What is up, everybody? It is Monday, February 17th, and we are back with another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Hopefully you're having a great Monday. You had a good Sunday. It's supposed to get really, really cold. I believe tomorrow is the day that it is just going to plummet, is the word that I'm seeing thrown around by a lot of the weather people. Um, I guess there was a threat of some snow. I don't know if that's still looming, but it's supposed to be really cold. They're talking, this is some of the coldest air that we will experience all year. So hopefully you're planning to stay warm and, uh, and that your, your house, your heater is all working, or you got some firewood stacked up there, whatever you need to, to stay warm during this cold snap coming through. But yeah, it is, uh, it's going to be cold this week. So hopefully you are prepared for that. And ready to continue to stay warm with a good cup of coffee and the word of God, which is where we are turning our attention to right now. So man, without Pastor Rod here, there's not a lot of googly to, uh, to cover for us. And so we're going to just get straight to it. We're going to go Leviticus 14 and 15 today, Leviticus 14. And 15 today, uh, we talked about leprosy yesterday. We're still talking about leprosy today with what to do with the lepers. Yesterday was kind of, here's how you identify leprosy. Here's how you diagnose. This is somebody who has leprosy and yes, they are unclean. Now in chapter 14, we read into what do you do with that person? What does the cleansing process look like for the leper? And so in chapter 14, first 30 verses or so 31 verses are about the cleansing process. So versus two to nine week, one of the cleansing process versus 10 through 20 week, two of the cleansing process. Um, notice they also, Get the blood on the extremities just like Aaron did in Leviticus 14 14 Here it talks about the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and the police shall put it on the lobe of the right ear Who of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot? So again consecrating the things that he hears the things that he hears does with his hands and the places he goes with his feet. He is consecrating the whole person. The whole person is being redeemed or cleansed through this. And then notice also the oil, the oil had a purification purpose here. Um, more than just an anointing one, the oil was in some ways an antiseptic. Antiseptic? Yeah, I believe that's the word I'm looking for. It had a literal cleansing element to it, at least at this time period. And so that's why they were bringing the oil in to the lepers. It wasn't to consecrate them or anoint them for a priestly role, but it was part of the cleansing process of the leper themselves. And then in verses 21 through 31, uh, we get rules for the, the poor person. If they don't have all of these things, they can't make all these sacrifices. What do they do? How do they go about that? God provides for them as well. So chapter 14, uh, this first part, at least, what do you do with lepers? How do you cleanse the lepers? Okay. What about their house? Uh, leprosy at this time could take root in the house and the building itself because of the nature of the way these houses were constructed in the plaster or in the dirt or in the other materials in the house the leprous disease apparently could Show up in the house. And so that was uh something that that presented the the israelites with a problem They needed to know how do we? Cleanse the house. What do we need to do here? And sometimes the house couldn't be cleansed. Sometimes it had to be destroyed. Other times, if there was success, the house itself had to have atonement made for it. And then it was declared clean. That's interesting, right? We often think of atonement being made for a person. In the center, but here, uh, the, the house is the thing being made, having atonement made for it or offered for it. And again, God is saying, Hey, we need to make sure that this house is clean and this is how we're going to go about formally making sure that the house is clean. And so this is leprosy, leprosy through chapter 14 here. All right. Chapter 15 out of the frying pan and into the fire, we go from leprosy to bodily fluids. Okay. Uh, yeah. This is, uh, this is more fun, appetizing conversation and reading for us, but this is God's word and it was important at the time. And again, we enter into another situation here with these issues here with males and females. And we'll keep it PGA as we're talking through this. And these were things that were, um, Uh, that were sometimes disease oriented in that could defile, um, uh, there were contagion elements here. Uh, and so that's why the things that the person would sit upon or anyone who touched certain things were, um, were considered unclean. This is verses two through 12. I'm looking at specifically here because it's, it's separated from in verses 16 through 17. The reproductive elements here of the bodily fluids in verses 16 to 17 there, um, that is, is addressed in and of itself there. Um, and, and what's interesting about this in verse 18, and I'll let you parents kind of navigate your way through this is. This is this is something that that ultimately at the end of the day it was a good thing, right? God designed the relationship between a man and a woman and so we get into this question here of going Okay, if God designed this then why did it defile? It's the same question that I dealt with yesterday with regards to a woman in childbirth And the issue is the the act between a man and a woman Was not as long as it was done within the confines of marriage was not morally defiling but again Ceremonially defiling that that God had certain rules and stipulations regulations for how he wanted people to approach him in worship And it wasn't to be done Uh, without thought, it wasn't to be done, you know, you weren't supposed to come out of the muck and into the throne room. Um, it was to be done with great intentionality and care. And so God is laying out these rules and regulations and stipulations saying, yes, this