A whole lot of scripture in Leviticus 13, 14 and 15 is dedicated to teaching the people how to avoid things that are “unclean” and what to do in case they come in contact with something that is unclean.
This was very important.
If the people were going to come into the Presence of God and actually have God dwelling in a tabernacle located right there among them; they must first be clean. Holiness cannot exist in the midst of unclean things. God wanted to make sure they did everything possible to stay clean; because God wanted to be able to dwell among them.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to our every-Thursday Bible Study called COME AS A CHILD. We are happy to have you with us!
If you missed last week’s study; you can review it here:WHEN LEPERS ARE HEALED – COME AS A CHILD – LESSON 220
Today’s scripture passage focus will be taken from Leviticus, Chapter 14.
THE SYMBOLISM IN THE RITUALS OF COMING CLEAN
We’ve already discussed a lot of the things that God said needed to happen in order for all of the people to stay clean and to maintain constant cleanliness within the camp.
Everyone with a problem was to report to the priests and take certain prescribed steps if they encountered troubles from unclean things. Certain steps were to be taken after examination for their cleansing and healing. Sometimes this process involved isolation and separation.
When it appeared that they were once again “clean” there were sacrifices to be made and rituals to carry out.
The rituals and sacrifices were all very symbolic of our own modern-day processes of salvation. The sacrificial process for those who had been “unclean” was very symbolic of the crucifixion of Christ and the atonement by His blood. This brought salvation and transformation from “unclean” to “clean.”
The one bird that flies free in the end of the process is symbolic of how giving up our sins and learning to live God’s way is the pathway to freedom.
That the freed bird is released into the field is symbolic of how we all are to go out into the fields of the world and proclaim our freedom along with sharing the amazing facts of the gospel that will help to set others free.
We are to follow the Great Commission and go out into the world with God’s Good News.
WHAT IF IT IS YOUR HOUSE?
The end of Leviticus, Chapter 14 discusses what is to be done with a house that has been found to have mold growing on its walls.
Such a house would be considered “unclean.”
Today’s scientists completely understand that mold spores floating through the air can be inhaled by humans who inhabit the inside of a house. The mold contains micro-toxins which get into the air we breathe. Once spores of mold are inhaled into a body they can cause disease.
The very air that you breathe in a house infested with mold is dangerous and will make most people sick in some way.
A SET OF SAFETY STANDARDS
It is interesting to read all that has been printed in our present day by OSHA regarding the laws of safety for mold infested buildings and areas. It isn’t really too shocking to discover that their manuals read almost word for word and parallel to Leviticus 14.
God knew and told us about the dangers of mold WAY before OSHA was ever organized. All we really had to do to know the details of these things was to pick up our bibles and read Leviticus.
God was giving Israel their set of safety standards to live by in this chapter.
Though they were still living in the desert at this time, God was actually speaking to them of what to do later; whenever they come to inhabit the promised land.
God had promised they would inhabit the land and now He was telling them that some of the houses they longed for would be infested with mold.
GOD’S WORD IS GOOD PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
This little passage confirms to me that these standards given by God to people living in the past are as still good and useful for people living in the present. God seems to want His People to keep these ways that He is spelling out even after they move into the promised land.
God even suggests that He may be the CAUSE of the mold that appears in the houses of their future in the promised land.
Why would this be?
Why would God do that?
There are actually two good, logical reasons.
REASON ONE
Mold is also seen in the scriptures as a form of a curse for disobedience.
Those who follow God’s ways seem to be protected from any huge or major problems in this area; but those who disobey often are in danger of inheriting a mold problem or even worse – leprosy.
All through the scriptures when you read of times that God is punishing the people because of disobedience; and right afterwards mold (mildew, fungus, leprosy, etc.) will usually be part of the curses that the people must endure because of their own carelessness toward God’s laws and their blatant disobedience.
It is spoken of in some prayers by Solomon in 1 Kings 8:37,38, then again by him in 2 Chronicles 6:28 and again by the prophet Amos in Amos 4:9, and then the prophet Haggai in Haggai 2:17.
These are only a few of many such times when mold/leprosy/mildew seemed to appear because the people had failed to be obedient to God’s ways.
REASON TWO
But there was more to the story of why God would cause leprosy and mold and mildew to grow inside the walls and foundations of the houses that the people would inhabit after God brought them into the promised land.
This telling is getting a little ahead of our story, and we will go into much more detail later; but understand that the native people who lived in the land of Canaan had heard of the God of the Israelites. They knew what He did to the Egyptians because of their idolatry and evil ways. They also knew that God had promised the Israelites homes and vineyards that they did not build themselves.
As the people of God came into the land, the Canaanites, as strong and able as they were; actually trembled because they knew that Israel served the REAL, One True God.
The natives of Canaan were always on the lookout for invaders. They stayed ready to leave and flee from their homes in any given moment.
HIDDEN IDOLS
They knew when the Israelites came they would have to vacate quickly and leave without possessions; so they hid their most prized possessions. They buried their pagan idols of gold and silver under the foundations of their homes and they also hid them behind the walls of their houses. Their thinking was that if they were invaded and had to flee; they could return later and recover their valuables.
God knew the idols were hiding there even if the people of Israel did not.
When the people of Israel came and began to live in the houses of the people who left the land; God put a plague of leprosy into the houses that contained the buried and hidden idols.
