As I read this morning from Leviticus 11-13 during my reading through the Bible, I kept wanting to either skip past some things or to simply say, “I read this” and close my Bible. After all, no one is checking up on me. Right? I mean, who would know? Well…you know the answer to that question. 🙂
Now…in case you are not in the “read-the-Bible” mode, I’ll just tell you that Leviticus is part of a mind-numbing section of Scripture where rules, laws, and stipulations are laid down for the people to follow. I recently had someone ask me, “How in the world could they remember all of those laws and ‘eat this and don’t eat this’ or ‘don’t touch this'”? That’s a great point! The answer is: I don’t know. Leviticus 11-13 is about what they can and cannot eat, touch or get near. It is about skin diseases and what is clean and unclean and how long to be in quarantine and when to get out. See why I was looking for a way out?
Then I went back and read a couple of sentences I highlighted in Paul David Tripp’s Everyday Gospel Devotional.
“By the loving miracle of God’s grace, unclean hearts are made new and pure.” (p.42)
“Although the laws surrounding leprosy had to do with God’s lovingly and wisely protecting his people from a deadly infection, they also point to something profoundly deeper. Sin is the ultimate infection. No one escapes this disease. {My note: Romans 3:23 shows us that}. It separates us all from our Maker. It cries out for the ultimate cure, one only the Messiah can provide.” (p.43)
Psalm 69:5-6 is rather poignant: “O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you. Don’t let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me. O Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies, Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated, O God of Israel.” (NLT) What a difference our lives would make if that verse was a daily prayer. The stain of sin won’t just go away. We can’t wish it away, hope it away, dream it away, fantasize it away, speak it away, sleep it away, or pretend it away. It is humanly unremovable and can only be taken away by an act of grace. 2000+ years ago that act of grace was done on a hill outside Jerusalem.