00:00 Intro and Weather (Ponder, Watch Your Back!)

01:06 Leviticus 14: Cleansing the Lepers

03:03 Leviticus 14: Cleansing the House

04:05 Leviticus 15: Bodily Fluids and Cleanliness

09:46 Purpose of Cleanliness Laws

10:56 Conclusion and Prayer

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Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

What is up, everybody?

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It is Monday, February 17th, and

we are back with another edition

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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Hopefully you're having a great Monday.

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You had a good Sunday.

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It's supposed to get really, really cold.

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I believe tomorrow is the day that

it is just going to plummet, is the

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word that I'm seeing thrown around

by a lot of the weather people.

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Um, I guess there was

a threat of some snow.

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I don't know if that's still looming,

but it's supposed to be really cold.

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They're talking, this is some

of the coldest air that we

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will experience all year.

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So hopefully you're planning to stay

warm and, uh, and that your, your

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house, your heater is all working, or

you got some firewood stacked up there,

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whatever you need to, to stay warm

during this cold snap coming through.

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But yeah, it is, uh, it's

going to be cold this week.

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So hopefully you are prepared for that.

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And ready to continue to stay warm

with a good cup of coffee and the

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word of God, which is where we are

turning our attention to right now.

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So man, without Pastor Rod

here, there's not a lot of

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googly to, uh, to cover for us.

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And so we're going to

just get straight to it.

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We're going to go Leviticus

14 and 15 today, Leviticus 14.

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And 15 today, uh, we talked

about leprosy yesterday.

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We're still talking about leprosy

today with what to do with the lepers.

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Yesterday was kind of, here's

how you identify leprosy.

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Here's how you diagnose.

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This is somebody who has leprosy

and yes, they are unclean.

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Now in chapter 14, we read into

what do you do with that person?

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What does the cleansing process

look like for the leper?

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And so in chapter 14, first

30 verses or so 31 verses are

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about the cleansing process.

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So versus two to nine week, one of the

cleansing process versus 10 through

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20 week, two of the cleansing process.

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Um, notice they also, Get the blood

on the extremities just like Aaron did

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in Leviticus 14 14 Here it talks about

the priest shall take some of the blood

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of the guilt offering and the police

shall put it on the lobe of the right

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ear Who of him who is to be cleansed

and on the thumb of his right hand

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and on the big toe of his right foot?

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So again consecrating the things

that he hears the things that

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he hears does with his hands and

the places he goes with his feet.

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He is consecrating the whole person.

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The whole person is being

redeemed or cleansed through this.

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And then notice also the oil, the

oil had a purification purpose here.

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Um, more than just an anointing one,

the oil was in some ways an antiseptic.

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Antiseptic?

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Yeah, I believe that's

the word I'm looking for.

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It had a literal cleansing element

to it, at least at this time period.

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And so that's why they were

bringing the oil in to the lepers.

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It wasn't to consecrate them or

anoint them for a priestly role,

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but it was part of the cleansing

process of the leper themselves.

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And then in verses 21 through 31, uh,

we get rules for the, the poor person.

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If they don't have all of these things,

they can't make all these sacrifices.

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What do they do?

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How do they go about that?

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God provides for them as well.

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So chapter 14, uh, this first part,

at least, what do you do with lepers?

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How do you cleanse the lepers?

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Okay.

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What about their house?

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Uh, leprosy at this time could take

root in the house and the building

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itself because of the nature of the way

these houses were constructed in the

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plaster or in the dirt or in the other

materials in the house the leprous disease

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apparently could Show up in the house.

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And so that was uh something that that

presented the the israelites with a

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problem They needed to know how do we?

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Cleanse the house.

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What do we need to do here?

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And sometimes the house

couldn't be cleansed.

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Sometimes it had to be destroyed.

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Other times, if there was

success, the house itself had

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to have atonement made for it.

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And then it was declared clean.

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That's interesting, right?

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We often think of atonement

being made for a person.

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In the center, but here, uh, the, the

house is the thing being made, having

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atonement made for it or offered for it.

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And again, God is saying, Hey, we

need to make sure that this house

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is clean and this is how we're

going to go about formally making

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sure that the house is clean.

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And so this is leprosy, leprosy

through chapter 14 here.

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All right.

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Chapter 15 out of the frying

pan and into the fire, we go

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from leprosy to bodily fluids.

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Okay.

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Uh, yeah.

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This is, uh, this is more fun,

appetizing conversation and reading

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for us, but this is God's word

and it was important at the time.

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And again, we enter into another

situation here with these issues

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here with males and females.

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And we'll keep it PGA as

we're talking through this.

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And these were things that were,

um, Uh, that were sometimes disease

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oriented in that could defile, um, uh,

there were contagion elements here.

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Uh, and so that's why the things

that the person would sit upon or

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anyone who touched certain things

were, um, were considered unclean.

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This is verses two through 12.

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I'm looking at specifically here

because it's, it's separated

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from in verses 16 through 17.

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The reproductive elements here

of the bodily fluids in verses

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16 to 17 there, um, that is, is

addressed in and of itself there.

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Um, and, and what's interesting about

this in verse 18, and I'll let you parents

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kind of navigate your way through this is.

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This is this is something that

that ultimately at the end of the

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day it was a good thing, right?

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God designed the relationship between

a man and a woman and so we get into

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this question here of going Okay, if God

designed this then why did it defile?

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It's the same question that I dealt

with yesterday with regards to a woman

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in childbirth And the issue is the

the act between a man and a woman Was

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not as long as it was done within the

confines of marriage was not morally

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defiling but again Ceremonially defiling

that that God had certain rules and

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stipulations regulations for how he

wanted people to approach him in worship

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And it wasn't to be done Uh, without

thought, it wasn't to be done, you

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know, you weren't supposed to come out

of the muck and into the throne room.

