The disease of leprosy was fearsome to ancient people because it was disfiguring and contagious, and there was no known cure. (Today it is treated with antibiotics.) Compare it to a contagious disease for which there is no known cure today, to better understand how people would feel about it.
How cruel it seems to require one who is the victim of an awful disease like leprosy to further lower himself by openly branding himself as unclean so that everyone knows business that anyone would rather keep private. Further still, he would be forced to live alone, marginalized by society. Actually, he would most likely be living with other marginalized folks suffering from the same disfiguring disease. That is so foreign to our culture’s way of thinking! What principle does this offer for us? That even when one is the innocent victim of one of life’s misfortunes, he is still responsible for handling it responsibly and justly, and in a way that protects others.
Note that if a person was granted healing from leprosy, his uncleanness from the disease had to be atoned for. Again we are confronted with the reality that we can contract uncleanness by simply living in a sin-cursed world, despite our best efforts and good choices. Is it any wonder that Jesus taught us to pray, “…deliver us from evil” and to be on our guard? This is another good reason for us to be in God’s word daily, attend church services regularly, and fellowship with other believers.
Did you catch that God Himself may put a mark of leprosy on a house?
Bodily discharges – ! Really, who wants to talk about that?! If the subject repulses us, what must it do to a holy God? And yet, because it is an inescapable part of our lives, He addresses it. How He must love us, bodily discharges notwithstanding. This evidence of His genuine love for us makes the discussion of bodily discharges precious to me, strange as that may sound. Further, my love for God deepens when I consider the fact that He has used something that’s downright ugly, for the great good of showing me how much He loves me, thus thwarting what Satan wants to use for bad. That is powerful good! That’s God!
Here’s one example of how relevant and profound one of the worst discussions in one of the most avoided books of the Bible can be. It teaches us that no portion of the Bible should be avoided, but rather studied and contemplated prayerfully until God gives us understanding of why He has preserved the account for us