Category Archives: Leviticus

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The Price of Holiness

Someone Bought It For You, Now Own It!

While we no longer live under the strict rule of the Levitical code, let’s never forget that God still requires a high price for our holiness. It is a price we couldn’t pay, so Jesus did. When we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are cleared of the charges to our account. But still, our salvation was anything but free. Someone had to pay; Someone did.

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 21:5-6

The Lord also said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. …You must be careful to keep all of my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice. I am the Lord.

Leviticus was so named because it had to do with the rules that God required his people to follow in order to walk before him in holiness—rules that were to be administered by the priests and Levites. Leviticus is a Latin phrase that means, “the book of the Levites.” However, if I were to give the book its name, I would simply call it, “the book of Holiness.”

Throughout Leviticus, in chapter after chapter, often in verse following verse, again and again God gave Moses clear and exacting instructions on what the Israelites were required to do now that they had been set apart as a holy nation unto a holy God. Holiness—that is the big deal in Leviticus. God is holy, and his people must be made holy and kept holy—even in the minutiae of their lives.

That included, especially, the priest. As you read this chapter, to be a high priest or a regular priest, there was an exceedingly high price to pay for a lifestyle of continual holiness unto the Lord. They couldn’t eat some things—ever; couldn’t touch certain things—ever; and couldn’t marry “those” women—ever. Even if things happened to them, due to no fault of they own—a birth defect, a chipped tooth, a debilitating injury or disease—they were disqualified. They had to be without defect. Their holiness demanded an impossibly high price.

So does yours and mine. The Bible says that without holiness, no one will see God. (Hebrews 12:1) The problem is, the price for holiness is too high for us. And even though we don’t live under the rules and regulations of holiness that were required of the Israelites, the price of holiness has not changed—the costs still have to be paid.

Have you ever owed something to someone you couldn’t pay, and they couldn’t or wouldn’t pay it for you, so someone else stepped in to foot the bill? Max Lucado tells a story that illustrates this:

He did for us what I did for one of my daughters in the shop at New York’s La Guardia Airport. The sign above the ceramic pieces read Do Not Touch. But the wanting was stronger than the warning, and she touched. And it fell. By the time I looked up, ten-year-old Sara was holding the two pieces of a New York City skyline. Next to her was an unhappy store manager. Over them both was the written rule. Between them hung a nervous silence. My daughter had no money. He had no mercy. So I did what dads do. I stepped in. “How much do we owe you?” I asked. How was it that I owed anything? Simple. She was my daughter. And since she could not pay, I did. Since you and I cannot pay, Christ did. We’ve broken so much more than souvenirs. We’ve broken commandments, promises, and, worst of all, we’ve broken God’s heart. But Christ sees our plight. With the law on the wall and shattered commandments on the floor, He steps near (like a neighbor) and offers a gift (like a Savior). What do we owe? We owe God a perfect life. Perfect obedience to every command. Not just the command of baptism, but the commands of humility, honesty, integrity. We can’t deliver. Might as well charge us for the property of Manhattan. But Christ can and he did. His plunge into the Jordan is a picture of His plunge into our sin. His baptism announces, “Let me pay.” (From Next Door Savior by Max Lucado)

Let’s never forget that God still requires a high price for our holiness. We couldn’t pay it, so Jesus did. And we are clear of the charges to our account when we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

But still, our salvation was anything but free. Someone had to pay; Someone did. And if you and I will never forget that, we will live out true holiness unto the Lord in the most beautiful, God-honoring way of all: through a life of organic gratitude to God for our gift of salvation through Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross.

Through Jesus, we meet the impossibly high cost of holiness unto the Lord!

Going Deeper: Holiness exacts an impossibly high payment. You couldn’t pay it so Jesus did. Offer him gratitude throughout the day—and every day for the rest of your life.

