2 Kings 4:42–5:19, 7:3–20; Matt 8:1–4, 11:2–6; Mark 9:14–15
This week’s parasha is a double portion. The first one is known as “Tazria” from Lev.12:1-15 meaning “She conceives” and is related to the Hebrew word, “Zarah” meaning, “Seed.”
Scripture has much to say about sowing seed since Israel was an agricultural nation. Yeshua emphasised the fact that what we sow we will reap. It is this that will primarily determiner eternity: Gold, silver and precious jewels or wood, hay and stubble? “Don’t be under any illusion: you cannot make a fool of God! A man’s harvest in life will depend entirely on what he sows. If he sows for his own lower nature his harvest will be the decay and death of his own nature. But if he sows for the Spirit he will reap the harvest of everlasting life…” (Gal 6: 7-9)
Giving God our best is what He most desires. Yeshua illustrated this in His Parable of the Sower in Matt13: “Now listen to the parable of the sower. When a man hears the message of the kingdom and does not grasp it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is like the seed sown by the road-side. The seed sown on the stony patches represents the man who hears the message and eagerly accepts it. But it has not taken root in him and does not last long—the moment trouble or persecution arises through the message he gives up his faith at once. The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no ‘crop’ in his life. But the seed sown on good soil is the man who both hears and understands the message. His life shows a good crop, a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Jewish commentary understands this parable differently from the Western mindset where everything is black and white. The Jewish mindset views things instead as black, white and grey. This places a different complexion on how those who Yeshua addressed would have understood things. What does the grey zone represent? It is something that most people have experienced at some stage in their lives. For example, has there never been a moment of time where our focus was more upon the world than on the Lord resulting in our faith being choked by the weeds? Or, how many times as unbelievers did we allow Satan to snatch away the message of the Gospel before we finally embraced it?
The most important question is, How much do we desire to align our lives fully consecrated unto God for nothing less will earn us a place in the good soil? There are many examples in scripture of people who started well but ended badly and those who started badly but ended well.
It is a sad thing for a person to be stuck in the grey zone. Whether one is struggling, hurt, wounded, betrayed, rejected, embittered apathetic or just tired and ready to give up? Such people need our support and love rather than our condemnation that they can be led into the good soil.
The Parable of the Sower is about good news that is bad because it explains how one can proclaim what is good and yet still not be heard. It explains how a generation can be so close to devastation even though the kingdom is proclaimed as Israel discovered shortly afterwards with the destruction of the Temple. And is this also not true for the present generation?
The phrase, “sowing and reaping” is a biblical metaphor representing the things we invest in. When we sow into the Kingdom of God we do so at the risk of losing everything the world applauds. The world calls anyone like this to be a fool. Yet, Paul declared that, “…whatever things were gain to me, these I have considered as loss for the sake of Yeshua. 8 More than that, I consider all things to be loss in comparison to the surpassing value of the knowledge of Messiah Yeshua my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things; and I consider them garbage in order that I might gain Him” (Phil. 3:7-8)
JEWISH RITES AND SACRIFICES
This week’s parasha reminds us about something that the church has ignored throughout the ages, that being, the Jewish heartbeat of the Son of God.
From the beginning of the Gospel we read how Mary went through the Jewish rite of purification (ritual Mikvah) 7 days following the birth of Yeshua who was circumcised on the 8th day in accordance with the Laws of Moses, and this was followed by 33 days of ritual purity: Luke quotes from Ex 13:2 that, “When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moshe [Moses], Yosef [Joseph] and Miriam [Mary] took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.’”
This was followed by an extensive period of isolation in order to allow for the bonding between mother and child. We have here a beautiful picture illustrating the principle of setting aside time alone with God throughout our lifetime.
Now, let’s move on in this week’s double parasha to the second reading known as Metzora (Infected one). This Torah portion provides us with full details regarding the laws of purification for someone with the skin disease known as tza-arot (isolation) various types of skin diseases of which the most dreaded was leprosy.
Tza-arot rotted the flesh and disfigured the body causing incredible pain; it was the only disease which rendered a person unclean. Anyone who contracted a skin disease as defined in this week’s parasha portion would be isolated from the community, shunned and feared. (Lev. 13:45-46) This disease was no respecter of persons from Kings to the poorest of the poor.
Lev. 13:45-46 made things very clear: “And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and the hair of his head shall go loose, and he shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry: ‘Unclean, unclean [tameh, tameh].’ All the days wherein the plague is in him he shall be unclean; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his dwelling be.”
Scripture teaches us that sin is the most serious of all problems and can be compared with Tza-arot because it is something which isolates us from God and its end is death. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isa 64:6)
Only the blood of Yeshua can deliver and cleanse from every defilement and uncleanness. Just as Yeshua healed the lepers, so too He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him, and present us holy and without blemish to the Father.
The account of Miriam’s leprosy connects tza-arot with evil speech. “Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. ‘Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?’ they asked. ‘Hasn’t he also spoken through us?’ And the LORD heard this.” (Num 12:1–2)
God’s anger was kindled against Miriam, and He afflicted her with this terrible disease, saying, “Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?’ The anger of the LORD burned against [Miriam and Aaron], and He left them. When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned towards her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease.” (Num 12:8–10)
This should be enough to caution anyone against gossiping about or slandering others. But, in an entirely different context, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) describes the Messiah as the ‘Leper in the house of study.’ They believed that the healing of leprosy was one of the signs that the Messiah had come: “What is his (the Messiah’s) name? – The Rabbis said: His name is ‘the leper scholar,’ as it is written, surely he hath borne our grief, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of YWHW, and afflicted.” [Isa 53:4]
When John the Baptist’s disciples came to Yeshua to ask Him if He was indeed the promised Messiah, He answered them with these words, “Go and show John again those things that you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them and are acquitted. And blessed is he, who shall not be offended by Me.” (Mat11: 4-5)
According to the sages, the Mashiach would suffer the agonies of tzaarot by taking upon Himself and personally suffering the pain of His people in (spiritual) exile. Indeed, there is no doubt that Mashiach was afflicted by God that can be compared to leprosy when He bore our sins on the Cross: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the stake, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness—by his wounds you were healed.” (1 Pet 2:24)
The idea of a Saviour who bore our iniquities as described in Isaiah 53 who could have been stricken with a form of this horrible skin disease sounds ridiculous! The Messiah healed all who were oppressed by the devil but why was He not able to heal Himself? Scripture provides us with the amazing answer: Isai 53:4 states that,
“Surely our grief He Himself bore,’’ the Hebrew word for grief is ‘sickness’ like tza-arot. The Amplified Bible states things very plainly: “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses,) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].”
The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 98b) provides further commentary from Isa 53:4: “ What is his (the Messiah’s) name? The school of R. Shila said: His name is Shiloh, for it is written, ‘until Shiloh come.’(Genesis 49:10 – ‘10 The scepter or leadership shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh [the Messiah, the Peaceful One] comes to Whom it belongs, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.’) ……..The Rabbis said: His name is the ‘leper scholar, as it is written. ‘Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem Him a leper, smitten by God, and afflicted.”
We are so defiled by sin that even our righteousness is like filthy rags. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isa 64:6)
Only the blood of Yeshua, OUR Passover Lamb, can cleanse us from all defilement. Just as Yeshua made the lepers pure and whole once again, so too He can cleanse us and present us holy and without blemish to the Father.
Raphael ben Levi
