Leviticus 12-14 - God Values Moms and Heals Diseases

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are diving through a very interesting portion of Leviticus right now. And we saw in chapters 1 through 10 of Leviticus, how God wanted all of the sacrificial system of Israel to go.

We saw the purpose for that, that sinful people could be in the presence of a Holy God without being consumed, without dying. Because when sin comes into contact with the Holy God, it's eradicated, it's completely gone.

And if we are attached to that sin, we too are gone. And we saw the installation of the priests of Israel with Moses and Aaron and his sons.

And we saw what happened when two of Aaron's sons decided, okay, we've been following God, we've been observing everything that God commanded us, but we think if we did this action, then it would be great and wonderful.

And we saw what happened as a result of that. Then yesterday we walked into this new section, chapters 11 through 15, which talk about some things that would make a person ceremonially unclean.

So these were not things like lying or stealing or, you know, adultery or any of those types of things. These were not sins. These were things that were kind of pictures of sins effects in the world.

So they weren't sins themselves, but the effects of sins. So you can't eat these types of birds that are scavengers and predators and prey on rotting or decomposing things because that's very unlike the character of our God.

There were also health benefits as well that became known later in history that aligned with what God had had. Even some of the things that we'll look at over the coming days or today depending on how well this goes.

Some of the things that God outlined for them then helped Israel survive a lot of different health things over centuries and even millennia afterwards during the time of the bubonic plague because Israel was still following a lot of these cleanliness

laws, the ceremonially clean and unclean laws. They did not get the bubonic plague like many of the peoples around them. They were getting it because they were washing something.

If something died in some place, there was all of these procedures that God had outlined long ago and that then the Pharisees had built onto that even. So it was even more of a process.

And people actually then blamed the Jewish people for the bubonic plague despite the fact that it was them obeying and following God, the same exact Old Testament that all of the Christians had. And so they're definitely a low spot in world history.

And for those that somewhat nominally named the name of Christ during that time period and some of their wickedness that took place in their persecution of the Jewish people. But God cared for Israel.

And He cared for them not just in making way for their sins to be covered but even as they interacted with the world around them.

So yesterday we saw things that they could and could not eat or things that if a vulture touched something, you didn't want to immediately eat that thing. Some things like that. Today we're going to look at childbirth and skin diseases.

It's exactly what you said when you opened your Bible today, Lord, I want you to speak to me through childbirth and skin diseases. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read through chapter 12.

It's very short, but then chapters 13 and 14 are very, very detailed on skin diseases and the different things that God says. Here's what I want you to do in relation to these.

And what I'm going to do today is I'm going to highlight the big picture things, the takeaways that we can have today as a result of reading God's Word. Okay, how does this help me in my walk? How does this make me think about Jesus?

How does this affect how I interact with other people? So I'm going to do that first, and then I'm going to read through the passage.

That way, if you perhaps only have 10 minutes, you've only got 15 minutes on your drive today, you go, man, I really want to know what does God have for me? Hopefully, that'll be there for you.

If you, like me, are like, okay, I know every word of God is important, and so I want to go through all of it. Just listen all the way to the end of the episode, and you will have all of that for you. So let's start off in Chapter 12.

Yahweh spoke to Moses. Tell the Israelites when a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean seven days as she is during the days of her menstrual impurity.

The flesh of his foreskin must be circumcised on the eighth day. She will continue in purification from her bleeding for 33 days. She must not touch any holy thing or go into the sanctuary until completing her days of purification.

But if she gives birth to a female child, she will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstrual impurity. She will continue in purification from her bleeding for 66 days.

So here we have God's kind of outlined maternity leave for the children of Israel.

And I want to mention one thing first off as we look at this and as we think even about the New Testament with Jesus, God made flesh, the one who's from the line of David, from the line of Judah, one of these Israelites, that everything that was good

to do, Jesus did. He was circumcised on the eighth day as we would read about in Luke chapter 2, that there was nothing righteous that could ever be done that Jesus did not do.

And so that's that righteousness that is placed on our account when we accept Christ, that we are not under any condemnation, and instead we receive all the blessings of God. Why? What could we have possibly done to deserve this?

It's because we have Christ's righteous deeds placed on our account. It's a wonderful thing.

Even when you think about, okay, eight days old, well, it wasn't really his choice, but God gave Jesus to Mary and to Joseph with the knowledge that they were going to obey everything that God had for them, especially in raising Jesus and in things

like this. So he does that. He circumcised on the eighth day. And then she has her purification time that, if you will, that maternity leave where she was exempt from a lot of other things that most people maybe had to do or could do.

Let's say you have a baby, but it's coming time for the feast of firstfruits or it's coming time for whatever day. Okay, wow, I just had a baby, and do I have to go down? And God says, no, no, no, no.

You take care of your kid. Spend this time with him. Enjoy this moment together.

And when my son B was born, he was born on the day that Washington State closed everything down for COVID. And so we got kind of an interesting, if you will, paternity and maternity leave and just got to spend a lot of time with B.

And remember those days very, very fondly. Then you have these 33 days for maternity leave for if it's a boy. And then there's 66 days if it's a girl.

So during this time period, girls were much less valued. You wanted a male heir. And some of those things will even be brought up later in numbers and Deuteronomy.

And you really want a male heir. But God says, OK, I view the girls just as important as the males. And in fact, oftentimes your baby girls would be somewhat smaller or a little bit weaker than the boys might be.

And so there's this extra time that's given to care for them, to love them, and all things that she would be exempt from, the mother would be exempt from many things that she would have to do otherwise because she's ceremonially unclean.

It's not a sin at all to have a baby. It's one of the things that God from the very beginning in Genesis 1 commanded humanity to do, be fruitful and multiply. And so God here, he views mothers with honor.

And he says, all right, during this time period, you are basically set apart. And it's it's an honoring of motherhood and honoring of this process, a realization that a new person, a new image bearer of God has been brought into the world.

And that is a wonderful thing. So there's that purification after childbirth.

Verse number six, when her days of purification are complete, whether for a son or daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a year old male lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin

offering. He will present them before Yahweh and make atonement on her behalf. She will be clean from her discharge of blood. So now she is ceremonially clean again.

This is the law for a woman giving birth, whether to a male or female. But if she doesn't have sufficient means for a sheep, she may take two turtle doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.

Then the priest will make atonement on her behalf and she will be clean. And if you remember in the story in Luke two, Joseph and Mary did not have a lamb and they did not have a sheep.

And so they brought just the two birds and Jesus was born not to the richest of the rich, but he was born to a poor family. Those who brought the least of what they could possibly bring to God.

OK, then chapters 13 and 14 deal with the skin diseases many times as these types of things are brought up later throughout the Bible. If you've got maybe an older translation, kind of the catch-all term for a skin disease was leprosy.

Now we have like a very specific thing that we mean when we say the word leprosy. And so some newer translations have that kind of broken out into some different ones. So leprosy still exists and it's still mentioned a time or two in Scripture.

But if you wonder, perhaps if you have a newer translation and grew up on the King James like I did, where did all the leprosy go? I remember there being a lot more leprosy. That's what happened to it.

We now use the more generic phrase skin disease to encompass all of the things that are talked about. And then leprosy is one specific one. But leprosy, when it's talked about in Scripture, often refers to our spiritual state.

It was something that would start off small and then grow and grow and grow until there was, you know, if it was the skin disease, it would be all over your body. If it was talking about sin, it's that sin starts off small.

You're just doing this one thing or saying this one thing or thinking this one thing, and then it bleeds over into all the other areas of your life and it completely takes over.

And the wonder is that God is the one that heals us from our diseases, whether permanently when we go to be with the Lord or if it's our sin state that God has cleansed us through the blood of Christ.

I can think even of when Jesus interacts with many of those with skin diseases in his time here on earth and how he all mentioned this for the skin diseases. If someone that had one touched anything, you could not touch that.

If they sat in a chair, you couldn't sit in the chair. If they touched you, you had to, you know, rinse, you had to do the whole thing. Whatever they touched became unclean.

But when Jesus interacted with them, he loved them and cared for them, and he wasn't afraid of them.

We can think about the story where often they would shout, unclean, and that's what they would have to say so that everyone would know to stay away from the people with the disease.

But Jesus, he obviously as God, as the healer, he didn't have to be afraid of that. As Christians, we don't have the same fear of sickness and illness and death as maybe someone that doesn't know God does.

