Numbers 5:1-4: The Unclean

1 The Lord instructed Moses: 2 “Command the Israelites to send away anyone from the camp who is afflicted with a skin disease, anyone who has a discharge, or anyone who is defiled because of a corpse. 3 Send away both male or female; send them outside the camp, so that they will not defile their camps where I dwell among them.” 4 The Israelites did this, sending them outside the camp. The Israelites did as the Lord instructed Moses.

BeMidbar

This section is about the need to exude any thing that would be considered ritually unclean. It was an imperative. “Command” imperative. They must send every one from that camp who is ritually unclean. No possible source of defilement could be tolerated if His presence was to remain with them.

What is Unclean

According to Lv. 10:10–11 it was the duty of the priests ‘to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean’ and to teach the people about the differences. This is one of the primary purposes of the book of Leviticus.

God is the supremely holy being, and anyone who wishes to come into his presence must be holy too.

But uncleanness is a bar to holiness: indeed if any unholy person comes into contact with the holy, he will die (e.g. 2 Sa. 6:6–7). Uncleanness has a variety of causes and cures.

Lv. 11 classifies living creatures into clean and unclean.

Clean may be eaten, and some of the clean creatures may be sacrificed, but unclean may not. Cud-chewing animals with split hooves (e.g. cattle, sheep), are clean and may be eaten, but others (e.g. pigs) are unclean. Birds, except birds of prey, are clean and edible. Ordinary fish with fins and scales are also clean, but other aquatic creatures (e.g. shellfish) are unclean (Lv. 11:9–12).

All animals, whether clean or unclean when alive, when dead will make those who touch them unclean (Lv. 11:28, 31, 39). Even more polluting are human corpses. So holy people, like priests and Nazirites, are forbidden to mourn for the dead, in case they make themselves unclean (Lv. 21:1–12; Nu. 6:1–12). Laity who become unclean by touching a corpse remain so for a week.

Modern readers tend to dismiss the uncleanness rules as unintelligible or irrelevant. Yet notions of uncleanness are found in most societies, including our own, and the biblical rules express one of its central theological convictions and served to teach it to Israel.

Fundamental is the contrast between holiness and uncleanness. God is perfectly holy, whereas the unclean are those opposed to God, or who fall short of his perfection.

But divine holiness does not merely demand total religious and moral commitment, it means life. God himself is full and perfect life, so that death is the very antithesis of holiness. Thus uncleanness is very often associated with death.

Physical to understand the Spiritual

One of the things that I find amazing about the Old Testament is that the physical struggles the Israelites go through. Help me to understand the spiritual struggles we go through.

As God shows us physically what must be done in the Israelites, so that we can understand what is done Spiritually In our lives. God is more considered with the heart of the matter than the physical, even in the OT but we must see it to understand it.

Need To Separate the Unclean

God tells us that we must separate what is not clean or holy. Because he is holy.

Separate your sin

We therefore must separate our sin from our life. God is a forgiving and loving God. But you will never have that close, intimate relationship He wants and your heart longs for, if you are trapped in your sin.

Those times when we choose not to listen to the father. The one who guides your path. We focus on Him and He is holy. The Bible tells us that we are His temple, Created in His Image. We Must become Holy.

We must notice and take not and get rid of things that defile us. Jesus says that it is better to cut off a limb or poke out an eye.

Next Steps

Do you have anything unclean you need to rid from your life?

Bibliography

Got Questions Ministries. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2002–2013.

Gary H. Everett, The Book of Numbers, Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures (Gary Everett, 2011)

Harris, W. Hall, III, Elliot Ritzema, Rick Brannan, Douglas Mangum, John Dunham, Jeffrey A. Reimer, and Micah Wierenga, eds. The Lexham English Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012.

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Philip, James, and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Numbers. Vol. 4. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1987.

Everett, Gary H. The Book of Numbers. Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures.

Noordtzij, A. Bible Students Commentary: Numbers, Zondervan, 1983Martin Noth, Numbers: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (London: SCM Press, 1968)

Spence, H. D. M. The Pulpit commentary, Numbers. Funk & Wagnall. 1910.

Wenham, G. J. “Clean and Unclean.” Edited by D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, and D. J. Wiseman. New Bible Dictionary. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

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