CLEANSING

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 15

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Among the ruins of the 2,000-year-old Qumran community are small pools which were used for ceremonial bathing. The steps leading down to the baths were each divided to ensure that the impure people descending did not touch the cleansed ones returning up the stairs. Believers in Jesus know that we are cleansed by His precious blood (1 John 1:7).

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Key Verse: Leviticus 15:31

Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them.

One of the physical conditions described in our reading is found in Mark 5:25-34. The woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was immediately healed of a 12-year constant discharge of blood. Jesus, our High Priest, changes everything. These ceremonial laws were for a specific purpose and a specific time. They taught certain health lessons which were important to a great multitude of former slaves who were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. These laws seem to have the purpose of honouring God’s dwelling place, the Tabernacle. We are not under the authority of these ordinances today, nor are observant Jews. The denomination within Judaism known as Pharisees were burdened down with intricate rules and regulations. The Apostle Paul, a one-time Pharisee, wrote, when confronted with teachers who sought to turn believers in Jesus back to some of these ceremonial laws, “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord Jesus, Your servant, Paul, taught us, as You had taught him, that the Law is fulfilled in loving my neighbour as myself (Galatians 5:14). Grant me grace, I pray, to do this constantly. Deliver me from being self-centred. Thank You, Jesus! Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

Recently I watched a TV show called “The West Wing.” In it the producers and writers put Scripture into the mouth of an actor who played the part of the U.S. President. The quotes were from the most sacred Jewish writings, the Torah. He quoted from Exodus and Leviticus. These verses were never intended to be used in this way as a put down of those who stand for biblical moral standards. When confronted with a woman taken in adultery, Jesus confronted her accusers, who were more intent on discrediting Jesus than in carrying out the ceremonial law. They dropped their stones when Jesus said, “Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone.” I have a stone on which I wrote this in large letters. It’s a reminder that, along with the laws, the word “forgiveness” is written over and over in the Jewish laws. Jesus exemplified this when He said to the woman, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” Hollywood, in most cases, gets it wrong. I’m constantly on guard when I watch something like “The West Wing.” God is holy, loving and forgiving. I’m a sinner (1 John 1:8-10) and I deserve death, but God gives me life. I feel the need to worship God. I’m going to search Google and join in singing, “Amazing Grace.” I worship You, Almighty God. I am the object of God’s love.

Yours for a thorough understanding of Scripture, understanding the reason for the Law and for the “Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me,”

David