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Holiness: God Did His Part – Now Go Do Yours

You've Got To Work Out What God Has Worked In

We may be holy, but we have to walk in that holiness. That’s the part God asks us to play in the imputed holiness equation. God said to the Israelites, and by extension, he says to you and me, “Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy.” (Lev. 20:7) We have to live practically what God has done theologically, working out what God has worked in. In other words, we have to take what God has done and advance it in our daily lives. As God himself says “Set yourselves apart to be holy.”

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 20:7-8

So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy.

“Set yourselves apart to be holy.” That exhortation foreshadows what Paul taught in Philippians 2:12-13, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”

God has done what only he can do—he has redeemed us and set us apart for his pleasure, purpose, and glory. He has made us holy. Positionally—that is our legal standing before the just God of the universe—we are as holy as we can ever be, because we stand in the imputed holiness of Jesus Christ.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Positionally, that is what we are—holy! Progressive holiness—now that is another story. But the good news is, God has empowered us to live up to Christ’s work of imputed holiness in our lives by placing within us his very own Holy Spirit—emphasis on “Holy”—to enable us to live in a way that pleases him.

We have a part to play in this: We may be holy, but we have to walk in it. We have to live practically what God has done theologically. We have to work out what God has worked in. We have to take what God has done and advance it in our daily lives.

We have been made holy—now we must choose the things that are consistent with holiness. We have been empowered to obey—we must choose obedience. We have been blessed—now we must choose to walk worthy of God’s blessings. God has worked, and is now working in us to give us not only the will to, but the want to live as his holy people.

Now we’ve got some working out and walking in to do!

Going Deeper: Here is a prayer for holiness that I am offering up today. I invite you to join me in it: “Dear Father, I thank you for the work of salvation and sanctification that you have performed in my life. You have gifted me righteousness and eternal life, and I will never get over that. You have also placed in my spirit the desire to walk worthy of your amazing grace and unending mercy. You have placed in my spirit your very own Spirit who gives me the will and the want to live a God-honoring life. It’s the moment-by-moment choices that I need to train on you. Even though I need to work out what you have already worked in, I would appeal for even more Presence and power so that increasingly, even my every thought and even the deepest core of my soul if set apart and lived out for your glory. Lord, I would pray that every grace of Christ would be a reflection that is seen in me. Help me in real and practical ways this very day to grow into greater Christ-likeness.”

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Love, Then Do What You Will

Love God: The Summation Of The Law

  1. It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you look at God’s law as a checklist for righteousness that is to be executed woodenly in your life. But there is another way, a simple way—not necessarily an easy way, but a simple way—to approach God’s requirements for righteous living. St. Augustine summed it up quite nicely: Just love—then do what you will.

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 19:1-2, 3 7

The Lord also said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. …You must be careful to keep all of my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice. I am the Lord.

One of the great Christians of the early church era, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo (in modern Algeria) preached a sermon in which he said, “Once and for all, I give you this one short command: love, and do what you will.” In my humble opinion, that is not only a great prescription for living a God-honoring life of great impact, it would make an apt title for anyone preaching Leviticus 19.

Between the first and last verses of this chapter, there are thirty distinct commands the Lord gave his people, by my count. The chapter opens with God saying to the Israelites, “I’m holy, so you be holy, too—and here’s how… (Leviticus 19:1) It ends with God capping off this Divine list of holy things for his people to do with, “carefully obey them down to the last detail—not just in thought, but in deed.” (Leviticus 19:37). Then right in the middle, literally, of these thirty demands, he again says, “these are important, so let me be clear: carefully and completely obey everything that I am telling you to do!” (Leviticus 19:18)

The list is comprehensive. Some of the commands are obvious requirements of righteousness. Some seem a bit arcane. It doesn’t matter what we think of them, if we like them, if we agree with them, they are God’s requirements for his people to distinguish themselves as set apart from the other people of the earth, to live in respectful relationship with each other, and to walk in purity before him.

It would be easy to get overwhelmed if you looked at this simply as a checklist for righteousness that was to be executed woodenly in our lives. But I think there is another way, a simple way—not necessarily an easy way, but a simple way—to approach these commands. Augustine summed it up quite nicely:

Just love. Then do what you will.

