Sat.’s Devo - The Plague of Leprosy

Read: Leviticus 13:1-59; Mark 6:1-29; Psalm 39:1-13; Proverbs 10:10
Leprosy was a plague of the skin just like sin is a plague of our flesh. There was a certain protocol if you found yourself plagued with leprosy. You had to first show it to the priest just like we bring our sin to the Lord. If the leprosy was more than skin deep then the person had to be quarantined until they healed. If we allow sin to get beyond the surface and into our hearts, then we are spiritually “quarantined” or put aside to heal and deal with our unforgiveness or whatever we need to deal with. We are not given opportunities to minister during that time because what ever spirit we are operating under will spread to the people around us. Bad attitudes and negativity is contagious so it would be better to not say anything and keep our wrong attitudes to ourself than to spread them. Once we have put our sins under the blood and allowed God to wash us clean, we will be set free to minister life to others.
This leprosy can even spread to our clothing. We are to always wear the robe of righteousness, but if sin has dirtied our robe then we need our walk to be cleansed.
When we are forgiven and clean then Jesus proclaims us clean just like he did in Mark 1:41. We are constantly going through the process of sanctification.
In Mark, Jesus is faced with the rejection of the people in his family and his home town, as they can’t receive him as anything but Mary and Joseph’s son. Their unbelief stopped his power from being released to do too many miracles. He took his disciples away and gave them power to go out and do what he had modeled for them.
Herod Antipas heard the stories about Jesus. He had John the Baptist in his prison and although John had come out publicly against his marriage to Herodias, Herod liked to hear John’s theology.
According to Josephus, Herodias had been Phillip’s wife who was Herod’s half-brother. Herod Antipas convinced her to leave Phillip and be his wife on the condition that he didn’t have to put his own wife away. She had agreed because her husband had been disowned by his father which caused him to lose his inheritance.
Herodias hated anyone pointing out her sin so she had a personal vendetta against John. She manipulated his death through her own daughter.
Lord, thank you that though our sins be as scarlet, you wash them white as snow. Thank you that we can walk in righteousness and pureness of heart by walking in you. Thank you for your Holy Spirit.