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Please turn with me to the book
of Exodus chapter four, beginning in verse
one. Exodus chapter four, beginning
in verse one. And Moses answered and said,
But behold, they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice,
for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the
Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A
rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground.
And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. And
Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth
his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. But
they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, hath appeared
unto thee. And the Lord said furthermore
unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his
hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand
was leprous of snow. And he said, put thy hand into
thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his
bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom and behold, It was
turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass that
they will not believe they neither hearken to the voice of the first
sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
And it shall come to pass that they will not believe also these
two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take
of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land. And
the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood
upon the dry land. I have heard it said that we
live in a health conscious age. I have been thinking about that,
and I'm not sure that that's true. You'll have to judge for
yourself. I am pretty sure that we live
in a body conscious age and that we have grown vain but because
of this there certainly has been a lot of scientific research
into quality of life longevity, the quantity of life and even
appearance And probably for every part of study that there's been
in these things, there's probably been five parts of study on how
to market them and make money from them. But it's very interesting
with all of this effort and probably in the history of the world,
relatively large proportions of the population devoted to
the study of health and further research and these sorts of things.
At least practically speaking, we seem to be less competent
than the ancients. So there has been much studying
and much research and yet not much in the way of advance and
perhaps quite a bit in the way of regress especially in recent
decades. I'm not primarily concerned about
the physical components of health although that certainly is an
issue but it does seem when health is considered there is a much
neglected factor and that is piety as a people and as a culture
we have forgotten that it is the Most High God that gives
health and sends disease He has established natural connections
to help us make these connections but we miss it sin has a great
tendency to bring with it misery and disease. We know this. People overindulge with drink
and there is liver disease. They overindulge with the tobacco
and there is lung disease. They overindulge with food and
all sorts of other things and there is illness that accompanies
these things. when there is immorality, there
are other kinds of STDs and so on. God has fixed in nature that
the sins would bring with them their own judgments. But do we
ever lift our eyes to consider the one who has sent those disease? We seem consumed with the natural
second causes of these things. But they are not the ultimate
cause. They are the second cause. On the other hand, God has established
a connection between holiness and happiness and health. You
think about temperance, industriousness, moderation, faith, quiet confidence,
and the cheerfulness that that brings. All of these things tend
to wellness. Solomon was not the first nor
the last to observe that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine,
and that a faith in God can quiet a man's heart and keep him well,
even in the most violent storms of life. But as I mentioned,
although the natural connections are plain, modern man seems to
only consider the second causes, and so he misses the lesson.
the lesson that comes from God concerning sin and the misery
that it brings holiness and the happiness that it brings and
God frequently uses second causes but he also has other things
in his providence that prevents us you would think from becoming
consumed with second causes because of course he can you can employ
second causes for good health But he can visit you with disease
in spite of them. He can take a very small factor
against health and make it large. In other words, he can work above
the means or he can simply make you sick without any means at
all. And the contrary is true with
respect to health as well. The scriptures are always encouraging
us to look up. The secondary causes have their
own importance, but their importance pales in comparison with the
Most High God. And this is all portrayed as
part of His covenant avenging sword. When He is displeased
with the people, You can see this in many prophetic texts.
We actually saw it not too long ago in Revelation chapter six
in the fourth seal. Death riding upon the pale horse
and the fourfold judgment that it brings. This is very common. You see it in Ezekiel chapter
five and a lot of prophetic texts. The sword. Do what you will to
maintain health. If warfare and violence comes
into your land, you may not live very long. Famine. If God doesn't send rain, things
don't grow and everything grinds to a halt. Pestilence, it can
send extraordinary diseases and also wild beasts and other pests
to vex men and even to destroy their lives. Again, these are
portrayed in the scripture as God's covenant avenging sword. But Israel had a different promise
concerning covenant blessing. And Exodus chapter 15, he says,
if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy
God and will do that which is right in his sight and will give
ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes. I will put
none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the
Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. So even in
a land where a pestilence is going to break out and diseases
are going to infect the Egyptians, what's the natural expectation
from secondary causes? What was it in medieval Europe
when the plague is spreading? What's the natural expectation?
It's not going to stop with Egyptians. It's going to infect their neighbors. And you remember, we've already
seen that the Egyptians and the Israelites were largely mixed
together, a mixed multitude. And yet God says, I will visit
them with disease, but I will impose upon you none of these
diseases. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
Most remarkable. Remember where we are. We are
still at the burning bush. Moses has received his commission
for the deliverance of Israel. Even after assurances from God,
he remains concerned about The Israelite reception. They didn't
receive my mission 40 years ago. Why would they receive it now?
