Sin is Contageous

This morning, my family listened to a sermon from the Shepherds Conference, 2007. It was on Numbers 5. I found that interesting, because we don't normally hear sermons on Numbers (well, I don't).

Oh, and also, Numbers 5 is what the OT Church reading is going to be tomorrow, so that's why we listened to it--preparation for the reading.

The first part of the chapter talks about keeping people with leprosy or bodily discharges or who have been defiled by touching a dead person "outside the camp." This was to prevent these sicknesses (or potential sicknesses) from spreading in the camp (as you know, they didn't just whip out the antibiotics in that time period).

The second part of the chapter is all about a test for a suspected adultrous woman.

The sermon I listened to said that it wasn't just coincidence that God allowed these two laws to be placed together.

Just as God wanted to protect His people from the contageous outward diseases, God wanted to keep the deadly, intensely infectious and agressive "sin disease" from spreading in the camp of Israel.

For application, we should treat sin as God treats it--as a contageous disease. Just as I avoid touching people or things that I think could be or that I know is infected with a sickness (eg. dirty public bathroom surfaces, used tissues, the nursing home with a "stomach virus," etc)--in this very way I should avoid sin. God wants His people to avoid sin, because it is contageous.

We don't have the option of quaranteening all the sin, so we have to avoid it to the best of our abilities and pray that we would not be tempted beyond our limits (see I Corinthians 10:13).

Luke