To my knowledge, I have never met a leper. Why does God seem to focus so much on leprosy? Was it that common among them? If He were to teach us some health regulations today, upon what would He focus? There has been much talk in the news lately about immunizations. Should we force people to be immunized? The number of diseases for which we immunize has more than doubled since I was a kid. There has also been some statistical evidence demonstrating a rise in autism and other maladies that corresponds to the increase in immunizations. How would the Lord respond to these diseases today? What contagious disease would He cause us to isolate? Flu? Measles? Whooping Cough? Chicken Pox? Pneumonia? Did they not have these diseases in those days? Why leprosy? Certainly in our country leprosy is uncommon.
Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Remember, much of the law is symbolic to speak of spiritual truth. Much of it speaks of Jesus. Much of it speaks of sin, its consequences, its spread and its removal. I think that is why God picks on leprosy. Leprosy is a debilitating disease that attacks the nervous system. It decreases the body’s ability to sense pain. Consequently the afflicted person will frequently do very severe damage to himself, simply because he cannot feel pain. Sin is that way. It decreases our ability to feel spiritual pain. It decreases our ability to feel the sense of loss from being separated from God.
Leprosy is contagious with continued close contact. For that reason the Lord instructed the leper to cover his mouth (a visible sign) and cry out, “Unclean!” (an audible sign). Then people could avoid close contact and contracting leprosy. Sin is like that. It is contagious with continued close contact. “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’” 1 Cor. 15:33. Unlike lepers, sinners do not cover their mouths and proclaim, “Unclean! Unclean!” As a matter of fact, sinners rush headlong trying to lure others to join them in their practice. Misery loves company. Unlike leprosy which infected a very small percentage of the population, sin infects us all. It has corrupted us all. We are like an unclean, filthy rag.
The leper doomed the bearer to living alone outside the camp. Can you imagine not only contracting this insidious disease, but also having to bear it alone? It would be like Bob Merill’s lyrics from Magoo’s Christmas Carol, “Where is a voice to answer mine back? Where are two shoes to click to my clack? I'm all alone in the world!” Sin is like that. It isolates us from one another because we instinctively know that something is wrong with us, and if anyone really knew us, they wouldn’t like us. So we wear masks, which we think will make us attractive to others. The masks become layered increasing the loneliness.
But how does this speak of the glory of the Lord Jesus? In the Old Testament only two people were healed of leprosy, Miriam and Naaman. Yet, Jesus repeatedly healed the leper and gave authority to his disciples to heal the leper. Why? He was compassionate for sure. He desired to heal the whole man, not just the spirit. But it was a symbol of the spirit infected with sin. Matthew, Mark and Luke each record the healing of specific leper. Each makes it a point to record that when Jesus healed the leper, He touched him. This is an act that no other observant Jew would have done. To touch a leper would have made them unclean. Indeed, some Rabbis even boasted of throwing rocks at lepers in order to drive them away. They did not want to become unclean. Not so with Jesus! He takes our unclean body, soul and spirit and embraces us. The filth flees from Him. We are made whole and clean. We can lay down our masks. He sees our filth and loves us anyway. If we come to Him, He removes to filth and tells us to sin no more. The mask is useless. He sees through it. Others may see it, but He sees through it. When we realize that, we can let the mask down and let others see because the one for whom it really counts has already seen me and embraced me. What does it matter what anyone else thinks? That is the glory of my Jesus. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PSALM 99
My dogs just came in from being outside for a while. As normal, they were excited to be back in our presence. They run & jump & are simply a quiver with delight. They tremble in our presence. Tell me; is there a larger qualitative difference between me and my dogs, or between me and God? Well, if we are speaking intelligence and power and moral purity, then the answer is a no-brainer. Since God is an infinite being, the divide between God and me is infinitely greater than the divide between my dog and me. In another sense, I have something my dogs cannot have. I am created in His image. My dog can never share that. In that sense the divide between my dog and me is infinitely greater than the divide between God and me. Let me ask you this, since the qualitative intellectual, power and moral divide is infinitely greater between God and me than it is between my dog and me, and since my dog trembles and is a quiver of delight in my presence, should I not be all-the-more a quiver of delight and tremble in the presence of the infinite Almighty?
When I consider the vast justice and holiness of God, it should bring a trembling to my soul. Why? His justice and holiness is perfect; my justice and holiness is not perfect. I need only to look at the Ten Commandments to view how far short I fall from the demands of His perfect justice and holiness. When I consider perfect justice, I realize that I am deserving of death many times over (the soul that sins shall die). It causes me to tremble. If this was all I knew about God, I would never come to God for I know that coming to Him would condemn me to death. But praise be to God, He is also a God who forgives (v.8)! That is what excites me most about His glory. Jesus, the perfectly holy and just God, knew that He must condemn my sin in death, but He also wanted me to live. So He became my sin on my behalf so that He could carry away my sin, punish it and forgive me. Mercy triumphs over judgment! That should make me want to worship at His holy hill! His justice makes me tremble. His forgiveness makes me become a quiver of delight. My dogs delight in my renewed presence. They dance at that renewal. How much more should I tremble and dance in delight in the renewed presence of our holy-forgiving God! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
ISAIAH 6
If I could only use one word to describe our infinite God, what would it be? Certainly in Isaiah’s throne room vision of the Lord, that word is Holy. But have you ever used a word so much that it no longer really means anything? Holy is one of those words. We use it for everything. We have the Holy Bible. We declare, “Holy, cow!” as if a cow could be holy, or for the crass among us, “Holy, s___!” as if those two words even remotely belong together. Maybe that is how the expression developed. The two words are polar opposites; therefore, to use one to describe the other is a vast surprise which doesn’t fit. So what does holy mean? It means sacred or set apart or different. I remember that one of my systematic quoting and old theologian as the word describing that “numinous other.” It causes a trembling and fear because the holy One is so different. There is this unexplainable, but overwhelming sense of difference.
