Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

Purification and Restitution

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: Purification and Restitution

Genre:

Track: 07

Dictation Name: RR181D7

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Grace be unto you and peace from God, our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto thee that, in a troubled world, thou art our peace. We thank thee that, as we face the adversities and the troubles of life, we have rest in thee. We thank thee that, though we are weak and far from as strong as the events require of us, thou art our strength and our sufficiency is of thee. Teach us therefore, to walk daily in the confidence of thy presence, of thy providential care, and of the blessedness of thy victory. Grant us this, we beseech thee. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Numbers 5:1-10. Numbers 5:1-10, and our subject is: Purification and Restitution. Numbers 5:1-10. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead: both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty; then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. And every man's hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.”

In verses 1 through 4 of this passage, we have an essential aspect of God’s law: quarantine. The requirement for moral and physical purity is a religious matter because God, having created all things very good, requires fallen man to work for the restoration of that original purity. The purpose for the laws of quarantine is the protection of society. In other words, to keep it clean. The Hebrew word for clean, there are several words for clean, but the one in particular that we are concerned with here has, as its basic meaning, “clear, uncontaminated, sound, innocent, unadulterated,” and also the implication very clearly, “holy.” We tend to think of physical cleanliness on the one hand and moral cleanliness on the other. We separate the two. In God’s law, the two are one, and man has an obligation to be pure before God in all his being, he must be clean.

There kinds of uncleanness are specified in verse 2. First there are the lepers. This word in scripture includes a variety of infectious diseases, as well as the one we call leprosy, or Hansen’s Disease. Second, all those with a contagious discharge were to be quarantined. Third, also included were all who were defined by the dead. Because of the possible infections that could come from bodies, there was a brief segregation period prior to normal social activities. There had to be a thorough cleansing if a man handled the things of a dead man, and then there was a restoration to normal activities at sundown, according to Leviticus 22:4-7. There had to be a like washing and cleansing after contact with the carcass of an unclean beast, according to Leviticus 5:2 and 11:8. Actual handling of a defiled human body required purification for six days, according to Numbers 19:11-21.

These laws kept Israel relatively free from many, many plagues over the centuries. It gave them a markedly lower mortality during such things as the Black Death. In time, quarantine laws were adopted by Christians, but since World War 2, they have been steadily discarded, and this has been especially true where AIDS is concerned.

Now it is customary these days for many people to talk about ceremonial law, but this is an example of a false division in the Bible, a division common to modern man, not to scriptures, because the assumption is that things that are ceremonial, moral, and physical are unrelated, but this is a totally modern idea, and in the Bible, cleanliness has reference to every aspect of life, including diet. The doctrine of cleanliness is very closely related to holiness. Holiness means, in part, separation, and purity requires a separation in every sphere of life. It is a religious standard.

Now the association of uncleanness with the death is an important one and a double-edged one. First of all, death does often result from contagious diseases, therefore, the quarantine laws and the purification requirements, and there very important, held measures. The sick or dying person was not segregated unless the ailment were known to be infectious.

Then second, death according to the Bible is the result of man’s fall. The modern view of death sees it as a normal fact of life, whereas, in God’s sight, it is an abnormal fact. The purification requirement is a witness to this fact that it is abnormal. We are not to view it as a normal thing. Life is normal in God’s sight, and eternal life is God’s goal for His people.

Uncleanness is thus, much more than dirt. It’s must more than disease, but it is inclusive of both. It is the state of fallen existence and God’s purpose is to overcome this fallen status in His new creation. We are required to treat death as an abnormality and eternal life as God’s goal for us.

In verse 3, a very important fact is stated. The unclean must be expelled and placed in quarantine because God dwells in the midst of His people. The present quarantine and separation is a witness to the fact that there is a great and final separation and quarantine. In other words, quarantine in time, in history in our world is there for very specific present purposes, but it witnesses to an eternal fact, because the ultimate quarantine is heaven and hell, and this is one reason why quarantine laws have gone out, because everything in our culture militates against that kind of division, that kind of separation, that kind of quarantine. There shall be, however, scripture makes clear, a great and final separation and quarantine into hell. This will be a totally religious separation, unlike the quarantines here on each. Here we have limited quarantines, in terms of health, where contagious diseases are involved.

