The Story of More Leprosy

Leviticus 13:47-59

Beth was eating a jelly sandwich and she got strawberry jam all over the front of her new jumper. Because she was embarrassed, she changed clothes and put the jumper at the bottom of the hamper.
The next day, Beth's mother bundled her into the car and handed Beth the stained jumper to hold. "What are we doing in the car with my dirty jumper, Mother?" Beth asked, fearing that her mother had found out what she had done and was taking her to be punished.
"We must go to talk to the priest about your jumper, Dear One," said her mother. "He will tell us what we should do about that stain."
"Shouldn't we just put the jumper in the washing machine?" asked Beth, hoping to avoid a big fuss but not wanting to tell about the jelly.
"Oh, no," said her mother. "It is much more complicated than that. You see, when something has a stain and you don't know where it came from, it might be that the clothing isn't just dirty, but that it's sick. Here, while we drive, let me tell you all about what God told Moses to do with clothes that have suspicious stains -- or sick parts -- like your jumper does."
And this is the story she told:

One day, God was talking to Moses and had this to say, "If someone has clothing with leprosy in it -- no matter whether it is made of wool or linen or animal skin -- here is what you should do. If the stain is greenish or reddish, then it is leprosy and you should show it to a priest. The priest should look at the clothing and lock it up for a week. At the end of the week, he should see if the sick part of the clothing has spread, and if it has then the clothing has leprosy and is icky. The priest should burn the clothing to get rid of the leprosy.
"If the priest looks at the clothing and the sick part of the clothing hasn't spread, then the priest should tell the people to wash their clothes and then lock the clothes up for another week. At the end of the second week, if the sick part of the cloth hasn't changed color or spread, then it should be burned. If the priest looks at the clothing and the sick part is darker after being washed, then he should tear that part out of the clothing. If the priest sees that another part of the clothing is sick after he tears out the first sick part, then the clothing has a spreading disease and must be burned.
"But if the sick part goes away after the clothing is washed, then the disease is gone and if you wash the clothing again, it will be clean.
"These are my laws for when there is a sick part in clothes and it might be leprosy, so that you can either clean the clothes or call them icky.

Beth thought about this for a moment. "That sure is a lot of work to go to just to clean a jumper," she said.
"True, Dear One," her mother said. "But God's law is not always easy to follow. I certainly hope that we do not have to burn your jumper or tear the dirty part out of it."
"So do I," said Beth, promising herself never to hide a jumper at the bottom of the hamper again. Then she smiled and hugged her mother, causing the car to swerve uncontrollably into another lane. All her questions had been answered.