February 4
Reading – Leviticus 13 – 14
On first reading this seems so cruel, but in the days of Moses, they had no Polysporin antibiotic ointment, they had no penicillin. The only thing they could do was isolate the infection and leave the man’s own immune system to heal him. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t, but the couldn’t risk the infection spreading like wildfire throughout the entire community.
My mother talks about being quarantined as a child for Rheumatic fever. Signs were posted and those who were inside the house could not leave. No one from outside the house could enter, to do so meant they couldn’t leave again. This state remained until she was free of the infection. The idea was to prevent the infection from spreading to the entire community.
In the 1950’s there were polio outbreaks. I remember the announcements that closed the swimming pools. They also closed other places where large numbers of children would gather to try and prevent the disease from spreading among all of the community.
Would that we could quarantine sin and evil so easily. Isolate them and send them to a desert island so they didn’t infect the entire community. The problem is, we each have the darkness within us. We are each born to a nature of sin. We can’t isolate ourselves from the sin in those around us because it is also within us. We can shield ourselves from it’s infection. God alone can be our shield. Remember that prayer and immersing yourself daily in His word are the best weapons we have against the infection of sin. Saturate yourself with the word of God, fill your mind with what is noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy to provide a barrier between yourself and the sin that would infect you.
Dear Heavenly Father, fill my mind and my heart and my spirit with you today. Immerse me in you, fill me with your spirit until I overflow, and leave no room for sin to take hold in my heart or my mind today. In Jesus Name, Amen.
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KayDee Ward....All Rights Reserved