Leviticus 11 is concerned very much with death, for according to the Bible, death is more defiling and abominable than sin, and being cleansed from death takes longer than being cleansed from sin.
The fact that Leviticus 11 speaks of dealing with and overcoming death in relation to our diet as God’s people shows that our diet, our eating, is a matter of life or death.
When we eat the Lord Jesus, we overcome death, but when we listen to words of death, are involved with activities and things of death, and are constantly around people who spread death, we are affected by death and are thus abominable in God’s eyes.
Death is of Satan and life is of God. Death is the characteristic of Satan’s work, and life is the characteristic of God’s work.
God’s desire is to impart His life into us, while Satan’s plan and scheme is to saturate us with death and render us useless to God and His purpose.
When we speak of death and touching death we don’t mean merely physical death but spiritual death. Spiritual death comes in different forms and ways, sometimes being wild and harsh while at other times it may be mild and subtle.
Leviticus 11 speaks of touching the carcasses of animals who died, and this contact makes God’s people unclean until the evening. Death is more abominable in God’s eyes than sin, for God Himself is life, and anything of death is of His enemy, the devil.
In this universe there’s nothing more ugly and abominable than death, and there’s nothing more precious than life. God’s life which is enjoyed and experienced by us is very precious, but when we are involved with death and touch death, this is ugly. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we have God’s view on our real situation and condition, and may we hate death even as He does. May we stay away from death in all its forms, and may we be filled with anti-death, with the divine life which has already overcome death.
Death is the consequence of eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and life is the consequence of eating the tree of life. When we eat Christ as life and minister Him as life, we enjoy the divine life growing in us and being matured in us.
But when we listen to the speaking that imparts death, when we pay attention to knowledge more than life, and when we are in contact with and receive from those who are in death, death operates in us to defile us and make us unclean.
Even as we meet with the saints, our talk to them may be natural and in death, and instead of enjoying and ministering Christ as life we may spread death and remain in death. Oh Lord Jesus!
May the Lord have mercy on us to bring us completely out of any death and into life on all the aspects of our daily living, so that we may be people feeding on the things of life and ministering life to others, so that this life would swallow up any death and build up the church.
In God’s Eyes Death is more Defiling and Abominable than Sin, but Life is most Precious
God’s controversy with Satan, from Eden onward, has been on the issue of death and life. All that is of God is characterized by life and all that is of Satan results in and is characterized by death.
When someone hears the Lord’s voice, he comes out of death and enters into life, and he shall live (John 5:25). We all are born in death, that is, we do not have God’s life by our human birth, but by believing into the Lord we receive the divine life and thus enter the realm of life.
Life is deeper than our thought, our feeling, or any doctrine. Life is where God is, and life is God Himself.
This is the greatest difference between Christ and everyone else – Christ overcame death and He now lives forever, but others are dead. Death could not touch Christ; He entered into death, took a tour of death and Hades, and came out of death in victory (Rom. 6:9-10; 1 Cor. 15:26, 54-55).
And God destroyed death through Christ. Praise the Lord! Now the church is the vessel for God’s life, a corporate entity filled with God as life, and God wants to use the church to defeat death and bring man to the knowledge of that life.
However, even though Christ defeated death, we as His people may be defiled by death. In God’s eyes death is more defiling and abominable than sin. According to our concept, when we sin, this is very serious; but we may not consider being defiled by death through our gossip as being that serious.
Because of our ethical and moral concepts we know that lying is evil, but we may not realise that our empty talk that is ethical may also be filled with death. We may talk to a brother about his family, but we may be in death and we may spread death.
In God’s eyes, according to Lev. 11, death is more defiling and abominable than sin.
According to Leviticus, if anyone sins or commits a trespass, he can simply offer a trespass offering and his sin is cleansed. But if anyone touches the carcass of a dead animal, he is unclean until the evening, that is, until the end his daily life.
Death defiles us, and our contact with death makes us unclean in God’s eyes for a longer period of time than sin.
When we sin, we can simply confess our sins to the Lord, and the precious blood of Christ is applied to us, cleansing us from every sin and removing the stain of sin (1 John 1:9).
We can simply deal with sins by confessing them under the Lord’s light and repenting, and the Lord will cleanse us and wash us. However, if we touch death or are involved with death, this will defile us and make us unclean for a longer period of time.
