51B “From My Sins, O Hide Your Face” or TPH274 “Jesus, My Great High Priest”
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