We've talked a lot about leprosy of the skin in Leviticus. This book of the Bible also talks about a leprous growth (mold) on fabrics, knitted materials, and leathers. Today we'll take a look at what was to be done if mold occurred in a home.
The people are going to be moving into the promised land and taking over the homes and farms and cities already present in Canaan. In Deuteronomy 6:10-11 we find the Lord's promise to give them a land with "large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant".
The Lord tells them what to do if a house they move into in Canaan has a mold problem. In our modern times, you and I understand the science behind mold's detrimental effects on human health. We know what products can be used to rid our home of small spots of mold infestation and we know to call in a mold remediation company for bigger problems. By the time the Israelites take over the promised land, they will have been living in tents for a long time. They are going to need to recognize dangerous mold growth in houses made of more durable and more permanent materials. They are going to need to know which molds can be eradicated and which molds render a home unfit for use. They may not understand the science behind it but they don't have to; all they have to do is obey the Lord's instructions for a healthy living space.
"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a spreading mold in a house in that land, the owner of the house must go and tell the priest, 'I have seen something that looks like a defiling mold in my house.'" (Leviticus 14:33-35) Remember, in addition to carrying out their duties at the tabernacle, another aspect of the priests' job is to serve as public health officers. We see the Lord being given the credit (or the blame, rather) for placing a defiling mold in a house, but the ancient Israelites saw everything that happened as being done by God. In our times we might more properly say that God "allowed" the thing to happen. For instance, when a loved one gets sick we wouldn't be likely to say, "God gave him cancer," but would be more likely to phrase it as, "God allowed him to get cancer". So I don't necessarily think God pointed His finger and struck any of the houses in Canaan with a mold infestation, but He didn't prevent these mold infestations either. A mold infestation is the outward sign that the atmosphere of the home is unhealthy, so we might actually think of it as the mercy of God when He allows visible mold to appear so the homeowner can recognize he has a problem.
"The priest is to order the house to be emptied before he goes in to examine the mold, so that nothing in the house will be pronounced unclean. After this the priest is to go in and inspect the house. He is to examine the mold on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall, the priest shall go out the doorway of the house and close it up for seven days. On the seventh day the priest shall return to inspect the house. If the mold has spread on the walls, he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. 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. Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and plaster the house." (Leviticus 14:36-42) A mold that doesn't go deeper than the surface could probably just be cleaned off, but in this case the mold appears to go deeper into the wall. The affected stones are to be torn out because it's possible that the mold was originally brought in on these stones and their removal may rid the home of the problem. The steps outlined in verses 36-42 are an attempt to salvage the home if possible. The Lord is not wasteful and He doesn't want us to be wasteful either.
"If the defiling mold reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mold has spread in the house, it is a persistent defiling mold; the house is unclean. It must be torn down---its stones, timbers and all the plaster---and taken out of the town to an unclean place." (Leviticus 14:43-45) If the mold returns then it wasn't brought into the house by the stones that have been torn out. It's coming from some other source, likely the dampness of the home itself. The homeowner is never going to be able to keep the humidity down to a level that prohibits the growth of mold and that means the air in the home is unhealthy for the inhabitants. The house is condemned and torn down, much like an unsafe and unfixable home in our towns today might be condemned and torn down.
"Anyone who goes into the house while it is closed up will be unclean till evening. Anyone who eats or sleeps in the house must wash their clothes." (Leviticus 14:46-47) Anyone who remains in the house during this process, whether the owners of the home or the workers, will be ceremonially unclean for the remainder of the day. As we learned earlier in Leviticus, a person who is ceremonially unclean must wash and then self-isolate until evening. In the case of this mold, that would help prevent him from spreading mold spores that he might have picked up in the infested dwelling.
"But if the priest comes to examine it and the mold has not spread after the house has been plastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the defiling mold is gone. To purify the house he is to take two birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop. He shall kill one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. 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. 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. 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." (Leviticus 14:48-53) This ceremony mirrors part of the ceremony that was performed for the healed leper. We discussed the items used in the ceremony and their possible symbolism on Day 39 of our study. We won't go over this same subject in our study today but if you missed Day 39 you can go back and find the information there.
I was not able to locate a reason, in my background study, for a home needing to go through a ritual to be restored to ceremonial cleanliness. We can see why the remainder of the ceremony for a leper wasn't carried out (a healed leper also had to bring a guilt offering, a sin offering, and a burnt offering) and we can easily understand why an inanimate and sinless object like a home wouldn't need such sacrifices made for it. But why the cleansing ceremony involving the birds? The only opinion I could find on this (and several scholars offered this same opinion) is that the people are giving God the credit for healing the home in much the same way as they would give God the credit for healing the body. They are also giving God the credit for making the house clean in the same way they give God the credit for saving a person's soul and making him clean from the guilt of his sins. This indicates that they may be making a metaphor out of the house that was once unfit for anything good but is now usable. We all were once unfit for God's use when we had no personal relationship with Him. But He made a sacrifice that set us free, just as one bird in this ceremony is sacrificed and the other bird is set free. And now we are ceremonially clean in the eyes of God and fit for use.
We come to the end of Leviticus 14 and to the end of the regulations regarding defiling skin diseases and defiling molds. "These are the regulations for any defiling skin disease, for a sore, for defiling molds in a fabric or in a house, and for a swelling, a rash or a shiny spot, to determine when something is clean or unclean. These are the regulations for defiling skin diseases and defiling molds." (Leviticus 14:54-57)
No comments:
Post a Comment