DIS-EASE
First
of five in Wholeness Series
2
Kings 5
2
Kings 5:1: “Now Naaman was commander of
the army of the king of Aram. He was a
great man in sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the
Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a
valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.”
Sin brings disease. Or dis-ease.
When people are afflicted with disease, their lives aren’t lived with
ease. Can you believe that sin causes illness
and disease? The Bible’s Old Testament
shows how God dealt with diseased people.
Leviticus 14:3 says, “The priest is to go outside the camp and examine
him [a man with leprosy, or some kind of skin disease]. If the person has been healed of his
infectious skin disease, 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.”
Why a priest instead of a doctor? Only a priest could pronounce someone clean,
or healed from the skin disease. A
priest was called because many of the sicknesses in Old Testament times were
due to envy, gossip, or other sin.
A person with a skin-defiling
disease was known as a tzara’at. The
stem of this Hebrew word is tzar, which means “narrow.” Gossip was usually the cause of skin-defiling
diseases, because gossip is a sin coming from a narrow view of another
person. People tend to view others
superficially [su-per-FISH-i-al-ly] meaning what’s seen on the surface. We don’t know that person’s heart or mind,
what’s unseen under the skin. Hence, the
sin causes a skin disease.
What was Naaman’s sin that cause his
leprosy? The opening Scripture ought to
give you a hint. Naaman was proud. His exploits as a victorious warrior won
battles far and wide for Aram. People
loved him. God healed Naaman of his skin
disease by commanding what he resisted doing.
Check out the lesson linked below to see what humbled Naaman into
obedience.
Sin has ruined our world. Global climate change finds ocean levels
rising higher than land boundaries can contain.
Oil is a fossil fuel that’s wreaking havoc in earth’s upper atmosphere; humans
can’t break addiction to running cars on gasoline. Heating taps into fossil fuels oil and coal. Melting glaciers and disappearing ice floes are
drowning polar bears. Man is hunting
harp seals, whales and wolves to extinction out of greed.
Sin has caused humans to be terrible
stewards of planet earth—home created for us by our heavenly Father.
Take
Home Nugget
Sin brings
whole countries to ruin. Sin causes war,
dysfunctional governments and family disputes.
Don’t let sin give you dis-ease.
Holy
Father, if You please,
Forgive
my sin, cure any disease.
J.D.
Griffith
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