Read: Leviticus 13:1-59; Mark 6:1-29; Psalm 39:1-13; Proverbs 10:10
Today we read about leprosy which I find fascinating. Learning how to read the Old Testament will help you in interpreting dreams…it is all the same. God uses natural pictures to teach us deep spiritual meanings. We know that sin is a disease of our flesh so leprosy stands for sin. It gets dangerous when it gets under the skin and starts to spread. That is the way offenses are. The Bible says that they are going to come but it is how we let them affect us that determines our outcome. If we let them get under our skin then we become contagious and our offense spreads to others and makes them diseased, also. We see this happening in the news every day as hate spreads like leprosy.
The priest is the Lord Jesus and if our sins are like scarlet, he can make them white as snow. The leprosy was contagious as long as it was red, when it turned white the priest would examine it for seven days to see if it returned. If it remained white, the person was declared cleansed of the leprosy. When we forgive, we must do it continually and not let it come back.
There was another sore caused by fire. The fire could be a case of someone “burning” you or the fire could stand for rage. Either way, the answer is repentance and forgiveness, or you will grow spiritual leprosy on your body and in your soul. Everything you say and do will be tainted with the anger in your soul. This is easy to type, harder to work out in life but it is necessary that we learn to forgive. It is a process that has to be an act of our will. God’s grace will take it from there.
In Mark, Jesus returned home and his friends and neighbors couldn’t appreciate who he was in the spirit. They only knew him by the flesh. It is really hard for our families to see us the way God does or to see God’s power in us. They questioned everything Jesus did and kept God’s power from being released through him because of their lack of trust.
Jesus sent his disciples out to do exactly what they had seen him do and they did. That is what we are to be doing: expelling demons, anointing sick people with oil and healing them and preaching the gospel.
News traveled to Herod about Jesus because many believed that he was John the Baptist raised from the dead. This made Herod very afraid. He had had a holy fear of John because he knew John carried the power of God in him. John had stood up to Herod and rebuked him for taking his brother’s wife, Herodias. Even though Herod had a holy fear and didn’t want to kill John, Herodias’ offense dispelled her fear. She tricked Herod into killing John. She is a perfect picture of a person with leprosy of the heart.
Lord, heal our hearts of any offenses and unforgiveness. We repent of harboring hurts and offenses. We forgive those who hurt us and set them free.
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