Menstrual Impurity נִדָּה

We are in chapter fifteen of Leviticus with our word for today. נִדָּה bleeding, menstruation, impurity, uncleanness. It is used 29 times in the Old Testament, 9 times in our chapter. Let’s look at our chapter since it has the most uses of our word. Leviticus 15:19-21 When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be בְנִדָּתָ֔הּin her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. And everything on which she lies בְּנִדָּתָ֖הּduring her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Notice that the same thing is to be done for cleansing here as we saw yesterday with a discharge from a man. In verses 19-24 we have natural female discharges addressed. Once again, God wasn’t condemning or punishing the woman for experiencing her normal monthly period, because He made her that way so she could bear children. This regulation declares only that the woman’s discharge made her unclean and therefore she could make others unclean. Rachel used this con when she deceived her father about his household gods (Genesis 31:26–35). During the time of her period and for a week afterward, a woman was unclean and had to be careful where she sat and slept and what she touched. But this confinement was a blessing in disguise since it allowed her to enjoy rest and quiet when she needed it most. If her husband was too aggressive sexually, this law kept him from taking advantage of her at a time when intercourse wouldn’t be especially pleasant to her. If he forced himself on her, both he and the marriage bed would be unclean for a week, and this would separate him from everybody in the family and the camp! It wasn’t worth it. Certainly God created sex for pleasure as well as for procreation, but pleasure that isn’t disciplined soon becomes bondage and then torture. Unmarried people must exercise self-control lest they commit fornication and invite the judgment of God (Hebrews 13:4), but married people also need self-control lest they take advantage of one another and leave God out of their most intimate relationship. God created sex, and wise is the person who permits the Creator to make the rules. Unnatural female discharges are covered in verses 25–33. A prolonged hemorrhage would be both physically painful and religiously disastrous, for the woman would be perpetually unclean. The unknown woman who came to Jesus for help had suffered with this affliction for twelve years (Mark 5:25–34; Luke 8:43–48). Strictly speaking, everybody she touched in that big crowd was defiled by her whether they knew it or not; when she touched our Lord’s garment, He was also defiled. How gracious of Him to heal her and give back to her the normal life she longed for! The ritual for her cleansing reminds us of the ritual for the restoration of a mother after the birth of a baby (Leviticus 12:6–7). These regulations for personal sanctity weren’t just pious suggestions from the religious leaders of the nation. They were holy commandments from the Lord, and it was a serious thing to disobey them (15:31–33). For an unclean person to go to the tabernacle would be to defile the tabernacle and invite judgment (vs. 31). God warned the Israelites that a violation of the law given in Leviticus 15:24 would cause the couple to be “cut off from among their people” (20:18). Whether “cut off” meant death (it’s used that way in Genesis 9:11) or excommunication, whatever the penalty was, it was serious. God’s people today don’t live under the threat of such judgments, although “there is a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16; 1 Corinthians 11:30). But there should be no area in our lives from which God is excluded, and every relationship should be under His control. His words to us are still, “Be holy, for I am holy!”