Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp. The priest shall examine him. Behold, if the plague of leprosy is healed in the leper, then the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. The priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. He shall sprinkle on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field.
“He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days. It shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his body in water. Then he shall be clean.
“On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without defect, one ewe lamb a year old without defect, three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, and one log of oil. The priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed, and those things, before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
“The priest shall take one of the male lambs, and offer him for a trespass offering, with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. He shall kill the male lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. The priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. The priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh. The priest shall put some of the rest of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh.
“The priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness. Afterward he shall kill the burnt offering; then the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meal offering on the altar. The priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
“If he is poor, and can’t afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil; and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
“On the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, before Yahweh. The priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. He shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. The priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand; and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh. Then the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh. He shall offer one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, which ever he is able to afford, of the kind he is able to afford, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meal offering. The priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before Yahweh.”
This is the law for him in whom is the plague of leprosy, who is not able to afford the sacrifice for his cleansing.
Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in the land of your possession, then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘There seems to me to be some sort of plague in the house.’ The priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes in to examine the plague, that all that is in the house not be made unclean. Afterward the priest shall go in to inspect the house. He shall examine the plague; and behold, if the plague is in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and it appears to be deeper than the wall, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. The priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the plague has spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the plague, and cast them into an unclean place outside of the city. He shall cause the inside of the house to be scraped all over. They shall pour out the mortar that they scraped off outside of the city into an unclean place. They shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
“If the plague comes again, and breaks out in the house after he has taken out the stones, and after he has scraped the house, and after it was plastered, then the priest shall come in and look; and behold, if the plague has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew in the house. It is unclean. He shall break down the house, its stones, and its timber, and all the house’s mortar. He shall carry them out of the city into an unclean place.
“Moreover he who goes into the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening. He who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes; and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
“If the priest shall come in, and examine it, and behold, the plague hasn’t spread in the house, after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. To cleanse the house he shall take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. He shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. He shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, with the living bird, with the cedar wood, with the hyssop, and with the scarlet; but he shall let the living bird go out of the city into the open field. So shall he make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean.”
This is the law for any plague of leprosy, and for an itch, and for the destructive mildew of a garment, and for a house, and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot; to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 16, 17, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 40, 41, 45, 49, 53, 56, 57 Or, the ceremony which shall be used in his…
Or, the ceremony which shall be used in his purgation.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 32, 34, 35, 36 Lev 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses.] And to Aaron also, though not here mentioned, as he is, Lev 14:33.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 36, 37, 40, 41, 57 Not into the priest’s house, but to some place…
Not into the priest’s house, but to some place without the camp or city, Lev 13:46, which the priest shall appoint.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 21, 33, 54 Here, I. It is supposed that the plague of…
Here, I. It is supposed that the plague of the leprosy was not an incurable disease. Uzziah's indeed continued to the day of his death, and Gehazi's was entailed upon his seed; but Miriam's lasted only seven days: we may suppose that it often wore off in process of time. Though God contend long, he will not contend for ever.
II. The judgment of the cure, as well as that of the disease, was referred to the priest. He must go out of the camp to the leper, to see whether his leprosy was healed, Lev 14:3. And we may suppose the priest did not contract any ceremonial uncleanness by coming near the leper, as another person would. It was in mercy to the poor lepers that the priests particularly had orders to attend them, for the priests' lips should keep knowledge; and those in affliction have need to be instructed both how to bear their afflictions and how to reap benefit by them, have need of the word, in concurrence with the rod, to bring them to repentance; therefore it is well for those that are sick if they have these messengers of the Lord of hosts with them, these interpreters, to show unto them God's uprightness, Job 33:23. When the leper was shut out, and could not go to the priests, it was well that the priests might come to him. Is any sick? Let him send for the elders, the ministers, Jam 5:14. If we apply it to the spiritual leprosy of sin, it intimates that when we withdraw from those who walk disorderly, that they may be ashamed, we must not count them as enemies, but admonish them as brethren, Th2 3:15. And also that when God by his grace has brought those to repentance who were shut out of communion for scandal, they ought with tenderness, and joy, and sincere affection, to be received in again. Thus Paul orders concerning the excommunicated Corinthian that when he had given evidences of his repentance they should forgive him, and comfort him, and confirm their love towards him, Co2 2:7, Co2 2:8. And ministers are entrusted by our Master with the declarative power of loosing as well as binding: both must be done with great caution and deliberation, impartially and without respect of persons, with earnest prayer to God for directions, and a sincere regard to the edification of the body of Christ, due care being always taken that sinners may not be encouraged by an excess of lenity, nor penitents discouraged by an excess of severity. Wisdom and sincerity are profitable to direct in this case.
