Wednesday, November 25, 2015
1TH 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
2CO 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
The healing of ten men from one of the most disgusting diseases in the Bible.
Under the doctrine of numerology - Ten represents the number of Divine Perfection.
There are 10 commandments (Exo. 20); There were 10 plagues on Egypt (EXO 9:14ff); There are 10 "I AM"'s spoken by Jesus in John.
There were 10 virgins (Matt 25:1-13). There were 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19).
There were 10 talents (Matt 25:14-30). There were 10 minas (Luke 19:12-27). There were 10 “I AM’s” in the Gospel of John.
The miracles Jesus did were not for self-exaltation or for money but because of compassion and mercy on the people whom He came into contact with who were suffering.
It is a tribute to modern medicine that most of us know very little about the disease called leprosy.
Most of us have never seen a leper.
Those in the ancient world who was suspected of having the disease was banished from society.
In the rabbinic writings we find remedies for various diseases but nothing is listed for leprosy.
The rabbis said that curing leprosy was almost like raising the dead.
1. Leprosy was a hideous disease which is known as Hansen’s Disease today, after the Norwegian doctor who in 1873 discovered that filthy bacteria that caused the disease and how to deal with it.
Some modern translations say that leprosy was “an eruptive gross skin disease.”
1. A patch of skin is discolored.
2. The patches of skin turn white or pink and begins to spread rapidly in all directions in all areas of the body.
3. The disease spreads to various internal organs as well. The eyebrows may disappear and spongy tumors appear all over the body.
4. Tissue begins to disintegrate causing the hands and feet to become deformed.
5. The nerve endings of the body are destroyed.
Leprosy was feared by the ancients because it produced such terrible results, and because it was contagious and could not be cured by man.
Leviticus Chapters 13-14 gives special instructions concerning the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy.
It essentially says that any swelling or rash or skin infection must be immediately presented to the priest for his inspection.
The person who was inspected would then be quarantined for seven days.
If not, then the person was diagnosed as having leprosy and was banished from society for the remainder of his infection or until he died.
Notice, this wasn't what the leprosy did to those who had it, it was what those who had it did to the leprosy.
Leprosy represented sin - What they did after they discovered that they had it was to humiliate themselves, which is what sin does to us as we GAL 6:7.
Bad enough others despised the leper and the priests had to announce that he was unclean but even the leper himself despised himself and had to announce to every passer-by, "Hey, I'm unclean, I'm unclean."
The Bible says that he was on his way to Jerusalem knowing it was the last time before His death.
Even knowing what He was about to face with Death on His mind yet He is going to take His mind off Himself and what He was about to go through and become occupied and involved with the needs of others.
You could even find this place that He was walking through on a map, it was a small remote place not really known to others, precisely where you would expect to find a leper colony.
PSA 139:8 If I make my bed in Sheol or in the grave, behold, Thou art there.
JER 2:6 that He brought His people out of the land of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt?'
LUK 7:16 "A great prophet has arisen among them!" and, "God was visiting His people!"
LUK 1:79 The Lord had come To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death [like the Lepers], To guide their feet into the way of peace."
Little did they realize that as LUK 19:44 says, the time of their visitation from the Lord was here.
Like the Father in the parable of the prodigal son, he didn't wait for the son to come home, but he went out to meet the son.
There are times He meets us at the strangest times, in the strangest places, sometimes under the strangest circumstances!
It was no surprise that Jesus encounters these unfortunate men somewhere between Galilee and Samaria which tells us it was an unknown place.
Good Jews avoided Samaria if they could.
The story goes way back hundreds of years to the Assyrian Captivity which began in 722 B.C. Some of the Jews had intermarried with the Assyrians and had become-in the eyes of their countrymen-half-breeds and traitors.
The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans responded in kind.
1. Leprosy was a Hideous Disease.
2. This was A Profound Miracle.
Their only uniting characteristic is the foul disease that had cast them out of society.
No doubt they had heard the rumors floating across the barren countryside—"This man can heal lepers.”
“Have mercy. Have Mercy” came the cry from lips that had seen too little mercy and too much condemnation.
3. As they were going, they were cleansed, they were healed.
PSA 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
ISA 30:21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
ISA 48:17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go.
Will he heal them right then and there?
The Lord fully intended to heal them and (this is critical), He intended to do it in keeping with the demands of the Law of Moses.
MAT 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill."
After many years (15-20 in most cases) the infection was gone and the person—bearing the ravaging marks of the disease—might re-enter society.)
"as they were going, they were cleansed" or they were healed as they went. --- Not before. Not after.
Go show WHAT to the priest? They were still lepers.
They didn’t have anything to show that the priest would want to see.
MAT 19:26b "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
LUK 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."
Sometimes it takes just one more step before we see God come through.
It seems that many quit right when they are on the verge of victory.
4. Beware of the curse of a lack of faith resulting in ungratefulness and forgetfulness.
They were healed as they went. Not before. Not after - But in the act of going they were healed.
The act of going that was the act of faith.
Our faith moves mountains when our faith moves us.
When Jesus said, “Go show the priest” he was really saying, “Act as if you are already healed.”
As he went, the healing took place.
I guarantee you, from God who cannot lie, As you go forward and believe the word of God and the promises of God, you will be blessed.
What comes first, the believing or the receiving?
The spiritual believer says I believe and therefore receives, because believing comes before receiving.
MAT 21:22 "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive."
MAR 11:23-24, "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.
MAR 11:24 "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.
Do you believe the word that the Lord speaks and then start off back in the plan of God again?
When our faith-shaky though it may be-finally moves us to action, God honors it and the answers begin to come.
Faith is belief acting on one's trust in what the Lord says or one's trust in the word of God, Bible doctrine.
So many of us are trapped by the curse of lack of faith resulting in ungratefulness, forgetfulness, and then a lack of thanksgiving.
It’s the view that says trusting God means letting him do it all.
Trusting God does not equal doing nothing.
The ten lepers were healed as they went. Our faith moves mountains when our faith moves us.
The Shocking Revelation of the lack of thanksgiving.
Ten were healed and only one came back to give thanks.