This article was originally part of my larger study of Leviticus, but I have pulled it out into a separate article because the topic is important for Christians to understand. Since I did my study of Leviticus, I have investigated the nature of impurity more thoroughly, so this version contains the insights I gained. This information is essential for understanding purpose of the Levitical offerings, particularly the Decontamination Offering. It also helps us understand some gospel events.
The Old Testament describes a range of things as being “unclean” that need to be decontaminated. To understand the role of the Decontamination Offering, we must understand the process by which things become unclean and how they can be purified. We also need to understand how human actions can contaminate the tabernacle where God lives.
The Hebrew word translated as unclean/impure is “tame”. It means “foul” or “dirty”. The verb “tame” is used to describe something as being “polluted” or “contaminated”. It has been made “dirty” in some way.
The Hebrew word “taher” means “pure”. It is a much stronger word than clean. It means pure, clear or bright. It is used to describe pure gold. Something that is pure is not contaminated or polluted in any way. Pure gold contains no contaminating metals. It is only gold. In the same way, things are pure (taher) if they are not polluted. They are not a mixture.
I believe that people or things that have become impure (tame) have been polluted in some way by the spiritual powers of evil. Modern commentators fail to understand how pure things and people can be polluted to become impure (tame), because they don’t understand how the spiritual powers of evil can influence the physical world.
Religious people usually assume that clean and unclean are religious terms. When talking about unclean, they often write "ceremoniously unclean". This religious thinking creeps into most English translations of the Old Testament, but the Old Testament is not a religious book; it is a spiritual book. Clean and unclean are spiritual terms, not religious terms. This explains why some things are pure and others are dirty.
Everything God created is pure and good. Unfortunately, the spiritual powers got hold of his creation (through a human mistake) and everything they touched was corrupted and made foul. In the Old Testament, unclean (tame) means “spiritually impure”, ie contaminated by the spiritual power of evil. The opposite word "taher" means “spiritually pure”.
The laws in the Torah dealing with clean and unclean describe things that the children of Israel must avoid because they are spiritually polluted in some way. Their problem was that they did not have the gift of spiritual discernment because the Holy Spirit had still not been given. They could not discern the pollution of the spiritual evil on people or things. Therefore, God had to give them blanket rules listing things to avoid because they might have been polluted by the spiritual powers of evil.
They might not all be polluted all the time, but the rules operated conservatively by identifying things that could possibly be polluted with spiritual evil. That way, the people would know how to avoid them and what to do if there was a risk they had been polluted by contact with impure things.
Holy and Ordinary
The distinction between “pure” and “impure” is different from the difference between “holy” and “ordinary” (Lev 10:10). Holy things have been set aside for service to God. The tabernacle and the priests that served in it are described as holy because they have been set aside from ordinary purposes to focus on the service to God. Everything that is not holy is “ordinary or “common”. Everything that has not been dedicated to God is ordinary” and can be used for ordinary purposes.
The categories “holy” and “ordinary” tell us nothing about the spiritual state of the people or things. Holy things should be kept pure, but they can be contaminated by the spiritual powers of evil. The tabernacle is holy, but it can become impure. Likewise, the priests are holy, but they can become impure if they touch things that have been contaminated.
When talking about food, Jesus explained that external things cannot make a person “common/ordinary” (koinoo). However, evil reasoning/deliberation can make a person common/ordinary (Mark 7:15,20,21). This incident was the only situation where Jesus used the expression “make ordinary”. Words cannot pollute people or things and make them impure, but they can make holy people ordinary/common. Only the spiritual powers of evil can make people or things impure.
Followers of Jesus are called to be priests to God (1 Pet 2:5), so they should always be holy (dedicated to God). Bad thoughts and words can make us ordinary and unable to offer true spiritual sacrifices to God. Attacks by the spiritual powers of evil can make followers of Jesus impure. If they are not careful, the Holy Spirit will withdraw from them.
Cause of Impurity
The modern world holds a materialistic worldview that assumes that the physical world we can observe is all that exists. Most Christians reject this materialism, but many hold a pseudo-materialistic worldview, because they assume the physical and spiritual realms are almost totally separate. The spiritual world is “up there” with God, and the physical world is “down here” where we live. We will go into the heavenly realm when we die, but in the meantime, we must live in this physical world, with the Holy Spirit popping in from time to time. This Christian, pseudo-materialistic worldview is wrong and dangerous.
The truth is that the spiritual realms and the physical realm are intimately twined together. There is constant interaction between the two. However, they don’t just operate in parallel. Every person and object in the physical realm is in contact with something in the spiritual realm. And the spiritual realm is curved so that physical objects/people in two different places can be touched by the same spiritual entity in the spiritual realm at the same time.
The evil spiritual powers that operate in the spiritual realm are always trying to push into the physical realm to do harm. Whenever a physical person, object, building or place experiences an intervention from the evil powers in the spiritual realm, they are left with a residual that contaminates them, even after the evil attack has finished and the evil spirits have departed. For example, If evil spirits spend time in a house where people are doing evil, an unclean residue remains, even when the people and the spirits they carried have moved on. This is why some houses need prayer to be decontaminated.
When evil spirits are allowed to penetrate the physical realm, it unlocks authority for them. They don’t always take advantage of this vulnerability, because they often lack the resources to take up every opportunity that is open, but they leave their contamination as a marker so other spirits can see the opportunity and take it up at a later date, when a serious intervention fits better with their plans.
The residue remains even when the spirits have withdrawn from their intervention into the physical realm to go and infiltrate in another place. This explains why a site where a person has been murdered often feels dark, and why flowers don’t grow and birds don’t sing in a place where evil has been perpetrated.
The scriptures refer to this residue as unclean/dirty rather than evil, because the evil spirits have often gone, and what they have left has no evil power. Rather, it is a marker indicating that they might return and attack if they get an opportunity. Spirits can be evil, but their residue is simply dirty. It only becomes evil when a spirit gets control and intervenes directly.
Activity by angels and the Holy Spirit has the opposite effect. The Holy Spirit often leaves a sweet fragrance behind. This is why a cathedral or old church feels different, even to someone who does not believe in God.
Note: faeces and urine are not considered to be polluted in the Torah, even though we would think that they are dirty. They are not spiritually polluted.
Jesus Confirmed
This understanding of the nature of impurity was confirmed by the New Testament. Demons are often referred to as “contaminating spirits” because they contaminate people and things. Modern English translations tend to use the adjective “unclean” or ‘evil” to describe these spirits, but this is confusing, as it makes us assume that these spirits are evil. That is true, but people in Jesus’ time would have noted the link with the contaminations dealt with in Leviticus.
The Second Testament uses the word “contaminating”, which explains more about the nature of these spirits. It confirms that it is the spiritual powers of evil that make things impure/dirty.
For example, in Mark 7:25-30, a woman whose daughter was controlled by a “demon” came to Jesus seeking deliverance for her. Mark explains that this demon was a “contaminating spirit” (v.25). The demon contaminated any person or object that it touched. Once a person was contaminated, their impurity caused God to move away and withdraw his blessings.
Impurity is produced by the attack of a demonic power, not by sin.
Meeting Place
The tabernacle was a place where God could dwell, so it was called holy in the Torah. It was set aside for his purposes, so it was essential that it was not polluted in any way. An impure tabernacle would be a serious problem for God, so it was a focus of spiritual struggle. That is why the priests were dedicated to keeping it holy.
The tabernacle was the place of meeting between God and the entire Israelite community. God is spirit, whereas humans are physical beings, so the tabernacle was a place where the spiritual realm linked to the physical realm. It was a place where heaven and earth were joined in a special way, so it was a very dangerous place that had to be carefully controlled.
God gave authority on earth to humans, so what happens on earth is determinative for what can happen on the spiritual side. When the physical end of a spiritual/physical link is open, everything is fine if the contact in the spiritual realms is with God or his angels. Their activity in the spiritual realms would bring blessing to the entire Israelite community. The main purpose of the tabernacle offerings was to establish this link between God and his people.
On the other hand, if the spiritual powers of evil gained access to this place of joining/contact between the physical and the spiritual realms in the tabernacle, it could lead to a disaster. The spiritual powers of evil would gain power in the spiritual realms. In the worst case, God would be forced out of the tabernacle. He would lose access to this place of influence on earth.
The entire community was responsible for the tabernacle, so it belonged jointly to them all. Every person had a share of ownership in the tabernacle, which established a spiritual link between each person and the tabernacle. Therefore, anything that happened to a member of this community could affect the tabernacle, so keeping the people free from impurity was essential for keeping the tabernacle safe.
God recognises the authority of humans in the physical world, so if they withdraw permission, and give it to the spiritual powers of evil, he respects their choice, and gives up his place. Providing the tabernacle and establishing a link between earth and heaven was a high-risk action by God, as whoever controlled access to the tabernacle gained spiritual power. This is why the spiritual powers of evil put so much effort into gaining influence in the tabernacle. Their goal was to seize control of this important link between the spiritual and physical realms.
Keeping the physical end of the contact/joining place in the tabernacle open to God and closed to evil was essential for the implementation of God’s plan on earth. Nothing could be allowed to happen that would give the spiritual powers of evil access to this critical place (entranceway) for God’s work.
To minimise the risk, the priests were given responsibility for keeping all impurity out of the tabernacle. Their role was to keep the tabernacle holy and pure by staying pure themselves and by guarding the boundary to keep every impure person or thing out. The priests were instructed that any person carrying an impurity should be kept away from the tabernacle. This is why the people who would be going near the tabernacle were expected to purify themselves as quickly as possible when they became aware they carrying an impurity.
Indirect Attack
If the priests were doing their work correctly, the spiritual powers of evil could not get near the temple. The access way between the physical and spiritual realm would be kept safe for God. Unfortunately, the spiritual powers of evil are sneaky. Realising that they would not get direct access to the tabernacle because it was kept holy and pure, they looked for other ways to gain access to this gateway between the spiritual and the physical realms.
To gain access indirectly, the spiritual powers of evil looked for humans who were vulnerable and took advantage of their weakness to gain influence that could give them access to the tabernacle.
The benefit of looking for vulnerable people/situations was they could attack directly. They did not look for people who were already sinning, because their problem was “moral impurity” (more on this topic below). People with moral impurities cannot enter the tabernacle area, as there is no offering for serious moral sin. The decontamination offering only deals with unintended sin and nonmoral impurities, so getting sinful people to sin more might be enjoyable for them, but it would not advance the status of the spiritual powers of evil on earth.
Instead, they focussed on situations where people were vulnerable. Their tactic is to attack people who have not sinned when they are temporarily weak due to a natural cause. This is the way they have always worked. Some sickness is due to sin, but much more sickness is the result of undeserved direct attacks by the spiritual powers of evil. In Old Testament times, they attacked people when they were vulnerable due to the stresses of life to gain influence over them in the hope that this would gain them access to the tabernacle.
Markers
The spiritual powers of evil are arrogant, so they like leaving signs of their activity on earth. They cannot touch people who obey God, but they like to leave their mark on them. Like dogs who mark their territory by urinating on spots around the boundary, the spiritual powers of evil leave invisible spiritual markers to identify the territory that they are claiming. I presume that the markers left by the spiritual powers of evil are like the mark that God put on Cain to protect him from his enemies (Gen 4:15).
When the spiritual powers of evil gained influence in some way, they would leave an invisible spiritual residue that marked their activity in a place where their victim had given them access. If the person went near the tabernacle while still carrying this residue, they might give access there to the spiritual powers of evil. That is why it is important for these markers to be cleansed away.
A range of activities or things are unclean or impure because they have been contaminated by the spiritual powers of evil. This pollution leaves people vulnerable to spiritual attack, if they are not cleansed. The Israelites could not discern these contaminating markers, so they had to take a precautionary approach and exclude anyone who could be at risk, even if many were not.
Vulnerability to Contamination
Leviticus deals with some of the situations where people were vulnerable to attack by the spiritual powers of evil.
Death is the obvious one. After the death of someone, everyone present is vulnerable. When a person dies, the evil spirits they carry look for somewhere to go. Evil spirits carried by the person who died can move to other people present. They can move over to those who touch the dead body. (Lev 21:1-3). People should be careful around dead bodies as a way of avoiding evil spirits.
Warfare – When soldiers are engaged in fighting a war, they will be in close contact with people from nations that are controlled by the spiritual powers of evil. Fighters will often be angry or frightened, so they will be vulnerable to spiritual attack. Evil spirits might move across from the other side to God’s side.
Sexual activity leaves both people vulnerable to each other, and therefore to outside spiritual influence. The spiritual powers of evil hate new life, so they can sometimes try to do harm before conception. If one person is powerful, only their partner will be vulnerable, but their vulnerability will be greater after sexual relations. Sometimes the spiritual powers of evil would use this vulnerability to do harm. The evidence of their harm could be an abnormal genital discharge, of either blood or body fluids.
During childbirth, the mother of the baby will be especially vulnerable to spiritual attack. The spiritual powers of evil hate new life, so they will do what they can to destroy it. Abnormal bleeding could be the consequence of their failed efforts to do harm.
Menstruation relates to new life, so the spiritual powers of evil like to disrupt it. This risk is also due to the link with new life and birth. Any abnormal bleeding may be the result of the harm that they have done.
Abnormal genital emissions could be the result of the efforts of the spiritual powers of evil to do harm.
Scale disease can be a sign of activity by the spiritual powers of evil. Our skin is vulnerable to their attack, because it is the only organ that is outside the body. They can attack it without having access to the person’s body. They seem to be able to function in the air; they are described as the “power of the air” (Eph 2:2). This means that easier for them to travel through the air and attack our skin than to attack other parts of our body. So, skin diseases will be one of the first signs of their attack on a vulnerable person.
The scale disease that is described in Leviticus is different from the modern disease commonly called leprosy. The latter, more correctly called Hansen's disease known as Hansen's disease, is a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae. Infection can lead to damage to the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damage may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, which can lead to the loss of parts of a person's extremities from repeated injuries or infection through unnoticed wounds to hands and feet. An infected person may also experience muscle weakness and poor eyesight.
Leviticus describes a condition where the skin is scaly, hairs turn white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin (Lev 13:1-4). The instructions in Leviticus instruct the priests on how to distinguish it from an ordinary rash (Lev 13:6) a burn (Lev 13:24-28) and from scabies (Lev 13:29-37) which were known problems at that time.
This ability to attack outside the body could explain why the common cold and other respiratory diseases are so common. The nasal passages are easy parts of the body for the spiritual powers of evil to attack and do harm. In the nose, there is mucous, which is a physical substance, but is not attached to the body. It seems that the spiritual powers of evil can establish viruses in the mucous and leave them to spread. These viruses eventually penetrate the body, and have a physical effect on it (even if the spiritual powers of evil don’t have authority to penetrate the person’s body).
Of course, in the hot Middle Eastern climate, nasal diseases were a less effective point of entrance, so their most common approach was scale diseases of the skin. There might be dead skin on the parts of the body that are not attached to it, which the spiritual powers of evil can mess with.Impure animals are a source of vulnerability. The law specified a list of impure animals, but impure animals existed before the law was given. Noah took impure animals onto the ark (Gen 7:2,8). That raises an interesting question. Where did they come from? When God finished creating the animals, he said that they were good (Gen 1:24). The answer is that God had given authority on earth to Adam and Eve. They were tricked into submitting their authority to the spiritual powers of evil, and then could not get it back.
So during the 1000-plus years between creation and the flood, the spiritual powers of evil had a free hand to work on earth. At first, there were not many people to attack, so they concentrated their power on corrupting and perverting some of the animals and plants. The evil angels do not have the ability to create new specifies, as God did. However, they could modify the genetic material of existing species to make new ones. The animals that they had modified are referred to as impure.
These impure animals were the work of evil angels, so there was a risk that they were still attached to them. The children of Israel were warned not to eat these animals, as if they did, they might take on the evil spirits that were attached to them. Leviticus 11:1-28 gives a complete list of impure animals, birds and fish.
Many of the impure animals are destructive scavengers. They enjoy eating the rotting bodies of sick and dead animals. This reflects the nature of the evil spirits that modified them. They also love destruction. They do not have the power to create anything, but they love to scavenge on God's creation.
All the activities on this list were natural events. They are things that everyone does, often quite frequently. The Bible never suggests that they were sinful. This is important. Assuming that the pollution associated with these activities is caused by sin has caused serious confusion. The contamination must be cleansed; but the person contaminated does not need to make atonement.
Life Impurities
Many commentators and translations describe the items on the list above as “ritual impurities” but that is misleading, as it implies that they are connected to ancient religious rituals which are no longer relevant subsequent to the cross of Jesus. That is not the case. These impurities have nothing to do with religious ritual, and religious rituals are not needed to remedy them. Most are cleansed by washing and time.
The impurities are the consequence of life in a world where the spiritual and physical can interact. To make this clear, I refer to them as Life Impurities, because they are associated with normal life activities. They are the natural consequence of living at the intersection between the spiritual and physical worlds. The most important aspect of these impurities is that they are not the result of sin.
Moral Impurities
In contrast, Leviticus does describe sins that produce moral contamination, but these are quite different from Life Impurities. These Moral Impurities contaminate the land as well as the people who sinned. An offering in the tabernacle is not sufficient to deal with Moral Impurities. Three types of sin create Moral Impurity.
Sexual sins (Lev 18:6-23).
Immoral sexual activity allows evil spirits to transfer their influence from one person to another. Sexual immorality pollutes the land (Lev 18:25-29; 20:22).Idolatry (Lev (19:31; 20:1-3)
It opens people up to the spiritual powers behind the idol they are worshipping. It also defiled the land (Ezk 36:18).Bloodshed (Num 35:33-34; Deut 21:1-9: Psalm 106:38-39)
Murder invites evil spirits into a conflict. The murderer will often end up carrying them. A murdered body makes the land unclean. (The only exception is the situation of an unsolved murder. There is a process for the elders to purify the land if no one can be held accountable (Deut 21:1-9). This is not a sacrifice because it does not take place at an altar, no priests are involved.)
The Torah does not provide an offering to deal with these sins. They make the land impure, and there is no sacrifice that can purify the land (Num 35:33). The only solution is community exclusion of the person (spiritual death) (Lev 20:1-18; Num 18:30-31). This seems harsh, but it keeps the evil spirits that controlled the sinner away from the rest of the people.
If the people who commit these sins are not excluded from the tribes, the land will eventually spew all the people out (Lev 18:24-29; 20:22; Ex 22:3.4,6,12; 36:17:18)). When the people are sent into exile, the land will be cleansed because the evil spirits will travel out of the land with them (Lev 26:34-335.43). An empty land becomes an evil-spirit-free land.
Stark Difference
The difference between these two types of impurity is stark.
Life Impurities have the following characteristics.
Natural activities – They are the natural consequence of the fact that we live in a world that has both physical and spiritual.
Unavoidable – Because the spiritual world is continuously intruding into the physical world, we cannot avoid this type of impurity.
