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DUBROOM
ARTICLE SECTION |
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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.
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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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