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YESUS KRISTOS AND CHRISTIANITY |
In this
section you can find material concerning the
Divine Saviour Yesus Kristos and His Message of
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Mashiach. Much of it is also posted in our
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THE TEN LEPERS
A MEDITATION BY BLAMINACK |
Imagine
living your entire life, under such
conditions. Cannot talk to anyone. Cannot
live with others. You have to go about
yelling UNCLEAN. UNCLEAN….
This is a life of
virtual death.
We have the description of the disease of
leprosy, as well as the regulations
connected with it, in Lev. 13; 14; Num
12:10, etc. There were reckoned six
different circumstances under which it might
develop itself, (1.) without any apparent
cause (Lev 13:2); (2.) its reappearance (Lev
13:9); (3.) from an inflammation (Lev
13:18); (4.) on the head or chin (Lev
13:29); (5.) in white polished spots (Lev
13:38, Lev 13:39); (6.) at the back or in
the front of the head (Lev 13:40).
Lepers were required to live outside the
camp or city (Num 5:1; Num 12:10, etc.).
This disease was regarded as an awful
punishment from the Lord (Kg2 5:7; Ch2
26:20). (See MIRIAM; GEHAZI; UZZIAH.) This
disease “begins with specks on the eyelids
and on the palms, gradually spreading over
the body, bleaching the hair white wherever
they appear, crusting the affected parts
with white scales, and causing terrible
sores and swellings. From the skin the
disease eats inward to the bones, rotting
the whole body piecemeal.” “In
Christ’s day no leper could live in a
walled town, though he might in an open
village. But wherever he was he was required
to have his outer garment rent as a sign of
deep grief, to go bareheaded, and to cover
his beard with his mantle, as if in
lamentation at his own virtual death. He had
further to warn passers-by to keep away from
him, by calling out, ‘Unclean! unclean!’
nor could he speak to any one, or receive or
return a salutation, since in the East this
involves an embrace.”
That the disease was not contagious is
evident from the regulations regarding it
(Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:36; Kg2 5:1).
Leprosy was “the outward and visible sign
of the innermost spiritual corruption; a
meet emblem in its small beginnings, its
gradual spread, its internal disfigurement,
its dissolution little by little of the
whole body, of that which corrupts,
degrades, and defiles man’s inner nature,
and renders him unmeet to enter the presence
of a pure and holy God”.
Imagine living your entire life, under such
conditions. Cannot talk to anyone. Cannot
live with others. You have to go about
yelling UNCLEAN. UNCLEAN…. This is a life
of virtual death. No days when a prisoner is
condemned to death, they say he is a dead
man walking. This is the life of a Leper.
The only people that he could be around were
other Lepers.
Leprosy is a wicked disease that in Bible
times was thought to be a punishment from
God. It was seen as an outward sign of sin.
It was seen as the sign of inward
corruption. Now we know that is not the
case, but we also know that sin does much of
the same thing to us! Sin cripples us and
makes us unclean.
Here is a list of rules regarding leprosy
from the Middle Ages…
- I forbid you ever to enter churches,
or go into a market, or a mill, or a
bakehouse , or into any assemblies of
people.
- I forbid you ever to wash your hands
or even any of your belongings in
springs or streams of water of any
kind..
- I forbid you ever henceforth to go out
without your leper’s dress, that you
may be recognized by others...
- I forbid you to touch infants or young
folks, whoseever they may be, or to give
them or to others any of your
possessions.
- I forbid you henceforth to eat or
drink in any company except that of
lepers..
Every form of joy has been removed… but
you know that sin is the same way to our
hearts. Sin will remove all of the joy from
life, and replacing it with a hunger for
more sin. Leprosy deadens the nerves so that
after a while there is no longer any
feeling. Sin is the same. It kills off
normal feelings. It sears the heart. Under
the weight of sin the human hearts begins to
die.
Often times when we have sin in our hearts
we find ourselves acting very much like a
leper. When we would enjoy times of
fellowship with our brethren, our heart
condemns us and cries out UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!
When we want to draw close to God the filth
in our hearts cries out UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!
After staying in this state for a while our
heart no longer feels even the condemnation.
