Law of Leprous Garments

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together.
And this year, 2023, Lord willing, make it from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you today. This morning, we're gonna wrap up Exodus, or Exodus, Leviticus chapter 13, and we'll see how the laws for leprosy, and even that word, leprosy, can't just mean hand-sense disease, what we traditionally today think of leprosy, but had to be a more general term of something contagious or something that could grow. So, because it's gonna be tied to fabrics and building materials now.
So, why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to get to study your word and to hear from you. Lord, we pray that as we read your word now, that you would be working in our hearts, that we would understand it, that you would be our teacher, and that it would be rightly applied to our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so Leviticus chapter 13, beginning at verse 47.
Also, if a garment has a leprous plague in it, again, same word for leprous, but now it's with a garment. How can a garment have Hansen's disease? It can't. And so whether it is a woolen garment or a linen garment, whether it is the warp or woof of linen or wool, whether in leather or in anything made of leather, And if the plague is greenish or reddish in the garment or in the leather, whether in the warp or in the woof or in anything made of leather, it is a leprous plague and shall be shown to the priest. So you got some type of fabric and it's got some green or red stuff growing on it, whether it's vertically or horizontally, who knows what's going on. Go take it to the priest. You got to go take it to the priest. And the priest shall examine the plague and isolate that which has the plague seven days. And he shall examine this plague on the seventh day.
If the plague has spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, in the leather or anything made of leather, the plague is an act of leprosy. It is unclean, right? So you put the thing in quarantine, you wait a week, you see what's going on. If it's spread, you got a problem.
He shall therefore burn that garment in which is the plague, whether warp or woof, in wool or in linen, or anything of leather, for it is an act of leprosy. The garment shall be burned in the fire. Right, so if you find out that it's got a mold, a fungus, mildew, whatever's going on with this thing, you don't want it to spread onto everything else, and so burn it. Get rid of it, get it gone.
But if the priest examines it, and indeed the plague has not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything made of leather, then the priest shall command that they shall wash the thing in which is the plague, and he shall isolate it another seven days. Then the priest shall examine the plague after it has been washed, and indeed if the plague has not changed its color, though the plague has not spread, it is unclean, and you shall burn it in the fire. It continues eating away, whether the damage is inside or outside. If the priest examines it, and indeed the plague has faded after washing it, then he shall tear it out of the garment, whether out of the warp or out of the woof, or out of the leather. But if it appears again in the garment, either in the warp or the woof, or anything made of leather, It is a spreading plague. You shall burn it with fire that in which is the plague. And if you wash the garment, either warp or woof or whatever, it's made of leather. And if the plague has disappeared from it, then it shall be washed a second time and shall be clean.
Right? So if you put it in quarantine, it doesn't spread. It stays there. Cut it out. You're still able to use that thing, mend it up. That's fine. But if it reappears, Then you got a problem, but if not, you're good, right? Wash it. Wash it a second time. You're fine. You're good. All right.
And then the summary verse, verse 59, this is a law of the leprous plague in the garment of wool or linen, either in the warp or wolf or in anything made of leather to pronounce it clean or to pronounce it unclean. All right. So here's a summary verse.
So what has this been about? Well, this is about the things that are clean and unclean. What do you do with these materials? What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think, again, the summary verse is actually verse 59. I think that's actually given by the Lord as a summary verse for this. But what does this have to do with our lives?
I think the reality here is that even the created world around us, even stuff, physical things or clothing, It's susceptible to the fall. That we still struggle with sin. We still struggle with seeing creation grown eagerly awaiting the day of redemption because you know what?
That still breaks. Things are still falling apart. clothes get mildew houses I remember walking to a house that I thought I was going to buy and mildew all over the roof and mold and I thought no never mind forget this because if it was there where else was this mold going to be and this wasn't going to be safe This was a part to show the Israelites, see, not everything is the way it should be.
And even as you are going to be my covenant people, you're still going to struggle with different maladies and ailments. Your stuff is going to eventually get worn out and mildewed. Now for the 40 years they're in the wilderness, it doesn't happen. But in your life today, even as a Christian, Your house might mold. Your car might rust. Your clothes fail. Things break down. My wife was just sitting there the other day saying, why is everything always breaking? Because we live in a fallen world.
But we look to the day of redemption. And someday the mildew is not going to happen. The mold's not going to ruin. Fungus isn't going to grow on things ruining it. But we know that what we'll make will be lasting. There'll be a different type of kingdom, a different type of created order. I don't know what it's going to be like. I'm excited to see it. And I hope you are too.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for how you have loved us and cared for us. We thank you that you have given us a hope of redemption that what we see right now, even in all that we struggle with, this isn't the end of the story. Lord, we pray that you would give us hope in the day of redemption in Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you. I pray the Lord makes you walk in his peace and I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.