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Holy and Common - clean and unclean
Holy and Common - clean and unclean
Leviticus is a book that is often ignored today simply because it is difficult to read and see any connection to us as disciples of Jesus. Yet, Peter saw a connection as he instructs us to “Be Holy for I am Holy”: “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:14-16; Cp Lev 11:44f; 19:2; 20:7).
God outlines for Israel the specifics of such holiness, many such concepts revealed in Leviticus. Israel was to learn from this “10 and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean,” ( Leviticus 10:10).
A list of such demands of separation would include:
· Things declared unclean –
· Things that are forbidden
· Things declared HOLY –
· Things that are covenant markers that declare to the world that they are the LORD’s people..
BUT WHY are they ‘unclean’? In his commentary on Leviticus, Gordon Wenham* outlines four attempts to explain this, but in the end concludes that all such explanations simply do not cover ALL of the differing things! In the end, observing what the LORD says about clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable becomes the test and proof of one’s holiness. Unclean is not necessarily equivalent to ‘sinful’ (except that violating God’s law concerning such is transgression of law).
Many years later, Ezekiel emphasized that one of the underlying reasons for Israel’s captivity and destruction was their failure to make a difference between the clean and unclean, between the holy and the common. They simply did NOT learn from Leviticus.
In our reading this book today, Wenham notes: “The preponderance of law tends to give it the appearance of timelessness, whereas the context makes it plain that these laws were given in a specific situation to a specific people. They are part of the blueprint for making the people of Israel holy. “I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God; you must therefore be holy, for I am holy” (11:45). They are not necessarily to be taken as universal and eternal prescriptions. They express God’s will for his people at a particular time, but as the NT makes clear they were not intended to apply forever or to Gentiles (Mark 7:14ff.; Acts 10; 15; 1 Cor. 10:23ff.).”
Yet the concept of holiness is demanded of us (again, 1 Peter. 1:14-16 ) Today, holiness still involves observing what the LORD says! “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Are you holy unto the Lord?
Hugh DeLong
*Gordon Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Logos Edition,
