Unclean, Unclean

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 35, Unclean, Unclean.

"The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp." Leviticus 13:45-46.

This text hurts to read. And it should, because we are standing in front of one of the harshest images in all of Israel's law.

Picture the scene slowly. A person notices spots on their skin. They are examined by the priest, and the diagnosis lands: unclean. From that moment on, their entire life changes. They must tear their own clothes — a sign of mourning. They must let their hair hang loose — a sign of public shame. They must cover the lower part of their face. And the most painful detail of all: they themselves must cry out, out loud, to anyone who comes near: "Unclean! Unclean!"

Stop on that for a second. The disease already isolated this person physically — that alone would be enough. But the law still required them to announce their own condition, over and over, with their own mouth, to anyone approaching. It wasn't enough to be sick; it had to be confirmed, out loud, in front of everyone.

And where did this person live? Outside the camp. Far from community, far from worship, far from the family table. "He shall live alone" — that is the final sentence of the verse. Impurity charged the steepest price there is: complete loneliness.

But why does Scripture preserve such a harsh picture? Because leprosy, in the Bible, pictures something larger than a skin disease. It pictures what sin does to the soul. It spreads silently. It isolates. It separates — from God and from people, at the very same time. And like leprosy, it often demands we admit out loud what we would rather hide forever.

But now — and this changes everything — jump forward centuries in the story and look at what Jesus does. A man with leprosy approaches Him. And what does Jesus do? He doesn't step back. He doesn't shout back "stay away." He reaches out His hand — and touches the man — before He even heals him. He broke the very distance the law had to enforce because of sin in a broken world. Jesus touched what isolated. He moved toward the very people the world had learned, out of self-preservation, to avoid.

No cry of "unclean, unclean" drove Jesus away. No shame, no wound, no condition made Him retreat. And that is exactly how He treats you today. Wherever you feel most isolated, most unclean, most cut off — that is exactly where His hand reaches first.

So, my friend, today I want to invite you to do what Jesus did. Think of someone you know who feels isolated. Rejected. Maybe because of a situation no one else knows about. Maybe because of an old wound they carry in silence. Before breakfast, send a simple message. You don't have to fix their problem. You just need to say: "I care about you." Move toward the person the world has learned to avoid.

That is what Christ does for us every single day.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.