Leprosy, Doeg the Edomite, and an Unjust Manager.
What is a disease you might really want to steer clear of, a terrible name for your next child, and the dude you worked for at McDonalds your sophomore year of high school?
If you are doing a 'thru the bible' reading plan, you might be wading through Leviticus right now. Today I read Leviticus 14, which bears the scintillating title: "Laws for Cleansing Lepers" in the ESV. [By the way, I picked up a pretty cool ESV journaling bible-
http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-Standard-Journaling-Original/dp/158134838X
It has nice wide margins for notes, with a bible reading plan in the back.]
Leviticus 14 is one of those chapters in the Bible that, upon first read, makes most of us scratch our head (in bewilderment, hopefully not because of a nasty leprous scalp condition) and inquire of God as to what He was thinking in giving such laws and requirements. And not only this, He then inspired Moses by the Spirit to put them down in Scripture to confound modern enlightened folk such as you and me. I took a peek at tomorrow, where it only gets better: "Laws about Bodily Discharge". File under , "Sermons Never Preached at Willow Creek Community Church".
We must ask, however cautiously and reverently, 'What is the deal, Lord?'
Let me just throw out some thoughts, blog out my ruminations, and lead you into some deeper thoughts about a hard, dare I say, weird passage such as Leviticus 14 (and 15). First, I'll give you a handful of verses from this rather intriquing passage,
14:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "These are the regulations for the diseased person at the time of his ceremonial cleansing, when he is brought to the priest: 3 The priest is to go outside the camp and examine him. If the person has been healed of his infectious skin disease, 4 the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed. 5 Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot. 6 He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7 Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the infectious disease and pronounce him clean. Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields.
This passage is dealing with sin and its consequences. It deals with our sin, our uncleanness. Yet, it also deals with the means by which God graciously provides atonement (at-one-ment, covering of sin for the sake of communion and fellowship). If we are going to talk about grace and mercy, we must first talk about the need for grace and mercy (whether it is grace in the form of answered prayer, grace in the form of a healed affliction, grace in the form of a ritual sacrifice pointing to the atoning work of Christ, or grace, the ultimate grace, in the atoning work of Christ). Because of our sin, we are dependent, utterly dependent, upon God's grace to provide atonement.
Now, you might ask, is a disease like leprosy the consequence of sin? Yes. Of course. Was there leprosy in the garden before the fall? Is leprosy a disease that kills, especially in the Ancient Near Eastern world? Yes. Aren't the wages of sin death? Yes. This is a passage that addresses, very acutely, the reality that we are, in our sin, unclean. Of course, I do not mean to say that all evils, such as disease, afflictions, various crises and disasters are necessarily a direct consequence of our own sin. Jesus addressed this over in John 9 when his disciples asked why a certain man was born blind. Jesus says the man was born blind to bring glory to God (specifically through the healing power of Jesus giving him sight), not as any immediate consequence of his own sin or the sin of his parents.
But, Jesus is not speaking absolutely about all disease, afflictions, and evils. There are many examples where we may say that diseases or afflictions are the direct consequence, or wage, of our own or another's sin (the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers; a baby born with fetal alchohol syndrome; the ravages of drug addiction). However much we love to go the way of our culture and avoid dealing with our sin and its consequences by removing any and all personal culpability and responsibility for our choices and our actions, we cannot escape the reality of our lives and our predicament. We are sinners and we need atonement. We are unclean, dying, sick, aging, weak; for some the leprosy is painfully evident upon the skin, but for all of us it is deep down in the heart. God has displayed our sin to us, and he has displayed his righteousness to us in his law. But, he has also, in his law, displayed his mercy, his atoning, forgiving power that is in a shadowy way held forth in the sacrifice of a bird (or a ram, or a goat) to cover sin, and the release of another bird (or goat- cf. Lev. 14:7 and 16:6-10) to point to deliverance and freedom through a substitutionary sacrifice.
And so, we read a hard, or at least culturally dissonant, passage like Leviticus 14 and 15 and are able to see how it points us to our own sin, our own need, and the gracious means for atonement that God provided in the Law to point to the mediating work of Christ. We stand this side of the cross, and we read the Law and see it as, "a shadow of the good things that are coming-- not the realities themselves" (Heb. 10:1), the reality being the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
What does Doeg the Edomite and the Unjust Manager have to do with all this? Like I said above, I was reading Leviticus 14 in the context of my daily reading plan. On the same day we read of the 'Laws for Cleansing Lepers' we read as well from Psalm 52. The introductory 'superscription' for this psalm gives us this historical context, "To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, "David has come to the house of Ahimelech". You can read more about this scene over in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. In a nutshell, Saul is still King of Israel, and David is fleeing from Saul's designs to kill him. David comes to a place called Nob, where we find a company of priests in the house of Ahimelech. Ahimelech gives safe haven to David, due mostly to David's falsification of the reason for his visit. David and his men are given provisions from the table of consecrated bread. 2 Samuel 21 tells us that the chief of Saul's herdsmen, named Doeg, from Edom, is in the wings and later reports to Saul that David found refuge from the house of Ahimelech. By Saul's command, Doeg the Edomite kills Ahimelech and 84 other priests who served the Lord at Nob. Doeg then proceeded to 'put the city to the sword, woman, child,infant, ox, donkey, and sheep'. Doeg, and indeed Saul, were bloodthirsty and cruel men, chasing with great hate and wrath the future king of Israel, wantonly killing all who stand in their way.
With this historical context, we read Psalm 52: 6-9:
The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying, 7 "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!"8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. 9 I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
What I love about reading through the bible with an Old Testament passage from the Law, the Historical books, or the propthets, along with a chapter from the Psalms, and then a chapter from the New Testament is that we are able to catch glimpses of what Paul called 'the whole counsel of God' over in Acts 20:27. In Leviticus we find the promise of healing and atonement through the mediation of the priest, the substitute of the sacrifice, the portrait of redemption in the rituals of cleanness. We find that we are sinners and God has made a way for sinners to be cleansed and redeemed. In Psalm 52 we find that in the face of bloodthirsty men, in an age of sin and destruction, God will provide refuge and vindication for those who hope in Him and not in themselves.
Over in Luke 16, the New Testament passage for the day, we are told the parable of the Unjust Manager by Jesus. The story is told and then Jesus gives us this summary sentence, "No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Luke 16:13). In the next passage we find further context for this story, "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves befor men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (vv. 14-15).
Don't trust in your bodies. Don't trust in your power and the strength of the sword. Don't trust in your riches. Don't trust in that which is exalted in this world. Trust only in God and lean only on his grace and mercy. Whether you're a leper, a fleeing king, a powerhungry tyrant, a priest under the sword of a wicked man, an unjust manager, or a money loving pharisee, there is only one way for you to be saved. There is only one refuge for your soul, and it is God's grace and the work of Christ on the cross.
That is the story of redemption, it is the 'whole counsel of God' from Leviticus to Psalms to Luke. From Genesis chapter one to Revelation chapter twenty two.
If you are doing a 'thru the bible' reading plan, you might be wading through Leviticus right now. Today I read Leviticus 14, which bears the scintillating title: "Laws for Cleansing Lepers" in the ESV. [By the way, I picked up a pretty cool ESV journaling bible-
http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-Standard-Journaling-Original/dp/158134838X
It has nice wide margins for notes, with a bible reading plan in the back.]
Leviticus 14 is one of those chapters in the Bible that, upon first read, makes most of us scratch our head (in bewilderment, hopefully not because of a nasty leprous scalp condition) and inquire of God as to what He was thinking in giving such laws and requirements. And not only this, He then inspired Moses by the Spirit to put them down in Scripture to confound modern enlightened folk such as you and me. I took a peek at tomorrow, where it only gets better: "Laws about Bodily Discharge". File under , "Sermons Never Preached at Willow Creek Community Church".
We must ask, however cautiously and reverently, 'What is the deal, Lord?'
Let me just throw out some thoughts, blog out my ruminations, and lead you into some deeper thoughts about a hard, dare I say, weird passage such as Leviticus 14 (and 15). First, I'll give you a handful of verses from this rather intriquing passage,
14:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "These are the regulations for the diseased person at the time of his ceremonial cleansing, when he is brought to the priest: 3 The priest is to go outside the camp and examine him. If the person has been healed of his infectious skin disease, 4 the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed. 5 Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot. 6 He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7 Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the infectious disease and pronounce him clean. Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields.
This passage is dealing with sin and its consequences. It deals with our sin, our uncleanness. Yet, it also deals with the means by which God graciously provides atonement (at-one-ment, covering of sin for the sake of communion and fellowship). If we are going to talk about grace and mercy, we must first talk about the need for grace and mercy (whether it is grace in the form of answered prayer, grace in the form of a healed affliction, grace in the form of a ritual sacrifice pointing to the atoning work of Christ, or grace, the ultimate grace, in the atoning work of Christ). Because of our sin, we are dependent, utterly dependent, upon God's grace to provide atonement.
