Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your Word. We thank you for the joy and the blessing it is to get to come to you. Please God, help us to read and understand your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so we are at Leviticus chapter 13. This is the beginning of the leprosy laws, and so we're going to talk more about that just as a way of introduction. Leprosy, as we know it. not actually known in the ancient Near East most likely. I think there's, as I was reading through some commentaries and thinking about this, there's one instance in an Assyrian text that describes something that might be like Hansen's disease, leprosy, but this is just a generic term, right? The scaly skin disease is what most of this is going to talk about. And the word leprosy that's used here is coming from the Greek, from Hippocras. You've heard of the Hippocratic Oath before. He coined the term lepra, which is a generic skin problem. Just keep in your mind that there's Christian movies and stuff that totally equate Hansen's disease, what we think of leprosy today, but as we read through these, we're going to see it's not actually the case. It's more like scaly diseases and rashes and stuff like that. So, anyways, Leviticus chapter 13, here we go. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, saying, Alright, so if you find this, you gotta go to a priest, right? Remember Leviticus chapter 10, this is why they couldn't drink, because they had to be able to look at people's bodies and say clean or unclean, food clean or unclean. The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body, and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. then the priest shall examine him and pronounce him unclean." Right, so here's a clear test. Gone down beneath the skin, unclean. Verses 4-6 is kind of like, okay, it's indeterminate, so we're going to call it clean. If the bright spot is white on the skin of his body and does not appear to be deeper than the skin and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore for seven days. And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and indeed if the sore appears to be as it was, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days. Then the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and indeed if the sore has faded, And the sore has not spread on the skin, and the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. It goes into this period of quarantine. Seven days, seven days, okay, nope, it's going away, great, you're clean. Alright, verses seven and eight. If those quarantines happen though and then it comes back, you get a problem. If the scab should at all spread over the skin after it has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again. And if the priest sees the scab has indeed spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy. So if it comes back and starts spreading, you're unclean. All right, now that's kind of like the first set of tests. Now in verses 9 through 17, we have severe skin problems that are kind of clear cases for the priests. When the leprous sore is on a person, then he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall examine him. And indeed, if the swelling on the skin is white, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of raw flesh in the swelling, it is an old leprosy on the skin of the body. The priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall isolate him, for he is unclean. If the leprosy breaks out all over the skin, and the leprosy covers, All the skin on the one who has the sword from his head to his foot, wherever the priest looks, then the priest shall consider, and indeed if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean who has the sword. If it has all turned white, he is clean. But when raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean. And when the priest shall examine the raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean, for the raw flesh is unclean, it is leprosy. Or if the raw flesh changes and turns white again, he shall come to the priest. And the priest shall examine him. And indeed, if the sore has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. Who has the sore? He is clean." Right? So if it's, the question is like going down into the skin and is it oozing or is it kind of scabbing over? What's going on? They're going to determine whether or not the person is clean or unclean. This is regarding ritual holiness. This is regarding ritual cleanliness laws. This is not necessarily a moral issue, but it is a state of what's going on with your body. Or verses 18-23, we're going to talk about some boils. If the body develops a boil in the skin, and it is healed, and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling or bright spot, reddish-white, then it shall be shown to the priest. And if, when the priest sees it, it indeed appears deeper than the skin, and its hair has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous sore which has broken out of the boil. But if the priest examines it, and indeed there are no white hairs in it, and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days. And if it should at all spread over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is a leprosaur. But if the bright spot stays in one place and has not spread, it is the scar of the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. clean. So what happens if you get a boil and you're an Israelite? Well, does it spread? Does it pop open? Does it scab over? It depends on what happens. Most of the time you're probably going to be okay. You're going to be clean. But if it starts spreading over your skin or it gets oozy and pussy, there might be a time of temporary uncleanness. Verses 24-28 is about burns. But if the priest examines it, and indeed there are no white hairs in the bright spot, and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days, and the priest shall examine him on the seventh day. If it has at all spread over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous sore. But if the bright spot stays in one place, and has not spread on the skin, but has faded. It is a swelling from the burn. The priest shall pronounce him unclean, for it is the scar from the burn." Right, so if you get burned, what happens, right? I remember when I was in welding class, my ninth grade year of high school, I burnt my hand with an oxyacetylene torch. I mean, I lost almost all the skin on my hand. There was raw skin. And I remember seeing white spots, right, where it had gone from almost a third degree burn. And I mean, It was gross. Alright, so the question is, is it going to heal? Or do you get a disease that starts spreading over your body? Maybe an infectious disease of some sort. Look at the hair. Is there a spot turned? Does the hair turn white? Things like this is what the priest is looking at to try to figure out. Thankfully, I think they look at my hand and say it was clean now, but maybe that's not the case for all burn victims. Verses 29-37 is about itching diseases. Here we go. If a man or woman has a sore on the head or on the beard, then the priest shall examine the sore, and indeed if it appears deeper than the skin, and there is in it thin yellow hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a scaly leprosy of the head or beard. But if the priest examines the scaly sore, and indeed it does not appear deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale seven days. And on the seventh day the priest shall examine the sore, and indeed if the scale has not spread, and there is no yellow hair in it, and the scale does not appear deeper than the skin, he shall shave himself, but the scale he shall not shave. And the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale another seven days. On the seventh day, the priest shall examine the scale, and if the scale has not spread over the skin and does not appear deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. He shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scale should at all spread over the skin after his cleansing, then the priest shall examine him, and indeed if the scale has spread over the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair, he is unclean. But if the scale appears to be at a standstill, and there is black hair growing up in it, the scale has healed, he is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean." So again, the main thing is whether or not this is spreading or going deeper into the skin. What's going on here? In the next section, this is dealing with baldness, 38 and 39. If a man or a woman has a bright spot on the skin of the body, specifically white bright spots, then the priest shall look, and indeed if the bright spots on the skin of the body are dull white, or sorry, this is what, not baldness is next, this is what some people call leukoedema. Then the priest shall look, and indeed if the bright white spots on the skin of the body are dull white, it is a white spot that grows on the skin. He is clean." Alright, and then now this is Baldness 40 through 44. As for the man whose hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean. He whose hair has fallen from his forehead, he is bald on the forehead, but he is clean. And if there is on the bald head or bald forehead a reddish-white sore, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead. then the priest shall examine it. And indeed, if the swelling of the sore is reddish white on his bald head or on his bald forehead as the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body, he is a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean. His sore is on his head." Right? It's not that Elisha was unclean, it's just that he was bald. Some guys go bald because they go bald. Other people go bald because they get crusty stuff going on in their scalp, right? I think babies deal with this. I forget what it's called, but right when one of our kids was little, you know, born, they had really bad stuff going on in their hair. We had to comb it out, and comb it out, and comb it out, and put different stuff on their head because, I mean, we were worried they were going to go bald before they were, you know, six months old. That's part of what happens, right? But the point is, sometimes it's an infectious disease. Sometimes it's not. You don't really—you gotta figure out what's going on here. All right, but what happens if somebody is declared unclean? Verses 45 and 46. Now the leper on whom the sore is his clothes shall be torn in 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 these are signs of mourning and of grief of sadness They're excluded from their friends, taken away from their family, removed from their homes, no longer a part of the community, not able to enter into the congregation or be near the temple. In this case, the tabernacle. Totally removed. Worn clothes. Anytime they're around people crying out, unclean, unclean, so nobody touches them and becomes unclean. That's the plight of the leper during this time. And this is why they would cry out to Jesus for cleansing. We're going to see this time and time again when it comes to this, but it was Jesus who touched the lepers. He was not fearful of becoming unclean because he himself was holy. And He tore down even this dividing wall between clean and unclean by healing them. He didn't abrogate the law. Actually, as you see Jesus touch lepers and heal the lepers, He would then tell them to go to the temple, go present yourselves to the priests and make the sacrifice, make the purification rites that they've told you to, but you've been suffering long enough. That's what Jesus offers us. Jesus is the one who heals our diseases and cares for us, includes us in his covenant, loves us by his grace, even though we are those who are unclean in spirit and not by ourselves worthy of redemption, but he has come to us and loved us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the finished work of Jesus Christ and for his cleansing us. Lord, we thank you that we do not have to dwell outside the camp, but you have brought us in. Father, we pray that we would love those who suffer from different ailments and maladies, that we would be those who would reach out and love those who might be ostracized from society because we might look at laws like this and think that they are unjust, unloving. But yet, Lord, many people are afraid to interact with people who seem to have diseases, look different, maybe even smell different. And they need love, Lord. We pray that we would be those who would show the love of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you that you have taken away our mourning and given us joy. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may God bless you. May His love wash over your heart, and may you serve Him all your days. I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.