Communicable by touching – Life Impurities spread by touching. A person who touches something that is impure becomes impure until evening (Num 19:22). These impurities are contagious. I presume that if an evil spirit attacked a person, they could jump to a person that they encountered if they were more vulnerable.
Not sinful – Life impurities are not sinful because they are not the result of immoral activity. People can be affected by them when they are doing the right thing. Failure to understand this leads to serious misunderstanding about the nature of sin and salvation. Many Christians assume that Leviticus lists of Life Impurities are sins that should be avoided. For example, it is often assumed that sexual relations with a menstruating woman are sinful, but that is not correct. It can result in a Life Impurity that needs to be cleansed.
Simple remedies. Leviticus provides simple remedies for Life Impurities. In most situations, the passing of time and washing with water is sufficient to remove the impurity. In a few more serious cases, a tabernacle sacrifice is needed.
Moral Impurities have the following characteristics, which are the opposite of the ones listed above for Life Impurities.
Deliberate action – Moral Impurity comes from deliberate actions that are contrary to God’s standard of morality.
Avoidable - Moral impurity is avoidable, because it comes from deliberate actions. By making the right choice, we can avoid this impurity.
Not communicable – Moral impurity is not communicated from one person to another by touching. It does not move from one person to another by physical contact. It only affects the person who sinned.
Sinful – since moral impurity comes from deliberate bad actions, it is sinful.
Costly remedy – the remedy for moral impurity must deal with the consequences of the sin that caused it.
Moral Impurity does not pass from person to person by physical contact, but it contaminates the land. When the person who controls a piece of land sins, the land is affected. This is how the spiritual powers of evil get authority in a place. As a first step, they leave their mark on the places where they have gained influence. If they get greater control over the person or people with authority over that bit of land, they gain greater control over the land.
Leviticus uses the same word “tame” for both types of impurity. No adjectives are applied to the word to distinguish them. Yet the differences causes and in remedies confirm that there are two types of impurity that must be distinguished. I apply the adjectives “life” and “moral” to highlight these differences.
Remedy for Life Impurities
The cure for Life Impurities varies according to their seriousness. Most were easy to deal with because they did not harm the person and did not contaminate the tabernacle. All that was required was the passing of time and washing with water to become cleansed.
Cleansing of Water
Where potential contamination has occurred the first step was washing with water. Water is the most effective cleanser in the physical realms. It is also effective against spiritual attacks if they are not too serious. Sometimes hyssop would be soaked in the water, and in a few situations, a few drops of blood are added to the water.
Contact with the spiritual powers of evil made a person or object dirty/impure, ie some “spiritual dirt” was left behind. If a potential attack had occurred, washing with water was often sufficient to remove any sign that the spiritual powers of evil had been skulking around.
The spiritual powers of evil are evil, so they contaminate what they touch with some “spiritual slime” that remains behind when the spiritual power has moved on. The place that they have touched and left is dirty, not evil. It only becomes evil, if they gain authority over a person, a place or a thing.
In most situations, washing with water is sufficient to cleanse the dirt that the spiritual powers of evil have left behind. The following are the situations where the Old Testament specifies washing to remove the dirt/impurity resulting from their touch.
Before he came down and spoke to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai, God told them to wash themselves with water (Exodus 19:10,14).
After engaging in warfare, the soldiers were required to cleanse themselves by remaining outside the camp for seven days and washing themselves on the third and seventh day (Num 31:19-20).
Soldiers who have killed an enemy or touched someone who was killed had to decontaminate themselves on the third and seventh days and decontaminate their clothes. There decontamination is done by washing with water (Num 31:24).
A person who touches a dead body or fresh grave will be impure for seven days (Num 19:14). They must wash themselves on the third and seventh day (Num 19:11). They must also wash their clothes (Num 19:21).
When a scale disease is found in a house, it must be cleansed by washing with fresh water (Lev 15:52).
When a man has an emission of semen, he must wash himself (Lev 15:16).
When a couple have sexual intercourse, they are considered impure until evening. They should bathe in water to purify themselves (Lev 11:18).
If the man discharges semen, he is impure until evening and must wash himself and his clothes in water (Lev 11:16).
A person with a genital discharge must wash themselves and their clothes to be clean (Lev 15:4,6,11,12).
Anyone who touches a menstruating woman must wash his clothes with water to be cleansed (Lev 15:21-22)
A person who carries the carcass an impure animal must wash themselves to be cleansed of impurity (Lev 11:25,28,35).
When a person is healed of a rash, they should wash themselves with water to be cleansed (Lev 13:6
Washing is the first step in purifying a person who has been healed of a scale disease (Lev 14:5-9).
A person who eats a dead domestic animal must wash themselves pure (Lev11:40).
Anyone who touches or eats an animal that has been killed by wild animals must wash themselves in water (Lev 17:15-16).
Anyone who touches the corpse of an impure animal is impure until evening. The passing of the hours purifies them (Lev 11:24).
