“the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.”
– Leviticus 14:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever had an infectious or contagious skin disease – such as chickenpox, measles, ringworm, scabies, boils and/or impetigo? Your grandpaa had chickenpox when he was a kid. Your grandpaa has today a pox scar in the middle of his forehead. The day that your Aunt Lynn came down with hard measles, she was with your grandmaa and grandpaa in San José, Bolivia. At the time that your Aunt Lynn came down with hard measles, your grandmaa and grandpaa were leading a Bolivia South America Mission summer team. Your grandpaa got ringworm when he was a senior in high school. Your grandpaa to get rid of the ringworm had to every day put yellowish looking sulfur powder on the infected areas. Not long after your grandmaa and grandpaa began their second missionary term in Bolivia with South America Mission, one of your Aunt Lynn’s school friends decided that your Aunt Lynn should have a puppy. The hairless little puppy – a Pekinese, was the runt of a litter of puppies. Because your Aunt Lynn really liked her puppy – which she named Puddles because . . ., so much – your grandmaa and grandpaa say that your Aunt Lynn ‘loved her puppy to life’ instead of saying that your Aunt Lynn ‘loved her puppy to death’. The tiny mutt that was given to your Aunt Lynn was covered with scabies. Because your Aunt Lynn would always be holding her scurvy looking little puppy against her stomach and because her little rat look alike was covered with scabies, your Aunt Lynn ended up getting scabies on her stomach. Lee VanDixhorn was a participant on one of the first Bolivia South America Mission summer teams that your grandmaa and grandpaa led. On the last leg of the trip that Lee’s summer team made to spend time at South America Mission’s affiliated churches in rural eastern Bolivia, Lee had a boil appear on his tailbone. Until Lee could have the boil that was on his tailbone lanced and because it was so painful for him to sit, all that Lee could do the last couple of days of the trip that he was on with his summer team was to stand. One of the gals on another Bolivia South America Mission summer team – not long after she arrived in Bolivia with her summer team, came down with a bad case of impetigo on her face. Because the rural churches that are affiliated with South America Mission where your grandmaa and grandpaa took summer teams – and in which the summer teams often slept in at night, are not healthy, sanitary environs, your grandmaa and grandpaa decided to leave the gal behind in Santa Cruz while they made the three to four week trip that they made each year to as many of South America Mission’s affiliated rural churches in Bolivia as they could with each year’s summer team.
Have you ever seen mold, mildew and/or fungus growing someplace in your house? About a month after your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia as South America Mission missionaries, with your dad and Aunt Lynn, your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn moved into a newly constructed house. Not long after your grandmaa and grandpaa moved into the first house that they lived in when they lived in Santa Cruz, your grandmaa and grandpaa found mold growing in confined areas – such as in a closet, in the recently built house that they were renting. Because where your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Bolivia is so humid, anything that can get moist – like a shoe, will quickly begin to have mildew growing on it if it is now worn.
Per what Moses scribed in Leviticus 14, infectious, contagious skin diseases – along with mold, mildew and fungus, were under strict regulations. A guy who had an infectious or a contagious disease was to be sent outside the Israelite people group camp boundaries where he was to stay for seven days. Before the guy could start a ceremonial cleansing ritual, a Levi tribal clan priest had to go outside the Israelite people group camp boundaries to examine the guy to determine if the guy still had an infectious or a contagious skin disease. If a Levi tribal clan priest ascertained that the guy who had an infectious or a contagious skin disease was no longer demonstrating any symptoms of still having a skin disease, the guy was considered healed from whatever he had. Before the guy could begin living again within the Israelite people group camp boundaries with his tribal clan – but still not inside of his tent, the guy had to go through a public cleansing ceremony. Verse 4 identifies what was needed for what seems to be to your grandpaa a very bizarre ritualistic rite, “the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.” After killing one of the birds – which was probably a dove, and after collecting the bird’s blood in a clay pot, the Levi tribal clan priest was then to dip the second bird along with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop into the first bird’s blood. The Levi tribal clan priest was to use the live bird, cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop that he had dipped in the first bird’s blood, to sprinkle the first bird’s blood seven times over the guy who had been isolated for seven days outside the Israelite people group camp boundaries because . . . the guy then had to wash his clothes, shave off his hair and bathe. The guy after another seven days, had to again wash his clothes, shave off his hair including his beard and eyebrows and bathe. The Levi tribal clan priest the next day was to offer up for the guy sacrifices – including a lamb. Jesus’ death – as a ‘lamb’, replaced this ritual.
Leviticus 14 (1040)