Leviticus Session 7 - Accepting God's Discipline and Cleanliness and Godliness

The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is studying of the Old Testament book of Leviticus. The key to the book of Leviticus is found in verses 45 and 46 of chapter 11.

Leviticus 11:44‭-‬45 NIV I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

These are the notes to session 7.

After all the pomp and circumstance of an 8 day ordination service, with its dressing and anointing of the High Priests, his sons, and the tabernacle, the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and ordination offering, on a day which should have ended with the glorious worship of Jehovah God was instead climaxed with the funeral of two of Aaron’s sons.

Then after dealing with this tragic event Moses gives the nation the rules they needed to keep in order to stay ceremonially clean before God. It was extremely important that they followed the rules that God set down for them so that would not become unclean of defiled which could cause them to be put outside the community and in some cases cause them to be put death.   

From birth to burial, the Jews had to submit every aspect of their daily lives to the authority of God’s law. Whether it was selecting their food, preparing their food, caring for a mother and new baby, diagnosing a disease, or disposing of waste, nothing was left to chance in the camp of Israel lest someone be defiled. In order to maintain ceremonial purity, each Jew had to obey God’s law in several areas of life.

For an audio recording of the session click the YouTube link at the end of the notes.

ACCEPTING GOD’S DISCIPLINE (10:1–20)

A day which should have ended with the glorious worship of Jehovah God was instead climaxed with the funeral of two of Aaron’s sons.

Leviticus 10:1‭-‬2 NLT Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. So fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord.

Everything that these two men did was wrong. To begin with, they were the wrong people to be handling the incense and presenting it to the Lord. This was the task of their father, the high priest.

Exodus 30:7‭-‬10 NLT “Every morning when Aaron maintains the lamps, he must burn fragrant incense on the altar. And each evening when he lights the lamps, he must again burn incense in the Lord’s presence. This must be done from generation to generation. Do not offer any unholy incense on this altar, or any burnt offerings, grain offerings, or liquid offerings. “Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the Lord’s most holy altar.”

They also used the wrong instruments, their own censers instead of the censer of the high priest, sanctified by the special anointing oil.

Exodus 40:9 NLT “Take the anointing oil and anoint the Tabernacle and all its furnishings to consecrate them and make them holy.

They acted at the wrong time, for it was only on the annual Day of Atonement that the high priest was permitted to take incense into the Holy of Holies, and even then he had to submit to a special ritual.

Leviticus 16:1‭-‬2 NLT The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.

When we get to chapter 16 we will find out about all the requirements.   

They acted under the wrong authority. They didn’t consult with Moses or their father, nor did they seek to follow the Word of God, which Moses had received. In burning the incense, they used the wrong fire, what Scripture calls “strange fire”.

 (10:1; NIV says “unauthorized fire”). 

They acted under the wrong authority. They didn’t consult with Moses or their father, nor did they seek to follow the Word of God, which Moses had received. In burning the incense, they used the wrong fire, what Scripture calls “strange fire” (10:1; NIV says “unauthorized fire”). The high priest was commanded to burn the incense on coals taken from the brazen altar

Leviticus 16:12‭-‬13 NIV He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die.

Nadab and Abihu supplied their own fire, and God rejected it. 

They acted from the wrong motive and didn’t seek to glorify God alone. We don’t know the secrets of their hearts, but you get the impression that what they did was a willful act of pride. Their desire wasn’t to sanctify and glorify the Lord but to promote themselves and be important.

Leviticus 10:3 NIV Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: “ ‘Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’ ” Aaron remained silent.

Finally, they depended on the wrong energy, for verses 9–10 imply that they may have been under the influence of alcohol. 

Leviticus 10:8‭-‬11 NIV Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and so you can teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses.”

Nadab and Abihu were not outsiders; they were anointed priests. Their father was the high priest, and they were trained in the service of the Lord. Yet they were killed for their disobedience! 

We should also be careful that we don’t get overly confident because of our relationship with Christ. 

1 Corinthians 10:11‭-‬13 NIV These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

It’s a serious thing to be a servant of God, and our service must be empowered by His Spirit and controlled by His Word. We must serve God “acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire”.

