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Tazria-Metzora
(“She gives birth” and “Concerning
lepers”) - Leprous Ones
Our parashot
for this Shabbat (there are two) are entitled
Tazria, meaning “(when) she gives birth”
and Metzora, meaning “concerning lepers”.
These readings cover Leviticus chapters twelve
through fifteen. The common theme running through
these chapters is cleanness and uncleanness and
maintaining a divide between the two. It has nothing
to do with valuing one human being above another.
Rather, the separation of those who, for various
reasons, were unclean had to do with the presence
of a Holy God in the midst of the camp of Israel.
Those
regarded as unclean included a woman after giving
birth. Her time of impurity would last seven days
if she gave birth to a boy, and fourteen days
if she gave birth to a girl. The time for her
purification would be thirty-three days if she
bore a boy and sixty-six if she bore a girl. Lest
anybody think this means boys were more valuable
than girls, it doesn’t. It has only to do
with the time of purification. The intrinsic worth
of both boy and girl was evident in that when
the days of her purification were completed, she
was to present an offering at the tent of meeting,
and it was the same for a boy or a girl: a one-year
old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon
or turtledove for a sin offering.
Most of
this week’s parasha concerns leprosy and
how it was distinguished from lesser blemishes
and what the laws were governing the isolating
of people with leprosy from the rest of the camp.
Even articles of clothing and the fabric of tents
could have what was referred to as leprosy. Even
the walls of a house could be leprous! It’s
a progressive, growing disease that was destructive,
which is why leprosy was likened to sin, and explains
why isolation from the community of God’s
people was necessary. We have already seen the
principle of separation in several forms in Leviticus.
That’s what holiness is - sacredness - things
and people marked out by God for special purposes.
That’s what Israel was: a holy people, to
whom a holy God gave a holy way of life by means
of a holy Book!
This
morning I decided that instead of focusing on
all the minute details concerning tests for and
cleansing from leprosy, we would instead turn
our attention to a few individuals in the Scripture
who had to deal with leprosy. I’d like to
talk about three people who were struck with leprosy
in divine punishment for their sin, and three
people who were healed from leprosy in God’s
marvelous grace.
Miriam
(Numbers 12)
Miriam and Aaron began grumbling about Moses when
Moses married a Cushite woman. Cush was the ancient
biblical name for Ethiopia. Was Moses’ marrying
an Ethiopian woman really so scandalous (I think
not), or was something else at work? I am not
the first to ask this question. Many biblical
commentators suggest that Aaron and Miriam had
long been harboring resentment over their brother’s
greater stature. It isn’t unusual for resentment
to develop when one sibling’s accomplishments
surpass those of the others. Nevertheless, whether
it was on account of the Ethiopian bride or something
else, their actions were inexcusable. God summoned
the three of them out to the Tent of Meeting.
God had
Aaron and Miriam step forward, and said to them,
Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among
you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him
in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful
in all My household; With him I speak mouth to
mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, And
he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were
you not afraid to speak against My servant, against
Moses?
God struck
Miriam with leprosy. Aaron urged Moses to pray
and intercede for her, which Moses did. God’s
response was that she should be isolated outside
the camp for seven days. Mercifully, that was
the extent of her leprosy. Had not Moses interceded,
she might have spent the rest of her days a leper!
Why only Miriam and not Aaron also? Most likely
because she appears to have been the instigator.
In a very unusual biblical construction, her name
appears before Aaron’s, which lends support
to this supposition. But the lesson is clear:
don’t murmur against God’s man.
Na’aman/Gehazi
(2 Kings 5)
In the days of Israel’s divided monarchy,
during the reign of Yoram in the north and during
the ministry of the prophet Elisha, tensions were
high between Israel and Syria. Syria was making
frequent incursions into Israel. In 2 Kings 5
we are introduced to a leading Syrian military
captain named Na’aman. In paradoxical contrast
to the king of Israel, who is regarded by the
biblical writer as unworthy, Na’aman is
described in illustrious terms. But we’re
told he was a leper.