One month before his death at age 65, C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter addressed to a child, “If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so.”

Love! Do that and you’ll be just fine—in this life and in the one to come. Just love God with all your heart, and when you do, you cannot help but love everybody else. Do that and you’ll fulfill all God’s requirements.

That’s great advice—and a pretty simple, not easy, but simple way to live an extraordinary life!

Going Deeper: Read over the list of required actions for righteous living in Leviticus 19. Of these thirty, what is one that you are prompted to highlight in your living today?

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Sexually Distinct

A Pure Sexuality Is Still A Powerful Witness

Knowing God’s design for human sexuality eliminates an “is this okay, is that not okay?” approach to moral purity. Whether you are single or married, when you pursue Creator’s call to purity, abstinence, and yes, even Christ-likeness in your sexuality, you become a compelling witness before a lost world of a loving God’s promise to bless his people’s obedience with abundance.

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 18:1-6

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God.  If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord. You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I am the Lord.

Like the title of today’s devotional? I thought that would get your attention. But basically, that is what God is saying to the Israelites in this chapter: I want you to be sexually pure, unlike the nation from which you came (“where you used to live”), and the nations where you are headed (“where I am taking you”). Do not be like them (“You must not imitate their way of life”). Do not adapt their anything-goes approach to sexual fulfillment nor get enticed into their sexual lifestyles (“You must never have sexual relations with…”), it is a deathtrap—literally (“If you obey…you will find life”).

The chapter then lists out specifically the kinds of sexual practices that were verboten. Now they didn’t need God to spell that out for them—they knew! We know too. We know, instinctively, what is right and what is wrong in terms of sexual activity. The Israelites did as well. Yet people are people, in any age, and they will shoot back with, “Yeah, but what about this? Is this okay? Can I do such and such?” Why do we do that? Because we are guilty of searching for the outer banks of morality so we can push as close to edge of permissibility as possible without pushing on past it. The problem with that type of mentality is that when we push to the limit of pre-sinfulness, it is practically a given that we will become, sooner or later, pro-sin.

Proverbs 6:27 rhetorically asks, “Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?” No. If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.

So in this case, God says, “I’m going to pre-empt your foolish questions and tell you exactly what kinds of sexual relationships and practices you are not to commit.” And boy does he! He spells out in living color the boundaries that we are not to cross, no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.

As you read though Leviticus 18, you come away with a clear list of sexual “thou shalt not’s”. But what are the “thou shalts” of God-honoring sexuality? I have been told that when U.S. treasury agents are trained to spot counterfeit money, they don’t spend their time looking at phony bills. They become so familiar with the real deal that it becomes easy to spot the fake. In the case of human sexuality, I think perhaps it’s is just as critical for us to study the real deal of God’s design and become so familiar with it that we don’t need to dwell on the “is this okay, is that not okay?” approach to morality.

And I think I can put this very succinctly: the sexuality that God blesses is between a man and a woman living as husband and wife within the loving/serving/honoring bonds of marriage. Now read deliberately and think clear about every single word in that statement: man, woman, husband, wife, within, loving, serving, bonds, marriage.

Our culture will call that outdated, restrictive, counterproductive to pleasure, ignorant and hateful toward certain groups. That is too bad, because the designer of human sexuality says it’s the only way to a blessable life.

Now that is what culture will say—and we should never be surprised that they would label us a weird and dangerous for holding to those views. But the major theme of this chapter is that as believers, God wants us to be different from the culture around us, and even in our sexuality, he wants us to stand out as belonging to him.

Have you ever thought of sexuality that way? Whether you are single or married, when you follow purity, abstinence, and yes, even Christ-likeness in your sexuality, you become a compelling witness before a lost world of a loving God’s promise to bless his people with the abundant life.

In your sexuality, God wants you to stand out for your moral purity. So don’t blend in and he will bless you!

