Leviticus 14
Lev. 14:1-32
I don't know what observations or thoughts you have regarding this section but a couple things stand out to me.
First, there is the same applying of blood to the right ear, right thumb and right big toe, that there was with Aaron and the priests. These two places are the only places in the Bible. So it makes me wonder about the connection. What did a priest and a cleansed leper have in common? The only thing I can come up with is that a leper was "dead" in a figurative sense, being a walking symbol of sin and separation from God. The healing and being made clean would symbolize life from the dead.
In the consecration of Aaron, the meaning of the blood seemed to be that all of his life, thoughts, doing, going were to be devoted to God in ministering the blood, or leading people to God for forgiveness and cleansing.
My sense is that the leper, now redeemed from death, was to be consecrated to God and was to live his life under the "direction" of that blood, giving testimony to lead others to the forgiveness and cleansing of God.
As a disciple, it seems to me that I've been a leper. I've been made alive and forgiven and cleansed by the blood. All my thoughts and doing and going should be led by that blood. And I should live to follow Christ and give testimony and lead others to the forgiveness and cleansing of God.
In Mark 1:40-45, Jesus told this leper, the first we ever know of (besides Miriam) to be healed, to go and present himself to the priest. The priest would have had to publicly pronounced this man "clean." This would have been a great public testimony by a priest that Jesus had done the work of God. The guy did his own thing and disobeyed.
I guess, sometimes it is best to obey God in the system, following Christ as He desires.
Lev. 14:33-57
Now, there is a lot in this section regarding cleansing and sacrifice and houses. I suppose the purpose is to show the people that all growing manifestations of rot and decay, physically and spiritual, are deadly and unclean. This clearly was an object lesson. When you read this section, pay attention to the beginning verses. They tell you that there must have been a purpose.
Mark 6:30-56
Mark 6:30-44
It's interesting that Jesus tries to teach the disciples the importance of getting into isolation after draining spiritual service. It's also interesting that it doesn't work. Instead of being able to relax, they are pursued; and Jesus, moved with compassion, teaches them. He probably did some healing as well, and the disciples probably helped organize the people into lines. The result was that this was not rest and relaxation for the disciples.
The disciples recognized the problem. Lots of people and they were in the middle of nowhere. (There is actually a small city in Texas called "in the middle of nowhere," Midlothian, Texas, which now has a Wal-Mart and no longer lives up to its name.)
When I think of the disciples here, it is really the same scenario as the first days of the exodus. How is God going to feed all these people in the middle of nowhere?
Imagine the disciples coming off of this spiritual victory, serving even more though they were tired, and now after hours of serving and hearing Jesus teach they are very, very tired. Then Jesus says, "You give them something to eat."
What is interesting is that there is a story in the OT of God doing something like this with Elisha the prophet.
So, what lesson do you think the disciples learned from this event?
Mark 6:45-52
Elsewhere we learn that Jesus sent the disciples away as a decoy. The people knew Jesus was still up on the mountain, and so they waited for Him in order to take Him captive and make Him king.
The disciples still haven't rested. Jesus tells them to get into the boat and they just do it, now fighting the wind.
The thing I get from all of this, is that there are times God pushes us, in our following, to exhaustion, to teach us in that tiredness, to exercise our faith. It is easy to follow and easy to have faith and easy to be joyful when you are well rested. You test the real depth of learning or training under duress.
So how do you explain the last part of this? They were terrified and astounded….because they did not understand about the loaves. What didn't they understand there, that led them to be terrified here?
I think it has to be some connection they missed to Jesus, who He was. And in that connection, something they missed with regard to the manna. Jesus' words in John 6 tie these together. Peter's words in that chapter give you the idea that they finally "got it."
Mark 6:53-56
It is amazing to think that many of these people who are pursuing Him, will turn from Jesus when He gets north to the outskirts of Capernaum. I guess the lesson is "do you want Him, or what He can give you." It's not the same thing.
Psalm 40:1-10
Again, this is a Psalm that my heart latches on to. This Psalm is "after the fact," in that David has already received the deliverance he cried out for. I like the crying out and waiting. You have to notice the frequency of these words in the Psalms and get the idea that that is what God wants us to do. "But things aren't that bad." Maybe in reality, things are always worse than they seem, considering that our planet is on course for a bad day.
Verses 6 and 7 have been applied to Jesus. It's interesting that we're reading so much about sacrifice and offering in Exodus and Leviticus, and here it says the opposite. Verse 7 is the answer, and was probably the answer back when Leviticus was penned.
Verses 9-10 are precisely why God allows us to get into bad scrapes, so He can deliver us, and so we can give genuine, heartfelt praise to God.
If you're interested, this link is to a Promise Keepers song based on this Psalm.
Proverbs 10:11-12
You can really see the design of these verses. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life that issues from a heart of love that covers sins. The mouth of the wicked conceals violence, motivated by a heart of hate that stirs up strife.
Do you recognize the second half of verse 12? You hear it all the time and it's quoted in 1 Peter. Maybe the way it is used here helps us understand 1 Peter.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.
The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
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