Ceremonially Unclean

Deuteronomy 12:13-17 – Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you. Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

Leviticus 4:11-12 – But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the internal organs and the intestines—that is, all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap.

Leviticus 17:11 – For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Numbers 18:12 – “I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest.

Application:

• ·         The distinction between clean and unclean was a matter of ritual or religious purity, not a concern for physical cleanliness.
• ·         The blood shed in the sacrifices was sacred. Since life was sacred, blood had to be treated with respect. Eating blood was therefore strictly forbidden. Practically every sacrifice included the splashing of blood against the altar or the sprinkling of blood within the tabernacle, thus teaching that atonement involves the substitution of life for life. The blood of the Old Testament sacrifice pointed forward to the blood of the Lamb of God, who obtained for His people “eternal redemption”. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
• ·         Since the best items of produce were to be given to the Lord, these became the special foods of the priests and their families.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV