It’s Mother’s Day, and I’m preaching from Leviticus. My introductory illustration is about my mother, but from that I don’t want you to get the idea I’m going to be able squeeze a Mother’s Day sermon out of this text.
When I was kid and would come flying through the screen door, I would often hear my mother say, Don’t track up my floors. The consequences for dirtying her clean floors were not as drastic as the consequences for defiling the LORD’s tabernacle (15:31 death) but something close to it; it was somewhere on the life-death continuum. Mother was trying to keep a clean house in a world of messy little kids.
A. God dwelling among his people and his people drawing near
This section of Leviticus is about the ongoing cleansing of God’s people and God’s house. The stated purpose of building the tabernacle was so that God may dwell among his people (Ex 25:8).1 Chapter 9 ended on a high note with the inauguration of the tabernacle service and the appearance of the LORD’s glory. This was by far the closest encounter Israel had had with the Presence of God (9:22-24).
B. Boundaries in drawing near
Exodus closed with Moses unable to enter the tabernacle (Ex 40:34-35). Leviticus opens with instructions for drawing near to the LORD through the sacrificial offerings and the priesthood (chs 1-9). But it does not follow that there are no boundaries that must be respected.
Just like the boundary established with Adam’s exile from the garden and the boundary around Sinai (Ex 19), the tabernacle established a boundary between the corruption of this present age and the most holy LORD of Israel. It established a boundary that must be respected because the transgression of it brings death. In the death of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, we see the breach of the boundary between the holy and common and the clean and unclean.
Leviticus 10 and 16 provide the context for understanding the laws of clean and unclean in the intervening chapters of Leviticus 11-15.2
We will see in this text the danger of defiling God’s house, the problem of ongoing defilement, and the cleansing of God’s people and his house.
Leviticus 10 begins with a problem related to drawing near to the LORD. Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, attempted to offer unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD (10:1-2). Nadab and Abihu are brought up again in Leviticus 16:1, the bookend of Leviticus 10. Their misstep is further defined as when they drew near before the LORD and died (16:1).
The dispatching of Nadab and Abihu is a shocking turn of events in the narrative. On the heels of the greatest blessing in the short history of Israel, Nadab and Abihu are consumed like the burnt offering was consumed at the close of chapter 9 (9:24 cf. 10:2) but for very different reasons.3
There is much discussion about what the nature of the unauthorized fire was that Nadab and Abihu offered. Way back in Exodus 30:9, Aaron was warned against offering unauthorized incense. Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire …which he had not commanded them (10:1), and in the act of doing so, they drew near before the LORD (16:1).
9 times the repeated refrain in the Leviticus 8-9 is, as the LORD commanded (8:4,9,13,17,21,29,36; 9:7,10). Then conspicuously the 10th and final occurrence of this phrase is in the negative: Nadab and Abihu [did that] which he had not commanded them (10:1).
They defiled the house where the divine glory-Presence dwelled. God will not allow his house to be dirtied. They did what should never be done. They, at the most holy moment in the history of Israel, treated God as if he were common. Thus the LORD’s complaint through Moses to Aaron is, Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified (10:3).
No sooner than the sanctifying of God’s house, the consecrating of the priests, and the inaugurating of the tabernacle service was complete, creating an architectural copy of heavenly reality on earth (Heb. 8:5), defilement entered the house and disobedience resulted in death. Beyond their sin that brought uncleanness into the tabernacle, their dead bodies brought corpse pollution into the house of God.
There is a parallel to Eden. No sooner than the creation of Adam and Eve and their placement in the Garden glory-Presence of God, by their disobedience and the serpent’s encroachment, they defiled the Garden of God, and they received the sentence of death. Like the bodies of Nadab and Abihu were carried out of the camp (10:4-5), Adam and Eve were dispatched east of Eden away from Life into the realm of sin and death.
There is a parallel in the NT. In early days of the church we have the story of Ananias and Sapphria (Acts 5). The Spirit was working powerfully to create the church in the world, the reality of the age to come in the present age. People were passing from death to life under the proclamation of the gospel. So transformed were they that they sold houses and land and brought the money into the church and laid it at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:37). Ananias and Sapphira sold a field and conspired to give a portion of the money under the guise of giving the whole amount. They both fell dead, first one and later the other (Acts 5:1-11).
