Cleaning House

Leviticus 14:40
“40 then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city.”

My mom always talks about how bad mold and mildew are. She’s told me over and over about how the Bible is very specific about what to do when you have mold or mildew in your house or on your furniture. “Get rid of it!” is typically what I hear. A true statement and a very healthy approach to cleanliness in the house, but there’s more.

Some translations of the Bible refer specifically to mold and some to mildew. Some call it a plague in the house and others, still, a mark. What none of the translations differ on, however, is that it is the priest who is to inspect and order out the contaminated parts of the house. They are to be removed and brought outside the city gates, to an unclean place. Why is the Bible so determined to have the priest do the inspection and supervise the removal?

The book of Leviticus is specific in how the mold (plague) is to be removed. The priest must come into the house and inspect what He sees. He must identify the plague and order it scraped and cleaned. His orders are that the contaminated parts be removed and taken outside the gates to an unclean location. After a week (according to Leviticus) the priest returns and re-evaluates the situation. If the plague is there or it has come back and spread, He orders the entire structure be torn down and disposed of. He then instructs that a new house be built, clean!

Our bodies are a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19), which is the HOUSE of God. If our bodies are a house or dwelling place, then they can’t be filled with mold and mildew! I actually prefer the term plague or mark. Leprosy is a plague and is commonly associated with sin. So couldn’t this mold in the house be sin in our hearts? Our High Priest, Jesus, is invited into our hearts when we accept Him as Lord and Savior. We invite Him in and show Him the sin that has crept in through our walls and has infested our lives. He orders it to be removed! Sometimes, though, we stray from Christ; we wander from His teachings, and the sin returns. We have to allow Christ, our High Priest, to come back in and re-evaluate our lives. He will order us to be made new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

While the scraping and removal of the sin in our lives can be painful and even leave holes in our walls, Jesus has a redemptive plan to make us a new, CLEAN, house!