Remembrances of the Broken Law: The Clean and the Unclean
THE CLEAN AND THE UNCLEAN.
‘Sm IS THE TEAN80SBS8I0N OF THE LAW.” — 1 John ill 4.
Ver. 1. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, and to Aaron, saying unto
them.”
Hitherto atonement has been the theme. A fallen world should relish that truth more than any. God shows himself willing to save, by thus fully setting atonement before us. And were he to do no more, the blame of being unsaved would all rest on man.
But now, as if it were to “compel men to come in,” he opens up the state of sinfulness in which this world lies. The Lord wishes to make the sinner flee to the Atonement, by creating in his mind a loathing of sin that so pollutes and defiles. For this end, ho lays down instructions of a peculiar kind, containing distinctions that would every day need to be attended to. He first so arranges the beasts they were to eat, and those they were not to eat, that an Israelite would every day meet an object that called forth his discrimination between clean and unclean. Thus they were to be taught God’s disoernment of sin, and the stigma he had set upon it. Though there was nothing morally different between one beast and another, yet if God put his difference between them, they must so regard them; and it was thus that every beast became to them a remembrancer of the law, calling upon them to distinguish between what was right and what was wrong — what was permitted and what was forbidden. The Lord thus set up so many fingerposts that pointed Israel to the Fall, and reminded them that they were in a fallen world.
This chapter begins the subject of sin — its existence in the world all around us. Then, chapter xii. teaches the transmission of sin; chapters xiii. and xiv., the vileness of sin, and the mode of putting away its loathsomeness; and, lastly, chapter xv., original sin in all its deformity. The Holy Spirit would shut up the world to righteousness through the blood of Jesus shed for the most guilty. The first fifteen chapters of this book treat of sin and its atonement.
Ver. 2. “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.”
Some have suggested* that the object of these regulations might be to restrain the appetite, and might be given after the murmuring for quails recorded in Numbers, chap. xi. In this view, that incident would be considered as suggesting these rules, in the same manner as Nadab and Abihu’s sin, in last chapter, suggested the restriction about the priests taking no wine before going into the sanctuary. But this seems a very ungrounded supposition; for the distinction of clean and unclean existed in Noah’s days.
* E. g., Townsend.
214 REMEMBRANCERS OP THE BROKEN LAW.#^
It is, however, to be noticed, aa a remarkable fact regarding the regulations laid down here for the food of Israel, that all the clean animals are wholesome for food and the fish that have fins and scales — viz., the clean — are not only safe, but nutritious. Still, this is only a secondary consideration, taken into account, no doubt, by God, while he, in wisdom and love, appointed this arrangement for higher ends. It is also worthy of notice, that the wisdom which selected the clean and the unclean as early as the days of Noah, foresaw what animals would be worshipped and used by idolaters. Hence we find them answering that use also, while still something far higher is the main thing in view.
To imbue the mind of Israel with moral distinctions was the grand and primary use of this arrangement. It was so in Noah’s days, and probably in Adam’s; but now the development of that system takes place more fully; just as in the case of the various sorts of offerings.
In proof that to teach Israel to put a difference between the clean and unclean in things moral was the end of these typical distinctions, we might refer to verses 44, 45. And also we might refer to Peter’s vision, 4n Acts X. 12, 14, where he is shown that the idolatrous Gentiles, so long unclean, are now to be admitted into fellowship with Israel. There we are clearly taught that there was a typical reference to sin in these ordinances.
We should join the last clause with ver. 3, and read thus — “These are the living creatures (nnn) which ye may eat. Of all large beasts (o«ry2) that are on the earth, whatsoever parteth the hoof,” &c.
Vers. 8, 4.” Whateoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat Nevertheless
CHAPTER XL 215
these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof, as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but diVideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.”
We have another table of the clean and unclean in Deuteronomy, chap, xiv., and some apparent differences occur. But the reconciliation is easy. It is this. In Leviticus, the principles of the distinction are laid down, and illustrated by only a few instances, either in regard to beast or fowl. In Deuteronomy, specific cases are given; and though, at ver. 6, the rule is noticed, yet the object of the writer there is to set down special instances of the clean and unclean, rather than to state the rule
The grand rules as to quadrupeds are, 1. The clean are those that have their feet completely cloven (above and below); and, 2. They must also chew the cud. The complete dividing of the hoof is very fully expressed in the Hebrew; it is, q. d., “Whatever not only divideth the hoof, but cleaveth a cleft in the hoof.” This part of the rule was sufficient to exclude all such animals as the lion and the do, whose foot has a membrane below that unites the claws together, and so interferes with the complete cleft; or such as the horse, that has no cleft at all. And when the next part of the rule demanded that the animal should be one that chews the cud, this secured that it should never be a carnivorous animal; for all that chew the cud live on vegetable food. No carnivorous animal was clean; they had qualities that made them unfit to be acknowledged as proper for Grod’s people to touch. But some of those not carnivorous were also unfit to be taken as food, possessing some peculiarity that fitted them to be types of things which the holy should avoid.
