Leviticus 13:5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more.
What Are You Spreading?
This past year at Thanksgiving, we had a great time together as a family. We shared turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, stories, and a family cold. I saw family I hadn’t seen for some time, and one of them had a cold. Then two of us had a cold. Then three had a cold, and so on. No one lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. All of us live and interact with other people. Your conditions are contagious. Imagine if there were a million people living in close proximity like the children of Israel. Well, God said quite a bit about hygiene.
The book of Leviticus is a book that impresses upon the reader that God is a holy and perfect God. What we read about here is not just about hygiene, but about the singular nature of a perfect God. It’s also about not spreading things that are catchy and harmful. Leviticus 13 is an entire chapter about catchy conditions. You’re going to want to wash your hands if you read the entire chapter.
What’s the bottom line of the chapter? Let me give you verse 5 as an example. “And the priest shall look on him on the seventh day [someone with a catchy condition like leprosy]: and behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more.” Whatever we allow to spread in us will spread to those around us. So if there is something in me that shouldn’t spread, I need to be quarantined.
Later on, the Bible talks about how to stop catchy conditions. Here is the bottom line for us: keep only that which is worth spreading. Is God concerned about hygiene? Well, yes, He is. There was a place for that when dealing with a large group of people. But if God is concerned about my physical hygiene, don’t you think He’s much more concerned about the attitudes I spread every day?
Can you think of a condition, other than leprosy, that spread among the children of Israel and led to destruction? One example of this would be the attitudes that spread in these people. Their complaining, murmuring, and dissention were destructive. I should keep only that which is worth spreading. I don’t want to spread a cold, but I certainly don’t want to spread a bad attitude. God help me to have a clean heart, a pure attitude, and spread those things that can be a help to other people.