Published: February 20, 2025 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Leviticus - The Parable of Leviticus 2 - Part 2 | Scripture: Leviticus 10
Transcript
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things that uh we often ignore or misuse misapply pray that you'd give us wisdom to to know what the holy spirit is teaching and preserving these for our reading and for our understanding we do
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pray for Yuri and Kristen and we pray for the doctors that tomorrow's surgery would be indeed successful and that this would uh would uh this tumor would be removed and the
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problem would be fully overcome we ask these things father in Jesus name
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amen thank you John so last week we talked about the uh the documentary hypothesis and the Priestly uh Torah the Priestly writers
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um following up on that uh I want to talk about the cohesiveness of Leviticus and really um the idea that
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Leviticus is some late edition um there there are some places where the documentary hypothesis is almost embarrassing for the alleged
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editors for example the the second creation account in Genesis 2 and the first creation account in Genesis 1 is essentially no transition
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between them I mean no self-respecting redactor would have such an Abrupt change between those two chapters and so some of them are so embarrassing and
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then others are just so stupid when you have as we looked at when we looked at the first section of Leviticus that this is a 30-day period
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between the only two dates that are in the penet where the Israelites were at the end of Exodus and where they are at the beginning of numbers and it's 30 days
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between them now that's pretty skillful that you're going to rewrite something and pull all these documents together hundreds of years later and you're going to think to end one book with the date
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and start the next but one book with that 30-day that 30-day later it's it's an agenda it's what people want to see and so they see it
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but then the more that that scholars study the actual writing they realize well no this is this is pretty cohesive this all kind of makes sense so instead
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of looking at the dietary laws as as so has often been the case with the higher critics as some later addition what we should rather do is is ask well why here
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in Leviticus why chapter 11 do we begin with the Purity laws the clean and unclean well because of chapter 10 with chapter 10 we have the the first
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incident where the priests minister in the Tabernacle that is chapters 1 through eight 1- n and they mess
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up and so naab and abue bring Strange Fire before the Lord the fire leaps out from the Altar and consumes them so that
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seems like a completely arbitrary story especially when you get to chapter 11 it starts talking about clean and unclean animals and if you are of the higher
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critic mentality then it is disjointed you you're thinking already that it's different authors or different redactions and different editors and different documents being sewn together
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and sometimes we can see the seams and sometimes what you're not thinking is that this is all one book inspired by the Holy Spirit but you're thinking that way then you ask the question well why
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Leviticus 11 well it's important to note in Leviticus in Leviticus 11:1 is the first time we encounter and Yahweh spoke to Moses and
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Aaron and that actually only occurs five times in The Book of Leviticus all of which are in the Purity law Leviticus
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law Leviticus 11-15 otherwise it's the Lord spoke to Moses the Lord spoke to Moses the Lord okay so the first time God actually speaks to Aaron is in chapter
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10 when he basically tells Aaron first of all don't mourn because by those who come before me I will be holy but then later on in
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that chapter he he addresses Aaron directly and tells Aaron what the priests are going to do that their job is not simply to slaughter animals at the
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altar they have a much broader responsibility and that's what we're going to that sets the stage for the Purity laws of chapters 11 through 15
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and then the Holiness code from chapter 17 to 17 to 27 but right in the middle of all that is chapter is chapter 16 which is the day of
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atonement it's the hinge of of the whole book okay and so this is a very cohesive book uh but again if if you're not
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inclined to think that it's cohesive if you're not inclined to think that it has but one but one author and if you are inclined to to have an evolutionary view of
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religion so that the the older the the uh statutes the ordinances the more primitive and therefore you're dealing with later political
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motives we'll talk about those some why the priests did what they did in Leviticus if that's your bent well then that's what you're going to see you you can find that sort of stuff but when I
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look at it I I think well no Leviticus 11-15 which is sometimes
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called the Priestly Torah or the Purity law
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these are a direct and logical response of Leviticus 10 to what happened in Leviticus 10 okay so we're going to do a little bit of transition here of course
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Leviticus 10 uh you know the dramatic part of that is the death of naab and abue and when we looked at that back in our first session in Leviticus I pointed out that
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the the description of the fire coming out from the altar consuming naab and abue is the same description of the fire coming out from the Altar and consuming
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the first burnt offering at the consecration of the Tabernacle is the same fire that's very important to realize this is this is the presence of
