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Today’s reading—Leviticus 11–13—covers laws concerning the Israelites cleanliness or purity, determining if they could be close to God or needed separation from Him. These laws highlight the reality that people, by nature, are unclean. Because of a person's shortcomings, separation is required—showing that sin creates a barrier between us and God.

Chapter 11 lays out the specific animals the Israelites were forbidden to eat. This same list resurfaces in Acts 10 when Peter is given a vision of these unclean animals and told, 

“Get up, Peter; kill and eat them. … What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:13, 15).

The Old Testament laws had a purpose, that is to expose our inability to meet God's standard (Romans 3:23) and the reality that with sin we couldn't be close to God. It also set the stage to demonstrate how through Christ, God made a way for us to be in relationship and close to God despite our shortcomings (Romans 6:23).

Who could ever live without breaking God’s law? No one! Even childbirth, a natural and beautiful part of life, made a woman unclean and required her to submit to a purification process (chapter 12). This reminds us that uncleanness isn’t always about our intentional sin, but rather it's about living life in a fallen world.

Leviticus 13 describes how priests diagnosed skin diseases and determined whether someone needed to be isolated from the community—a clear picture of how our impurity distances us from God. But in the New Testament, Jesus flipped this reality on its head. Instead of avoiding the unclean, He touched lepers and made them whole (Matthew 8:1–4). He didn't come to separate, but to restore. He even died outside the camp (Hebrews 13:12), bearing our sin so we could enter the “camp” and experience restored relationship with God. Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 6:11, reminding us that through Jesus, we have been washed, sanctified, and justified before God.

The difference between our experience today and those in early Israel is that we have a sin offering in Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice covers us perpetually. Our sacrifice got up and walked away from death. He continues to live today. His offering was once for all time, meaning that the moment we sin, His blood has already atoned for it. For the genuine Christ-follower, this isn’t a free pass to sin, but rather a reason to respond in worship and obedience to the One who cleanses us.

Takeaway: Separation from God due to sin is real, but through Jesus, restoration is possible. What once made people unclean and distant from God has been overcome by the cleansing power of Christ. Our response should be to surrender to God's plan through Jesus and accept His forgiveness, stop trying to clean oursevles through our work, and be grateful and faithful to His plan.