Part 1: Lockdown in Leviticus
In the previous study we looked at how sin, disease and death entered the world, right after God’s creation of an initially perfect and harmonious universe. All seemed lost.
But God’s plans never fail. In Genesis 12:1-3, God spoke to Abraham: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing, as Vaughan Roberts puts it in his book, God’s Big Picture. Here we catch a glimpse of how God will renew His fallen creation, but more about that later.
The book of Leviticus speaks a lot about hygiene and cleanliness. The Israelites have been freed from their slavery in Egypt and were on their way to the promised land of Genesis 12. They had grown into a mighty nation - according to Exodus 12:37, "about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children" exited Egypt. It is therefore understandable that certain illnesses might have developed within the large gathering of people who were in close proximity to one another, not to mention traveling to a new country.
One of these illnesses was leprosy. Two whole chapters (13 and 14) in Leviticus are devoted to the laws regarding "all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, and for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot: To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy" (14:54-57 KJV).
One important thing to note is that leprosy in that time was not the same illness that we call leprosy today. According to the Holmon Bible Dictionary, it was “a generic term applied to a variety of skin disorders” with symptoms ranging “from white patches on the skin to running sores to the loss of digits on the fingers and toes.”
They didn't have hand-sanitizer, antiseptic soap, face masks or latex gloves in those days. God gave them specific instructions on how to deal with the disease. Any suspected cases had to be examined by a priest and he would determine the severity of it. If "the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh", (Leviticus 13:3 KJV) it was declared leprous disease and the priest pronounced the person unclean. If the spots appeared no deeper than the skin, the “diseased person” was isolated for seven days before the priest would examine the person again.
This would be the desolate fate of a leprous person: "his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be" (Leviticus 13:45-46 KJV). On the surface, it would seem like drastic measures, but it makes more sense when we understand what leprosy was a symbol of.
If you would carefully study the book of Leviticus, you would realise that “sin” and being “unclean” were very closely related. For example, God said the following about sexual immorality: "For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God." (18:29-30 KJV). Sin makes people unclean.
This does not mean that all diseases are in fact a consequence of a specific sin that a person committed, but rather a general consequence of the fallen nature of man, just like falling is a consequence of gravity.
Leprosy, in particular, could be seen as a metaphor for sin. The New Bible Commentary describes it like this: “leprosy is dealt with so elaborately...that this particularly loathsome and intractable disease is to be regarded as a type of that indwelling sin in which all the afflictions and ills of mankind have their cause and origin. If death is the curse pronounced by God upon sin, and contact with death is defiling, then disease which undermines health and is a stepping-stone to death carries with it a certain defilement whether it be infectious in the medical sense or not.”
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, most nations are under lockdown and a lot of people are separated from family and friends. Do you know that there is something much worse? Being eternally separated from God through our sin. The Coronavirus may give us a fever and affect our lungs, but sin defiles the whole being of a person. The Coronavirus might bring death, but unrepentant sin ends in eternal suffering and desolation in Hell. God, the great physician, is offering the cure, his perfect Son’s blood shed on the cross - will you accept it?
For those of us who are already Christians and rely on Jesus's sacrifice on the cross, this might be a time to reflect on our own sin as we are in self-isolation. Are we as quick to repent of sin as we are when running away from someone who is coughing? At several places in the Bible, God calls us to literally “flee” from sin. Are we taking as much time studying God’s Word than we are reading news updates? Let's hold firmly to the Word of God in these trying times, clothed in the whole armour of God, so that we "may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:13 KJV).
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” 1 John 1:1-4 KJV
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:5-10 KJV
“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 KJV
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 KJV
“But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 KJV
“Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: but their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 KJV
“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 KJV
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 KJV
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."