Leviticus 11-15 addresses the issue of clean versus unclean. These five chapters are extremely detailed about all the myriad ways you could become unclean!

Chapter 11: Clean and unclean animals, insects, dealing with carcasses, etc.
Chapter 12: Uncleanness following childbirth
Chapter 13-14: Sores, scabs, leprosy, boils, burns, mildew
Chapter 15: Sexual uncleanness

Please scan through these chapters in your Bible and wonder to yourself: What would it be like to live under this system?

Remember, these laws of clean and unclean were in addition to the sin and guilt offerings in previous chapters. These issues of clean and unclean were something that, other than the food they ate, the people had little to no control over. Even if you had meticuously tried to keep the law and had kept from sinning, uncleanness was a daily part of life.

An unclean bug dies and falls into your favorite pot while you’re cooking lunch, and now you have to break your pot and throw out the stew. Then later in the day, you see some mildew in the corner of your house. When you grab your cloak to go get the priest to examine your house, you realize that the mildew is also on your clothes! After ripping it out, you’re on your way to the tabernacle and some unclean guy spits on you, so now you’re unclean… You get the picture. In fact, in these 5 chapters, the word “unclean” is used 70 times!

What is God trying to accomplish here? Why did He make it impossible for them to stay clean? First of all, remember that there are many facets to why God gave them the law.

• The law reveals who God is – He is holy – there is nothing impure in His nature!
• The law shows them how to live in relationship with Him – Nothing impure can enter His presence!
• The law makes sin obvious – Even when we haven’t intentionally sinned, we are by nature sinners – we are unclean!
• The law prepares the nation to want the Messiah – He is the only one who could cleanse us from our sin and uncleanness
• The law isolates and protects them from other cultures and belief systems – Oh, you’re having a pork roast? Sorry, we can’t come over for dinner…
• Provide law and order in society – Make sure highly contagious people aren’t living in close contact with the rest of society!

The first four points are what I want to emphasize here.

Our God is Holy. We are inherently unclean. Since that first fatal moment when Adam and Eve bit into the forbidden fruit in the garden, we have all been born in a state of uncleanness. We are infected with sin, even without a conscious choice on our part. And because of that inherited sin nature (and our own very deliberate choices to sin and disobey), we can never, NEVER be holy like our God. We can never, NEVER have a relationship with Him without Someone to pay for our sin and wash away our uncleanness. And the “Someone” had to be clean, pure, and sinless in order to truly be able to wash away our sin with His blood. And in order to conquer death and enable us to have life, He had to defeat death for all time and rise from the dead.

That’s why we need Jesus, friends. Even your very best attempts to be good will leave you unclean. Psalm 58:3 says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” How we need you, Lord Jesus! How can we thank you for the gift you have given us? Take and use us for your glory – you have purchased us with your blood and we are yours.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:4-6