Leviticus 15

The key word in this chapter is “issue,’’ used twentyfour times. It simply means a flow of liquid, whether water in nature or a fluid discharged from the human body. The human discharge may be natural (vv. 16–18, 25–30) or unnatural (vv. 1–15, 19–24), but it’s still considered unclean and must be dealt with according to the law of God. Personal hygiene and God’s concern for women are certainly involved in these regulations, but the main thrust seems to be that of enforcing personal sanctity. Not everybody is a leper, but all of us have occasional “discharges’’ that defile us and could defile others.

Unnatural male discharges (vv. 1–15). These could be anything from diarrhea to discharges caused by a venereal disease such as gonorrhea. Anything the afflicted man touched or spat upon was unclean. In fact, those defiled by touching him had to wash themselves and their clothes, and they remained unclean until evening. Clay vessels that he touched were to be broken and wooden vessels washed. The possibility of infection was taken very seriously.

By the goodness of the Lord, the man with a discharge could get well; when that happened, he had to wait a week and, like the cleansed leper, wash himself and his clothes. On the eighth day, he brought a sin offering and a burnt offering, but he wasn’t required to bring expensive sacrifices, since a bodily discharge wasn’t as serious as leprosy. After that, the man was free to worship the Lord and live a normal life in the camp.

In recent years, we’ve heard a good deal about “toxic people’’ and even “toxic churches.’’ Stephen Arteburn and Jack Felton have written a book called Toxic Faith (Oliver/Nelson, 1991) that describes “cultic’’ churches and the religious addiction they quietly spread among unsuspecting people. The image is a biblical one, for Jesus warned about people like the Pharisees who pretended to be holy but were really transmitting defilement to the people who followed them (Matt. 23:25–28). In fact, Paul wrote about people in his own day whose religion was “toxic.’’ “Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene’’ (2 Tim. 2:16–17 niv).

Natural male discharges (vv. 16–18). This paragraph doesn’t even suggest that sexual intercourse within marriage is impure or defiling. As the traditional marriage ceremony puts it, “God established marriage for the blessing and benefit of mankind.’’ Within the holy and loving bonds of marriage, the husband doesn’t defile his wife nor the wife her husband. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral’’ (Heb. 13: niv).

Moses is dealing here with ceremonial uncleanness, not moral uncleanness. Since intercourse involves bodily fluids, and bodily fluids made a person unclean, the husband and wife had to take pains to wash themselves and maintain ceremonial purity. Perhaps the Lord is telling us that, even in a beautiful experience like married love, there is opportunity for our sinful nature to go to work and defile it. The Jewish couple had to consider God as well as their own desires, and this helped sanctify their relationship. No sacrifices were required for their cleansing, only washing in water. Thus there was no sin that needed to be atoned for.

Natural female discharges (vv. 19–24). Once again, God wasn’t condemning or punishing the woman for experiencing her normal monthly period, because He made her that way so she could bear children. This regulation declares only that the woman’s discharge made her unclean and therefore she could make others unclean. Rachel used this ploy when she deceived her father about his household gods (Gen. 31:26–35).

During the time of her period and for a week afterward, a woman was unclean and had to be careful where she sat and slept and what she touched. But this confinement was a blessing in disguise since it allowed her to enjoy rest and quiet when she needed it most. If her husband was too aggressive sexually, this law kept him from taking advantage of her at a time when intercourse wouldn’t be especially pleasant to her. If he forced himself on her, both he and the marriage bed would be unclean for a week, and this would separate him from everybody in the family and the camp! It wasn’t worth it.

Certainly God created sex for pleasure as well as for procreation, but pleasure that isn’t disciplined soon becomes bondage and then torture. Unmarried people must exercise self-control lest they commit fornication and invite the judgment of God (Heb. 13:4), but married people also need self-control lest they take advantage of one another and leave God out of their most intimate relationship. God created sex, and wise is the person who permits the Creator to make the rules.

Unnatural female discharges (vv. 25–33). A prolonged hemorrhage would be both physically painful and religiously disastrous, for the woman would be perpetually unclean. The unknown woman who came to Jesus for help had suffered with this affliction for twelve years (Mark 5:25–34; Luke 8:43–48). Strictly speaking, everybody she touched in that big crowd was defiled by her whether they knew it or not; when she touched our Lord’s garment, He was also defiled. How gracious of Him to heal her and give back to her the normal life she longed for! The ritual for her cleansing reminds us of the ritual for the restoration of a mother after the birth of a baby (Lev. 12:6–7).

These regulations for personal sanctity weren’t just pious suggestions from the religious leaders of the nation. They were holy commandments from the Lord, and it was a serious thing to disobey them (15:31–33). For an unclean person to go to the tabernacle would be to defile the tabernacle and invite judgment (v. 31). God warned the Israelites that a violation of the law given in Leviticus 15: would cause the couple to be “cut off from among their people’’ (20:18). Whether “cut off’’ meant death (it’s used that way in Gen. 9:11) or excommunication, commentators don’t agree, but whatever the penalty was, it was serious.

God’s people today don’t live under the threat of such judgments, although “there is a sin unto death’’ (1 John 5:16; see 1 Cor. 11:30). But there should be no area in our lives from which God is excluded, and every relationship should be under His control.

His words to us are still, “Be holy, for I am holy!’’