Hebrews 12:28‭-‬29 NIV Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and aso worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Because this happened Moses was concerned that something else some other act of disobedience would happen and any other commandment of the Lord be disobeyed and His judgment fall again, he urged Aaron and his two remaining sons to be sure to eat their share of the peace (fellowship) offerings

Leviticus 10:12‭-‬15 NIV Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering left over from the food offerings prepared without yeast and presented to the Lord and eat it beside the altar, for it is most holy. Eat it in the sanctuary area, because it is your share and your sons’ share of the food offerings presented to the Lord; for so I have been commanded. But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. Eat them in a ceremonially clean place; they have been given to you and your children as your share of the Israelites’ fellowship offerings. The thigh that was presented and the breast that was waved must be brought with the fat portions of the food offerings, to be waved before the Lord as a wave offering. This will be the perpetual share for you and your children, as the Lord has commanded.”

They were also to eat their part of the sin offering.

Leviticus 6:24‭-‬30 NIV The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron and his sons: ‘These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering is to be slaughtered before the Lord in the place the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in the sanctuary area, in the courtyard of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in the sanctuary area. The clay pot the meat is cooked in must be broken; but if it is cooked in a bronze pot, the pot is to be scoured and rinsed with water. Any male in a priest’s family may eat it; it is most holy. But any sin offering whose blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place must not be eaten; it must be burned up.

But look at what actually happened.

Leviticus 10:16‭-‬18 NIV When Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering and found that it had been burned up, he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and asked, “Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area? It is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the community by making atonement for them before the Lord. Since its blood was not taken into the Holy Place, you should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.”

Moses discovered that the sin offering hadn’t been presented according to the law and that Aaron and his sons hadn’t eaten it, and he was angry because Aaron had not obeyed the rules completely. 

Aaron explained that he couldn’t eat the offering with a good conscience because of the sorrow that he had experienced that day with the death of his two sons.  

Leviticus 10:19 NIV Aaron replied to Moses, “Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the Lord have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?”

Aaron explained that he couldn’t eat the offering with a good conscience because of the sorrow that had befallen him that day. The Lord knew his heart, and he wasn’t going to attempt to fool God by playing the hypocrite. Aaron knew that a mere mechanical observance of the ritual wouldn’t have pleased God.

Psalms 51:16‭-‬17 NIV You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

Aaron’s explanation obviously satisfied Moses.

Leviticus 10:20 NIV When Moses heard this, he was satisfied.

This is what we have learned in chapters 8-10

1. God’s Word commands us concerning our ministry, and we must obey what He says. God’s instructions are more detailed for the Old Testament priests than for New Testament ministers, but the principles and examples are clearly given in the New Testament so that we shouldn’t go astray.

2. We dedicate ourselves to God, and He consecrates us for His service. He wants servants who are clean, yielded, obedient, and “marked” by the blood and the oil.

3. Apart from the finished work of Christ and the power of the Spirit, we can’t serve God acceptably. No amount of fleshly zeal or “false fire” can substitute for Spirit-filled devotion to the Lord. Be sure the fire of your ministry comes from God’s altar and not from this world.

4. We minister first of all to the Lord and for His glory. No matter how much we sacrifice and serve, if God doesn’t get the glory, there can be no blessing.

5. The privileges of ministry bring with them serious responsibilities. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48 NKJV).

6. Our greatest joy in life should be to serve the Lord and bring glory to His name. “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Ps. 2:11 NKJV).

Cleanliness and Godliness

Godliness 

The next two chapters deal with cleanliness and godliness and some of the things in them seem strange to us today but they really deal with God’s desire that His chosen people be different from the people around them and especially different from those in Cannan where He was leading them,

So, for them it was extremely important that they followed the rules that God set down for them so that would not become unclean of defiled which could cause them to be put outside the community and in some cases cause them to be put death.   

From birth to burial, the Jews had to submit every aspect of their daily lives to the authority of God’s law. Whether it was selecting their food, preparing their food, caring for a mother and new baby, diagnosing a disease, or disposing of waste, nothing was left to chance in the camp of Israel lest someone be defiled. In order to maintain ceremonial purity, each Jew had to obey God’s law in several areas of life.

