Nail in a Firm Place March 8

Mathew 8: 1-4

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.

And behold a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

This is immediately after Jesus is coming down from giving the greatest speech ever given, known as the sermon on the mount, The Beatitudes which means, ‘Supreme Blessedness.’ You receive this same Blessedness when you read the Beatitudes, just like the leper above, you receive faith. Take note that he waited for Jesus to come down from the mountain.

In Exodus 20:18 – 19

And all the people saw the thundering’s, and the lightning’s, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

The new testament is a mirror of the old testament, God gave Moses a sermon on the mount, God gave Jesus a sermon on the mount.

But here is the greatness of Jesus. God could not come into contact with mankind, Jesus, God in the flesh was able to come down from the mountain and come into contact with mankind.

And when Jesus came down, He came into contact with the most rejected person of society, a leper. Imagine all the crowds would have scattered away, if we had a bird’s eye view, we would have seen a large bubble pattern form around Jesus and the leper. People would have given him very wide space. Imagine the rejection with all the disdain that came with it. People always scurrying away from you, ugly looks, shouts, and insults, probably even some people threw rocks, none of us have ever faced rejection like that before.

One time a young lady came up to me, and told me that she had been diagnosed with HIV and wanted prayer. As we sat there, I asked her “May I hold your hand while we pray?” Then I heard a broken little child’s voice, that sounded so hurt say, “You want to touch me?”

Immediately I was out of my body and into Jesus’s body, I saw this vision of the leper approaching Jesus on his knees asking if he would heal him? I was in the body of Christ! I saw his arm reach out to that man, with the long sleeve of His robe I felt the Love in His heart and heard His thought! “Not only do I want to heal you, but I want to die for you!” It was overwhelming, I looked up and the young lady was crying, and I was astonished. Jesus came wanting to die for us so that we could be with Him.

Then Jesus sent the now healed leper to fulfill the Levitical law in accordance with Leviticus 14, by going to the priest and making his offering fulfilling the law. This was accomplished by sacrificing one bird on a cedar plank under running water and dipping hyssop in the blood and sprinkling the blood on the live bird and setting the live bird free.

The Blood and the Water represented Jesus, the Hyssop represented the whip, the wood represented the cross. The bird represents us being set free from sin.

But this also would have been a testimony to the priest after the crucifixion. Jesus was willing to die for the priests too.

His Love for you prevailed over His sufferings for you.

He’s so good.

He is: Yated Aman Maqom

Nail in a Firm Place

Blessing’s