00:00 Introduction and Pastor Rod's Health Update

00:56 Question on Numerology in the Bible

04:55 Discussion on Clean and Unclean Animals

09:00 Ceremonial Cleanliness After Childbirth

10:38 Laws Regarding Leprosy

12:08 Conclusion and Prayer

Hey everybody, welcome back to another

edition of the daily Bible podcast

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featuring me and Well, just me.

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Yeah, Pastor Rod's still not feeling

great, so continue to pray for him.

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Not sure if he's going to be there

at church this morning or not.

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Uh, he's hopefully on the

way up, but still struggling

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with his voice in particular.

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And just, uh, just pray that God will

bring him back to full health, as

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well as his family, and that he will

be back with us sooner than later.

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I know he's excited to get back with us.

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He wants to get back in the office, get

back recording, back on the podcast.

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And so he laments not

being able to be here.

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I'm sure, especially to, uh, to keep

me on track because he does a good job

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with that and make sure that I stay

focused on the task at hand, because

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you know, me, I'm, I'm prone to, to

wander off into rabbit trails and talk

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about random things and everything.

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So without me here, you just never

know what you're going to get.

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So I try to do my best to stay on point

and to address the issues at hand.

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Speaking of, we had somebody write in and

ask a good question, insightful question

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to us about the time period that we

find between the end of the Patriarchs

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and Moses arrival, the 430 years of

Israel being in Egypt, so to speak.

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I'm always hesitant to press

significance on numerology in scripture.

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And part of that is I grew up in the

timeframe and era of the Bible code.

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If you were familiar with that, it

was a book that was put out that

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basically alluded to this idea that

there are, codes within the Bible

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that are hidden, concealed within the

numbers that are used in the Bible.

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And when we look at the numerical

numbers, we can decipher what

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God's really trying to say to us.

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And that's not what this person who

asked the question is implying, but

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it, it, it opens the door to that.

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And really what that is, is it's a

veiled form of Gnosticism, which is.

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This idea that there is a secret wisdom

reserved for the uber intellectual or

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the uber elite or the uber spiritual,

uh, within the pages of the word of God.

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And that's what Paul was writing against

in Colossians though Gnosticism wasn't

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really a thing at that point in time.

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It was a third century.

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Uh, concept and philosophy that emerged.

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So Paul is writing against the seeds

of Gnosticism in Colossians chapter

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three, when he's saying, look,

Jesus is everything that you need.

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You don't need the visions.

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And Annie warns against being puffed

up about these visions and having a

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secret knowledge and so forth and so on.

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So that's why when I, I, whenever

anyone's like, Hey, is there

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significance in the numerology here?

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Look, there's things in patterns for

us to observe, you know, the number.

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40 is significant.

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The number 12 is significant.

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Um, seven, obviously the number of

God, six being the number of man.

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There are things that the Bible makes

plain and clear to us, but when the

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Bible doesn't make anything plain

or clear, and the person that wrote

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this question admitted that they

said the Bible doesn't say anything

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specifically about the significance

between the 400 years, I find it to be.

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Uh, thin ice for us to, to tread

out there and try to make a point

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about, uh, things that the Bible

doesn't make a clear point about.

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So um, is there significance in the

fact that Israel was enslaved in Egypt

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for 400 years and then came Moses, the

type of Christ, and then, uh, there

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were 400 years from the end of the

old Testament to the arrival of Jesus.

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I, I, I see what you're, you're noting

there, but I don't think I would press it.

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I think it's an interesting observation,

but I would kind of leave it at

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that and, and move on from there.

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Only because again, I just, I get really

uncomfortable when we ever, we want

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to press things that the Bible doesn't

make clear to us, especially in areas

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of like numerology and things like that.

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It's been abused by so many

people in the past that I think

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we need to say, Oh, interesting.

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Huh.

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Maybe there is something there.

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If there's something significant

there, I think, you know,

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you'll have an opportunity to

learn about that in eternity.

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Uh, but I don't think there's a

major point to be made on our end.

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So hopefully that answers the question.

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He also wrote in and said, uh, we

probably shouldn't be too excited about

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all fat is the Lord's because the next

verse says that the fat belongs to

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the Lord and we can't have any of it.

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Valid point.

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Yeah.

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Fair.

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Um, so yeah.

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I get that we, we want fat, fat is good.

