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So, we're in Leviticus 15, which is the chapter on bodily discharges, but I want to start in Mark five because um you you may have made this connection, you you may not, but
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certainly uh when you read the Gospels, you're reading of the life of Jesus in the midst of second temple Israel, uh which was perhaps perhaps the most intensely
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religious era since era since Moses. Now, you can read the prophets and realize and realize that there weren't many years when
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Israel was faithful to the covenant and to Torah. And the exile, of course, was what happened. And in fact, the
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exile is what they should have expected for not observing what we're currently studying, especially next week, Lord willing, Leviticus 16, Yom
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Kapor. And the centrality of that, not only to Leviticus, but actually to the Pentatuk is is quite uh remarkable. Leviticus 16. Um, but Israel didn't
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observe most of what we're studying. And God sent his prophets and they continued to uh chastise and to remind and even to herang. And it wasn't until they
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returned from the exile that we have the formation of the Pharisees. Uh which actually is a derivation of the Hebrew word for
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word for pure. And at that point, the purity laws, in fact, that's actually when most liberal scholars think what we're studying was actually written, that it was written after the exile. And we
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mentioned that before the priests come back and they want to kind of control things and keep things in order. Um, but if I were to assign it to anybody, I would have assigned it to the Pharisees at least as much as the priests. But I
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think we we're safe in assigning it to Moses and ultimately, of course, to God. But the point being is that at the time of Jesus, Israel was
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consciously seeking to observe these things. Now, they weren't doing it as Paul tells us and even Jesus tells us in the gospels, they weren't doing it with the right heart. They weren't doing it
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with with understanding. In fact, um, in a couple weeks when we talk about the scapegoat, we'll find out that they were doing it flat wrong, completely contrary to the scripture, but according to
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rabbitic tradition, but they were at least trying, like they hadn't before. So, when we read the gospels and we read some of the healings and the the other
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things that what we call miracles that Jesus does, they're actually brought to us in the context of these purity laws. Listen to this one in Mark chapter 5.
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And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years. Well, literally she had an issue of blood. We we put in the modern word hemorrhage. And she had a issue of blood
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for 12 years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians. Now there at that point most Christians say amen that she had endured much at the hands of physicians. But they had done nothing,
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spent all that she had and was not helped at all. but rather had grown worse. Okay, this is right out of Leviticus 15. Hey, this is this is the woman with
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the um vaginal flow not associated with her monthly cycle. So what we're dealing with here to understand what this woman I mean the the text presents us with her
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physical ailment but it doesn't actually tell us what she endured in her social and her uh cultic uh cultic life. This story is in Matthew and Luke
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as well as Mark. It's in all three synoptics. And for some reason it interrupts the story of Gyrus's daughter which
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daughter which begins a little bit before and then the chapter ends. And this is the way it's laid out in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that you have Gyrus, a synagogue official and
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a daughter and she's very ill and she sends he sends someone to Jesus. In the meantime, you have the woman with an issue of blood for 12 years, and she reasons to herself that
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Jesus is passing by. If I if I merely touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole. So, her faith is obviously very great. And it happens as she
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imagined. She touches his garment. Interestingly, um this is where Jesus says, "Who just touched me?" And his disciples go, "You're in the midst of
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like 500 people that are all pushing around you and you ask who just touched me?" And he says,"I felt power go out from me." Now, that's that's really interesting, I think, because that power
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is not going out. He's jostled by the crowd, but they're not receiving any life from life from him. Only this woman is actually receiving power from him.
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So, it's not just the mere touch like you know if the televangelist sends you the prayer hanky and you touch it you'll be healed. No, that that kind of baloney is not what we're dealing with here. What we're dealing with is is faith. She
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believed and all she had to do was and she was also quite humble. But what was she suffering? Well, if we go to Matthew 15, we we realize right away that while
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she was not cast out of the community, she had no access to the temple. She was unclean. She was also contagious, highly contagious, so that
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whatever she slept on, whatever she touched or sat on, and whoever touched her would be also unclean. She has one of the four ritual
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impurities in Leviticus 15. Two of which are incidental or regular and two of which are
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indeterminate in indeterminate in length and the purity rituals for those four are proportional to the nature of
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the impurity. the impurity. Two of them deal with the men. Two of them deal with the women. Now, this is a great chapter to take any um feminist relative you might have who thinks that
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God is a misogynist or the priests were. Take them to chapter Leviticus 15, which starts with the uh bodily discharges of men and you find that the purity ritual
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is the same for the men and for the women. So there's there's no discrimination going on here. The men are not left out.
