Simply being in the same place where God’s Spirit is present and working wasn’t enough for Yehudah ish Kariot (Judas Iscariot, “man of Kariot”). It isn’t enough for us either. That is why a simple morsel of food from Yeshua’s hand blessed the 11 other closest students but cursed Yehudah.
In Leviticus 10, Aharon (Aaron) and his sons were ordained as priests. In Leviticus 11-12, they are charged with teaching the people of God to distinguish holy from unholy, “clean” from “unclean.” Once we have been taught by our High Priest, Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ), about what is holy and clean, we need to live in that truth. From this we learn how holiness can be just skin-deep if the heart doesn’t change.
Yehu (Jehu) was told by God to kill all of the male’s of Ahab’s family line. He was able to do that in Israel, but he had no control over the land of Yehudah (Judah). Why are there descendants of Ahab in Yehudah? Despite the confusion about God that Ahab had spread in the northern kingdom of Israel, one of his descendants, Yoash (Joash), actually rolled back some of that damage early in his life.
The laws in Leviticus 12 about the “purification” of mother and newborns after delivery are perplexing. How could giving birth make the mother and babies so “unclean” before God they would need a sin offering for restoration and be separated from God’s House for so long? In the Torah, the physical requirements are a window into what God is doing to restore the world to the way it was at Creation. And these purification laws are a window into a prophecy God gave “the mother of all the living” and “the father of lies.”
At the beginning of His great final message and prayer with His 12 closest students (John 13-17; Luke 22:7-38), Yeshua was not calling them to be servants but friends. Servants and masters do not love each other but friends do. Our lives are more temporary than we think. Our lives can be very short or very long. We can make our lives long in the short time we have when we put our lives in God’s hands. God is taking us over the horizon, beyond what we can see. We have to have faith to walk with God when we can’t see where he is taking us.
Leviticus 11-16 are about how to discern “cleanliness” vs. “uncleanliness.” God is giving us these instructions because He is holy — literally, set apart or distinct — and wants us to be holy, i.e., set apart for God’s purpose. God does not say that we will never be in a situation where we will be exposed to “uncleanliness.” Exposure to “uncleanliness” is a part of being in this world. God is giving us a simple object lesson about how to go from unclean to clean, from unholy to holy.
In 2nd Kings 10, we will see the difference between Yehu (Jehu) and Yehonadab (Jehonadab) the son of Rechab. Yehu respected Eliyahu (Elijah) and Elisha and he hated the Baal, but he did not respect and love the true God. Yehonadab the son of Rechab understood and loved God. It’s useful to see what God respects in a man and what he does not because God never changes, we do.