Saturday, 14 December 2024

When anyone has a defiling skin disease, they must be brought to the priest. – Leviticus 3:9

Today's Scripture Reading (December 14, 2024): Leviticus 3

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials and some religious leaders had some very public conflicts. Some religious leaders even decided that they would disobey health restrictions, believing that the religious practice of gathering as the church was more important than the governmental health instructions that we should isolate to stop the spread of the disease. At the time, we often excused the risk as low. Even recently, I have heard some far-right politicians argue that if we had not isolated during the pandemic, that practice might have only cost us an additional three or four percent of Covid-19 deaths. It doesn't sound like much. However, that would mean fifteen million more deaths in the United States and Canada. That doesn't sound like much unless someone you love is among the fifteen million. Maybe to put that in perspective, Adolf Hitler killed just over six million Jews during the Holocaust. It is hard to face reality. Some even objected to the wearing of facemasks, arguing that a mask covered our faces and diminished the image of himself that God had placed inside of us. (I'm afraid I wholeheartedly have to disagree with that assessment.)

I even read a post on social media during the pandemic that argued that the government in my area had jailed more pastors for their faith than China had during the same period. However, the claim was a little warped. First, only two pastors were jailed in my area, and I have no idea if China had imprisoned any pastors during that time. Maybe that part of the claim was correct. However, the pastors were not detained for their faith. They were placed in jail for repeated violations of the gathering restrictions and for promising that they would continue to violate the same laws that were in place. 

It was this situation that was brought to my mind as I read through the Jewish restrictions placed on those who were suffering from skin conditions. The reality of the situation was that not everyone had leprosy, just like not every sick person during the pandemic was suffering from the COVID-19 virus. However, the religious leaders were tasked with enforcing the health restrictions. If the skin condition was spreading, it didn't matter if the disease might not have been life-threatening; the priest would protect the society by proclaiming that the sick person was unclean and must live the rest of their life outside of the community. 

It was a responsibility that the religious leaders took very seriously, understanding that sometimes the best way to deal with disease is to isolate the sick. It was the opposite reaction to that of some religious leaders during the more contemporary pandemic when they might have taken their roles to protect public safety a little more seriously.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 4


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