“On his way to Jerusalem, Yeshua passed along the border country between Samaria and the Galilee. As he entered one of the villages, ten men afflicted with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out, ‘Yeshua! Rabbi! Have pity on us!’ On seeing them, he said, ‘Go and let the priests examine you!’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, as soon as he noticed that he had been healed, returned shouting praises to God, and fell on his face at Yeshua’s feet to thank him. Now he was from Samaria. Yeshua said, ‘Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found coming back to give glory to God except this foreigner?’” (Luke 17:11-18)
Yeshua sent them to the priests. Why? The answer is found in Leviticus 13-14, which contains the law of the leper in the Torah. In the Divine economy, the priests were appointed to examine the leper to see whether he was suffering from true leprosy or not. The priest was the one who was to pronounce the leper clean, if he was clean. The going of the ten lepers was the going of faith! Evidently they were cleansed as they journeyed. Yet, how many of the ten lepers upon witnessing the evidence of healing, turned around to thank their healer, let alone shouted praises to God?
“Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” What a revelation of the fact that Yeshua valued gratitude and missed it when it was not expressed.
Are we not all in danger of being among the nine rather than being represented by the one, forgetting and failing in offering of praise to God, and our subsequent thanksgiving to our “healer”? Are these actions only reserved for those moments involving healings and miracles in our lives?
When those moments arrive where we are instilled with a recognition that God has provided a breakthrough in our lives, we must first and foremost offer all praise to God, followed by thanksgiving – both to Him and to His vessel of provision in this world. In the case of the story from Luke 17, the sole leper praised God, then thanked the one that healed him: Yeshua.
To go a step further, have we become so calloused in our lives that we are unable to recognize that all of our sustenance ultimately comes from God? Everything! Our health, vitality, income, food, home, family, friends… Everything! That everything in our lives is ultimately a “miracle” of health, provision and sustenance that comes from the hands of our Almighty Creator.
All in all, may praise and thanksgiving to God be amongst the first words uttered from our lips when we wake every morning. May these same words of praise and thanksgiving be the last words on our lips before we lie down at night to sleep. May we not lose sight of God, our Supreme Benefactor – much like the lone leper that was healed by Yeshua, giving God all of the praise and thanksgiving that He is due for all that He does in our lives each and every day.
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