WASH!

As of yesterday, 658 cases in 16 different countries, including the US (160 cases in 21 states; 1 death). Swine flu!

Of all the precautions one can take to keep this disease at bay, nothing is probably more important for an individual than to wash one’s hands. Scanning the WHO website, I noticed they recommended hand-washing for as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice. 20 seconds. Good advice, and not just for swine flu!

About two centuries ago, Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818–1865) had the same idea. This Hungarian physician wanted to put an end to the scourge of “childbed fever,” death in childbirth, that took the life of one in every 10 women delivering. In a day when doctors went straight from autopsy rooms to labor rooms, he suggested that gynecologists wash their hands before examining expectant mothers. This was, of course, before the days of germ theory. Semmelweis’ own custom was to wash his hands in a chlorinated solution. Putting this prudent principle into routine practice, his clinic dropped the mortality rate from about 15% to zero in two months. Give the man a Nobel, I’d say!

Unfortunately, the story is tragic.

Disturbances of the “four humors” were believed to cause disease. Semmelweis’ brilliant and groundbreaking theory was contrary to all known and accepted medical dogma. After all, these doctors were “gentlemen.” Their hands unclean? Ridiculous!

Semmelweis was fired. No one listened to him. And he died insane at the age of 47. It took Louis Pasteur some two decades later to offer a theoretical basis and to substantiate Semmelweis’ conclusions.

Wash!

But there are some things worse than germs that we must be washed of.

Jeremiah warned:

“Although you wash yourself with lye
and use much soap,
the stain of your iniquity is before Me,”
declares the Lord GOD.
Jeremiah 2:22

Isaiah urged:

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds
from My sight.
Cease to do evil.”
Isaiah 1:16

David pleaded:

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinned.”
Psalm 51:2–4

Jesus provided the solution (no pun intended) for washing:

“If I do not wash you,
you have no part with Me.”
John 13:8

His life, given for us, a payment for the stain of sin.

… the blood of Jesus His Son
cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Robert Lowry, 1876

Indeed, the blood of Christ—His atoning death and resurrection—cleanses believers from sin.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
they will be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they will be like wool.”
Isaiah 1:18

And for those who believe—the “washed” ones—eternal life is promised.

Blessed are those who wash their robes,
so that they may have
the right to the tree of life,
and may enter by the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:14

And it doesn’t even take as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice!