Numbers 5:3 "Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell."
"Wash your hands!" Did your mother ever say this to you? Do you find yourself saying this a dozen times each day to your own kids? As weird as it may sound, people can die from neglecting areas of basic hygiene. During the Civil War, some soldiers who were not mortally wounded did not survive because a doctor did not wash his hands after treating another patient.
Numbers 5 is about hygiene, but it carries more significance than just the washing of hands. The purpose of Old Testament regulations about hygiene was to signify that God's people were separated and special to God. They were to quarantine a leper or defiled person so that the basic health of everyone else was not harmed. Isolating a person sounds a bit harsh, but this was a matter of basic health and hygiene! Without isolation and separation, the whole nation of Israel would be at risk.
The matter of hygiene begs a question. Which is more significant to God: a dreadful plague or a hidden sin? Is your physical hygiene more important than your spiritual hygiene? Certainly not! God is certainly not more concerned with a terrible disease than He is about sin. God was concerned both with their health ("that they defile not their camps") and His holiness ("in the midst whereof I dwell").
God is just as concerned with your spiritual "hygiene" as He was with the hygiene of the nation of Israel. In the New Testament, we are commanded to "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (II Corinthians 6:17-18) As a believer, you are the "temple of the living God." That makes what you do today mightily important!
If you are not careful, you will be more concerned about washing your hands and your own basic hygiene than you would be about isolating a wicked "virus" in your heart. The only thing more viral than a cold or the flu is sin in the heart! Basic hygiene is important, but nothing is more important than your spiritual well-being. The next time you wash your hands, take a deeper look into your spiritual life and see if some "scrubbing" is needed!
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