Being in the midst of a pandemic, we can appreciate how disease can threaten society and how we have to think seriously and take certain measures to protect and, the buzz word of the year, “mitigate” against spread. Even now, it seems the numbers are back on the rise again. It almost seems like we’ve had to deal with disease since the beginning of time itself. Throughout history, there’s been a number of pandemics, and pestilence has affected numbers large and small. Nowadays we’ve been granted an increase in medical knowledge and have treatments to help cure many diseases. However, there are still many which have no cure, or no treatment, or the treatment might be hit or miss. Personally, we’ve lost several friends and family members to cancer as I’m sure some of you have. Even some of our fellow brothers and sisters have been or were afflicted with certain incurable diseases. Certainly several come to mind, Tom Ryan, Bonita Kile and others. And so when we encounter such diagnoses, fear can surface front and center. Life threatening diseases or procedures can scare us. It might be fear of the treatment or surgery itself, or even fear of the unknown. And it may be that there isn’t a cure, a terminal disease, and it’s only a matter of time. These things can unsettle us, shake us up to the core. Disease is no respecter of sex, both males and females are afflicted; it’s no respecter of age, the young and old alike get sick and succumb to disease; it’s no respecter of class, the rich and the poor suffer afflictions; and it’s no respecter of the saved or the lost. Christians lose their lives to disease just the same as non-Christians. And if you were ever promised differently, you were dealing with a snake oil salesman. Disease don’t care if your rich or famous, eat healthy rabbit food or fine dine on donuts and cheeseburgers. You can be healthy, fit and strong one day and get struck down the next. As we turn to our text, we find God’s instructions regarding a scary skin disease called leprosy. As we’ll see this was a disease to be feared. It could strike at any time, with no cure or treatment, no hope.
