After Hurricane Harvey, I thought I’d seen it all. In my rubber boots I had slogged through a dozen Houston-area houses with water dripping from carpets and insulation. As the sun rose toward noon, you could feel the steam coming out of those swampy damp caverns of mold and moisture. It was interesting, but gross and foul to smell. Still, dragging the wet stuff out, getting fans going, and letting the place begin to dry felt great.
But not until the pipes froze in my parents’ house did I encounter collapsed ceilings and rooms buried in insulation and filth. Wow.
I’m not sure when people realized mold was unhealthy, but God has always known. And though Israel is a dry climate (healthier than ours, provided you have food and water), He gave laws for dealing with mold. If people found mold in the house, they had to move out and call in the priest to check it. He would have every stone with mold removed and taken outside the city walls. Then everything that’s left would be scraped clean and the dust taken outside the city. If no mold reappears, the house is clean, new stones and mortar are put in, and the family returns. If the mold keeps coming back, the house will be taken down, brick-by-brick, and the stones and timbers taken outside the city. Meanwhile, everyone who touches the house each day has to wash himself and his clothes and is ceremonially unclean till evening. Leviticus 14:33-57.
Did the Israelites understand the reasons for these laws? Probably not. But God knew what was best. Just as dietary laws protected them from unknown parasites, laws about mold—and all His laws—were for their protection.
That’s still true today. I know it’s hard to understand some of God’s laws, such as those concerning sexuality. But we have to trust that He knows what is best, and He wants to protect us from dangers we don’t understand.
Trust God and submit to His word. Doesn’t He deserve that from you?
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Household Words: 