Within the context of Isaiah it evokes several senses. The first is that these creatures called Seraphim cannot help but constantly call out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!” What is a Seraph (‘im’ is the Hebrew plural—like our ‘s’)? We really know very little about them except that their name means, “fiery serpent,” or “burning one.” What is it about these creatures or about God that they had this constant compulsion to declare Him three times Holy? What is there about fire (fiery ones) that exudes holiness? Why would they instinctively cover their faces and feet in the presence of the Holy One? Why do the door posts of the temple shake at the sound of their declaration? Why does the temple fill with smoke at their declaration? Fire has always had the symbol and function of burning away that which is impure. Are these seraphim in the throne all of the time non-stop? Or are they here because of Isaiah’s presence?
Whatever the case, the vision of the LORD and the declaration of the seraphim brought about in Isaiah a second sense of fear and dread. Isaiah felt as though he were literally coming apart. The Holiness of God was undoing him. In the presence of this holy God, Isaiah became painfully aware of his own lack of holiness! There was no cure for his lack of holiness! He could not but help to declare the dismay of his doom.
The third sense of this holiness of God is that He will not allow us to remain in the state of impurity. Immediately one of the seraphim was dispatched to take a live coal from the altar and touch it to the lips of the prophet. As the sizzle of the searing of his flesh decreased, so the sin of Isaiah was removed. The holiness of God will not allow us to remain in the state of impurity in His presence. His holiness cleanses us from sin.
It is interesting to me that the apostle John records in John 12:41, “These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.” Who did Isaiah see when he had this vision? John says that it was the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seven hundred years before the birth of the God-man Jesus, John saw His glory. The best way that the seraphim could describe Him was, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” Clearly John equates Jesus with Yahweh. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world. The whole earth is full of His glory! He takes away our sin not by pressing hot coals to our lips, but by dying in our place. He took the wrath of God toward our sin upon Himself. The sin was removed to Jesus at His death. He did that so that He could make us holy like Himself. While the whole earth is naturally filled with His glory, there is a greater glory with which He desires to fill the earth. It is an earth filled with holy people. People cleansed by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Some will hear and never believe, but some will hear, believe and be cleansed. They will believe through our speaking the Word. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
LUKE 10:1-24
Growing up in Oklahoma, I experienced numerous electrical storms. I’ve lived in Oregon, North Carolina and three months in New Jersey. I’ve never lived anywhere that has such violent displays of electrical power such as in Ok. I love them. There is something about the atmosphere during those storms that is simply exhilarating! One night in the fall of ’94 my family and I sat on our porch in Norman and watched the lightning for almost half-an hour. The sky was constantly filled with streaks and sheets of lightning as it struck and shimmered throughout the whole sky. It was a beautiful display of power, a light show unequaled by any human-produced light show. The glory of Jesus is greater than lightning.
Jesus had chosen the 12 that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to deliver those in bondage, to heal the sick and to preach the presence of the Kingdom of God. Satan had ruled the world since the fall of Adam and Eve. Jesus came to reclaim His kingdom to destroy the works of the Evil One. Each of the 12 had ministered to others so that now they had 70 workers to accomplish another similar mission. (Now that’s multiplication in discipleship! Each of the 12 must have reached 4-5 others!) Jesus sent them out. Their mission was numerically, hugely successful. As they returned, they were overwhelmed with excitement as to what they had seen Jesus do through them. The demons had fled in Jesus’ name.
Jesus remarked on their return, “I saw Satan fall like lightning form heaven. Behold I give you authority. . .“ What an awesome thing that Jesus gives His authority to His servants to uproot the kingdom of darkness with power like that of lightning! It is a beautiful thing to see people set free from the bonds of the enemy of our souls. Jesus gives us the authority to do that! But then He gives a word of warning, “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” I like seeing people set free. It is better than sitting on the porch in the evening and watching a violent electrical storm. It is like seeing lightning fall from heaven destroying the works of the enemy and creating new life in people. What an awesome display of power!
But Jesus’ warning implies that the greatest glory, the greatest power is displayed when we see Him work in our lives when He breaks the penalty and power of sin in our own lives enabling our names to be written in the book of Life in heaven. Thank you Lord for what You have done in me and enrolling me in the membership of the redeemed in heaven. Indeed Your glory is great! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
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