A question about the love of god

[The Grand Nudger]

This is a conceptual failing that goes all the way back to OT "culture" such as it was. Some today (again, with our greater knowledge of the subject) might refer to obscure laws about seperating meat from dairy as though it were proscribed for health-which it was, spiritual health. They had no means of knowing that dairy is a perfect medium for bacteria common to meat - and particularly when you lack refridgeration, to thrive and become a problem. They probably did know that people got sick and died when food was thusly stored. Lacking a physical model they explained this in terms of spiritual cleanliness. The same is true for the washing of hands and feet. This was their model, this was how they percieved reality. A disease was spiritual (and there was very little -if any- seperation between the spiritual and the material), and demons could pull those strings. That's what made the healing of the sick and the casting out of demons such an important messianic claim. It expressed authority over what they saw as indistinguishable phenomena which could only be written down to godly power. Any magician could turn a stick into a snake, but only god could cure a leper or a lunatic.