Metzora (Infected One)

(Today's Torah portion is Metzora. I originally wrote and posted this commentary on Metzora in my previous blog on 04/24/2007.)

TORAH: Vayikra (Leviticus) 14:1-15:33
HAFTARAH: Melakim Bet (2 Kings 7:3-20)
KETUVIM NETZARIM: MattithYahu (Matthew) 8:1-17; 23:16-24:2, 30-31

Vayikra (Leviticus) chapter 15 addresses the instructions for dealing with bodily discharges, whether male or female. Generally, a person with a discharge of fluid from the sexual organs is unclean along with whatever the person lies on or sits upon. This is true whether it is from disease/infection or whether it is from a normal process, such as a man's seminal emission or a woman's monthly menstrual flow.

I have heard many excuses for not following these instructions, such as:

--I'm not Jewish.
--We now have modern hygiene products, etc.
--The temple is no longer standing.
--We don't live in the land of Israel.
--It's impossible to be clean in this unclean society we live in.
--We're clean because of the blood of Messiah and don't need to follow these instructions anymore.

I've even rationalized in these same ways myself, but somewhere along the way I realized and accepted that YHWH wants His children to walk by faith and not by sight and to live by every word from His mouth instead of picking out this word or that word to obey and discarding others.

2Co 5:7 for we walk by belief, not by sight –

Mat 4:4 But He answering, said, "It has been written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of YHWH.' "

Simply put, if He says to do it, we should just do it because He said so, for we have been bought with a price:

1Co 6:20 For you were bought with a price, therefore esteem Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are of Elohim.

He bought us, all of us--even those who don't recognize Him as their Savior. He is our Master, and it is for us, His servants, to simply obey instead of second-guessing everything written in His Word. If we truly believe that He is who He says He is, then it is no hardship, but instead a joy and a delight to follow Him and do what He says.

The centurion certainly understood this concept of authority, and Yeshua Messiah commended him for it:

Mat 8:9 "For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Mat 8:10 And when YHWH heard, He marvelled, and said to those who followed, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Yisra'el have I found such great belief!

Imagine it: The Almighty, whose ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours, bends Himself down to instruct us in the details of everyday life! Isn't that amazing? He numbers the very hairs of our head! If He cares so much about the details of our bodies and spirits, then doesn't it make sense for us to care as well? I find it very comforting that He bothers with such lowly human things, don't you?

And as we follow Him in the seemingly mundane and routine details of our lives, it helps us to keep our focus on Him so that we can avoid stumbling and falling.

If you ever get a chance to look at a Jewish or Messianic siddur (a prayer book which is mostly direct quotes from the Scriptures), you will see that there are prayers and blessings (blessing YHWH) for every little detail of life from the moment we awaken in the morning until we lay down to sleep at night. It transforms our lives when we say such prayers and blessings throughout the day, every day.

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you prove what is that good and well-pleasing and perfect desire of Elohim.

Focusing on Him in everything we do in such a direct way renews our mind, and by saying these prayers and blessings aloud, it increases our faith because faith comes by hearing the Word:

Rom 10:17 So then belief comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Elohim.

We don't need a siddur to do this, though. All we need to do is stop taking for granted all the details of our lives and start seeing Him, acknowledging Him and blessing and praising Him in all those details while we simply follow His instructions.

Act 17:28a For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.

It is popularly thought that Yeshua Messiah condemned the scribes and Pharisees for a legalistic adherence to the law, but this is incorrect. They were actually lawless because they were picking and choosing which parts of YHWH's Torah (often translated as "law") they would follow and then nullifying the rest by either substituting their man-made laws instead or just ignoring whatever they didn't want to do.

Mat 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe the mint and the anise and the cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah: the right-ruling and the compassion and the belief. These need to have been done, without neglecting the others.

Tithing little herbs is an easy thing to do and not very costly, so the hypocrites didn't mind doing that, but they failed to be diligent about the weightier matters of Torah, perhaps thinking them too hard or too inconvenient or whatever. Notice that Yeshua Messiah doesn't condemn following the small detail of tithing herbs and confirms that that is to be done, but what He does condemn is neglecting the rest of Torah, and He calls that lawlessness (iniquity):

Mat 23:28 "So you too outwardly indeed appear righteous to men, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

It is important to understand this because of these words of His:

Mat 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Master, Master,' shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens.
Mat 7:22 "Many shall say to Me in that day, 'Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?'
Mat 7:23 "And then I shall declare to them, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!'

May we all seek to do the desire of our Abba.