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a holy God in approbation in accepting an offering he consumes the animal and the carcass on the altar but when
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offended when treated um flippantly or not as when something is done that does not show him to be holy that same fire leaps out and consumes
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the priests so this this whole episode is again um my mind always goes to what Mr Beaver said about aan you know he's not
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a tame a tame lion one of the best statements in literature you know he's not tame okay it's laughable to think that he's tame and that's what we're we're learning
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here so here so um God speaks to Aaron and says by those who come before
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me I will be holy uh that ranks is one of the most important verses in the Bible right there that has not changed because God has not changed his
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eyes are too pure to look upon iniquity he is still Thrice holy and so this this little statement by those who come before me I will be holy well that
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leaves unanswered the question two questions first of all who does this mean those who come before
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me and what does this through 27 the rest of the Book of Leviticus
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answers those two questions who are those who come before me well we could say oh yeah we've just heard about them right the priests they're the ones who
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come before Yahweh in the in the Tabernacle but lest you think they're the only the only ones we we get into the Purity laws and
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then the Holiness code because the whole nation of Israel first of all dwelt in the presence of Yahweh but they all came before him when
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they brought their offerings they they were an integral part we saw in Leviticus 1-7 they were an integral part of the sacrificial
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system it was the Israelite not the priest who slew the animal that that's also very important we don't think of that we think it was the an you know no they chopped him up
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and arranged him on the altar but the actual killing of the animal animal was done by the Israelite who brought it as a offering if a priest did that it was because he was bringing his own
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sacrifice to the Lord we're going to see in Leviticus 12 for example the requirement of atonement for a woman who has given birth to a
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child was both a burnt offering and a purification offering your Bible probably says sin offering I tend to agree with the
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contemporary Scholars who look at the word hatat and realize that it's not necessarily sin but rather Purity or
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purification which encompasses sin offerings but is not limited to them but anyhow two offerings we see actually in the Book of Luke Mary doing this after
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the birth of of Jesus okay but those offerings were actually brought by the woman not by the man so um those who come before me are
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the children of Israel not just the priests but all
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Israelites okay but no one can come before him who is not holy okay holy okay so being holy has has kind of two
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connotations first of all the one that you're familiar with and that means separated but I'm sure you've heard this before you're not just separated from
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you are separated to in fact that's really the more important aspect and so holiness means to be to be separated to
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Yahweh but it also means presentable to Yahweh or capable of approach so when we talk about those who come before me only those who are holy
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can come before me that's what we're going to learn in the in the on in the ensuing chapters the Lord is now unpacking that
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unpacking that statement who is it that comes before me well not just the priests there are actually zones of Holiness within the camp of Israel and all of those zones are in
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relationship to the holy of holies where God causes his glory to dwell but all of Israel is living in the presence of God and is coming before him
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with their burnt offerings their uh guilt offerings their peace offerings all and their vows um and and there's a very interesting side note it's not in
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Leviticus it's in numbers but within the camp of Israel there was a certain type of Israelite who was as a priest in terms
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of preparation and consecration anybody remember who that was the Nazarite yeah the Nazarite was in a sense not a priest
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in the in the offering up of sacrifices but in terms of the consecration he was a priest within the camp and of course he could be from any tribe he was not limited to any one
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tribe of Levi or any other so the the Nazarite um and actually I'm I'm not I have to check I'm fairly certain women could also take the Nazarite I'm pretty
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sure in numbers it says him or her he or she so but that's that's kind of a side note so this is um uh able to
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approach so this is necessary for
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that now that's fairly easy to accept who is it that can Ascend the hill of the Lord right who who can come before Yahweh well only the one who has a clean heart and Clean Hands we might
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say the only one only the one who's holy can come before a holy holy God now we also can jump to the conclusion or or to at least the uh the interim conclusion that Holiness cannot
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mean sinless Perfection right I mean it's certainly encompasses
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Perfection but ability to approach Yahweh does not require that the one who approaches be sinlessly perfect washed of all sin and and even
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incapable of sin no that's actually where they go when they have sinned that's where they bring their offering before the Lord so holiness has