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III. If it was found that the leprosy was healed, the priest must declare it with a particular solemnity. The leper or his friends were to get ready two birds caught for this purpose (any sort of wild birds that were clean), and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; for all these were to be used in the ceremony. 1. A preparation was to be made of blood and water, with which the leper must be sprinkled. One of the birds (and the Jews say, if there was any difference, it must be the larger and better of the two) was to be killed over an earthen cup of spring water, so that the blood of the bird might discolour the water. This (as some other types) had its accomplishment in the death of Christ, when out of his pierced side there came water and blood, Joh 19:34. Thus Christ comes into the soul for its cure and cleansing, not by water only, but by water and blood, Jo1 5:6. 2. The living bird, with a little scarlet wool, and a bunch of hyssop, must be fastened to a cedar stick, dipped in the water and blood, which must be so sprinkled upon him that was to be cleansed, Lev 14:6, Lev 14:7. The cedar-wood signified the restoring of the leper to his strength and soundness, for that is a sort of wood not apt to putrefy. The scarlet wool signified his recovering a florid colour again, for the leprosy made him white as snow. And the hyssop intimated the removing of the disagreeable scent which commonly attended the leprosy. The cedar the stateliest plant, and hyssop the meanest, are here used together in this service (see Kg1 4:33); for those of the lowest rank in the church may be of use in their place, as well as those that are most eminent, Co1 12:2. Some make the slain bird to typify Christ dying for our sins, and the living bird Christ rising again for our justification. The dipping of the living bird in the blood of the slain bird intimated that the merit of Christ's death was that which made his resurrection effectual for our justification. He took his blood with him into the holy place, and there appeared a lamb as it had been slain. The cedar, scarlet wool, and hyssop, must all be dipped in the blood; for the word and ordinances, and all the operations of the Spirit, receive their efficacy for our cleansing from the blood of Christ. The leper must be sprinkled seven times, to signify a complete purification, in allusion to which David prays, Wash me thoroughly, Psa 51:2. Naaman was directed to wash seven times, Kg2 5:10. 3. The living bird was then to be let loose in the open field, to signify that the leper, being cleansed, was now no longer under restraint and confinement, but might take his liberty to go where he pleased. But this being signified by the flight of a bird towards heaven was an intimation to him henceforward to seek the things that are above, and not to spend this new life to which God had restored him merely in the pursuit of earthly things. This typified that glorious liberty of the children of God to which those are advanced who through grace are sprinkled from an evil conscience. Those whose souls before bowed down to the dust (Psa 44:25), in grief and fear, now fly in the open firmament of heaven, and soar upwards upon the wings of faith and hope, and holy love and joy. 4. The priest must, upon this, pronounce him clean. It was requisite that this should be done with solemnity, that the leper might himself be the more affected with the mercy of God to him in his recovery, and that others might be satisfied to converse with him. Christ is our priest, to whom the Father has committed all judgment, and particularly the judgment of the leprosy. By his definitive sentence impenitent sinners will have their everlasting portion assigned them with the unclean (Job 36:14), out of the holy city; and all that by his grace are cured and cleansed shall be received into the camp of the saints, into which no unclean thing shall enter. Those are clean indeed whom Christ pronounces so, and they need not regard what men say of them. But, though Christ was the end of this law for righteousness, yet being in the days of his flesh made under the law, which as yet stood unrepealed, he ordered those lepers whom he had cured miraculously to go and show themselves to the priest, and offer for their cleansing according to the law, Mat 8:4; Luk 17:14. The type must be kept up till it was answered by its antitype. 5. When the leper was pronounced clean, he must wash his body and his clothes, and shave off all his hair (Lev 14:8), must still tarry seven days out of the camp, and on the seventh day must do it again, Lev 14:9. The priest having pronounced him clean from the disease, he must make himself as clean as ever he could from all the remains of it, and from all other defilements, and he must take time to do this. Thus those who have the comfort of the remission of their sins, by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon their consciences, must with the utmost care and caution cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and thoroughly purge themselves from their old sins; for every one that hath this hope in him will be concerned to purify himself.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–49 And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... In order to…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... In order to deliver the same to Aaron, who, and the priests his successors, were chiefly to be concerned in the execution of the law given:
saying;
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as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 25, 36, 37, 40, 57 The manner of cleansing a leper, ver. 1-9. The…
The manner of cleansing a leper, ver. 1-9. The sacrifices to be offered for him, ver. 10-32. The management of an house suspected of leprosy, ver. 33-53. The summary of the whole, ver. 54-57.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 21, 34, 45, 53 Introduction to the sacrifices and ceremonies to be used…
CHAPTER XIV
Introduction to the sacrifices and ceremonies to be used in
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cleansing the leper, 1-3.
