Purified Themselves

2 Chronicles 30:14-19 – They removed the altars in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the Lord. Then they took up their regular positions as prescribed in the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests splashed against the altar the blood handed to them by the Levites. Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the Lord. Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.”

Exodus 12:48 – “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.

Numbers 9:6-7,10-11 – But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”…“Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Mark 7:8,13,20 – You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”… Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”… He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.

John 7:22 – Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.

John 9:16 – Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

Application:

• ·         Only those consecrated to the Lord in covenant commitment could partake of Passover; only for them could it have its full meaning.
• ·         Those with ceremonial uncleanness had a keen desire to worship the Lord “in the Spirit and in truth”.
• ·         The Lord thus demonstrates the reality of the distance that uncleanness brings between a believer and his or her participation in the worship of the community, but he also provides a merciful alternative.
• ·         God’s commands are found in Scripture and are binding; the “tradition of the elders” is not Biblical and therefore not authoritative or binding.
• ·         The teachers of the law appealed in support of the Corban vow, but Jesus categorically rejects the practice of using one Biblical teaching to nullify another.
• ·         Jesus replaced the normal Jewish understandings of defilement with the truth that defilement comes from an impure heart, not the violation of external rules.
• ·         The command to circumcise showed not only that work might sometimes be done on the Sabbath but that it must be done then.
• ·         The first group started from their entrenched position and ruled out the possibility of Jesus being from God. The second started from the fact of the “signs” and ruled out the possibility of His being a sinner.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV