Sat.s Devo - Cleansing

Read: Leviticus 14:1-57; Mark 6:30-56; Psalm 40:1-10; Proverbs 10:11-12
When Jesus healed the man of leprosy in Mark 1:40 and told him to go show himself to the priest, it would have been the first time in history that the priest would have been able to perform this ritual that we read about today in Leviticus. One other person in the Bible had been healed and that was Naaman, but he was not a Hebrew. When Jesus said in Luke 4:27, “…many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian, “ everyone in the synagogue was filled with wrath. They were mad because he was reminding them that God had healed a non-Jew and they wanted to throw Jesus over the hill.
In Leviticus, the ritual for the cleansing of leprosy involved two birds. One was to be killed and its blood put on the other and it was to go free. It was God’s illustration of the cross. Jesus was both birds. The first was Jesus slain and his blood put on the other bird to illustrate they were the same blood. The second bird resurrected and flew to heaven ,free.
I bet when that man got healed in the New Testament and went and showed himself to the priest, they had to find this volume and brush up on their ritual. I would have loved to see them scrambling to get the birds, the hyssop, the bowl and the stick. All of these were symbols used at the cross.
In Mark, the crowds won’t let Jesus eat or sleep. They had never seen a person who could heal them and do such miracles and they were desperate to be taught the truth. The scribes and teachers of the law had taught works and death and now the common people, Jew and Gentile, man and women were being taught the Torah as life. They didn’t concern themselves with time or food. Jesus, filled with compassion and gave them teaching, healing and physical food. He cares about our body, soul and spirit.
When they finally got away from the crowd, Jesus put his disciples in a boat and sent them across to Gennesaret, the place where he had previously cast the demons out of that man and the people had chased Jesus off. Another storm arose as Satan did not want Jesus to return. Jesus calmed the storm again and when he got to Gennesaret, there were crowds waiting for him. The testimony of the demon-possessed man had spread and they were now ready to receive.
Lord, may your name become famous again and your people do the things you did.