After Aaron’s rod sprouted (chapter 17), The people of Israel said, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Everyone who comes near, who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?” (17:13)
The regulations regarding the priests and the Levites in chapter 18 answer this question. No, we will not all perish, because God will bring the priests and the Levites near in order to make atonement for all Israel.
Of course, that assumes that all Israel is able to come and bring their sacrifices. But sometimes people can be unclean – and thus unable to bring sacrifices. What about them? Are we all to perish?
Verse 20 is the key to the whole chapter: “If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean.”
What’s the problem here? The problem is not sin – at least not directly. The problem is “uncleanness” – “impurity.” The problem is that we are corrupt – we are tainted – polluted.
The entrance of sin into the world results in two problems: guilt and corruption.
In the Christian life, we need both justification (dealing with guilt), and sanctification (dealing with corruption). We need to be forgiven – and we need to be cleansed and renewed!
What we are looking at tonight is the ceremony for cleansing the unclean. We do not have a similar ceremony in the NT – besides baptism – because the blood of Jesus cleanses us and purifies us from all our uncleanness.
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