Going Deeper: Take some time to very carefully and deliberately meditate on the statement: the sexuality that God blesses is between a man and a woman living as husband and wife within the loving/serving/honoring bonds of marriage.

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Your Other Gods

What Is Your Functional Savior?

Do we worship other gods today? Could we be unknowingly guilty of idolatry? You bet! As Martin Luther said, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.”

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 17:7

The people must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord by offering sacrifices to the goat idols. This is a permanent law for them, to be observed from generation to generation.

Goat demons—weird, huh! The translation I have used calls them “goat idols”, but in some versions you will see a footnote that says an alternative reading is “demons.” There is a possibility that this refers to the satyrs—an creepy mythical creature found in several ancient cultures that was half goat and half human. Every time I see a photo of a satyr I sense something demonic about it. You probably do, too.

It is more likely that what God had in mind here, and I say that reverently, because who can truly know the mind of the Lord, was an idol in the shape of a goat. The surrounding nations likely had such man-made idols, much like the bull and calf idols that the Egyptians famously worshiped. We are told that later on in the Israelite’s history, when the nation spit between Judah and Israel, the split-off king Jeroboam, “appointed his own priests to serve at the pagan shrines, where they worshiped the goat and calf idols he had made.”

You might be thinking, who would ever abandon their worship of the Lord to worship goat idols? Apparently, God’s people did! Notice the first part of that verse: The people must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord by offering sacrifices to goat idols.” (Italics mine) It is quite likely that when the Israelites were in Egypt, living in the land of Goshen, they adopted some of the worship practices of their neighbors who sacrificed to goat, bull, calf or satyr idols. The New King James version renders it in an even more serious, accusatory way:

“They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot.”

Unfaithfulness in any form is a sin, repugnant to God. Adultery is a serious sin, a blow to the marriage covenant between God, husband and wife, and destructive to the human family. Spiritual adultery, pardon my French—whoring around—is certain to invite the wrath of God. That is why, in no uncertain terms, he is laying down the prohibition to offer sacrifices only in the central location that he chooses in the land they will soon possess—first in the tabernacle; later in the permanent temple that was built in Jerusalem.

Spiritual harlotry was a deadly serious sin. So a statute forever instituted here is not merely a regulation about slaughtering animals for sacrifice, it was a built-in guard rail that would keep them from being lured to idolatry. You see, once they arrive in Canaan, they would be scattered through the land, some living a hundred miles or more away from the central place of worship. Rather than making the arduous trip to the tabernacle/temple, they might be tempted to slaughter their animal and offer it to God in their own backyard. But the temptation would always become to offer that sacrifice to a local idol, since that is usual the drift. To keep their worship pure and monotheistic, God therefore built in a prohibition against offering sacrifices anywhere other than in the central place of worship and only offering it through the mediation of the priests.

Now what does that have to do with you? A lot! You drift, too. So do I. That is the gravitational pull of our sinful nature. Yes, we have been redeemed, but we are also in the process of being redeemed. That means our sin nature, while being diminished by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, won’t be completely annihilated until we are finally and fully in the Lord’s presence. So that sin nature will find ways to cooperate with the devil in order to distract us from our unadulterated worship of the one true God—perhaps not with goat idols and satyrs, but with attractions, dependencies and loyalties to things that complete with God for throne space in our lives.

Have you allowed that in your past? Of course you have. And that is why you will drift in the present, if you are not careful (“you must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord”). And that is why you must realize that God alone must call the shots as to how we are to worship him (“a statute permanent law”). Maybe that is why, in spite of the current trend otherwise, the New Testament church was committed to coming together for regular worship in a central place (Hebrews 10:24-25) and following certain procedures in their corporate worship (see various teachings in the New Testament—1 Corinthians 12, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, etc.) Divine rules, contrary to popular belief, are not restrictive, they are protective.