We are dying on the inside… and just like
the Leper, parts of our selves begin to
wither and die and fall off. When a leper
whose nerves have died, they are often
burned by fire and they never know it. Our
hearts are the same way… after sin has
taken hold and gotten a stronghold in ones
life they begin to be able to push aside the
Conviction of the Holy Ghost. You can then
sit through a Sermon and never allow
yourself to be affected by it. You can
pretend every thing is ok on the outside but
on the inside things are not right at all…
Now there are those that can see and
recognize the hopelessness of this situation
in their own lives. They are crying out to
God, asking God to change something. They
know that only Christ can fix this. Just
like that Leper is a walking Dead man so is
the man with sin in his heart.
It is very interesting that the same
instruments used to cleanse a leper are the
same as those that were used to make a
person ceremoniously clean after dealing
with a dead body?
Num 19:18 And a clean person shall take
hyssop, and dip it in the water, and
sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the
vessels, and upon the persons that were
there, and upon him that touched a bone, or
one slain, or one dead, or a grave:
Now we know that this is a foreshadowing of
Christ. Remember when Hyssop was used in the
book of Exodus?
Exo 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of
hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in
the bason, and strike the lintel and the two
side posts with the blood that is in the
bason; and none of you shall go out at the
door of his house until the morning.
Exo 12:23 For the LORD will pass through to
smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the
blood upon the lintel, and on the two side
posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and
will not suffer the destroyer to come in
unto your houses to smite you.
We see that hyssop was about the sprinkling
of blood. But for us to be clean it is not
the blood of sheep and goats or of cattle.
It is the sprinkling of the blood of Christ
that is the remedy for us! King David knew
something of this! In his prayer of
repentance found in Psalms 51 we see the
following…
Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow.
This blood and hyssop tells us of Christ’s
sacrifice for our sin. He is our cleansing.
Look at this instance of how Christ
cleanses…
Mat 8:1 When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him.
Mat 8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean.
Mat 8:3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and
touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
There are four very telling things in this
account of the Leper…
1. he recognized his condition.
2. He recognized that Christ could heal him.
3. He saw that Christ must be Lord.
4. He believed that Christ was able to free
him….
Our lives must also bear these things. We
must see and know that our sinfulness is
death, and that there is no way to be free
by our selves.
We must also come to understand that Christ
alone can heal our sinful condition.
Then we must see that Christ alone must be
our Lord. He is our only source of salvation
and therefore must hold the reigns of our
lives.
And then we must have faith. Christ healed
this man based on his faith in Christ. We
too must have faith if Christ is going to
heal us of us sin.
Luk 17:12 And as he entered into a certain
village, there met him ten men that were
lepers, which stood afar off:
Luk 17:13 And they lifted up their voices,
and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
Luk 17:14 And when he saw them, he said unto
them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests.
And it came to pass, that, as they went,
they were cleansed.
Luk 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that
he was healed, turned back, and with a loud
voice glorified God,
Luk 17:16 And fell down on his face at his
feet, giving him thanks: and he was a
Samaritan.
Luk 17:17 And Jesus answering said, Were
there not ten cleansed? but where are the
nine?
Luk 17:18 There are not found that returned
to give glory to God, save this stranger.
Luk 17:19 And he said unto him, Arise, go
thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
Now these men were bound in their leprosy
and were dying from this disease like many
of us are from our sin. But when they cried
out to Christ in their condition of death,
Christ heard them and had mercy on them. He
told them to go and show them selves to the
Priest. Now when they turned to walk away
they still were leprous. Yet they believed
what Christ had told them! As they went one
looked down and saw that they had already
had been healed. When his healing came his
first response was to fall and worship…
His heart was filled with gratitude. We see
then as Christ responds that the mans faith
has made him whole…
There is so much to learn in this… Christ
told them to go and show them selves to the
Priests… they had to confess their state.
But on their way in obedience they found
their healing. Christ in His mercy had
brought the healing and life to them that
they were in such desperate need of….
So, do you find yourself ravaged by sin? Is
your heart being consumed by this misery?
Has your sin caused you to be a Spiritual
outcast? Do you miss those times of
fellowship? Christ is as much the answer for
you as He was for these Lepers. He alone can
heal you. Confess your sin and make Christ
the Lord of your life and you will find that
when you cry out from this place that He
will have mercy and heal you and make you
whole.
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