36 Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water, shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean.

37 And if any part of their carcase fall upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean.

38 But if any water be put upon the seed, and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.

39 And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die; he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the even.

40 And he that eateth of the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that beareth the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.

Today’s verses continue on the rules we saw yesterday, explaining the corrupting effect of dead unclean animals. Larger sources of water would not all be corrupted. Presumably, there would be enough clean water that any untoward elements would dissipate to only trace levels. A dead carcass on a seed was fine, the plant was still shielded within, but if the seed had been watered already, and had begun the process of growing and sprouting, the actual plant was corrupted and now unclean.

The next verses talk about touching or eating a clean animal’s carcass. This obviously means an animal that died by natural means, not one that was slaughtered for the express purpose of eating. In these cases, any who touched the carcass would be unclean, but all he had to do was wash his clothes and he would be clean again the next day.

Logically, there had to be ways in which the transference of uncleanness would cease. If an unclean carcass made a vessel unclean, which made the person who touched that vessel unclean, which made anything that person touched unclean…obviously at some point everything would be unclean. And, well, now that we are aware of germs and viruses, there is some truth to that model. The fact is, we all carry unclean things in and on us, and none of us are pure, and none of us can become so. That is why sacrificial atonement remains necessary for us all.

But in our day-to-day lives, we do find that God has provided us a buffer that prevents infinite corruption. Yes, diseases pass through us, but they do eventually die out. Filth transfers from the ground to our hands to our food to our insides, but usually in small enough quantities that our body passes it through without issue. Or, if we do get ill, we almost always quickly recover. And speaking spiritually, every day there are evil influences that tempt us and our sins beget guilt, but we do move on and feel ourselves restored again on the next day. And where our sin is more serious, still with a period of washing and waiting, we are able to move forward again. God has built resilience and restitution into us, allowing us to bounce back from the constant uncleanness of the world.