“It seems to me that there is some plague in the house . . .” (Lev 14:34-36); “If any clothing is contaminated with mildew – any woolen or linen clothing . . . It is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the priest.” (Lev 13:47, 49 NIV)
It’s pretty strange to worry about diseases to your house and clothing, isn’t it?
Last week we took a closer look at these Leviticus passages, and we that learned that under the New Covenant, these texts take on a much less literal meaning. Our “houses” are our bodies, “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19), “His house” (Heb. 3:6). Our “clothing” is our character: “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:24 NIV)
Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites were admonished to regularly inspect their houses and their clothing for any sign of disease. In the same way, we are told to be watchful: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Tim 4:16-5:1 NIV). Just as Israel needed to regularly examine their literal houses and clothing, we also need to scrutinize our spiritual “houses” and “clothing” for the “diseases” of sin.
But what should you do when a careful search reveals the mildew of selfishness, pride or immorality on the walls of your heart? What should you do if you find that you have clothed yourself with anger or unforgiveness?
Let’s go back to Leviticus 13 and 14 to find out!
“[The priest] is to examine the mildew on the walls . . .” (Lev 14:37 NIV)
The first thing we must do is call in our priest, our High Priest, Jesus Christ: “. . . We have a GREAT HIGH PRIEST who has gone through the heavens, JESUS THE SON OF GOD . . .” (Heb 4:14 NIV). Jesus is the only One who can cleanse us of all unrighteousness: “If we confess our sins, [Jesus] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and PURIFY US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.” (1 John 1:9, Emphasis added)
But how does Jesus go about cleansing us? Let’s go back to Lev. 14: “. . . 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.” (Lev. 14:38,39). In the same way that the Levitical priests would close up a house for a period of time, Jesus sometimes temporarily closes the door to the sinful parts of our lives!
Here is a personal example: God told me to write: books, devotionals, short stories, etc. Then God told me to not keep these to myself, but to share them with the world. He even gave me the vehicle with which to do so: The Internet. I obeyed. In fact, I was more than happy to obey!
Imagine my surprise when God told me to stop submitting my work online!
He was gracious enough to tell me why. Careful examination of my heart revealed deep-seated pride. I was submitting my work to my OWN glory, not to God’s. God chose to “close up” this area of my life in order to teach me important lessons of humility, to do away with the “disease” of pride that littered my house. It took 2 years for God to fully teach me this lesson, and only then did He allow me to again submit my work.
But sometimes simple isolation doesn’t work. If you are not willing to change, if you’re not willing to allow God’s cleansing action to work in your life, then even during isolation, the spots of your character and spiritual clothing can spread. If this happened to a literal house in Israel’s day, the priests were given very specific instructions: “If the mildew has spread on the walls, [the priest] 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.” (Lev 14:39-42 NIV)
Friends, if closing down for a while doesn’t take care of the character flaw, then sometimes God has to remove the stones the flaw is growing on! If God, when He reexamines our hearts, sees that the problem still flourishes, He would have had to forbid that part of our lives! For example, if pride or immorality interferes with ministry, the ministry is removed!
But what happens, if after the stones have been torn out, the disease continued to spread? “If the mildew 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 mildew has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew; 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.” (Lev 14:43-45 NIV)
I don’t think I need to tell you what this means! If we persist in our sin, God will eventually have to move out of our house.
So how do we stop the disease of sin? How do we learn control over our character flaws? Friends, the answer is also found in Lev. 13 and 14. Join us next Saturday, for the conclusion “Of Diseased Houses and Clothing, Part 3”!
God bless you!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Author, Moderator, the Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets, www.scripturalnuggets.org , with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org .
(To Access the entire “Of Diseased Houses and Clothing” mini-series, please click here.)