Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Spiritual Impurity
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Haggai 2:10-19
The first Chislev 24 prophecy, found in this passage, concerns the uncleanness of the covenant people and God's response to it. Through a series of questions that Haggai asks the priests, God makes the point that uncleanness is transferable, but holiness is not. Defilement or impurity can spread from an object to a person to another object, but purity and holiness cannot. This is especially relevant in light of what was happening at the time. The people and the leaders were finally in the process of building the dwelling place of the Holy God. It contained a number of objects that were also holy, as well as the Most Holy Place. Yet, even the presence of God could not, by itself, make the people clean. In order to make the nation clean, it would take something more than just having the Temple nearby, with all of its holy objects and even the glory of God. Something else was required to cleanse the people. This prophecy has a curious ending. It does not contain a call to repentance, except perhaps by implication. God says that His people are unclean, that the presence of something holy cannot make them clean, and that their hearts were not turned to Him—then He suddenly announces that from this day forward, He would bless. In this first prophecy, God does not specify exactly what the blessing will be, though there is a hint in verse 19: "Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you." This hint becomes clearer in the next Chislev 24 prophecy (Haggai 2:20-23).
David C. Grabbe
A Blessing in Winter?
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Matthew 8:3
Knowing the gruesome details of leprosy, one can easily imagine the crowd hastily parting as this man worked his way toward Jesus. Yet, He, in contrast, reaches out to touch the leper, signaling His willingness and power to heal. In Exodus 15:25-26, God reveals Himself as Yahweh Ropheka, or "the Eternal-Who-Heals," at the incident at Marah. Nathan Stone writes in his book, Names of God,that this name means "to restore, to heal, to cure . . . not only in the physical sense but in the moral and spiritual sense also" (p. 72). Dying to sin and living for righteousness are a kind of healing through Jesus Christ. Ordinarily, uncleanness is transferred among men, but holiness is not (Haggai 2:10-14). This scene of the leper coming to Christ pictures divine reconciliation, since what is holy and what is profane usually do not mix. This is overcome through the work of our Savior. Jesus stretches out His hand and commands the leper to be cleansed, showing God in action as the Eternal-Who-Heals. This is why the leper's uncleanness does not transfer to Jesus - at first. Later, however, the death penalty for sin was transferred to Jesus. A price had to be paid for the leper's cleansing. "Clean" has a sense of purity and holiness, so to be cleansed was to be made pure. Proverbs 20:9 says, "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'?" The leper could no more pronounce himself clean than we can pronounce ourselves sinless (I John 1:10). Proverbs 20:30 adds, "Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart." Comparing these two verses from Proverbs suggests that a certain chastening is required for cleansing. Isaiah 53:4-5 adds another piece to the picture: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. These verses place the emphasis of our cleansing from spiritual impurity on Christ: He paid the price to heal us and restore us to fellowship with God. Thus, when Jesus Christ became sin for us, on Him was transferred all uncleanness. For those who have repented and accepted His sacrifice, there is increasingly more responsibility to continue this cleansing process in cooperation with and submission to Him. Peter summarizes this idea in I Peter 2:24, "[He] Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed."
Staff
The Gift of a Leper
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2 Corinthians 11:1-2
Paul was concerned that these people would be led astray, deceived by Satan, away from their spiritual purity. They would lose their spiritual chastity, as it were. They would begin fornicating, spiritually, with the world.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Satan (Part 2)
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