It was only a Kiss

When I was somewhere around twelve years old I read a part of scripture that said the following: “‘When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening “(Leviticus 15:16). As a young boy who was just discovering sex and experimenting, it really bothered me why a truly righteous God would call something that happened naturally unholy.

What complicated things was the fact that it was beyond my control. Anybody who knows the male body system will tell you that Semen will come out of the male body whether you like it or not. Either you will have sex with some girl under some tree somewhere. Or if you can abstain and will refrain from touching yourself, the sperm will build up in the body and one night when you are asleep it will come out of its own accord through a wet dream and that’s just irrepressible. It’s just a guy thing.

Ever since then though I have always been uncomfortable with any impurity in my body via this particular path. I try to avoid such an impurity and when it happens anyway that I am impure in such a way then I do what the bible says: take a shower and at evening time I am declared clean. But that is the one impurity I am aware of, how about the countless others I am unaware of but I come across and am contaminated with through people every day?

In ancient Israel anybody who was physically impure was separated from every one else just so they could not make the others impure as well. They were either taken out of the city for a while or were left at home but were told to keep out of peoples paths or act in ways that would notify people that they were unclean. Things have changed since then. We do not have as much protection anymore. Globalization and civilization, the intermixing of the races and the advancement in education, as well as changes in ways of life have watered down such customs that kept God’s people pure and clean and holy.

To illustrate, let’s say a lady is on her menstrual cycle. She does what it is that ladies do at such a time and manages to go to work. You won’t know she is on her menstrual cycle unless she tells you so herself, you can guess and speculate but that’s all you can do. So this lady comes into the office and she is greeted by her fellow ladies with hugs and kisses, as women are prone to doing nowadays. None of them have ever read Leviticus 15:19 which says  “‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening”.…and even if they had read they wouldn’t ever have known she was unclean just by looking at her. She has contaminated them and made them impure.

Now let’s say a guy has a quickie with his wife after his morning shower. He leaves home late and so he has to hurry to attend his morning lectures and has no time for another shower, he just dresses and goes .In the classroom he is greeted by handshakes and pats. How will the people shaking his hand know he had a quickie? There’s no way of knowing, and if he tells I doubt he will tell it to the whole classroom or people he will meet later on. So yeah he will contaminate a few people in his day. Scripture says: When a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening (Leviticus 15:18). It also says “Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean till evening” (Leviticus 15:17). “‘Whoever touches the man who has a discharge must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening” (Leviticus 15:7).

Then there is the guy with a small rash on the calf of his left leg. It’s pretty sore and he has gotten some medicine for it so yeah he is fit for partying today. So he goes to a party full of buddies. He rubs up on girls, fellow colleagues and strangers. Nothing wrong with that till we go back to scripture and read Leviticus 13:2 which says: “When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a shiny spot on their skin that may be a defiling skin disease, they must be brought to … a priest.  The priest is to examine the sore on the skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is a defiling skin disease. When the priest examines that person, he shall pronounce them ceremonially unclean.” Who is going to tell us whether that guy’s rash is defiling or not in this day and age?

You might look at all these and say so what does it all matter we are in the 21^st Century now and that’s all old tradition, plus it was for the Israelites so why should we bother to maintain standards that were theirs and have never had anything to do with our cultures? I will tell you why.

For me it is all about the way God sees a human being. God declared all those things as unclean because in his holiness he did not want to live in the presence of a people that were impure in his eyes. He wanted his people to be clean. If Jehovah saw something as unclean then chances are he still is discomforted by it today. So for me it’s about how God sees me and the respect I have for my God. I do not want to be impure when I enter his presence in prayer to ask him for something. I do not want to be unclean when I walk with him each day I ask him to walk with me. I do not want to be unclean when I go about doing a task he has required of me. Why? Because he is Holy and hates all uncleanliness and impurity, and I wouldn’t do all these things with him comfortably knowing there is an impurity in me that is creating a distance between him and me.

As human beings it is impossible to remain clean. Either by our own will or not we will always end up impure in some way or another. But the blood of Jesus Christ washes away all impurity, all sin and all uncleanliness. That is why we Christians are required to ask Jesus to purify our souls and bodies each and every day through prayer. So that he can wash away our sin and the impurities in our body making spirit and flesh holy.