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Leviticus 15（ESV）
1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. 3 And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness. 4 Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. 5 And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 6 And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.
REFLECTION
- Any sort of bodily discharge made an Israelite ritually unclean and might be contagious. Any thing or person that an unclean person touched also became unclean. Unclean person had to stay home and couldn’t go to the tabernacle to worship. These regulations had public health values. Other than this, is there any other implication for such regulations?
- Pagan religions typically coupled worship of deities with sexual intercourse, and often involved male and female cult prostitution. Therefore these strict rules prevented these perverted practices to corrupt the Israelite’s worship and preserved their moral purity.
- We need to keep clean in order to come to God. In Jesus’ teaching, what did He say will make a man “unclean” (Matt 15:16-20)? How does this help me to set the boundary?
PRAYER
God, I know those that make me unclean are things in my heart. Please cleanse my thoughts and my words with Your word.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Ps 139:23-24)
