Landing safely in a country where I’d never traveled brought both excitement and apprehension. A missionary acquaintance alerted me to be prepared to experience a radically different culture. And it didn’t take long to appreciate his advice. A long dark hallway leading to the exit presented my first cross-cultural lesson. “Why is it so dark?” The 20’ walls were made of glass, but it appeared they were painted black on the outside. To my surprise, when I looked closely, I realized it wasn’t layers of paint shutting out the sunlight—it was dirt, thick black dirt.
On the hour ride to my downtown hotel, I noted that every building, every window, and even the streets were filthy. That evening I dined with my host, a good friend from the country I’d known for years. I felt comfortable asking about the dirty buildings. He laughed and told me this culture didn’t clean things like windows and buildings. Their reasoning, if they cleaned them, they would only get dirty again and need to be cleaned again. So why waste the time? Certainly the opposite of my mom’s yearly spring cleaning. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” she would always say. Whether something is considered clean or unclean [dirty] is a universal matter. Every culture has various objects, actions, ceremonies, food, and morality they deem as clean or unclean.
The Lord chose the metaphor of clean and unclean to teach, first Israel and then the Church, spiritual lessons about Him. People worldwide understand in their culture when something is clean or has become unclean. This analogy is prominent throughout the Scriptures. Clean is mentioned in 88 verses and unclean in 114 verses. These categories first appear when Noah selected animals for the ark. They were divided as clean or not clean. You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female (Gen 7:2). The last use is in Revelation 19. The Law focuses on the ceremonial aspect of clean and unclean. Why? What is God trying to teach us?
Through the Ceremonial Law, He was teaching Israel how to be a holy nation for Him—a Holy God. Holy isn’t a scary theological word but simply means separate from anything unclean, defiled, corrupt, or impure. He chose Israel to become a holy nation set apart for His specific purpose amid a sinful world. To approach the Lord, the worshipper must be ceremonially clean. The Law showed the children of Israel all that made them unclean and the ritual they must perform to be clean again and able to come to the Lord. The list of things that would make an individual unclean was vast. Anything to do with death, certain foods, sexual relations, women’s menstruation, touching something unclean, etc. made them unclean. But this required a person to constantly consider if what they were doing, eating, or touching would make them unclean. Thus, reminding them continuously of how holy God was.
The Law proved that man through his flesh, and own effort could not keep all the rules. This shows us our need for help and pointed to what Jesus would do for us. The ceremonial law ended with Jesus’ resurrection. We no longer have to be concerned if we eat a pork chop or have sex with our spouse, or attend a funeral, etc. So, you might ask, “Ok, what does clean and unclean have to do with me a Christian?” Satan tells us we are unclean and can’t approach God. When we repent, God brings about conversion. That includes receiving the Holy Spirit, our Helper. God declares us holy. God always sees us as holy because He sees us through Christ and His finished work. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn 1:9 HOL).
We live in a morally dirty, unclean, filthy world and are exposed to it every day. We see unclean acts, hear unclean jokes, work around sinful people, etc. and may feel unclean and guilty. Remember this is a tactic of Satan. He wants to disrupt our fellowship with God. The devil reminds us of sinful and unholy events that we were exposed to at work. He causes us to feel guilty about the corrupt language we endured during a business meeting. This is when this lesson is so important. Until I learned this, I would withdraw from God, feeling I was unclean, and mentally punish myself because of guilt. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). He cleanses me by the washing with water through the word (Eph 5:26 NIV). At any moment we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus . . . let us draw near (Heb 10:19, 22).
Sustaining Word for the Week: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Pet 2:9 NIV).