“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper,” (Leviticus 14:1–3 NASB)
The ritual that cleanses the leper and returns hm to the community seems very bizarre to us. But the ritual of leper takes parts of different other festivals.
- Two doves with one killed and one freed: Yom Kippur
- Cedar wood: Temple building & red heifer
- Hyssop: Passover
- A crimson thread: Yom Kippur & red heifer
- Spring water: Nazarite vow
- Shaved hair: Nazarite vow
- Sin offering: sacrifice for sins and transgressions (not iniquity)
- Guilt offering: sacrifice for sins and transgressions (not iniquity)
- Anoint with blood and oil: High Priest ordination
It looks like God took all the ritual elements of Yom Kippur, Passover, the Nazarite vow, the high priest and the red heifer and whizzed them up in a blender on liquify and apply them to the ritual to restore the healed leper back to the community.
The point of these elements was to teach the leper what it meant to be restored to the community. The leper was once a walking corpse but now has been resurrected and returned to life. Once this ceremony was complete, the leper could approach and serve God again. The leper was rededicated to God, the past was discarded and forgotten.
We will read a story about four lepers in 2 Kings 6:24-7:20. In this portion, there are questions we will answer:
- What is it to rob God?
- What is it to speak evil of God?
- What does it mean to ignore the Laws of Moses?
“As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” He said, “If the LORD does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ “So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.” When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes — now he was passing by on the wall — and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body.” (2 Kings 6:26–30 NASB)
What was the woman’s complaint? She was more concerned about a breach of contract than her own egregious breach of God’s covenant. The king had more sense to be appalled by the situation than the woman was.
However, this mother’s plight was prophesied in the Torah.
“‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. ‘Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. ‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. ‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. ‘I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.” (Leviticus 26:27–33 NASB)
The citizens of Samaria were brought very low. They had completely disregarded and ignored the law of Moses for generations and God let them be besieged by a vicious enemy for so long that they conspired to eat their own children.
“Then Elisha said, “Listen to the word of the LORD; thus says the LORD, ‘Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’” The royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered the man of God and said, “Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Then he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”” (2 Kings 7:1–2 NASB)
This “royal officer” (we don’t know his name) slanders and speaks evil of God and shortened His hand in the face of His prophet, Elisha.
In 2 Kings 7 we meet four lepers, who were following God’s laws better than the Samarians were.
The lepers were also “robbers” in a sense, because they robbed items from the Assyrian tents, but they did not rob God.
After filling themselves with foods and some treasures, the lepers came to themselves and remembered that they needed to love their neighbors as themselves (as Moses told them). They needed to alleviate their suffering of those in the city by sharing their find with them.
When they reported the good news to the gatekeepers, the news reached the king and the king send out spies to investigate the Assyrian camp.
Once the word came back to the people of Samaria that the lepers were right, they rushed out of the city in such a hoard that the royal officer ended up trampled to death at the gate, right at the feet of the “walking dead” lepers who were standing outside the city at the gate. The lepers were still outside the camp in obedience to the Torah. The “dead” now have new life while the living was now dead.
The lowly were brought up and the haughty was brought down. The lepers were heroes and the royal officer was trampled under the people’s feet.
Why? The royal officer went too far when he said that there is something that God didn’t have the power to do. God rebuked him quickly and swiftly.
In Malachi 3, God makes some strong accusations against the priests and reveals the answers these questions:
- What is it to rob God?
- The priests were robbing God in regard to their treatment of the tithes and offerings.
- What is it to speak evil of God?
- The priests were teaching that it was vain to serve God and call the arrogant blessed and said that bad is good. They said that a bad person is blessed and a good person is not blessed.
- What does it mean to ignore the Laws of Moses?
- Those who ignore the laws of Moses will be burned like chaff and trampled underfoot while the righteous who keep the law of Moses will be healed and they will trample the wicked under their feet.
“But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ‘So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you. ‘You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. ‘I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.” (Leviticus 26:7–13 NASB)
Four lepers chased away an entire Assyrian army because they were right with God. Their actions brought them from the status of “walking dead” to the status of heroes.
How were the lepers more righteous than the royal officer and the people of Samaria? The lepers did not speak highly of themselves or evil of God and they followed the laws of Moses by quarantining themselves in obedience to that law. They also followed the law of Moses by showing love and compassion on their neighbors by not hoarding all the food, clothing and money abandoned by the fleeing Assyrians for themselves. They shared their discovery and joy with others.
The overall lesson to take from today’s lesson is that we should never shorten God’s hand. We should never say that there’s something that God cannot do, that He lacks the strength and power to do what needs to be done.
Summary: Tammy