“Playing the harlot” in our worship is a clear and harsh accusation, and perhaps it is even offensive that I would suggest that of you (which I am not, by the way. I’m simply calling for self-evaluation). But I think playing the harlot is more often than not a very subtle slide into worship that is more about our convenience and preferences than it is about maintaining a deliberate and faithful effort to offer worship to God in the way he has prescribed.

Who, or what, is your functional savior? Listen, there is only one God, and he has demanded that we have no other gods before him. All I am saying is, let’s make sure we don’t!

Going Deeper: Has your worship in any way become more about what you want than what God desires? The drift to self-centered worship is subtle in our world, so ask the Holy Spirit to give you a Divine check-up. Then make the necessary adjustments in your worship practices. God will not share your loyalty with another.

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At-One-Ment

Being Set Right In The Eyes Of A Holy God

At-one-ment: the state of being set right in the eyes of a holy God. In the Old Testament, the way God established for that to happen was through the series of procedures and sacrifices on the Day of Atonement—the sin offering, the burnt offering, the releasing of the scapegoat, the offering of incense, etc. In the New Testament, atonement finds its culmination in Jesus, of whom John the Baptist proclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 16:29-31

On the tenth day of the appointed month in early autumn, you must deny yourselves. Neither native-born Israelites nor foreigners living among you may do any kind of work. This is a permanent law for you. On that day offerings of purification will be made for you, and you will be purified in the Lord’s presence from all your sins. It will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. This is a permanent law for you.

Leviticus 16 describes the multifaceted offerings that were to be made for the Day of Atonement, a sacred observance on the yearly calendar of the Israelites in perpetuity. So just what was atonement, and why was it so important that it required so many sacrifices and such a precise process? The answer to the what and the why is simply this: atonement is literally at-one-ment; being made one with God. Obviously that is why it was such an important and solemn day.

At-one-ment—the state of being set right in the eyes of a holy God. In the Old Testament, the way God established for that to happen was through the series of procedures and sacrifices described in this chapter: ceremonial cleansing for the priest and his assistants, the sin offering, the burnt offering, the releasing of the scapegoat, literally, the “go-away goat”, the offering of incense, etc. So holy and important was this day that God made it very clear to Aaron, the high priest:

Aaron is not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover. (Leviticus 16:2)

Now while there was a serious and elaborate process that the Israelites—both the clergy and the people—were to observe in a physical way to be cleansed once a year on this day for their sins, God was looking for something more from them. He wanted their hearts. It was always the case that he longed for them to express a repentant heart before him through all of the various sacrifices, laws and procedures he provided.

In this particular case of atonement, this was to be a day when God said, “you must deny yourselves.” (Leviticus 16:29) Most likely, this was a day for fasting—an outward sign and a spiritual discipline that God wanted to lead those who worshiped him to an inner response of loving and grateful humility. Later on in Israel’s history, we are clearly told in Isaiah 58 that God wanted much more than the mere outward act of self-denial; it was an inner orientation toward God that led to outward application toward other people that would produce true atonement before God.

In the New Testament, this critical provision for atonement is transferred to the sacrifice of Jesus, who became our sin offering, our scapegoat, our cleansing and our fragrant incense before God. Amazingly and stunningly, we are the recipients of such marvelous grace:

Now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made atonement for us. (Romans 5:11)

Moreover, as we consider the provision for atonement—again, at-one-ment with God—both in the Old Testament law and in its New Testament fulfillment in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, there is yet another critical dimension we must consider. Here is how theologian Lehman Strauss puts it:

Our Lord had a wider outlook than Judaism. It is true that He was sent especially to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, nevertheless He most certainly taught His disciples that they were to be witnesses unto Him “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8), and He was not sending them on a fool’s errand. The Atonement is sufficient for all men, but it is efficient only for those who believe!

What is the point? We who have benefited from being made right with God at Christ’s expense have been called to take this message of atonement to the whole world. God’s longing to bring reconciliation to the world was partially modeled for the Jew through the Day of Atonement and completely fulfilled through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, and now it is through the proclamation of the Gospel, in the preaching of our words and in the practice of our lives, that the lost will see God’s gracious offer to be set right with him—at-one-ment.

