Lev. 14: Let's Get Cleaned Up.

So in the last chapter, I learned about skin diseases. And the word didn't really offer much in the way of the actual process of treatment or of healing. But, that's ok. I have to be patient, because chapter 14 is the answer.

I read that there is a little more to a ceremonial cleansing than simply bathing, or washing one's clothes, or sitting in isolation. There is, to use a theological term, a lot of rigmarole. The person has two bring two clean birds to the priest. The first bird is to be killed over a clay pot of fresh water. Some cedar wood, scarlet thread, hyssop, and the live bird are to be dipped into the blood of the dead bird. Then the priest has to sprinkle the blood onto the cleansed person seven times, and that person will be ceremonially clean. And the other bird has to be released to the wild. Which is just weird. Now I'm no doctor, but...

It makes me wonder several things. Did other cultures have such drawn out rituals? Were they as concerned with cleanliness, ceremonial or otherwise? What's with the number seven? Seven must be some kind of perfect and complete number.

What's with the cedar? What's with the scarlet thread? What's with the hyssop? Well, the scarlet thread first makes an appearance in Genesis 38, when Zerah (the result of Judah and Tamar's incestuous affair) puts his hand out of the womb first, and the midwife tied it to his wrist, as he was the first one out, but Zerah went back in and his twin brother Perez came out first. What's the connection? If any? The hyssop was the herb of choice at the passover (Ex. 12:22), used to smear blood on the doorframe at passover. That connection is a little clearer.

Is the rigmarole over at this point? Not by a long shot. Our now infection-free protagonist has to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe. Then the person is allowed back in the camp, but is forbidden to enter his tent for seven more days. Then he has to shave off all his body hair again.

Then there's a guilt offering and a wave offering, and then a sin offering. Then the blood is dabbed onto the ear, thumb and big toe of the healed person. Then oil is dabbed onto the ear, thumb and big toe of the healed person. There are also ways a person who cannot afford the lambs can be atoned for as well.

Cleansing a house from mildew follows the same rigmarole as the infected person's rigmarole, except it is the house that is sprinkled.

This is a lot going on. In a way, I admit I had to laugh at all this stuff. I pictured a typical day in Israel...people lined up for miles to sacrifice, people just hanging around outside their tents with blood and oil on their ears, thumbs and big toes, completely bald and shouting "unclean!" Come on, isn't that ridiculous?

There are certainly practical solutions here as well, such as the ability to signify a person as unclean, and therefore reduce or prevent the spread of infections, and the ability to keep oneself healthy. But this was a lot. And sacrifices were offered for so much stuff...sin, guilt, fellowship, pregnancy, healing...man. You could go through a herd in a short time.