It's why Christians were some of the first to make hospitals and to deeply care for those that were undergoing things like the bubonic plague or other instances that Christians have always shown, okay, if I live, it's so I can show Jesus.

And if I die, it's okay because I get to be with Jesus. And I would encourage you, take some courage in that. I don't know necessarily what the Lord might have for your path, but don't fear to care for people.

So Jesus would not be afraid of these people, and instead of them corrupting him or giving him a disease, everything that Jesus touched became whole again. That those that had leprosy now no longer had leprosy.

Those that had diseases no longer had diseases. And I'm thankful that wherever Jesus touches, there is healing and there is life. And the same is true for perhaps you and Sin Today.

I can think of so many times in my life where I was struggling with something. I was struggling with this attitude, with this action, with this mindset, with this treatment of this person.

And through just frankly begging God like, Lord, please help me. I don't want to just be me. I want to be your child.

I want to be the one that is like you in my actions and my thoughts and my words and my attitudes. And I've seen God heal some of those things in me. And Lord willing, I will keep on pressing for that with the Lord for as long as I live.

And I'd encourage you with that too. If you've got that sin disease, not a skin disease, if you've got a sin disease, then turn to Jesus because he is there for you. Thanks for tuning in.

And I'm going to read now through Leviticus 13 and 14. That way we can feel like we have been through it. And if you need to go, please feel free to do so.

But I'm going to read at this time. And then Lord willing, I shouldn't have any other big things that I mention in here. Chapter 13 and verse number 1.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron. When a person has a swelling scab or spot on the skin of his body and it may be a serious disease on the skin of his body, he is to be brought to the priest Aaron or to one of his sons, the priest.

The priest will examine the sore on the skin of his body. If the hair in the sore is turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is in fact a serious skin disease.

After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.

But if the spot on the skin of his body is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest will quarantine the stricken person for seven days.

The priest will then reexamine him on the seventh day if he sees that the sore remains unchanged and has not spread on the skin. The priest will quarantine him for another seven days. The priest will examine him again on the seventh day.

If the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest is to pronounce him clean. It's a scab. The person is to wash the scab, sorry, the person is to wash his clothes and will become clean.

But if the scab spreads further on his skin after he has presented himself to the priest for his cleansing, he has to present himself again to the priest.

The priest will examine him, and if the scab is spread on the skin, then the priest must pronounce him unclean. He has a serious skin disease.

So this is the same type of thing that Jesus tells the lepers, those with skin diseases, that he interacts with on earth after he heals them. He says, hey, go show yourself to the priest, go obey God's law that they had at that time.

Verse 9, when a case of serious skin disease may have developed on a person, he is to be brought to the priest.

The priest will examine him if there is a white swelling on the skin that has turned the hair white and there is a patch of raw flesh in the swelling. It's a chronic serious disease on the skin of his body and the priest must pronounce him unclean.

He need not quarantine him for he is unclean. It's not just a temporary thing for ceremonial uncleanliness. He's contagious, if you will.

But if the skin disease breaks out all over the skin so that it covers all the skin of the stricken person from his head to his feet, so far as the priest can see, the priest will look.

And if the skin disease has covered his entire body, he is to pronounce the stricken person clean. Since he has turned totally white, he is clean. But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean.

When the priest examines the raw flesh, he must pronounce him unclean. Raw flesh is unclean. This is a serious skin disease.

But if the raw flesh changes and turns white, he is to go to the priest. The priest will examine him. And if the sore has turned white, the priest must pronounce the stricken person clean.

He is clean. When a boil appears on the skin of someone's body and it heals, and a white swelling or a reddish white spot develops where the boil was, the person is to present himself to the priest. The priest will make an examination.

And if the spot seems to be beneath the skin and the hair in it has turned white, the priest must pronounce him unclean. It's a case of serious skin disease that has broken out in the boil.

But when the priest examines it, if there's no white hair in it, and it is not beneath the skin but has faded, the priest will quarantine him seven days. If it spreads further on the skin, the priest must pronounce him unclean.

And it is, in fact, a disease. But if the spot remains where it is and does not spread, it is only the scar from the boil the priest is to pronounce him clean. I want to mention very quickly as well, there's no doctors in this time period.