The Day of Atonement finds its culmination in Jesus, of whom John the Baptist proclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) That should be our proclamation, too!

Going Deeper: John the Baptist saw Jesus and shouted to everyone who could hear, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Is there anyone near you who needs to hear that coming from you lips?

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How To Read The Old Testament

As a New Testament believer, you cannot make sense of the Jewish Scriptures without seeing them through the lens of the Jesus Scriptures. The whole point of the Old Testament was that it pointed to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law. All of the strange laws God gave to govern rebellious people were simply placeholders that pointed to the One who would be the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins; a sacrifice that would both now and forever establish us as holy in God’s sight.

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 15:1-2,

And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.’ … ‘And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

I deliberately chose these verses from the King James Version because it was the only way to clean up what the Bible says about the uncleanness of a man or a woman. When you read it in your version of choice, at a visceral level, you probably thought, “ick!”

That is what my children would say to me when they were old enough to read the Bible through, beginning with the Old Testament. Several times when they were still in the books of Moses, they came to me with that “ew” expression on their face to get my take on uncomfortable stories, like Lot’s daughters’ inappropriate behavior in Genesis 19, or the story in Genesis 34 of Shechem’s violation of Dinah and her brother’s revenge on the sore Hivites. I was beginning to rethink having my kids read the Old Testament.

And then you come to a section like this in Leviticus 15. The editor’s heading of your translation, whatever version of the Bible you use, should be a clear give away that this is going to be an uncomfortable reading. As the English Standard Version labels it, “Laws About Bodily Discharges”, this chapter won’t be great as a mealtime devotional.

I won’t re-plow ground at this point on the Divine reason for restrictive regulations like this—and there are some insightful and important reasons that God had in giving them—but I would encourage you to go back and read any of my previous devotionals on Leviticus 11-15. God wanted his people to be holy and healthy, and he went to great lengths to provide a path for them to be his sanctified people, distinct from all others on Planet Earth. And rather than seeing these rules as restrictive, the Israelites considered them as reasons to rejoice in their Divine election.

But here is the over-arching point I want to make about this chapter, and in fact, the entire Old Testament: as a New Testament believer, you cannot make sense of the Jewish Scriptures without seeing them through the lens of the Jesus Scriptures. The whole point of the Old Testament was that it pointed to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law. From the moment that Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, God began his reclamation project with the promise of a Redeemer:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

That was the first of scores of Old Testament messianic prophecies that pointed to and were perfectly fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. All of these strange laws God gave to govern rebellious people were simply placeholders that anticipated the One who would be the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins; a sacrifice that would both now and forever establish us as holy in God’s sight. Whenever you read the Old Testament, you have to keep that in mind—and as you do, your appreciation for the grace and mercy, along with the sovereign wisdom of God, will soar in your heart and mind.

Now to come back to this particular story, bodily discharges and ceremonial defilement, let’s take a grateful look at how Jesus redeemed these very same situations. Here is an example in Mark 5:25-34,

There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.  And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Now think of how many “violations” there were in this incident if we were to woodenly interpret Leviticus 15, or if we were to see it without Jesus in view! Here’s the deal: When you read Leviticus 15 through the lens of Jesus, you understand God’s desire to draw near to the unclean, whether a man with leprosy or a lady with issue of blood, to make them whole. And it took Jesus to reveal the Father’s heart that you don’t completely see in this Old Testament chapter.

And it took Jesus to reveal the Father’s heart in the real world of our icky lives. Thank God for Jesus!

Going Deeper: Are there people that you find icky? The stinky bum on the street, the teeming masses of HIV infected in Africa, the anarchist in the streets protesting the issue du jour, or whatever group causes you to cringe? Just remember, what you think is icky, Jesus can make holy. See them not as they are, but as what they can be.