Clothing that is contaminated by a scale disease must be washed with water (Lev 13:54).
On the Day of Cleansing, the High priest was required to wash himself with water (Lev 16:4,24, 28).
Water is used in the ordination of priests. They must wash in water to purify themselves of contamination before entering the tabernacle (Ex 29:4; 30:19-21; 40:12, 31-32; Lev 8:6).
All the activities on this list were natural events. The Bible never suggests that they were sinful. The washing does not deal with sin, because no sin has occurred. The purpose of washing with water was to remove any impurity/dirt that had been picked up during the activity.
The washings described in Leviticus are designed for protection during various forms of vulnerability. The water removes any marker that has been left behind by the spiritual powers of evil while the person was vulnerable.
In the case of gold and silver objects looted during warfare, cleansing is achieved by putting the object through fire (Num 31:21-23). Badly contaminated garments must be burned for purification (Lev 13:57). I presume that the effect of fire and water are the same, as John spoke of baptism in “water and fire” (Matt 3:11).
Time
Some impurities need the passing of time to be fully resolved, ie waiting till the end of the day, or the week. Some activities need the passing of time and washing in water. Situations where time is required are the following.
Menstruation is cleansed by time alone (Lev 15:19).
Likewise, a person who has touched an impure animal without picking it up was unclean until evening, but they are cleansed by the passing of the day (Lev 11:24.27).
Anything touched by a woman who is menstruating is considered to be impure until evening (Lev:15-23). A man who has sexual relations with her is considered to be impure for seven days (Lev 15:24). In each case, passing time is sufficient to purify the object or person.
After sexual relations, the couple are cleansed by washing and the passing of a day (Lev 15:18).
An unclean bowl can be cleansed by washing in water and waiting until evening (Lev 11:32).
Soldiers who have engaged in war must stay outside the camp for seven days (Num 31:23).
Vessels and ovens that come in contact with something dead or an impure animal are considered to be impure until evening (Lev 19:31-36). The passing of the hours makes them pure again. Sometimes, water can be used to purify them (Lev 19:37).
Anyone who carried the corpse of an impure animal must wash their clothes as well as waiting until evening (Lev 11:25).
Time removes the dirt left by the powers of evil.
Life Impurities are mostly low risk because there are not enough evil spirits to take advantage every time they occur. Therefore, time and water are sufficient to remove any decontamination they might have left behind. These impurities can be washed off with water.
Harmful Life Impurities
A few more serious Life Impurities need a more powerful remedy because, in addition to affecting the person involved, they could also contaminate the tabernacle. Due to its spiritual link with the people, the tabernacle could sometimes be polluted, even if the impure person did not go close to it.
The spiritual powers of evil look for vulnerable situations where access to the physical world will be easier to gain. People who were vulnerable to more serious Life Impurity had the potential to give the spiritual powers of evil access to the tabernacle. The person carrying the impurity had to make an appropriate offering before they could go near it.
I do not fully understand why, but it seems that the presence of the spiritual powers of evil was more intense in the situations where these events occurred. What is clear in Leviticus is that these Life Impurities were more serious than the others on the list, because more effective remedies were needed. This suggests more serious involvement by the spiritual powers of evil.
Four types of contamination could affect the tabernacle as well as a person.
· Contact with a Corpse by a priest or Nazarite.
The spiritual powers of evil will often be active when someone is dying, so death is a marker of potential contamination. Dead bodies were a problem for priests, but not for ordinary people, as the latter could be cleansed with time and water.
Priests had access to the tabernacle courtyard, so if they were carrying a Life Impurity, it would transfer to things within it that they touched. This would transfer the marker left by the spiritual powers of evil on the tabernacle.Abnormal genital discharges
These can be caused by the spiritual powers of evil, so an abnormal discharge could have been a marker of potential contamination by them. The abnormal nature of the discharge suggests that the spiritual powers of evil had been able to mess with the person affected in some way. It indicates that the spiritual powers of evil had been able to gain some control of their victim’s body and do harm. They could transfer this control to the tabernacle, if the person was not cleansed.Scale disease
It seems that one way the spiritual powers of evil could leave a mark recording their activity and influence was to cause a person’s skin to break down. Scale disease could be a sign of intense activity by the spiritual powers of evil. A mild scale disease would not be that serious. But a severe scale might indicate a serious intervention by the spiritual powers of evil that would gain them sufficient influence to affect the tabernacle.Childbirth
During childbirth, the mother of the baby will be especially vulnerable to spiritual attack. The spiritual powers of evil hate new life, so they will do what they can to destroy it. Because they can attack a birth mother so intensely, it seems that the residue they leave could leave a mother impure. If this happened too often, the tabernacle could be affected because many women would be giving birth.
A fifth situation occurred when the contamination of a Life Impurity was amplified by deliberate disobedience.