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We enjoy fat.

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And so we, we should want to, uh,

be careful about sitting here and

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quoting that verse too much and

saying that this is something that

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we want to embrace because then

we would have to give up Hutchins

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and other good barbecue out there.

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None of us want to do that.

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So good points there.

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Thanks for writing in the question.

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If you've got questions, you can

write into podcasts at compass, ntx.

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org again, podcast.

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At compass N T X dot o R G.

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And we would be happy to answer them

on one of our upcoming episodes.

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All right.

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Speaking of good food, uh, we are

jumping in and Leviticus chapters

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11, 12, and 13 with chapter 11,

we're dealing with just that concept,

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the clean and unclean animals.

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This is the dietary restrictions

for the nation of Israel.

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Uh, he says right away in verse

two, these are the living things

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that you may eat among all the

animals that are on the earth.

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So.

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God is going to lay out here.

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These are the animals that

are good for you to eat.

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These are the animals that I'm

telling you, you cannot eat.

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Now, why some animals

and not other animals?

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That's a good question.

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And we don't have specific

information given on that.

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Other than again, remember God is.

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Telling Israel, you're, you're going to

worship me the way I want to be worshiped.

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You are going to be my people.

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You are a people from my possession.

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And so I'm going to dictate the terms

here, and that's going to come all the

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way down into literally your kitchen.

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I'm going to get in your kitchen

and tell you what you can cook,

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what you can't cook, what you

can eat, what you can't eat.

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And so he's going to go through and say,

these are the animals that are clean.

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These are the animals that are unclean.

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And so he begins in verses one

through eight with the land animals.

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Uh, these are the animals that

were, were found amongst the.

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The, the desert there.

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And then also in the promised land, here's

the animals that are okay for you to eat.

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These are the animals that you should

abstain from because they are unclean.

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Uh, what made the pig unclean

versus the, the, the, the cow?

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Well, I, at the end of the day, God

said, this is clean and this is unclean.

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That's, that's the answer there.

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Uh, versus nine through 12.

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Then we get into the aquatic animals

or the, the, the animals in the water.

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What, what can you eat from the sea

or the, the, uh, The rivers there,

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what do you have to abstain from

what's unclean and then you get the

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birds in verses 13 through 23 These

are the unclean birds and then beyond

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that you've also got the unclean

insects in verses 20 through 23 there.

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So God is giving them strict instructions

as far as this is what it's okay for

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you to do and in what you should eat

And these are the things that you need

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to abstain from what you cannot eat.

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What are Out of bounds for you,

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From here, he continues to

talk about what do you do when

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you're defiled by these animals?

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When you come into contact with

an unclean animal, uh, how do

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you go about addressing that?

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And really, again, all of this, I

want you to remember, I want you to

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keep in mind as you read through so

much of Leviticus, it boils down to

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this idea of holiness, godliness.

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This is what God desires from us.

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He wants us to be holy.

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He wanted Israel to be holy.

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to him, set apart, consecrated for him.

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And this is culminated

in verses 44 through 45.

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Now this is going to hopefully sound

familiar to you because this is picked

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up even by Peter in the new Testament.

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And Peter applies this to the church.

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So this is for us too.

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Uh, when it's, it's written here from

the Lord, he says in Leviticus 11,

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44 through 45, for I am the Lord,

your God, consecrate yourselves

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therefore, and be holy for.

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I am holy.

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That's the standard.

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That's the reason.

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At the end of the day, uh, why does

God want us, church, to be godly?

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To be holy as a church?

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It is because He is holy and He

is, uh, the, the definition of

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purity and godliness and He's

the standard of perfection.

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And he desires us to look like

him and he says in verse 45 to the

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Israelites, look, I brought you out

of the land of Egypt to be your God.

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You shall therefore be

holy for I am holy for us.

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He's going to say, look, I

redeemed you from the curse of

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sin and I gave my son for you.

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Therefore you shall be holy for I am holy.

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And so.

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Leviticus 11 is we're in the midst of all

of the what parts the hoof, what doesn't

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part the hoof, what has scales, what

doesn't have scales, what is we're in all

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of the weeds as far as what we're allowed

to eat, what we're not allowed to eat.

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It's important to remember that at

the foundation, it was about holiness.

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It wasn't about, well,

was this healthy for me?