In ver. 4, “nevertheless’’’’ is x, equivalent to “/or example.” There was a difiiculty in determining the case of the camel, whether or not it really divides the hoof wholly, and the case of the hare, whether it really chews the cud; therefore these cases are decided by authority. And along with each of these a sample is given where no ambiguity existed, viz., the coney and the swine.
In doubtful cases, we should decide on the side of abstaining’ from the thing. See 1 Thess. v. 22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
Vers. 5, 6, 7, 8. “And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare,* because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the iiuof; he is unclean onto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoofi and be clovenfooted; yet he cheveth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch: they are unclean to you.”
The conei, (in Hebrew, the Shaphan) is an animal called the daman, resembling the hare in size, and living in holes of the rock. The swine, in the East, if eaten, produce a tendency to itchy diseases, to teprosy, and, in short, to cutaneous diseases of all kinds.
We see here how the Lord multiplied in Israel the memorials of sin. In Noah’s day, the distinction between clean and unclean was known; but only in its rudiments. That general rule is now branched out inW particulars.
* Hebrew, pxix. It is stated by a Jewish writer, that the Seventy interpreters were much puzzled by this word. They hisitated to render it by “Xnytaof” or “Xayuf,” because Ptolemy, whose fatlicr and uncle were of the family of the “Xayoi,” might take offence at finding his name registered among the unclean animals. But neither could they retain the Hebrew term, “Arnebeth,” because Ptolemy’s queen was named “Arnebet;” and she might think herself insulted. They therefore resorted to the expedient of rendering the word by the descriptive term, “Aaovrovs,” q. d., “rough-foot”
By this new constitution, sin was much oftener brought before the eyes and into the thoughts of the godly men of Israel. For, suppose an Israelite of “quick discernment in the fear of the Lord” going forth to his labor. As he goes forth, he meets one leading a camel along. The sight of this animal, marked as unclean in the law, stirs up his soul to reflect upon God’s having his eye on his people to see if they avoid sin and remember his revealed will; and just because this animal was one of those that it would have been difficult to determine whether it belonged to the clean or unclean, had not express authority decided, he is reminded that it will be safe for himself to know the Lord’s positive decision in things that have a doubtful aspect. He walks onward. As he crosses the field, a hare starts from its form, and speeds past him. Here he is reminded that there are things which God has expressly forbidden, and which he must avoid with as much fear as this timid hare hastens its escape from him. As he passes near some rocky part of his farm, the coney or daman, “attracts his eye, and deepens the remembrance that God has made a difference between good and evil; and teaches him to hide from the approach of the least appearance of evil, even as that coney, at the sight of a foe, betakes itself to its rocks. In the more woody and wild scenes, he sees the swine and the wild boar enjoying their retreats in savage filthiness. There he again is reminded of the law of his God; and there he reads, at the’ same time, the filth of iniquity — its impure, loathsome aspect — the swine wallowing in the mire, and the wild boar stretching his carcass at ease, or sharpening his tusks for some effort of destruction.*
* The peculiar abhorrence entertained of suoine, has been supposed to have arisen in part from the fact, that the Heathen used them in their
We have, in Deuteronomy, chap, xiv., an enumeration of the principal clean animals. These would, in like manner, remind the Israelites of what was holy. One went forth to his flocks, and there the sheep, feeding in their pastures, spoke to him of the clean and holy ones whom the Lord watches over as their Shepherd. Another, who beheld the wild goat, amid solitary rocks where scarcely any foot ever trod, feels himself taught that the Lord has kept up the difference between holy and unholy even in the deepest solitude; while, at the same time, he reads the doctrine of a sustaining providence in the safety of the wild goat on its precipices. The hart, leaping in its joy, or hastening to quench its thirst in water-brooks, leads his thoughts to holiness. It is a clean animal; it may guide his thoughts; it may remind him of the saint’s panting after God. Again, the roe-buck, or gazelle, amid the fragrant shrubs, spoke of holy distinctions, and might lead up his soul to the beauty of holiness amid the enchanting beauty of earth’s rich scenery. It may have been thus that it was first seen by Solomon, in the hills of Bethlehem; and often, in after days, it would tell an Israelite of Him who was to come as a “roe on the mountains of spices.” They could not gaze’ on the beautiful antlers of the fallow-deer, nor on .the pygarg (or lidmcc), with its double-sized horns and double strength, on the biiffalds wild might, or the chamois, sent out by God to people the very cliffs of the rock — they could never gaze on these merely with the feelings of one admiring a creating God; they were led to think of them as connecting them with a holy God, who disfeasts and sacrifices. But this is not satisfactory; for the Egyptians held them unclean. It has been from the peculiar style of the animal; just what gare occasion to the proverb, 2 Peter ii. 22.
