Leprosy vividly illustrates sin and its fruits. The disease's effects on the body show the effects of sin on the mind, and leprosy represents God's view of sin as detestable, deforming, and unclean. Both begin small and grow relentlessly until they infect the whole person. Both cause heartrending social problems: families are split, and lepers suffer ostracism along with the disease, as the quarantine laws suggest. In the end, both destroy their victims' lives. The man Christ healed was full of leprosy, so advanced that he was near death and living apart from others, crying "Unclean, unclean" (Leviticus 13:45). His hopeless condition left no doubt that God alone healed him. God often lets trials worsen before He delivers, so that there is no question whose power solved the crisis; in persevering, His people grow spiritually and He receives greater glory. The same picture applies to nations. Isaiah's description of ancient Israel, with no soundness from the sole of the foot to the head, only wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores (Isaiah 1:6-7), matches today's sinful society. America wallows in immorality, deals treacherously with other nations, and spurns the merciful God who blessed it. Nations reap what they sow (Galatians 6:7), and the loathsome signs of spiritual sickness are plain: this country is leprous.