Eating 11:1-23 

Noah knew about clean and unclean animals (Gen. 7:1–10), this distinction was part of an ancient tradition that antedated the Mosaic law. Whether a creature was “clean” or “unclean” had nothing to do with the quality of the beast; it all depended on what God said about the animal.

 

The distinction between clean and unclean animals didn’t start here.  Noah knew about clean and unclean animals.

Genesis 7:1‭-‬10 NIV The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

Whether an animal was “clean” or “unclean” had nothing to do with the quality of the beast; it all depended on what God said about the animal. 

The main purpose of the dietary code was to remind the Israelites that they belonged to God and were obligated to keep themselves separated from everything that would defile them. 

Nevertheless, the spiritual principle of separation from defilement applies to the people of God today. The fact that we know God must make a difference in every aspect of our lives.

1 Corinthians 6:19‭-‬20 NIV Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

God hasn’t given His church a list of things that are clean and unclean, but He’s revealed enough to us in His Word to help us know what pleases Him and what grieves Him.

The dietary rules were never intended to apply to anyone other than the Israelites.  The purpose of the food laws was to make the Israelites distinct from all other nations

Three facts should be noted about the dietary laws: (1) God gave these laws only to the Jewish nation; (2) obeying them guaranteed ceremonial purity but didn’t automatically make the person holy in character; and (3) the laws were temporary and were ended on the cross of Christ.

Colossians 2:13‭-‬14 NIV When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

After this purpose had ended, Jesus declared all foods clean.

Mark 7:18‭-‬19 NIV “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

When Jesus died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament law. This includes the laws regarding clean and unclean foods.

This includes the laws regarding clean and unclean foods.

Paul affirmed that special days and diets must not be considered either the means or the measure of a person’s spirituality. (Rom. 14:1—15:13).

As long as they believe God’s Word that all foods are clean, and ask God to bless their food, they have the right to eat it.

Now that we have cleared that up let’s get back to Leviticus.

Moses gave the general characteristics of the creatures that were approved and disapproved.  It isn’t necessary to identify every creature named in this chapter. In fact, some of them are mysteries to us. Keep in mind that the law named representative creatures and didn’t attempt to give a complete list.

Land animals (vv. 1–8).

Leviticus 11:1‭-‬8 NIV The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. “ ‘There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you. The hyrax, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

The two requirements were that the animal chew the cud and have a split hoof. An animal with only one of these features wasn’t considered clean and had to be rejected. The Hebrew word translated “hare” in verse 6 (“rabbit,” NIV) refers to an animal we’re not familiar with, because the kinds of rabbits we’re familiar with don’t chew the cud. The movements of a rabbit’s jaw and nostrils may give the appearance that he’s chewing the cud, but that isn’t the case at all.

Water creatures (vv. 9–12). 

Leviticus 11:9‭-‬12 NIV “ ‘Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales. But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to regard as unclean. And since you are to regard them as unclean, you must not eat their meat; you must regard their carcasses as unclean. Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be regarded as unclean by you.

These had to have both fins and scales to be edible, and so all shellfish, catfish, and eels were prohibited. Aquatic creatures that are scavengers and burrow in the bottom of a body of water could pick up parasites that would be dangerous to the eater’s health. Since fish swim freely in the water, they generally escape such infections.

Fowl (vv. 13–19). 

Leviticus 11:13‭-‬19 NIV “ ‘These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

Flying insects (vv. 20–23). 

Leviticus 11:20‭-‬23 NIV “ ‘All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be regarded as unclean by you. There are, however, some flying insects that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean.  

All insects were forbidden except those with jointed hind legs used for jumping, such as locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers. These creatures aren’t normally a part of the Western diet, but many peoples in the East eat parts of their bodies roasted. 

John the Baptist lived on a diet of locusts and wild honey 

Matthew 3:4 NIV John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Moses also added lizards, rodents, and other creeping things to the list of prohibited foods (Lev. 11:29–30)

Leviticus 11:29‭-‬30 NIV “ ‘Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon.

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