Clean or Unclean?
By Terance Clark May 3, 2025 6 Minute Read
Week 27
This Weeks Passage: Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59
I was recently listening to some men talk about the sin of David with Bathsheba. They were suggesting that she had more to do with it because of being on the roof bathing. In fact they were almost making it sound like poor David was seduced. I inwardly laughed as I thought about our failure to understand purity practices and laws and how they keep us from understanding what scripture is trying to teach. This weeks lesson digs a little deeper into the practices and purposes of purifications and the role it played in Gods relationship with Israel and most importantly how it affects us today.
What is Impurity
I’ve already talked about how the word sin offering is really a poor translation and was really a purification offering. It was necessary to keep the land pure so that God could continue to dwell with the people. Impurity was not about sin or the condition of the person or object. Ritual purity involved determining a persons ability to participate in the tabernacle and later the temple services. One could be morally sinless and yet ritually impure due to coming in contact with something let’s say a dead person. Not only are they unclean, but they also transmit their uncleanness to others if they touch anyone. So why was that an issue? Because there is no death or decay in God’s presence there is only life so one could not bring death or decay into the tabernacle or temple. You had to be purified first.
“One could be morally sinless and yet ritually impure“
God provided a list of things that caused people to become defiled like death, leprosy or other bodily fluids, childbirth and a woman’s monthly cycle to name a few. One of the important things that was created through this process was a regular awareness of God’s holiness and our uncleanness or need to stay pure. Remember when Jesus was washing the disciples feet and Peter was offended, but once Jesus explained they needed to be cleaned, he said oh then wash all of me. He understood that his impurity may disqualify him from God’s presence. They completely understood purity. It caused people to constantly think about their own mortality and their need to be in right standing with God. Today that has almost been completely lost as people recognize what Jesus has done, but often they don’t feel any responsibility to live a life of purity because well, Jesus makes me clean now. And He does, but he and the apostolic writers regularly articulated that we must live lives of purity before God.
The Cycle of Life
As we finish this weeks lesson let me go back to explain my original statement because unfortunately woman have gotten a bad rap due to lack of understanding of these purity laws. Women play a special role in the eyes of God. Just as His plan for our lives unfolds through a series of monthly cycles that begins each month with the new moon, so too women live out a monthly cycle of life through reproduction. A women was considered unclean each month during her cycle not because she was in sin, but because in a sense a life died each month that she was not pregnant and therefore she was considered unclean during that process. In those days women had to separate themselves so that others would not become unclean due to contact with them and they took the time to mourn the loss of life.
Even in childbirth and the joy of a beautiful new baby the reality was that child was destined to die someday and again the process of death had begun and so there was a need for women to go through a purification process after childbirth. After an initial 7 days, when a baby boy was born it was another 33 days when it was a girl it was 66 days. Why twice the time for girls? Because girls would also bring forth the process of death through reproduction. I am simplifying all of this due to space, but what is important to understand is God wasn’t communicating that women were not as important as men, He was actually raising their position due to the special status they have in bringing life into the world.
Living on the Roof
The scriptures tell us that Bathsheba was on the roof because she had separated herself due to her menstrual cycle. It’s possible that she lived up there each month during that time. The Mikvah (bath) for cleansing was on the roof and would have been a very safe and protected place. Trust me her husband would have ensured it was safe as he too would have used it for cleansing. David should have been in battle and she clearly had no idea he was home, his palace was probably the only thing high enough to see, but even with that David probably had to use some clever techniques to see her. He clearly was in the wrong and went out of his way to spy on her for he would have known what she was doing. Ultimately Jesus has made us clean, but we are still responsible to apply it through faithfulness and through regular repentance and good works. So the question is are you clean or unclean?
