BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

The priests were in focus yesterday. Today, we look closely at the gathered community of all Israelites. To enter God’s tabernacle safely, the people must be “clean” or “ritually pure.”
When the ancient tabernacle laws refer to someone as “impure” or “unclean,” it’s not a moral judgment. Ritual purity in the Bible is about a temporary state of being unfit to enter into God’s sacred space, according to the rules associated with that space. This is about teaching an entire nation the difference between life and death and the way God leads people to life.
The Israelites became ritually impure whenever they touched things connected to death, disorder, and corruption: a corpse, infectious skin diseases, invasive mold, and so on. Being impure makes that person unfit to enter God’s holy presence. Why? God wants people to see that his dwelling space is like Eden. It’s a death-and-corruption-free kind of zone. Ritual purity laws helped people learn through experience that God’s pure essence is life, and it cannot mix with death.
The people can remain in a state of purity by following God’s law, but sometimes people become unclean through no fault of their own. God provided rituals for everyone to return to a state of purity. That reveals something we don’t want to miss.
Being ritually unclean was part of daily life in a corrupted world. Uncleanliness is not the real problem—ignoring God’s instruction is. Adam and Eve also learned this lesson. In the tabernacle, as in Eden, God wants to live among people. However, God is about life, so his meeting space is going to be free from all death and corruption.
The extensive regulations about ritual purity remind the Israelites to honor God’s holiness in every area of their lives. Watch the video to learn more about how the laws in Leviticus set Israel apart as a nation of priests.
Reflection Questions
- Think about the laws written in Exodus and Leviticus so far. Where do you see these ancient commands and regulations revealing the deeper love and wisdom of God?
- What might a place completely free from chaos, death, and disorder be like? How would it feel to live full-time in a place like that?
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