cerned between the clean and the unclean, and sought the redemption of his fallen creatures. And thus there was a check in Israel upon the mere sentimentalist and the admirer of nature; their God threw in the idea of sin and holiness into all the objects they beheld.*
They were not to make use even of the dead bodies of such animals. Living or dead, by them they must be reminded of sin, and refuse to come near it. Our hatred of sin must be eternal hatred; our forsaking of sin must be everlasting; our farewell to sin must be forever and ever. The difference between sin and holiness is everlasting, not temporary; therefore, our protest against sin, and in favor of holiness, must be without interruption and without end.
Yers. 9, 10, 11, 12.” These shall ye eat, of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins nor scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of
* I think it was not their, natural qualities, so much as the Divine appointment of the animals, that taught Israel. Yet, at the same time, we need not exclude the other altogether. In the old poet, Beaumont (in his Psyche, ix 106-8), there is an illustration of how such associations as the above might be used, when he represents Jesus in the wilderness with the wild beasts: —
“When oxen he, and asses had descried,
Lowing and braying their desires of grass,
He kindly thought of what did him betide
When in their house he entertained was;
How Bethlehem’s stable, with the hay and manger, Welcomed the new-born, man-rejected stranger.
“A flock of sheep went bleating after them.
Whose sucking sons made him reflect again
Upon himself, God’s everlasting Lamb,
Born in proud Salem’s shambles to be slain.
He blest them all, and for their sustenance,
Engaged his magazine of providence.”
any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: they shall be even an abominntion unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye ehall have their carcasses in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.”
It is a well-known fact, that all fish that have botk scales and fins are both wholesome and nutritious. This provision, therefore, secured to the people the free use of what was certainly profitable, and kept thorn back from the uncertainty of choosing among the others what might have injured them. Again, therefore, they were taught that it is better far to lean to the side of abstinence, in doubtful cases, than to run the risk of doing evil. They were trained to the principle, “If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth.” (1 Coi. viii. 13.)
Those “without fins and scales’^ are partly creatures of the mud and marsh; whereas the others swim through the clear, limpid waters of “seas and rivers.” Others of them that are “without scales,” are such as the voracious shark. Thus they were naturally fitted to exhibit purity.
In ver. 9, we are to read “in the waters, i. e. {whether seas or rivers.’’’’ In ver. 10, “All that move in the waters,” is rather, “All that crawl in the waters;” and oven any living thing there that has not the specified qualities. In the same verse, and at ver. 11, “They shall be an abomination,” is more emphatic if read thus —” They are an abomination to you, and they shall be an abomination.’’^* And it is thus strongly stated, because the people might be ready to neglect the rule in
Exactly as Ezekiel xix. 14 n:’’pV “‘nni K’^fl n*”’p, “This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation;” so here, on VpiJJ Dy I’^n VpC“> dy.” ‘•* the case of some of the smaller creatures in the waters. Many of the forbidden creatures are exceedingly small in size; yet, nevertheless, even that atom is to be abhorred, if the Lord has given the command. It is not the importance of the thing, but the majesty of the lawgiver, that is to be the standard of our obedience.” Sin is the transgression of the law’’ (1 John iii. 4.)
