Nothing is more demoralizing than waking up early, craving a word from God, hoping to open your Bible and be deeply encouraged… only to realize:
1. You’re still in Leviticus.
2. You’ve landed in the bodily discharge chapter.
So you read it — because you love Jesus — but you’re a little grossed out. And you wonder:
Why in the world does this matter?
Why did it matter to them, a people who had just come out of slavery?
Why does it matter now, to me — a Jesus follower in the 21st century trying to make it through Wednesday?
And then the Holy Spirit whispers through the discomfort…
The people of God are meant to live differently — even in private.
Even in the gross stuff.
Even in the secret stuff.
Even in the deeply human, deeply personal, deeply bodily stuff.
All of it matters to God.
Not only does it matter — it shapes us.
THE LAWS
These laws weren’t just about bodily hygiene or social boundaries. They were a formation tool. They were shaping the people of God —out of slavery and into sonship. They were reminders that even though their bodies had been beaten, used, and owned by Pharaoh…
They now belonged to Yahweh. These laws made bodily autonomy sacred again — not for selfishness, but for worship and identity.
It’s not that sex, or emission, or bleeding was “bad.”It’s that even the most natural things must now be submitted to God’s instruction.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”— Deuteronomy 8:3, ESV
This chapter — gross and awkward as it might seem — was their training ground for that reality. Because slaves are defined by what was done to them…
But sons are defined by who they belong to.
And this morning, when all I needed was a little pick-me-up — a bit of hope to push me forward —Leviticus 15 met me in the tension between my humanity and my holiness. And I was reminded:
I am not enslaved to my brokenness.
I am not a product of what happened to me.
I am not the summ total of my impulses or instincts.
I belong to God.
As believers, we too were once slaves — to sin, shame, survival, performance.
And like Israel, we’re being formed into a holy people, marked by:
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New instincts
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New rhythms
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New dignity
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…”— 1 Peter 2:9, ESV
So today, as i found myself in knee-deep in strange laws and obscure rituals, I’m reminded yet again, to take heart.
God is not afraid of your humanity.
He’s forming me, you, us — even in the hidden places — and into someone holy, whole, and His.
Onward,
Chari