Infectious Disease

 

Infectious Disease

     I watch network T.V., the free kind over the airwaves.  It is inundated with self-help medicine commercials.  I think of Sky-ri-zee.  Perhaps this is the concoction for clearer skin.  What wouldn’t an Aaronic priest have given for this special med?  “Got a blemish?  Come closer, son.  Looks like the onset of leprosy.  Go away.  Two pills in the mouth and come back in seven.”  Much of Leviticus would have to be rewritten.  The red heifer sacrifice could be summed up with a cream.  “Touched a dead body?  Rub this on the contact area.  Go away.  Come back tomorrow.”

     But what if pills don’t work?  Adam would have O.D.’d on the blue and reds seeking to forget the fall. Thankfully the neighborhood drug store was not on his corner.  He heard vaguely of a savior to come.  God said it was in his genes.  Passed on down the line, there’d be Someone to smash Satan’s head.  Until then, round up the sheepies and kill a few on the altar.  That was God’s way because no amount of pain killers could eradicate the pain of sin.

     Infectious disease.  Call the C.D.C.  Get the procedure.  Anthrax about.  Don the mask and breathe freely.  But, there is something more deadly than anthrax here.  Residing in the lobes of our brains. Running through our arteries and veins, we have the cancer spread about.  Unless someone is clean, they are indeed shunned away from meeting.  To the surface, it manifests itself tipping off our tongue to reveal our vain camouflage.  Out of the heart, the mouth truly speaks.

     Age old since Adam.  Nothing new, yet God provides the New.  “Start again son.  Use the Sacrifice I’ve provided.  Use Me.  I can make you clean.”

     Like Naaman, will we go dunking in the drink?  Will we humble ourselves to take God up on His offer?  There is only one Way of complete forgiveness.  Jesus’ sacrifice was just that good.

     Not to sound like a droning nag, but our free will is available because of His free will.  We can freely choose, and He has volunteered to clean up our mess if we err.  We don’t have to live with eczema.  Rub the Salve on and watch it go away.