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to mean something other than just sinless perfection or even sinlessness okay we have in our modern
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and really kind of since well it's been pretty endemic in the Christian church for Millennia we have associated
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Holiness as the biblical opposite of sinfulness in other words we've given Holiness an exclusively moral definition now we're going to be looking at some terms tonight and I'm going to
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go put some of them up here on the board because in most of our Bibles we have the word holy
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right but set against holy there is another word that is typically translated in our English either by
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profane both of which are very pejorative words aren't they is not a compliment to be called profane right but both of them are unfortunate
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translations of the word that is set against Holy in Leviticus for example the word actually means common not
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common not consecrated it doesn't have an ethical component to component to it no the word opposite the other the the word holy is is kadosh it is Holy
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that's it the other word that is usually translated Unholy or profane profane is the most common English translation the word doesn't have that
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doesn't have the same portive ethical meaning that we give to the words Unholy and profane right when you think of something as Unholy you think of it as
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wicked right but that's not what the word implies it simply means not consecrated do that make sense it it
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doesn't have an ethical content it just means it's something so for example you you have a a clay jar you're a priest and this is the clay
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jar your wife uses to mix the salad or the rice or whatever right it's a clay jar when you go to the Tabernacle there's a clay jar there might have been
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made side by side by the same Potter right one of them's holy something happens to it it gets defiled it has to be broken and disposed
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of right the other one's not Unholy it's not a wicked picture it's just common okay um you have in your house
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POI you know you have a mixture of herbs and spices that help kind of hide the smell of all the animals that are Milling around your living
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room they have a popi in the Tabernacle too right but that mixture is Holy and it cannot be duplicated for personal use does that mean that your
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poer is poer is wicked no it means it's common so I think the first thing we have to understand when we're looking at the Purity laws is that for many of them
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we're not even talking about Sin we're just talking about holy versus common
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times if it if it is done we're going to talk about that um it it doesn't always happen that way it can also happen for example if uh uh if a woman who has just given birth touches another she her
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uncleanness is actually contagious so last week we talked about the and it's in the note we talk about the contagion of uncleanness and so that that's a
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situation you holy only begets holy if it's done according to the prescribed ritual which is consecration okay it's not just a
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natural thing that happens um and it is kind of somewhat confusing and and challenging to Scholars from reading that you read a particular oh and if so and so touches this then that becomes
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holy what that usually means in its context is um that thing is actually now need to be destroyed not a good thing what what
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you've done is you've you've assigned to that object a object a consecration that now renders it unusable and and often the result is
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that thing needs to be destroyed so it or they they need to be cleansed somehow it's it it what what is that really gets get into the Holiness zones that we're going to talk
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about the greater degree of Holiness in the in the a tabernacle system was physically isolated from
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lesser degrees of degrees of Holiness the whole Camp is Holy but not uniformly holy it's almost and I I'll put some
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stuff up on the board that hopefully help understand but these two words then I think they are misleading because we understand them to be of ethical
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content right when really the point that's being that's being made is that something is either holy or
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it's common and there's nothing ethically wrong with something that is common in all of the utensils in an Israel home were common they weren't
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thereby sin or evil or Wicked they just weren't for use in the Tabernacle and that which was for use in the Tabernacle was not to be taken home from you know the the priest's wife didn't call up and
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say bring me a pot I've just broke one he would say no I can't do that you know even the clothing that they wore stayed in the Tabernacle
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yes um in another measure no okay and I'm going to explain that in the sense that something is like
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incense or a sacrificial animal or a pot it's consecrated it's consecrated it has no ethical content in and of
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itself but it's holy right even a priest when he is consecrated that does not mean he's
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sinless he's not somehow Sanctified and made sinless when he's consecrated so that's what I mean when I say no it doesn't have an ethical content it has the content of being set
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aside for Yahweh and not for any other use does that make sense on the other hand the whole concept of being set apart for uh for
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Yahweh is what he says you shall be holy why for I the Lord am Holy there's your ethical content okay that you you can't you
