Lev 11:37 | KingComments | STEP | A “wooden article” – wood grows out of the earth – and an “earthen vessel” represent a person ( ; ); “clothing” represents our behavior; “a skin, or a sack” is a means of storing something; “any article of which use is made” is all that is helpful to live life as a member of God’s people. If anything of it has become unclean by putting it in the service of earthly life and not in the service of God, it must be put in the water, that is, it must undergo the water bath of the Word. Then it becomes clean again and usable for the master. An earthen vessel must be broken. An earthen vessel is what we are by nature ( ). Water in which something unclean has come is unclean, and makes unclean what comes into contact with it ( ). If God’s Word is deprived of its true meaning by our thoughts, if we give it our own explanation and pass it on, then also those who hear it become unclean. Living water cannot become unclean ( ). The Word of God, made alive by the power of the Spirit, transcends all uncleanness. If we are living sources, uncleanness will have no hold on us. “Rivers of living water” will flow from our “innermost being” ( ) if we live in close fellowship with the Lord Jesus and feed ourselves with His flesh and drink of His blood ( ). In seed for sowing is also the power of life ( ). This life reveals itself by dying. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus who died and thereby “brought life and immortality to light” ( ; cf. ). Life in Him overcomes death.

‏ Leviticus 11:37

Touching a Dead Animal Makes Unclean

A “wooden article” – wood grows out of the earth – and an “earthen vessel” represent a person (Acts 9:15; 1Thes 4:4); “clothing” represents our behavior; “a skin, or a sack” is a means of storing something; “any article of which use is made” is all that is helpful to live life as a member of God’s people. If anything of it has become unclean by putting it in the service of earthly life and not in the service of God, it must be put in the water, that is, it must undergo the water bath of the Word. Then it becomes clean again and usable for the master. An earthen vessel must be broken. An earthen vessel is what we are by nature (2Cor 4:7).

Water in which something unclean has come is unclean, and makes unclean what comes into contact with it (Lev 11:34-35). If God’s Word is deprived of its true meaning by our thoughts, if we give it our own explanation and pass it on, then also those who hear it become unclean.

Living water cannot become unclean (Lev 11:36). The Word of God, made alive by the power of the Spirit, transcends all uncleanness. If we are living sources, uncleanness will have no hold on us. “Rivers of living water” will flow from our “innermost being” (Jn 7:38) if we live in close fellowship with the Lord Jesus and feed ourselves with His flesh and drink of His blood (Jn 6:54-56).

In seed for sowing is also the power of life (Lev 11:37). This life reveals itself by dying. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus who died and thereby “brought life and immortality to light” (2Tim 1:10; cf. Jn 12:24). Life in Him overcomes death.