Metzora “Leper” Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33

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Eighth Edition Torah To The Tribes Parashah – Metzora “Leper” Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33

The Torah uses the instructions of the Metzora to teach us how sinners need to be born again – Metzora Death and Life.  

Metzora – death and quarantine: First started with Adam and Eve, they died on the day that they contracted leprosy – when they transgressed! 

Just like the metzora who was banished from the presence of יהוה in the Tabernacle, so too were Adam and Eve put out of the garden from the presence of יהוה 

The connection between a metzora and the dead who bury their dead is remarkable?  

Yahusha said, Let the dead bury their dead—Matthew 8:22. The unsaved are the dead – the Metzora.

The Sign – Resurrection! 3.

• The first living things (plants, grass, etc.) were created on day 3  – life coming from a state where there is NO life!
• Resurrection is on the 3rd day. In the Holy Days it is the 3rd Holy Day, the Day of the Omer Wave Offering that brings resurrection. 
• Jonah 3 days encircled by thorns/weeds
• Isaac. יהוה prevented Abraham from actually sacrificing Isaac on the 3rd day, the Torah hints that Isaac died and was RESURRECTED. That’s why Hebrews 11:17-19 records that Abraham received Isaac from the dead through RESURRECTION figuratively!
• Joseph was in Prison with 2 criminals, 1 would secure life, the other death. Joseph: assured life to 1 (cup bearer) death to another (in 3 days) as on the tree with Yahusha Ben Joseph with 2 criminals and 1 who would secure life.
• Moshe. Moshe was supposed to die, but he was hidden for 3 months – life. 

The Ritual

• Ritual of cleansing: the two birds represent the two house of Israel – Ephraim and Judah, the first bird from Judah is slain (Yahusha, as King representative of the first bird.). The other bird – Ephraim is spared and covered/atoned in the blood of the one sacrificed (wood, scarlet and hyssop). The second bird – Ephraim, is then set free in an open field (the world/exile) but covered by the blood of the sacrifice. 
• In the Hebrew, the phrase translated as “running water” should literally be translated as “living water”
• The blood and water were sprinkled on the metzora to purify him, thus giving him life.  It is the blood and water that flowed from Yahusha’s side that purifies us, giving us eternal life!
• Think about the first lepers…if you will the first isolated and quarantined: just as Adam’s wife, Eve, received life because of the rib taken from Adam’s side, so too, Yahusha’s bride receives life from the blood and water that flowed from His side!  Each believer is born again based on the sprinkling of blood and water that flowed from His side just as the metzora was given re-born through sprinkling of the blood and water of purification.

Sin and Death: 

• One becomes tamei, or ritually impure, by sinning (disobeying the commandments), by coming into contact with death – a  loss of life.
• When one is tamei they cannot come into יהוה’s presence – you created distance – isolation and loneliness.
• We can only approach יהוה when we’re tahor (ritually clean through the Metzora ceremony, and the only one in recorded history to have performed that ceremony is Yahusha! 
• Tzara’at is an affliction visited upon a person by יהוה – the condition of men
• Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
• Psa 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
• Born a  metzora we are all essentially the walking dead until we come to Jn. 3.3 and the ritual of the cleansing of the leper of which this weeks torah portion pre-figures  
• Look no further than the Metzora if you want to see what death is like, who was totally cut off from the presence of יהוה and the Tabernacle as well as all human relationships.
• According to the Torah, the primary work of the Messiah is to bring Life where there is Death. He resurrects the Metzora!
• During purification, the metzora, who was a picture of death, is essentially re-born through resurrection.
• The metzora, who was dead, was re-born through the purification procedure involving the birds. This is a picture of the work of the Messiah who takes us from death to life through the re-birth experience of John 3:3— 

We live with uncertainty in uncertain times outside of our control. That is the human condition and always will be. But what matters will be under our control. How will we act and react? Will we behave honorably, graciously, generously?

Tehillim 1119:1 ALEPH. Blessed [are] the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Torah of YHWH.

A gift to YHWH must be a sacrifice, of value. If these laws ceased after Yeshua’s death, as dispensationalist theology explains, then why the strict observance of laying Yahusha in an undefiled tomb? 

