And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and he shall cry, "Unclean, unclean." All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be. --Leviticus 13:45-46We are about a month into voluntary social distancing due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Within the last two weeks, most cities and other high density areas in the U.S. have mandated social distancing. Non essential businesses have shut down, and when people do venture out, it is not uncommon to see surgical masks being worn by people trying to avoid contamination. Officials have warned against any gathering of more than 10 people in one place.
Such social isolation is unprecedented in our lifetimes. Some may say that it has never been this bad, but they are wrong. There was an ordinance in Chicago and in other large cities 100 years ago banning gatherings of more than 10 people in one place, to fight the spread of Spanish Flu.
The current state of cultural quarantine has reminded me of Levitical Law in the Bible. Many of you may remember the stories of people with leprosy (a communicable disease) having to live "outside the camp". If they did come into contact with other people on the road or in town, they had to call out, "Unclean! Unclean!" to warn others to stay away. You see, social distancing has been around for centuries.
What you may not remember about Jewish culture in biblical times was that having a contagious disease was not the only thing that made a person unclean. Coming into contact with a diseased person, of course, made you unclean, but so did eating pork, or catfish, or any other non-Kosher food. Okay, you might think that prohibitions against non-Kosher foods and keeping away from contagious diseases might be easy enough. However, the list goes on. A woman's menstrual period made her unclean. A man having a seminal discharge, whether by sexual intercourse or during a dream, was himself unclean, as was anything that the semen touched. Gathering up the bedding to be washed made that person unclean
Basically, living life made one unclean. Touching an animal carcass made a person unclean, yet people still ate meat and offered animal sacrifices. The butcher and the priest were not to live outside the camp, but their jobs made them unclean, and anyone who touched them before their period of purification was also unclean. A person who swept out a storage room or a barn was likely unclean, because they came into contact with bugs or mice (or their droppings) that were unclean. If you touched the broom that touched any unclean thing, you were declared unclean.
Perhaps this is what David thought when he first wrote the words, "There is none righteous, no not one." (Psalm 13:3, Psalm 53:3). This same thought was echoed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:10. Both men knew their utter helplessness, their rank unholiness, and their unworthiness of heavenly habitation. Yet both were aware of God's provision for them. David knew the Mosaic Law, which established a system of sacrifice, including a once-a-year sacrifice for the cleansing of the people for any unintentional sin (such as coming into contact with someone unclean who had not warned them, or becoming unclean themselves by unknowingly coming into contact with insects or vermin, or even an item that insects or vermin had touched.) Paul had undoubtedly heard stories of Jesus being touched by a woman with an issue of blood, or touching leprous men, or maybe taking the hand of Jairus's dead daughter before He raised her from the dead. Knowing that Jesus was fully God who left a holy heaven to touch unclean men so they could themselves be holy undoubtedly led Paul to pen the words, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
The term "unclean" in Hebrew means foul in a religious sense--defiled, polluted, and infamous. It means impure ethically and religiously. We are born into sin, unholy by nature, separated from God. When Isaiah was called by God to prophesy to the people of Israel, to use his mouth to speak the words of a holy God, he said, "Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips." (Isaiah 6:5).
In order to be clean, one must be washed and put away, separated from unclean things. In order to be holy, one must be set apart, spiritually distancing himself or herself from sinful influences. 2 Corinthians 6:17 says, "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." This is what it means to repent and believe. God wants us to separate ourselves from sin, but He also knows we must live our lives, and that living brings us into contact with unclean things. No amount of social distancing can cleanse us from sin. Only God can do that.
During this period of mandated social distancing to avoid a feared contagion, let's remember spiritual distancing to avoid sinful separation from a holy God, and be thankful that He sent Jesus
who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11).
