02/12/2014 Sitting To Death
2 Kings 7:3-8 Now there were four lepers sitting outside the city gates. "Why sit here until we die" they asked each other. "We will starve if we stay here and we will starve if we go back into the city; so we might as well go out and surrender to the Syrian army. If they let us live, so much the better, but if they kill us, we would have died anyway." So that evening they went out to the camp of the Syrians, but there was no one there. For the Lord had made the whole Syrian army hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the sounds of a great army approaching....So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else. When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. [Living Bible translation]
Summary:
In Biblical times leprosy was a terrible thing. It was incurable. It was contagious. It forced its victims into social isolation because they were required to live apart from their communities, outside the city gates. Lepers were not allowed to attend "church." The religious leaders wanted nothing to do with them because they were considered ritually "unclean." A person with leprosy was required to yell out "unclean, unclean" wherever they went, so that others could avoid contact with them. Lepers often had to rely on the charity of others for food and water. It was a harsh existence.