“Everyone who has tzara‘at sores is to wear torn clothes and unbound hair, cover his upper lip and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as he has sores, he will be unclean; since he is unclean, he must live in isolation; he must live outside the camp.“-Leviticus 13:45-46
In my last post, I introduced a new Hebrew word: METSORA.
METSORA is the word used to refer to one who has been declared UNCLEAN due to TZARA-AT (skin disease).
The picture Scripture paints of the METSORA is a sad one indeed!
A person is pronounced UNCLEAN due to a skin disease contracted through no fault of his or her own, and as a result is outcast from one’s family, one’s people, and worse of all he or she is SEPARATED from God.
And unless that person is healed from his or her TZARA-AT, that separation can be permanent.
Through this tragic portrayal of the METSORA, there is a spiritual reality the Lord is attempting to communicate to us.
And that reality is this:
The poor and wretched condition of the METSORA is how the Lord views ALL unbelievers.
In His eyes, all unbelievers are UNCLEAN, they are outcasts.
That’s right.
Look around at those unbelievers in your life.
They may be family, friends, or relatives.
They may be those you work with or those whom you work for.
From a societal perspective, they may seem to have it all together.
They may have a great marriage and many children.
They may work at a prestigious company, be quite financially well off, and highly admired by the movers and shakers in our society.
None of that means nothing.
Ahh, because along the scale of eternity, this life, our remaining time on this planet is oh so short.
And if the unbeliever dies in his or her state of UNCLEANNESS, if he or she is not declared HOLY by the only who has the authority to make such a declaration, at that instant of their inevitable passing away, they will for all eternity be separated from everyone and everything that is HOLY.
As we have studied thus far, it cannot be otherwise.
The Lord cannot allow the UNCLEAN into His Presence.
So taking a spiritual perspective, we can see that TZARA-AT is indeed an outward manifestation of one’s inward spiritual condition.
Knowing what we know now, I think we can much better comprehend the significance of what really transpired between God and Moses at the Burning Bush incident.
Recall Moses put his hand into his cloak and then when he pulled it out, it was stricken with TZARA-AT.
I know many Bibles mistakenly say his hand was stricken with leprosy, but they’re just plain wrong.
Moses was stricken with TZARA-AT.
The Lord was showing Moses his inner UNCLEANNESS.
And then, what happened next?
God told Moses to one more time put his hand inside his cloak and pull it out again.
When Moses did so, the skin on his hand was as fresh as a healthy new born baby’s.
The message here is crystal clear.
Only the Lord has the authority to declare someone or something CLEAN or UNCLEAN and ONLY the Lord can take someone or something UNCLEAN and make it CLEAN and then HOLY.
Only the God of Israel, whose name is YHVH can do this!
There is no other entity in this universe or any other universe for that matter that is capable of doing that.
It takes an act of God to be healed from UNCLEANNESS.
Everything we are studying here in the Torah is a pattern and a model that foreshadows the one God would use to cleanse all mankind: His Son, Yeshua.
Through Messiah, God would make those who were incurably UNCLEAN CLEAN again.
Yes!
Yeshua would take those METSORAS or the unbelievers who were driven OUTSIDE THE CAMP and bring them into the camp where they could have fellowship with the God of Israel.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Therefore, remember your former state:
you Gentiles by birth
— called the Uncircumcised by those who,
merely because of an operation on their flesh,
are called the Circumcised —
at that time had no Messiah.
You were estranged from the national life of Israel.
You were foreigners to the covenants
embodying God’s promise.
You were in this world without hope
and without God.
But now, you who were once far off
have been brought near
through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood.”
-Ephesians 2:11-13
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