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Now, going back to the woman in Mark chapter 5 and in Matthew and Luke, the parallel passages, as I said, um her story is right in the middle of Gyrus
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being described and sending a messenger to Jesus and then Jesus beginning to go to Gyrus's house. That's where that's the context, the physical geographical context. And then after she is healed
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and she talks to Jesus, then he goes on. You know that by this time Gyrus's daughter has died um and he raises her from the
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from the dead. Now I I don't I have something that's is really food for thought. It's more provocative. I I didn't have time to to really dig into it because I just realized it reading this passage again.
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um a bit of information that all three synoptics give us that you kind of wonder why in in verse the verse I read verse 25 and a woman who had an issue of
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blood for 12 years and then you read on and you read on and you you Jesus um raises Gyrus's daughter uh from the
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dead and in verse 42 and immediately the girl rose and began began to walk for she was 12 years
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old. I don't think that's a coincidence. I don't know that they're related and I don't know what the actual coordination or the actual connection is
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between these two. Um because most people learn to walk well ahead of their 12th birthday, right?
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birthday, right? So that statement is a little, you know, well, she's 12 years old. Why even mention that she rose up and began to walk? Okay. Um, and why mention that
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she's 12 years old when you've just mentioned the woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years. 12, of course, is a is a significant number in scripture. Um, and I think that where I would
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start, and I hope to have time someday to actually dig in and find out what is the connection here. I think there's a definite literary definite literary connection because of the story of the woman with the issue of blood being
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right in the middle of the narrative of Gyrus's daughter. They could have been told, you know, and while he had been going on the way to Gyrus's house, a woman, no, it's right smack in the
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middle on all in all three synoptics. And then you have that connection between the two narratives that one had an issue of blood for 12 years and the little girl was 12 years old. I think
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what we're dealing with as we move on especially toward Leviticus 17 where we read about the connection between blood and
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life. We're we're moving in more and more to that realm of life versus death. and the vaginal discharge, which we'll
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talk about hopefully in some detail this evening, and the dead child are actually ritually very
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ritually very connected. We talked about the um zarat, the skin affliction, being a a a visible uh manifestation of the corruption of
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death. It was like a li, it was called a living death. And it being a a very, especially when it was of indeterminate length, it was a it was a ritual
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impurity that required separation from the camp that you were put outside the camp. Now, in Leviticus 15, none of the bodily discharges
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bodily discharges require that kind of quarantine, but you are still prevented from going to the tabernacle. So you're you're not put out of your home and you're not put out of the camp,
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but you're highly contagious and you are not allowed to attend church as it were. You can't go. So for 12 years, this woman has been in a sense cut off from
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Yahweh in in the sense of being able to offer any type of sacrifice, any offering, whether a burnt offering, a sin purification, sin offering, guilt
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offering, or even a peace or thanks offering, she couldn't do it.
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That's yeah, that's that's right. That's um that's 12 years is considered um a bar mitzvah for the boy. I'm not sure the bat mitzvah daughter of of the that's that's a good point. I think a
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bach mitzvah may be 13, but I I wouldn't swear to that. But that's a good thought. Um it I think it was a significant ye number first of all. I think it was a significant age. Um and I
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just think it's a literary significance that the woman had the issue for and the girl was the same period of time.
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Um, I'd say about none as we we find Jesus in the temple when he was 12. So, but if she's 12, then she's a daughter of the covenant if at that point.
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Um, so I I I I think that um the the central point of of the two and this is I think there's a lot more in it that I haven't
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teased out of it, but I think the central point is that they were they were meeting up with the author of life that that I think that's what what we're we're pointing to is we we have all
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these rituals and and the one about the woman should take your mind back to Leviticus 15 and the bodily discharges, but what the whole focus is of course is that we're dealing with we're dealing
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the one who is life himself. There's also the connection.
