Commentary - Leviticus 11:39-40

Bird's-eye view

In these two verses, we find ourselves in the kitchen, as it were, of the Levitical code. God is not above giving instructions that deal with the mundane realities of life, in this case, what happens when an animal that is approved for food simply dies of natural causes. The principles here are consistent with the rest of the chapter: contact with death brings defilement. This is not a hygienic regulation in the first instance, though it certainly has hygienic benefits. It is a theological lesson, an acted-out parable. Death is the wages of sin, and any contact with death renders an Israelite ceremonially unclean, temporarily unfit to approach the holy things of God. The remedy is simple: washing and waiting. This points forward to a greater truth. We are all defiled by death, not just by touching a carcass, but because we are born into a race that is under the sentence of death. And our cleansing is not accomplished by water and waiting for sundown, but by the blood of Christ and the washing of regeneration, a cleansing that makes us fit to enter the heavenly sanctuary once and for all.

The distinction between merely touching the carcass and the more involved actions of eating from it or carrying it away is also instructive. While all contact brings defilement, there are degrees of involvement. This is a basic principle of sanctification. All sin defiles, but presumptuous sin, or sin that we take into ourselves, requires a more conscious application of the means of grace. The entire system is designed by God to make His people exquisitely sensitive to the division between life and death, clean and unclean, holy and common. It was a tutor, as Paul says, and its purpose was to make them long for the coming of the one who is the Resurrection and the Life.

Outline

Context In Leviticus

Leviticus 11 is the great chapter on the dietary laws given to Israel. God has just established the covenant and the tabernacle, His dwelling place in their midst. The central theme of Leviticus is holiness: "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). This holiness was not to be an abstract concept; it was to be worked out in every area of life, including what they ate. The laws of clean and unclean animals served to separate Israel from the surrounding nations, marking them out as God's peculiar people. But more than that, these laws were a constant, tangible reminder of the division between order and disorder, life and death, and ultimately, between God's holiness and man's sin. These verses (39-40) come at the end of the section dealing with land animals and flying things, and they address a practical question that would have arisen frequently. What if a clean animal, one you are permitted to eat, dies on its own? The answer reinforces the main point: death, even of a clean thing, is a source of ritual contamination because death is the great anomaly in God's good creation.

Key Issues

Death, the Great Contaminant

We live in a world that has made its peace with death. We see it as natural, inevitable, the end of the circle of life. But the Bible presents death as an enemy, an intruder, the direct consequence of sin (Rom. 6:23). The ceremonial laws of Leviticus were designed to instill this lesson deep in the bones of the Israelites. Why did touching a dead body make you unclean? Because death is the physical manifestation of sin's victory. It is a contaminant. It is a picture of spiritual reality. Sin separates from a holy God, and so touching death, its physical result, resulted in a temporary, ceremonial separation from the presence of God in the tabernacle.

This particular law about an animal that dies of itself is a powerful illustration. The animal was "clean," meaning it was on the approved menu. But it did not die in the prescribed way, which involved the careful draining of the blood, for the life is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). An animal that simply drops dead is full of its blood, and it died for some reason other than being offered up. It represents a life that has simply ended. To touch it, to eat it, to carry it, was to have fellowship with death. And God wanted His people to have no fellowship with death. This entire system was a great audiovisual aid, teaching the people that they lived in a fallen world, a world under a curse, and that they needed a cleansing that went far deeper than washing their clothes.

Verse by Verse Commentary

39 ‘Also if one of the animals dies which you have for food, the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening.

The scenario is straightforward. A farmer goes out to his flock and finds that one of his sheep, a clean animal, has died overnight. It wasn't slaughtered for a sacrifice or for a meal; it just died. The law here anticipates this common occurrence. The first principle is established: simple contact defiles. The one who touches its carcass becomes unclean. This is not a moral sin. The man did nothing wrong. But in the symbolic world of the Levitical code, he has come into contact with death, the great polluter. The consequence is that he is rendered ceremonially unclean. This meant he could not participate in the worship at the tabernacle. He was, for a time, ritually set apart. The duration is specified: until evening. The setting of the sun marked a new day, and his uncleanness was temporary. This points to the provisional nature of the whole system. The defilement was real, but the remedy was simple and the separation was short-lived, a shadow of the permanent cleansing and eternal access we have in Christ.

40 He too, who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and the one who picks up its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.

This verse expands on the previous one, dealing with two more involved forms of contact. The first is eating from the carcass. This was forbidden, not because the meat was necessarily bad, but because the blood had not been drained. To eat it was to internalize the defilement. The second is picking up the carcass, perhaps to drag it out of the field for disposal. This is more than a casual touch; it is bearing the weight of the dead thing. In both cases, the penalty is slightly higher than for a simple touch. Not only is the person unclean until evening, but he must also wash his clothes. This is a picture of a more thorough cleansing being required. The clothes represent our external life, our habits, our actions. When we actively engage with sin and death, when we take it into ourselves or labor to carry it, a more deliberate act of purification is required. The water of the Word must be applied. It is still a temporary uncleanness, resolved by sundown, but the added requirement of washing teaches that the level of our contact with defilement matters. It is one thing to be splashed by mud, and another to go rolling in it.

Application

For the Christian, these laws are abrogated. We are free to eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience (1 Cor. 10:25). Christ has declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). So what is the point of studying these regulations about dead animals? The point is that the underlying reality to which these laws pointed has not changed. We still live in a world that is shot through with the spiritual defilement of sin and death.

These verses teach us to be sensitive to spiritual contamination. We are not to be paranoid, but we are to be wise. We are surrounded by things that are spiritually dead. The world's philosophies, its entertainment, its priorities, are a vast field of carcasses. If we merely touch them, we are affected. If we take them into our minds and hearts, eating them, as it were, the defilement is greater. If we labor in the world's projects, carrying its dead weight, we need a serious washing. That washing is not a ritual bath, but repentance and a fresh application of the gospel to our souls. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). The good news is that our uncleanness does not have to last even until evening. The moment we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. These old laws, then, should drive us to Christ, the one who touched the ultimate uncleanness of our sin on the cross, and who, as the Prince of Life, swallowed up death in victory.