Notes on Leprosy...Leviticus 13 and 14.

Leprosy or Hansen's Disease is with us today and, as in biblical times, still incurable.  It is not a nice disease. The symptoms can be managed and their effects minimized, but it remains incurable.  This is curious to me given that leprosy is a symbol of sin in the bible.  Without a miracle of God, sin and its deadly result is also incurable.  

Leprosy is a condition where your nerves are deadened so that you can no longer feel pain.  On the surface this sounds like a good thing, right?  Thinking further on it though, it is clear that pain does have its purposes.  Losing your sense of feeling means that if you put your hand on a hot stove you might not be aware of it until your flesh begins to burn and smell.  Much of the body damage that lepers experience is a direct result from their inability to feel physically. 

Can you see the correlation between leprosy and sin?  Sin also deadens your senses.  It hardens your conscience, enabling you to do things you might never have thought you would do and think that they are really no big deal.  Look at pictures of babies...see there innocence and beauty.  There is a reason why they are so attractive to us.  Now look at someone, perhaps in their twenties, who is already well on the road of sin.  You can see the damage and destruction.  Sin takes something beautiful and innocent and disfigures it.  Sin is also contagious.  If everyone around you is doing it, it makes it easier for you to go down that road also.  Sin isolates and separates us...not only from each other but also from God.

Here is the explanation for leprosy given in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge for leprosy.   

"The plague of leprosy Tzaraâth, the Leprosy, from the Greek λεπρα, from λεπις, a scale; so called, because in this disease the body is covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. The leprosy is a dreadful, contagious disorder, common in Egypt and Syria, and generally manifests itself at first in the manner described in the text. Its commencement is imperceptible; there appearing only a few reddish spots on the skin, which are not attended with pain or any other symptom, but cannot be removed. It increases imperceptibly, and continues for some years to be more and more manifest. The spots become larger, spread over the whole skin, and are sometimes rather raised, though generally flat. When it increases the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils distend, the nose becomes soft, swellings appear on the under jaws, the eyebrows are elevated, the ears grow thick, the ends of the fingers, feet, and toes, swell, the nails grow scaly, the joints of the hands and feet separate, the palms of hands and soles of the feet are ulcerated, and in its last stage the patient becomes horrible, and falls to pieces."

Sin acts on our spirits in precisely the same manner.  Sin is a downward slope that begins almost imperceptibly.  It then gains momentum and vigor and its result is always death. 

The cure is simple and very available, but in pride many refuse to accept it.  

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 6:23

"But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)  or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”  (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”--Romans 10:6-13

Apart from a touch from God....no one was or is ever cured of leprosy. The same is true for sin. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost.  Jesus was called a friend of sinners and compared Himself to a physician caring for those who knew they needed Him.  He came to heal us of the sickness of sin.  All of us need His cleansing...sadly, not all of us admit our need.  Leprosy is a temporal disease and has consequences only in this life.  Sin is also temporal but its consequences are eternal.  The remedy is Christ.    God's desire is that none of us should perish but that all should come to life in His Son.  The decision you make for Jesus also has both temporal and eternal consequences.  Put your pride aside and thank God that He has done it all.  Revel in the fact that there is nothing you can do but accept His free gift.  Rejoice!