Monday, September 19, 2011

Luke 8:44 - 5th Installment, Healing in His Wings

The result of your Google search on “healing wings scripture” should of produced Malachi 4:2, “The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings....”  Every Jewish person knew this messianic prophecy. They had heard it from their earliest childhood recollection. Now, why was the act of the woman crawling through the crowd, determined to touch the hem of Jesus’ prayer shawl, a fulfilment of this prophecy. From the previous installments, you have discovered that it was a specific tassel she was wanting to touch called the zitzit. I gave you the hint, from my boyhood, of draping a towel over my shoulders and jumping off of things as if I had wings. Can you guess what the Hebrew word for wings is in Malachi 4:2? That’s right, It is zitzit. This woman believed Jesus to be the Sun of Righteousness, the Messiah, and He was in her town! She knew that if she could touch the zitzit (wings) of His prayer shawl, she would be healed! And, was she healed? She explained to Jesus that the moment she touched the zitzit, she was healed! At that very moment she declared to the crowd of her Jewish community and to generations to come that Jesus is the Messiah! Isn’t that powerful? After her explanation, Jesus declares to her that her faith has saved her and to go in peace. She receives both her healing and her salvation through her desperate act of faith declaring Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus pronounces her not just clean, but saved.  Do you think, as she was crawling through the crowd being stepped on and kicked in the head, she was concerned about her eternal security? No, all she was wanting was to be able to hold her babies in her lap again and lie down with her husband. How about Jairus? Was his mind on the eternal destiny of himself or his daughter? All he was wanting was that Jesus would save his only daughter, whom he loved and whom would carry on the family existence. When John the Baptist was in prison and sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah, what was Jesus’ answer to John? Jesus replied, “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life....” When we come to Jesus in desperation and faith that He is the Son of God, the Messiah, Jesus not only saves us from the fires of hell, but gives us healing and complete restoration.  Salvation brings complete restoration of our lives in the here and now, not the hereafter.  Salvation is therefore both restoration and redemption, not just redemption. Salvation is not only about the forgiveness of our sins so that we can have eternal security, but also about being made whole. The prophet, Isaiah declares in his prophecy concerning the Messiah, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

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