Lecture

In this lecture, lecture 18, we go on with the study of the book of Leviticus. We spoke about the first five chapters with the offerings: the burnt offering, the peace offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. The details of the manner of offering these things, the details are given in the next couple of chapters, what are called the laws of the offerings, detailed instructions for the priests that do not directly concern us.

Then we have, in chapters nine and following, a description of the beginning of the ministry of the priests. These priests must first be consecrated before they can begin the ministry of the tabernacle. The ritual is given in some detail how these priests must offer for their own cleansing and then Moses anointed them. Curiously, he anointed the ear, the thumb, and the great toe. These, of course, are representative parts of the body and this putting of the blood upon these parts of the body symbolizes the consecration of the whole man. After seven days of consecration like this it says in chapter nine that “On the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel” and they were to begin the worship of the tabernacle. When the worship was begun, it says in chapter nine that “Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.” The last verse of that chapter says that “there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.” Here the worship of Israel was inaugurated after the tabernacle was set up. The worship of Israel was inaugurated, really, by God Himself in celestial fire coming down to accept the sacrifices.

There is a sad sequel in chapter 10. It tells of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, presumably the oldest sons of Aaron, went into the tabernacle at a later time. We do not know how much later, but a little while later they had forgotten the solemnity, apparently, or the significance of their work and they went in before the Lord and offered strange fire. They took a censer, and put fire that was not from the altar and incense that was not according to the rules God had laid down and the Lord struck them dead as they went into the tabernacle.

The Lord is holy and is not to be approached in just any old way. Man-made rules do not make us right with God. One must come to God the appointed way. Of course, the God appointed way, we realize, is through the blood of Christ the Lamb of God and no other way. When Nadab and Abihu were struck down like this, Moses told Aaron that Aaron was not to mourn. He was not to mourn the death of his own sons. Rather he was to confess that God had given right judgements. Though it was hard for Aaron and at the end of the chapter it has this touching scene that he had not eaten the sacrifices; he told Moses that he just could not eat that day. Moses understood and it was all right. If he had eaten the sin offering, he says, it would not have been accepted in the sight of the Lord.

There is one interesting point that as Moses heard of the death of Nadab and Abihu, he instructed the children of Israel, saying that the sons of Aaron—this is chapter ten, verse nineu002du002d “Do not drink wine or strong drink…when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die.” Because this rule is given in such close proximity to the death of Nadab and Abihu, many have really wondered whether it was not the case that these young men went into the tabernacle drunk. Not being careful, not really recognizing the holiness of God and of the worship in their stupefied condition of drunkenness, they went in before the Lord and did what they should not have done. The Lord held them accountable and they were struck dead. This shows us both the significance of worship and also shows us incidentally something of the dangers of drink, the thing that is so common these days, but it leads so often to tragedy; it certainly led to tragedy in that time.

Following this, we have the section that I’ve call the laws of cleanliness, chapters 11–15. I think there’s some things we can learn from these laws of cleanliness, more than we often, perhaps, understand. In chapter 11, we have a section that tells of the food, which the children of Israel are allowed to eat, the clean food. Much of this chapter is exactly parallel to the fourteenth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, as we know, is a repetition of much of the laws of Leviticus, Numbers, and Exodus. But this section here is exactly the same in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy, large parts of this chapter. We remember that the laws of cleanliness specify that the Israelites could eat anything that chewed the cud and that divided the hoof. This meant they could eat the cow, sheep, and goats but they could not eat pigs. Because pigs, although they have a cloven hoof, nonetheless, they do not chew the cud. They are a totally different type of animal. They’re not a ruminant as we say. The camel, on the other hand, though he is a ruminant, chews the cud, he has a soft pad for his foot and he does not divide the hoof. So he was forbidden for the Israelites to eat.

We should remark that not only do the laws of cleanliness apply to these larger animals, but also to seafood. Of the seafood, it says that the fish that have fins and scales in the sea may be eaten, but other animals of the sea could not be eaten. This means oysters and clams would be unclean, eels would be unclean, and a lot of other such shellfish. Also with regard to birds, it specifies the birds that are unclean: ravens, ostrich, seagull, nighthawk, white owl.

