![]() ![]() When evening arrives he is to bathe himself in water, and after sunset he may enter the camp.”-Deuteronomy 23:10-15įrom today, we progress on to the next section of Deuteronomy 23 starting from verse 10 and are reintroduced to the topic of Holy War specifically as it deal with the military camp and its immediate surroundings. If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp he is not to enter the camp. Where uncleanness was contagious in the old covenant, it is now the holiness of Jesus that is contagious, transforming miserable sinners into radiant children of the Most High God through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.“When you are in camp, at war with your enemies, you are to guard yourself against anything bad. ![]() The glory of Jesus, then, was that he did what the old covenant could not: he healed, cleansed, and sanctified the sick, unclean, and unholy. Holiness under the old covenant was weak and fragile, liable to be contaminated. ![]() Jesus might have been offended that the woman would touch him in her uncleanness-she had touched the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14)-but his response was gracious: “Take heart, daughter your faith has made you well” (Matt. Nevertheless, she reached out to touch the fringe of his garment, and immediately she was healed (Matt. This woman was unclean because of her discharge, and so she should have kept her distance from Jesus. This theology helps us to understand better the story of the woman who suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years, as we read about in Matthew 9. The principle was simple: the corruption of the fall was contagious, so the Israelites had to prevent any of that corruption from defiling Yahweh or his tabernacle. ![]() But, listen to the reason Yahweh gives as to why he would insist on such thorough precautions: “Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst” (Lev. Nowhere is there any suggestion that these people had specifically sinned in some way. 12), so also normal bodily functions (e.g., discharges from infection) and healthy bodily functions (semen emissions and menstruation) would leave Yahweh’s people unclean until purified. Just as a normal, healthy childbirth made a woman unclean until she went through the appropriate purification process (Lev. 15:19–27), that person was also rendered unclean. And again, if anyone came into any contact whatsoever with such a woman (Lev. 15:25), that woman was unclean until she was healed. 15:19), or if she had a discharge of blood not related to menstruation (Lev. 15:16–18), or anyone who came into contact with such a man (Lev. 15:2–3)-or an emission of semen, whether through a nocturnal emission or through intercourse (Lev. Any man who had a discharge-that is, probably from some kind of infection (Lev. So, in Leviticus 15, we see a range of possibilities for being rendered ceremonially unclean. In fact, there were routine ways in which all Israelites were counted to be unclean at regular intervals through normal-and even perfectly healthy-bodily functions. Leviticus 15 underscores the fact that the theology of cleanness wasn’t always something to do with outright sinfulness, or even abnormal disease. Leviticus 15 | Psalm 18 | Proverbs 29 | 2 Thessalonians 3 ![]()
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