All disease starts in the spirit/soul.

Three things that defile you: buildings, people and clothes – 1 day, 7 days or a year. Clothing and skin fall under the same Torah laws.

Leprosy and Lashon Ha Ra/Speech of evil, evil tongue. One who spreads slander or speaking derogatorily (Aaron and Miriam). 

Lashon Kadosh – Holy tongue/speech. 

Leprosy/sin/lashon ha ra is progressive. When a person is malfunctioning spiritually his body will be afflicted first then his garments and then his household. All this is in order to encourage repentance before the soul is negatively affected. 

Leprosy usually begins by questioning a person’s character or walk then escalates from there on out. 

Leprosy begins with a small bump in the skin then it may affect the beard then the hair then the garments and ultimately the house.

Leprosy intensifies if one refuses to make teshuvah. A bump in the skin can be hidden by a beard or ones hair…so YHWH afflicts the hair!

One could cover the baldness up with a garment…so YHWH afflicts the garment!

One may secrete oneself away in their home to hide themselves…so YHWH afflicts the home causing everything to be exposed and in plain sight.

Leprosy is the means by which YHWH exposes the darkest secrets of mans heart and soul.

Quarantined to prevent contamination (first go to brother – Panayim el Panayim, then if they don’t repent take two witnesses, if that doesn’t get the desired response bring them before the congregation and finally quarantine them away form the body and hand them over to S.atan for a time in hopes of teshuvah. 

Skin: Owr – Ayin-Vav-Resh. Ayin=eye, Vav=connection, Resh= head. The eye is connected to the head, what the eye sees the head holds a picture of (we have to renew our minds).

Swelling/uprising

White hair coming out of white flesh – tamei – death feeding on death.

Will we give hospitality to the lonely to the leper, comfort to the bereaved, and support to those in need that what this section of scripture means to me today. 

Will we give our family time? Will we give our soul the space to breathe? Will we love and thank יהוה? Will we enhance other people’s lives? These are the questions we should ask ourselves? Don’t isolate yourself, don’t become a leper, don’t fall for the woe is me I’m a leper to my family and friends because of my faith. 

It’s not what happens to us on which our happiness depends. It depends on how we respond to what happens to us. We can find happiness whatever providence has in store for us in life. 

We can Transform suffering. When bad things happen to you, use them to sensitize you to the pain of others. 

The people who accept chaos and tragedy always became stronger as a result. 

Don’t fall into the controversy of “Who did this to me?” Instead accept it and ask, “What does this allow me to do that I could not have done before?” 

I don’t curse the darkness, I don’t curse the chaos instead I light the menorah in prayer and become a light, a refuge for others in who may be victims of chaotic, tragic circumstances. We can become instead, agents of hope.

There is a time and season for everything nothing is forever in this world not even leprosy. What we know we can lose, we must learn to cherish.

This section of scripture should rouse the deepest questions about our lives. Who are we? How shall we live? Will our lives be recorded in the Book of Life? If so, what chapter will we write in the Book of Life? 

What of the words we’ve said…what of the words we’ve left unsaid. Words…words…words…יהוה forgives us: let us forgive one another. Life is too short for anger or anguish. The most important legacy we can leave behind is not money or possessions, but spiritual ideals.

Vayikra calls us to live our faith, day by day, act by act. We can live for the world and loose everything…but this section of scripture calls us to what matters: genuine, ethically demanding, spiritually challenging values of holiness. 

We live in a time of crises, crisis here a crisis there, The Hebrew word for ‘crisis’ is mashber, which also means a birthing-stool. In Hebrew, crises are not just opportunities; they are birth pangs. Something new is being born in each of us now…

In an age of unprecedented stress-related syndromes and depressive illnesses. The most important thing any of us can learn from the present economic crisis is: think less about the price of things and more about the value of things.

Coming for cleansing from Yahusha is the antidote to the crisis, because it’s the moment of transformation when we stop merely existing and begin to focus instead on the value of things. 

We listen to Torah, reminding ourselves of our history. We pray, giving thanks for all the blessings יהוה  has given us. Family, friends, community, the sense of being part of a people and its history, and above all giving thanks to יהוה for life. These are things that have a value but not a price.