Chapter 15

LEVITICUS CHAPTER 15

Bodily Discharges

    • The Lord told Moses and Aaron to give the Israelites the following instructions:

      • “Any man who has a bodily discharge is unclean because of the discharge and he will remain unclean as long as the discharge continues. Anything that the man sits or lies down on is unclean (bed, furniture, a saddle, or even a person). Anyone who touches the man or anything that he has sit on must wash their clothes, take a bath, and they will be unclean until evening. If the man touches anyone without washing his hands first, the person must washes their clothes and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. If the man touches a clay pot it must be broken, but if he touches a wooden utensil it can be washed. When the man with the discharge has been cured, he will have a 7 day purification period, wash his clothes, take a bath, then he will be considered clean. He must then take two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest on the 8th day. The priest will sacrifice one as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering. The man will then be purified.”

        • Guzik notes, “The idea is of some obviously abnormal genital discharge, indicating some type of disease. When this occurs, the man was to be somewhat isolated in order not to pass on the infection to anyone else.”

        • HCSB commentary writes, “All the impurities dealt with in this chapter threatened the purity of the sanctuary (verse 31). They are discharges resulting from illness or infection, in addition to menstruation and seminal emissions. While these regulations may have involved personal hygiene, their main concern is the holiness of the worshiper.”

      • “When a man has an emission of semen, he must take a bath and will be considered unclean until evening. Anything that the semen got on (clothing or leather) must be washed and will also be unclean until evening. Anytime a man and woman have sex, they must bathe, and will be considered unclean until evening.”

        • HCSB commentary notes, “The rites of other Near Eastern religions celebrated the fertility of the gods, even to the point of dramatizing it through human sexual intercourse. Israel’s faith, in contrast, prohibited sexual intercourse within sacred precincts. The uncleanliness resulting from normal sexual relations is of the mildest type. Emission of semen, in intercourse (v 18) or at other times (vv 16-17), causes pollution, but no sacrifice was required to purify a person from it. The man (and his wife when she was involved) had simply to wash and wait until evening. Though the couple might be ritually unclean, it was not a question of their having sinned.”

      • “When a woman has her menstrual period she will be unclean for 7 days. Anyone who touches her and anything she lies or sits ( bed, furniture) on will be unclean. Anyone who touches anything she has sit on must wash their clothes and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. If she and her husband have intercourse and blood gets on him, her menstrual impurity passes to him and he will be unclean for 7 days. Within that time anything he lies on will be unclean.”

      • “If a woman has a flow of blood that isn’t related to her menstrual period, or if her period lasts longer than normal, she is unclean and will remain unclean as long as the discharge continues. Anything she lies or sits on will be unclean and anyone who touches any of those things will be unclean as well. Anyone who touches any of those things must wash their clothes, take a bath, and will be unclean until evening. When the bleeding stops, she must wait 7 days. Then on the 8th day, she must bring two turtledoves and two young pigeons to the priest. The priest will offer one as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering. This process will purify her before the Lord.”

      • “The above instructions will keep the Israelites clean so that they won’t defile My Tabernacle. If they defiled My Tabernacle with their impurity they would die.”

        • Guzik discusses how these laws are to be viewed in light of the New Covenant, “It is important for us to regard these laws of cleanliness in a New Testament perspective. In Mark 7:1-9 Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their over-emphasis on ceremonial cleanliness and their lack of regard for internal cleanliness. These laws were meant to have both hygienic reasons and spiritual applications; they were never intended as the way to be right with God…In Acts 15, the early Christian community properly discerned the work and will of God in the New Covenant: that under the New Covenant, the believer was not bound to these laws of ritual purity. One could be a follower of Jesus without the ritual conformity to the Mosaic Law…Yet we need to remember that spiritual cleanliness in worship is important today. We also remember that Jesus is the One who makes us clean and fit for fellowship: You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3). As we receive from the Word of God, we are being cleansed…Our cleanliness is complete as we abide in Jesus: 1 John 1:7-9 – But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”