There were tribes that were to dwell by the waters. Thus Simeon and Dan had a sea-coast from the river of Egypt up to Joppa. Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh had a sea-coast as far as Carmel — the glorious plain of Sharon descending to the water-side. Zebulun and Asher, too, had their creeks and bays; while Napthali, as well as Zebulun and the other half tribe of Manasseh, encircled the lake of Galilee, so plentiful in its supply of fish; and the waters of Merom, no doubt, swarmed with their kinds. Others of the tribes lay near Jordan, or had some lesser streams and lakes at hand. Hence there was not probably one tribe but had some need of these laws, and opportunity for exercising faith by attending to them.* The Lord also thus evidenced his care over the spiritual health of the seamen and fishers of Israel. It tried their faith when they needed to cast away whatever unclean fish they had enclosed in their net.
Some, indeed, might reckon such minute and arbitrary rules as these to be trifling. But the principle involved in obedience or disobedience was none other than the same principle which was tried in Eden at the foot of the forbidden tree. It was really this — Is the Lord to be
* Our Lord’s parable, Matt, xiil 47, 48, of “every kind of fish,” would be very significant to Jews who recognized an allusion to these Mosaic distinctions.
obeyed in all things whatsoever he commands? Is he ‘t holy lawgiver? Are his creatures bound togiye implic assent to his will?
But this discrimination between holy and unholy penetrated farther. It reached Israel’s hours of recreation, and kept them, even then, in mind of their Holy One. A wealthy Israelite, who has his villa by the lake of Grennesaret, goes forth on the bosom of the lake. In its clear waters he finds fish, darting on before the slowsailing bark in the strength of their fins, and reflecting back to the surface, from their scales, the light that fell on the waters. All here speaks of purity — conformity to what the law pronounced clean. But at another time he strolls along by some shallow, or is compassing the waters of Merom, and there he finds the crawling reptiles of the mud and marsh — teaching him to draw back in haste from the touch of uncleanness. In like manner, far within their land, at the little brook flowing through the valley of Elah, fringed by its green terebinths, the youth of Judah, in their sports, were taught to keep before them the difference between good and evil, while they scrupulously rejected the unclean minnows, and chose the clean, amid their easy angling at the stream. “Holiness to the Lord “^-obedience to his revealed will — thus pervaded Israel’s land and Israel’s families, in public and in secret, in business and in recreation; their youth and their aged men, in their fields and by their riversides, must remember “The Holy One of Israel!”
And now we shall see that the very air and sky had its signs, in the fowls that flew in the midst of heaven.
Vers. 13, 14, 15, 16. “And these are they which ye shall have in ,4
abomination among the fowls: they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the oepray, and the
vulture, and the kite after hia kind; every raven after his kind; and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after ’ his kind, and the little owl.”
The ossifrage is a sea-eagle, frequenting cliffs and promontories; and the ospray is the fish-hawk, subsisting on fish, which it darts down upon from its watch-tower. The vulture and the kite are known in all these countries, as familiarly as the eagle and the raven. These are birds of the air. The next are mere birds of earth. But what is here called “the owl” (“JS!?), is the ostrich. The night-hawk is a species of owl known in Syria, very ravenous, so that it will attack infants. The cuckoo (T^^’O) is probably cTne of the lesser fowls, the sea-swallow or sea-gull on their shores. The hawk is well known.
All these are ravenous in their nature; and therefore there is an obvious ground of difference between these and other fowls, without needing to lay down any general rule such as is laid down in the case of quadrupeds and fish. These are specimens; other fowl of a similarly ravenous nature are to be classed along with them, as the clause, “after his A:eW,” may intimate. Hence, in Deuteronomy, chap, xiv., “the gledc” (“‘<’^) is added to the list, unless the same bird be meant under a different name. The little owP’ should also be taken in here, from ver. 17. It is the’ common barn owl.
The eagle, darting down from the hills of Moab or Bashan, or from the heights of Lebanon, would often teach the shepherd who saw his flock endangered by this unclean bird. Those by the sea-shore would have the same lesson taught th(im when the sight or cry of the sea-eagle and fish-hawk called to their mind that Grod had made a difference between the clean and unclean even in the fowls of the air. The vulture, in their streets or highways, allured by the scent of death, and the kite, po;sed on its wings till it found a prey upon which to dart down, and the hoarse unpleasant note of the raven, would constantly recall the same distinctions; while their loathsome qualities would serve to make the feeling of uncleanness more and more detestable to the men of Israel. While in the wilderness, and ever afterwards on their borders, they would meet with the ostrich, whose disagreeable cries, voracious habits, and parental unkind* ness, would all contribute to deepen their aversion to whatever was unclean. And not less so the small, but most ravenous night-hawk’ that flies in at their open windows and seeks the life of infants; and the sea-gull incessantly watching for its victims, over whom it screams in savage delight; and the hawk, so furious in its attack on the birds of the air; and the owl at evening, awake for designs of destruction. All these, every time they were seen, helped to deepen Israel’s remembrance of the difference between holy and unholy, and to give them intimations of the hateful qualities of sin.
