Moses
Hand Became Leprous
By
Troy J. Edwards
When we believe that God
is the author of any evil or disaster it becomes much easier to submit to it
than to resist or fight against it. This is especially evident in relation to
sickness and disease. In order to vindicate God from the charge that He
inflicts sickness on anyone, especially His children, we have sought to dig
into the background of those places in the Bible where God is said to have done
so.
However, challenges still
arise and need to be addressed. One challenge that has been presented to us by
opponents of our message is the fact that God allegedly made Moses hand
leprous. Let’s take a look at this passage:
Exodus 4:6-8
6 And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now
thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took
it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again.
And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and,
behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe
thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe
the voice of the latter sign.
God was dealing with the
challenge of a people who had been slaves for over four hundred years. No
matter what harsh conditions a slave might face, there is still a certain
amount of security in remaining in bondage and a fear of the unknown when no
longer a slave.
God chose to use a
particular sign with Moses that would certainly draw the people’s attention.
Leprosy was a sickness most fearful among both Hebrew and heathen due to its
reputation for being incurable. God needed Moses to show them the thing that
they feared most and then show them that, unlike the Egyptian gods or any of
the other pagan deities, He has the ability to heal all diseases.
This sign is not an
indication that God is the afflicter of leprosy. There is not even an
explanation as to how the sign supposedly came about but it would certainly be Moses’s
choice as to when the sign would take place and when the healing would occur,
which is usually not the case with the average leper.
Furthermore, the
Scripture makes no reference to God personally giving Moses the leprosy. The
sign could have been accomplished by His temporary removal of protection from
Moses in that area just as it was for Miriam. Our opponents may not like this
particular answer by the burden falls on them to prove it wrong. The evidence
of Scripture, however, shows that all sickness is due to the fall and is often
inflicted by Satan (Acts 10:38; Luke 13:16; Job 2:7). God is only ever said to
afflict with sickness in a permissive rather than in a causative sense (Exodus
12:23; Psalm 78:50; also compare Job 2:7 with Job 42:11).
One of the marks of
Jesus’ healing ministry was how often He healed (or commanded to be healed)
those with leprosy (Matt. 8:2-3; 10:8; 11:5; Mark 1:40-42; Luke 5:12-13; 7:22;
17:12-19). This being the case, leprosy is under the category of satanic
oppression that Jesus is said to have healed:
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts
10:38)
Since all the people that
Jesus healed are said to have been oppressed of the devil then leprosy would
have to fall under that category.
If this article was a
blessing to you then you may find some of our video teaching helpful. We
recommend the following:
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