Now, you might ask, is a disease like leprosy the consequence of sin? Yes. Of course. Was there leprosy in the garden before the fall? Is leprosy a disease that kills, especially in the Ancient Near Eastern world? Yes. Aren't the wages of sin death? Yes. This is a passage that addresses, very acutely, the reality that we are, in our sin, unclean. Of course, I do not mean to say that all evils, such as disease, afflictions, various crises and disasters are necessarily a direct consequence of our own sin. Jesus addressed this over in John 9 when his disciples asked why a certain man was born blind. Jesus says the man was born blind to bring glory to God (specifically through the healing power of Jesus giving him sight), not as any immediate consequence of his own sin or the sin of his parents.
But, Jesus is not speaking absolutely about all disease, afflictions, and evils. There are many examples where we may say that diseases or afflictions are the direct consequence, or wage, of our own or another's sin (the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers; a baby born with fetal alchohol syndrome; the ravages of drug addiction). However much we love to go the way of our culture and avoid dealing with our sin and its consequences by removing any and all personal culpability and responsibility for our choices and our actions, we cannot escape the reality of our lives and our predicament. We are sinners and we need atonement. We are unclean, dying, sick, aging, weak; for some the leprosy is painfully evident upon the skin, but for all of us it is deep down in the heart. God has displayed our sin to us, and he has displayed his righteousness to us in his law. But, he has also, in his law, displayed his mercy, his atoning, forgiving power that is in a shadowy way held forth in the sacrifice of a bird (or a ram, or a goat) to cover sin, and the release of another bird (or goat- cf. Lev. 14:7 and 16:6-10) to point to deliverance and freedom through a substitutionary sacrifice.
And so, we read a hard, or at least culturally dissonant, passage like Leviticus 14 and 15 and are able to see how it points us to our own sin, our own need, and the gracious means for atonement that God provided in the Law to point to the mediating work of Christ. We stand this side of the cross, and we read the Law and see it as, "a shadow of the good things that are coming-- not the realities themselves" (Heb. 10:1), the reality being the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
What does Doeg the Edomite and the Unjust Manager have to do with all this? Like I said above, I was reading Leviticus 14 in the context of my daily reading plan. On the same day we read of the 'Laws for Cleansing Lepers' we read as well from Psalm 52. The introductory 'superscription' for this psalm gives us this historical context, "To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, "David has come to the house of Ahimelech". You can read more about this scene over in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. In a nutshell, Saul is still King of Israel, and David is fleeing from Saul's designs to kill him. David comes to a place called Nob, where we find a company of priests in the house of Ahimelech. Ahimelech gives safe haven to David, due mostly to David's falsification of the reason for his visit. David and his men are given provisions from the table of consecrated bread. 2 Samuel 21 tells us that the chief of Saul's herdsmen, named Doeg, from Edom, is in the wings and later reports to Saul that David found refuge from the house of Ahimelech. By Saul's command, Doeg the Edomite kills Ahimelech and 84 other priests who served the Lord at Nob. Doeg then proceeded to 'put the city to the sword, woman, child,infant, ox, donkey, and sheep'. Doeg, and indeed Saul, were bloodthirsty and cruel men, chasing with great hate and wrath the future king of Israel, wantonly killing all who stand in their way.
With this historical context, we read Psalm 52: 6-9:
The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying, 7 "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!"8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. 9 I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
What I love about reading through the bible with an Old Testament passage from the Law, the Historical books, or the propthets, along with a chapter from the Psalms, and then a chapter from the New Testament is that we are able to catch glimpses of what Paul called 'the whole counsel of God' over in Acts 20:27. In Leviticus we find the promise of healing and atonement through the mediation of the priest, the substitute of the sacrifice, the portrait of redemption in the rituals of cleanness. We find that we are sinners and God has made a way for sinners to be cleansed and redeemed. In Psalm 52 we find that in the face of bloodthirsty men, in an age of sin and destruction, God will provide refuge and vindication for those who hope in Him and not in themselves.
Over in Luke 16, the New Testament passage for the day, we are told the parable of the Unjust Manager by Jesus. The story is told and then Jesus gives us this summary sentence, "No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Luke 16:13). In the next passage we find further context for this story, "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves befor men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (vv. 14-15).
Don't trust in your bodies. Don't trust in your power and the strength of the sword. Don't trust in your riches. Don't trust in that which is exalted in this world. Trust only in God and lean only on his grace and mercy. Whether you're a leper, a fleeing king, a powerhungry tyrant, a priest under the sword of a wicked man, an unjust manager, or a money loving pharisee, there is only one way for you to be saved. There is only one refuge for your soul, and it is God's grace and the work of Christ on the cross.
That is the story of redemption, it is the 'whole counsel of God' from Leviticus to Psalms to Luke. From Genesis chapter one to Revelation chapter twenty two.
Labels: Devotional, Leviticus
posted by Pastor Erik at Monday, February 26, 2007
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