The proverb, "Cleanliness is next to godliness," is often quoted by concerned mothers, but it is actually not in the Bible. Readers of Leviticus 15, however, could be excused for believing that it is with the emphasis placed on "clean" and "unclean" dimensions of one's physical health.
Leviticus 15 primarily concerns various discharges from the body, both men and women, from the area of their sexual organs. The issue is that such discharges make one unclean for seven days (vs. 13 and 19). And not only the person themselves, but also things they touch or their discharge touches can make others unclean for the rest of that day. Earthen pots needed to be broken, wooden vessels needed to be washed, and people needed to bathe to treat the "uncleanness" until they were restored at evening (the start of the Jewish day.)
This chapter is an important part of understanding the desperation of the woman that meets Jesus in Mark 5:25. She had suffered from a flow of blood for 12 years! This woman had lived under the sentence of Leviticus 15 uncleanness for so long that she was willing to do anything to find a healing. Her faith in Jesus made her well.
We may scoff at the idea of these natural bodily processes making someone "unclean," but it is important to remember that hygiene, as well as medical understandings, were not very advanced in that culture. The laws concerning cleanliness were another demonstration of the separation between fallen human beings and the holy God living in their midst.
Have you ever gotten really dirty from a hard day's work? How did it feel to take a long, hot bath or shower and be cleansed and refreshed? That's what's God Spirit does for us!
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