In the 5th and 6th chapters of Numbers we encounter a number of laws and rituals that seem disjointed at first glance.
There are commands for sending the 'ritually unclean' outside the camp. All those with a skin disease, a discharge or who have had contact with a dead body are to be sent outside the camp.
There is instruction on being restored after having 'broken faith with God' by sinning against one's neighbour.
There is instruction on a strange ritual for husbands suspicious that their wives have been sexually unfaithful, but who have no hard evidence to support the fact.
There is instruction on how a Nazarite is to live, and what they must avoid and what to do if they become unclean.
The central idea that binds all these things together is the holiness of God and the fragility of holiness in man. It is impossible for the unclean to enter the presence of the holy, but how quickly and easily we become defiled. These passages make clear that God desires holiness in his holy people, these passages really beckon towards holiness. But they also reinforce the understanding that we are very weak in this regard.
In this way, this passage points us forward to Jesus, who offers to us a holiness that is not of our own making, a holiness that is robust and does not retreat before leprosy, discharges or death.
In this sermon we consider how Jesus accomplishes for us what we have never been able to accomplish for ourselves.
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