Tazria (She conceives) Lev 12:1–15:33; Ezek. 45-16-46; Luke 7:18-25
The Hebrew word Tazria means “She conceives” and is related to the Hebrew root word, ‘Zarah’ meaning, “Seed.”
Scripture frequently speaks about sowing seed, unsurprisingly, since Israel was an agricultural nation. Yeshua emphasised that the final product is more important than the initial seed sown; i.e., we sow in order to gain a harvest.
But the manner in which we sow (i.e., giving God our best) is what will primarily determine our eternal reward. In Gal 6:7-10 Paul writes: “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 by that Spirit.” Yeshua constantly reminds us of this and urged everyone to be good hearers in the Jewish sense – meaning someone who not only receives the word of God but applies it in their life.
Yeshua taught in common with other rabbis of His day through parables such as the with Parable of the Sower found in Matt 13:
Everyone wants to identify themselves as having been planted in the good soil. But who has never been in the grey zone at one stage or another? The most important question is to know where we are currently planted and to take immediate action to rectify things as needed.
God has placed us together and never intended for us to become isolated from other believers. This partly is because together we can bear up those who are struggling in their faith due to adverse circumstances or other situations resulting in drifting into the ‘grey’ zone: people who are hurt, wounded, betrayed, rejected or embittered. We must be among those who reach out with God’s love and embrace, to support, nurture and restore others into the good ‘soil’ rather than abandoning them to the gray areas.
The Parable of the Sower is about good news that is bad because it explains how one can speak what is good yet still not be heard. It explains how a generation can be so close to devastation even though the Kingdom is proclaimed. And this is no less true for the days we are now living in.
The life of Israel as a nation in the days of Yeshua revolved around agriculture which is why so many of HIs parables focused on this subject enabling those who heard to more easily relate to them. Their lives revolved around the principle of SOWING and REAPING and confronted people with the question what kind of harvest they were preparing to reap? And that same question has resonated throughout the past 2000 years through every succeeding generation.
The phrase, ‘Sowing and reaping’ is a biblical metaphor representing the things in our lives that we invest in. To sow into the Kingdom of God can be scary because we do so at the risk of losing everything applauded by this world’s system. But, hear what Paul had to say: “But whatever things were gain to me, these I have considered as loss for the sake of the Messiah. 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 Messiah.” (Phil. 3:7-9)
In Lev.13 we are provided much detail concerning the law of purification for anyone with tza-arat (a blanket term describing various types of skin diseases of which the most dreaded was leprosy). Leprosy 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 would be isolated from the community and both shunned and feared. It was no respecter of persons from Kings to the very 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 that sin is the most serious of all problems and compares it to Tza-arat because it is 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 and every other manner of sickness, so 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-arat 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 afflicted her with this terrible disease (Num 12:8–10) although Moses interceded for her and she was instantly restored. This should be enough to caution anyone against slander.
But, in an entirely different context, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) describes the Messiah as the ‘Leper in the house of study.’ It was 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 esteemed him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted.” [Isa 53:4]
In a different sense the sages claimed that the Messiah Himself would suffer the agonies of tza’arat by taking upon Himself the sins of His people. The ‘affliction’ they referred to is from Isaiah 53 which describes the worst kind of horrific death Messiah would endure as compared to leprosy because crucifixion had not yet been introduced at the time of Isaiah who lived around 700BC. The earliest historical record of crucifixions emerged around 200 years later when King Darius of Persia crucified 3,000 of his political enemies in Babylon.
The idea of a Saviour who was stricken with a form of this horrible skin disease may sound ridiculous! Yeshua healed others but why was He not able to heal Himself? Scripture provides us with the amazing answer: Isaiah 53:4 provide us with the solution:
“Surely our grief He Himself bore.’’ The Hebrew word for grief is ‘sickness’ like tza-arat. The Amplified Bible reads: “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) adds to this in a midrash “What is his (the Messiah’s) name? The school of R. Shila said: His name is Shiloh, for it is written, ‘until Shiloh come.’(Gen.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)
This week’s parasha links to a passage in 2Kings which describes an incredible incident in the time of Elisha with the Northern Kingdom. The city of Samaria had come under siege for 6 months from the King of Aram, Ben-Hadad, and the city faced imminent destruction.
A siege was one of the most cruel and difficult military tactics to deal with. With no incoming food, starvation, hunger, and desperation would eventually take over. This is the situation whereby things were so bad that in the biblical account two women decided to eat their babies in order to survive. 2Kings 7:3-10.
“3 Now there were four men with tza’arat at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why should we sit here till we die? 4 If we say: ‘Let’s go into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, so we will die there; but if we sit still here, we’ll die also. So come, let’s go into the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we’ll live; and if they kill us, we’ll just die.” 5 So they got up at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans. But when they arrived at the edge of the Aramean camp, behold, no one was there! 6 For God had caused the army of the Arameans to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses—indeed a noise of a huge army. So they said one to another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians to assault us.” 7 So they got up and fled at twilight, abandoning their tents, their horses and their donkeys—the entire camp just as it was—and fled for their lives. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” 8 When these men with tza’arat came to the edge of the camp, they entered into one tent, ate and drank, and took from there silver, gold, and clothes, then went and hid them. Then they returned and went into another tent, and took from there too, and went and hid them. 9 Then they said to each other, “It’s not right, what we’re doing. This day is a day of good news, and we’re keeping silent! If we wait till the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go now and report to the king’s household.” 10 So they came and called out to the city gatekeepers, and told them, “We went to the camp of the Arameans, and look, there was not a single soul there, no human voice—just the horses and the donkeys tied up, and the tents just as they were.” 11 Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was reported to the royal palace inside.”
The situation was just as Elisha had prophesied 24 hours earlier: “Hear the word of Adonai. Thus says Adonai: Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will sell for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.”
Our God is a God of the impossible who frequently uses those who are rejected and treated as ‘lepers’ to be the very agents who bring good news and deliverance to others; the weak, the foolish, the insignificant, and the despised of this world to demonstrate His power and sovereignty, to proclaim that He alone has provided for our salvation. It is all of Him and none of us that He might receive the glory!
Yeshua who healed those afflicted with leprosy is the same yesterday, today and forever. He can also cleanse us physically, emotionally and spiritually to present us holy and without blemish to the Father, the One in whom there is no change nor shadow of turning.
