Sin and Impurity
The book of Leviticus deals, in detail, with the problem of sin and impurity, but it especially emphasizes the topic of purity/impurity or contamination/purification. Impurity is considered as damaging to the covenant relationship as a moral sin itself. The instructions concerning impurity have the purpose of motivating the Israelites to avoid anything that could contaminate them. The laws regarding purification instructed them concerning how they could be restored to a state of purity before the Lord.
There are several sources of impurity, some of which are unavoidable. For example, there is the contamination that a woman incurs during childbirth (Lev. 12). In this case the contamination is the result of the blood discharge that accompanies the childbirth (Lev. 12:4, 5, 7; see also Lev. 15:19–30 for another kind of uncleanliness). A man with a blood discharge was also considered unclean (Lev. 15:1–15; see also vss. 16–18).
In those cases the individual was a carrier, a contaminating agent; therefore, he or she was forbidden to contact anybody else or any holy thing. Obviously the emphasis on washing and quarantine suggests a hygienic concern. But there was also a theological interest. The impure person was not allowed to come into contact with other people and was excluded from the sanctuary. “Impurity” thus becomes a metaphor to express a person’s alienation from God and others. In fact, impurity is usually associated with death. It is connected with dead bodies (Num. 6:6, 7, 11), diseases (Lev. 13, 14), blood discharge (a way of letting life run away), and the emission of semen, which is the “seed” of life. The leper was totally impure and considered as dead (Num. 12:9–12).
The impure person was in the realm of death and could be removed from that place only through a cleansing ritual. Otherwise he or she would be permanently separated from God and the rest of the people of God (Lev. 15:31). The biblical concept of impurity indicates that humans are almost in a natural state of contamination existing in an environment that is fundamentally unclean. They need cleansing in order to be free to approach the Lord. This cleansing was primarily possible through the blood of the sacrificial victim (Lev. 12:8).
| Read Ephesians 2:11–13. Although the language of impurity is not used, how is the concept, as explained above, present in these texts? What kind of “impurity” do we face today? How can we be cleansed of it? |
No comments:
Post a Comment