Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 13.

Today’s passage contains instructions for dealing with “defiling” skin disease and defiling mold on fabric or leather.  I struggle with what to write about this because we have much better means to deal with such problems than they had when this was written.  However, as I thought about it I realized that both of these issues could be serious threats to a community, especially one which was nomadic.  The first thing to realize is that a “defiling” skin disease would have been contagious.  Further, mold spreads, and can be a health hazard in large enough amounts.  Fabric or leather with mold on it would eventually be destroyed by the mold and would damage the health of those exposed to it.  Additionally, allowing mold to remain on an object increases the risk of other objects becoming moldy.  So, these commands were designed to protect the community from disease.  Which brings me to an important point.  When we have contagious disease we should act to protect others from being exposed.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.