Shadows of a Better Cleansing Text: Leviticus 15:19-24
Introduction: A World Allergic to Reality
We live in an age that is profoundly embarrassed by the book of Leviticus. For the modern mind, which is a mind steeped in sentimental egalitarianism and a gnostic distaste for the body, a passage like this one is offensive on multiple levels. It appears to be misogynistic, obsessed with arcane rituals, and frankly, a bit gross. The modern Christian is therefore tempted to do one of two things: either ignore such passages entirely, treating them as the embarrassing old furniture of our faith, or to apologize for them, assuring the world that we do not really believe such things anymore.
Both approaches are a profound mistake. We are not to be ashamed of the Word of God, any of it. These laws were given by a holy God to teach His people what holiness looks like. And if we have been taught by the Spirit, we will see that these laws are not arbitrary, but are in fact a masterfully painted picture book, a kindergarten lesson on the grammar of sin and redemption. God is not embarrassed by biology. He invented it. He is not fastidious or squeamish. The problem is not with the text, but with our gnostic, anti-incarnational assumptions. We want a disembodied faith, a spiritual faith, that does not have to deal with blood, and skin, and childbirth, and sex. But the Christian faith is earthy. It is a faith of dust and spirit, of incarnation and resurrection.
These laws on ceremonial purity are not primarily about hygiene, though there are certainly hygienic benefits. They are about theology. They are acted-out parables designed to drill into the Israelite mind the fundamental distinctions between clean and unclean, life and death, and holiness and sin. To approach a holy God is a dangerous thing, and He was teaching His people, in a tangible way, what was required. These laws were a schoolmaster, a tutor, to bring us to Christ. And if we refuse to learn the alphabet from the tutor, we will never be able to read the glorious poetry of the gospel.
The Text
If a woman has a discharge, and her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. And anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. And whoever touches any thing on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. Whether it be on the bed or on the thing on which she is sitting, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. If a man actually lies with her so that her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.
(Leviticus 15:19-24 LSB)
Life and Death in Miniature (v. 19)
We begin with the foundational declaration:
"If a woman has a discharge, and her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening." (Leviticus 15:19)
First, we must be clear. This "uncleanness" is a ritual state, not a moral one. The woman has not sinned. She is experiencing a normal, God-designed biological function. But in the Levitical system, many things that were not sinful could nevertheless render a person ceremonially unclean, meaning they were temporarily unfit to approach the tabernacle. Contact with a dead body, for instance, made one unclean, but it was a duty to bury the dead.
So what is God teaching here? The key is the blood. In Scripture, blood is the symbol of life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). This is why blood is used in the sacrifices to atone for sin, a life for a life. Therefore, an involuntary flow of blood, a loss of this life-fluid, becomes a potent symbol of death. A woman's menstrual cycle is the monthly loss of the potential for life. It is a tangible, recurring reminder that we live in a fallen world, a world subject to the curse of death. Every month, the women of Israel were given a small, liturgical reminder that they lived east of Eden, in a world where death and decay held sway. This was not a punishment for being a woman; it was a signpost pointing to the reality of the fall for all of humanity, inscribed into the very rhythms of her body.
The seven-day period of impurity corresponds to the week of creation, marking this out as a significant, divinely ordered state. And the fact that whoever touches her becomes unclean until evening introduces a central theme: the communicable nature of this state.
The Contagion of Uncleanness (v. 20-23)
The principle of contagion is then expanded in the following verses.
"Everything also on which she lies... shall be unclean... anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening..." (Leviticus 15:20-23 LSB)
The uncleanness spreads. It is not contained. It is transferred to her bed, her chair, and then to anyone who touches those things. This is a physical parable of a profound spiritual truth: sin contaminates. Our fallenness is not a private affair. It affects everything we touch, everything we do. It radiates outward from us, defiling our environment and the people around us. This is why God was so insistent that the camp of Israel be kept holy, because He, a holy God, dwelt in their midst. Uncleanness could not be allowed to spread unchecked, lest it defile the sanctuary and bring judgment upon the people.
Notice the remedy prescribed. It is a washing of clothes and a bathing in water. This is a constant, burdensome reminder that the contamination is real and requires a remedy. But it is a temporary remedy. The person is only "unclean until evening." The next day, they might become unclean all over again. This points to the inadequacy of these ceremonial washings. They could cleanse the flesh for a time, but they could not cleanse the conscience. They were a shadow, a type, pointing forward to the need for a greater, final, and perfect cleansing that would not need to be repeated.
Intimacy and Impurity (v. 24)
The final verse in our passage addresses the most intimate of human relationships.
"If a man actually lies with her so that her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean." (Leviticus 15:24 LSB)
Here the consequence is more severe. If a man has sexual relations with his wife during her impurity, he shares in her seven-day period of uncleanness. The contagion is deeper, and the duration is longer. Why? Because the one-flesh union of a husband and wife is the most profound picture of covenant intimacy that God created. It is a living icon of Christ and the Church. To bring this powerful symbol of death and the curse into that sacred union makes the uncleanness more profound. It is not that sex is dirty. It is that sex is holy, and God is teaching His people that every part of life, especially the most intimate parts, must be ordered according to His standards of holiness.
God is Lord of the bedroom just as He is Lord of the Tabernacle. This law was a guardrail, protecting the sanctity of the marriage bed and, by extension, teaching the whole community that our relationship with God has implications for every area of our lives. There are no neutral zones, no areas of autonomy where we can do as we please. All of life is to be lived Coram Deo, before the face of God.
The Reversal of the Flow
Now, if we leave this passage in Leviticus, we are left with a world of spreading contamination and temporary washings. We are left with a picture of our fallenness. But thanks be to God, the story does not end in Leviticus. This entire system of laws was designed to make us look for a savior, and it finds its glorious fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Consider the woman in the Gospels who had an issue of blood for twelve years (Mark 5:25-34). According to this very law in Leviticus, she was perpetually unclean. For twelve years, she was an outcast. Everything she sat on was unclean. Anyone who touched her became unclean. She was utterly cut off from the worship and community of God's people. In her desperation, she reaches out and touches the hem of Jesus' garment.
According to the law, her uncleanness should have transferred to Jesus, making Him unclean. This is how the contagion always worked. But with Jesus, the living God in the flesh, the flow is reversed. His holiness is more powerful than her uncleanness. His life is more contagious than her death. He is not contaminated by her; she is cleansed by Him. Power flows out of Him and heals her instantly and completely.
This is the gospel in miniature. We are all, spiritually, that woman. We are in a state of perpetual uncleanness. We have an issue of sin and death flowing from us that we cannot stop, and it contaminates everything we do and separates us from the presence of a holy God. But when we, by faith, reach out and touch Christ, the flow is reversed. He takes our sin and our uncleanness upon Himself on the cross, and His perfect righteousness, His cleansing blood, flows to us. The temporary washings of Leviticus are fulfilled in the one baptism into Christ. The spreading contagion of sin is conquered by the spreading contagion of His grace.
We do not live in fear of ceremonial uncleanness anymore, because the reality has come. Christ is our purity. He is our cleansing. These laws in Leviticus, therefore, are not a burden to be discarded, but a beautiful and intricate shadow that, now that the light of Christ has dawned, shows us the glorious shape of the salvation we have in Him.