Focus Chapters:
- Leviticus 14:33-57
- Leviticus 15-16
Standout Verse(s):
Leviticus 14:34-35, 37-45, 48 NLT
“When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew. The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’
Then the priest will go in and examine the mildew on the walls. If he finds greenish or reddish streaks and the contamination appears to go deeper than the wall’s surface,the priest will step outside the door and put the house in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day the priest must return for another inspection. If he finds that the mildew on the walls of the house has spread, the priest must order that the stones from those areas be removed. The contaminated material will then be taken outside the town to an area designated as ceremonially unclean. Next the inside walls of the entire house must be scraped thoroughly and the scrapings dumped in the unclean place outside the town. Other stones will be brought in to replace the ones that were removed, and the walls will be replastered.
“But if the mildew reappears after all the stones have been replaced and the house has been scraped and replastered, the priest must return and inspect the house again. If he finds that the mildew has spread, the walls are clearly contaminated with a serious mildew, and the house is defiled. It must be torn down, and all its stones, timbers, and plaster must be carried out of town to the place designated as ceremonially unclean.
“But if the priest returns for his inspection and finds that the mildew has not reappeared in the house after the fresh plastering, he will pronounce it clean because the mildew is clearly gone.
Observation (s):
- God intentionally places signs in our paths to prompt some form of action or reaction.
“When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew. The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’
- We are expected to consult with persons who can read the signs and direct us on how to go about taking the action that the sign requires.
Then the priest will go in and examine the mildew on the walls. If he finds greenish or reddish streaks and the contamination appears to go deeper than the wall’s surface,the priest will step outside the door and put the house in quarantine for seven days.On the seventh day the priest must return for another inspection. If he finds that the mildew on the walls of the house has spread, the priest must order that the stones from those areas be removed.
- The reappearance of a sign generally indicates the need for further action to be taken.
“But if the mildew reappears after all the stones have been replaced and the house has been scraped and replastered, the priest must return and inspect the house again. If he finds that the mildew has spread, the walls are clearly contaminated with a serious mildew, and the house is defiled. It must be torn down, and all its stones, timbers, and plaster must be carried out of town to the place designated as ceremonially unclean.”
Application:
Our physical world is full of signs that we are called to pay attention to and heed. The red of the traffic lights communicates a need to “stop”, amber says “slow down to a stop” and green tells us to “go”. The red on my phone indicates that the battery is low, the white indicates a message is waiting and the green tells me that there is nothing that needs my attention. Even nature speaks! The sky becomes overcast when it’s about to rain and ants scurry away when a storm is pending, birds migrate when winter is coming and the forest grows still when danger lurks. The truth is, these are signs that we have come anticipate, understand and instinctively obey. But what about the “not-so-straightforward” signs from God?
There is a lot to be learned and gained from paying attention to the specific God-orchestrated signs. As He indicated with the Canaanite-turned-Israelites homes, sometimes God allows the signs of imperfections or anomalies (mildew) to rise to the forefront ahead of schedule. He does this to:
- Prevent the situation from worsening in the background without our knowledge. If the mildew had continued to grow in the background, the whole house would have eventually been condemned.
- Push a refurbishment upgrade that we probably wouldn’t have undertaken without the appearance of a pinpointed need. The mildew forced the removal of the damaged area and the scraping and replastering of all walls in the house.
- Show us when something is not meant for us at all and should be removed from our lives. While God gave the Israelites Canaan, not all the houses were to be lived in. The mildew contamination was so bad that it must be torn down and its contents removed from their lives.
- Pinpoint the times when we fail to recognize #3 at the first glance and mistakenly go through the motions of applying a fix that in reality is a temporary band-aid. In instances like these, He allows the same anomalies or problems that we thought we had fixed to rise to the forefront again. The message is simply, “Look again”. This time, hopefully, we see the signs, read the message and act accordingly.
God-orchestrated signs are our guiding posts. If we identify them, interpret (or find someone who can assist with interpretation) and act on them, we are bound to live our lives with little missed opportunities and few “if only I had known” moments.