We must understand that the translation of these words in Hebrew is very difficult. We do not know customarily what kind of animals there are or what kind of birds there are in ancient Palestine. Of course, the birds of Palestine now are not the significant ones. We would have to know the birds of the old times and there’s no way of us knowing that. So a number of these birds are uncertain in detail. In general, however, we might be able to say that the carrion birds were forbidden; things like doves and pigeons. It doesn’t specify chickens, but chickens would be clean. But things like eagles, fish hawk, and so on would not be. We can rather well understand that, I suppose.

However, the laws of clean food are not too clear. Of course, these are used in modern Jewish households. The orthodox Jews eat only what is called kosher foods. I may say that the modern orthodox Jew has added a great many prescriptions to these of Moses. Moses said that certain meats could be eaten and others could not. Moses really does not say any place in the Bible that you cannot mix milk and meat. This is a later invention of the Jewish traditions. A very strict orthodox home will keep a separate set of utensils for the cooking of meat dishes and for the cooking of the milk dishes. They have added, really, a great deal to the laws of cleanliness here in Leviticus 11.

Let’s consider a little bit the reason for these laws. With regard to the laws of seafood, Dr. Albright makes some very interesting observations. Albright remarks that the fish that are allowed for the Israelites are free-swimming fish. At least in Egypt the free-swimming fish would be much safer than the mud-burrowing fish like eels. The eels would be full of parasites. Parasites are a great problem in Egypt. It is really, very dangerous to go swimming in many of the Egyptian waters because parasites get into your bloodstream and it is very difficult to cure such an infection. So he says that the free-swimming fish are safe to eat; the mud-burrowing fish are not. We have noticed even in our time that the clams, oysters, and so on living near shore are subject to contamination and can spread hepatitis and things like that. So, the principle is that the Israelites were allowed to eat food that would be good under all normal conditions. Now, if you take the eels and cook them adequately and so on, and be careful how you clean them, all that, it is possible, I’m sure, to eat these satisfactorily. But if you don’t take precautions or if you don’t cook them thoroughly or something, well, you may be in trouble. So it is, also, with the larger animals. Ham is good, pork is all right; that is to say, it’s all right if it is rightly handled. But if it is not rightly handled, it too can give parasites. Again, the principle is that the Israelites were allowed to eat what would be good under all normal conditions, but what would be good only under certain conditions they did not know enough to be able to make the difference. They were not aware of parasites, they were not aware of germs, they were not aware of the dangers, for instance, of rabid fever and so they were forbidden to eat things like this. So the laws of diet were good laws for the public health of the children of Israel.

Now I think we must remember that not only do these laws of clean and unclean animals preserve the Hebrew household from bad food, but they have a secondary effect also. The unclean animals were not only forbidden to be eaten, but you were not allowed to touch their carcass. The carcass of a dead unclean animal would make you unclean. The carcass of a clean animal, a sheep or something, you could butcher and not be unclean. But an unclean animal, if you touch the carcass, you would have to wash and be unclean until evening. So it was inconvenient to have dead unclean animals around. Well what would be the dead unclean animal that might be found in a Hebrew household? Well, right away you think of bugs. Bugs were unclean. What would a Hebrew housewife do if she saw a dead bug in the soup? She wouldn’t just fish it out; she would throw out that soup. She would try to keep a clean house so there wouldn’t be any bugs. It would be inconvenient to have bugs. Not only bugs, think of such things as rats. The Israelites didn’t know the danger of rats, but if a rat would die in a Hebrew household, they wouldn’t just kick it in a corner. They would take that rat out carefully, wouldn’t touch it, would bury it promptly. They didn’t know that rats spread bubonic plague, but the natural results of these laws of cleanliness was to keep the Hebrew household relatively free from vermin. Not only did they have good food, but they also were relatively free from vermin. Of course, they couldn’t keep away all vermin, I’m sure. Nonetheless, if you have a clean household and if you handle it right, you can do much better than otherwise. So here, we have laws that would tend to keep the Hebrew people healthy and this is, perhaps, one reason why the Lord could really say, and providentially bring it about, that He would not put upon them the diseases of Egypt.

