Matthew 8:1-4 Be Clean!
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 18, 2019, Matthew 8:1-4
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
When Jesus came down from the hillside, large crowds followed him. Suddenly a leper came up to him, fell down before him, and said, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.” So Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do want to. Be clean!” And instantly his leprosy was made clean. Then Jesus told him, “See to it that you don’t speak to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and then offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded as proof to the authorities.”
(Understanding the Text) Matthew spent chapters 1-4 giving an overview of Jesus’ life and evidence of Jesus’ fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of the scriptures. He spent chapters 5-7 giving Jesus’ teaching on the mountain. Now, he starts to give specific examples of the miracles that were only mentioned in passing in the overview.
Jesus came down from the mountain where He had been teaching, and the crowds continued to follow Him as He traveled. Thus, on this particular day, Jesus was surrounded by people. It says “suddenly.” I think it would have had to be suddenly. The leper was supposed to keep his distance from other people and warn them when he was coming, so for him to approach Jesus, he would have had to do so fast enough that there was no warning. The crowd would have parted for him out of shock as he came through. If they had had time to think, they would have stoned him rather than allow him close, so he was taking a risk to get to Jesus. Guzik confirms my analysis with details of how rabbis treated lepers. “In Jesus’ time rabbis spoke about how badly they would treat lepers. One boasted that he refused to buy even an egg on a street where he saw a leper, another bragged that he threw rocks at lepers when he saw them.”
The leper did not try to touch Jesus. Instead, he fell to the ground in front of Jesus in obeisance and expressed his belief that Jesus had the power to heal him. The leper’s only doubt was if Jesus would want to heal him after he had pushed himself forward in the way that he had. Jesus responded that He did want to and cleaned the leper.
(Revelation of God) Jesus touched the leper against every law and custom. “This is a bold and compassionate touch from Jesus. It was against the ceremonial law to touch a leper, which made the touch all the more meaningful to the afflicted man. Of course, as soon as Jesus touched him, he was no longer a leper!” (Guzik). God does not have to follow the same laws as we do when it comes to being contaminated with sin and death. They do not corrupt Him, but they corrupt us. The knowledge of good and evil does not hurt God, but it is our death sentence. We become contaminated through and through because of it. We need to have the invading strands of evil strained out of our systems so that we can be healed. We need to have a knowledge of good far beyond the knowledge we have of evil in order to be healed.
(Understanding the Text) I think it’s interesting that Jesus did not say, “Be healed.” Instead, he commanded the leper to be clean. There was taint throughout the leper’s whole body, not just damage to one specific part. Jesus cleansed every part of the leper from his blood to his skin to his muscle tissues straining out all the contamination as he healed the wounds at the same time.
Jesus commanded the leper to go directly to the priest to be pronounced clean and to offer sacrifice without speaking to anyone. I’m sure that this was both for the leper’s protection so that no one could prejudice the priest’s findings ahead of time and to reduce the amount of crowds that were following Jesus. However, I wonder if there was a specific priest that Jesus wanted to reach with the message of the cleansed leper, and if the leper followed Jesus’ instructions, that priest would receive the witness of the miracle Jesus had performed. I don’t know, but it could be.
(Application) My application for myself is Jesus is cleansing me spiritually straining out every contamination from every part of me as He heals me. However, this is not an instantaneous healing because I might not survive seeing myself as I really am. It’s a gradual process.
(Prayer) I pray to be cleansed of the contamination of sin and to be the witness that You ask me to be rather than the one that I think I should be or that the accuser says that I should be. I pray to stand for You wherever You send me.