Along with all the name calling and labeling we hear in today’s society comes division. We are a nation divided. Christ said in Matthew 12:25, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” There are many who believe that because of this division the United States is on a severe decline, the likes of which Americans have never before experienced. Division is a terrible thing. Division tears apart husbands and wives, families, friends, churches, communities—you name it, when division seeps in, bad things happen. It comes down to whether you are part of the problem or part of the solution. And it usually starts with the tongue.
There is much written about speech in the Bible, Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power over life and death, those who indulge in it must eat its fruit.” James writes, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” Christ said in Matthew 15:11, “It is not what is entering into the mouth that defiles the man; but that going forth out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” Because we are made in the image of God our words matter, God created and sanctified everything through His Word (John 1:1-3), and words are sacred. Revelation 20:12 tells us that our words and deeds are recorded in the heavenly scrolls.
The Jewish sages have written that one who causes division by his speech is a “metzora,” from a play on the Hebrew phrase motzi ra, “one who brings forth (speaks) evil.” The sages say that because the metzora caused division by his speech, he was divided from society and exiled outside the camp, experiencing the measure for measure punishment meant to cause him to repent and come to the priest who would meet him outside the camp. In the case of the metzora, God imparted the spiritual disease of tzara’at and separation in order to remind the person of his sin and the need for atonement (kind of a holy time out!). The metzora would undergo a series of sacrificial rituals ending with tevilah, immersion in a mikveh, a ritual bath. The purification ritual was meant to illustrate the need of spiritual rebirth.
In His final instructions to His disciples, Jesus showed how much the “tevilah” and “mikveh” would play a part in making all the Gentile nations into disciples of the Messiah—“Therefore, go and make disciples from all nations, immersing them into reality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…(Matthew 28:19).” Essentially, we are all metzoras as LORD Jesus visits and heals us “outside the camp,” as He did the man afflicted with tzara’at in Matthew 8:1-7. He alone is the Healer of our uncleanness before God, and through His touch we are purified and made acceptable for true spiritual worship and relationship. Otherwise, by our own words and actions, we would be divided from the heavenly kingdom as many are divided from each other in this day and age.
