II. ALL OTHER DISCHARGES OF MAN AND WOMAN TO BE DEALT WITH IN THE SAME WAY
In 15:2-15 we see how certain discharges are to be dealt with. Verses 16 through 30 show us that all other discharges of man and woman are to be dealt with in the same way.
III. SEPARATING THE SONS OF ISRAEL FROM THEIR UNCLEANNESS THAT THEY MAY NOT DIE BY DEFILING GOD’S TABERNACLE
“Thus you shall separate the sons of Israel from their uncleanness, that they may not die in their uncleanness by defiling My tabernacle which is in their midst” (v. 31). This signifies that once a man, having been defiled by any issue of his natural life and having not yet been separated from his uncleanness, touches the church, he will suffer death (mainly spiritual death).
Verse 31 indicates that human discharges are related to God’s dwelling place. If we still have discharges, we shall defile God’s dwelling place. In typology this means that if we still have the defilement that comes from the issue of the natural life, we shall defile the church life. For the church life, we need to be fully dealt with in our natural life by the cross of Christ, by the resurrection of Christ, by the Spirit with the divine life, and by contacting the holy Word with our spirit. Then we shall be kept from the filthiness of the human, natural discharges.
Although man’s discharge is not as serious as leprosy, its effects are more serious than those of leprosy. From experience we know that even if we seem to be perfect and complete, doing nothing wrong, we still have discharges, the issue of the natural life, in our family life or church life. We need to realize that anything that issues from our natural being is uncleanness, and this uncleanness is contagious, causing everyone, everything, and every place to be defiled. For this reason, the effects of our discharges are even more serious than those of leprosy.
It may be rather easy to stay away from leprosy, but it is not easy to stay away from the effects of human discharges. There is no need for us to do anything outwardly in order to be defiled. As long as we are alive, we shall have unclean discharges. We shall be made unclean by that which issues from our being.
This matter of our discharges should cause us to be discredited in our own eyes. However, everyone gives himself high credit. We may regard only ourselves as right and everyone else as wrong. We may think that we are excellent and hold on to our prestige. Nevertheless, there is something about us that is not worthy of credit, and this thing is our natural discharge. Seemingly we have no problems, but we are still defiled by the unclean discharges of our natural life.
Because of our discharge, we need Christ. We need His death, His resurrection, His Spirit, His life, and His word. All day long we need to stay in the death, resurrection, Spirit, life, and word of Christ. In our Christian life we need to learn not to move out of these five things. If we stay in Christ’s death, resurrection, Spirit, life, and word, we shall have a proper Christian life and church life. Then day by day we shall live a revived life and an overcoming life in the death, resurrection, Spirit, life, and word of Christ.
(Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 45, by Witness Lee)
