Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 14-15.

What am I going to write about today?  Today’s passage starts with the offerings which should be made when one is cleansed of a defiling skin disease.  It continues to discuss the offerings to be made when a house is cleansed of defiling mold.  From there it discusses how bodily fluids are a vector for the spread of disease.  OK, it doesn’t say that.  What it does say is that anyone who has a discharge of bodily fluids is unclean until the discharge ends and they wash themselves and any clothes which might have been exposed to the discharge.  Based on what we know today about the spread of infectious diseases, these commands regarding the discharge of bodily fluids seem wise.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 14-15.

I am really unsure where to go with today’s blog, but I am going to focus on one verse near the end of the passage: Leviticus 15 verse 31. My first thought when reading that verse was that we today should make sure that we do not expose our brothers and sisters in Christ to infection when we are sick.  If you are sick, don’t go out and spread it to others.  However, I also see another lesson here as well.  We should separate ourselves from spiritual uncleanness, and take the effort to get clean again after exposure.  The Israelites went to a lot of effort to make sure that they were cleansed after becoming unclean, we should be willing to do whatever we need to do to be cleansed as well.

This passage is a perfect example of why I write this blog.  If I was not writing this blog, I would have skimmed over this passage without truly registering what it said.  And right about now, if not sooner, I would have lost my discipline to continue reading the Bible every day.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 14-15.

I am at a complete loss today as to what to write.  One can point to a few things about good hygiene presented in this passage, but what lesson can we take from it about how we should live our lives?  Perhaps one could make a metaphor out of the command that someone who is to be cleansed by this ritual must wash their clothes. shave all of their hair and then bathe their entire body for how we should spiritually cleanse ourselves from sin, but I cannot quite put that together.  Certainly, the section on bodily discharges reminds us that even as long ago as these commands were written down people understood the dangers of exchanging bodily fluids with others.  I guess the one point of value I will make is that we need to be willing to go to great lengths to cleanse ourselves from sin.

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

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 14-15.

The idea that many of the sacrifices were consumed as celebratory feasts makes sense out of the offerings made for being declared clean after having a skin disease.  The offering was a celebration of healing.  Those who could afford it gave a lamb to the priests and celebrated with a second lamb.  Those who were two poor for that celebrated with a lamb which they split with the priest.  But in both cases they celebrated God’s goodness in providing them with healing.

I have seen Chapter 15 be misinterpreted in several ways.  It seems obvious that Chapter 15 reflects the risks of spreading infection that being exposed to someone else’s bodily fluids entails.  In recent times we have seen a few diseases which became serious threats to public health because of promiscuous sharing of bodily fluids between near strangers.