Two living birds, cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop, to be
brought for him who was to be cleansed, 4.
One of the birds to be killed, 5;
and the living bird, with the cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop,
to be dipped in the blood, and to be sprinkled on him who had
been infected with the leprosy, 6, 7;
after which he must wash his clothes, shave his head, eye
brows, beard, c., bathe himself, tarry abroad seven days, 8, 9
on the eighth day he must bring two he-lambs, one ewe lamb,
a tenth deal of flour, and a log of oil, 10;
which the priest was to present as a trespass-offering,
wave-offering, and sin-offering before the Lord, 11-13.
Afterwards he was to sprinkle both the blood and oil on the
person to be cleansed, 14-18.
The atonement made by these offerings, 19, 20.
If the person were poor, one lamb, with the flour and oil, two
turtledoves, or two young pigeons, were only required, 21, 22.
These to be presented, and the blood and oil applied as before,
23-32.
Laws and ordinances relative to houses infected by the
leprosy, 33-48.
An atonement to be made in order to cleanse the house, similar
to that made for the healed leper, 49-53.
A summary of this and the preceding chapter, relative to
leprous persons, garments, and houses, 54-56.
The end for which these different laws were given, 57.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 25, 34, 36, 37, 40, 57 Lev 14:1. The priests having been instructed in the…
Lev 14:1. The priests having been instructed in the foregoing chapter how to judge of the leprosy, are here directed concerning the kinds and manner of those sacrifices and ceremonies which were requisite for the legal purification of the leper, after the priest judged him to be healed, in order that he might be readmitted to the civil and religious privileges of the Jewish community.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 33 The leper was excluded not only from the sanctuary…
The leper was excluded not only from the sanctuary but from the camp. The ceremony of restoration which he had to undergo was therefore twofold. The first part, performed outside the camp, entitled him to come within and to mix with his brethren, Lev 14:3-9. The second part, performed in the court of the tabernacle and separated from the first by an interval of seven days, restored him to all the privileges of the covenant with Yahweh, Lev. 14:10-32.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 21, 31, 34, 36, 37, 41, 53, 54, 57 Camp. The leper was not left to his own…
Camp. The leper was not left to his own judgment to mix with society, as soon as he perceived himself cleansed. He had to send for a priest; and one of the most discerning among those who made it their employment to study in the court of the tabernacle, was commissioned to examine him. (Grotius) --- The sacrifice was offered without the camp, (Calmet) if it may be called a sacrifice. (Menochius) --- That of Christ’s body was not yet instituted, which supplies all the rest. (St. Augustine, contra adv. i. 19.) (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2This shall…
C.—CLEANSING AND RESTORATION OF A LEPER
Lev_14:1-32
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1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: 3and the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, ifthe plague [spot1] of leprosy be healed in the leper; 4then shall the priest command to take2 for him that is to be cleansed two birds3 alive and clean, and cedar wood and scarlet, and hyssop: 5and the priest shall command that one of the birds be 6killed in an earthen vessel over running [living4] water: as for5 the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running 7[living28] water: and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open fields. 8And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash [bathe6] himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.
