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Mark 1:40
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." The Torah spends a considerable amount of time detailing a condition called leprosy. It tells us about people’s leprosy, but also about leprosy in beards, fabrics, and houses (Leviticus 13:18–59). Leprosy in the Bible seems to relate not only to the loathsome disease by that name, but also to all sorts of corruption and decay. The term seems to be used to refer to the advance of death and corruption in matter (Leviticus 13:4–8). On a metaphorical level, Jewish sages referred to leprosy as the disease the snake inherited as part of the curse. Ritual contamination and mortality is part of the curse brought on man because of sin so the metaphor is certainly befitting. Leprosy is also associated with one of the most important sin in the Bible, the one called lashon harah which literally means the evil tongue. The term refers to gossip and slander because after slandering Moses, her brother and divinely appointed leader of Israel, Miriam was afflicted by this leprosy (Numbers 12). Leprosy and the state of ritual impurity are irrelevant today because they technically only relates to the Temple in Jerusalem which does not exist at this present time. At the time when religiosity accorded undue emphasis to ritual purity, Yeshua came to put it back in its proper perspective. In the days of the Master, Priests and Levites were so obsessed with ritual purity that they would ignore the commandments about mercy and helping those in need for fear of defiling themselves. We can see this in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:33). Yeshua on the other hand was not afraid of being defiled by leprosy. On some occasions he even voluntarily touched a leper to heal him (Matthew 8:2-3). He even entered the house of Simon the Leper to eat with him, and this is where he met Mary-Magdalene (Matthew 26:6-7). The Talmud tells of one called, The Leper Messiah. It presents a supposed discourse between the great Rabbi Joshua ben Levi and the prophet Elijah. The rabbi asks "When will the Messiah come and by what sign may I recognize him?" Elijah tells the rabbi to go to the gate of the city where he will find the Messiah sitting among the poor lepers. The Messiah, says the prophet, sits bandaging his leprous sores one at a time, unlike the rest of the sufferers, who bandage them all at once. Why? Because he might be needed at any time and would not want to be delayed (Sanhedrin 98a). While this may seem to be a far-fetched story, it is not the only Jewish text which associates Messiah with leprosy. One of the names of the coming Messiah in the Talmud is: ‘The Leper Scholar’. Unlike the exclusive religious leaders of his days who stayed away, Yeshua came to us and voluntarily put on the decaying condition of mortality. He even contaminated himself by touching our leprosy. While were still in our mortal decaying condition, he entered our house to fellowship with us. But the story doesn't end here; the most wonderful part of it is that as he goes back to his Father and our God, he takes us with him to partake of his pure resurrected body. What a wonderful Messiah we have. Amen and Amen. May it be soon, even in our days! P. Gabriel Lumbroso www.thelumbrosos.com For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.
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1Timothy 4:12
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Exodus 2:1-2 tells us, Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. This statement seems to imply that Moses was Amram and Jochebed’s first child, but we discover later on that it is at least their third after Miriam the oldest who was five, and Aaron who was three years old at Moses birth. Why this strange text rendition then? Tradition teaches us that after Pharaoh’s decree, Amram felt that it was useless to attempt raising a family so he divorced his wife. Because he stood as a Levite, Amram’s decision created a snowball effect within the Israelite population. Miriam who was very young at the time rebuked her father telling him that he was worse than Pharaoh. Her reasoning was that whereas Pharaoh sought to kill all the Israelite male children, Amram, through his sample and lack of leadership threatened to bring genocide to the whole Hebrew nation. If the Israelites stopped raising families, their population's numbers will decrease, possibly come to a standstill and finally disappear. Miriam certainly had the gift of judging actions by their long term effect; she went on to become a great leader of Israel. Tradition tells us that Amram repented, remarried Jochebed, and sired Moses, and that is why the Torah text appears the way it is. One can argue about the veracity of these story but true or not, it gives us a window on ancient Israelites views on family, tribal dynamics, morality, goals, purposes and methods of judgment. Through the story of Moses who was a foreshadow of the first and second coming of Messiah, we are given the foundation stone of mankind’s redemption plan. Imagine now that the events that formed Moses' life could have been thwarted because of one act of despair from one of the older generation of Israel. In the mean time, a youth with a fresh non-cynical look at life saw the calamitous results of her father's decision. She then confronted her father and provoked a reversal of action. We complain much about youth today but could it be that perhaps they do not feel heard by the cynical so-called wise parental generation? We have our lives behind us but they have theirs in front of them and that, without the cynicism that so often sadly accompanies age and experience. In preparing for tomorow, may our children find their place. May we raise them in an atmosphere where they feel at liberty to change and prepare their future by being able to expose our shortcomings. May Hashem give us the humility to hear the voice of conviction in their uncouth and unseasoned tone. What is it the prophet said? “A little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6). “ Matthew 5:12
“… The prophets who were before you.” "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also (Numbers 12: 1)?" This was Miriam’s complaint. Though the English text tells us that both Miriam and Aaron complained, the Hebrew text uses the verb in the feminine form. The complaint had to do with prophecy, but also with Moses’ Cushite (Ethiopian) wife. The Torah is not very generous on details concerning the situation with the Cushite woman, but we can certainly read in the text an issue of jealousy concerning Moses’ prophetic gift and elevated position in the camp. Right away God solved the issue by establishing what I would coin as the ‘hierarchy of prophecy’ (Numbers 12:6-8). Similar problems seem to prevail in congregations today. To understand the issue, we must understand the nature, function, and property of prophet and prophecy. A prophet is not someone who tells the future or who is given messages for the benefit of everybody else. A prophet is simply someone who hears God to a certain extent. Samuel started his career as a prophet when he heard God in the middle of the night; because all Israel hear the Voice on the mountain they were all prophets; Yeshua called His disciples ‘prophets' cause they heard Him (1 Samuel 3:4; Exodus 20:18; Matthew 5:12). Prophecy is also part of the ‘earnest of the spirit’ each one receives as believers, just as Peter reminded us using the prophet Joel’s prophecy (2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV; Acts 2:16-18). But whereas everybody has the ability to hear God’s Voice either in a dream, vision, through the reading of Scripture, or even in a Voice in their hearts, doesn’t mean that they should strut around as teachers and prophets saying 'the Lord told me' to give weight to their personal views and opinions. Only certain ones are given the divine command to share a message with the body and even when that happens, the congregation is to weigh the message (1Corinthians 14:29). In this sense, Miriam was right in her question to Moses. The issue here was that in her misplaced jealousy she did not recognize Moses’ status. Maybe as his older sister, she was a bit familiar with him. God seemed to communicate with Moses like with no-one else before. Whereas everybody else was given riddles, dreams and visions to decipher, God’s communication with Moses was less ambiguous. The Torah tells us, with him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD (Numbers 12:8). Yeshua is prophesied as the ‘prophet like Moses’ (Deuteronomy 18:15). That is because as Moses, the Master had open communications with God. In their innate craving for self importance people often ignore these principles of prophecy and thus like Miriam cause many problems in congregations. To ‘drop’ God’s Name to share a personal opinion or view on something is very dangerous and akin to ‘using the Name of God in vain’. May we remember that while Paul spoke highly of the gift of prophecy, he also said that something was higher than prophecy: Love (1 Corinthians 12:31; 13). 1 TiMOTHY 2:15
She will be saved through childbearing. Why is a woman ‘unclean’ after giving birth (Leviticus 12:2)? Questions about uncleanliness could be ask of every issue that require a ritual ‘decontamination’ but yet we wonder why by the act of giving birth, which is one of the highest form of obedience to God, a woman becomes ‘unclean’. We need to remember that ‘uncleanliness’; has nothing to do with personal sin, and that technically, it is solely related to presence in the Temple. When you clean house or do the natural things that need to be done while working, you get dirty. You haven’t sinned by a personal lack of hygiene but you still need a bath. I’d almost like to call it a spiritual ‘debriefing’ before re-entering in the presence of God. As far as childbirth is concerned, Paul actually addresses it as a way for a woman to be ‘saved’ We must not be fooled by the English terminology though; childbirth is not a special ‘plan of redemption’ for women only. The word ‘saved’ in this sentence could be better defined today as, ‘preserved’, or ‘completed’ (see Strong’s Concordance). I do not have first-hand experience at conception, but science having exposed the mechanics of childbirth stole from us its miraculous nature. After thirty years plus of active married life without practicing any form of birth-control, my wife and I have only had six children. I’d like to therefore argue that whereas God may use (or not) human ‘mechanics’, conception is more a matter of God’s doings than of human’s mechanics. Conception is the result of God’s workings within our body, and something solely experienced by women. In the case of the woman suspected of adultery, pregnancy was the sign of her vindication by God (Numbers 5:28). Again the Hebrew of this text is very interesting; it says ‘she shall conceive seed (my translation), using the same terminology of a woman having ‘seed’ as in the verse when God mentions the ‘seed of Eve terminating the devil’s power (Genesis 3:15). I am sure that God is savvy in human biology and that He Is aware of the fact that women carry eggs but no seed. The man carries ‘seed’. Only twice this terminology of women carrying ‘seed’ is used in the Torah text, and they are used in relation to a redemptive sign for women (Numbers 5:28; Genesis 3:15). In the apostolic Scriptures, using the Septuagint text of Isaiah 7 Matthew informs us that Miriam, the mother of Yeshua was a virgin when she conceived, implying therefore that she carried egg and ‘Seed’. The Child Miriam carried became ‘cleanlines/tahor-ness’ not only for women but for the whole world. This represents a fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Eve’s ‘Seed’ overcoming the enemy, and of the women suspected of adultery. In Him and in His Words do we ‘immerse and become ‘clean/tahor’ unto God (John 14:3). Luke 2:22
And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. In the twelfth chapter of the Book of Leviticus we are told that, 'If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed’ (Leviticus 12:2-4). Luke ties this verse to the birth of Messiah when he says, ‘And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord’ (Luke 2:22). Miriam therefore came to make an offering at the end of the days of her purification as was prescribed by Moses and that is when she meets Simeon (Luke 2:25). Luke actually makes sure to tell us how Miriam and Joseph did everything according to the Levitical process. It is important here to note that even though most Biblical texts relate to Miriam’s post-natal state as ‘unclean’ and therefore having to present an offering at the Temple; her condition has nothing to do with moral deficiency or spiritual unworthiness. A woman giving birth actually is at the height of her godliness and righteousness before God. What the Torah refers to as the ritual unclean state is solely the reality of being human and therefore impure before. This ritual uncleanliness is solely Temple related. We are told in the Gospel of Luke that ‘when the time came for their (Miriam and Joseph) purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him (Yeshua) up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."’ (Luke 2:22-24). We see in Luke’s rendering of the story that Miriam and Joseph brought "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."’, and that is because they could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:6-8). Little did young Miriam know, oh how little did she know that whereas she could not afford to bring Lamb to the Temple for her purification, she actually brought to God the ultimate Lamb who would end up purifying not only her, but the whole world with her! |
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