Lev 13:46, "He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection, he is unclean. He shall live alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp."
Leviticus spent two lengthy chapters in dealing with leprosy, from determining symptoms of leprosy to dealing with contaminated objects and dwellings. Such is the prescription for contamination: isolate, banish and ultimately destroy. I can't help but relate this to how God looks at sin. Like leprosy, sin must be isolated, banished and destroyed. How wasteful is the life who bears it's beating. It makes a person unclean and unfit to live in God's camp. For sin can spread and infect/contaminate other parts of the body.
My soul, do not allow sin to work it's way deeper in the spiritual skin that it contaminates the joy and peace of God in your spirit.
But leprosy can be healed. What a great picture God has prescribed for cleansing the poor leprous man: He shall take two turtledoves. One he shall slay (by drowning it), and the other shall live. The live one shall be dipped in the blood of the slain bird. Sprinkle the blood on the man, and set the blood-drenched bird free to the open field. Christ died on our behalf that we may live. Indeed for every atonement of sin a life must be shed. And finally it required the ultimate sacrifice of the God-man Himself to cleanse us once and for all. The Life-giver slain to give life.
My soul, do not take for granted the Life that has been shed so that you may be clean, so that you may live in fellowship of His presence and dwell in the camp.
The Mind of the Melancholeric Man: Musings on Life and Ministry by Patrick Tan
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