There was another aspect of the laws of cleanliness. These are the famous laws concerning leprosy. It says in chapter 13 that if a man has “in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest.” Then it says how the priest shall look at it and diagnose it and pronounce him unclean. If it seems to be dangerous or if it seems to be active, he would call him unclean and say that he must be isolated for seven days. At the end of seven days, he comes back and the priest looks at it again. If it still looks angry and active, he quarantines him for seven more days. Of course, this is the thing that I would emphasize: what we have here is a quarantine. I’m afraid that the translation leprosy here is unfortunate. Actually, if you look at the symptoms of this disease, they’re not the symptoms of leprosy at all. Here we have scabs and swellings, and it gets better in seven days or it gets worse in seven days. Leprosy is a very slow moving disease. This has been discussed in the literature, of course, and I am, myself, quite convinced that here we do not have to deal so much with the technical leprosy, of Hanson’s Disease, but that we have here a general diagnosis of any skin disease. Well you say, why should they be so anxious about skin diseases? Well, these are not merely skin diseases, but these are diseases that have a rash and the rash is indicative of deeper trouble. You just think of the diseases of smallpox, measles, chicken pox, diphtheria, things like this that would certainly afflict, and of course, did afflict people in ancient times. Not only were there these skin infections, but also, you had various running sores. These running sores, anything from boils to bubonic plague, I suppose; cholera, any unnatural emission from the body. Sexual emission natural or unnatural. There is some debate about whether or not they had venereal diseases in ancient times. At least this would include venereal diseases if they had them. But anything that would be unnatural, a running sore, would be subject to priestly inspection. The only cure they had for these things was quarantine. They did not have penicillin to treat the sore; all they could do would be to isolate the man. That was the best thing they could do in the early societies. It was still done, I remember, when I was young. We had scarlet fever in our house. A big placard was put on the front door; nobody should go in and nobody should go out during the time when there was scarlet fever in the house. With the discovery of penicillin and other treatments, that is not so much necessary now. But it was a very good law in those days. The man who came to the priest with measles, the priest would isolate him, and this would be the best way to keep it from spreading in the camp. If after seven days, he was better, fine. After seven more days, he was well. So, actually, the person who had the sickness would be either well in seven days and back in circulation or else would be dead and he would be given a decent burial. The family and the others in the camp would be preserved, as far as possible, from the spread of the infection.

So I would say that we have here in these laws of cleanliness God’s way of giving the people of Israel good food, good houses, and good health as far as sicknesses are concerned. I may say that it is clear that this disease is not just ordinary leprosy because it speaks of this disease in leather, in garments, and in the houses. They wore a good bit of leather for their clothing. Leather was cheaper than cloth in those days. They had abundant animals for skins and the making of cloth by hand and all is slow and costly. So there were a good many leather garments. Leather garments are subject to mildew. If these garments have mildew, they are to be washed. The Hebrew household was clean. Though it is not true that cleanliness is next to godliness, this is not a biblical phrase, nonetheless it is true that cleanliness goes a long way toward public health. God required them to wash and to get rid of these unhealthy situations. If a house had a green leprosy, as it’s called, breaking out in it, what it really means is a mildew conditionu002du002da fungusu002du002dso that the house would be not healthy. In that case the priest would come. The priest was really the public health officer. He would come and look at the house and scrape off this infection. If that cured it, fine. If not, take out a piece of the wall and rebuild it. If that fixed it, fine. If not, eventually the house would have to be destroyed so that the Israelites would have healthy places to live, healthy clothes to wear, healthy diet, and healthy houses relatively free from vermin and from the spread of disease. So these laws of cleanliness were very good laws and although the laws of murder, stealing, and so on, and paralleled other ancient codes, as far as I can find out, there are no codes of ancient Mesopotamia embodying just these provisions. It shows us again the wisdom of God in giving to Moses laws that were better than Moses knew. By this method, He advanced the Hebrew people in their whole national life and culture.

I suppose we may say allied to this subject would be the next section: the laws concerning incest, chapter 18 and following. These are not expressed very well in the King James Version. For instance, it says in chapter 18:11 “The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.” Well, this does not mean merely that these are prohibitions for nudity, good though such prohibitions would be. These really are forbidding sexual relationships with those who are closely related. These are, as we say, prohibitions of incest. It is interesting that the sister, the half-sister relations are forbidden there. One may not marry his aunt or a woman her uncle on either mother’s or father’s side. It does not forbid marriage of cousins; this is an interesting point. Well, the details here do not need to concern us, but we have here a very useful thing. The laws against incest, of course, are rather common in human society. One reason, I suppose, we may feel that this is the case, is that in the intimacy of the family it is important that brother and sister, and even in a polygamist household, half-brother and sister, and others living together in the family should be able to love each other and be in close association without the sexual overtones that would interfere with normal family life and with the establishing of a true family relationship and the rearing of children to the glory of God. So, we have here in Leviticus parts of the laws that keep the home true and pure. Here we have prohibition that would keep the moral disease out of the Hebrew home.

