Weak Voice

This is Thanksgiving week and I know we say we are thankful, but are we or are we just going through the motions? I want to look at something the Lord showed me in my devotionals; I'm sure you do them if not get started today and spend time with the Lord so He can start showing you things out of His Word. It all happened in Luke 17:11-19 in these verses we see ten men who were former husbands or fathers but their disease has separated them forever from their loved ones! 

Luke 17:12
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
What was the reason these lepers stood afar off?  They were required to do so by the Law of Moses!  Leviticus 13: 45-"And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. Leviticus 13: 46 All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be."  As I was reading about these lepers I noticed something I thought was important, these ten lepers that Jesus healed did not specifically ask to be healed from their dreaded disease. Rather, they asked Jesus for mercy! Just mercy! Luke 17:13
And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
The great British Preacher of bygone years, Alexander Maclaren, said of these sick men: "One symptom of advanced leprosy was the simple fact that the human voice was weakened.  Most lepers could not speak above a whisper!" When these men cried out to Jesus! Maybe their "sounds" were no more than attempted "squeaks" ... begging God for help! When calling upon Jesus, "have mercy" Mercy means to "show compassion" on someone "Grace" deals with one's guilt!  And "Mercy" deals with one's misery of course our misery is due to our guilt! Aren't you glad Jesus cares how we feel! God's Grace (through the Blood of Jesus) takes care of the guilt, so that God's Mercy (through His sheer Love) can care for our misery! The ten sick lepers asked for mercy! And you know what they got? Mercy! In the next chapter we see Mercy again as the publican asks for mercy. Luke 18:13
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Luke 18:14
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather
than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. I want to spend some more time here tomorrow for there is so much here I want you to remember what was said in Luke 17:13 how those 10 men lifted up their voices and remember what leprosy does to the voice; it weakens it.