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He he does speak of another woman as a daughter of Abraham, which he makes,
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Yeah. And that I think that is a good Yeah. See, there's so much we could tease out of that. I do I guess what I'm trying to say here goes back to our our first of our our biblical theology class but also hermeneutics. You know that what we're
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dealing with here what we're reading is is a lot deeper and more interwoven than we realize and I think a lot more than even our commentaries present to us.
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Right. Exactly. And yet his his life flowed into both of them. So I I think it tells us a whole lot about who it is we're dealing with here. um in in in Jesus. Um but I also think
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we shouldn't make the mistake that oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh that was Jesus as the son of God. You know we often make that mistake where we kind of divide Jesus's nature and say well well he did that as the as the son of God and well he did
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that you know as the son of man he was hungry or frustrated or whatever. We always give the negative traits to the son of man and then the positive ones to the son of god and we can't do that. He
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was the god man. Um and and so we're we're seeing the power of one in whom is life. And this this is this is a
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narrative, but it's only I think it's only a narrative that can be deep more deeply understood if perhaps only understood if we also understand the background as as we're going through
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Leviticus and realize what this woman was indeed suffering. She was estranged from the one whom she sought to
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touch and in touching was healed. So he's also the tabernacle. He's he's also he's also
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where God dwells with man. I don't know whether she understood that. In fact, when when she found out he knew, she was kind of scared, which may mean she did know more about who he was than some of
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the other maybe even the disciples. Um, we don't really know. I wish we could. Maybe someday we can ask her, you know, what what did you really think about this man that you said if I just touch
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the hem of his garment, I will be made whole. So, I think what we're what we're seeing in seeing in this is is kind of the the ultimate
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culmination and we're going in that direction with Yam Kapor with the day of atonement. And as I said, I think that's really the pinnacle of of Leviticus. Um, and also
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the the the center of the Pentatuk itself is is Levitic Leviticus 16. That day, in fact, it's a day the Jews call the day. their um their section in the
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Mishna their rabbitic writings regarding the day of atonement is just y which is the day not even yum kapor just y it's a
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okay not y mama just y the day and and I think I you know maybe in anticipation this is this is kind of uh snowballing as we're moving along toward
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that day and and what happens in that today and of course its significance concerning the ministry the death of Jesus Christ which we Lord willing we'll
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get to in the next few weeks. So um turning back then well let me read a passage from passage from um Ghard vonrad and he writes he says
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thus the life uh and I think in in writing this he's really summarizing the purity Torah everything that we've been talking about really since Leviticus 11
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and in a sense also Leviticus 1-7 and the sacrifices but he says thus the life of Israel even the whole of its Everyday life was bounded by a great tension
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between clean and unclean and between life and death. For every uncleanness was to some extent already a precursor of the thing
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that was uncleanness out and out that is death. So overall we've been talking about clean
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about clean and unclean. That of course is the the the overarching theme that we we've been dealing with all the way from Leviticus
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11. But as we move along, we're beginning to
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concepts stand in for two other concepts, life and death. Now, to get you thinking uh ahead a few a few weeks in the Yom Kapor ritual, there are
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two goats that are presented before the Lord. The two goats are to all intents and purposes identical.
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because it is not known which will be sacrificed to the Lord until lots are cast between cast between them. So they must both be ritually
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perfect without blemish. Okay? So they are both clean. However, one dies and the other
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lives. So just kind of keep that in mind as as we move in that direction because I I do think that ritual which we call the scapegoat is uh is one of the most
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misunderstood uh of the Old Testament rituals even among the Jews. It is amazing to read the Jewish writings and just kind of I just sit there like slack
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jaw as you read the rabbis and then you go back and read Leviticus 16 and you realize that they didn't get none of what they're writing from the actual text of the
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Bible and there's a there's that's that's um that's important to think about. In fact, if you have an opportunity, reread Leviticus 16 because we have several weeks before we're going
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to get to that ex that particular topic. Okay. Yes. Yes.
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No, but death is the polar opposite of life in in all senses. So you're right that death is definitely and and I think that is why so much of life represents
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death. skin affliction, bodily discharge, the these as as Vonrad is saying, these things were living deaths. Death and and that was to teach
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people that death was not just the sessation of physical life. Death death is the separation from God.
