“Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, ‘When you have entered the land of Canaan which I am giving you as a possession, and I put an infection of tzara‘at in a house in the land that you possess, then the owner of the house is to come and tell the cohen, ‘It seems to me that there may be an infection in the house.’”-Leviticus 14:34-35
From today, we’re going to move into the latter half of Leviticus chapter 14 dealing with what to do when the Lord puts the plague of TZARA-AT on someone’s home.
We’ve already learned that the principle behind TZARA-AT (skin disease) is that it is a visible manifestation of the evil or unclean spiritual condition of a person and it is an act of God.
Look at verse 34.
God clearly says, “…when I put an infection of TZARA-AT in a house…”
Just as TZARA-AT on a human was a divine judgement, TZARA-AT on a home was a punishment for some sort of sin committed against God.
The steps for dealing with TZARA-AT on houses were almost identical to the procedures for dealing with TZARA-AT on humans.
STEP 1: If a greenish or reddish discoloration appears on a wall, it is reported to the priest who will conduct an examination.
STEP 2: If the priest thinks the discoloration might be TZARA-AT, the house is put into quarantine for seven days.
STEP 3: If after seven days, the discoloration has spread it is considered to be TZARA-AT and as a result, the infected stones of the wall are to be removed and put outside the camp in an UNCLEAN place designated for such a purpose.
STEP 4: The mud plaster that was applied over the stones and bricks to waterproof them are also scraped off around the discolored area and disposed into the designated UNCLEAN place.
STEP 5: The old infected stones are replaced with new ones and re-plastered with mud.
STEP 6: If the discoloration returns, it is deemed to be an incurable case of TZARA-AT. As a result, the entire house is destroyed and then transported outside the camp to an UNCLEAN place.
And that’s that.
One may wonder what happens if somebody enters the house during its 7-day quarantine period?
Well, of course, the person becomes UNCLEAN, but it’s not that serious.
It’s not like he will catch TZARA-AT from the house.
He is basically unclean until the the sun sets (the end of the current day).
However, if person who enters the infected home also lies down on the floor or eats inside the house, not only does he have to wait until sunset to become CLEAN, he also has to wash his clothes because a higher level of impurity has been contracted.
The takeaway I get from all of this is the literally Lord wants every facet of our lives to conform to His divine standard of CLEANNESS.
Where we live, what we wear, how we eat, our speech, our sexual practices, every part of our lives is to be a reflection of our HOLY Father in Heaven.
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