And so God gives him three confirming miracles. Last time we looked
at the serpentine rod, the rod that was cast upon the ground
and became a serpent and taken by the tail, it became a rod
again. And now we come to the second miracle, which is the
leprous hand. Verse six. And the Lord said
furthermore unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And
he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold,
his hand was a leprous as snow. Just like the first miracle,
this miracle is actually composed with two miracles. The first
miracle is the healthy hand made suddenly leprous. And it is a
miracle. There's an action. His hand is
put into his bosom. The result is that it returns
from his bosom, leprous. Now, when you consider the nature
of the things involved, namely his healthy hand and his healthy
bosom, there is nothing in the nature of either to produce this
extraordinary effect, namely a sudden change to a leprous
hand. And remember, effects in the
natural realm are produced by the causes and there is something
in the cause, in the nature of the objects that are involved
in the cause that produces the effect. But here, there's nothing
in a healthy hand or in a healthy bosun that's going to suddenly
produce leprosy. If you doubt this, I propose
an experiment for you. Try this. Spend as many years
as you like and keep sticking your hand into your shirt and
pulling it back out again and see if you ever do produce leprosy
by that. I don't suspect that you ever
will. What is this leprosy? This is
a more difficult question than what you might imagine. Over the years, I've actually
had occasion to spend a handful of hours in some close study,
researching, trying to come to some clear notion of what this
leprosy is. And after these hours of study
and labor, and reading everything I could find on the subject,
I don't know. I can go this far. If we were
to ask the question if it is the same as modern leprosy, I
would say probably not. So it's something a little bit
different. You say, why not? In Leviticus chapter 13, it is
portrayed as being able to infect garments and houses. Same word
and same symptoms in the garments and houses. This is very peculiar. Also, as far as I know, and I'm
no expert, but the ancients talk about it and the difference that
the leprosy that they knew even in the evil times was not curable. They were working on some treatments
that slow it down and those sorts of things. But as far as I knew,
once leprosy took hold, it never reversed itself. I don't know
that that's true. I don't know if a modern doctor
would affirm that. I think that's the case. But
this was a kind of leprosy that could Passover, you would be
shut up, sequestered, quarantined for a time and the priests would
come and check upon you and it's possible that you could be cleansed
of this leprosy. So for those two reasons, but
particularly because of the infection in the garments and houses, I
don't think that this is quite what we would think of as far
as modern leprosy where it affects the skin and it descends into
the flesh and the flesh actually begins to decay and die even
while the subject lives so we have a problem and when
you consider that we have three and a half millennia between
Moses and now you can see part of the difficulty it is possible
that this disease has passed out of the world Some have hypothesized
that perhaps this form of leprosy was a special and peculiar judgment
of God used only at this time and used primarily with his own
people. That's possible. It could be
that it has changed over the centuries. it's perhaps some
mutation in its structure which has led to different symptoms
and these sorts of things but this makes it very difficult
to expose it really all we have is there's some reason to doubt
it's quite like modern leprosy and then we're just left to the
descriptions that are given to us primarily in Leviticus chapter
13 if you're interested in this I would suggest you go and and
pulls exegetical labors and read through Leviticus 13 and you'll
see what the ancients had to say about this some arguing that
it was like contemporary leprosy but others arguing that these
things seem to be quite different they are similar at least in
this regard that it was some sort of noxious skin disease
and And it's described here as being like snow. But even then there's some debate
about how it's snowy. Is it snowy because of its color? I think probably at least in
part. Is it snowy because it was also producing some sort
of flaking or scaling of the skin? Also a lively possibility. From the scriptures and its description
of this leprosy, it does appear that this white leprosy was reckoned
among the worst varieties. So here we have to we have to
lean upon the medical knowledge of the ancients. But this did
appear to be among the worst varieties. Leviticus 13 verse
three reads in this way. The priest shall look on the
plague in the skin of the flesh. And when the hair in the plague
is turned white and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin
of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy and the priest shall
look on him and pronounce him unclean. If the bright spot be
white in the skin of his flesh and in sight be not deeper than
the skin and then the hair thereof be not turned white, then the
priest shall shut shut up him. But half the plague, seven days. So this appeared to have been
a particularly bad variety. And you remember when God wanted
to show his displeasure with Miriam in controverting the authority
of her brother Moses, he gave Miriam the white variety as an
evident token of his judgment and his anger. And Moses seems
very concerned in Numbers 12 that she is going to die, that
it's eating her up quickly. This leprosy, perhaps even this miracle, might
have given rise to a fiction of the heathen writers that is
surprisingly widespread, that Moses and the Israelites were
actually driven out of Egypt. Not that they were seeking release
and then let go, but that the Egyptians expelled them at the
advice of an oracle, pagan oracle, because of leprosy and other
skin diseases. Some of the authors, there's
a 3rd century B.C. Egyptian historian by the name
of Manetho. We don't have his work anymore,
but Josephus cites it in his work against Apian and controverts
Manetho's conclusions. Lysimachus is another that was
found in Josephus that recorded this. Trogus Probably slightly
better known to most of us first century BC Roman historian relates
the story Tacitus is somebody we probably all know he relates
this So from the third century BC to the first you can see it
Circulating around in the literature, but I call this a fiction or
a fable because we know some things from the scriptures and
in some other ways from evident reason and Do you remember that
the scriptures make a lot of the fact that Israel went out
hale and whole. When they marched out, there
were no weak ones, lingering ones that were left behind. Do you remember part of the blessing
of wilderness wandering was that their feet did not swell and
these sorts of things. They went out able-bodied. They went out with a promise
that God would put none of the diseases of the Egyptians upon
them. And, while they were in the wilderness,
they had laws for sequestering such a disease so that it never
did take widespread hold in the population. So, as I said, it
does appear in the wilderness, wandering apart from extraordinary
judgments from God, it does not appear that they had very much
additional trouble with disease. Just the extraordinary judgments
upon their sins. In verse 7, And he said, Put
thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his
bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom. And behold, it
was turned again as his other flesh. So this is the second
of the second miracle or second sub miracle of the grand miracle.