Then in chapters 21 and 25 there are many other things, of course, that we could take up in detail if there were time. But in chapters 21–25 we have, again, the specifications concerning the priests and their activitiesu002du002dhow they’re to be separated to the Lord. A priest must be holy. A priest is not to be a cripple because the priesthood of ancient Israel was symbolic of Christ. So there was a perfection, even a physical perfection that was required. I may say that this physical perfection is not required in ministers today. Ministers today are not typical in that same way. But the priests were to be careful. They were to be careful of whom they should marry. The high priest was to marry only a virgin of the family of the priests. The ordinary priests were to marry within the nation of Israel and to keep themselves and their homes holy. As I have said through this section, the laws are reinforced by the declaration that God is holy. You must do this, you must do that, not do that, for I am the Lord your God.

In chapter 23, we have a great chapter that deals with the different feasts. We have, of course, the Passover Feast in chapter 23:4, “These are the feasts of the LORD,” and verse 5, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s Passover.” These feasts are given in other passages also: Exodus 23, Exodus 34, Numbers 28–29, and Deuteronomy 16. As I have said, there are these three feasts of the Lord that are pilgrimage festivals. Passover in the springu002du002dour Easter falls about Passover time because we remember Christ, who was crucified at the time of the Passover. Passover, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening would be, since the Jews had a lunar calendar and the first day of the month was always the new moon, the Passover would be the full moon. The children of Israel left Egypt in a time of full moon, and it would be a beautiful night and they did not, as I have said, use their flashlights. But then, following the Passover meal, for a week would be the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Israelites left Egypt in haste. They had no time to knead their bread and to let it rise, so they eat to this day unleavened bread. The Hebrew word is matzoth, which is sometimes slurred a little bit to make it matzos today and the pious Jewish home will eat unleavened bread for seven days in the spring. Then on the morning after the Sabbath of the Passover, this would, therefore, be on Sunday, the Jews were to number seven weeks, so this would be a total of 50 days including the Passover Sabbath, Saturday. And according, at least, to one computation, the words are not entirely clear, on Sunday, seven weeks later, would be the Feast of Firstfruits. Here would be the firstfuits, presumably the wheat harvest, falling around June. Of course, the wheat harvest comes at different times in different parts of Palestine, but this is the Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Weeks, which has its analog in the New Testament at Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit, after Christ was ascended up into Heaven.

In the fall, at the beginning of the seventh month, this would be in September, the first day of the month, is the New Year. The first of every month was a special feast and it was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets. The blowing of trumpets as the new moon was seen, or was calculated, was a helpful thing. The Jews in ancient times didn’t have a calendar given by the local store; they took their calendar from the moon. The calendar was set by the central priesthood and they would announce the new moon and the new month with the blowing. As the trumpets were blown in the central place, trumpets across the different villages would take up the strain and through the end of the land, there would be the blowing of trumpets. At the beginning of the seventh month, September, Tishrei, would be a time of special blowing of trumpets, the beginning of the New Year. Rosh Hashanah means the head of the year. It would be a time of gladness, and that would prepare the way, however, for the tenth day of that month, the Day of Atonement, which I mentioned, Yom Kipper, on the tenth day of the seventh month. After that, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, is the Feast of Booths. The Feast of Booths, at that time, the Jews would all come together. On Rosh Hashanah they would stay home, on Yom Kipper they would stay home, but the third pilgrimage festival they were to come to Jerusalem, or to come to the central tabernacle wherever it would be pitched, and there they would join in festivities and live in booths; that is to say, a family camp out, for one week. This is the time when they would bring special offerings and when they would bring the firstfruits of the fruit harvest in the fall. It was also a time when the Levites were commanded to instruct children of Israel; this would be, really, a short-term Bible institute. Ezra and Nehemiah used it that way, we remember in the book of Nehemiah. So we learn here that the priests not only offered sacrifices, but they also took the occasion, as it was specified, to instruct the people in the law of the Lord. Here was a seven-day vacation at the end of the year when everybody joined in happiness before the Lord and instruction from the Lord and this would complete the prescribed feasts of the Jewish year. Five festivals; three of which would be pilgrimage festivals at which time the men would come bringing their gifts to the Lord from the different harvest seasons.