This is an interesting passage...
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This is an interesting passage, and one would normally think that it makes a lot of sense to keep lepers outside the community. Unfortunately, not everyone who had a skin disorder in those days had leprosy. Some merely had the heartbreak of psoriasis. But the stigma was so great that people were banned, were put outside the camp. That meant not only being cut off from family, friends, and the whole community, but it also meant being cut off from the opportunity to worship in the temple, and by extension, to be cut off from God. To be an outcast was to be clean cut off from life itself. There was a television commercial out not long ago for one of those acne medicines. Several high school students were talking at school after the end of summer vacation. And they begin to talk about "zit-faced" Steve. His face was so bad he shouldn't be allowed back in school, and they wonder how they can avoid running into Steve. But then Steve appears, and they are in a state of shock, for Steve's complexion is totally cleared up because of the medication he used over the summer. Even today, we make outcasts of people because they don't meet our standards. -- Joseph