9But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash [bathe30] his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.
10And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs [two young rams7] without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering [an oblation8], mingled with oil. and one log of oil. 11And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: 12and the priest shall take one he lamb [ram31], and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord:13and Hebrews 9 shall slay the lamb [ram31] in the place where he33 shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so Isaiah 10 the trespass offering: it is most holy: 14and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: 15and the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand: 16and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord: 17and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood11 of the trespass offering: 18and the remnant of12 the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour [put13] upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. 19And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering: 20and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering [oblation32] upon the altar:14 and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21And if he be poor, and cannot get so much: then he shall take one lamb [ram31] for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth 22deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil; and two turtle doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering. 23And he shall bring them on the eighth day for [of15] his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord. 24And the priest shall take the lamb [ram31] of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: 25and he shall kill the lamb [ram31] of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: 26and the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own16 left hand: 27and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord: 28and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering: 29and the rest of17 the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the Lord. 30And he shall offer the one of the turtle doves, or of the young pigeons, 31such as he can get; even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lord.
32This is the law of him in whom is the plague [spot1] of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.
D.—LEPROSY IN A HOUSE
Lev_14:33-53
33And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 34When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague 35[spot1] of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession; and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague [spot1] in the house: 36then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague [spot1], that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house: 37and he shall look on the plague [spot1], and, behold, if the plague [spot1] be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes,18 greenish or reddish [very green or very red19], which in sight are lower than the wall; 38then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: 39and the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague [spot1] be spread in the walls of the house; 40then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague [spot1] is, and they shall cast them into an 41unclean place without the city: and he20 shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place: 42and they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he44 shall take other mortar, and shall plaister the house. 43And if the plague [spot1] come again, and break out in the house, after that he44 hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plaistered; 44then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague [spot1] 45be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. And he44 shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he44 shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. 46Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. 47And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.21
48And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague [spot1] hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague [spot1] is healed. 49And he shall take 50to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: 51and he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and22 in the running [living28] water, and sprinkle the house seven times: 52and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running [living28] water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet: 53but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.
E.—CONCLUSION
Lev_14:54-57
54, 55This is the law for all manner of plague [spot1] of leprosy, and scall, and for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, 56and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot: 57to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev_14:2. נֶגַע, a word of very frequent occurrence in these two chapters where it is uniformly translated in the A. V. (except Lev_13:42-43, sore) plague, as it is also in Gen_12:17; Exo_11:1; Deu_24:8 (in reference also to leprosy); 1Ki_8:37-38; Psa_91:10. Elsewhere the renderings of the A. V. are very various: sore, stroke, stripe, wound. By far the most common rendering in the LXX. is ἁφή=tactus, ictus. The idea of the word is a stroke or blow, and then the effect of this in a wound or spot. Clark therefore would translate here stroke, which meets well enough the meaning of the word itself, but does not in all cases convey the sense in English. It is perhaps impossible to find one word in English which can be used in all cases; but that which seems best adapted to Leviticus is the one given by Horsley and Lee, and adopted here: spot. So Keil, Wilson and others. There is no article in the Heb.
Lev_14:3. The sense is here undoubtedly the scarf skin (Clark), the cuticle, in contradistinction to the cutis, the true skin below. So Wilson, who says: “This distinction in reality constitutes one of the most important points of diagnosis between real leprosy and affections of the skin otherwise resembling leprosy.” But as we have in Heb. only the one word עוֹר for both (except the ἁπ. λέγ. גֶּלֶד, Job_16:15), there does not seem to be warrant for changing the translation, especially as in English skin answers to either with the same indefiniteness.
Lev_14:4. The construction in Lev_14:3-4; Lev_14:10 is without a preposition; in Lev_14:16-17 it is with the preposition לְ, as is expressed in the A. V.