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can't view the the Holiness of the Lord as being just a um an awe moral characteristic so that's why I give the equivocal answer um normally as we're
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reading the Purity laws we're actually not dealing with with any ethical things at all the ethics comes in later numbers
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19 where the man who refuses to be cleansed is cleansed is addressed at that point it's now become ethical but a woman who gave birth to a
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child the menstrual cycle seminal discharge and even leprosy these are not ethical
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things someone who touches a corpse a a corpse of a rat falls into your pudding or whatever it was and
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okay and of Green Gables because she didn't put the mesh over the top of it okay that's in Leviticus you know one of the Priestly
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the Priestly duties um duties um this is not ethical but the problem with most interpretation and especially Christian interpretation is we can't understand anything otherwise everything
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has to be related to sin for us and personal sin and so what do we do we make it sinful for a woman to have a child when the creation mandate says be
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fruitful and multiply right and and in fact the the the the Hebrew women considered it to be a curse if they were not able to have
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children okay we we make it sinful and somehow Unholy and profane and those words are used that a woman has a monthly cycle Christianity is lampooned
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because of this stupid interpretation of moralizing and making ethical things that are purely ritual and point out the distance of a
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holy God from an Unholy people they're not sinning and I want to establish that up front here as we go through 11 12 13 14 15 there's no sin involved
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here and yet there's uncleanness okay so that means that not all uncleanness is uncleanness is sin but all uncleanness
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this okay so we do have a serious issue here here but we we need to to to make a distinction between moral uncleanness and ritual
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uncleanness and and I do think the scripture clearly does that there that's why I think the purification offering is a better translation than sin offering because otherwise you do have a woman
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presenting a sin offering for having had a child does that ever bother anybody what's sinful about having a child but
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if you read a lot of commentators you know the whole thing is sinful having sex is sinful even in marriage doing what God commanded you to do is somehow sin and like okay that can't be right we
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must be getting something wrong here all right and and so in a in a chapter about unclean and clean animals we're starting off with with making distinctions between this and that we need to make a
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distinction between distinction between moral uncleanness and ritual uncleanness and not confuse the two uh I don't see how you can possibly not misinterpret
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what we're going to be studying if everything has to be related to sin now even I don't even if we did not
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sin we did not commit any known sin remember we were looking at the last time we were looking at people bringing offerings for sin they knew nothing about ignorant sins they they didn't know
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about in fact if they knew about it and if they did it on purpose there was no atonement for them you know so we we have to kind of change our Paradigm in terms of of associate everything with
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with moral wickedness and and start to look at it well first of all we're an Unholy people Isaiah says I am you know an un a man of unclean lips and I dwell
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among a people of unclean lips does that mean is Isaiah had just been out sinning and then he has the vision where he's brought into the presence of God well first of all if he had been unclean
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he would not have been brought into the presence of God he would have been ineligible to approach okay so what he's talking about is the is the common condition of all Fallen
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Mankind and that is common not not Wicked not profane in that sense but common
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it genetic um no I don't think there's any anything like that in um in the Biblical teaching the Hebrew Bible and I don't think there's anything like that
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um I would say probably from the Greek from the dualism of of the good and evil or the or the the uh the yin and yang the idea that there are two forces dark and light um in the Bible there's only
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one force one force light let there be light God is light that that is the Primal Force darkness is a is a departure from light it's not
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an entity unto itself Augustine very famously said that sin is not an independent entity it's the corruption of good it's so we we can't think we have
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to be careful not to think not to give uh the dark side more credit than it's due the Primal force is light and that will be victorious
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yeah no no no it it's not a war it's not a war it's simply the longsuffering of the holy God who for his reasons is postponing the ultimate and inevitable
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victory of light over darkness and life over death over death yeah so uh that that's a good point we we it kind of ties in with what I'm saying is that we have we have I've said
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this many times we have moralized Christianity and and in doing so we've we've moralized our reading of the Bible everything has to be related to me and my sin and my forgiveness and my
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salvation and we can't seem to understand how something can be Unholy and yet not be sinful so we start assigning moral value
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negative moral value moral demerit to such things as menstration okay and that's been done I think you all probably aware that that that's not uncommon that and it's it's
