2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
January 9, 2019
Exodus 15:1-28
Verses 1-3. In this chapter, we will see how men and women were to deal with normal and abnormal discharges. Many of the bodily discharges were not connected to any disease, but the regular and routine discharges all men and women have. As you pass through life, you unavoidably pick up certain infections, which create bodily discharges like diarrhea and runny noses. God is concerned for his people about these. So for these kinds of discharges a very strict quarantine was imposed upon them. In the ancient world where they didn’t have access to antibacterial soaps and bleach, the only way to keep the spread of infections was to put into place a policy of separation for a time.
Verses 4-12. God gives the people a series of procedures to limit the exposure to the infections discharge. Notice the washing of clothes, chairs, mats, beds, and other people who came in contact with the man. Everything must be washed. Cheap clay pots were broken, but wooden or carved vessels were to be washed. The amazing thing about that passage is that it describes the exact procedure used today in modern hospital to prevent the spread of infectious and contagious diseases. Centuries before modern science discovered anything about bacteria and viruses and the need for sanitary precautions. All these practices were imposed upon God’s people by their heavenly Father in order to prevent among them the diseases which were rampant in the ancient world. Remember that God promised them when they came out of Egypt, “If you will walk in my ways, I will put none of these diseases upon you that were in Egypt...” (Exodus 15:26). This is the way he fulfilled that promise. He quarantined them. He taught them how to deal with infections and contagions. And there is no question but that these restrictions and regulations saved the nation of Israel from many dangerous plagues which were decimating the pagan populations around them. The point is that being extra careful with any discharge assured them that if the discharge was infectious, the community was protected. The goal was to keep the community safe.
Verses 13-15. The man was to wait seven days in quarantine and then offer a sacrifice on the 8th day. It is evident that the unavoidable diseases, afflictions, and discharges mentioned here are of a much less serious nature than the leprosy with which we have been dealing in previous chapters. You remember that when the leper was cleansed he had to go through a much more rigorous ceremony which included several offerings. But here the very simplest of the offerings is prescribed -- two turtledoves or two young pigeons: one for a sin offering, one for a burnt offering -- the cheapest, the most available of the offerings.
Verses 16-18. The discharge of a man’s semen caused a man to be unclean for a day. This could happen as a result of a nocturnal emission or during sexual intercourse. The man, his clothes, or anything that came in contact with the semen had to be washed and he was unclean till evening. Obviously there is nothing sinful, or evil being evoked here, but the idea that semen carries what’s in the blood and there should be a limit on what has blood in it comes in contact with. Remember this is the ancient world where people didn’t take baths every day. God is showing the people that an emission of semen was a good reason to wash up and limit contact with others. In our modern era, we have the ability to get thoroughly cleaned up in a rather quick fashion; this was not the case in the ancient world. This practice would also force husbands and wives to spend time alone together.
Verses 19-24. This pertains to a woman’s regularly monthly cycle. Because of the vulnerability of a woman during her period, and the fact that much blood is loss, a woman is to be set aside for 7 days. The women were not even to work during these 7 days of their monthly cycle. Wouldn’t that be nice today? But the issue is the blood and that the blood can spread any type of infections. Once again, there is nothing sinful or bad about this, just the issue of limiting exposure of the blood. Everything had to be washed and any person she came in contact with had to wash and might be quarantined as well.
Verses 25-28. These are discharges a woman might due to something besides her period. Again, there is no implication here that there is anything morally wrong about this function. But the symbolic significance is the same and in each case, the treatment is exactly the same--washing, being unclean until evening, and the offering of a sacrifice of blood, which would cleanse and thus take away the defilement involved. In reading a chapter like this, we can recognize its intense value on the physical level to prevent the contagion of infectious diseases. But it has primary significance on the level of the spiritual. This is why these pictures in the Old Testament are given to us. We are reminded of that in Romans 15 where the Apostle says, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that we might learn thereby...” (Romans 15:4 KJV).
The lesson we can learn is that from time to time we can become unclean just by living, and then there will be times we become unclean by something in us that isn’t right.
We don‘t have to guess at what the spiritual applications are. Our Lord himself made them for us, as recorded in the seventh chapter of Mark. He said, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him...” (Mark 7: 14b-15a RSV). Nothing you eat or drink, can defile you, ceremonially and morally. Mark adds this parenthesis in Verse 19: “(Thus he declared all foods clean.)” There are no unclean foods. There may be dangerous food, even poisonous food, but it is not unclean in this moral sense. Then Jesus went on to say, “What comes out of a man is what defiles him...” (Mark 7:20). The truly dangerous discharges are not from the physical life, you see, but from the moral life. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and they defile a man...” (Mark 7:21-22 RSV). Jesus says that it is these things which defile the human spirit, the tabernacle in which the Spirit of God has taken up residence. You will notice that many of them are unavoidable/or easily done.
Notice that there are certain evils that he lists there which are obvious and blatant and which can be avoided even by those without Christ. Murder and adultery and some of the other more open sins can be avoided by many people. But he also lists many which cannot be avoided, which will be found in us from time to time, whether we like it or not, even as Christians. Even in the most devoted and the most spiritual-minded of believers, these things are sometimes present. Devious words which leave a wrong impression, thoughtless actions, foolish, prideful ways, hurtful, sharp responses -- these come without our thinking sometimes.
click here to select another lesson