Read: Leviticus 14:1-57; Mark 6:30-56; Psalm 40:1-10; Proverbs 10:11-12
In the cleansing of the leper, the two birds represent Christ. He was the slain bird on the cross and the set free bird in his resurrection. It was also to show that when the blood was applied to our sinful flesh our sins are taken away (the set free bird carried them away). The leper wasn’t clean until the 8th day because our lives are represented as 7 days and the 8th would be our eternal life. We are not completely clean until then.
The comical thing about this ritual is that no one except Naaman was healed of leprosy in the Old Testament (2 Kings 5) and he was not a Jew so they never did this ritual. When Jesus healed the ten lepers he told them to go show the priests and let them do this ritual so they would see the picture. I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see the priest scrambling for the scroll that told them how to do this and stumbling through the ritual they had only read about.
In verse 33 the Lord told Moses and Aaron that when they arrived in Canaan, He may contaminate some of the houses in their land with mildew. God was going to do this! He wanted them to see this picture. They were to empty their house before the priest got there and if the priest found mildew he would condemn the house for 7 days. The stones from inside the house had to be removed and the walls replastered. New stones were to be put in and the house replastered. If mildew rose up in this new structure, then the house was declared defiled and must be carried out of town. This is a picture of a ministry that has allowed wrong doctrine to defile it. If it restructures with new stones (doctrines) and it is still defiled, its doctrine needs to be completely thrown out.
But, if the mildew doesn’t return it is an indication that their new doctrine is intact and built on truth. Then the priest will inspect it and sanctify it with his bird ritual.
In Mark, Jesus has a huge following and the disciples are getting tired and hungry. They want the crowd to leave so they suggest that Jesus send them home. Jesus, as their teacher wanted to stretch them. It is true that we can do much more than we think we can. When we are ready to rest, we can keep going if it is not time to rest. Jesus also wanted them to know that God is the God of the impossible. They were not responsible with what they didn’t have, but with what they did have. The rest is up to God. So he told them to give what they had which was five loaves of bread and two fish. God did the rest.
After the multiplying, they got back into the boat to go visit their delivered demoniac in Genesaret. Once again, Satan opposed them on the sea. Jesus was caught walking on the water and they cried out to him to come and save them. Jesus had already modeled to them what to do in a storm, but they hadn’t learned.
This time, when they reached Genesaret, the same people who had told Jesus to leave were now clamoring to see him. The demoniac had spread his testimony and they had seen first hand that Jesus had power to deliver and do miracles.
Lord, help us to walk in the impossible and to understand that you never give us a task that is possible. You make our impossible - possible!
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