The Secret Flow of Sin from the Natural Heart
A. A. Bonar. Leviticus 15:2-33 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any man has a running issue out of his flesh… We are here taught the disgusting constancy with which our original, deep-seated corruption will naturally discover itself. In all situations, towards all persons, at all seasons, this filthiness of the secret soul may be traced. In ver. 4 the man is represented as unclean when he lieth down to sleep, or even to rest at noon. Ah! yonder lies a sinner, and the very ground under him is accursed. His very pillow may shortly become a spear under his throat; just as Jonah's rest soon became a tempestuous sea. A friend comes to see him and gently wakes him, but touches his couch in so doing, and becomes thereby unclean (ver. 5); for the man is all polluted. However amiable the friend you visit, yet, if still in his unhealed corruption, your intercourse with him spreads its baleful influence over you. You have insensibly been injured by the contact. Oh, how we should watch our souls in mingling with a world lying in wickedness l Oh, how holy, how marvellously strong in holiness was Jesus, who breathed this polluted air and remained as holy as when He came! If the man leave the spot, and another occupy it, that other has seated himself in the sinner's place (ver. 6), and the memory of his sin is not gone. He is in contact with a polluted thing. As when one of us now reads the details of a sinner's career, and our mind rests thereon, we are involved in this sin. If a physician (ver. 7) or an attendant touch the sick man's flesh, he is in contact with sin, and becomes polluted. This legal consequence of any actual contact with the defiled shows us, no doubt, the danger and hazard of even attempting to aid the polluted. It is at the risk of being ourselves involved in their sin. Therefore it must be watchfully done, not boldly and adventurously. You breathe an impure atmosphere: proceed with caution. If (ver. 8) any even accidental touch occur — as if the diseased man spit or sneeze, so as anything from him reaches the bystander, pollution is spread. An accidental word, a casual expression, an unexpected look, may suggest sin; and if it does, forthwith wash it all away ere evening comes. "Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath." Leave no stain for a moment upon thy conscience. When the man rides forth, lo! yonder is a sinner; and his saddle is polluted; and the mattress he spread on the floor of his tent for a temporary rest in his journey (ver. 10) is so polluted that the attendant who lifts it is defiled. Oh! sad, sad estate of man! In going out or coming in, in the house or by the way, his inward fountain of sin flows on unceasingly, and the Holy One of Israel follows him with His eye to mark him as a sinner. Nay, if he put his hand forth (ver. 11) to touch any one-to give him a friendly welcome, or aid him in any work, he conveys pollution, unless he have first "rinsed his hands in water." The sinner, whose natural heart is still unhealed, cannot do even a kind act without sin — his only mode of doing so would be "washing in clean water." And the vessels he uses (ver. 12)must be broken or rinsed in water; even as the earth, on which the sinner has stood as his theatre for committing evil shall be broken in pieces by the fire of the last day ("All these things shall be dissolved," 2 Peter 3:11), the trial by water being already past. (A. A. Bonar.) Parallel Verses KJV: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. WEB: "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When any man has a discharge from his body, because of his discharge he is unclean.