April 20, 2024: Parashah Torah Portion Metzora
This week’s Parashah Torah Portion Metzora is taken from Leviticus 14:1-15:33. Join Dr. Jeffery Myers, as he reveals the fact that the book of Leviticus has much application for us today if we study the Torah with an open mind and allow the Ruach Ha'Kodesh (Holy Spirit) to speak! This is so very true regarding the types and shadows of leprosy and how YESHUA is the only remedy for sin!
Follow along in the AUDIO PODCAST, by clicking on the play button below, and reading along with the notes, as you listen to today's Torah Portion:
Lion of Judah Speaks: Parashah Torah Portion Metzora - Leviticus 14:1-15:33:
The last couple of Torah portions because of the leap year have been discussing the laws of impurity and purity. A woman giving birth should undergo a process of purification which includes a mikvah and bringing offerings to the Temple. All males infants are to be circumcised on the 8th day of life. Tzara’at is a supra-natural plague which also afflicts garments and can include quarantine for 7 days until pronounced clean. If you have it you must dwell outside the camp or city until healed. We can talk about how it relates to “lashon hara” (evil speech) or look at it a different way today.
There is a lot of information in Leviticus 12-15. These verses have much application for us today if we study the Torah with an open mind and allow the Ruach to speak. First of all, we know that Yeshua was born a Jew. However, most people don’t want to accept that He never lost His Jewish heritage. He was given a Hebrew name:” Yeshua.” He was circumcised on the 8th day. He spent His life in joyous obedience to the Law of Moshe and never once violated the written Word’s commands. When He dies on a tree, Yeshua took mankind’s sin upon Himself and became accursed.
The life of Yeshua started in obedience to the Torah. In the narrative of Luke 2:21-24, the mother of Yeshua, Miriam (Mary) followed the exact precepts given in this Torah portion. Messiah was circumcised on the 8th day, and Miriam came to the Temple and offered the prescribed sacrifices.
What an amazing passage…why? Because it shows us that Yeshua was born in obedience to the Torah and continued His entire life in submission. It is also telling to reflect on the fact that Miriam waited to approach the Temple until “the days of her purification according to the Law of Moshe were completed.” This means that she waited 40 days to bring a sacrifice to signify that her days of impurity were complete. Her offering of 2 turtle doves illustrates that her family was not well-off financially but willing to sacrifice what they had in order to obey the Torah. There is much to be learned from these examples! According to Leviticus 12:4-6 and Luke 2:21-24 the birth of Yeshua was in accordance with the Torah.
Let’s look at Matthew 8:1-4 that says, “After Yeshua had come down from the hill, large crowds followed Him. Then a man afflicted with tzara’at came, kneeled down in front of him and said, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Yeshua reached out His hand, touched him and said, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” And at once he was cleansed from his tzara’at. Then Yeshua said to him, “See that you tell no one; but as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer the sacrifice that Moshe commanded.”
He makes one appearance. He has one request. He receives one touch. The touch that changed his life forever! This leper and his condition …this dreaded disease, rendered the body a mass of ulcers and decay. The fingers would curl and gnarl and blotches of skin would discolor and stink. Some leprosy would numb nerve endings and lead to loss of limbs. Leprosy was death by inches and socially it was just devastating because of the quarantine and banishment to a leper colony.
In Scripture the leper is symbolic of the ultimate outcast: infected by a condition he did not seek; rejected by those he knew; avoided by people he did not know; condemned to a future he could not bear. If we look at Matthew 8 we see that he is careful to mention that it was the pronouncement and not the touch of Yeshua that cured the condition (Matt. 8:3).
The infection was banishment by a word from Messiah. However, the loneliness was treated by a touch from Messiah. Yeshua touched the untouchables of the world! Leprosy was and is a horrible highly contagious disease that eats away the flesh and robs the joy out of life.
Biblical leprosy was far worse than what we know even today. It would rot the flesh, disfigure the body, and cut off a person from their friends and family.
Tzara’at could be contracted through natural and supernatural means like Miriam (Moshe’s sister) and King Uzziah. It was also contracted by touch. For us today tzara’at is a type of spiritual judgment of sin. Elohim shows us how sin looks through the plague of tzara’at. It is the only disease that rendered a person unclean and unworthy to worship at the Tabernacle. A horrible plague that forced the contagious to walk separately from others and shout out the warning, “Unclean, Unclean!”
Let’s look at the types and shadows of leprosy and how Yeshua is the only remedy for sin. First, tzara’at starts small as just a spot or a blemish. Sin usually starts small and then grows until it brings utter death. “Little” sins trip up more people than “big” ones. Don’t give the enemy any foothold or open door with our thoughts. If the enemy can trap us with what we think then our actions and words will go the way of rebellion.
A person with leprosy was to cover the lower part of their face, including their mouth, to stop the infection from spreading. This shows us that when our words contact people, they spread life or death. Ya’akov 3:2 says, “For we all stumble in many ways; if someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who can bridle his whole body.” Leprosy rots the extremities of the body and makes life barren…just “one spot.” Ya’akov 2:10 says, “For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all.” Just a little sin, just a little leprosy, just a little leaven stops us from approaching Elohim! The wages of sin is death and the punishment of sin is exile. Adam and Chava were kicked out of the garden. Lepers were cast out of the community. A sinful lifestyle cuts you off from the blessings of Elohim and brings judgment. Sin is rebellion against Elohim.
So many people sin today so it is no longer rebellious to our society, but that doesn’t make such a lifestyle right! Allow the Ruach the freedom to search our lives and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The remedy for leprosy in our Torah portion is the same remedy for sin today. The similarities are amazing! Initially, tzara’at must be confessed, he was to rend his clothing in sorrow, cover his face in shame, and proclaim his unclean condition to others (Lev. 13:45-46).
Sin and leprosy are highly contagious and too often bad company corrupts good character. The only hope for a leper and the only hope for mankind is the Messiah. Like the priests in Lev. 14:4-7 the sacrifice of Yeshua was applied to cleanse the leper. After the blood was sprinkled by the priest, the leper himself would mikveh. Immersion follows confession. However, the leper has some work to do after salvation from the disease. He had to shave himself and then he could be part of the community.
When we sin, we are to admit our rebellion, confess our error, cut off any ties to the wrong behavior and then join with others. Read Ya’akov 5:16; I Cor. 5:1-13; Eph. 1:5-7 and Jude 1:24-25.
Yeshua was known as the “Leper Messiah.” The healing of a leper was a sure sign that the Messiah had come! Isaiah 53:4 says that He bore our grief…in Hebrew it actually says sickness, like tzara’at. The Hebrew words “naga” and “Nega” meaning stricken actually describes the plague of leprosy. We see this connection in Matthew 8:1-4. Yeshua is willing and able to heal us if we just ask! He can make us whole! All we have to do is just let Him!
Shabbat Shalom Mishpocha,
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Shalom Aleichem