This is the leprous hand now made whole and healthy. The action
is the same, and yet now it produces the contrary result. The leprous
hand is returned to the bosom and plucked out, and the leprous
hand is restored. What there might be about bringing
a leprous hand into contact with a healthy bosom to make the hand
healthy again is not clear. In the nature of the case, it
appears that this effect cannot be produced by the natural causes,
which is why These things would be esteemed by those that saw
it as evidence of divine power underlying Moses' mission. What does all of this mean? You
remember one of our doctrines last week was that the miracles
of scripture are not bare acts of power, but they are usually
significant. They are signs. They point to
things beyond themselves and not just mere power. Jesus opening
blind eyes is his ability to make the sinner see light and
opening deaf ears and raising the dead. Physical miracles that
pointed to spiritual realities. Remember the general significance.
I have good confidence in this. We have the serpent, which is
a poisonous creature, and leprosy, which is a frightful disease,
and water turned into blood. the pollution of the Nile, the
source of Egyptian life, all of these miracles come with a
certain foreboding and an expectation of bad things to come. God is
offended. You wonder if in this one perhaps
there's some idea that Moses is going to be the agent of afflicting
sore disease as well as removing it. To me, if you're coming to
a more particular sign involved here, I think that that's likely
to be it. I have pretty good confidence
going that far. Interpreters have given some
more particular significances that are perhaps possible, but
I think By their very variety it shows
that perhaps it's not a good idea to try to go forward. Some
interpreters have suggested that the hand represents Egypt, that
the strong hand of Egypt is going to be weakened and destroyed. That seems to leave out the second
part of the miracle altogether, which is the restoration. probably a little stronger. Some
have suggested that the hand represents Israel. It has become
a leprous in Egypt through sin, but it will be cleansed in the
bosom of Moses. What's the problem with this
though? It became leprous in the bosom of Moses as well. It doesn't quite fit And some
have thought that the hand is representative of Moses' own
hand in involvement in this whole business, that Moses would be
abased, that he is liable to all of the infirmities that everyone
else is, and that he is upheld and made whole only by the power
of God himself. That seems a little more likely
to me, but it's hard to say for sure. So to go to those areas
where we have greater confidence, we derive a doctrine. God often
vexes the wicked and chastens his children with illness. In the case of the reprobate,
in the case of the wicked, God will frequently punish even in
this life with disease. And as we mentioned in our text,
the leprous hand carries with it an ominous message. God has
the ability to send disease upon a disobedient people. And as
the ten plagues unfold, this is part of their unfolding. He
will send disease upon the Egyptians. When you think about our own
nation, I think that we see that God has
in some measure already drawn the sword At the very least,
he is rattling his saber. He has brought some level of
vexation upon us. New York, New Orleans, all sorts
of strange weather phenomenon, one of which wiped out the city
of New Orleans, but continuing to trouble all funneling into
the economy. Becoming a judgment upon our
fiscal sins But I'd have to say that at the present. He is certainly
not yet visit us with sore disease, but we do see a little something
There is a certain madness in the fact that we are destroying
ourselves in spite of understanding I'm not a great expert in these
things, but what we have done to our food is in order to increase
profits seems to be contrary to good sense and self-preservation
for after all what good is money going to do you if you end up
in the ground but the destruction of the wide variety of plant
life that God has created for the sustenance of man and then
the genetic tampering with a lot of that food It's frightening,
and what the end of it will be is difficult to say. So who knows? God is angry, and
if we start to see sore diseases erupt in the land, we will know
that this comes at the hand of the Most High. A people so understanding
in such matters can't attribute those things to the secondary
causes. But we can attribute these things to the displeasure
of the Most High and our wickedness in this matter. But also, God
does chasten his children with illness from time to time. And
this, I hope, will motivate us to make a good use of the supper.
