Daily Devotional

I absolutely love, love, love reading the Book of Leviticus! To me, Leviticus is one of the most fascinating books in the Bible. It provides us with such detailed instruction about what God had given to His people concerning so many facets of daily living…from what to eat or not eat, what to wear or not wear, and even what to do if a disease entered their house or the people needed to self-quarantine for a time. If you’re looking for an interesting read, please do read Leviticus 13 and 14. But rather than get focused on the unfamiliar details, I would encourage you to consider how important these issues were to God, in that His people be clean. REMEMBER: God wants His people to be clean of all that defiles.

The Lord provided a very thorough system for the people to follow, including even what the priests were to look for and how they were to judge if something was clean or unclean. But it’s also interesting to realize that God intended for the disease to be present in the house in the first place (in the example of Leviticus 14). God had His reason for it initially, and He had a plan to “clean” out the disease as well, if you will.

In Leviticus 14:33-34 it reads, "The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ’There seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.’” The priest then went to inspect both the house and the dwelling’s inhabitants, and certain rituals of cleaning and purification needed to take place in order that: “So he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean” (Leviticus 14:53). But what does all of this have to do with us Christians who live in the year 2020 and are under grace, not law?

Here are a few takeaways I see:
1) God is sovereign over all…including all things that take place in our homes.
2) God allows things for a reason to bring about a great result.
3) We might not understand the plan of God “in the moment" but God knows all things from the beginning to the end and He always does what is right.
4) Physical disease is real, but God is more concerned about spiritual disease (i.e. “sin”). That’s why He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us!
5) God desires all things to be clean and good.
6) God knows how difficult it is for us to deal with situations and circumstances we can’t understand.
7) Understand that sin is real, earthly diseases are real, there is a time for everything under the sun (including times for self-quarantine), but God has a place for us in Heaven with Him where there is no sin, no disease, no grief, and no pain.

I’m so looking forward to that place in Heaven…aren’t you? Amen!

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.