The Strand Study Bible

LEVITICUS LEVITICUS * To this day, some people still fail to “dispose of human waste” properly, and the results are devastating . Dr. S.I. McMillen in None of These Diseases notes: 262 ALTHOUGH EUROPE BROUGHT IT’S MOST DEVASTING PLAGUES under control by obeying the Biblical injunction to isolate the victims, other important diseases continued to decimate mankind because people did not take seriously God’s promise that they would be freed from all diseases by their obedience to all the divineregulations. Hence, intestinal diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever continued to take a heavy toll of lives. Up to the close of the eighteenth century, hygienic provisions, even in the great capitals, were quite primitive. It was the rule for excrement to be dumped into the streets which were unpaved and filthy. Powerful stenches gripped villages and cities. It was a heyday for flies as they bred in the filth and spread intestinal diseases that killed millions. Such waste of human lives that could have been saved if people had only taken seriously God’s provision for freeing man of diseases! With one sentence the Book of books pointed the way to deliverance from the deadly epidemics of typhoid, cholera and dysentery: “You shall set off a place outside the camp and, when you go out to use it: you must carry a spade among your gear and dig a hole, have easement, and turn to cover the excrement...” How could this recommendation, which was given to Moses, possibly offer ideas of sanitation advanced 3,500 years ahead of him? The most logical explanation is that the Bible is what it claims to be: the inspired Word of God . 1 In the early 1840’s, a little over a hundred years ago, a young doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis was given charge over one of the obstetrical wards. He observed that it was particularly the women who were examined by the teachers and students who became sick and died. After watching this heartbreaking situation for three years, he established a rule that, in his ward, every physician and medical student who had participated in the autopsies of the dead must carefully wash his hands before examining the living maternity patients. In April, 1847, before the new rule went into effect, fifty-seven women had died in Dr. Semmelweis’ ward. Then the rule of washing the hands was instituted. In June, only one out of every forty-two women died; in July, only one out of every eighty-four. The statistics strongly indicated that fatal infections had been carried from corpses to living patients. One day after performing the autopsies and washing their hands, the physicians and students entered the maternity ward and examined a row of beds containing twelve women. Eleven of the twelve women quickly developed temperatures and died. Another new thought was born in Semmelweis’ alert brain: some mysterious element was evidently carried from one living patient to others, and with fatal consequences. Logically, Semmelweis ordered that everybody should wash his hands carefully after examining each living patient. Immediately howls of protest were raised against the “nuisance” of washing, washing, washing–but the mortality rate went further down. Was Semmelweis acclaimed by his fellows? On the contrary, lazy students, prejudiced obstetricians, and jealous superiors scorned and belittled him so much that his annual contract was not renewed. His successor threw out the wash basins and up shot the mortality rate to the old terrifying figures. Were his colleagues convinced then? Not at all! We mortals might as well face it–the human mind is so warped by pride and prejudice that proof can rarely penetrate it For eight months Semmelweis tried to get a respectable position in the hospital again, but to no avail. Shocked and depressed, he left Vienna without saying good-by to his friends and went to Budapest, his home city. There he obtained a position in a hospital; there too the mortality rate of pregnant women was frightful. Again he instituted the practice of washing the hands before examining the individual patient. At once the grim reaper was halted, but again prejudices and jealousies overpowered the proof and many of Semmelwise’ colleagues passed him in the hospital corridors without speaking. Dr. Semmelweis’ wrote an excellently documented book on his work, which only spurred his assailants to the bitterest sarcasm. The strain plus the death cries of dying mothers so haunted and weighed on his sensitive nature that his mind finally broke. Ignaz Semmelweis died in a mental institution without ever receiving the recognition he richly deserved. 1 3,500 years ago God revealed to Moses that sanitation was a sure way to keep disease from spreading (Deut 23:12-13). Sadly, it has taken the human race over 3,000 years and countless innocent lives before it finally applied the Sacred Scriptures to the problem. * Up until 160 years ago (1840’s) most people failed to “wash their hands with running water” and “exchange their dirty clothes for clean ones” before working on sick people, and the results were devastating . Dr. S.I. McMillen in None of These Diseases notes: 3,500 years ago God revealed to Moses that washing the hands in running water and changing clothes that have been washed and dried was but another way to keep disease from spreading (Num 19). Sadly, it has taken the human race over 3,000 years and countless innocent lives before it finally applied the Sacred Scriptures to the problem.

1 Mcmillen, S.I. None of These Diseases , Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co. 1967. Print.