What is the meaning of Leviticus 15:27? Anyone who touches these things • “These things” refers to whatever has been sat on, lain on, or otherwise contacted by a person with a bodily discharge (cf. Leviticus 15:4-12, 19). • The law makes no exceptions—anyone who so much as brushes against these articles becomes ceremonially unclean. • This teaches personal responsibility: holiness in Israel was safeguarded by everyone staying alert to what they handled (Numbers 19:22; Haggai 2:12-13; 2 Corinthians 6:17). • The clause underscores that impurity is transferable; contact alone defiles. will be unclean • “Unclean” here is not moral guilt but ritual defilement—yet it vividly pictures how sin spreads and separates from God’s presence (Isaiah 64:6; James 1:27). • Uncleanness barred a person from corporate worship (Leviticus 7:20-21), reminding Israel that God is perfectly pure and demands the same from His people (1 Peter 1:15-16). • The verse stresses certainty—touch means defilement every time. he must wash his clothes and bathe with water • God provides a clear path back: washing garments and body (Leviticus 14:8-9; Numbers 19:19). • Water symbolizes cleansing that only the Lord ultimately supplies (Psalm 51:2; John 13:10; Ephesians 5:26). • The requirement of both personal bathing and laundering teaches that holiness covers every sphere—person and possessions alike. • Obedience to this procedure demonstrated faith in God’s provision and maintained communal health. and he will be unclean until evening • Even after washing, the person remained unclean until sunset, when a new day began in Israel’s reckoning (Genesis 1:5). • This waiting period communicated that cleansing is God-determined, not self-achieved (Leviticus 22:6-7). • Sunset pointed forward to Christ, whose atoning work would bring full, immediate cleansing (Hebrews 9:13-14; 1 John 1:7). summary Leviticus 15:27 teaches that touching anything affected by another’s discharge transmitted ceremonial defilement, requiring washing of clothes and body and a wait until evening. The verse highlights the contagious nature of impurity, God’s provision for cleansing, and the necessity of obedience. Ultimately it foreshadows the perfect, once-for-all purification found in Jesus Christ, who makes His people truly clean and restores fellowship with God. |
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