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Was this unhealthy for me?

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No, that's not it.

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It's about what made them distinct.

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What made them stand out?

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What made people go?

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Hey, Israel, what's the deal?

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Why won't you eat these things?

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The answer, because God told us not to,

and we are his people and he is holy.

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So we are called to be set apart for him.

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And this is how he is defined

that we should be set apart.

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And because he's God,

he gets to define that.

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Uh, Leviticus chapter 12, then we

get into more about, uh, ceremonial.

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Cleanliness, and this pertains

to the issue of childbirth.

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And so these are written to women in

particular, uh, in, in what the laws were

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there for women after they had given birth

to a baby, there were different laws for

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giving birth to a male child versus giving

birth to a female child, but the woman

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was to go through a process of cleansing

so that then she would be able to return

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to worship and return to society with

the rest of the people of Israel here.

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Now it's important to note here.

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That this is not a moral defilement.

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Okay.

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This is not about a sin.

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And that's important for us to

make clear because obviously,

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uh, procreation is a good thing.

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God has commended it.

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God has commanded it.

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Even he says, be fruitful and multiply.

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This is the creation mandate.

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So if, lest we think that

somehow God is punishing.

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The, the female for the birth process,

um, she is not being morally defiled.

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This is about ceremonial cleanliness.

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And again, this is about God saying to

his people, I want you to be different.

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You're going to be different than I am.

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And so there's this built in timeframe

here for her purification before she

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then jumps back in and rejoins the

nation of Israel there and the rest

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of the people in the group there.

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But this is not that she is morally.

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Unclean, but ceremonially there were

stipulations for worship and there were

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laws that applied to that for men too, as

we're going to get into the fun chapters

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about bodily discharges and everything.

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Uh, but needless to say here, this

was about the act of childbirth here.

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Chapter 13, then we get into

standards for determining whether

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or not a person has leprosy.

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Again, this is the fun part of the law,

where we talk about the spots and the

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diseases in the skin and shaving the hair.

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When was a person clean from leprosy?

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When was a person not clean from leprosy?

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And there was a lot that went

into this, and there's going to be

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even more in tomorrow's episode.

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And so we might.

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Sit back and say, okay, um, so what are

we, what are we supposed to do here?

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What do we do with this?

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And why is there so much about

leprosy and about putting them

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outside the camp and everything else?

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And I think at the end of the day,

it's because this was a nomadic people

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who lived in extremely close quarters.

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And so because of that, Uh,

this was necessary for the

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overall wellbeing of the people.

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Leprosy was a contagious disease

that could spread through contact.

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And so for Israel, they needed

in order for them to be able

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to survive, they needed some

laws in place for these things.

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So this was more than just ceremonial.

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This was for the well being of the people

at large and that's a good reminder to

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us is that sometimes the laws that God

gives Are not just there to speak to

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our need for being ceremonially clean or

Pure but but also for our own well being

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our our health our overall Well being

as individuals and even corporately as

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as a body of believers And so that's a

good reminder here when we think about

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leprosy in chapter 13 here All right.

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Well, that's our DBR for today.

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Let me pray for us.

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And then we will be done

with another episode.

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God, we thank you for your word.

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We thank you for your kindness to us.

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We do pray for Pastor Rod that he

would recover quickly and even be,

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uh, as we're listening to this on

Sunday, uh, be back to full strength.

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We would love for that.

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That would be great.

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Or at least on his way

back to full strength.

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We thank you for the laws

that you've given to us.

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Help us to understand them

as we're getting into some

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deep territory here, some.

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Issues that are going

to raise some questions.

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I pray that we would either seek out the

answers to them through this podcast or

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through resources that you've given to

us, like study Bibles and commentaries,

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and that we would be able to just

appreciate even more the richness of

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a book like Leviticus and in one of

the greatest takeaways we can walk

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away with is God, thank you for Jesus,

because Leviticus reminds us that the

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law cannot justify us and that we can't

be obedient by the law, but all of us.

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Would would fall short in that quest and

instead we have a better high priest than

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the levitical priesthood We have the the

priest after the order of melchizedek

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jesus himself who is Our faithful high

priest and so we are so thankful for

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that and we pray this all in jesus name.

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Amen Hey, keep reading your bibles

and tune in again tomorrow for another

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edition of the daily bible podcast.

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Bye y'all