Slices
Prepare
Reflect on this question: ‘Who am I when no one else is watching?’
Bible passage
Cleansing from defiling moulds
33 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 34 ‘When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a spreading mould in a house in that land, 35 the owner of the house must go and tell the priest, “I have seen something that looks like a defiling mould in my house.” 36 The priest is to order the house to be emptied before he goes in to examine the mould, so that nothing in the house will be pronounced unclean. After this the priest is to go in and inspect the house. 37 He is to examine the mould on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall, 38 the priest shall go out of the doorway of the house and close it up for seven days. 39 On the seventh day the priest shall return to inspect the house. If the mould has spread on the walls, 40 he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. 41 He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town. 42 Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and plaster the house.
43 ‘If the defiling mould reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, 44 the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mould has spread in the house, it is a persistent defiling mould; the house is unclean. 45 It must be torn down – its stones, timbers and all the plaster – and taken out of the town to an unclean place.
46 ‘Anyone who goes into the house while it is closed up will be unclean till evening. 47 Anyone who sleeps or eats in the house must wash their clothes.
48 ‘But if the priest comes to examine it and the mould has not spread after the house has been plastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the defiling mould is gone. 49 To purify the house he is to take two birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop. 50 He shall kill one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. 51 Then he is to take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn and the live bird, dip them into the blood of the dead bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52 He shall purify the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn. 53 Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields outside the town. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.’
54 These are the regulations for any defiling skin disease, for a sore, 55 for defiling moulds in fabric or in a house, 56 and for a swelling, a rash or a shiny spot, 57 to determine when something is clean or unclean.
These are the regulations for defiling skin diseases and defiling moulds.
Explore
Today’s reading looks forward to the time when Israel will live in houses in Canaan (v 34). What if a spreading mould should appear there? Well, given that it is at home, no one need know… but ignoring the mould could cause clothing to be infected (13:47–52), and then, perhaps the skin itself may become unclean (13:1–46). Beyond that lies a world of pain, social stigma and separation from God’s house.
Better by far to deal with things before they get worse. Admit you’ve got a problem and ask the priest to come and inspect it (v 35). If it’s not just a surface issue, but appears to be going deep into the fabric of your home (v 37), and if it persists, then action is needed (v 40). The risks associated with household contamination are so great that ultimately the house itself may need to be destroyed (v 45).
It is tempting to ignore personal flaws that – like the mould at home – are not known to others. But the risk is that they develop into something that becomes a major pollutant in our lives with God. As Jesus counselled, better to take radical action than risk private sin developing into something far worse (Matthew 5:27– 30).
Respond
‘Search me, God … See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting’ (Psalm 139:23,24). Is the Holy Spirit showing you any ‘stones’ that you need to throw away?
Deeper Bible study
Thank God that he cares for your welfare today, even though you do not always understand his ways.
Cleanliness, they say, is next to godliness. Many Jews, however, took it even further at the time of Jesus Christ. To them, cleanliness, in the ritual sense, amounted to godliness. They were horrified, for example, that his disciples ate without giving their hands the full, approved, ceremonial cleansing, because ‘The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing’.1 Jesus explained why they were wrong; but he had no problem with the sort of washing in our reading today. Indeed, when he healed the people affected with the dreaded disease termed ‘leprosy’ in those days, he actually sent them to the priests as this Law prescribed.2
In dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and similar afflictions of the modern era, we still follow very closely a lot of what this ancient text prescribed. As we saw in chapter 13, all infectious skin diseases were immediately isolated for a period of two weeks.3 At the end, the priest carried out tests to determine whether or not the patient presented a danger to others.4 When he was satisfied that the infection had cleared, he confirmed it with prescribed sacrifices; and the washing of persons and objects were part of the prescription (vs 8,9,47).
There is much that we do not understand about the accompanying rituals, steeped as they are in symbolism. The reasons why clean birds are slaughtered in a clay pot over running water, the anointing on the right earlobe, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot, are not revealed to us. All in all, the emphasis on preventing the spread of the disease was key. Here, as elsewhere throughout Scripture, we are called to mind the well-being of others.5
Cain asked, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’6 In what way is this part of your Christian witness?
1 Mark 7:1–8 2 Matt 8:4 3 Lev 13:4,5 4 Lev 13;27,28 5 Phil 2:4 6 Gen 4:9
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Exodus 17,18; Matthew 24
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Rooted hubs meeting across England and Wales and for schools who are running one-to-one mentoring using the Rooted personal journal. Pray too for the Rooted tipi tour creating pop-up spaces for young people to explore who they are, why they matter and the difference Jesus can make.
