Leviticus 14: The Role of Government

"When you enter the land of Canaan that I am giving you as a possession, and I place a mildew contamination in a house in the land you possess..."

Leviticus 14:34

At the time this law was written, the Israelites lived in tents as a traveling band.  However, they knew they would one day be provided houses.  The second half of this chapter describes the methodology for determining which of those houses that they take are clean and which are not livable.

The more I read about these cleanliness laws, the more I recognize their connection to current laws regarding health care.  The government (which in this case was the same as the priesthood) is requiring certain steps to be taken to ensure the overall health of its subjects.  The difference is that, in the case of the Israelites, there was much more fear of non-treatable, contagious, life-threatening illness than there is in modern America.  Another striking difference is that the priests actually took care of these problems themselves instead of just telling people that they have to get taken care of.

I think that, for such a relatively small group of people in a nomadic culture, these cleanliness laws made a lot of sense.  In any tribal community, the good of the tribe is always seen to come first.  Anything that is potentially hazardous to the tribe as a whole is immediately cast out.  However, any time a people grows and becomes more settled, certain allowances are inevitably made.

Question of the Day:

What allowances are reasonable and make logical sense in today's American society?  Which laws are too stringent, and which aren't stringent enough.  What role should the government of a gigantic, multicultural conglomeration of people take in the individual's well-being?

Prayer of the Day:

Guide our nation's leaders as they make decisions which impact individuals as well as the larger community.  Help the people of America understand which governmental approaches are wise and which are foolish, so that we may be better equipped to choose effective leaders.  Give the leaders that we elect the wisdom of Solomon so that they may direct our nation towards greatness rather than diminish us.  Amen.