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Total separation. Well, still Jesus says no, he dies yet he shall live. Those who are in Christ are life. E the so you you still death
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still belongs in that even the death of the body belongs in that other category. Even for us even for believers that death belongs in another category
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because it it is uncleanness itself because it is the polar opposite of life which means it's the polar opposite of God. So yeah, there's a whole lot more
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to death than just death. The physical body losing breath, you know, that um that's true. But no matter how we slice it, death still scripturally is
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always over here, including Jesus's death. It's over here. Corruption. It is corruption. It It is the ultimate of corruption. And then all
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these other things that we're reading about are living corruptions. And so they are representative and and as vonrad said everyday life was a constant reminder of the
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impact of sin and dwelling in the presence of a holy God. I guess
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except even right except even that death the body must be taken outside the camp. So yes, there are those who die in the Lord and they yet they live. Okay, but
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their death still is ultimate uncleanness and their body is taken outside the camp. There was no cemetery. You know how churches have cemeteries. You know, the tabernacle didn't have a
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bunch of course it moved. So I don't but you know there no such thing as burying any any corpse within the camp because death death just death as death simple
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death physical death is like the ultimate visible manifestation of that corruption due to sin even the death of God's even Moses's death. So that's
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making a you know that's that's an important distinction, but it doesn't actually apply to to this Torah, this purity law, because we're we're really just being reminded what the nature that
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death is not a natural thing. Death is not normal. Death is not programmed into life as as so many now teach. Death is
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an invader or as as the scripture teaches, death is the ultimate and final enemy. And yet it is it is inseparably separably related to
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sin. So that's what we're dealing with with the Levitical laws. Not again not some way that the Jews could earn salvation. That is so far from what is
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taught here that you wonder how anyone ever came up with it. Luther was big on that. And that was one of his his biggest mistakes was the idea that Judaism was a works religion. It
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absolutely is not okay. Um but it is a religion that constantly reminds man women of their condition
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before God that they are fallen and that they dwell under God's wrath unless by God's grace they are brought near. And that's the situation we're dealing with
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that he has brought Israel near. Now how are they going to stay there? Well, let me let me jump ahead a little bit. So we have okay we have again this
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um well actually I didn't yeah kind of all right so we have these holiness zones we have the holy of holies um which we'll talk about in uh next
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week uh is is really um the microcosm of the center of the universe. This is where God dwells. creator of the universe is dwelling
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above the mercy seat or above the the cover of the ark in the holy of holies. Then we have the holy place where he is ministered to by the priests every
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day. Then we have the tabernacle itself, the tent of meeting with the altar and then we have the camp. Okay, so those are the four holiness zones that we've
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talked about moving radially outward and decreasing in holiness as we go. Then you cross the boundary,
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whatever. I was wondering the other day, what kind of a boundary was there? Did they put up like a yellow caution flag or, you know, tape all the way around? Because it would would have been pretty big. 12 tribes numbering millions of
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people. It it would have been a a huge encampment, right? And I wouldn't have went the one on the outside. Did you know did they have like high rent
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district as you as you move closer? Okay. I I don't know how is this Thorn Blade or Montabelloo up here and then um different places further out. I don't know if I'd want to live right at the
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boundary, but it was all God's camp is all his people. You move beyond that, now you're in the wilderness. Now you're outside holiness zone five is really
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non-holiness. You're outside of it. However, what seems to be happening here is you have all of these
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um events that bring ritual uncleanness to the people of Israel. And if you if you stop if you just read
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Leviticus 12-15 in one sitting, you will quickly realize that it would have been miraculous for any individual Israelite
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to avoid ritual impurity. That it just kind of everything is there. just about everything you can think of
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that people just do as part of their natural life would somehow at some point render them unclean. And so this was something like the dietary law which was every single day, however many meals you
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ate, a reminder of the the purity Torah. Now it's your just your physical life. Okay? So everybody is is unclean.
