14:57 This is the law for leprous disease.
God makes sharp, clear distinctions between clean and unclean. To be clean is not the same as being unclean. These two chapters highlight the distinction as it applies particularly to infectious diseases of skin, clothing and construction materials.
Some might object to these sharp distinctions by ignoring their existence. Others attempt to remedy the situation by switching the diagnosis -- calling clean things unclean and unclean things clean. But of particular note in these distinctions, that both overlook, is the restorative element. The distinctions are diagnostic, but what follows is medicinal.
God could have merely handed down distinct, static categories, but He provides a path of redemption, of change. Unclean things can become clean things. They are not forever unclean. They can be restored and a path of instruction is here provided to keep the clean from soiling themselves.
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