Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:48-53

48 And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plastered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.

49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water:

51 And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:

52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:

53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.

Today we learn what happens if the infected part of a house is removed, and then the mold does not return. The ritual that follows is the same as that of a leper who was healed. We see the symbolic pattern of the two birds, one killed in a pot over water, the other dipped in its blood along with wood and hyssop and scarlet, then set free in a field.

As I said before, I see the ritual with the two birds as being symbolic of Jesus being condemned so that we may go free. In the case of the leper that applied at the individual level, here we see it applied at the level of a household. It is not only our inner trouble that Christ can liberate us from, but our interpersonal issues as well. We can be healed as an individual, as a family, as a community, as a nation, and as the entire human race. Impending doom can be reversed at each of these scales, but only through him.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:43-47

43 And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered;

44 Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.

45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.

46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.

47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.

In the last post we heard that if the mold (leprosy) was spreading in the house, then the infected portion had to be removed and replaced. Today we hear what would happen if that did not resolve the matter, and tomorrow we will hear what would happen if it did.

It turns out that the house only got one chance to be redeemed. If after the first replacement the mold reappeared, then that was it. The whole thing had to be destroyed. Stone by stone, timber by timber, all of it deconstructed and hauled out of the entire city.

It may seem an extreme course, but it is better that people destroy their homes than wait for their homes to destroy them, as could very well be the case with weakened timbers and respiratory disease. So, too, when our societies are sick, we sometimes hesitate to make the difficult sacrifices necessary, and the result is that the contamination destroys us instead. A man whose house caves in on him when he had the chance to dismantle it has earned his demise. So it is with a society as well.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:37-42

37 And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall;

38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days:

39 And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house;

40 Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city:

41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place:

42 And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, leprosy in the house would mean a spreading mold. Of course, identifying and removing mold from a house is a very wise and important thing to do, as otherwise it can weaken the structure and trigger disease. Mold in a house is sneaky, because at first it just seems like a discoloration, but repeated cases of collapsed homes and respiratory illnesses must have awoken even the ancient people to its true threat.

Mold is also difficult to evaluate because what we see of it is not always its furthest extent. Hence the test where the priest waits to see it spread, then has them scrape away the entire area. If the homeowner is lucky, just a replacement of the afflicted area will be enough to eradicate the problem, but as we will see in tomorrow’s verses, if it reappeared, then more drastic actions become necessary.

Mold in a house can be seen as another symbol of infectious ideologies, something that spreads throughout a society, whose color seems a little off. At first appearance it may seem of little concern but could lead to unforeseen structural compromises down the road. A modern-day example of this would be those who believe that the Earth is flat. As in verse 38 from today’s verses, it is wise to have a period of waiting and observing. Perhaps what we find is that this notion does not spread, it does not become mainstream, it does not go deeper in its claims. So far it seems to me that that is the case. It looks like flat-earth theories were mostly a passing fad, with fewer and fewer adherents as time goes on, and this isn’t of serious concern and doesn’t present any threat.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this seemingly innocuous trend is but the beginning of a wider culture of reality-denial. Then the mold is likely to weaken the timbers of our home and a society should try to dismantle and replace these cultures, but it may be impossible to do so. It may be that the society is already condemned.

That may seem an exaggerated claim, but we have seen it in the real world. Consider the case of Jonestown in Guyana, where a quirky ideology grew, avoided disbandment, and culminated in the mass suicide of its entire population. In the most extreme cases, a society gone rogue can indeed result in the destruction of the whole.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 40:34

34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

It has been a long time to get to this point, but here we have the final step in the creation of the tabernacle. After weeks of planning and months of labor, after verifying and recording the correctness of all that was done, the Israelites have finished their work and turned it over to the Lord. Now, the Lord, in turn, descends, and His presence sanctifies the place. God takes the man’s vessel and makes it holy, which is a transformation that man could never effect on his own. Up until this point the tabernacle was just a beautiful building, but thanks to the Almighty’s touch, it is now divine.

This moment also calls to mind the story of Cain and Abel, and their offerings to the Lord. In this moment, Israel has made a good offering, like Abel, and God had respect to it. Recall that this wasn’t the largest offering that could have been made, Moses turned away Israelites who were trying to contribute more. The offering didn’t need to be the grandest, it just needed to be right, and the Lord has shown in this moment that it was.

This is a transformative moment in the history of the world. Once the earth was a paradise and God seems to have walked it in the flesh. After the fall of Adam and Eve, though, a separation was made. God ceased to have an abiding presence on the earth and became primarily a voice from heaven. He may have made the occasional appearance to Abraham or to Moses in the burning bush, but these were isolated moments, He still did not live among man. Now all of that changes. For the first time since the Garden of Eden, God has a home among the community, a constant presence among mankind. Heaven may still be God’s native dwelling place, but now a part of Him is able to be with the Israelites always.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 28:16-18

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.

17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

“The house of God,” was what Jacob called this place of holy visitation, and he was in a reverential fear of the place! This idea of a house for God will reoccur many times throughout the Bible. Initially the house of God was in the mountains, far and removed from the places of man. Later God instituted the tabernacle through Moses, a specially dedicated place for Him to come and abide while the children of Israel wandered through the desert. Next, God commissioned King Solomon to build him a permanent edifice: the temple. Of course, that temple was eventually destroyed, twice, and where the house of God is today is disputed by the different branches of theology.

I love the detail in verse 18 about Jacob making his altar from the stones he had laid out for his pillow. A common pattern among the “houses of God” is that they are formed through the sacrifice of His people. Here Jacob is in a place of extreme poverty, lacking even the most basic of comforts, yet he gives what very little he has to build a foundation for his God. By surrendering his all to God, he is becoming clay that the Master can form into whatever He wishes.