Quarantining and avoiding spread of germs was biblical

I have become a little concerned by the attitude of some people that the spread of germs through a community is desirable to God - for example, the idea of not being concerned about catching (and therefore spreading) Covid. There is actually plenty of biblical evidence against that attitude.

The book of Leviticus shows a lot of instructions for cleanliness, which back in those days the instructions may have seemed inexplicable. These may have seemed like a long list of things to be obedient about without a clear reason why. However, if we read this book of the Bible with our modern-day knowledge of bacteria, viruses and fungi, these instructions quickly make sense. The instructions were designed to avoid the spread of germs.

Here is an example from the Bible of what to do with clothing (made of cloth, wool, or animal skin) that has a spreading disease in it. This referred to a discoloration such as mold or something similar:

If the priest makes an examination, and the disease has not spread in the clothing, in warp or woof or in anything of skin, the priest shall command them to wash the article in which the disease appears, and he shall put it aside seven days more. The priest shall examine the diseased article after it has been washed. If the diseased spot has not changed color, though the disease has not spread, it is unclean; you shall burn it in fire, whether the leprous spot is on the inside or on the outside.

If the priest makes an examination, and the disease has abated after it is washed, he shall tear the spot out of the cloth, in warp or woof, or out of skin. If it appears again in the garment, in warp or woof, or in anything of skin, it is spreading; you shall burn with fire that in which the disease appears. But the cloth, warp or woof, or anything of skin from which the disease disappears when you have washed it, shall then be washed a second time, and it shall be clean. 

This is the ritual for a leprous disease in a cloth of wool or linen, either in warp or woof, or in anything of skin, to decide whether it is clean or unclean.

Leviticus 13: 53-59

As you can see from the passage above, there were careful rules to avoid the spread of mold or other disease through clothing. Ultimately if the mold was still there after washing it once, then the item had to be burned up in fire, which we know from our knowledge of germs that it will kill mold. In this way, mold in one item of clothing did not spread to other items of clothing in the community. In the passage above, even if the mold disappeared 7 days after washing, then it was to be washed a second time before being considered clean. Again, looking at this from a modern-day knowledge, this ensured all traces of the mold were truly gone, since we now know that germs and molds may be present while being invisible to the naked eye.

What about the rules for people catching a disease? Let's take a look:

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. The priest shall examine the disease on the skin of his body, and if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous disease; after the priest has examined him he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean. But if the spot is white in the skin of his body, and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall confine the diseased person for seven days. The priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and if he sees that the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall confine him seven days more. The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if the disease has abated and the disease has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only an eruption; and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. But if the eruption spreads in the skin after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again before the priest. The priest shall make an examination, and if the eruption has spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous disease.

 Leviticus 13: 1-8

As we can see from the passage above, quarantining is normal and was decreed by God in Biblical times for certain diseases. In the above case, a person with a suspected leprous disease was confined for a period of 7 days upon which time a priest would look to see if the disease has not spread on the skin, and if it has not spread then the person was confined for 7 more days. After that, if the disease is less then the person is clean, but if it has spread further then the person is considered unclean. Again, when we look at this in the light of our modern-day knowledge, we can see clearly that this quarantine process is to stop the spread of certain suspected diseases within the community. 

Relating this to our present day situation with Covid, it is normal for different people to have different ideas of how many precautions to take. But no matter what each person's point of view is, it is clear from the Bible that it was important to God that we take steps to stop the spread of germs within the community.

Please note, I am not automatically saying that I feel that quarantining will necessarily be the best long-term solution for every possible communicable disease out there. I am merely saying that it is clear from the Bible that it was important to God that people take steps to limit spread of disease with the community. These steps could be masks, for example, or other precautions, but simply ignoring the problem is not biblical, based on the passages we saw from the Bible above.

Even if not all church leaders are taking the viewpoint of taking precautions, it is important that we as Christians do what is right according to what God wants, even if this does not necessarily agree with what all church leaders want. At the end of the day, we are all answerable to God, not to other humans. So we each individually have to do what we feel is right according to what we hear from God through prayer and reading the Bible.

If you found this post interesting, you may also like these related posts on this blog:

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• Man shall not LIVE on bread alone
• We're like babies trying to learn calculus
  
• Masks or no masks: How to know the difference between being protected by God, and going against His protection in foolhardiness