Leviticus 11:24-47 NKJV
24 ‘By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening; 25 whoever carries part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening: 26 The carcass of any animal which divides the foot, but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean. 27 And whatever goes on its paws, among all kinds of animals that go on all fours, those are unclean to you. Whoever touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening. 28 Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you.
29 ‘These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind; 30 the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31 These are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. 32 Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And it shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean. 33 Any earthen vessel into which any of them falls you shall break; and whatever is in it shall be unclean: 34 in such a vessel, any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean. 35 And everything on which a part of any such carcass falls shall be unclean; whether it is an oven or cooking stove, it shall be broken down; for they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you. 36 Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean. 37 And if a part of any such carcass falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean. 38 But if water is put on the seed, and if a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean to you.
39 ‘And if any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening. 40 He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.
41 ‘And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. 42 Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination. 43 You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them. 44 For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 45 For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
46 ‘This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, 47 to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.’ ”
Part of remaining “clean” for the Israelites was avoiding carcasses. Slaughtering (clean) animals for sacrifice, or preparing an animal to be eaten, didn’t make a person unclean, but touching the dead body of an animal that died on its own or was killed by another animal rendered an Israelite unclean.
God knew that touching a carcass was not always avoidable, so He gave them a simple procedure whereby the unclean could become clean again. A person who touched a carcass had to wash his clothes and wait until evening. Then he would be clean again. But a dead mouse, for example, would contaminate other household items it touched, so the Israelites constantly had to be diligent about keeping death away from their dwellings. Death made things unclean.
And there we see the lesson God was teaching Israel through this Levitical law. Death contaminates. It’s unnatural. It was not part of God’s original design for this world, neither for animals nor for human beings. But man’s sin brought death into the world, and all the Israelites would die one day, for they, like all people, had all sinned. But through the promise of the coming Messiah, God had rescued His people from sin and death. They were not to return to it! They were to keep themselves away from it. “For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy…I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Under the New Testament, Christians are not made unclean by touching carcasses. But we are still called to be holy, set apart from the world, set apart from sin and death. As Paul says to the Romans, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:2-4).
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, You have made us alive with Christ and set us apart as holy. Grant us Your Spirit, that we may grow in sanctification and avoid the works that lead to death. Amen.