Originally posted: 05/12/2019
“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,” (15:31).
Leviticus 15… kind of uncomfortable to hear the LORD addressing these sensitive topics. But we dare not ignore this binding truth; every part of the human condition is defiled, whether natural bodily functions or diseased, humanity is in a defiled and hopeless state, unfit for His Holy Presence. For the place of His dwelling is Holy and to be respected, revered, and esteemed; it is His Undefiled Tabernacle.
Consider His Undefiled Tabernacle
His Undefiled Tabernacle was to be His dwelling place; the place He had promised to consecrate for Himself; the place the people would meet Him and hear from Him; the place where they would come to know Him as their God.
“I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to Me. 45 I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. 46 They shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God,” (Exodus 29:43-46).
- Those who would dare come into His Undefiled Tabernacle must be separated from their uncleanness: (15:31).
- But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear, (Isaiah 49:2).
- But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
- Atonement through the blood sacrifice offered by the priest was mandatory in order to be separated from all uncleanness: (15:15, 30).
- “The priest shall next offer the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Then afterward, he shall slaughter the burnt offering. 20 The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be clean,” (Leviticus 14:19-20).
- His Undefiled Tabernacle would not be defiled; the consequence was fatal for those who failed to see the seriousness of their uncleanness: (15:31).
- For the wages of sin is death… (Romans 6:23).
How do we respond to His Undefiled Tabernacle?
This truth cannot be disputed; all that flows from humanity is unclean. Leviticus 15 highlights our terminal state and need for separation from our uncleanness. Only the perfect and costly blood sacrifice of Jesus makes atonement on our behalf and fits us for His Holy Presence as His Undefiled Tabernacle.
- Let us seriously consider this: when we place our faith in Christ for our salvation, His Holy Spirit indwells us and we are no longer our own; we become the place of His dwelling, His Tabernacle.
- Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
- Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
- Let us continually be reminded His Tabernacle is to be Undefiled and failure to separate from uncleanness is an action deserving of death. Apart from His great grace, not one of us would be alive; and only by receiving His great gift of grace through faith, will we live in His Presence for all eternity. While we live here on earth, let us never take for granted His amazing grace! Prayerfully consider the following:
- What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin, (Romans 6:1-7).
Today, by faith and the power of His Holy Spirit, let us determine to die to sin, live free from sin and separated from all uncleanness to walk in newness of life; that Christ Himself would live in us as His Undefiled Tabernacle.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me, (Galatians 2:20).