Vers. 17, 18, 19. “And the cormorant, and the great owl, and the Bwan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the stork, the heron after her kind, and the Uipwing, and the bat.”
The cormorant might be seen all over the surface of the Mediterranean, near its shores, sailing gracefully on the calm waves, or fluttering boldly amid the foaming billows in the storm, seeking its victims. The “great owl,” or “bittern”* (cji’^s:), might be heard booming from
* Consult Robinson’s Clavb, Rosenmuller, the Pictorial Bible, Calmet, and others, for a fuller inquiry into the natural history of the abova Many suppose the ibia is meant by the qiajji.
the sedges of the waters of Merom or of Jordan, busy all the time in industrious search for what would fill its appetite; and along with it the “.sraw,” or “purplebird” (porphyrio hyacinthine, niaan ), seeking its supply of fishes by the side of lakes and rivers. By the shore of the sea of Galilee, the pelican fishes for its prey, and stored what it found in the bag wherewith it is provided The gier-eagle (on”;) is very tender of its young,* according to its Hebrew name, yet unsparingly in their behalf seizes fish or winged fowl. It manifests evil in combination with good, and being pronounced unclean led Israel to entertain abhorrence of any mixture of good and evil. The same lesson might be learnt from the stork. It was a bird familiarly known, nestling in the rx)ofs of their houses, possessed of strong social and parental affections, yet feeding on lizards, frogs, serpents, and other living things. Last of all, the heron (nEjx), angry and irritable, would often startle the man of Grod in some solitary spot, where it stood watching for its prey; the hoopoe, also, or lapwing, beautiful in feathers, yet filthy in habits, and noisy in its cry; and the bat (into whose retreats the shining idols of the heathen shall yet be cast, no more to catch the eye by their gaudy show, Isa. ii. 20), coming forth at evening-tide, when the air was still, hunting in the dusk for its food, and often flapping its wings most unexpectedly on the passer-by, and unpleasantly disturbing his quiet thoughts. All these, not only kept up to remembrance that there was a difference between clean and unclean — sin and holiness — good and evil — but by their individual qualities, impressed dislike
* Hence some think the swan may be meant, which will attack even man in defence of its young.
for the unclean, and taught Israel to associate most unpleasant ideas with whatever was forbidden.
Vers. 20, 21, 22, 23. “All fowls that creep, going apon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.”
Some writers notice four species of locusts that are supposed to be meant here. There is the locust (nanx), properly so called, the general representative of the class. It has neither tail nor protuberance. Then there is the locust (Bsbo) called here bald-locust, which has a pro« tuberance; then another (the ^’)r?)> here called beetle that has both the protuberance and a tail; and a third, called here grasshopper (asn), that has a tail but no protuberance.*
All insects are unclean except these four classes; for it is insect that are here meant by “the creatures that both fly (51“‘5’7) and creep,” using feet in the manner of quadrupeds. All reptiles, worms, and insects, e. g., flies, and bees, are thus pronounced unclean — except only the four classes that have springing legs, in addition to the legs used in creeping.
The sight of insects, without number, in their groves, on the leaves of their fig-trees, or the vine-leaves that shaded them, — the innumerable hosts that thickened the air at sunset, or that played on the waters, and from time to time alighted on the head of the solemn Jew who
* Thus Robinson in his Clavis, from Ludolph. Some say the locust, the domestic cricket, the mole-cricket, and the green grasshopper.
marked the sight — could not fail to remind the soul that it was encompassed with unholy things. I remember (while in Palestine in 1839) the vast number of such insects, some of them very beautiful and rare,* which we saw one afternoon by the lake of Galilee, near Magdala; and, also, on a previous day at the pools of Solomon, near Bethlehem. They skimmed along the waters, or flew gaily through the air, or kept their seat upon a sappy leaf — and the eye could not but be attracted by them. Now, an Israelite would feel in these insects a memorial of sin, however fair the external form appeared. No retirement into quiet seats and bowers could give freedom from the presence of what was unclean. The dragonfly that wafted itself past their eye, and the many magnificent insects, though fed amid the fragrance of Lebanon, and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, were all made to speak of God having set a mark on this earth as no longer a Paradise. These creatures on the wing were like messengers sent to admonish the saints of God that the sweetest spots of earth were polluted, and, therefore, they must watch and keep their garments. The only clean insects were the locusts — the insects so often used by God to punish a guilty land and an unclean people.
