Discrimination is a bad word today, but we must learn to discriminate between things, not people.
Before launching into the next five chapters of graphic details, let’s stop and consider the words holy and unholy, as in the statement, “that you may distinguish between holy and unholy” (Lev 10:10). Our English translation may give the impression that the word “unholy” is just the negative form of “holy.” These are actually two distinct words. The word holy in Hebrew is qodesh, meaning something set apart for God’s use. The word unholy is chol, not meaning sinful but something merely in common use. When David’s mighty men brought him water from Bethlehem’s well by risking their lives, he realized it was no longer common water; it now represented the devotedness of those men. He poured it out as a holy offering to the Lord, by his actions saying, “I don’t deserve that kind of devotion, but God does.” Some things must be for God alone. But Leviticus 10:10 continues, “distinguish…between unclean and clean.” True, some of the items mentioned in the next section of Leviticus are physically unclean, but that is not the main point. God’s kosher laws listed everything as either ceremonially clean or unclean. Following such hygiene and dietary laws undoubtedly had health benefits for the Israelites, but it did more. It made every meal an opportunity to remind themselves, and teach their children, that they were to be separated to God. And later, when Jews were living surrounded by Gentiles, it also separated them socially, and thus helped preserve the Messianic line through history. Today we are not under such restrictions, but instead declare that “every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:4-5).