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What seems to be happening here if you look at the prophetic word especially especially Ezekiel is that for every event every
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was accreted to the holy of holies as well as to the holy place to the altar to the tent of meeting and
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meeting and then another then another one and another one and another
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up. A film, a layer of dirt is building up. Even when all this shedding of blood and offerings and washings, bathing, washing clothing, all of this stuff,
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dirty. So that once a year spring cleaning is needed, only it was in the fall, I think. once a year that needed to be cleansed. And Yom Kapor, which we call
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the day of atonement, was actually not about the people's sin at all. The blood of Yom Kapor is not once applied or referred to
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any of the people. It was entirely the purification first of the holy of holies, then of the most holy place,
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then of the altar, and then of the camp. Does that make sense? It was like once a year. It's like, okay, this all needs to be you're
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going to take a bath once a year whether you need it or not because you need it. the whole camp, the whole congregation, including the Holy of Holies had just kind of absorbed so much of Israel's
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impurity that God arranged for one gracious moment where the high priest could actually come into his presence. And I I personally believe that at least
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some of the times the high priest came into the presence of Yahweh because he said, "I will be present. I will present myself in the cloud above the seat when
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he comes in on that day. That's again Leviticus 16. All right. So all that we've been talking about with the unclean, the the clean, we're talking about life and death, matters of life
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and death. So when when Joshua says, "Choose this day who you will serve." Or or Moses says, "I set before you life and death. Choose life." Now he's going to say what that's all about. Actually,
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it's a daily reminder of death so that we might contemplate all through this who who is life in himself because what do we do? What we carry
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around death in ourselves? Okay. So, that's all that's kind of the overarching rubric that we're dealing with with Leviticus. And one of the reasons why we can't possibly
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um re re uh resurrect I didn't want to use that word but I couldn't think of another one. We can't possibly resurrect these things without going back into the
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shadows. We can't come back with the dietary laws or or the animal sacrifices or the purity laws or any of that because to do that is to deny the one who is life who
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has cleansed the spiritual tabernacle with his blood. Hebrews 9 59 and 10. He has cleansed the
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spiritual heavenly tabernacle of which this was just a pattern or a model. Does that make sense? I mean we we we I think we know people uh most of
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us know at least one person who thinks you need to go back to this stuff even as a Christian. I think this also helps us understand why Paul was so vehement that the Gentiles not go back to this
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and that even James and Peter when challenged with whether or not the Gentiles should observe the dietary laws of Moses, they said, "No, we can't lay a
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burden on them that we and our forefathers have been unable to bear." They they understood that this this is all this is all gone. Not because we
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couldn't handle it, but because Christ has entered in as the high priest and as the sacrifice into the heavenly tabernacle,
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and he has what? He has cleansed it. This is this is really all about cleansing. We again we've made it all about sins
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but in doing so we we lose sight of the fact that even if we managed not to commit a sin
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today we are still a a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips. That sin still resides within our members within our homes within our
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clothing within our camp. And cleansing is what was needed. But it's cosmic because he not only cleansed
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only cleansed uh well I shouldn't say not only. The writer of Hebrews tells us that that he he cleansed the the real sanctuary. I can't really envision what that must have been like. But I do imagine that
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whatever the heavenly realm was was horribly put offkilter first of all when the angels rebelled. That that couldn't have gone
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over well. There's no way that that could have left the heavenly sanctuary without some measure of defilement. Jesus will put that right. But also when man fell,
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when the image of himself that God set up in the garden became filthy and corrupted, the ramifications of that, I think scripture teaches, were felt in
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heaven until heaven until Golgtha. So it it's really important that we're on this side of that, but it's important that we understand what
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was on the other side of that so that we can understand what we now have. Okay. So let's look at um let's look at Leviticus 15 and kind of do a little bit
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of exogesis here. The first thing I want to point out is that the chapter itself is written in a kayastic parallel
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structure. So I want to put this on the board. Does anybody have any comments or questions before we move on to the chapter itself?
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Yeah. Yeah. Uh one place he says our our enemies are not flesh and blood but they're spiritual. um in Colossians he says the same thing. Those two letters especially um are are really heavy with
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cosmic Christianity that that that this was a whole lot bigger than just saving individual believers. It has really been trivialized by much of modern evangelicalism that it's it's okay. It's
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all about me getting going to heaven when I die. Um yeah, but that's about the most minor part of what it is God has done in Jesus Christ. And if you're okay with that, if you're, you know, if
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you're okay with just nibbling on one pistachio when you could have a whole bunch, that's fine. You just live that way. Um, I can't see it. You know, I think the more you read and you, Wow,
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you just said everything right in Christ. Um, the the entire universe and all that all that we all that we know is messed up with the universe has been set
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right in Jesus Christ. and in the new earth, the new heavens and the new earth will be perfect harmony. So yeah, I appreciate that Ephesians and Colossians both are are
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really good in and I think much of it has the echoes of these purity laws coming out when when Paul says cleanse yourself then you know that's what he's
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talking about. He's right back in to the priestly Torah. So the structure of Leviticus 15 then begins with the
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introduction to Moses and Aaron. Again we have that unique formula and Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron. It's not used every time in the priestly Torah.
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priestly Torah. But the only places that it is used are in Leviticus in Leviticus 11-15. So that alone sets this little section off as a as a unique uh
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paricopee. Then the next section verses 2 through
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12 deal with the male discharge of indeterminate length.
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followed in verses uh verse 16 of the short-term male bodily discharge. Okay. So 15 16 is the
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incidental male discharge. Um and the implication is that this is something that that happens on a regular basis uh perhaps even a
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daily basis daily basis uh for for men. And so it it's it's fairly significant. Then verses 19 through 24. So
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24. So 15 19 through 24 we have the shortterm and for women in a certain age
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Okay. Then verses 25 through 27, we have the long term. We have the female discharge of indeterminate length. This is the woman from Mark chapter five.
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verses 28. Oh, actually we have a I have a a little one thrown in there. Uh, verses 28 through 30. Um, don't really know where to put this. And this often happens to our attempts to nicely um
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diagram the scriptures. We're doing fine. And then verses 28 through 30, we have the purification
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added. Um we've talked about that before. I know that the idea that anything's been added to scripture um sometimes makes us nervous, but I just try to remind
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everybody that we're we're dealing with a living document here. Not not that it's continually added to, but that as it was brought together, we know, for example, that Moses didn't write about
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his own death and disposition of his body. So, we do know that some things were uh added as amendments or or whatever. This may be the case because then in verses
41:53
31-33 we have a summary of the whole law and its
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purpose. And this actually ends the purity Torah. And we see that it also um parallels
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um parallels the other chapters which were each summarized with a very similar statement. So in in the other chapters when we get to the end of them we
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of clean and unclean animals. This is the law of zaharat or as our English Bibles say leprosy. Okay. So this is a repetitive phrase that tells us that
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we've we've reached the end of this particular section of the purity law. This one in chapter 15 is is more uh global. It's like okay done and done the
43:09
whole thing. This is the law of purity of clean and unclean. So this is the structure. Uh I hope it it kind of helps us understand why these things are in a
43:21
particular order because this is a typical uh Hebrew parallelism. Uh I think it's significant that it does start with the man. It doesn't start with the
43:31
woman. I think it's significant that that both the man and the woman have both long-term and short-term discharge
43:42
issues. I think it's significant that the treatment is essentially the same for both of them. The only exception is the seven days for the woman with the menstrual cycle that the man does not
43:54
have that. But the the indeterminate ones are the ones that are most significant. As I mentioned last week, there's um a proportionality between the the length
44:06
of time that you are unclean and the complexity and extent of the purification process. It seems that for many of the
44:18
uncleanness, many of the the the causes of uncleanness, seven days is the maximum. So you go from unclean until evening to unclean seven
44:31
days. Then there are the longer ones. Those will have a much more complex purification ritual that will end with a sacrifice being offered at
44:43
the tabernacle. the tabernacle. So, we don't read it in Mark 5 or in LA in Matthew or in Luke, but as Jesus, I think it's he said to
44:55
the the leper that he healed, go and present yourself to the priest. Well, yeah, it's right out of Leviticus, right? It was the priest that would declare him clean. So Jesus who just
45:08
cleansed him still said go and present yourself to the priest so that you can be declared clean. And and I I think he probably said to the woman that he just healed,
45:20
okay, now go through this process and bring a purification offering to the temple um on the eighth day because you you are now cleansed of the or you're healed
45:32
from the discharge of blood. now you you need to do this. I think he would have observed that um being born under the law he would he would not have uh as he
45:43
said not one jot or tit of the law shall pass away. I've not come to to turn away the law but to fulfill it. So this is all coming out of what we've been studying and and I hope that it gives
45:55
more depth to what we read in the New Testament. All right. So what are these discharges?