We should have a moral quarantine. We should not regard degenerates as socially acceptable. We also have a quarantine in the prison system which, while it is not biblical, still retains an element of the biblical premise of separation. In Revelation 21:3 and 27, we have a vision of the final quarantine. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.”

But our culture today is at war with the idea of quarantine. It was in the early thirties that John Dewey preached against the idea of a separation into heaven and hell, good and evil, right and wrong. His statement in his famous Yale lectures had a profound influence on American education and American culture, and what we have seen since is a development of his hostility to any separation, to any quarantine, so we should not be surprised at the attitude taken towards AIDS. AIDS patients are to be forced onto people, because the idea of quarantine, let alone heaven and hell, is totally offensive to modern man.

The goal in every sphere of life today is a radical acceptance of things that were once barred, such as abortion, sodomy, euthanasia, and even more, but in the process, we are seeing a new quarantine established, this time, to quarantine Christianity and all that it represents. Man cannot escape the idea of quarantine, of separation.

In verses 5-10 we have, as in Leviticus 24 and Leviticus 5 and 6, and Exodus 22, laws of restitution. Restitution is closely related to purification and quarantine. The goal of both is the restoration of God’s order, whereas, the goal of humanistic society is the reversal of God’s order. The basic premise in these verses is first, wherever there is an offence, restitution must be made to the injured party, plus a penalty. Second, if the injured party is dead, restitution must be made to his family or his relatives, and third, if there are no living relatives, then restitution is made to the priest. All offenses are offenses against God. They are also, very often, offenses against men, but always to God because it is His law which is broken, so that all sin is primarily against God.

In Exodus 22:1-17, the restitution is from double, that is, the amount stolen plus and equal penalty, to five-fold, depending on the nature of the sin or crime. Here, in verse 7, we are told it is twenty percent, and the same is said in Leviticus 27:11-13 and verse 31. The difference in the amount of restitution is due to the varying offenses. In verse 6 we are told that any wrong done by one man to another is at the same time treason against God. Hertz has defined the wrong as any breach oppressed or wrongful misappropriation of the property of another. We have the same law in Leviticus 5:14-17, and in these verses, the sin is described in some verses as sin through error. Instead of a willful offense, it is the result of carelessness and mindlessness. This law demands two things: First, there must be the honesty to admit error, or heedlessness, or foolishness, or whatever the case may be. This kind of trespass is easy for people to excuse saying, “It was not my fault, it simply happened,” or “I didn’t mean it.” All the same, while a man may be innocent of malice, he can still do wrong. As a result, confession is necessary.

Then second, there must be a payment or restoration, plus a penalty. Good intentions do not eliminate liability for the consequences of our acts. James Philip, one scholar, has rightly observed of this requirement of confession and restitution, “Confession is putting things right with God. Restitution is putting things right with one’s fellows.” Our text makes clear that God requires all wrongs committed, whatever the intentions, as requiring restitution. God allows no wrong to stand uncorrected. If men fail to make correction and amends, God will exact it of them and of their society. The restoration to the offended party had to be six-fifths of the value of whatever thing was involved. That is, the same returned or its equivalent plus a fifth more.

At the same time, an atonement offering had to be taken to the sanctuary and to the priest, a ram without blemish, according to verse 8. This was for atonement, and this in itself, was a costly item to the offending party. But there is still another interesting aspect to this. In verses 8 through 10, it is very specifically stated that the offering of the ram belonged not to all the priests in the sanctuary, but to the one priest to whom confession was made. This was because gratitude is a religious necessity, gratitude towards the man who leads us to an understanding of our wrongdoing. We grow because of such knowledge, and our confession and therefore, our gratitude is in order. It has been often observed that if men will not learn from their mistakes, they never have really learned anything, and this is where so many people are failures. Whatever their abilities, whatever their intentions, however great their aptitudes, they refuse to learn from their sins and their mistakes, and God requires that we learn from the mistakes we have made, that we look back to our past and assess what we have done, where we have gone wrong, and God’s purpose is not that we be humiliated, but that we grow, and that if someone has called to our attention what mistakes we have made, instead of being offended, we are to be especially grateful to them, gratitude for correction. This is important.