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attributed we'll look at that when we get to Leviticus 12 some of the stupid things that are said about Leviticus 12 are are just so embarrassing um but what we assign moral negative moral value to
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things that are just simply common place in life and many of which are are elsewhere considered a blessing how can the blessing of
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childbirth have a negative moral value if we think that it does we must be misreading the text and I think where we're misreading the text is back here
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when we're we're saying well okay it's either holy or it's profane no it's either holy or it's common and and I think hopefully you all don't assign any type of ethical content
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to the word common it just means common it's every day it has no moral content we give it moral
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content by our active sin and the Bible has plenty to say about that in fact what it has to say about that isn't very hopeful presumptuous sin does not have
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an available means of of atonement okay we pointed that out in Leviticus 1-7 that most of what we're dealing with with are not presumptuous sins they're
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not willful sin
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should well I hate to say this but my Approach is going to be very non-binary sorry it does and yeah it but and and it should make us
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feel that way because as Isaiah says we are each of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips what we're dealing here is with is that
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even when we're not sinning we're not clean we have a holy God and what we're reading here from Leviticus 10 and then expanding when when you read the Purity
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laws you realize how many constant ways you could be made unclean okay for the woman it's at least
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once a
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right yeah and before well even more so let's say he was the king's butcher he had to clean himself before he went into the presence of the king so that that's exactly what we're dealing with here is that we are commoners uh and because of our uh
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because of our fallenness what are you laughing at what are you doing are you being naughy you being Unholy
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[Laughter] Sor that happens to me sometimes
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too and and Jesus called the Pharisees Hypocrites for their illustration laws and washing all the way up to their elbows and and uh looking down their noses because the disciples were not doing that they were not washing
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themselves before they ate so yeah um we we've made it's kind of it's in your notes I think it's this this particular chapter um it was apparently John Wesley who who
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coined the phrase cleanliness is Next to Godliness uh I'm not sure the man had ever preached a more stupid sermon than that one but he actually
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um he took it to mean your your presentability he didn't like he didn't like people showing up in the in the congregation who weren't dressed to the nines he said that was that was
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indicative of your degree of Holiness it's a horrible sermon but apparently that's where it came from so now you know um just like God helps those who
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themselves which is why people go back to the buffet table second time all right so we we continue then on L Leviticus 10 and we read the Lord speaking to Aaron starting in verse 9
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then the Lord spoke to Aaron saying now that's very significant we don't even know where Moses was at the time but up to this point he's been speaking to Moses to Moses now he says the Lord
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spoke speaking to Aaron saying do not drink wine or intoxicating drink you nor your sons with you when you go into the Tabernacle of meeting lest you die it
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shall be a statute forever throughout your Generations that you may distinguish between holy and Unholy and
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between unclean and clean and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses that you may
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distinguish but not only were they to distinguish they will teach the children of Israel to do the same now the structure there is
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chastic Holy and Unholy and then unclean and clean okay
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so holy and holy and Unholy or again
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common unclean and clean there's the kai okay now again when that's done
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in the scriptures it's a memory aid it's there to to help us catch this particular uh uh set of couplets that
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are now going to be the topic of the next five next five chapters okay that's why Leviticus 11 is so coherent with Leviticus 10 the Lord
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says to Aaron this is what you're going to do and then in Leviticus 11 the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron says this is how you're going to do it we're going to start out by every meal you
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take every single time you sit down to eat I require you to make a distinction between clean and unclean everything you everybody's doing
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several times a day will remind you that you dwell in the presence of a holy God okay one of the problems in the interpretation of Liv 11 is again we
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have to somehow find some moral content to a pig oh man pigs have gotten a rough deal nobody gets down on the
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camel nobody gets up on it either I mean the camel's unclean so is the bunny rabbit and nobody disses the bunny rabbit but man the Poor Pig it it is
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trashed everywhere in the commentaries it is the most wicked thing because Satan put it into this world to give us all osis because we don't know how to cook I mean some of the most stupid
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things are said you think are you really listening to yourself um we have to make it an evil thing crawfish Lobster everybody knows how evil they are
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Abigail agrees scallops almost killed me right oh right oh yeah you go to New Orleans suck the
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heads still [Laughter] well thank you for saying that's on tape thank you for say
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thank you for saying that because uh coming in from Biblical theology that we just did we do have to realize that whatever interpretation we put to the dietary laws Jesus and Paul removed them okay
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they they they're removed in the New Testament so Testament so if they have a moral content how is that moral content now removed that's we have
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to remember that all of these things that we're reading all foods have been declared clean why and the vision that Peter has given before he goes to the house of Cornelius is right at the heart
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of what we're studying now
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not uncleanness the other way around yeah and that's going to be something that'll come up in Leviticus
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12 that's a good question let's hold off on that until we get to Leviticus 12 because um there are there are a lot of shortcuts that can be
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made but again getting a little ahead of ourselves we have to remember that there are certain things that are not declared
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unclean defecation is not declared unclean bleeding from a cut is not declared unclean so it's not just the blood or
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it's not just the bodily secretion because not all I mean you think about it if it was every bodily output you would never be clean right because the the minimum was
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you were unclean till evening okay so I guess you could hold it in but it it's not that way so we have to look carefully at what it is we're dealing
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with and even then we might not be able to figure it out but I have no doubt that the episode with the woman with the issue of blood I think that's
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mark four I don't know exactly where it is um but that that episode is elusive to what we're going to be looking at in Leviticus 12 because she was
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not she she was as Jesus said she's been in bondage there there's no release for her because her blood is continuing to issue
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so that's that's like let's let's look at the situation and then of course what is the solution it's Jesus I don't know whether you can say his Holiness is contagious because it doesn't say that
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she becomes holy she but she becomes healed and she is cleansed so we we that is that's going to come up in Leviticus 12 uh as well as Mary U bringing the
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offering for Jesus is in Luke Chapter 2 I think um that's also right here in Leviticus 12 okay um but let's let's move on to to what we're dealing with here in terms of the
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clean and unclean the holy and impure and um the way I like to look at it a number of authors have done something similar
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to this but we're dealing
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with basically life as lived now in the camp this is just living and for the Israelite life Israelite life itself had
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two categories one of which was smaller than
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One Tribe out of 10 is set apart okay and then one family out of that tribe is further set apart so we we have the the pattern here that the the distinct minority is Holy in in that sense of
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being ministering in the presence of Yahweh the rest of the camp is not their by Wicked in fact in all that we'll be reading the normal condition of the
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Israelite is Israelite is clean it's the loss of that cleanliness or cleanness I should say that is that issue but they start from the position
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of being of being clean which lies behind Jesus's comment to his to his disciples where he says when he's washing their feet you are all clean
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because of the word which I have spoken to you they they were clean okay so we're not we're not looking at some legalistic ritual religion whereby the
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Israelites are trying to become clean no they already are clean because of what God has done in redeeming them out of Egypt and giving them the law and the Tabernacle he has cleansed
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Israel now it is their responsibility to maintain that and they're going to be taught that it's it's not just the avoidance of
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actual sin everything around you just about it's like Australia everything around you will kill you everything around you can make you unclean if you touch a corpse
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inadvertently or you you don't just let the rat in the pudding you got to remove it right well now you're now you're unclean do you sin no you Sinn when you
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didn't put the mesh over the top of but know no no
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um not quite well you're you're you're in the same um the family of words you're in the same family of words but let me show you something here nothing unclean can be holy
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okay so that which is holy is clean but not everything that's clean is Holy okay so there we have another
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split nothing that is Holy can be unclean nothing that is unclean can be holy those two words are diametrically opposed they are opposite Concepts but holy and clean are
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Concepts what is clean can be made holy but what is Holy can be defiled what is Holy cannot then be made
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common it becomes it becomes defiled okay it becomes unclean so there's a like a direct um path from holy to unclean if it is
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defiled if something is defiled it can still be made cleaned in fact even holy objects that are made of wood for example can be
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cleansed and still used but they cannot go directly from unclean to unclean to Holy they have to be
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cleansed before they can be consecrated is that making any