46:08
about these. Three of them are quite obvious that they're um there there's no disagreement as to the short-term male
46:19
discharge or either the short or long-term female discharge. Okay. So this discharge is understood as
46:30
seinal and this one is vaginal as is this one. What about this one? It's not
46:48
mentioned. Two theories that I I present to you because I think they're But they are actually um common among Old Testament scholars. One is
47:01
hemorrhoids. Now granted, hemorrhoids are a real pain in the but hemorrhoids involve blood. And it seems, I hope I'm using
47:12
this word correctly, inconceivable to me that blood would not have been mentioned. the blood is is so
47:22
significant. Okay. Um I don't think that it's hemorrhoids. The other one is gonorrhea. That is a sexually transmitted disease. You got bigger
47:33
problems, buddy. Yeah, it I can't understand how an Old Testament scholar would would theorize that this was gonorrhea that you actually need to be taken outside the city state city gates
47:46
and stoned. We're not dealing with a purification ritual here. You're guilty of fornication, right? So that's that happens a lot in the interpretations
47:56
that you read. People will say, "Well, it's well, it's this." Like, "No, that's a much bigger problem than this." Did you have a comment, Jenny?
48:19
moral. Okay, let's go back to that. All right, so this is ritual, not moral.
48:31
Gets you into the moral realm. You made a wrong turn. Now, one of them, the hemorrhoids, is obviously not a moral issue either. Um, I think it's obvious, but the other one, you know, a
48:44
sexually transmitted disease, that's that's a moral issue. And and that's I guess I bring these up because I think we should think that way. I don't think we should we should just flail around as so many commentators seem to do trying
48:56
to grasp at possible uh explanations for this or that discharge or or affliction when it when in fact some of these are actually moral issues.
49:08
and and you don't get them otherwise and therefore that doesn't apply here and we really shouldn't even be thinking that but it it appears that just by association the first one would be as
49:21
the other three and that is discharges from the genitals from the sexual organs of reproduction. of reproduction. What I think pretty much nails that
49:34
down is that the same word is used for the vaginal discharge as is used for the male discharge and that is
49:45
the very common word the Hebrew word bashar which means flesh. So in a in a sense it's very vague if
49:55
you have a discharge from your flesh. But then that definition that word is is design is defined by the woman's monthly fleshly
50:08
discharge. Well that's vaginal blood. It's like you just defined it. Now we can use the word. Okay. Because nothing else pertains.
50:18
else pertains. um women do not have any other cyclical monthly discharge. So th this is a little bit behind the behind the scenes but it's just to show that you
50:30
know we're not just doing it by association that the word here
50:48
here. So by lexical association we have to I think um realize that even though it's not mentioned in the indeterminate length it
50:58
is the same as the short term which is it's it's sperma okay or that that would be the Greek word of course
51:13
um zod I can't remember the Hebrew but it is definitely the seed of man in the second application and that it is the vaginal discharge in the the shortterm
51:23
female which by implication tells us it's the same for the long term. Okay, so it it has to that's important because we do have a lot of we
51:33
talked about this last week. We do have a lot of discharges. Puss is a discharge. Um saliva is a discharge. Um mucus is a discharge. Okay. What is the
51:44
technical name for snot? is that that is that is mucus. I think that's that's a discharge, right? So, we do have these other discharges, including hemorrhoids. Are we unclean because of all of
51:56
them? Man, we would be unclean all the as I said last week, there'd be more people living outside the camp than inside the camp.