When the walls of these homes were uncovered (according to God’s prescription for buildings that were unclean) and the stones of the foundations were moved; the idols were exposed and revealed.
The bad things were carried far away and burned, but even after the houses were cleaned and purified walls and stones were put into place of the old ones; the houses had to be sanctified.
The rituals that God had described for sanctifying a person who had been “unclean” who had become “clean” again were the same as those given to sanctify and rededicate a house.
All of the same symbolism applied. The old was purged, the new was sanctified and dedicated to God and a whole new freedom came upon the families who were living in those reclaimed, restored houses.
THINKING OF THE PRESENT AGE
It is the same in some of our houses today.
So many of our doors have been opened to demonic activities and secrets are hiding inside the walls and under the foundations of homes throughout the land.
These evil things, left unchecked and ignored, bring curses upon the houses and the people who inhabit the houses.
Is your household constantly under the siege of stress, anger, sickness and other such curses?
You might want to begin to expose the idols and demons hiding and lurking around your home.
SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK
What is playing on your television?
Which books have you been reading?
What types of music is floating through the airwaves of your home?
How are you decorating?
What toys are your children being exposed to?
Are drugs and alcohol being abused?
What do the clothes and jewelry in your closets and on your shelves say about who you worship?
Has your refrigerator become your idol?
Are you a hoarder? Do you horde money that could be useful for God’s Kingdom?
What types of practices go on daily inside your walls that would be an abomination to God?
Just because they are unseen does not mean they are okay.
THE SOLUTION
Little things; one-at-a-time, can seep into your home unnoticed and begin to spoil the holiness that God intends for you and I to live out.
Begin to notice these “little things” and put an end to them.
Bring them into the light and expose them.
Ask God to remove them forever then do not allow anything that is unclean to re-enter again.
THE THREATENING SQUARE BOX
When we think of cleansing our houses from the things of idolatry; the television is probably one of the biggest, most common threats to be found.
Look around you and see your neighbors who are thriving.
Who are the people who appear to be the most content and fulfilled?
Do any of these people spend hours and hours sitting before a square box in their living room; or have they found better ways to make use of their time?
I think once you begin to take note of true reality; the evidence will begin to speak for itself.
REMOVING THE TEMPTATION OF A BAD HABIT
One couple that comes to mind with me is Joanna and Chip Gaines. They do not have television in their home. You know they can AFFORD any number of televisions; but they have made a conscious decision to keep their home-time related strictly to family life, and to spend their God-given energies on more productive things.
They DO watch SOME television; such as movies with friends and football games at restaurants occasionally; but by removing a television set from their home; they have made their lives so much more focused on the purposes that God has shown to them in life. It might be a good experiment for all of the rest of us to try.
Television is not ALL bad; and there are many good and worth-while things that you can watch; but overall, and taking especially the commercials into consideration; do you really need to be feeding your mind all that you are watching continuously day-in and day-out on television?
Possibly the same thing could be said of viewing our computer screens and the use of social media. Anything can get out of balance and become a vice.
Even if you aren’t paying attention and the television is on in the room; the subconscious mind is absorbing much more than you realize. Children are getting their first impressions about life in general from what these constantly blaring, noisy machines are saying inside the walls of our homes.
THINK ABOUT IT
Think about all the other things that are similar which distract a home from being a home and serving the purpose of becoming a peaceful sanctuary for your family to live in.
If you claim to be a Christian; God should be dwelling within your walls. He will not dwell in an unholy place.
Have you run God right out of your home into the streets?
It might be time for your home to be examined.
WHENEVER GOD SPEAKS – IT COUNTS
These things that God told the Israelites don’t seem so crazy and far-fetched now do they?
God doesn’t waste his time or energy. When He says something, whether it was millions of years ago, or in the present moment; it counts.
What God had to say about the homes of those first people living in Canaan is the same that He would say to us today. Get the idolatrous, evil things out and begin to live your life in an atmosphere of holiness.
RESPONSIBILITY REQUIRES ATONEMENT
The ritual for cleansing the house is very much like the rituals used on the Day of Atonement; except that the ritual for the house uses birds and the ritual for the nation on The Day of Atonement uses goats.
In each case one animal’s blood is used to cleanse what was previously “unclean” and the other animal is then set free into the wild to live again.
With the ownership of a home; a person acquires a certain amount of responsibility. They become the head of their household. It is up to the head of the household to be sure that the proper things are done within a home that would keep it holy and acceptable and make it a special place for God to dwell with His people.
If things become diseased and decayed through careless spiritual sins; the head of the household should take the proper steps to make corrections and restore his home to the state that God desires it to be kept.
Sometimes God uses these instances of disrepair and disorder and unclean circumstances to wake us up and help us learn to draw closer to Him. The circumstances we create help us to realize the actions we should take.
RECEIVING GOD’S BLESSINGS
We need to go to God and allow Him to cleanse anything unclean inside of our homes and then we need to put our households under the blessings of God.
Wise people always eventually come to the realization that anything they own comes directly from God.
It is how we use the things that God gives to us that determine whether or not we will receive continued blessings or curses.
Once again the people of Israel have given us the formation of the simple things that are required to have a happy, healthy and prosperous life that is filled with the joy of God that comes down from Heaven whenever His earthly children decide to be obedient and follow His perfect ways.
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