After the record of Matt. 4: 23, 24, which we considered on page 9, the Lord

ascended a mountain and taught. Teaching begins the chapter and teaching is the last

thing spoken of in Matt. 7: 28, 29, viz., "sayings", "doctrine (or teaching)", and "taught

as one having authority". Mighty words on the mountain are immediately followed by

mighty works in the valley, "And when He was come down from the mountain, great

multitudes followed Him, and behold there came a leper". The three miracles that are

recorded in Matt. 8: 1-15 are suggestive of much teaching.

The Pharisee in his prayer thanked God that he was not born (1) a Gentile,

(2) a slave, or (3) a woman, which position of "splendid isolation" is gloriously done

away "in Christ" for Gal. 3: 28 shows that there is

Here in these three opening miracles the Lord breaks through many traditional

barriers; He touched a leper! He healed a Gentile! He healed a woman! There is a

dispensational lesson here which the reader should observe, as well as a moral one. Both

the leper and the woman were healed by personal contact; the Gentile, however, was

healed at a distance. This peculiarity comes out again in Matt. 15: 21-28; in both cases,

too, reference is made to the great faith of the Gentile.

Going back again to the first of these miracles, let us see for what the leper prayed,

"Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me CLEAN". The response equally insists upon the

same thought, "immediately his leprosy was CLEANSED". The command that followed

still keeps cleansing uppermost, "show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses

commanded for a testimony unto them".

Lev. 14: contains the intensely instructive "law of the leper in the day of his

cleansing". Christ's dying and rising again is clearly set forth; the cleansed leper is