Of Diseased Houses and Clothing
Part 2
"It seems to me that there is some plague in the house . . ." (Lev
14:34-36); "If any clothing is contaminated with mildew - any woolen or
linen clothing . . . It is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the
priest." (Lev 13:47, 49 NIV)
It's pretty strange to worry about diseases to your house and clothing,
isn't it?
Last week we took a closer look at these Leviticus passages, and we that
learned that under the New Covenant, these texts take on a much less literal
meaning. Our "houses" are our bodies, "temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor.
6:19), "His house" (Heb. 3:6). Our "clothing" is our character:
"put on the
new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph
4:24 NIV)
Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites were admonished to regularly inspect
their houses and their clothing for any sign of disease. In the same way, we
are told to be watchful: "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in
them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1
Tim 4:16-5:1 NIV). Just as Israel needed to regularly examine their literal
houses and clothing, we also need to scrutinize our spiritual "houses" and
"clothing" for the "diseases" of sin.
But what should you do when a careful search reveals the mildew of
selfishness, pride or immorality on the walls of your heart? What should you
do if you find that you have clothed yourself with anger or unforgiveness?
Let's go back to Leviticus 13 and 14 to find out!
"[The priest] is to examine the mildew on the walls . . ." (Lev 14:37 NIV)
The first thing we must do is call in our priest, our High Priest, Jesus
Christ: ". . . We have a GREAT HIGH PRIEST who has gone through the heavens,
JESUS THE SON OF GOD . . ." (Heb 4:14 NIV). Jesus is the only One who can
cleanse us of all unrighteousness: "If we confess our sins, [Jesus] is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and PURIFY US FROM ALL
UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." (1 John 1:9, Emphasis added)
But how does Jesus go about cleansing us? Let's go back to Lev. 14: ". . .
If it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the
surface of the wall, the priest shall go out the doorway of the house and
close it up for seven days." (Lev. 14:38,39). In the same way that the Levitical priests would close up a house for a period of time, Jesus
sometimes temporarily closes the door to the sinful parts of our lives!
Here is a personal example: God told me to write: books, devotionals, short
stories, etc. Then God told me to not keep these to myself, but to share
them with the world. He even gave me the vehicle with which to do so: The
Internet. I obeyed. In fact, I was more than happy to obey!
Imagine my surprise when God told me to stop submitting my work online!
He was gracious enough to tell me why. Careful examination of my heart
revealed deep-seated pride. I was submitting my work to my OWN glory, not to
God's. God chose to "close up" this area of my life in order to teach me
important lessons of humility, to do away with the "disease" of pride that
littered my house. It took 2 years for God to fully teach me this lesson,
and only then did He allow me to again submit my work.
But sometimes simple isolation doesn't work. If you are not willing to
change, if you're not willing to allow God's cleansing action to work in
your life, then even during isolation, the spots of your character and
spiritual clothing can spread. If this happened to a literal house in
Israel's day, the priests were given very specific instructions: "If the
mildew has spread on the walls, [the priest] is to order that the
contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the
town. He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the
material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town.
Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and
plaster the house." (Lev 14:39-42 NIV)
Friends, if closing down for a while doesn't take care of the character
flaw, then sometimes God has to remove the stones the flaw is growing on! If
God, when He reexamines our hearts, sees that the problem still flourishes,
He would have had to forbid that part of our lives! For example, if pride or
immorality interferes with ministry, the ministry is removed!
But what happens, if after the stones have been torn out, the disease
continued to spread? "If the mildew reappears in the house after the stones
have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, the priest is to go
and examine it and, if the mildew has spread in the house, it is a
destructive mildew; the house is unclean. It must be torn down - its stones,
timbers and all the plaster - and taken out of the town to an unclean
place." (Lev 14:43-45 NIV)
I don't think I need to tell you what this means! If we persist in our sin,
God will eventually have to move out of our house.
So how do we stop the disease of sin? How do we learn control over our
character flaws? Friends, the answer is also found in Lev. 13 and 14. Join
us next Saturday, for the conclusion "Of Diseased Houses and Clothing, Part
3"!
God bless you!
Lyn Lyn Chaffart, Author, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets,
www.Sermonillustrator.org/minisermons , Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org .