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Washed

Prologue

We examined the subject of purity under the Old Covenant, and how Jesus fulfilled the purpose of the purity laws.

Things that cause contamination
On the people?
On the sanctuary?
On the land?
Purgeable?
Minor impurities (e.g genital issue)
Yes
No
No
Yes (by bathing and waiting till evening)
Major impurities (e.g scale disease)
Yes
Yes
No
Yes (body is no longer impure after healing, temple is purged after sacrifice)
Inadvertent sins
Yes
Yes
No
From the temple & people on the day of atonement
Intentional sins
Yes
Yes
No
From the temple & people on the day of atonement
Major sins (e.g murder, sexual sins)
Yes
Yes (but indirectly)
Yes
No (only solution is death/exile)

The Day of Atonement

Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 16

Limits of the Day of Atonement

The Day of Atonement has no solution for major sins (sins that contaminate the land). The only way to resolve the sin on the land was exile or death of the offender(s).

Too long, please open your Bible Numbers 35:33
Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 18-20

The Prophets’ critique

Seeing that the Day of Atonement was limited in its scope, it becomes easier why the Prophets’ critique of Israel were usually concerned with these major sins.

“Forge a chain! For the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. Ezekiel 7:23
“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. Ezekiel 36: 17-18
Too long, please open your Bible Jeremiah 3: 1-2, 9

The problem with financial oppression

It is interesting to see that the Prophets expanded the scope of their critique to include financial/economic oppression.

Too long, please open your Bible Amos 5: 10-11
“For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. Jeremiah 6:13
Too long, please open your Bible Micah 2: 1-2

This is because in their thinking, financial oppression is actually a form of bloodshed. We see this in some verses.

Too long, please open your Bible Micah 3: 10-11
Too long, please open your Bible Isaiah 1: 21-23; 5: 7-8
“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? Jeremiah 7: 9-10; 22: 13,17
Too long, please open your Bible Ezekiel 22:12-13

This understanding explains why tax collectors are spoken of by the Jews in such a negative light by the Pharisees.

Too long, please open your Bible Matthew 9: 9-13
Too long, please open your Bible Luke 15: 1-2

We see Jesus also “increasing the scope” of major sins in His teachings. He says that murder includes hatred, idolatory includes ordering life by Mammon, and adultery includes lust.

Critiquing the sacrificial system

Many people misunderstand certain statements that were made by the Prophets in their critique of the sacrificial system. For example,

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6
In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Psalm 40:6
Too long, please open your Bible Micah 6: 6-8

The prophets are not critical of sacrifice because it is “ritualistic” or “just symbolic” and Israel needs to move “beyond” sacrifice to something else.” They were spoken out of concern over the treatment of the poor, highlighting the insufficiency of the sacrificial system to deal with such sins.

Too long, please open your Bible Amos 5: 10-11, 23

Israel doesn’t take heed to the words of the prophets, and the land accumulated so much major sins, that God abandoned the temple and it was destroyed. The sacrificial system has been stretched to its limit.

“I have forsaken My house, I have abandoned My inheritance; I have given the beloved of My soul Into the hand of her enemies. Jeremiah 12:7

A future hope

This is why the prophets hope for a future washing by God (in contrast to ritual washing where people washed themselves) that would mark the end of exile, which signalled the forgiveness of their sins and the inauguration of a new covenant. This is how the people will be cleansed.

“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. Zechariah 13:1
Too long, please open your Bible Ezekiel 36:25, 29, 33
‘I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. Jeremiah 33:8

This understanding is consistent with David’s request in Psalm 51 to be cleansed

Too long, please open your Bible Psalm 51: 1-2, 7-10, 14

David’s request also shows us that forgiveness of sins was possible outside of the sacrificial system.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 32:1-2

John the Baptist

Israel had gone into exile and returned, but the prophetic hope still lingered. It now wasn’t just about a return to the land, or the rebuilding of the temple. The post-exilic expectations were far from being met, and they were still under the oppression of Roman rule.

The Forerunner

John the Baptist is presented to us as the voice in the wilderness who proclaimed that the time prophesied by the prophets was near. His ministry was marked by immersing those who responded to his message in water, as a prophetic symbol for the real cleansing which would be done by One who was coming. This promised cleansing was going to be done by the One to come immersing them in the Spirit. This event marks the forgiveness of sins.

Too long, please open your Bible Matthew 3: 11-12
Too long, please open your Bible Mark 1: 6-8
Too long, please open your Bible Luke 3: 6-8
Too long, please open your Bible John 1:23

John baptized in running water (which was usually known as living water) which was the purest natural decontaminant available, to prefigure to the purest supernatural decontaminant - the Spirit.

Too long, please open your Bible Leviticus 14: 5-6

Jesus

The Holy One, The Purifier

Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry we see Him, purifying people from even the strongest ritual impurity by removing the root causes of the impurity (we discussed this last week). Him dealing with ritual impurities, even death, is the proof we need to know that He can forgive major sins.

Too long, please open your Bible Luke 7: 18-23

Forgiver of sins

Too long, please open your Bible Mark 2: 1-11
Too long, please open your Bible Luke 7: 36-50
Too long, please open your Bible John 8: 1-11

The resurrection

Jesus defeating death (which was the consequence of major sins and the cause of ritual impurity) also lets us see that He indeed can forgive major sins; something that wasn’t available under Mosaic law.

Too long, please open your Bible Acts 2: 38-39

Our propitiation

Too long, please open your Bible 1 John 1: 5-2:2

Baptism

Too long, please open your Bible Matthew 28: 18-20
Too long, please open your Bible 1 Peter 3:21