Maybe you might have had witch doctors or something. So here's something that God outlines that says, all right, here's kinds of things that will help protect you and the rest of the children of Israel from deeply contagious diseases.

And so that's what God's working through here is. All right, they have very limited knowledge. If you maybe try to explain all germs, microscopes, all those kinds of things go way over their heads.

God's meeting them where they're at. So let them know how they can survive in some of these instances and what they can do. Verse 24.

When there is a burn on the skin of one's body produced by fire and the patch made raw by the burn becomes reddish white or white, the priest is to examine it.

If the hair in the spot is turned white and the spot appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a serious skin disease that is broken out in the burn. The priest must pronounce them unclean. It's a serious skin disease.

But when the priest examines it, if there's no white hair in the spot and it is not beneath the skin but is faded, the priest will quarantine him seven days. The priest will reexamine him on the seventh day.

If it's spread further on the skin, the priest must pronounce them unclean. It is, in fact, a case of serious skin disease. But if the spot has remained where it was and has not spread on the skin but has faded, it is the swelling from the burn.

The priest is to pronounce them clean, for it's only the scar from the burn. When a man or woman has a condition on the head or chin, the priest is to examine the condition.

If it appears to be deeper than the skin and the hair in it is yellow and sparse, the priest must pronounce the person unclean. It's a scaly outbreak, a serious skin disease of the head or chin.

When the priest examines the scaly condition, if it does not appear to be deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, the priest will quarantine the person with the scaly condition for seven days.

The priest will re-examine the condition on the seventh day. If the scaly outbreak is not spread and there is no yellow hair in it and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, the person is to shave himself but will not shave the scaly area.

Then the priest will quarantine the person who has the scaly outbreak for another seven days.

The priest will examine the scaly outbreak on the seventh day and if it has not spread on the skin and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, the priest is to pronounce the person clean. He is to wash his clothes and he will be clean.

But if the scaly outbreak spreads further on the skin after his cleansing, the priest is to examine the person. If the scaly outbreak has spread on the skin, the priest does not need to look for yellow hair, the person is unclean.

But if as far as he can see, the scaly outbreak remains unchanged and black hair has grown in it, then it is healed. He is clean. The priest is to pronounce the person clean.

When a man or woman has white spots on the skin of the body, the priest is to make an examination. If the spots on the skin of the body are dull white, it's only a rash that has broken out on the skin, the person is clean.

If a man loses the hair of his head, he is bald, but he is clean. Great news for, oh, Myron, if you're listening or watching to this, or watching this, then you're bald, but you are clean, so says Leviticus 13, 40.

If he loses the hair at his hairline, he is bald on his forehead, but he is clean. But if there is a reddish-white condition on the bald head or forehead, it's a serious skin disease breaking out on his head or forehead.

The priest is to examine him, and if the swelling of the condition on his bald head or forehead is reddish-white, like the appearance of a serious skin disease on his body, the man is afflicted with a serious skin disease. He is unclean.

The priest must pronounce him unclean. The infection is on his head. The person who has a case of serious skin disease is to have his clothes torn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, Unclean, unclean.

He will remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.

So this is quarantine that even we would know today. You don't want someone that has something contagious to be in contact with other people. This isn't cruelty.

This is the exact type of thing that we would do today. This doesn't preclude him from having people bring him clothing items or building him like a set apart house. It's just that he can't be in or around and interacting with other people.

Verse number 47.

If a fabric is contaminated with mildew in wool or linen fabric, in the warp or weft of linen or wool or in leather or anything made of leather, and if the contamination is green or red in the fabric, the leather, the warp, the weft, or any leather

article, it's a mildew contamination and is to be shown to the priest. The priest is to examine the contamination and quarantine the contaminated fabric for seven days. The priest is to re-examine the contamination on the seventh day.

If it is spread in the fabric, the warp, the weft, or the leather, regardless of how it's used, the contamination is harmful mildew, it's unclean.

He is to burn the fabric, the warp or weft, in wool or linen or any leather article which is contaminated. Since it is harmful mildew, it must be burned.

When the priest examines it, if the contamination has not spread in the fabric, the warp or weft or any leather article, the priest is to order whatever is contaminated to be washed and quarantined for another seven days.

After it's been washed, the priest is to re-examine the contamination. If the appearance of the contaminated article has not changed, it is unclean. Even though the contamination has not spread, you must burn the fabric.