is part of daily life, but understand that coming to worship me is not just another part of daily life, that there's, there's rules and regulations for ceremonial cleanliness, uh, for when you are allowed to come into my presence. It's, again, one of those mind boggling things for us as we sit here as New Testament Christians because we have access through the Spirit who indwells us to approach the throne to find grace and mercy to help in time of need, at any time of need that we have, without consideration of whether or not we are clean or unclean, ceremonially speaking. Now, We need to be carefully not to be careful not to be morally unclean. There's something about hypocrisy. There's a fear there that we need to have about being morally defiled and consciously morally defiled as we go to worship the worship God and not to have sought forgiveness and confessed our sins and And that's something that, that carries over, I believe, but, but we can be grateful that there is no ceremonial categories for us where you're not clean. You're not allowed to come to church this week because you were sick. You're not allowed to come to church this week because this happened to you or that happened to you or ladies, you're not allowed to come to church for three, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, seven weeks, because you had a baby. There's a freedom that we have to come into worship that wasn't there in the Old Testament. And again, part of that was God was showing the people how He wanted them to worship Him. How He wanted them to draw near to Him. How He wanted to be approached and glorified and exalted by this people that He was forming. And making brand new versus 19 through 30 of chapter, uh, 15 here, we are involved in, uh, the, the females. Now we talked about the males. Now we're talking about the females and the issue of menstruation and the issue of other issues there with, with the women. And there were again, rules and regulations for them as far as ceremonial cleanliness. Um, and so this is part of, of. Everything going on here. And it's interesting to note that there's sacrifices required for the cleansing element here. And I admit, and I wish Pastor Rod was here for this to kind of kick back and forth as a sounding board to get some of his thoughts on this, because I admit, It's, it's difficult. The sacrificial side of things, the ceremonial side of things, it's some of these things are, are, are things that can't be helped. And yet God is saying, Hey, this is the way it is. And when this is the case, you're not clean. You're not to come in and worship me freely until you are cleansed until you go through this process. And again, at the end of the day, all I can do is sit back and say, God was trying to show them how different and distinct and unique he was. The gods in the nations around them, they were carved out of trees or stone, and they sat on a shelf in somebody's house. I mean, think of, of Rachel and the household gods of Laban. Think about that situation. She was able to grab them and bring them with her, and she sat on top of them, right? God is saying, I am not like any other God. That is. Anywhere you look around, I am holy as we saw in Leviticus 11, and you should be holy and know that I am so holy that you have got to take great care in how you approach me and how you come before me and how you enter my presence. And these are my rules and regulations and stipulations. These are the things that are going to make you unclean. These are the things that will cleanse you. And so here it is. Live by it, obey it, abide by it. That's the only conclusion I can reach at the end of the day as to why some of these things are the way they are, because it's puzzling. But at the end of the day, we have to say, okay, God, we're going to trust you that this is why you laid out these rules and regulations this way. And then we come in verse 31 to the purpose of all of this, right? Thus you shall keep the people of israel separate from their uncleanness lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my Tabernacle and so that's what i'm saying here That god wanted them to know that that there was a defilement that could take place in his tabernacle by the common things Common things that happened to people common things that people engaged in these things were defiling to god's worship space, his holy space. Think about Uzziah, um, who I believe it was R. C. Sproul who said, Uzziah's greatest mistake was thinking that he, his hand was cleaner than the dirt. Uh, when he reached out to steady the arc of the covenant, when it was going to fall from the cart itself, that Uzziah's greatest, greatest mistake was believing that he was cleaner than the ground. And, and that's what we're talking about here. That, that humanity broken, sinful humanity. That even our bodies can make us defiled before God. And again, what should that do for us, but cause us to be so much more grateful for Jesus and salvation and the new covenant in our relationship that we get to have with God as a result of that. Let me pray and then we'll be done with today's episode. God, thank you for those blessings, the blessings of the new covenant, the blessings of our great high priest who has opened the door for us to approach, to find mercy and grace, to help in time of need whenever that time of need comes up. Lord, we do want to be careful not to be morally, uh, defiled when we come to worship you. If we want to be like David, searching our hearts before we come into your presence and saying, Lord, try me and know me. And if there's any grievous way, any sinful way in me, what I want to put that off. We do want that. We desire to be like that and to maintain that mindset. And so give us that drive and that desire at the same time as we enjoy. Not having to worry about being ceremonially defiled, but being able to freely worship you what a gift and blessing that is. And so we pray that we would live in light of that this week. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right, y'all keep reading your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Bye y'all.