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anybody okay but you see the the this is the this is the basic classification of life in the
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um I I'd have to go back and look at it um we um we do the two words that I remember are well primarily forgiven he shall be
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forgiven um we'll also see in Leviticus 15 he shall be healed and I think there was some of that so there there is I'm I'm not sure there
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there is a cleansing yes but that did not make the person holy it just made the person clean they might still be common which is's nothing
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wrong with that okay that but in in the in the sphere of Holiness that's we're I'm going to put up the the H zones nothing the the benjamite
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did would bring him to the place where he could then go up to the Altar and sacrifice the burnt offering right nothing the simonite did
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would allow him to enter into the first Veil to the holy place right everybody accept that so he was clean and in a
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sense he's holy because he's an Israelite but he's not holy in the sense of the ironic priest who is not only able to go to the
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altar but can go into the most holy place or the high priest who alone can go into the holy of holies so there are zones of zones of Holiness the idea is the child of God
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the the member of God's people desires to be as close to Yahweh as he can or as she can and so every day these these
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rituals these laws put it in front of the Israelite every meal he sits down to reminds him that he dwells in the
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presence of a holy God because he is not having a ham and swiss on Ry okay he's having a hamburger he's having beef or he's having okay
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he's having what he's having because of these because of the of the the dietary laws the purity laws that are constant reminders now when you when you realize
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um just how many things in life can render you unclean then you understand James when he says why would we put upon the Gentiles a burden that neither we
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nor our fathers could bear that was James wasn't it in Acts um 15 okay if you really if you really understand it then you understand Paul
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when he says the law came in so that sin might abound okay we we realize that we we can't what the psalmist says Lord if you
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should count iniquity who could stand I mean we're not even talking about Sin anymore never mind sin we're just talking about inadvertently taking a dead rat out to the backyard and
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throwing it away now you're unclean right or monthly cycle or childbirth you know now you're unclean the word for leprosy is actually
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skin ailment as I said last week it could be acne okay you got a pimple you're unclean the priest has to show up that's
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embarrassing and the priest poeth no okay I it is pretty minute I mean really gets in to the nitty-gritty but what it's really saying is you're dwelling in the presence of a holy God okay
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Leviticus 10 and and what is the ultimate true response to that well first of all it is obedience but it's also an increasing dependence upon the
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grace of grace of Yahweh that if he should count iniquity much less just just the everyday commonness of our fallen Life
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Death is clearly not a good thing in
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it seems that way I was about to do that okay this distinction here in Israel is pretty rigid and we'll see that when I talk about the zones of Holiness in a few minutes this right
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here this line moves okay the purpose of the Levites and especially the
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cleansed by God through the Redemption of The of The Exodus might be a holy nation in other words a people that are clean but one of the most common
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diagnosis of the prophets is that the people were unclean and in one case they're unclean because the priests aren't teaching them
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the priests aren't doing what they are supposed to do to teach them how to make these distinctions the priests are basically saying well it doesn't matter doesn't really matter and they themselves are
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not living according to these ordinances either so what actually happens in the life of Israel is it goes progressively in the the unclean becomes
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dominant rather than the clean now I would say that this is a very much analogous to life in the the church and the history of the
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church and I can cite 2 Corinthians 6 where Paul says touch nothing unclean come out come out from among them and be
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separate Holy says the Lord do not touch what is unclean and I will be your God and you shall be my people okay so this this whole concept lies behind much of
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what we read in the New Testament about being holy it doesn't mean sinless perfection C but it does mean obedience and it does mean discernment and
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distinctions not the same ones that the Israelite had to make the New Testament is very clear that we do not have to make dietary distinctions
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that they had to make but that doesn't mean we don't make any distinctions we are we are called to make distinctions between what is what
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what enhances our approachability to God and what hinders it even in Christ and especially corporately as a body of Christ just as corporately the nation of
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Israel became progressively more and more unclean because of their Disobedience but fundamentally the responsibility was laid upon the shoulder of the priests for not doing
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what Leviticus what Leviticus 10 where Yahweh told Aaron this is what you will do this is what you will example this is what you will teach
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and then he goes into all the