The book of Jonah has been described as a book about mission. There is the mission of God in bringing the message of repentance and salvation. But also, there is the mission of self-determined individuals to do what they believe is in their own best interest. And these missions are on a collision course. We will appreciate God’s initiative, His will, His sovereignty, and on the other hand, we will see the will of man, working against the will of God, blatant disregard for God’s command, the will of man in rejecting God’s command. And still God works his will, no one thwarts his will, and ultimately, man eventually chooses to submit to the LORD. For many of us, we will wan to see ourselves in the best light possible, and so we say to ourselves, that Jonah was a bonehead. If it were me, I would have gone, I would have obeyed. No need to throw me overboard, me and God, we’re good. And yet, if we were to examine our hearts closely, we may admit that we too are very much like Jonah. We want to do what’s best for ourselves. We even think we can know God’s heart and presume to know what He is going to do. So why study Jonah? Look at our land. Look at the divisiveness of our country. Look at the divisiveness of the church. Look at the divisiveness of our own families. The mission field is everywhere. Some feel more comfortable talking sports, talking politics, talking cars, talking golf, talking about anything else under the sun, but when will we ever get around to talking about God? The question arises, will we follow Jesus’ command? “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18–20) What’s our excuse? We have been authorized to share the gospel. The command has been made. The call has been issued. It’s not like he said to go to a foreign country and share the gospel, except, oh yeah, he did say all nations. But you might say, I feel more comfortable in my country. But it’s not like he said you would be all alone, in fact, Jesus said he would be with you. We partner with others in the gospel who serve in other countries. So I think as we study Jonah closely, we may find ourselves looking more and more like fish food. We might even say we’re more like fish vomit. God’s word is clear. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12) I pray as God reveals your heart, that He also reveals his heart to you and you will love Him even more as we gain greater understanding of God’s mercy and kindness He freely bestows towards us.
I know this might sound obvious to us here, but for the sake of the confused and lost world which attempts to redefine, well just about everything, at the risk of stating the obvious, the deep, deep, profound truth is that boys are different than girls. I know, I know, some of you are like, duh. But seriously, there are a lot of people who reject this basic tenet from our Creator. It is rebellious, it is illogical, it is insane, it is destructive, but there you have it. So in this chapter we are going to discuss the laws regarding bodily discharge, or secretions, from males and females. I imagine some of you might be a little grossed out, but it’s here in the Bible and so it’s important and worthwhile for our consideration and edification. These laws were given for men and women. We have different issues but we still have issues. Wow, another profound statement! Let’s go to the text.
Last week we talked about leprosy and how it was a very destructive and scary disease. There wasn’t a cure and the measures which had to be followed to protect the community were isolating and lonely. This was essentially a death sentence. It’s comparable to the diagnosis of cancer these days. Being diagnosed with cancer is scary, especially considering treatments, if there’s even an option for treatment. It spreads, takes over and without a cure or healing, the body will waste away until death claims the victim. It’s truly a sad horrible picture. And just as have that in mind when we think of disease, but even more than that, this is how we must view the nature of sin. Sin may be pleasurable for a season, but the wages of sin is death. It never turns out alright, it never satisfies. Most of us would concur. But have you thought of beyond the nature of sin to the nature of the sinner? Let me give you a phrase to think about: “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” Anyone want to amen that? Is that a biblical view? Actually some say that quote is more attributed to Ghandi in his autobiography. So what does the Bible actually say? “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. (Psalm 5:5) “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” (Psalm 11:5) That doesn’t sound like “love the sinner” language. It’s important for us to grow in our understanding of God’s Holiness, His Holy character, and how offensive sin is to Him. Then these biblical statements will not seem out of place. This is why we read and study Leviticus. Just as we can look at the disease of cancer with moral outrage and righteous indignation, so think about how God views our sins. Small sins, small things we think are petty or don’t amount to much, God holds righteous indignation against. God does show his love and mercy and kindness to us in that, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) But this saving love is not given for everyone. God’s love is gracious, not demanded, not owed, not merited. So when a leper was healed, it was by the grace of God, a demonstration of his kindness. And so when one was healed, there was a law for how the leper would be declared clean and allowed to re-enter into community. And this is what we are going to look at this morning.
Being in the midst of a pandemic, we can appreciate how disease can threaten society and how we have to think seriously and take certain measures to protect and, the buzz word of the year, “mitigate” against spread. Even now, it seems the numbers are back on the rise again. It almost seems like we’ve had to deal with disease since the beginning of time itself. Throughout history, there’s been a number of pandemics, and pestilence has affected numbers large and small. Nowadays we’ve been granted an increase in medical knowledge and have treatments to help cure many diseases. However, there are still many which have no cure, or no treatment, or the treatment might be hit or miss. Personally, we’ve lost several friends and family members to cancer as I’m sure some of you have. Even some of our fellow brothers and sisters have been or were afflicted with certain incurable diseases. Certainly several come to mind, Tom Ryan, Bonita Kile and others. And so when we encounter such diagnoses, fear can surface front and center. Life threatening diseases or procedures can scare us. It might be fear of the treatment or surgery itself, or even fear of the unknown. And it may be that there isn’t a cure, a terminal disease, and it’s only a matter of time. These things can unsettle us, shake us up to the core. Disease is no respecter of sex, both males and females are afflicted; it’s no respecter of age, the young and old alike get sick and succumb to disease; it’s no respecter of class, the rich and the poor suffer afflictions; and it’s no respecter of the saved or the lost. Christians lose their lives to disease just the same as non-Christians. And if you were ever promised differently, you were dealing with a snake oil salesman. Disease don’t care if your rich or famous, eat healthy rabbit food or fine dine on donuts and cheeseburgers. You can be healthy, fit and strong one day and get struck down the next. As we turn to our text, we find God’s instructions regarding a scary skin disease called leprosy. As we’ll see this was a disease to be feared. It could strike at any time, with no cure or treatment, no hope.
People make mistakes. It’s part of what it means to be human. We have been moving into the age of artificial intelligence. Super computers, smart phones, smart homes, and smart cars. They are working on cars that drive themselves! Why? Because human drivers make mistakes. We make bad choices. People drive under the influence, drive too fast, drive too aggressive, drive too sleepy. You get the idea. Peple make mistakes and so if we can make computers that remember everything, can evaluate and make the best decision, well then the thinking goes that we can save humanity from ourselves. And yet for all the promise of technology, we still figure out a way to make a mess of our lives with technology too. Why? Because we are human, and we are fallen, and we live in a fallen world. Now I’m not anti-technology, I like my iPhone thank you very much. But we can’t put our hope, our faith in technology. Well if we did, we’d be making another mistake. When we make mistakes, something has to be done about it. There is someone we can turn to. And that is what we will find in our text this morning.