Leviticus 14:33 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; 35 And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house: 36 Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house: 37 And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; 38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: 39 And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house; 40 Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city: 41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place: 42 And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other morter, and shall plaister the house. 43 And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plaistered; 44 Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. 45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. 46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. 47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. 48 And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. 49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: 51 And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times: 52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet: 53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.
Leviticus 14:54 ¶ This is
the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, 55 And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a
house, 56 And for a rising, and for a
scab, and for a bright spot: 57 To teach
when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law
of leprosy.
This passage shows that the word Leprosy is applied to more than just Hansen’s Disease. It is also
applied to what is probably mildew and mold in a house. I pointed out earlier
not to read back modern definitions into words that were understood differently
than we do today in either 2000BC or 1611AD.
As Canaanites were driven from their homes there would have been
instances where dampness and vacancy resulted in contamination. We know that
mold, caused by a fungus, can cause sickness from mild eye irritation all the
way to shortness of breath and fever. We also know that certain types of molds
can produce mycotoxins that can lead to death.
The
danger of driving out the Canaanites too quickly was noted by God elsewhere.
Deuteronomy 7:22 And the
LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou
mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
For God’s favorable response to this physical and ritual
uncleanness the ceremony to be performed is clearly laid out. It was a matter
of the utmost importance for the Hebrew’s obedience and for their health. We
might find some of these things odd but so did the people of that era. Note
Naaman, the captain of the host of the king of Syria, and his reaction to
Elisha’s remedy for his leprosy. Read 2Kings 5:1-14 and understand that this
result was totally the hand of God and not because of some magical, healing
quality of the river. Obedience was required, then God’s response.
2Kings 5:1 ¶ Now Naaman,
captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and
honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was
also a mighty man in valour, but he
was a leper. 2 And the Syrians
had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of
Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my
lord were with the prophet that
is in Samaria! for he would
recover him of his leprosy. 4 And one went in, and told his lord,
saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is
of the land of Israel. 5 And the king of
Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he
departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of
raiment. 6 And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I
have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel
had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive,
that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore
consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. 8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel
had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou
rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a
prophet in Israel.
9 ¶ So Naaman came with his horses and with his
chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying,
Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and
thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was
wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to
me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand
over the place, and recover the leper. 12
Are not Abana and
Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not
wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him,
and said, My father, if the
prophet had bid thee do some
great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven
times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came
again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
This should give us some understanding of several passages in the
Bible and their meaning. For instance, was there some magic knowledge-giving
property of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis
or was the knowledge that was attained simply choosing to obey God or disobey
Him? People pondering the kind of fruit that must have hung from that tree
perhaps miss the entire point. It is about obedience not an apple, a fig, or a
grape. If you eat the fruit and disobey, God is saying, the one thing I don’t
want you to do, that disobedience will kill you. You will begin dying.
And so beware of the kind of daft reasoning that makes Christians
search for a large fish that can swallow a man whole and then relying on
questionable accounts from sensational news stories that are unverified to
prove their point and, in their minds, underscore the truth of the Bible in the
book of Jonah. The truth is that God prepared that fish to swallow Jonah and
there is no point in looking for a species that can fit the bill.
Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had
prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah
was in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
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