During
one of the many invasions, the Syrian army captured
a little Israeli girl, and she became the servant
of Na’aman’s wife. At one point she
tells her mistress that the prophet in Israel
could cure Na’aman of his leprosy. Na’aman,
who’d probably prayed numerous prayers and
offered countless sacrifices to the false gods
of Syria, takes the girls words to heart, and
asks and receives from his king permission to
go to Israel to seek healing. Eventually he comes
to Elisha, who instructs him to dip himself seven
times in the Jordan River. Though he initially
balks at such a suggestion, Na’aman obeys
the word of the prophet, dips himself seven times
in the Jordan, and is instantaneously and marvelously
healed, and his skin, we’re told, became
like that of a young child! He returns to Elisha
to express thanks, and declares that from that
moment on he will worship no one but the God of
Israel. He would return to Syria a changed man
(all, by the way, thanks to a little Israeli girl
who was able to love her enemy!)
But as
Na’aman was departing, Elisha’s servant,
Gehazi, went up to him and concocted a lie about
Elisha needing some silver and fresh clothes for
visitors who come. Na’aman gladly gives
him silver and changes of clothes. When Gehazi
returns, Elisha questions him, and Gehazi lies
again, and is struck with the leprosy that had
been Na’aman’s, and Gehazi remained
a leper the rest of his life. The lesson is clear:
don’t lie to God’s man.
King
Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26)
One of the signs of a good king in ancient Israel
was the length of his reign. Stability was regarded
as a sign of divine favor. Usually the wicked
kings did not reign long. There were frequent
conspiracies and assassinations in the northern
kingdom, Israel. Things were somewhat better in
Judah, and good King Uzziah’s long, fifty-two
year reign is one of the evidences of that. The
Scriptures tell us he sought God diligently during
the days of the prophet Zechariah (26:5), and
Uzziah grew powerful and his fame was widespread.
He successfully subdued the Philistines and exacted
tribute from the Ammonites. He fortified the walls
of Jerusalem, and improved conditions throughout
the country. His standing army was enormous, and
well-equipped.
But pride
got the better of him. One day Uzziah decided
to go into the Temple, bypass the priests and
offer incense on the altar himself. He may have
been a powerful king, but he wasn’t a priest.
He failed to reverence God. That priesthood was
a boundary God Himself set up, and that line was
not to be crossed. Nadav and Avihu found that
out the hard way. God’s was angry with Uzziah,
striking him on the forehead with leprosy. The
priests hurried him out of the Temple, and he
himself hurried to get out of there. King Uzziah
had to live out the rest of his days in isolation
as a leper, his son Yotam reigning on the throne
in his father’s stead. The lesson is clear:
don’t cross God-given boundaries of holiness.
Leprosy
was considered a living death! To be a leper meant
to be isolated from the community. Sometimes our
people were hasty in presuming that anybody with
leprosy (or other physical malady) was under divine
disfavor. We should be careful not to fall into
that same kind of presumption. Sickness and disease
is a fact of a fallen world, not necessarily a
sign of some hidden sin or “generational
curse”.
You know,
people went out of their way to avoid lepers in
those days. Lepers, in fact, were required to
call out “Unclean! Unclean!” as they
walked, so that people would not find themselves
downwind from them and become unclean too. It
is important to bear this in mind when you consider
that in Matthew, chapter 8, Yeshua cleansed a
leper. We’re told he actually reached out
and touched that leper. He needn’t have
done that. Yeshua could just as easily have spoken
a word and brought a miracle to pass. But He intentionally
touched the man. Had it been anyone else, the
act of touching a leper would have made them unclean.
But when Yeshua touched lepers, instead of His
becoming unclean, they became clean! That’s
divine power at work!
In Luke
chapter 17 a group of ten lepers cried out for
Yeshua to have mercy on them. He granted their
request, and told them to go show themselves to
the priest (according to the Torah). As they went
(obedience to Messiah is always a good idea),
they were all instantaneously healed of their
leprosy! Nine of them kept on going. One –
just one of them – came back and fell at
Yeshua’s feet in gratitude, glorifying God.
That one man wasn’t even Jewish but a Samaritan.
Yeshua marveled at the thanklessness of the nine.
Isaiah
wrote, He took up our infirmities and carried
our sorrows, for which reason one of the names
the rabbis assigned the Messiah was “the
Leprous One.” And just as lepers, He was
despised, and we did not esteem Him. Are you willing
to be identified with Him who was despised by
the nation? Are you willing to be despised along
with Him? Are you willing to be regarded a leper
on account of your loyalty to Messiah Yeshua?
I hope so. How you will spend eternity hinges
on that decision.
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
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