The Great Healer
Then and Now
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After thousands of hours of scripture study, I was slacking off. Then last summer I needed to give a lesson about "Having More Happiness and Less Misery." As I prepared, I felt inspired to start scripture reading every morning before checking my smartphone.
On the first morning, I was surprised when Leviticus chapter 15 popped into my mind. The middle of Leviticus seemed like the least likely place to start looking for what I needed. The first four books of the Old Testament are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Genesis and Exodus are interesting, but Leviticus has a history of putting people to sleep.
I couldn't remember much about Leviticus, but as I started to read, the following verses practically jumped off the page:
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When any man has an unusual bodily discharge [including blood], such a discharge is unclean…Anyone the man with a discharge touches without rinsing his hands with water must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening…A clay pot that the man touches must be broken, and any wooden article is to be rinsed with water…You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them. (NIV Leviticus 15:1-2,11-12,31)
These verses are shocking because, until the beginning of the 20th century, humanity did not understand the existence and danger of germs, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Clearly, the author of Leviticus warned us about the deadly effects of microorganisms more than three thousand years before we discovered them. That brings us to this troubling question: "How many million people have suffered and died from the spread of disease and infection because Leviticus chapter 15 was ignored?"
Those who don't believe in God, or the importance of following his instructions, probably haven't considered the fact that the Great Healer behind Leviticus knew and warned us about spreading agents of infection thousands of years before our science understood them.
Moving on to Leviticus 17, the Lord said, "The life of the body is in the blood." However, for hundreds of years, up until the late 19th century, many of those willing to ignore the word of God believed that illness was caused by "bad blood." Therefore, most doctors practiced "bloodletting" as a cure-all.
Let's review a tragic example. In 1799, George Washington became sick with a sore throat and shortness of breath. Doctors were called and performed bloodletting, which did not help, so they kept doing it, four times, resulting in an estimated 40% blood loss. Sadly, George Washington fell ill and died within less than one day, partly because doctors ignored what the Lord said in Leviticus 17: "The life of the body is in the blood."
Leviticus chapter one says that the blood of sacrificial animals represented atonement for sin—and that the animals involved must be males, without blemish. The parallel with Christ is obvious. In the Book of Hebrews, Paul confirmed that those animal sacrifices were symbolic of the atonement of Christ and helped prepare the way for him. (Hebrews 9-11)
In his mortal ministry, Christ verified and continued some parts of the Law of Moses, such as "The Ten Commandments." Some other parts of the Law of Moses, including parts of Leviticus, were "fulfilled" and discontinued, such as animal sacrifice. It’s instructive to see what happens (physically and spiritually) when Christ, Leviticus, and a bleeding believer come together:
A large crowd followed and pressed around [Jesus]. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes” …Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (NIV Mark 5:24-34)
This healing, and the one reported in Luke 5:17-25, confirm that Christ had the power to heal, physically and spiritually. Many people have suffered and died because they resisted divine guidance, including Leviticus. Some people have suffered and died because they resisted using antiseptics and antibiotics. All of us can have more happiness and less misery if we are willing to follow the Great Healer.
© Copyright 2023 Gene Van Shaar