Leviticus Chapter 11

This article first appeared as a post I wrote for The 555 Club.  Before your read this article please read Leviticus Chapter 11.


Leviticus 11 is God following up on what had just happened in the last chapter, where God killed the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire.
Aaron's sons did not respect the boundary between what God allows and what God forbids. They neglected to be diligent in distinguishing the difference between what was clean and unclean, what was acceptable and unacceptable to God based on his commands.

So, for the next several chapters, God is going to make sure the remaining priests and the people of God understand there is a difference between what God calls clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable.  

In this chapter, He talks about clean and unclean animals and defines what distinguishes between the two.

•The Hebrews could eat only animals, fish, and insects that God says were clean.
•Eating the animals, fish, and insects that God says are unclean will make them unclean.
•If they touch a dead unclean animal, they will become unclean. This is also true of touching anything dead.

God is teaching the Israelites like we might teach children.  He is using very simple examples to teach a larger truth.

Everyone can understand what getting dirty is. You touch something, or step on something that clings to you, and you must wash it off.  God is relating this simple concept to the nature of sin. Sin clings to you. Sin defiles you.  Sin makes you dirty. Sin needs to be washed.

If they ate an unclean animal, they would need to wash and then wait until evening before they would be clean again.

The reason a person had to wait until evening to be declared clean again was to show a pattern of renewal. Evening meant when the sun went down. The day was over and a new day had begun. Cleansing was complete as the new day began. This, like so many things in the Old Testament Law, points us to Jesus.

Faith in Him cleanses us from all sin and begins a brand new day of righteousness.  

2Pe 1:19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Mal 4:2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.

So, in the laws of clean and unclean, God was teaching truths. In an unclean state, they were forbidden to draw near to God or the Tabernacle, or other people.  God wanted them to learn that uncleanness created a barrier between them and God and between them and other people just as sin does.

The chapter is summed up by these three verses.

Le 11:43 Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. 44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. 45 I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

God is teaching them that He is Holy, and that those who want to draw near to Him must not be unclean or unholy.

They are to be holy as God is holy.  Obviously, we can see the problem here: no matter how much they washed, they would never be holy like God.  They were to keep themselves from being unclean, but it was an impossible task.

God is teaching them to pursue a purity that can only be found in Jesus Christ. His blood is the only thing that can make us clean enough to move into God’s presence with confidence.

It should be noted here that there is some truth that some of the unclean types of animals are not as healthy as others, but that does not mean that God forbids us from eating them.

Shrimp and bacon would fall into the unclean category under the Old Testament Law. But we do not sin if we enjoy a BLT, or an order of garlic shrimp. The point God is making is not about the animals, but about the concept of clean and unclean and how something can become defiled by touching something unclean.

There is a disturbing trend that is happening today. People are claiming that the Christian must believe in Jesus but also keep the Old Testament Law. Eating “kosher” and keeping the Saturday Sabbath is being taught as something God still requires.

This question was addressed in the first century by the early church. The first Christians were Jews who had come to believe in Jesus. They did not fully understand that Jesus had fulfilled the Law of Moses. They didn’t understand that the Law pointed to Jesus and that the righteousness the Law demanded could only be found in Him.

They did not understand that righteousness was obtained as a gift through faith in Jesus and not earned by our works of Law keeping.

The purpose of the Law was to teach by imprisoning people in a state of condemnation. This would then clearly reveal that the heart of mankind was sinful.

Ga 3:23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

The Law pointed them to Jesus, who was the only way to be without sin and to have real relationship and fellowship with God.

But many of the first-century Jews who had become Christians believed that they must keep the law and believe in Jesus. They began to travel to churches, teaching the believers that they must keep the Law to be saved. This became a major conflict in the first-century church, so they decided to hold a meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the issue.

They decided in Acts 15 that the Gentiles should not have to keep the Law to be saved.

In the discussion, Peter makes a very interesting statement.

Ac 15:10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

Peter, who was a Jew, says that the Law was a yoke, a bondage that neither he nor his ancestors were able to bear. In other words, nobody was ever able to keep the entire Law perfectly, so they lived under constant condemnation. Peter said that he now sees that salvation is not earned by keeping the Law but salvation is obtained by grace, as a gift given to people based on faith in the work of Jesus on the cross.  

The entire Letter to the Galatians is about this subject, and the Book of Hebrews too teaches that Jesus is superior to the Law in every way. He is the better sacrifice and High Priest, and He is a better covenant with better promises. He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest because in Jesus we rest from trying to earn our own salvation by Law keeping, and we rest in His finished work with no sense of condemnation because He has taken all the punishment that the Law demanded that we receive.

Again, God is not giving dietary laws in Leviticus chapter 11 that He expects Christians to keep today. This chapter teaches about the spreading and clinging nature of sin. That something sinful has the potential to infect sinfulness on whatever it touches and that we must be careful of what we allow to touch our lives. Not food, but the corrupting influence of sin.

We have this concept in the New Testament too.

2Co 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."

So, in this passage, Paul uses the “unclean” concept to illustrate the defiling nature of sin on whatever it touches.

In the New Testament we see Jesus elaborate on this point. In the following passage, we are told that it is not the kind of animal/food that defiles a person; it is sin.

Mr 7:18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") 20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"

So, for us today, the application of Leviticus chapter 11 is that we should make every effort not to touch sin and thereby be defiled and made unclean by it.

For the Christian, the blood of Jesus cleanses every sin, but if we enter into willful sin, we may become defiled.

Sin and poor choices in the Christian’s life can cause us to feel distant from God. We sense that God is grieved and wants us to know that He is not pleased.

This is not the condemnation of the Law that says the soul that sins must die. This is the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit who is teaching us that some things are good and some things are bad – clean and unclean.  

So, let us make every effort to touch no unclean/sinful thing because we count our fellowship with God as precious and want nothing to hinder it.