The purity and holiness of the church in the world is something the Spirit of God jealously guards. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Sprit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. In the Ananias and Sapphira story the result was, Great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things (Acts 5:11). The purity and holiness of the church must be guarded. The church is God’s temple in this present age and as believers we are priests. Our task is to guard the unity and holiness of our fellowship.
Dear Friend, familiarity with God and the things of God is deadly, especially in our generation. Where is that sense of sin killing awe in the Presence of God? Where is the fear of the LORD? I’m concerned for kids who grow up in the church around the things of God and are seemingly desensitized to the reality of the Holy God who will not acquit the guilty. The Devil convinces them they can play both sides, a Christian who is a little bit sinful. They have a steady diet of the pornographic and obscene in their music, videos, and games. They are not sensible to their danger and will not be unless you instruct them diligently.
The corruption of the present age has tendency to creep into the church. Guard the fellowship.
The Nadab and Abihu problem reveals to us a more fundamental problem of uncleanness than simply an act of disobedience. One of the tasks of the priests was to distinguish between clean and unclean and holy and common (10:10).
Chapters 11-15 give the laws of clean and unclean.4 Chapter 11 deals with food laws, what is clean and what is unclean. Chapter 12 deals with uncleanness related to childbirth. Chapters 13 and 14 deal with uncleanness on the surface of the skin or on the surface of things and how you know when the uncleanness is gone. Chapter 15 deals with uncleanness brought about by bodily discharges.
A. The world as an unclean place
The laws of clean and unclean confront us with the deeper problem of defilement. All of life, the human condition, is permeated with sin and death in some way. The world is an unclean place.
Not all uncleanness was sin, but all uncleanness was the result of living in a world where sin and death reign. Thus there was two kinds of uncleanness: ritual uncleanness and moral uncleanness, one the result of living in a fallen world and the other the result of personal sin.
Most of the clean/unclean legislation deals with ritual uncleanness. What is unclean smacked of death, a result of the fall in some way, and was unfit for the presence of God. The uncleanness that came from childbirth (ch.12), skin diseases (ch 13-14), and bodily emissions (15) did not necessarily have to do with personal sin. These things, however, place people in an abnormal state, a state less than wholeness, moving them toward death. A person was unclean until he or she recovered and went through the prescribed cleansing ritual. To be less than whole is to move toward death. To be cleansed is to move toward life.
Two summary statements in the clean/unclean legislation help us see why the clean/unclean distinction was so vital.
At the end of chapter 11, the stated purpose for establishing the distinction between clean and unclean foods is, For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy (Lv 11:44-45).
The Holy God brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of death. Out of all the nations of the earth, He made them clean through his covenant with them. Clean Israel lived in an unclean word in relationship with the Holy God. His aim was not to stop at clean but to make them holy (cf.Ex 19:5-6). That will be accomplished by the ministry of the tabernacle as holy space where the people draw near to the Holy God.
A second text that helps us see why clean/unclean distinctions need to be made is at the end of clean/unclean legislation, Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midstYou see then that the contrast between life and death (holiness and sin) is at the heart of the clean/unclean laws. Only what is clean may be brought into the Presence of God at the entrance of the tabernacle because the tabernacle is holy space in a fallen world. (Lv 15:31). Nadab and Abihu are exhibit number one of what happens when uncleanness comes into contact with the holy.
B. The tabernacle as holy space
The tabernacle was a sanctuary created to be the dwelling place of God among his people in a world defiled and unclean as a result of sin and death. This sanctuary was a little piece of heaven on earth.5 The tabernacle was an earthly place of holiness (Heb. 9:1). It was a holy place that the defilement of the world dare not encroach upon.
To be clean was to be fit to enter the presence of God. To be unclean was to be unfit for the Presence of God. Israel had to maintain their status of clean while living in a world where sin and death reign, so as not to bring uncleanness into the holy space of the tabernacle and invite death. How could Israel maintain their clean status in such a world? The journey through the ritual of the tabernacle into the presence of God was journey from death to life.
The laws of clean and unclean marked the distinction between Israel and the nations in the Old Covenant. When Jesus declared all foods clean (Mk. 7:19), he removed the distinction between Israel and the nations. This distinction does not belong to the New Covenant. It’s not that all nations are clean, it’s that all outside of Christ are unfit for the Presence of God.
The deeper problem of defilement was lost on the Pharisees and Scribes of Jesus’s day. When Jesus removed the distinction between Israel and the nations, he exposed the deeper problem of defilement. Our hearts are factories of sin. Jesus said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mk. 7:20-23).
In the New Covenant, there is no Jew/Gentile distinction (Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:13-18). Whether Jew are Gentile, both stand in the need of the saving Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must be aware that people from every nation will be brought into the heavenly city, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 21:26-27).
Chapter 16 resumes where chapter 10 left off, being interrupted by the clean/unclean legislation of chapters 11-15. 16:1 says, After the death of the two sons of Aaron…. Nadab and Abihu defiled the tabernacle by their sin and the pollution of their corpses. Their deaths became the foil to help us see the ongoing problem of defilement.
The tabernacle, as holy space situated in a fallen world, experienced the encroachment of uncleanness from Israel sins. The Day of Atonement was a time to cleanse both Israel and the tabernacle of the uncleanness brought about by Israel’s sin. Thus shall atonement be made for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the people [sons] of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness (16:16; cf. 30).
God will not live in a house that is not clean, and an unclean people is not fit for the Presence of God. The Day of Atonement is necessary to cleanse both the people and the tabernacle.
The Day of Atonement was a day of repentance and fasting (16:29) as sin was confessed and atonement was made. There were two pairs of offerings: purification (sin) offerings and ascension (burnt) offerings for the priests and then for the people.
A. Purification offering for the priests
The high priest would remove his ornate uniform and put on the holy linen garments to offer purification (sin) offerings in behalf of himself, the priests, and the people (cf. Phil 2:5-8). He would offer a purification/sin offering first for himself and his house (16:11; cf. Heb. 7:26-28). With burning incense and blood from the purification offering, Aaron would enter beyond the veil. The incense was to cloud the glory Presence, so that he would not see God and die (16:13). He would sprinkle the blood on the east side of the mercy seat 7 times (16:14)—cleansing from the inside out, from the source of life moving outward to push back the encroachment of death.
B. Purification offering for the people
The purification (sin) offering for the people should be thought of as two parts of one offering requiring two goats to show the different aspects of atonement (16:5).
Lots were cast over the goats, one for the LORD and the other for Azazel (traditionally translated scapegoat). The goat taken for the LORD was offered, and its blood taken inside the veil and sprinkled like the priests’ sin offering (16:15).
Then Aaron would make atonement with the blood of the sin offering for the Holy Place (16:16) and then the altar (16:18). After making atonement for the Holy Place and the altar, he would take the live goat of the sin offering present it before the Lord (16:20), lean both hands on the head of the live goat,6 confess over it (cf. 16:10) all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the people, and send it away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness (16:21). The goat bore all their iniquities, the full range of human sin, to a remote area (gzerah, land of cutting off, deserted place).
The two goats of the sin offering go in opposite directions. The sacrificial goat moves to the west into the presence of God. In fact, its blameless life is carried by Aaron beyond the veil and sprinkled in front of the mercy seat.
The scapegoat bearing the sins of Israel moves eastward. The wilderness (10,22) and the remote area (22) are in quite the opposite direction of the holy space of the tabernacle. It is the carrying away of sins from the Presence of the LORD, so that he no longer see Israel in their uncleanness but as clean through the atonement.
The two goats of the sin offering show the variated beauty of atonement, the satisfying of the justice of God, the purifying of the people of God, and the carrying away of their sin.
Aaron completed the Day of Atonement by clothing himself in his high priestly garment of glory and honor and offered the burnt offerings to make atonement for himself and the people (23-24; cf. Phil. 2:9-11). With sins forgiven, Israel draws near to God, in deepest devotion.
Until we place our faith in Christ, we are unclean people living in an unclean world and unfit for the presence of God. Through the blood of Christ, however, we are brought near to God, having our sin carried away.