Unclean was the word the Pharisees most feared. They spent hours washing pots, spots, and dots! They followed and amplified to impossible proportions every little hygienic requirement of the Mosaic Law. Jesus answered the objections of the Pharisees by pointing out that unclean refers more to a state of the heart than to a state of the hands.
Bad attitudes, anger, adulteries, and arrogance cannot be removed from the human heart by any amount of hand washing. Unlike unclean foods that are simply processed through the body and the wastes removed naturally, unclean attitudes sit like poison in the human spirit and wait to spring into actions.
Aaron learned the mystery of cleansing before God: “Then he must dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it seven times over the altar. In this way, he will cleanse it from Israel’s defilement and return it to its former holiness” (Leviticus 16:19). Water may cleanse the body, but only blood can cleanse the spirit! Reach out and apply that blood to your spirit today.
Leviticus 15:1-16:28
Mark 7:1-7:23
Psalm 40:11-40:17
Proverbs 10:13-10:14