Lev_14:4-5, etc. According to Rosenmüller and Gesenius, נֶגַע is used by metonymy for the person upon whom it is. This view is adopted by Lange. It appears in the Targ. of Onk. and in the Vulg., and has been followed by the A. V. Far better is the rendering of the Sam., LXX. and Syr.: the priest shall bind up the spot, or sore. This is the exact translation of the Heb., and is advocated by Horsley, Boothroyd, and many others. Fuerst does not recognize the sense by metonymy. The same change should perhaps also be made in ver.12. See Exegesis. In the case of shutting up the leprous house (Lev_14:38) the word house is distinctly expressed in the Heb.
Lev_14:6. כֵּהָה=dim, pale, faint, weak, dying. The idea is that of something in the process of fading away, disappearing. LXX. ἀμαυρὰ, Vulg. obscurior.
Lev_14:6. It does not appear why the conjunction in the A. V. should be printed in italics; it is, however wanting in 18 MSS., the Sam., and LXX.
Lev_14:9. The conjunction is wanting in the Heb., but is supplied in the Sam. and versions.
Lev_14:10; Lev_14:24. מִחְיָה, according to Rosenmueller and Fuerst an indication, and this is the sense given in Targ., Onk. and the Syr., and apparently also in the Vulg. The LXX. renders ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑγιοῦς τῆς σαρκὸς τῆς ζώσης ἐν τῇ οὐλῇ, taking the מ as preposition, and understanding it, as the Rabbins, of a spot of proud flesh in the midst of the cicatrice. The margin of the A. V. is the quickening of living flesh; scar would express the sense, but this is appropriated to צָרֶבֶת, Lev_14:23; Lev_14:28, and mark gives the exact rendering of the Hebrew, and meets the requirements of the context.
Lev_14:2. נֶגַע, a word of very frequent occurrence in these two chapters where it is uniformly translated in the A. V. (except Lev_13:42-43, sore) plague, as it is also in Gen_12:17; Exo_11:1; Deu_24:8 (in reference also to leprosy); 1Ki_8:37-38; Psa_91:10. Elsewhere the renderings of the A. V. are very various: sore, stroke, stripe, wound. By far the most common rendering in the LXX. is ἁφή=tactus, ictus. The idea of the word is a stroke or blow, and then the effect of this in a wound or spot. Clark therefore would translate here stroke, which meets well enough the meaning of the word itself, but does not in all cases convey the sense in English. It is perhaps impossible to find one word in English which can be used in all cases; but that which seems best adapted to Leviticus is the one given by Horsley and Lee, and adopted here: spot. So Keil, Wilson and others. There is no article in the Heb.
Lev_14:4. The construction in Lev_14:3-4; Lev_14:10 is without a preposition; in Lev_14:16-17 it is with the preposition לְ, as is expressed in the A. V.
Lev_14:13. The pronoun should obviously refer to the man rather than the spot.
Lev_14:16. נֶהפַּךְ. This being the same verb as is used in Lev_14:3-4; Lev_14:17, in the same sense, the rendering should certainly be the same. The alteration in the A. V. was evidently on account of the previous translation of יָשׁוּב by turn. It is better to put the new word there.
Lev_14:17. The preposition is the same as in the previous verse, and the change in the A. V. may have been simply accidental.
Lev_14:18. The word בּוֹ seems redundant, and is wanting in 4 MSS. and the Sam.
Lev_14:19. אֲדַמְדָּמֶת. The reduplication of the letters in Heb. always intensifies the meaning (see Bochart, Hieroz. Pt. II., lib. V., c. vi., Ed. Rosen. III., p. 612 ss.); if therefore this be translated red at all, it must be very red, which would be inconsistent with the previous white. This obvious inconsistency has led the ancient versions into translations represented by the somewhat reddish of the A. V., and frequently to rendering the previous conjunction or. But as there is no conjunction at all in the Heb., it seems better to follow the suggestion of Pool, Patrick and others, and understand the word as meaning very bright, shining, glistening. Comp the description of leprosy, Exo_4:6; Num_12:10; 2Ki_5:27.
Lev_14:18 (bis), 20, 23. שֶׁחִין, burning ulcer, would perhaps be a better, because a more general word; but boil was probably understood with sufficient latitude.
Lev_14:23; Lev_14:28. צ׳ הַמִּכְוָה ,צָרֶבֶת הַשְּׁחִין, Rosenmueller, cicatrix ulceris. So all the ancient versions, and so Gesenius. So also Coverdale and Cranmer, and so Riggs. Fuerst, however, inflammation.
