Leviticus 13: Regulations about Skin Disease: Why God?

Leviticus 13

New International Version (NIV)

Regulations About Defiling Skin Diseases

¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 
 . . . .
¹⁷ On the seventh day the priest is to examine him, and if it is spreading in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious skin disease. 
. . . 
⁴⁵ “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt,^[c] cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ ⁴⁶ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.

Daniel Thought's:

Honestly reading through Leviticus has been a challenge. I sually love reading the word of God, but not always. Sometimes I am up really late or just tired and I have not done the reading for the day on my year bible plan. Sometimes I just go to bed, sometimes I read it and fall asleep while reading and sometimes I get really into it and I am able to really listen to God and wake up. Sometimes even when I am not tired I am just not excited about reading the word. Honestly where I am at in the 1 year plan to read the bible I have just gotten bogged down and not found joy in reading the word. Actually that is one of the reasons I started writing this blog. 

The question I ask as I read Leviticus and other passages that I struggle with is Why does God care? Really why is cleanliness like this so important to God? 

I don't have the whole answer, but I do know that God works through all things and uses them for our good as it says in Romans 8:28. I also know that all scripture has a purpose for us in bringing us closer to God our Father as it says in 2 Timothy 3:16. 

Romans 8:28

New International Version (NIV)

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.

2 Timothy 3:14-17

¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God^[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So then I trust that God has a purpose in Leviticus 13 and in me reading this chapter. God is holy and cleanliness is important to God and his people. It is so important that God gave commands to Israel in the law about who or what is unclean and how Priests can examine them to determine if they are unclean.

The question I have is 
Why does God isolate these people? 
I believe that God still loves the unclean, yet his law requires that they be outcast and isolated from society.


Yet it is by the very hand of God that they are unclean and have a skin disease or whatever uncleaness and disease. How could God allow this and yet punish them for it. I think I can understand why people thought that the people must have committed a sin to be deserving of this punishment. They were asking the same question of God I think. How can you do this God? This doesn't make sense that you would do this to people. So they tried to justify and explain why God would do this. Based on my reading of the Gospels I get a completely different sense of God's love for people especially the diseased, sick, unclean and outcast people.

Matthew 8

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy

 ¹ When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. ² A man with leprosy^[a] came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. ⁴ Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Jesus constantly interacts with the outcast, the sinner and the unclean. He loves them, reaches out to touch them both to comfort and heal. It is interesting in this verse that Jesus instructs the healed man to fulfill the command of the law about cleansing as described in Leviticus 14. It almost seems like God has two hearts here. How could God both allow the man to have this disease and command him to be labeled unclean and outcast? Yet God in the form of Jesus heals this man and has compassion on him, so much so that he reaches out and touches the man, making himself unclean.

Yet as I look back in Leviticus I realize how detailed the law is with instructions for the Priests to examine unclean people again and again to test if they are healthy now and no longer infectious. God puts his holy priests at risk to be unclean and catch these infectious diseases. But, God also has these laws in place to protect his people from the diseases.

As I read both Leviticus and the Gospels my heart breaks for these people. And I realize that this does not only happen in the history of Israel, but also here and now. A major example I can think of is people with AIDS and how destructive and isolating that disease is. I don't understand how our loving God can allow these people to suffer, be sick and above all be isolated. God you have the power to heal all people, so why don't you?

I wish I had any answer for you or myself, but I don't. I simply have to trust that God loves all people and somehow his love is at work even in this brokenness.

Daniel's Prayer:

Loving God

I don't understand your ways. 

My heart breaks for the sick and diseased

and the isolation and loneliness that also comes. 

I wish you would heal all people. 

I know you love each person deeply

so much so that Jesus reached out and touched the Leper and said I am willing.

God why don't you heal all people?

Reveal your love and truth to me, but especially to the sick and lonely.

God I trust in you even when I don't understand.

Amen