THE CARCASSES OF UNCLEAN CREATURES.
Vers. 24, 25, 26, 2Y, 28. “And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even. And whosoever beareth aught of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. The carcasses of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth tliera shall be unclean. And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: wboso toucheth their carcass aliall be unclean until the even. And he that bearcth the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean unto you.”
In ver. 34, “And for Mese” is to be connected with ver. 26. “For these viz., the carcasses of every beast which divideth the hoof, 4*^.,” — not the carcasses of insects, which would have been quite overwhelming in number and in every spot. The four-footed creatures that “go upon their paws” are such as the jerboa (the mouse of Isa. ixvi. 17), which uses its forepaws for holding its food, and leaps with its hind ones.
The carcass defiles; thus keeping up in Israel awful impressions of death. It defiles because it speaks of the fall — sin — wrath — curse. They must remember that even Palestine is not Edeu. “Thou shall die” is written over all its dwellings; and every dead carcass is a voice crying in their ears, like Abel’s blood in the ears of God,” Thou shall die r
In ver. 25 it is said, “Whosoever beareth aught of the carcass of them. ‘’^ To carry a single portion of the carcass in their hands seemed to intimate the wish oc intention to use it for some purpose. Hence they are warned that to be found *’• bearing the carcass” (ver. 28), or “any part of the carcass” (ver. 25), such as the skin, or bones, would pollute them; for it connected them with the sign of the first threatening, “Thou shall die.”
The defiled remained unclean “until the even” (ver. 25), even after washing their clothes. The washing of the clothes plainly represents the cleansing in the blood of Jesus. The pollution is washed away by Christ’s death, applied to them by his Spirit. But why, then, remain unclean “until eveti?” Why not enter the dwelling of a man of Israel till the day is done? Why never cross the threshold of a clean and undefiled Israelite until the sun set? I suppose it was in order to represent the truth, that, fallen man, though justified wholly and completely from the sins lying to his charge, and though receiving the Holy Spirit to sanctify his polluted nature, is, nevertheless, not entirely free from the effects of his fall till his night has come. At death, he lays down his polluted raiment and is reckoned quite clean. Bat in truth it is not till next morning that his complete deliverance is apparent to all. It is at the resurrection-morning — after both evening and night is past — that it is undeniably evident that all effects of yesterday’s defilement are gone. He can now enter the dwelling of the righteous; he can go up to the sanctuary; he can stand in the holy hill.
Thus, the man, defiled by the touch of death, represents a sinner’s state. His washing represents the sinner’s using the appointed cleansing given him in the Lord Jesus. His waiting, nevertheless, till evening, ere the effects of that connection with death and sin be annulled altogether, represents the justified, — represents you, believer, — fully sensible of your cleansed state, yet aware that your deliverance from all the consequences, the misery, and the shame, and the debasing effect of the fall, will not be either fully enjoyed or really seen by others till this present day is past, and “the morning star” of the day of God has risen. Then you will gc forth with joy — though now you sit in conscious imperfection, often saddened and often tempted, often groaning and often oppressed. To you Paul says, “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed,” — for not only is the day of our uncleanness gone, but “the night” that intervenes between us and the coining morn “is far spent; the day is at hand.” (Rom. xiii. 12.)
Vers. 29, 30, 31. “These also tihall be unclean imto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind, and the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. These are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoeTer doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even.”
A man of Israel, within the limits of his own field and farm, is kept in view of memorials of sin. The mole,* working up the earth in search of its prey below, attracts his eye in the heaving ground — or the mouse (jerboa) of the same race that afterward devoured the Philistine’scorn-fields — is seen burrowing in the sandy soil as he approachos. Or near some stream, t the slow-moving tortoise drops down into the water at the sound of man’s footsteps; and then the doleful cry of the (n;?3!;) g-ecko lizard (not ferret), that by its very touch injures the victuals over which it passes its cold body, and the strong lizardX forcing its way into the sand to escape its pursuer; and the (i^JJ^^) poisonous, filthy lizard that wallows in dirt and rubbish, — all these keep before hiin the great truth, that he is in a fallen world, where not only the birds of the sky above, and the animals that roam at liberty around, and the insects of the air, but even the reptiles which his foot might crush, are polluted. Look up, or look around, or look down, memorials of sin abound.
