Mon.’s Devo- Laws of Leprosy

Read: Leviticus 13:1-59; Mark 6:1-29; Psalm 39:1-13; Proverbs 10:10 Skin diseases have to do with sins of the flesh. Once we come to the cross and are cleansed of our sins, we are completely made whole. We are a new creature. What happens after that is determines by this picture of skin diseases. The priest that we come to is Jesus. We come for him to examine our hearts. If he finds roots of bitterness and spreading diseases caused by unrepented sins, he pronounces us unclean and we must be put out of service until we repent. Bitterness like a leprosy is spreadable and it will spread to everyone we talk to. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. No matter how much of the body is covered with leprosy, as long as it is not contagious, they are clean. It will turn white when this happens showing that though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow. If there is still open sores, they are unclean which means they have things they have not dealt with and put under the blood of Jesus. When a person is clean the priest will declare, “you are clean!” That goes for boils, burns and sores on the head or chin. If there was mildew or leprosy on the clothes, the priest would take the article and watch it to see if it spread. The garment would be washed and if the leprosy was cleansed from it, it would be clean but if it came back, after 7 days, the garment must be burned. This has to do with our works. If our works are unclean at the end of our lives, they will be burned up. The seven days have to do with our lifespan. It gives us three types of cloth that we are made from: woolen, linen or leather. Woolen is probably the pliable people whose hearts can be softened. The linen are the righteous and the leather are the hard of hearts. In Mark, Jesus went back to his hometown and they had a hard time believing he was anything but a carpenter, Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. Because of their unbelief, Jesus couldn’t do many miracles there. Jesus began training his disciples to go out two by two to do the things they had seen him do. Word about Jesus and all he was doing reached the king, Herod Antipas. He was afraid because he thought he was John the Baptist that he had had beheaded to please his wife. His wife, Herodias had hated John the Baptist because he told her new husband, Herod that it was unlawful for him to have married her since she was his brother’s wife. She didn’t like being told she was wrong so she plotted John’s death. Herod had been out-witted by his unlawful wife and it had cost John his head, so Jesus’ appearance was a big threat to him. Lord, give us eyes to see what is happening in the world and how to respond correctly to it.