27. REBEL SINNERS CONTINUALLY ROT AWAY
“Now
Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man
with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given
deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, but
he was a leper.” (2nd Kings 5:1)
Somewhat early Monday morning 12 December 1977, two cars loaded
with missionaries and adult Japanese Christians left Karuizawa to go preach to
lepers. I was riding in one of those cars. Annually a few Japanese Christians
and missionaries go from Karuizawa to the leprosarium on the outskirts of
Kusatsu City, Gunma Prefecture to have a Christmas service for the lepers.
Several of the lepers are Christians. Today I go with 5 other friends, the first
time for me to go there and the 1st time for me to behold
a leper. Approaching the leprosarium in our cars, I readily saw that it
was outside of town in a quite isolated area. Local residents
didn’t care to be near the lepers.
Upon arriving about 11 AM, we go from room to room visiting bedridden
patients, speaking words of cheer and encouragement to them and praying for
them. Then, kitchen workers serve us a nice lunch followed by our Christian service
for the lepers at 1 PM; singing, giving our testimonies, Bible reading and
preaching. I had never before been around a leper, and was somewhat apprehensive
about catching that incurable deadly disease. My Christian friends who had previously
gone to the leprosarium for the yearly Christmas service said that if I had no
open wounds and did not make any close contact with any leper, that I would not
catch leprosy. You can rest assured that I was praying for God to take care of
me, and was being ever so careful and cautious.
Seeing the lepers with fingers, ears, noses, eyes and such eaten
away by that loathsome disease is heart breaking. Looking upon the several
lepers that I was around during this day, most of them were lacking one or more
of the things I just mentioned.
The worst case I saw was a man whose eyes, nose and earlobes (and
all the hair on his head) had been eaten away by leprosy. Tho he now had no
earlobes, the entrance to each ear was open and he could hear. But he was
totally blind. Apparently, surgeons had done plastic surgery on his face to
cover his unsightly empty eye sockets and the opening where his nose had been,
because the places where eyes and nose had been were now smooth “flat skin”
like a person’s cheeks. He did all his breathing thru his mouth (and eating and
talking, of course). Someone always led that pitiful blind leper around,
as he moved about the leprosarium.
It was a most moving
experience for me, to visit with those lepers about 3 hours. Returning home, back
in my room that night I wept much as I knelt and prayed for them. I also
heartily thanked God for my good health and called upon Him to help
me to daily use all my abundant energies and
abilities to their fullest extent, to tell every
lost soul that I possibly can, of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Holy Bible, the disease leprosy depicts sin, as a type. When any person continues in sin, that sin eats away at the
person’s body and soul, eventually destroying that person with sinful rot and
decay, resulting in that sin-destroyed person being turned into Hell to forever
suffer the torments of that fire. “For
the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a)
Down thru the ages, there has been no medical cure
for leprosy. Once anyone contracted leprosy, it would steady rot away his or
her body until it caused that physical body to die an early death. (I hear
that modern medicine can now combat leprosy to some extent. But I
also know that in 1977, I gazed in awe at leprosy rotting away living
human bodies, a horrible and loathsome sight.)
Look at that long Scripture verse above about Captain Naaman. Read
all the great things stated about that mighty man of valor.
But daily, that great and powerful man gazed on that leprosy eating away
just a little more of his body, knowing that sooner or later that disease would
kill him, ending all his great deeds done on earth. Leprosy
typifies sin that kills each sinner, as God’s Scripture declares to us
in Romans 6:23.
But a most merciful and
gracious Creator God gives hope to this human race being killed by sin. “…but the gift of God is eternal life thru
Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b)
Presently, are you a rebel sinner enjoying
the pleasures of sin for a very short season while laughing at
your Creator God Who is calling on you to now repent,
turn from sin and sinning, and trust in Jesus
Christ to save you? If so, you are most similar to that blind leper that
I saw, letting someone lead him around in his blindness. You are spiritually
blind and Satan is leading you around from one sinful pleasure to
another, all the while laughing gleefully at you being so stupid
as to let him destroy you with sin eternally.
“Almighty God my Creator, right now please bestow great
mercy upon me to cause me to come to myself and firmly realize that I do
not want to pay the eternal price (of torments) to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a short season while I am on earth. Please work powerfully
in my being to bring me to my senses. Grant me a truly repentant
heart now. Grant me saving faith in the Saviour of the world, the Lord
Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.”
“Our Father which art in Heaven, please fill Missionary Richard
with Holy Ghost Power as he goes about preaching to many “blind” and lost
Japanese idol worshippers. Have mercy upon them to save them to the utmost, I
plead. Amen.”
Richard Yerby (Matsuida,
Japan) www.Christ-is-all.us