Then, the snail and the chameleon (natiar is not the
•” Weaser is not the true rendering of i’n
I remember multitudes of them at % stream near the lake of Galilee, and in similar situations. X up is out cltameUon.
mole*) on the trees or shrubs; the one filthily spreading its slime over every leaf, the other hanging from a twig, greedily intent on drawing into its mouth the gnats and almost invisible insects that ply “in the web of the sunbeams,” and changing color according to the green or yellow hue of the leaf; — these are memorials of uncleanness to the Israelite, held up before him by the side of his house, or among the tender branches which he is examining. At every point he is startled with some object that speaks of the difference between the clean and the unclean — the holiness of Grod, and the sin of man.
THINGS ABOUT THEIR HOUSES BECOMING UNCLEAN.
Vers. 32, 33, 34, 35. “And upon whatsoever any of them, when th«!y are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean unto the even: so it shall be cleansed. And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it. Of all meat which may be eaten, that on which such water cometh shall be unclean: and all drink that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be unclean. And everything whereupon any part of their carcass falleth shall be unclean; whether it be oven, or ranges for pots, they shall be broken down: for they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you.”
These are the plain, undoubted cases of defilement. The domestic in the family, engaged in the duties of his humble lot, has sign-posts set up by God to warn him of sin. The wooden vessels on his shelves, the skin bottles that were filled with water, or ready to be used, the
* From dOis, to breathe. Bochart has been followed by most writers in the opinion that this name describes the chameleon, which has lungs of such vast dimensions, that when filled, the body is made to appear transparent. It alters the color of the skin by thus exposing more or less of the blood to the air.
wardrobe of the family, all must be watchfully kept from pollution.
Their finest cakes, and the richest wines, must be set aside and cast away, if the touch of the unclean creature came upon them. The ovens for baking their food, and the ranges where their pots for boiling stood, must be disused if a spot of pollution fell upon them.
In this manner cleanliness was taught; but much more holiness. Every vessel must have on it, “Holiness to the Lord /” and the garment spotted by the flesh must be hated.
Our private walk must be under the Lord’s eye. It is not abroad only, in public, but it is alone, and before our household, that the Lord’s will must be done. In the minute and apparently trifling things of domestic arrangement we must regulate our actions by a regard to the all-present, holy Jehovah. In putting on our raiment, instead of allowing pride to arise, we must ask, Is there not pollution even here; for the air of earth is tainted? In all things we must have our hearts watchful, and our eye awake, to discern between the holy and the unholy. Wo must sing Psalm ci. in every room of our house, and in every movement of our hands.
Earthen vessels were to be broken; others were to be steeped in water for cleansing. The Lord’s two ways of cleansing away the pollution of this earth may be illustrated here. The water of the Deluge steeped earth till it was purified for a time; but the next mode of cleansing is, “Seeing- all these things shall be dissolved.” Or rather, it may refer to the Lord’s two ways of treating the polluted. He either cleanses the polluted sinner by making him the temple of the Holy Ghost, or he at length destroys him. Now, the vessel of wood or skin at once parted with the stain and scent of the unclean thing when washed: — so does the justified soul when washed in the blood of Jesus, and sanctified by the washing of regeneration. On the other hand, the porous earthen vessel imbibes the flavor and will not part with it, even though it be the flavor of putrefaction: — so the unconverted soul retains his sin and his love to it, imbibes it and does not let it go; “his taste remaineth in him and his scent is not changed” (Jer. xlviii. 11); he must be broken in pieces and cast away. As a potter’s vessel, he shall be dashed in pieces, and with the rod of iron broken forever. (Psalm ii. 9.)
Ver. 36. “Nevertheless, a fountain or pit, ■wlierein there is. plenty of water, shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcass shall be unclean.”
Rather read, “a fountain or pit: in short, any collection of water” e. g*., a pond or lake. An unclean thing falling into these did not pollute the waters; it was only anything, or -person, “that touched them,” e. g*., a man in drawing them out of the pit, that became unclean. Perhaps there was a double reason for this: 1. The wells and water were themselves the means of washing and cleansing’. 2. This water was typical of him in whom all may find cleansing, without conveying to him any of their defilements. Any other would be polluted by the touch; the man who drew out the carcass would be defiled — but not so the water. Christ can let the leper come near, and can touch him safely, communicating health, while the leprous man cannot convey defilement to his deliverer. Christ can receive sinners and eat with them, sending forth health and salvation into their polluted souls John can lean his body of sin and of death upon the bosom of the Saviour. A similar type we have in Naaman, whose leprosy is left in Jordan, and yet Jordan flows on as pure as before.
