Meditate On
Come Out of Hiding
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in mercy. . . . He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor
punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the
earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is
from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:8, 10–12
When I visited the Mount of Beatitudes in Israel some
time ago, the Lord opened my eyes to see for the first time how He had met the
man with leprosy we learned about in yesterday’s reading. After preaching to
the multitudes, our Lord didn’t go down the mountain toward them. Our Lord had
actually walked down the mountain in another direction, very likely in the
direction toward Capernaum (see Matt. 8:5).
As I took a path down the mountain toward Capernaum that
day, I saw slabs of stone strewn along the foot of the mountain. These stone
slabs are just the right size for a man to crawl under and find shelter. Right
then and there, I had the revelation of how the man with leprosy could have
hidden under one of these slabs for fear of being discovered by the people, and
how our Lord Jesus had known the man was hiding there and deliberately gone to
seek him before the crowds caught up with Him.
In Jesus’ day, those with leprosy were ostracized and
isolated in accordance with the law of Moses. Because they were conscious of
how unclean they were and what the law required of them, their natural response
was to withdraw and hide.
But hiding didn’t get the man with leprosy in Matthew 8
the healing and restoration he needed. Fortunately, hearing about the goodness
of God—how God wanted to be a loving Father to him and take care of all his
needs—got him out of hiding and into seeking the Lord for his miracle. It
changed his mind from seeing a God Who ostracized and condemned unclean people
to seeing a God Who loved them no matter what their condition. This change of
mind lit his faith and put courage in his heart to seek and receive the healing
he so desperately wanted.
Like the man with leprosy at the start of his story,
could you also be hiding from God today? Maybe you’ve been struggling with an
addiction or cycle of defeat that you can’t seem to get out of. Maybe you’ve
been a victim of sexual abuse and you blame yourself for it. Maybe you’ve had a
failed marriage or business, or made a bad decision that has led to loss. And
maybe your failure has caused you to avoid God, avoid going to church, and
avoid people in general. Beloved, whatever may be causing you to feel “unclean”
or disqualified today, God wants you to change your mind about Him and, instead
of hiding from Him, to run to Him!