We are now awake after the fact. Turn with me in your Bibles to
1 Corinthians chapter 11 First Corinthians 11, picking
up with verse 27. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And by damnation
there, you'll want to read something like judgment or punishment. Damnation probably to our ears
carries this eternal notion that's not being conveyed in the text.
But we eat and drink judgment to ourselves, not discerning
the Lord's body. For this cause, many are weak
and sickly among you and many sleep. God chastening his children
with illness. For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with
the world. So we notice here that the Lord
does chasten even his own children from time to time with illness. We exhorted here to judge ourselves
so that we need not be judged by the Lord. Indeed, the stricter
we are with ourselves, the less strict he has to be with us. Parents and children, I hope
understand this, When the children govern themselves well, they
are in need of less government. When they are strict with themselves,
it's not necessary for the parents to be strict with them. And there's
a similar dynamic being portrayed here. If we would judge ourselves,
bring ourselves to an abhorrence of our sins, and repent of these
fully and freely, then God is not going to have to make an
approach to us with the rod. and spank us until we relent
and repent and let go of it. And then finally, the purpose
of his chastening, and I hope that this helps justify my lightening of the language
of damnation, he does all of this so that his children would
not be condemned with the world. So it's not an eternal damnation
that's in view in verse 29. He does this so that we won't
be damned, so that we won't be condemned with the world. So
the world is vexed with sore disease unto death and an eternal
judgment. But the saints are chastened
with illness unto spiritual improvement and eternal life. The second
doctrine Jehovah our God heals us. I do know that from time to time
there has been sickness in our midst and weakness in the body. Most of you know that this is one of the reasons I
love to preach through books. I think if you just sat me down
with a piece of paper and a pen and said, you know, make a list
of a hundred things that you'd want to preach about. This probably
wouldn't come up. And yet by preaching straight
through books, we bring up things. The Lord brings up things with
us that wouldn't occur to our mind. It might occur to another
mind. It wouldn't necessarily occur to mine. But God heals
us, and this is applicable corporately and individually. So he heals
us corporately and as a people. In scripture he talks about healing
a land, if you remember in the Chronicles. So God does chase
him with illness, but he also heals. In our family worship,
we have been going through the book of Job, and not everything
that Eliphaz has to say is sound, but a lot of it is. And in Job
chapter 5, he certainly gives Job some solid divinity when
he says, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore
despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. For he maketh
sore, and he bindeth up. He wounded, and his hands make
whole. This is certainly the doctrine
of the rest of the scripture. The writer of the epistle to
the Hebrews tells us not to despise the chastening of the Lord, and
to lift up the hands that hang down, that this is a sign of
love. These are precious words. He does chasten, he does make
sore, but he binds up. He wounds, but he also makes
whole. He is a God of infinite skill
in this regard. If we would put ourselves in
the best possible position for total health, we will do so by
being reconciled with this God through the Gospel. And we will
do it through a humble and obedient walk with Him. Part of which
is a due observance of the secondary means, it is true, that is part
of a pious walk with God. But the first bit of business
to which we must attend, if we would put ourselves in the best
possible way for total health, body and soul, we will be reconciled
to God with the blood of the cross, and we will walk with
Him humbly and piously. I could wish that our nation
would hear it, that fallen men would hear it, and that even
the redeemed Christian could hear it and one final thing before
I leave off because I am sure that this is the highest wisdom
but very difficult for us to walk and to practice if we would
listen to his word in season if we would take heed to his
word in a timely way then the rod would not be necessary and
so when sickness comes we would have the comfort knowing that
we are not being vexed with the world unto condemnation and destruction,
and we could know that we're not even being chastened, but
rather, as God did with Job, God is glorifying himself through
this illness in some other way, but we have peace with him, and
ultimate healing in the resurrection of the dead. But if the body
will not be quiet, We find something very precious in the mean season
of the quietness of mind and peace of conscience knowing that
we are reconciled with God and walking with Him. God is the
same yesterday, today and forever. And as He said to the Israelites
in the ancient times, so now I declare unto you as His messenger,
I am the Lord that healeth thee. I thought we would conclude with
Psalm 103, verses 1-5 to the tune London
New. Once again, David sums up in
a few words what it took me an hour to say. Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy
God and not forgetful be of all his gracious benefits he hath
bestowed on thee. All thine iniquities, who doth
most graciously forgive, who thy diseases, all and pains doth
heal and thee relieve. The forgiveness of iniquity and
the healing of all of our diseases and pains. In verse three. Psalm
103 verses 1 through 5 to the tune London New. Please write.
Leprous Hand
Series Exodus
| Sermon ID | 716131356305 |
| Duration | 37:03 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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