Touching death defiles us and makes us unclean, and this requires a longer period of time to be cleansed. In God’s eyes death is more defiling and abominable than sin.
Our sins are forgiven immediately after we confess them to God (1 John 1:9), but a certain period of time must pass before we can be cleansed from the defilement of spiritual death (Num. 19:9, 11).
The most precious thing in God’s eyes is His life, the divine life which is Christ Himself, but the most defiling and abominable thing is death.
The enemy’s goal is to saturate us with death and then reduce us to nothing, but God’s goal is to saturate us with life and fill us to the brim, thus making us members of His body who function in their measure for the building up of the church for His corporate expression.
The devil fears any brother or sister who can defy death by the power of resurrection, one who can withstand death and swallow up death by prayers and by ministering words of life. Wave upon wave of death comes to attack the church, but we need to recognize it and learn together how to resist it.
May we learn not only how to apply the blood of Christ to our conscience for the removing and washing of sins, but also identify death and stay away from death, being filled with the divine life in resurrection so that any death would be swallowed up and removed in us, around us, and in the church life.
Lord Jesus, show us how defiling and abominable death is so that we may stay away from death and remain in the realm of the divine life. Amen, Lord, keep us receiving Your life, enjoying Your life, and being filled with Your life. Save us from touching death, remaining in death, or spreading death. May we be thoroughly cleansed from death in any of its forms, and may we be filled with the divine life which cleanses us, builds us up, and fulfills God’s purpose. We love Your life, Lord, and we hate any death! Fill our being with life. Overflow through us as life. Fill us with the resurrection life that swallows up any death!
Death is the Greatest Power, Death is Allied with the Devil, but God’s Life Overcomes Death
When we read Lev. 11 we see two things: first, God cares very much about His people’s diet, and second, God hates death, and He considers death as being more defiling and abominable than sin.
When we speak of death, we mean mainly spiritual death when it applies to us in our Christian life.
Spiritually speaking, being defiled by death is more abominable in God’s eyes than committing sin, and it will take a longer period of time for us to be cleansed from the defilement of death than when we sin.
Death is an exceedingly great power in the universe; no human being can withstand death, and no human being can defeat death. Many people tried to defeat death, and the cure for death is the subject of much research and many novels or poetry.
Apart from God, death is the greatest power in the universe. God is the greatest power and authority in the universe, and apart from Him, death is also very powerful. When death comes, no one can withstand it.
We may try to avoid death, but when physical death comes, when it is our time, there’s not much we can do about it. All men are taken captive by death, and eventually we all will die.
Even worse, death is allied with the devil. The devil is God’s enemy, and death is also God’s enemy. Death is the last enemy that God will abolish (1 Cor. 15:26), and death is right now being abolished!
How can we overcome death and how can we stay away from death? We may not be able to avoid physical death unless the Lord returns and we’re being raptured as His overcomers, but what about our daily life and our touching death or being in death? Oh Lord Jesus!
We need to realize that we CANNOT defeat death by ourselves. When death comes in, we as human beings are powerless in dealing with it; the only thing we can and should do is to turn to the Lord and be filled with His life.
The way to overcome death is not by arguing with it or proving it wrong but by being filled with God’s life, the resurrection life of Christ, and by ministering His life to others.
Only the divine life can defeat death; God’s life which has passed through death and is in resurrection not only defeats death but also swallows up death. Yes, death is powerful, and yes, death defiles us, but we can choose to be filled with life, remain in life, and minister life!
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the resurrection life that is anti-death and that overcomes any death. We acknowledge that in ourselves we cannot overcome death, for death is more powerful than we are. Lord, we turn to You. We treasure the pure flow of life, the precious divine life in us. Keep us abiding in You, Lord, to enjoy Your life and have any death swallowed and removed. Amen, Lord Jesus, may life prevail in our personal life, family life, and church life! May we pay more attention to Your life than to knowledge or gossip, and may we seek to be filled with Your life and let Your life grow in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 37 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 4, The Significance of Eating and the Defeat of Death.
- Hymns on this topic:
# When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. (Hymns #593)
# Lord, Thy life abundant, / Flowing, rich and free, / Constantly refreshes / And empowers me. / Death by life is swallowed, / Weakness is made strong, / All my bonds are broken, / Gloom is turned to song. (Hymns #841)
# Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / Though all its force against it may combine; / Death only gives it opportunity / To show the boundless pow’r of life divine. (Hymns #639)
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