It is a fungus on the front or back of the fabric. If the priest examines it and the contamination has faded after it has been washed, he is to cut the contaminated section out of the fabric, the leather or the warp or weft.

But if it reappears in the fabric, the warp or weft or any leather article, it is broken out again. You must burn whatever is contaminated.

But if the contamination disappears from the fabric, the warp or weft or any leather article which have been washed, it's to be washed again and it will be clean.

This is the law concerning the mildew contamination in wool or linen fabric, warp or weft or any leather article in order to pronounce it clean or unclean.

What I'm going to do here since we're a little bit out of time, I'm going to record Chapter 14, which is continuation of those same thoughts. I did want to mention sin is deadly.

And here this ceremonially unclean thing of funguses or things like that, that you're supposed to cut it out of the fabric, if it's contaminated, don't keep it. The same is true for your life.

If there's sin, and every time I go to this place, every time I'm with these people, every time that I do this thing, I end up sinning, cut it out. It's like what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount of they're speaking in hyperbole.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Again, it's hyperbole. Don't literally do that.

But you should remove yourself from those situations in which there is sin. I'm going to record Chapter 14.

I'm going to release it on our audio podcast, so that will be on our YouTube channel, on our church website, tbcessex.com, and wherever you listen, either on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts, I'm going to record Chapter 14. Just that.

It's going to be a bonus episode, and I would encourage you to listen to that if you want to listen to Chapter 14. And if I come across any other random thoughts through there, I'll include that.

And then tomorrow, we will be looking at Chapter 15, which will be a doozy. And then we'll look at 16 and 17 with the Day of Atonement, really one of the holiest days in all of Israel's calendar.

Thanks for tuning in, and I will see you in Leviticus 14 by audio only in just a moment.

Hello, and welcome to this bonus audio episode of Tabernacle Talk. And I'm gonna be reading through Leviticus 14, and making any slight comments that I feel need made as we journey through this chapter. Yahweh spoke to Moses.

This is the law concerning the person afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing. He is to be brought to the priest who will go outside the camp and examine him.

If the skin disease has disappeared from the afflicted person, the priest will order that two live clean birds, cedarwood, scarlet, yarn and hyssop, be brought for the one who is to be cleansed.

Then the priest will order that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in a clay pot.

He is to take the live bird together with the cedarwood, scarlet, yarn and hyssop and dip them all into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water.

He will then sprinkle the blood seven times on the one who is to be cleansed from the skin disease. He is to pronounce him clean and release the live bird over the open countryside.

The one is to be cleansed once wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water. He is clean. Afterward, he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent for seven days.

That is, he can't go in with his family. He is to shave off all his hair again on the seventh day, his head, his beard, his eyebrows and the rest of his hair. He is to wash his clothes and bathe himself with water.

He is clean. I think they're the cedarwood, even of Christ dying for us on the cross, the scarlet yarn, that thread that's weaved all throughout the Old Testament.

One of these days, as we look through some different things, so you can think of Rahab, the prostitute, and the scarlet cord that she let down, and some other Bible stories in which it takes place.

And Jesus is kind of that final one where his scarlet blood, his crimson blood was what was shed for us. So the cedarwood, the scarlet yarn, the hissa, and the blood, obviously. So all of that, a picture of Jesus.

And as we've mentioned before, of now God's life is on this person, and these blessings, these things have now been given to this person that had a skin disease, but has now been completely healed, and there's rejoicing, and he's under no more

suspicion or anything. Now he is clean. Verse 10, on the eighth day, he must take two unblemished male lambs, and unblemished year old ewe lamb, a grain offering of six quarts of fine flour mixed with olive oil, and one third of a quart of olive oil.

So you'll recognize some of these from some different offerings.

Obviously the grain offering, one of those ones that would be somewhat of a meal, a feast between God and the person, would also go to feed the priest, that there's that fellowship meal that's taking place.

The priest is to take, pardon me, the priest who performs the cleansing will place the person who is to be cleansed together with these offerings before Yahweh at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

The priest is to take one male lamb and present it as a guilt offering along with the one third quart of olive oil and he will present them as a presentation offering before Yahweh.

He is to slaughter the male lamb at the place in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and burnt offering are slaughtered for like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest, it's especially holy.

The priest is to take some of the blood from the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, so head to toe that he's been cleansed.

Then the priest will take some of the one third quart of olive oil and pour it into his left palm. The priest will dip his right finger into the oil in his left palm and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh.

From the oil remaining in his palm, the priest will put some on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering.

What is left of the oil in the priest's palm, he has to put on the head of the one to be cleansed. He's anointed now. In this way, the priest will make atonement for him before Yahweh.

That God has said, obviously, a skin disease isn't a sin to have, but there's that ceremonial uncleanness that though it's not sin, the effects of sin have ravaged this person's life and now God's saying, in effect, like you're completely clean from

it, I have saved you from even the effects of sin in this moment. The priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Afterward, he was slaughtered, the burnt offering.

The priest is to offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. The priest will make atonement for him and he will be clean.

But if he is poor and cannot afford these, he is to take one male lamb for a guilt offering to be presented in order to make atonement for him.

Along with two quarts of fine flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, one third of a quart of olive oil and two turtle doves or two young pigeons, whatever he can afford. One to be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.

On the eighth day is to bring these things for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting before Yahweh.

The priest will take the male lamb for the guilt offering in the one third quart of olive oil and present them as a presentation offering before Yahweh.

After he slaughters the male lamb for the guilt offering, the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.

Then the priest will pour some of the oil into his left palm with his right finger. The priest will sprinkle some of the oil in his left palm seven times before Yahweh.

The priest will also put some of the oil in his palm on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot on the same place as the blood of the guilt offering.

What is left of the oil in the priest's palm he is to put on the head of the one to be cleansed to make atonement for him before Yahweh. He is to then sacrifice one type of what he can afford, either the turtle doves or young pigeons.

One is a sin offering and the other is a burnt offering, sacrificing what he can afford together with the grain offering. In this way, the priest will make atonement before Yahweh for the one to be cleansed.

This is the law for someone who has a skin disease and cannot afford the cost of his cleansing.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, when you enter the land of Canaan, that I am giving you as a possession, and I place a mildew contamination in the house in the land you possess, the owner of the house is to come and tell the priest something like

mildew contamination has appeared in my house. The priest must order them to clear the house before he enters to examine the contamination so that nothing in the house becomes unclean. Afterward, the priest will come to examine the house.

So he will examine it, and if the contamination in the walls of the house consists of green or red indentations that appear to be beneath the surface of the wall, the priest is to go outside the house to its doorway and quarantine the house for seven

days. The priest is to return on the seventh day and examine it. If the contamination is spread on the walls of the house, the priest must order that the stones with the contamination be pulled out and thrown into an unclean place outside the city.

He is to have the inside of the house completely scraped and have the plaster that is scraped off, dumped in an unclean place outside the city.

Then they are to take different stones to replace the former ones and take additional plaster to replace, to re-plaster the house.

If the contamination reappears in the house after the stones have been pulled out and after the house has been scraped and re-plastered, the priest is to come and examine it.

If the contamination is spread in the house, it is harmful mildew, the house is unclean, it must be torn down with its stones, its beams, and all its plaster and taken outside the city to an unclean place.

Whoever enters the house during any of the days that the priest quarantines it will be unclean until evening. Whoever lies down in the house is to wash his clothes and whoever eats in it is to wash his clothes.

But when the priest comes and examines it, if the contamination has not spread in the house after it was re-plastered, he is to pronounce the house clean because the contamination has disappeared.

He is to take two birds, cedarwood, scarlet yarn and hyssop to purify the house. And he is to slaughter one of the birds over a clay pot containing fresh water.

He will take the cedarwood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird in the fresh water, will sprinkle the house seven times.

He will purify the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedarwood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn. Then he is to release the live bird into the open countryside outside the city.

In this way, he will make atonement for the house and it will be clean.

This is the law for any skin disease or mildew, for a scaly outbreak, for mildew in clothing or on a house and for a swelling scab or spot to determine when something is unclean or clean. This is the law regarding skin disease and mildew.

Thanks for tuning in and hope that you have enjoyed Leviticus 12, 13 and 14. Obviously a little bit different than some of the things that we would normally look at, but no less God's word and no less important. Thanks for tuning in.

Have a great day.