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Um, it was to be done with

great intentionality and care.

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And so God is laying out these rules

and regulations and stipulations saying,

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yes, this is part of daily life, but

understand that coming to worship me is

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not just another part of daily life, that

there's, there's rules and regulations

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for ceremonial cleanliness, uh, for when

you are allowed to come into my presence.

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It's, again, one of those mind boggling

things for us as we sit here as New

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Testament Christians because we have

access through the Spirit who indwells

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us to approach the throne to find grace

and mercy to help in time of need, at

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any time of need that we have, without

consideration of whether or not we are

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clean or unclean, ceremonially speaking.

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Now, We need to be carefully not to

be careful not to be morally unclean.

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There's something about hypocrisy.

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There's a fear there that we need to

have about being morally defiled and

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consciously morally defiled as we go to

worship the worship God and not to have

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sought forgiveness and confessed our

sins and And that's something that, that

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carries over, I believe, but, but we can

be grateful that there is no ceremonial

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categories for us where you're not clean.

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You're not allowed to come to church

this week because you were sick.

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You're not allowed to come to church this

week because this happened to you or that

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happened to you or ladies, you're not

allowed to come to church for three, three

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weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks,

seven weeks, because you had a baby.

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There's a freedom that we have

to come into worship that wasn't

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there in the Old Testament.

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And again, part of that was

God was showing the people how

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He wanted them to worship Him.

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How He wanted them to draw near to Him.

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How He wanted to be approached

and glorified and exalted by

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this people that He was forming.

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And making brand new versus 19 through

30 of chapter, uh, 15 here, we are

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involved in, uh, the, the females.

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Now we talked about the males.

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Now we're talking about the females and

the issue of menstruation and the issue of

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other issues there with, with the women.

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And there were again, rules

and regulations for them as

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far as ceremonial cleanliness.

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Um, and so this is part of, of.

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Everything going on here.

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And it's interesting to note

that there's sacrifices required

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for the cleansing element here.

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And I admit, and I wish Pastor Rod

was here for this to kind of kick

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back and forth as a sounding board

to get some of his thoughts on this,

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because I admit, It's, it's difficult.

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The sacrificial side of things,

the ceremonial side of things,

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it's some of these things are, are,

are things that can't be helped.

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And yet God is saying,

Hey, this is the way it is.

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And when this is the

case, you're not clean.

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You're not to come in and worship

me freely until you are cleansed

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until you go through this process.

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And again, at the end of the day,

all I can do is sit back and say, God

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was trying to show them how different

and distinct and unique he was.

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The gods in the nations around them, they

were carved out of trees or stone, and

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they sat on a shelf in somebody's house.

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I mean, think of, of Rachel and

the household gods of Laban.

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Think about that situation.

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She was able to grab them and

bring them with her, and she

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sat on top of them, right?

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God is saying, I am

not like any other God.

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That is.

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Anywhere you look around, I am holy as

we saw in Leviticus 11, and you should

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be holy and know that I am so holy

that you have got to take great care

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in how you approach me and how you come

before me and how you enter my presence.

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And these are my rules and

regulations and stipulations.

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These are the things that are

going to make you unclean.

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These are the things

that will cleanse you.

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And so here it is.

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Live by it, obey it, abide by it.

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That's the only conclusion I can

reach at the end of the day as to

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why some of these things are the

way they are, because it's puzzling.

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But at the end of the day, we have to

say, okay, God, we're going to trust

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you that this is why you laid out

these rules and regulations this way.

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And then we come in verse 31 to

the purpose of all of this, right?

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Thus you shall keep the people of israel

separate from their uncleanness lest they

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die in their uncleanness by defiling my

Tabernacle and so that's what i'm saying

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here That god wanted them to know that

that there was a defilement that could

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take place in his tabernacle by the

common things Common things that happened

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to people common things that people

engaged in these things were defiling

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to god's worship space, his holy space.

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Think about Uzziah, um,

who I believe it was R.

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C.

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Sproul who said, Uzziah's greatest

mistake was thinking that he, his

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hand was cleaner than the dirt.

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Uh, when he reached out to steady the

arc of the covenant, when it was going to

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fall from the cart itself, that Uzziah's

greatest, greatest mistake was believing

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that he was cleaner than the ground.

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And, and that's what

we're talking about here.

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That, that humanity

broken, sinful humanity.

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That even our bodies can

make us defiled before God.

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And again, what should that do for us,

but cause us to be so much more grateful

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for Jesus and salvation and the new

covenant in our relationship that we get

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to have with God as a result of that.

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Let me pray and then we'll

be done with today's episode.

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God, thank you for those blessings,

the blessings of the new covenant, the

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blessings of our great high priest who

has opened the door for us to approach, to

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find mercy and grace, to help in time of

need whenever that time of need comes up.

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Lord, we do want to be careful

not to be morally, uh, defiled

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when we come to worship you.

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If we want to be like David, searching our

hearts before we come into your presence

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and saying, Lord, try me and know me.

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And if there's any grievous

way, any sinful way in me,

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what I want to put that off.

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We do want that.

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We desire to be like that

and to maintain that mindset.

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And so give us that drive and that

desire at the same time as we enjoy.

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Not having to worry about being

ceremonially defiled, but being

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able to freely worship you what

a gift and blessing that is.

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And so we pray that we would

live in light of that this week.

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We pray in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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All right, y'all 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.