“On the seventh day the priest must inspect it again. If the contaminated area has spread, the clothing or fabric or leather is clearly contaminated by a serious mildew and is ceremonially unclean.”

Leviticus 13:51 (NLT)

We continue today with infectious skin diseases. We see that the Hebrew word for leprosy refers not only to Hansen’s Disease but also to other skin infections and even to mold or mildew that can infect clothing.

The determining factor of whether a person was clean or unclean was the spreading of the sore or discoloration. A spreading disease would make a person unclean. As we saw in the previous post, leprosy is a type or picture of sin. Sin certainly spreads, starting out small, but spreading to infect the whole person. It can even spread throughout a group of people. Consider the original sin in the Garden of Eden. How it has spread throughout the entire human family!

The priest had the right and responsibility to pronounce a person “clean” or “unclean”. When it comes to sin, it is so hidden in the heart that only our High Priest Jesus Christ can ultimately determine if we are clean or unclean. Because of our sin nature, we were all unclean until Jesus cleansed us with His blood. He provided the cure for our incurable disease before we were even born. But we must appropriate His forgiveness and cleansing by believing in Him and confessing our sins.

Finally, we see that leprosy (mold or mildew) could infect a garment. It is interesting that if a washing would not cure the garment of the disease, then it was to be burned. Fire in Scripture always speaks of judgment. A garment that could not be cleansed was cast into the fire. Likewise, a person who resists the cleansing offered by Jesus Christ will ultimately be burned. Often this happens in life as they encounter God’s wrath against their sins. But even this is intended by God to turn them to Christ so that they will escape the eternal fire.

Sin is deceptive, defiling and insidious. Once it infects the heart it will never go away on its own. Only confession, repentance and the blood of Christ can stop it and remove it from the heart. If you have been infected by sin, then with God’s help deal aggressively with it today!

Listen to the complete podcast

Subscribe to receive a daily devo in your inbox: