If Jesus Came To Your House Series

IF JESUS CAME TO YOUR HOUSE

I hope many of you, like myself are discovering that the book of Leviticus is anything but a dull book of law. Today we continue our series of sermons from the book of Leviticus. The text comes from the third section chapters 11-16. This section concerns God’s laws regarding what is clean and what is unclean in the areas of food and other matters. Two of the chapters in this section deal with the dreadful disease of leprosy on the body and in the houses. I want to concentrate on the kind of leprosy that attacks the structure of a house and then consider how spiritual leprosy can attack our homes.

Again you may ask why does the Bible include all these detailed instructions on what to eat and how to keep clean and how to treat leprosy. And again I will point you to God’s reason stated in 11:43-45 “For I am the LORD your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy for I am holy…For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy.”

(Read the text Lev. 14:33-57)

This week I found a realtor’s website that began by including this very passage from Leviticus 14 then went on to describe how mold attacks houses today. Mold infected houses has caused a flood of lawsuits that seek compensation for health problems and property damage. In some cases the problem became so severe that residents had to abandon and even burn their houses and belongings in order to rid them of mold infestations.

Toxic mold can incubate and grow wherever there is water leaking, flooding, clothes dryers not vented to outside, and water standing in houseplants to name just a few ways. Toxic mold is a kind of leprosy that is literally attacking thousands of houses in America today.

I wonder if you noticed where the toxic greenish and reddish spots of mold originated in the Biblical text? Did you catch the source of leprosy God is describing? Listen again—“When you come into the land of Canaan which I give you for a possession, and I put a leprous disease in the house …”

God said to Moses tell the people when I put leprosy in a house then it is time to take the problem to the Priest and do what is necessary to get rid of the toxin. The house becomes unclean because the leprosy of sin has invaded the home and sin, like toxic mold grows and creates an environment that is unfit for holy people to live in. If it is allowed to grow and spread, it will contaminate the whole family and they will die!

We wonder why would God cause leprosy to attack the dwelling places of some people or how can a holy God cause an unholy disease to erupt in a dwelling place? I believe the answer is God put the disease in the houses just like God puts pain in our bodies. Let me explain.

Pain is a signal; it’s a warning sign. Pain is the smoke detector that goes off to let us know something is wrong inside our bodies and we’d better do something before the disease kills us. Can you imagine what it would be like if God had not put the sensation of pain in our bodies? We’d never know anything is wrong and we’d ruin our bodies.

God said I put a leprous disease in the house. It served as a reminder that there were matters within the house that needed attention and God was not referring to a water leak. He was making the family aware that sin had invaded the home and sin when it grows and spreads makes the family inside unholy. It contaminates and makes those who become contaminated unacceptable to the One who sees everything that takes place within the four walls of our homes.

Leprosy in the house was God’s smoke alarm! It was God’s way of warning the family that they’d better do something because a fire of sin was smoldering and if they didn’t get it stopped their whole household would be consumed by the deadly inferno of sin! Job 22:23, 25b, 26 says it this way…”If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored, if you remove unrighteousness from your tents…and if the Almighty is your gold and your precious silver, then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.”

In II Chronicles 26 records how proud King Uzziah went into the temple with a bold arrogant and defiant attitude. He was a man who thought no one is going to tell me what I need to do or how I should worship. I’ll do it my way! So he made his own offering instead of asking the priest to do it for him as he should have. Here’s how Scripture describes his sin and what happened to him. (read 26:16- 21a). What a sad ending for King Uzziah. Humiliated, he had to live in exile as a leper until he died. Obedience to God is so important.