It was once very important in the educational system, but the kind of correction that once existed is now illegal in most cases. It was basic to the family, but now it is called child abuse. It was basic to every area of life. We grow in terms of learning from our sins and shortcomings, and hence, God specifically states that the sacrifice taken had to be given to the priest to whom confession was made, so that we be grateful to him specifically, because he has given us the opportunity to grow. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank thee for this, thy word. We thank thee that thy word speaks to us and to our sins and shortcomings, reminds us of where we need to confess, to confront our own sins and shortcomings, and to grow. We thank thee that, with thee, there is always abundant mercy. Make us joyful in thy ways, and wean us from our own. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] What are the many medical explanations of why quarantine has been dropped?

[Rushdoony] No, if such an explanation has been made, I don’t know of it, and I would guess it has not been a medical decision. It has been a political decision. As we have politicized health, we have seen a great many things dropped that were once routinely medical decisions. In fact, a sad state of affairs is such that a good many people don’t know what the word quarantine means now, among the younger generation. It’s an obsolete word, almost. We grew up with it, and we can remember the signs that were posted on doors, indicating that someone had whooping cough, or scarlet fever, or mumps, whatever the case may be, and we regarded that as a necessary protection for everyone, but people are totally unfamiliar with that now, and the word is disappearing. Yes?

[Audience] {?} you cannot appear with a cold, you have to put on a mask.

[Rushdoony] Well, that’s very interesting and surprising. Yes?

[Audience] I think {?} main concern is absenteeism on the job.

[Rushdoony] [laughter] Well, at least that’s better than unconcern. Any other questions or comments? You see, when ideas are separated from their basic ingredients, their significance is lost, and men like Dewey recognize the religious implications of such things, and he saw that, whether it was quarantine, or passing or failing students in the first or second grade, all these were related to the doctrines of the Bible. The idea of heaven and hell, so he saw this but too few conservatives or Christians, or people in the educational community showed any awareness of what the implications of this were, and Dewey’s famous Yale lectures never gained the criticism they should have. Yes?

[Audience] One of the alternatives of corporal punishment in schools used to be to have kids sit in the corner and wear a dunce cap.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Now, that would really result in legal action.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes?

[Audience] Given the natural tendency of humanism to redefine all the categories Christianity establishes, and the way you talked about the way they redefined categories under quarantine, I guess if we give humanism enough time, they’ll redefine the alphabet as pictographs.

[Rushdoony] Well, that is the look-say method of reading, to turn words into pictograms. So, it is a regression, very definitely. Yes?

[Audience] Why have the Protestant churches ignored the confession?

[Rushdoony] Ignored the confession? Well, the Protestants and Catholics both have ignored it. The reason for it is the encroachment of unbelief and humanism in the churches, and they have chosen an experiential basis for the faith rather than truth, so that if you are moved by emotional feelings or if you are powerfully moved by a service and all, that’s religion, not the specifics of the faith. Not too many years ago, many Protestants had to learn a catechism, and the Catholic community it was the Baltimore catechism, and all that has disappeared. I think it was twenty years ago that one priest, for example, tried to revive the pronouncements of the Council of Trent, and he brought out a little paperback edition of them, and there wasn’t a Catholic periodical as far as I know that carried an announcement that it was available, and this is true in Protestant circles. The thirty-nine articles of the Church of England are rarely, if ever, studied in any seminary. I don’t know of any Episcopal seminary, or Church of England seminary that studies them. Same is true of the thirty-nine articles of the Methodist church, the Westminster standards of the various Presbyterian churches. One or two small groups still profess faith in them, but they’re not taught in the seminaries, they’re shelved basically. So, like priests, like people, as the old saying has it, a scriptural saying. Yes?

[Audience] Is kosher for strictly for food? The word, what’s kosher exactly?

[Rushdoony] Well, the word kosher has reference to diet primarily, but it has a secondary and more general meaning of legitimate, as against illegitimate. If you say, “It isn’t kosher,” in a general way, “It isn’t legitimate, it isn’t lawful.”

[Audience] {?} cleanliness, it has nothing to do with the cleanliness of the food.

[Rushdoony] Primary reference is to food, yes. Well, if there are no further questions, let us conclude with prayer.

We thank thee, our Father, for thy word and its clarity. Grant that the majesty of thy word resound from one end of our land to the other as the pealing of bells, so that men may hear and obey, that they may know that thy way is the way of truth and justice. Make us zealous in the study of the things of thy kingdom. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape