Leviticus to Luke

I have often used excuses in relation to my lack of knowledge about the Old Testament. This year I decided to stop with the excuses and purchase a “daily Bible” which takes one through the Scriptures in one year.

The reading for February 28th made me glad that I was trudging through. I was deep in the book of Leviticus (you know, the book of the Bible with all the laws). As I took in each chapter and verse, I was wondering what purpose it serves for Christians today (we’re not Jewish, and we don’t practice some of the old laws). In essence, I was thinking, “Why am I reading this!?”

But after reading the New Testament verses for that day, God spoke to me through His Word. He was showing me that even though there were many human authors who contributed to the canon of Scripture that we know as the Holy Bible, truly there is only One Author. The Bible is one cohesive, complete work with themes straight from God our Father. See if you can pick out the theme from the verses that I read that day.

Leviticus 15:25,31 – “Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days…she is unclean. (vs. 31) Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.”

Luke 8:43, 48 – “And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him (Jesus) and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. (vs. 48) And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.’”

The theme and the connection between these two passages is that the woman was unclean according to the Hebrew law. If you were to go on and read Leviticus 15, you would find that whatever or whomever an unclean woman touched became unclean itself. Thus, in Luke 8, it is obvious that this woman is unclean. And in faith, she reached out to touch Jesus.

According to Leviticus 15, if Jesus were an ordinary man, he would have been made unclean as well. But He is no ordinary man; He is the God-man! Therefore, He was not made unclean, but He healed her! And it is the same way with each of us. We are unclean in our own sinfulness. Let us in turn reach out to JESUS and be made clean. What a glorious theme of the Bible…from Leviticus to Luke.