Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

How do you deal with ritual uncleanliness? How do you make sure someone is clean when they come to the tabernacle? How do you make sure they’re not inadvertently making others unclean? How do you make sure? God gave Moses and Aaron (not the whole populace) rules to follow. This isn’t medical advice. This isn’t health related. This is about being ceremonially clean and unclean, and keeping it from spreading – on the person or in the community.

None of the diseases or symptoms match Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) as we understand it. This is not that. There are several skin diseases that match some of these symptoms, but do not do away just by isolation. This is not that. There can be mould in clothes and in homes, but it doesn’t act like this. This is not that. This was not a doctor’s playbook. This is all about God’s ideas and point of view. HE wrote all of it, NOT humanity. Nothing was frivolous, sexist, or arbitrary. It was ALL for a reason.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:” (Leviticus 13:1).

There is teaching about ‘scriptural’ leprosy that has it as a spiritual condition of the heart. The unrepentant first sees symptoms in their body, then in their clothes, and then in their home. If they cover their body with clothes, it transfers. If they try and change those, it transfers to the home. It cannot be hidden. In fact, if you read along you couldn’t prosper by leprous-ridden material. The clothing was burnt if you were well off and the patch was torn out if you weren’t. The house infected was torn down and the pieces destroyed, not re-used. You could not benefit from leprous material. This speaks to being kept separate. To making sure even the smallest piece was examined. To separate the sick so they couldn’t spread it. But if it was spiritual, what could they spread?

None of these things were judgments from God. He put NONE of them on the people. But if the people were not getting clean, sooner or later these things would manifest. In fact, nothing in this chapter deals with the disease – that’s what sacrifices did (chapters 1-10). This chapter (and the next) deal with the physical symptoms. Symptoms of what? Gossip, murder, perjury, forbidden sexual relationships, arrogance, theft, and envy. These all could lead to ‘leprosy’. Why? Well, they were under the Law. A sacrificial system. They needed to get right. When they tried to bottle it up or hide it, physical symptoms manifested. Not to punish. To protect everyone else. To get the unrepentant away from others. To keep them safe and give the unrepentant time to consider repenting seven days at a time. It was mercy. They were kept outside the camp (special living quarters away from everyone), not cut off (killed dead).

Spiritual condition. Spiritual solution. Managed and overseen by the priests. And using very detailed instructions – made so that innocent issues/conditions were not confused with this spiritual fallout – to identify problems before they took root in the community. All about making individuals whole through repentance. Making the community stronger and healthier. By God’s system, run by God’s rules, God’s way. A merciful system to get people in a condition where they could go to the tabernacle and get right with God.

They might not be the most gripping verses in scripture, but they point to the tabernacle, and the tabernacle points to God. Which is how all the Law works. It all points to our need for Him.

Summary

Key Players: God

Key Themes: Uncleanliness/Cleanliness

Key Verse(s): Leviticus 13:1