Ceremonially Unclean

Deuteronomy 15:22-16:1 – You are to eat it in your own towns. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer. But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night.

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.

Exodus 12:5,7,11,13,21 – The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats…Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs…This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover…The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt…Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

Exodus 23:19 – “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Leviticus 23:27 – “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord.

Application:

• ·         The distinction between clean and unclean was a matter of ritual or religious purity, not a concern for physical cleanliness.
• ·         The blood of the Old Testament sacrifice pointed forward to the blood of the Lamb of God, who obtained for His people “eternal redemption”.
• ·         Passover meant that the Lord would “pass over” and not destroy the occupants of houses that were under the sign of the blood.
• ·         The offering of firstfruits was an acknowledgment that the harvest was from the Lord and belonged wholly to Him.
• ·         The Day of Atonement was foreshadowing the atoning work of Christ, our high priest.
• ·         Jesus was like a “lamb without blemish or defect”.
• ·         Israel escaped the judgment that fell on Egypt only through the mediation of a sacrifice.
• ·         Just as the plagues were miraculous signs of judgment on the pharaoh and his people, so the Lord’s “passing over” the Israelites who placed themselves under the sign of blood was a pledge of God’s mercy.
• ·         Christ is “our Passover lamb”, sacrificed “once for all” for us.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV