Good Morning.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest.” (Leviticus 14:1-2)
Jewish tradition teaches that, if and when a leper was cleansed, he was to appear before the priest in an appointed place outside the camp — or the city, if that be the case. When the priest was informed that a leper had been healed, the news that a priest was going outside the camp to investigate would, no doubt, rippled though out the community. It is not hard to imagine that the priest would have been attended by a good number of people, maybe even many young priests.
The point is, it is very possible that news such as this would have resulted in a multitude of people being witness to this event. I say that because, ancient rabbinic belief taught that this had never happened in all of Israeli history — no Jewish man had ever been cleansed of leprosy. However, when the Messiah appeared, as a sign of who He was, He would heal one afflicted with leprosy. In fact, a sign of the Anointed One would be that a cleansed leper would come unto the priests to offer the gift prescribed by the Torah of Moses. According to the Biblical record, before Yeshua came, the only ones cleansed of leprosy were Miriam (an Israeli woman) and Naaman the Syrian. That all changed when Yeshua walked the earth.
Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, you can make me clean.” Then Yeshua, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Mark 1:40-44)
By instructing this man to go and show himself to priests, not only was Messiah encouraging him to obey what was commanded, but was also sending a sign to the priests of that day — “as a testimony to them” — that the Messiah had arrived. One of the very signs they were looking for was to be delivered to them directly. In fact, very soon thereafter, many of the religious leaders of the day were coming up to the Galilee to find out more about this rabbi from Nazareth.
The point for us, today, is that not only can Messiah perform the miraculous and impossible, but sometimes, He even does the very thing we are expecting of Him as a sign that He is working in our lives. He wants us to know that He is listening to our prayers and He is making Himself known in our world. Our responsibility is do that which He has instructed us to do and, unlike what was presented to the leper, we should be telling everyone just what the LORD has done.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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