Leviticus 11:24-28, 39, 40 And for these you shall be unclean: whoever touches the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even.… Whosoever toucheth the carcass shall be unclean. What is the meaning of these minute and stringent regulations touching the dead bodies of animals, both clean (verses 39, 40) and unclean (verses 24-28)? The answer to this question is in the fourfold consideration - I. HOW MUCH GOD MAKES OF DEATH. Death is the key-note of very much of sacred Scripture. "Thou shalt die" is a constantly recurring refrain. "And he died" is a continually repeated statement. It was the death of the slain victim at the altar that made expiation for the sinner. It is the death upon the cross which constitutes the sacrifice for the world's sin. The death of the soul is the awful punishment of guilt hereafter as it is on earth. It was the death of these animals that made their caresses unclean. In the Old Testament and New, God makes much of death. II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEATH. Death is odious and intolerable in God's sight: it must be made to seem so in man's; for: 1. It is the consequence of sin in man. 2. It is the picture of sin in man. 3. It is a reminder of the painful and hateful presence of sin in man. III. THE AVOIDABLENESS OF SIN. The fact that the dead carcass could be and must be avoided, and that contraction of ceremonial defilement could be prevented, indicated to the Jew and now intimates to us that sin may be and must be shunned. Two things were and are necessary: 1. Carefulness: scrupulous regard to the known laws (verses 32, 34, 38). 2. Self-sacrifice: things made unclean must be broken up, disused, cast away, at whatever cost (verses 33, 35). IV. THE REMOVAL OF THE STAIN OF SIN. "It must be put into water;... so it shall be cleansed" (verse 32). "There is a fountain filled with blood," etc. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even. |
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