Today I read Luke 8 which contains the stories of Jesus casting out the legion of devils into the pigs, the raising of Jarius' daughter, the healing of the woman with an issue of blood as well as the parable of the sower and the calming of the sea. We have already talked about most of these stories and Luke does not really add any new perspective on them so we will not revisit them, but we have put off talking about the woman with an issue of blood until this version of the story.
The story goes that a woman had an issue of blood for twelve years. She had spent all that she had on doctors trying to cure whatever was causing her to have this problem. Until about 4 years ago, I did not realize that the word issue here is being used as a verb as in the phrase "issuing forth". I had always thought by the term issue of blood, it had meant a blood disease or perhaps even cancer. It was not until I bought a talk on CD in Nauvoo 4 years ago that I realized that her issue of blood was actually her monthly period, but that it had gone on non-stop for 12 years! I could not even imagine that. I have a hard enough time imagining what it must be like for a woman each month, but to have it go on every single day for 12 years, that is completely unimaginable to me.
Now, under the Mosaic law, when a woman was having her period, she had to be isolated from everyone and was considered unclean. I firmly believe this is because in those days there was not good medical options and so if some of the blood were to get on someone else and infect them if the woman was sick, there was little to no way to treat the person. Most of the prohibitions in the Mosaic law were to help the people be as healthy as possible during a time when there was little to no medical attention to be had or ways to properly cook certain meats, like pork. But we are getting away from the main story.
When a woman's body was going through her monthly cycle, she was considered unclean and had to remain apart from everyone. Can you imagine this woman's loneliness and how she must have felt being isolated from EVERYONE for 12 years? She could not leave her house, her family could not visit her, her husband if she had one could not come see her, she saw next to no one for over a decade. Heaven alone knows how she got food so she could eat and she saw practically no one except the doctors who would come to check on her. The stories make it sound like she had been quite wealthy at the beginning of this ordeal because it states that she had spent all she had on physicians and was not any better than when she started.
As I think about it, I can't help but wonder, what did this poor woman need to learn that she had to suffer this horrible malady? We never suffer anything needlessly in this life, except as a result of our own sins such as perhaps a broken bone from acting silly and falling off of something. But a trial like this, there is a definite purpose behind it and the person needs to learn something. I truly wonder, what was this woman like before this that she needed to go through this? What ever she was like before this, we know that after 12 years of this, she was humble, had faith in Christ and was very, very brave.
I say she was very brave because think about it. She has been isolated for 12 years. Do you think there is even a remote chance that someone in that city did not know of her? I'm sure even 6 year old children knew about the woman who always stayed locked up in her house. I'm quite confident that the throng of people that were surrounding Jesus would probably have recognized her too. Now, I do not know the penalty under the Mosaic law for breaking such isolation for a woman, but I guarantee it would not have been pleasant and may have been as harsh as a stoning, I do not know. Can you imagine how terrified she must have been to leave her house, even disguised as she surely must have been, knowing that anyone of the hundreds of people surrounding your goal could recognize you and you would face the penalty for it? What bravery she had, what faith she had that Jesus could heal her!
And as we know, her faith was well rewarded. She manages to touch his clothing and is instantly healed. Jesus notices as well, no big surprise, that someone touched Him and healing power left Him. He asks who had touched Him, but He knew full well who it was. He was just giving the woman another opportunity to display her faith. She rises to the challenge and introduces herself to the Lord and is blessed for her faith. Whatever she was like before her trial began, we know that it turned her into a humble, righteous woman of faith.
Just as Jesus was able to help this woman with her physical malady, Jesus can help heal our spiritual ailments if we will turn to Him with faith and full purpose of heart. We all have our trials in this life that are meant to strip us of pride and help us become more like Christ. It is up to us how we choose to handle them and if we will rise to our challenge or not. Hopefully we will learn what we need to like this woman did and when our opportunity to be healed of our spiritual malady comes, we will take it as this woman did. Until tomorrow.
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