Leviticus 15:1-33 (NLT)
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
2 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “Any man who has a bodily discharge is ceremonially unclean.
3 This defilement is caused by his discharge, whether the discharge continues or stops. In either case the man is unclean.
4 Any bed on which the man with the discharge lies and anything on which he sits will be ceremonially unclean.
5 So if you touch the man’s bed, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
6 If you sit where the man with the discharge has sat, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
7 If you touch the man with the discharge, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
8 If the man spits on you, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
9 Any saddle blanket on which the man rides will be ceremonially unclean.
10 If you touch anything that was under the man, you will be unclean until evening. You must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
11 If the man touches you without first rinsing his hands, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
12 Any clay pot the man touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil he touches must be rinsed with water.
13 “When the man with the discharge is healed, he must count off seven days for the period of purification. Then he must wash his clothes and bathe himself in fresh water, and he will be ceremonially clean.
14 On the eighth day he must get two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle and give his offerings to the priest.
15 The priest will offer one bird for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. Through this process, the priest will purify the man before the LORD for his discharge.
16 “Whenever a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his entire body in water, and he will remain ceremonially unclean until the next evening.
17 Any clothing or leather with semen on it must be washed in water, and it will remain unclean until evening.
18 After a man and a woman have sexual intercourse, they must each bathe in water, and they will remain unclean until the next evening.
19 “Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening.
20 Anything on which the woman lies or sits during the time of her period will be unclean.
21 If any of you touch her bed, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
22 If you touch any object she has sat on, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
23 This includes her bed or any other object she has sat on; you will be unclean until evening if you touch it.
24 If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her blood touches him, her menstrual impurity will be transmitted to him. He will remain unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will be unclean.
25 “If a woman has a flow of blood for many days that is unrelated to her menstrual period, or if the blood continues beyond the normal period, she is ceremonially unclean. As during her menstrual period, the woman will be unclean as long as the discharge continues.
26 Any bed she lies on and any object she sits on during that time will be unclean, just as during her normal menstrual period.
27 If any of you touch these things, you will be ceremonially unclean. You must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
28 “When the woman’s bleeding stops, she must count off seven days. Then she will be ceremonially clean.
29 On the eighth day she must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons and present them to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
30 The priest will offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. Through this process, the priest will purify her before the LORD for the ceremonial impurity caused by her bleeding.
31 “This is how you will guard the people of Israel from ceremonial uncleanness. Otherwise they would die, for their impurity would defile my Tabernacle that stands among them.
32 These are the instructions for dealing with anyone who has a bodily discharge—a man who is unclean because of an emission of semen
33 or a woman during her menstrual period. It applies to any man or woman who has a bodily discharge, and to a man who has sexual intercourse with a woman who is ceremonially unclean.”
When the organs designed for procreation released an unproductive substance, the Law required a period of separation and cleansing. This condition was not the result of transgression, but a natural and unintentional flow of uncleanness from what was meant to produce life. During this time, the individual was restricted from normal interaction—not because of guilt, but for protection: for their own well-being and for the preservation of the community. Provision was graciously made for restoration to purity and reintegration.
These life-producing areas are integral to our design—not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. And just as the body can experience an unintentional discharge that compromises fruitfulness, so too can the soul. Physical illness, the loss of a loved one, financial hardship, rejection, or disappointment all produce a kind of necessary outflow—something less than the abundant life Jesus came to give. Not because of personal sin, but because of life’s fractures, our capacity to reflect and reproduce His life can be temporarily impaired.
Under the Law, the remedy was separation and cleansing. In the Gospel, however, we are given something far more accessible and powerful. As seen in the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew 9, restoration no longer comes through isolation, but through approach. She did not withdraw to be healed; she pressed forward to touch the One from whom cleansing virtue flowed.
While there may still be wisdom in guarding others from the effects of a spirit of heaviness, we are no longer barred from God’s presence. Through the blood of Jesus, we have bold access to the throne of grace. Instead of identifying ourselves by what has affected us, we draw near to Him—and in touching Him, we receive full restoration.
There may be a season of remaining at the throne, but it does not require rehearsing or proclaiming uncleanness. Rather than allowing life’s lesser encounters to produce corruption in those around us, we are renewed in purity and empowered with increased life-giving fruitfulness through the testimony of the blood.
What was once only heard in the Word becomes lived experience: the cleansing, restoring, enabling power of the life-producing substance that will never lose its power.