Refusal to Cleanse Life Impurity
If the person affected by a minor contamination that could be cleansed by time or water refused to apply the specified remedy, the minor problem could become a serious contamination that could contaminate the tabernacle (Num 19:13). It seems that disobedience amplified the effect of the Life Impurity in a way that gave the spiritual powers of evil access to the tabernacle.
These four impurities were more serious than the others because they contaminated the tabernacle, which provided a link between the spiritual and physical realms.
Solution to Tabernacle Contamination
Leviticus provided solutions for the four more serious Life Impurities. The first step in cleansing involved time and washings for the victim or the house. In each case, the final step in the specified cleansing process was for the victim to offer a Decontamination Offering. This offering does not cleanse the person who carries the Life Impurity. It is not offered for their atonement. The sole purpose is to cleanse the tabernacle.
The serious Life Impurities of ordinary people could only contaminate the tabernacle courtyard, because they do not have authority to go into the tabernacle itself. Some will have been into the tabernacle court. Their ownership of the tabernacle courtyard seems to allow the spiritual powers of evil access there. The blood from the Decontamination Offering for an individual is sprinkled in the courtyard. It is sufficient to remove any impurity that has resulted from the serious Life Impurity.
Life Impurities of priests or the entire community could contaminate the Holy Place. Priests had access to the holy place, so their impurities could allow the spiritual powers of evil to contaminate it. The entire community has ownership of the entire tabernacle, so their actions could pollute it all.
The Decontamination Offerings cleansed the tabernacle of any pollution by Life Impurities. Anything that was not dealt with by these offerings would be resolved on the Day of Cleansing.
Current Situation
Life Impurities were a problem during Old Testament times, so God provided serious solutions to deal with these problems as they occurred. The situation was transformed by Jesus’ ministry on earth and his victory on the cross.
Jesus
The Old Testament prophets had looked forward to “Living Water” that would cleanse the people from their impurities (Is 44:3: Jer 31:9). Ezekiel was most explicit. He promised a time when the people would be cleansed of their impurities by water.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities... (Ezek 36:25)
God will remove impurities by sprinkling the people with clean water. This prophecy pointed to the ministry of Jesus.
When Jesus began his ministry in Galilee he immediately confronted Harmful Life Impurities.
Jesus confronted and delivered a man controlled by a “contaminating spirit” (Mark 1:23-26). We don’t know how the spirit had gained access to the man’s life, but it may have been when he was vulnerable to a Life Impurity.
Jesus healed a man with serious scale disease (Mark 1:40-42). This man was desperate, but Jesus set him free from the Harmful Life Impurity that dominated his life by cutting him off from society and shutting him out of the temple.
Jesus healed a woman with an abnormal genital discharge (Mark 5:24-34). This woman had been bleeding for twelve years and suffered a great deal. The treatments of many doctors had made her worse. Healing power flowed out from Jesus and set her free from her sickness. Ny this action, he rescued her from a Harmful Life Impurity that would have prevented her from going to the temple.
Jesus restored a girl who had died to life (Mark 5:38-42). He took her by the hand without any fear of contacting a Harmful Life Impurity.
Jesus challenged and defeated three of the four types of Harmful Life Impurity. He did not deal with childbirth, because he did not encounter it.
The presence of the Holy Spirit on Jesus was so intense that people were cleansed of Harmful Life Impurities when he came near. The Holy Spirit removed the filthy effects of Harmful Life Impurities and restored people to purity.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit released the gift of discernment to the body of Jesus. This allowed the followers of Jesus to discern the activity of the spiritual powers of evil. Knowing the victory on the cross, they can resist them and defeat them in the name of Jesus. Deliverance and authoritative prayer are a more effective way of preventing and removing their influence.
Note: once the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed the Jews lost the ability to offer Decontamination Offerings. They had lost the ability to deal with Harmful Life Impurities. God allowed the Levitical solution to be terminated because Jesus had dealt with the problem more completely.
Living Water
The theme of cleansing with water is carried through into the New Testament.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again of water and spirit (John 3:5). The implication is that spiritual birth is not enough. Washing with water is essential for complete cleansing.
In John’s vision, the voice of Jesus sounded like rushing waters (Rev 1:15).
“To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Jer 21:6).
Jesus also made a promise of living waters.
"Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38).
This living water is the Spirit, who will restore us and cleanse us from all impurity.
Baptism
The waters of baptism are the ultimate cleanser. John chose to baptise the people coming to him because he knew that the people needed to be cleansed from the impurities that clung to them before the Holy Spirit could move in their lives. John had been kept pure because he lived a dedicated life and was filled with the Spirit from birth (Luke 1:15,80).
John called the people to change their thinking (Matt 3:2).
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the release from failures (Mark 1:4).
People who saw people baptising people would have linked his activity back to the washings prescribed in the Torah for washing away dirt/impurities.
In my article on Christian Baptism, I explained that baptism achieves several things.