Vers. 87, 88. “And if any part of their carcass fall upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean. But if any water bo put upon the seed, and any part of their carcass fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.”
The husk, or skin of the seed, was between it and the polluting object. But if the seed was not in a sowing state, i. e., if it was bruised or ground, then pollution entered. So, if water fell on it, then the water’s insinuating qualities, working its way through the pores, would rot the heart. Israel was taught the danger of coming in contact with sin. You must be shielded from its touch: the husk taught this. You must shrink back from all appearance of it: the soaking water taught this.
Vers. 39, 40. “And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die: he that toucheth the carcass thereof shall be unclean until the even. And be that eateth of the carcass of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that beareth the carcass of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.”
Even clean beasts were polluting if they died by disease, or in course of nature. The remembrance of sin entering into the world, and its fatal consequences, was thus kept up. In such cases as these, the tendency of all things to corruption was seen.
CREEPING THINGS.
Vers. 41, 42, 43. “And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be nn abomination: it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination. Te shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.”
The Lord now looked down to the meanest things that moved on the earth, and pointed Israel to them. This notice of them was incidentally a good security against cruelty to insects; it would prevent even their children playing with them to their hurt. But we thus are taught how the Lord, whose eye scans the form of the archangel, and rests on the beauties of holiness throughout his holy heavens, “humbleth himself to behold the things that are on earth.”
It is those tribes that both creep and walk, not as ver. 21, where mention is made of those that fly and leap. It is such tribes as the caterpillar, the worm, and the centipede, whose feet are so short as to be almost unseen, as if it went on its belly. But probably the serpent-race is chiefly aimed at; and the others that go on their belly are included because of their connection with the serpent in their form, or mode of life. These all are unclean; they must remind man of the fall. They must recall to him Satan, the great deceiver (Gren. iii. 14, 15), slily, unheard, and unseen, winding his way into the heart of Eden, and then into the soul of Eve and Adam. The creeping things were natural types of the Fall, degrading men to the very dust, as if bowed on their bellies by the weight of the curse. And thus, by contrast, the promise of the seed of the woman would daily be brought into the minds of Israel. This simple suggestion would be sufficient to cause a godly Jew to remember the First Promise every time a creeping thing crossed his path. A thought of a coming deliverer would thus dart into his soul, as often as a serpent darted along. His eye was thus turned to Messiah at all times of the day, and his soul drawn forth to expect the time when He should come to set free creation itself from the bondage of corruption. The lowest stage of degradation was the very means of lifting his heart to the hope of the highest blessing — “that blessed hope!”
How beautiful is this arrangement by which the Lord has thus brought us to the feet of his Son, at the close of so singular an enumeration of the clean and unclean! We are left to rejoice in Him who sets us free from the uncleanness, and who will also set creation itself free from the same. “For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected the same, in hope; because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Rom. viii. 20, 21.)
WHAT SHOULD CONSTRAIN TO OBEDIENCE.
Verg. 44, 46, 46, 47. “For I am the Lord your God* ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; ye shall therefore be huly, for I am holy. This is the law of the beasts, and
of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, And of every creature that crocpeth upon the earth: to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.”
Nothing, however minute, is to be left undone, if the Lord has commanded it; and hence ver. 44 joins “/ am holy,’’^ with” not defiling themselves with creepinfi: things.’’^ The infiniteness of his holy authority is seen in its extending from the height of his throne to this low descent. Holiness in what we call small matters, is the surest test of real holiness; for it shows a proper understanding of the wide extent and full reach of Jehovah’s holy nature and law.
It is beautiful, also, to notice that the Lord now follows up all his statutes by the grand motive, viz., redemption. In ver. 44, “I am your God,” reconciled to you, and you to me; therefore, be holy. In ver. 45, “I am he that is bringing you up from Egypt, your deliverer and your guide — your Saviour; therefore, be holy.” His love to them is the motive that is to constrain them. And if they ask, What is holiness? it is keeping even these laws, vers. 46, 47.
And thus, in the end, it is seen that holiness is the Lord’s design and aim. He longs to have his creatures freed from all uncleanness, and made holy. He seeks to hear on earth no longer the cry of wickedness and woe, but the blissful cry that seraph utters to seraph, “Holy, holy, holy!”