In Singapore today, we take our modern sanitation system for granted. When we urinate or defecate, we do so in a toilet bowl that is connected to a sewage system, that will treat our waste before discharging it safely. Some of our wastewater is even reclaimed and treated extensively (i.e. NEWater), and it is so clean that it can be used for drinking, or in factories like wafer-fabrication plants that need highly purified water.
Yet, this was not always the case. For example, some parts of Singapore were still using “night-soil buckets” as recently as 1987. In the absence of modern sanitation, one would urinate and defecate directly into a night-soil bucket. This bucket full of human waste would then be taken away by workers to a night-soil collection centre, to be treated and used as fertilizer, or disposed of by being discharged into the sea. Disgusting as this might sound, this was much preferred to the alternative – open cesspits, where people would urinate or defecate into, which then became a breeding ground for germs and diseases. In fact, in some parts of the world today, open cesspits for urination and defecation are still the norm, rather than the exception.
Imagine a group of about 2 million people, living about 3,400 years ago (i.e. ~1,400 B.C.). This group was continually on the move – they did not live in fixed structures. They would have none of the features of modern sanitation available to them, such as toilet bowls connected to sewage treatment plants. How could this group of 2 million people maintain sanitary conditions, so as to prevent disease from spreading?
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminded the people of God’s instructions:
You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. (Deuteronomy 23:12-13; ESV)
Imagine the great potential for disease, if 2 million Israelites urinated and defecated wherever they wanted! God, in his infinite wisdom, instructed Moses that the Israelites were to dig holes to contain their human waste, and then cover it back up. In this manner, the potential for disease transmission would be limited. In fact, in the Singapore army, when we go out into the field, we are to establish field latrines – a designated hole in the ground for the soldiers to pass their human waste in. We are prohibited from “doing our business” wherever we please, for that would be unsanitary.
How did Moses know how to ensure sanitary conditions for a group of 2 million people who were continually on the move? The straightforward answer is that God told him how. This is not something that he would have learned from the nations around him. Indeed, sanitation in the law of Moses is but one of the many examples of “scientific foreknowledge” in the Bible – proof that God is its ultimate author.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Note: the 2 million Israelites number is derived from the fact that towards the second census of the Israelites which was taken towards the tail-end of their wandering in the wilderness, the number of fighting men 20 years and older was 601,730 (Numbers 26:2, 51). This number of 601,730 excluded the Levites, as well as the women, and those children under the age of 20. Thus, 2 million would be a reasonable estimate for the total number of Israelites.
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