1.One of the topics this week is leprosy, which is usually understood as being caused by gossip or lashon hara. Why is it so hard not to gossip? If lashon hara is gossiping or evil speech is there such a thing as lashon hatov or good, life giving speech? If so what would it look like? Can you find examples of either lashon hara or lashon hatov in scripture? If you have a problem with gossiping how can you break the habit?
Why is it so hard not to gossip?
We can become comfortable in a certain way of speaking and thinking.
Gossiping bonds people together.
You become part of a group. You are in the know.
If you refuse to gossip you can be seen as an outsider.
No one wants to be an outsider.
Gossiping about someone else can make you feel better about yourself.
It gives you power.
James 3:2-8 shows us how hard it is to restrain our tongue.
“We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
Like leprosy, gossip can spread infecting many people.
Matthew tells us we will give account for every careless word.
Matthew 12:36-37, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
James 1:26, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”
Eph. 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
If you have a problem with gossip or lashon hara how can you break that habit?
First you have to realize you have it and confess it before G-d.
Then you begin purposefully changing your thought and speech patterns.
If you have friends that gossip when they get together what do you do?
You can either find new friends or create a new atmosphere when you are with them.
You can share with them your goal of not gossiping.
You can change how you relate when you are with them by speaking life.
How does lashon hatov affect people?
Prov 16:24, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
It brings healing. It brings life. It builds up.
Do you have examples of either lashon hatov or lashon hara in scripture?
Lashon Hara.
Joseph brought a bad report to his father concerning his brothers.
What was the result of that?
Broken relationships, and hatred and envy his brothers had toward him.
Genesis 37:2, “Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.”
Lashon HaTov:
When Yeshua spoke to the woman who touched his tzitzit.
Luke 8:49, “And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Example of both in scripture
John 8, 1-11, “but Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Yeshua, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Yeshua bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Yeshua was left, with the woman still standing there. Yeshua straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Yeshua declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue has the power of life and death,”
Our prayer should be
Psalms 141:3, “Set a guard, O L-rd, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!”
2.In this portion we read about the circumcision of a son on the eighth day of life. In D’Varim 10:16 we are told to circumcise our hearts. What does that mean? How does scripture describe a circumcised heart and an uncircumcised heart?
What is an uncircumcised heart?
Moses compared an uncircumcised heart with a stiff neck.
A person with a stiff neck is not flexible.
A stiff neck person is prideful and stubborn.
He does not submit his will to G-d’s will.
Deut. 10:16, “Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.”
Jeremiah describes an uncircumcised heart as being like hard, fallow soil.
It cannot be cultivated because it has not been plowed:
Jeremiah 4:3–4, “This is what the L-rd says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the L-rd, circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will flare up and burn like firebecause of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it.”
The Word of G-d cannot bear fruit in an uncircumcised heart.
This person’s flesh (physical inclinations) dictates his will.
Describe a circumcised heart.
Colossians 2;11, “In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Yeshua”,
So a circumcised heart begins with faith in Yeshua.
Romans 2:29, “No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from G-d”.
A circumcised heart Loves G-d with all your heart.
Deut. 30:6, “And the L-RD your G-d will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the L-RD your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. “
The will of a person with a circumcised heart is yielded to G-d’s Will.
A circumcised heart will enable us to look outside ourselves and be an instrument to bring G-d’s will into this world.
3.In our Torah portion, in Leviticus14:10-20, we read of the ceremony a leper goes through to be declared clean and allowed back into fellowship with His brothers and sisters. Read Lev. 8:23-34 and see how this compared to the setting apart of the priest for his duties. In both passages we read where the priest and the leper had oil and blood from the offering, applied to their right ear, thumb on their right hand and big toe on their right foot. What do you think this is teaching us?
Anointing of the right ear teaches us how important it is what we listen to.
What we listen to goes into our minds and influences either for good or for evil.
It can change our views to the world’s view.
The world’s view is most likely not G-d’s way.
Anointing our hands tells us what we do with our hands must be glorify the Father
Good works.
Anointing our feet shows us we are to walk in the ways of the L-rd.
Just as the priest had been set apart for service to the L-rd,
we are to live our lives dedicated to Him.
The leper, who had been healed, was expected to live differently than he did before.
G-d restored him to the spiritual life of the community.
That meant his life should be lived dedicated to the L-rd.
For the priest, leper, and for us, there has been a transition from secular to holy,
from impure to pure.
Anointing with oil was a sign of this change in status
They were no longer separated from G-d
Now they were connected to Him.
This all ties into the idea of having a circumcised heart.
Without our commitment to Yeshua as our Messiah these things would be impossible.
All this should play itself out in our life by how we live and how we spend our time each day. My prayer for us all is that our lives reflect who we are as G-d’s people and how much we love Him.