MARCH 8, Deuteronomy 23:12-13

Living in modern Singapore, you will not appreciate how different life was during the time of your grandparents when they were your age. That would have been perhaps 60 years ago, and Singapore was in the 1950s. The nice clean flats most of you live in were not even built. Another thing that was very different was the toilet system. You will not be able to imagine that the flushing system you and I take for granted now, was not in much use then. How then was human waste disposed? Go ask your parents or grandparents! If modern sanitation was not easily available in Singapore 60 years ago, it was surely not available to the children of Israel as they camped in the wilderness thousands of years ago.

Especially as they prepared for war, they had to stay healthy and fit, and therefore there was a need to practise personal cleanliness and good sanitation. The main camp where the people or troops lived was not to be contaminated, so God gave detailed instructions for them to prepare their toilet a good distance away from the camp.

Thousands of years before the flushing system was invented, God had already given instructions to His people to practise good sanitation for cleanliness and health. In this way, diseases would not spread and the people would not fall sick and die. This is yet another way we clearly see how God knew about diseases way before man thought about them.

Have you heard of the phrase “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”? This means as Christians, we are to be physically clean and tidy, for it shows we are also clean spiritually. Of course, not all physically clean people are saved, and many Christians are untidy! But it is a good practice to adopt – so that all of us can learn to keep our rooms clean, pick up things where we left them, and make sure we help mummy at home in the chores we can be useful in.

You will help mummy, will you not?

Thought: May I be mummy’s little helper!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, teach me to be neat and tidy in my work and in all that I do. I ask that I will also be a helper to mummy so that in simple ways, I may show my gratitude to her, and live out my Christian witness. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.