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Lev. 13
I wonder about the laws for leprosy. Was this detailed set of laws intended merely for protection, to prevent the spread of the disease? Or is there also a spiritual lesson in them? Leprosy does seem to be a physical representation of sin in the Bible, so these laws may indeed hold some spiritual wisdom for us. I don’t want to read too much into anything, but a thought did pop into my head concerning the priest’s inspection of the disease.
The priest was to discern if the various marks and spots went more than skin deep and whether they remained contained or began to spread. That made me think about the idea of being fruit inspectors – discerning whether others serve self or God – and of confronting sin in the Body of Christ. Though we don’t judge others to the point of condemnation, we are certainly responsible to use the discernment of God’s Spirit to keep the Body of Christ pure. Paul had a lot to say about that in his letters. So, as a kingdom of priests, we need to inspect the sin in ourselves and others. We all fall prey to sin from time to time. But when it begins to rule in someone’s life, it has gone beyond skin deep. That’s when we need to take measures to prevent the spread of that deadly disease.
Ps. 15-16
One of David’s descriptions of a God fearing man is, “In whose eyes a reprobate is despised” (Ps. 15:4a). I can see how, on the surface, this seems contrary to Jesus’ instruction to love our enemies. As I say, when something doesn’t make sense, we need to check our perspective, because the one thing I am certain of is that God does not contradict Himself. Any apparent contradiction, then, is in my understanding. In light of that, I have a few thoughts on this.
The first thought is that our enemies are not necessarily the same as God’s enemies. This could be the distinction between somebody who treats us hatefully or who we simply don’t like – our enemies whom we should love – and someone who blatantly rejects God – a reprobate whom we should despise. That being said, my second thought is that, whether personal enemy or reprobate, we should not let the way someone treats us dictate how we treat them. We can stop to help even the vilest God-hater if we see him in need without embracing what he believes in and lives for.
Lastly, I believe this all ties in to what I mentioned from the Leviticus reading. Despising a reprobate may have to do with keeping a separation of fellowship with those who oppose God. This isn’t the same as withholding God’s love from that person. It’s more a matter of not uniting, or yoking, yourself with someone whose life is not on the path to God. The degree of separation depends on the seriousness of the disease, which we must rely on God’s Spirit to discern. And, in some cases, it may well be that despising a reprobate is the most loving thing we could do. As Paul said, “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. 5:5).
Prov. 27
“He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who cares for his master will be honored.” (Pr. 27:18). This made me think of the old “two dogs” analogy. It states that there are two dogs in each of us, one good and one bad. The dog that grows strong and prevails in us is the one that we feed. We could say that these two dogs are our flesh – the bad dog – and the Holy Spirit – the good one. That then takes me to the whole premise for these musings of mine. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5).
Thus, the fig tree in this Proverb is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. When we tend and feed into that relationship, we enjoy the fruit that comes from it. If, however, we tend instead to our flesh, we will find ourselves stuck with rotten fruit.