Leprosy is a disease caused by certain bacteria affecting the nerves, the respiratory tract, the skin and the eyes; it affects the ability to feel pain, it causes weakness and poor eyesight. It was common in Bible times. YAHSHUA cured many of this disease. In Leviticus 13 God instructs how to deal with leprosy in extended and detailed guidelines. The leprous person was to wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose and he was to cover his upper lip and cry out “unclean, unclean.” He was to be separated from society as long as he had the disease. Uzziah lost his blessings, his strength, and fame because he made himself to be above the law of God and of the Land. Pride took him and diminished him to dust and ultimately death. So King Uzziah went from royalty to leprosy and lived separated from family and was “excluded from the Lord’s house.” He was excluded from the presence of the Lord. In spite of his condition, he did not repent neither sought the Lord for healing. He died a leprous person. In the spiritual, leprosy is a picture of sin and sinful conditions. We were born in the sinful condition and separated from God. In another words, we were leprous before the Lord. We all had sin and had come short of His glory. King Uzziah well represented the spiritual condition of his nation, Israel. In Isaiah chapter one, God describes the spiritual condition of His people: The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib, but Israel does not know or recognize Me. My people do not consider or understand, Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised and shown contempt and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have become utterly estranged (Isaiah 1: 3-4). The Prophet Isaiah lived among spiritually leprous people starting with the king, who carried the representation of their spiritual sickness in the form of leprosy. It is said that the Prophet Isaiah lived through the last twenty years of King Uzziah. He witnessed the disgraced condition of the king, as he continued in his prideful and unrepentant ways till his death.
In the same year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord. He saw Him in the glory of His holiness, sitting upon His throne. He described the vision as saying, the Lord was high and lifted up, and the skirts of his train filled the temple; above Him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two covered the face, and with two covered his feet, and with two flew; and one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory! And the foundation of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6: 1-4). No one can begin to understand the awe Isaiah felt when in the presence of the Living God, the Lord of hosts! That was, without a doubt, YAHSHUA the only begotten Son of God. He had appeared in another times as a man to Abraham and as the Prince of the Lord of hosts to Joshua. He answered Joshua when he went to him asking if He was for them or for their enemies. He said, No, but as the Prince of the Lord’s host have I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, What says my Lord to His servant? And the Prince of the Lord’s hosts said to Joshua, Loose your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy. ..(Joshua 5: 14-15).
YAHSHUA had come to Isaiah for a different purpose. He had come as King, the Lord of hosts. As such He had revealed Himself to Isaiah sitting upon the throne. He had come to judge and give judgment. His holiness filled the temple and seraphim stood above the throne in worship, crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory! Isaiah witnessed the foundations of the thresholds shaking at their voices, followed with smoke. Heavenly worship had come down and the temple made by hands of men could not stand its power. At that moment Isaiah felt the burden of his and of his nation’s sins and cried: Woe is me! for I am undone and ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! (Isaiah 6: 5). Isaiah then confessed his pride and his nation’s pride, that of unclean lips. The Lord’s holiness was like a mirror showing Isaiah’s and his people’s wretchedness. In His presence he could not hide any of it and confessed. He was forgiven at that moment, when one of the seraphim came to him with a live coal in his hand, taken with tongs from off the altar. With it he touched Isaiah’s mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity and guilt are taken away; and your sin is completely atoned for and forgiven (Isaiah 6: 5-7).
In the year that King Uzziah died, the Lord came to Isaiah calling him to the prophetic task. He was commanded to give the message of judgment, veiling the nation from seeing and from hearing the message with understanding until all would be dispersed and the cities would lay waste without inhabitant and houses without man and the land utterly desolate (v.10-11). Consequently, Judah was doomed to future destruction. Her leprous condition had caused the Lord to pronounce judgement over her after her king had died. But with judgement, the promise of a remnant was established in the holy seed, which is the stump and substance of Israel (vs.13b), for the Lord will never bring complete destruction of His people as He has promised.
Spiritual leprosy makes us unclean in the sight of God. While in the leprous condition we are dressed in rags, with loose and uncombed hair, we smell as if we were dead. We remain separated from God and His holiness until we come to Him in brokenness of heart and receive the Truth that will set us free in YAHSHUA our Messiah. In His death He became sin for us and cleansed us with His precious blood; He healed and delivered us from the root of leprosy and gave us a beautiful life in Him. And “by His stripes we are healed and made whole”; He dressed us with the robe of righteousness and sealed us with His ring- the Holy Spirit guaranteeing our salvation. He blessed us with all His spiritual blessings; He gave us hope and assurance of His presence always and promised to return to take us where He is to dwell with Him forever and ever! That’s love, immeasurable love. He loves you even when in your leprous condition. All you have to do is to call on His name desiring His healing and you will be healed from your leprosy. Know that the Lord is good, come to Him today!
Light from the Word 