Baptism identifies us with Jesus’ death and resurrection (Rom 6:3-4).
Baptism washes away the effects of our sins (Acts 22:16).
Baptism joins us into the body of Jesus (1 Cor 12:13).
Baptism is an act of obedience required by God (Matt 3:15).
Baptism is the best way to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8; Acts 1;5; 2:38; 8:16; 19:5; 10:17,48).
I added another important effect that baptism achieves, which is often missed.
Baptism is also a testimony to the spiritual powers of evil. Paul saw the crossing of the Red Sea as a type of baptism.
“They all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:2).
By crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites left the old life of slavery behind. God had already set the people free on the day of the Passover. But legally they were still slaves and Pharaoh was able to harass them. "When they crossed the Red Sea, Pharaoh was destroyed, and his power over them was broken. Baptism can be an important step in getting victory over besetting sins.
When we believe in Jesus, Satan's power over us is broken. Our baptism is a sign to him that he no longer has a right to our lives. Baptism is really important for getting free from his power.
Baptism washes away the effects of sin. But more importantly, it marks us spiritually as belonging to Jesus. We cannot see that mark, just as we cannot see the Life Impurities that Leviticus describes. But the spiritual powers of evil can see both. Once we have been baptised, they know that we belong to Jesus and any rights they might have had in our lives are broken.
Peter’s description of baptism is interesting in this context.
Baptism now delivers you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 3:21),
We easily miss the reference to Leviticus when Peter refers to “removal of dirt from the body”, but “dirt” is a good translation of the Hebrew word “tame”, which is usually translated as impurity. The washings specified in Leviticus remove “dirt” from the body of a person affected by a “Life Impurity.”
Peter contrasts the baptism in water and the Spirit, which was established by Jesus with what the washings specified in Leviticus achieved. The latter was designed to “wash dirt/filth from the body” but this was only a temporary solution. Jesus’ baptism did all that, but it did much more. For Peter, baptism into Jesus replaces the washings specified in Leviticus for cleansing the effects of Life Impurities.
Baptism marks us as belonging to God. When we have that mark, the spiritual powers of evil cannot mark us, as they marked vulnerable people during Old Testament times.
Jesus and Impurity
Jesus changed the situation with regard to things that are contaminated and have become impure.
He sent the Holy Spirit, who gives the gift of discernment. With spiritual discernment, followers of Jesus can recognise the presence of evil spirits. The rules-based approach to avoiding spiritual evil provided by the Torah becomes redundant. Its cautious approach was constraining of behaviour. Jesus sets his children free to live without fear, but gives them discernment to identify the activity of evil spirits and deal with them.
Jesus defeated the spiritual powers of evil on the cross. He demonstrated his power over the powers of evil and his ability to deal with impurity during his ministry. He touched men with scale disease and healed them. He touched a woman with a continuous flow of blood and healed her. He touched the body of a young man who had died and restored him to life. He forgave Zacheus for his theft. Jesus demonstrated the new paradigm, where complex rules were no longer needed to keep safe from the spiritual powers of evil. He demonstrated his ability to defeat them.
Jesus totally changed the situation for dealing with the impurity of people and things. However, he could not cleanse the land if people continued sinning, so Israel was exiled from their land by the Romans.
Praying for Houses
Over the years, I have been involved with praying for houses that seemed to be strange in some way. My first experience was when my wife and I went to live in a vacant manse while I was working as a trainee pastor over the summer. For the first couple of weeks, my wife seemed really unhappy. When we returned to our regular home for the weekend, the heaviness seemed to lift, but when we returned to the manse, she was in tears within a couple of hours. Some Christian friends advised us to pray for the rooms of the house. We did, and amazingly, the heaviness that my wife had felt just disappeared.
Since then, we have prayed in various houses and seen a difference for the people living there, but I have always been a bit uneasy about the practice, because I could not find scriptures to justify it.
When I was writing about the Decontamination Offering in Leviticus, the penny dropped. The Tabernacle was the site of intense spiritual welfare. If the people of God sinned, the Tabernacle, which was the place God lived, could be contaminated in some way by their presence. They could leave a trace that defiled it. If the defilement was sufficiently severe, God would leave because it had become an unpleasant place for him to be.
In the New Testament age, followers of Jesus are each the temple of the Holy Spirit. This means that the house where a follower of Jesus lives is like the courtyard of the Tabernacle. So if the person falls into sin, the place where they live can be contaminated, just like the house where God lived could be contaminated in the Old Testament season. This means that a spiritually sensitive person entering the house where a person has regularly sinned will often pick up the contamination that has defiled it.
In the New Testament age, a decontamination offering is unnecessary because the presence of the Holy Spirit can cleanse a contaminated room of a building. So, praying for a room in a house to be cleansed by the power of the Holy Spirit makes real sense.
Justification for the practice of praying for the cleansing of houses and other buildings is provided by Leviticus.