52:08
Well, yes. Right. Yeah. Start yelling unclean unclean when you're blowing your nose. Um nose. Um so in a sense what we're we're looking at these um
52:19
issues and a critic can and does look at them and say this is just too much. You know it's like God doesn't like the way we are
52:31
because this is just natural stuff that happens and it is. It's not even necessarily intentional. Um certainly in the case of
52:41
the monthly cycle you know the woman didn't decide it's part of her physical maybe fallen but still physical bodily functions and even seinal discharge is
52:54
is not always intentional but yet it's unclean and there are so many other discharges that aren't unclean. That means there must be
53:04
something behind something behind this. Okay. when when we when we realize that that the category of uncleanness just like when we talked about the animals that we may not be able to
53:15
figure out exactly why this or that animal is unclean but the fact that you know this group is and that group isn't. There's probably something behind that. Why why is why is God saying it may be
53:27
nothing more than the fact that as I said it's very easy to tell a difference between a fish with fins and scales and a and a crustaceian or or a um you know
53:38
a crab or a lobster or or a a scallop. It's easy to see here. We get to the point that this is all self-p
53:48
policing. As you go through the entire chapter, you don't meet the priest until the end when you've taken your sacrifice to the tent of meeting. You don't go to
53:59
the priest with this stuff. He doesn't diagnose you as unclean. So, we've actually intensified the purity laws immensely in order of
54:09
magnitude because this is entirely self-p policing. self-p policing. This ties back to the overall idea from Exodus 19 that if you
54:22
will obey my commandments, you will be to me a kingdom of priests. In a in a sense, this was all
54:34
self-pesting. It was also not something that was normally visible. Throughout the ages, for example, women have always taken steps to um at least
54:47
physically hide the fact, not always emotionally, but physically hide the fact that it's that time of the month. So, this is not something like the skin affliction that I can see it. It's what
54:58
the priest could see. That's what he diagnosed. Here, I can't tell. It's selfp policing.
55:19
You weren't doing that. You weren't doing it at all. Well, that you weren't coming to the So, it could be he could be pleasing you if you weren't going to do Why weren't you coming? Were you not
55:30
coming because you were unclean or were you not coming because you were rebellious? If you're rebellious, yeah, here if you're rebellious. Oh, at
55:41
that point, you're now a moral violation. And number says you're to be put outside the camp and cut off from the people. So, yes, absolutely. Uh when you've crossed over into uh disobedience, now you've crossed from
55:52
ritual to moral and now you're cut off. You refuse to be cleansed. Now, these people, of
56:06
course, they would I they're contagious. So they would basically tell their friends and loved ones, but it's still self-p policing. Their friends and loved ones would not necessarily know that
56:16
they had a discharge in the night and now they're now unclean. So don't give me a hug because I'm unclean until this evening. Right? That's self-p policing.
56:27
Um, I think that has a direct parallel to our lives as believers that even though there is the the the constant element of what God has done and even
56:37
the element of of um pastoral oversight, there's still self-p policing that that that you're still
56:49
responsible as an individual before the Lord. this um this makes the holiness of the community everybody's
57:02
community everybody's responsibility. But I think it also explains why the day of atonement was needed. The day of purification is probably a better title to that
57:14
day because I don't know that everybody faithfully policed themselves. I don't know that everybody, even those who were outwardly dedicated, you know,
57:26
the Lord does say of Israel, you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. And he says, I despise your new moon sacrifices and your burnt
57:37
offerings. They're an abomination to me. I wonder why that was. Well, we know that because of some of the things they were doing, but it could also be because they weren't doing the things they were
57:47
supposed to be doing. But it also helps us to understand the New Testament when Peter talks about the burden that neither we nor our fathers
57:58
were able to bear. This is a heavy load. And and maybe the more we understand how heavy a load this was, even though it was never intended to
58:10
justify anybody, it was intended to maintain that fellowship that God established graciously with Israel. But it's really
58:23
bearable. And maybe that gives us a little bit more appreciation of what God has done in Christ and also what he bore to the cross. And we'll get into that more when we talk about the day of atonement because the writer of Hebrews
58:36
squarely puts that on as as a as fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
58:49
Yeah. You can't make it back. Yeah, you can't make it back. That's absolutely right. And and you're kind of even anticipating the geography of Yom Kapor. The Day of Atonement is in my
59:00
opinion a one day a year return to Eden. I this entire holiness zone is a microcosm of the
59:11
universe. And even the imagery of the temple furnishings, especially the tapestries is tapestries is edenic. And it's like God has called one
59:23
people and instead of Genesis 11 or 10, scattering them. He draws them near, which is the language Paul uses of the
59:35
Gentiles in Christ. You who were once a far off, he has brought near. So that's what he's done. He's brought Israel near. But you know that that veil with
59:46
the flaming cherubim, that gate is still there over Eden.