Lev_14:24. The margin of the A. V. is better than the text. This paragraph (Lev_14:24-28) is plainly in relation to leprosy developing from a burn on the skin. So Gesen, Fuerst, Pool, Patrick, etc. So the LXX. and Vulg.
Lev_14:31. The meaning of שָׁחֹר =black is established. The LXX., yellow, can therefore only be considered as an emendation of the text, substituting צָהֹב, and this is followed by Luther, Knobel, Keil, Murphy and others; it is, however, sustained by no other ancient version nor by any MS., and the change in the LXX. must be considered as simply an effort to avoid a difficulty. Keil and Clark propose, as a less desirable alternative, the omission of the negative particle. There is, however, no real difficulty in the text as it stands. See Exegesis.
Lev_14:32. The Sam. here substitutes נֶתֶק, scall, for נֶגַע, spot.
Lev_14:39. בֹּהַק, a word ἁπ. λέγ. according to Gesen. a harmless eruption of a whitish color which appears on the dark skin of the Arabs, and is still called by the same name.
Lev_14:40. קֵרֵחַ, used here apparently for the back of the head in contradistinction to גִּבֵּחַ the fron4, which occurs only here (but its derivative, גַּבַּחַת, is found Lev_14:42 bis, 43 and 55). קֵרֵחַ, however, is elsewhere baldness in general. Comp. Deu_14:1.
Lev_14:45. Comp. Textual Note5 on Lev_10:6.
Lev_14:45. שָׂפָם. There is some doubt as to the true meaning. It is translated beard in the A. V., 2Sa_19:24 (25), and so Fuerst and Gesenius would render it here, guided by the etymology. All the ancient versions, however, translate it either mouth or lips, and a word etymologically signifying beard (or rather the sprouting place of hair) would easily come to have this sense in use. It is a different word from the זָקָן=beard of Lev_14:29.
Lev_14:46. בָּדָד. The alone of the A. V. would ordinarily be a good enough translation, but is liable to be misunderstood. The leper was simply to dwell apart from the clean Israelites, but might and did live with other lepers.
Lev_14:49. יְרַקְרַק. The reduplication of the letters intensifies the meaning. Comp. note13 on Lev_14:19. אֲדַמְדָּמֶת, too, as noted above, may here mean either very red, or, as before, glistening. There is so little knowledge about the fact that neither of them can be certainly decided upon; but as in this case we have the disjunctive (as also in Lev_14:37), it seems more probable that two distinct colors were intended.
Lev_14:55. The margin of the A. V. gives the literal rendering of the Heb. bald in the head thereof, or in the forehead thereof, and there can be no doubt that these are terms figuratively applied to the cloth or skin for the right and wrong side, as in the text.
Chap. 14. Lev_14:4. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. here read the verb in the plural, expressing the fulfillment of the command.
Lev_14:4. The margin of the A. V. reads sparrows, for which there seems to be no other authority than the Vulg. The Heb. does not define the kind of bird at all.
Lev_14:5. Better, living water, which is the exact rendering of the Heb. Ordinarily living water is a figure for running water; but here the water is contained in a vessel, and had therefore simply been filled from a spring or running stream.
Lev_14:6. אֵת. The conjunction which seems to be needed at the beginning of this verse is supplied in the Sam. and 6 MSS. There is nothing in Heb. answering to the as for of the A. V.
Lev_14:8. רָחַץ is applied only to the washing of the surface of objects which water will not penetrate. Comp. Lev_1:9; Lev_1:13; Lev_9:14, etc. It is a different word from כָּבַם of the previous clause, which is used of a more thorough washing or fulling. The English is unable in all cases to preserve the distinction; but it should be done as far as possible, and רָחַץ is frequently translated bathe in the following chapter (Lev_15:5-8; Lev_15:10-11; Lev_15:13; Lev_15:18; Lev_15:21-22; Lev_15:27) and elsewhere.
Lev_14:10. שְׁנֵי־כְבָשִׂים. See Textual Note5 on Lev_3:7. The age is not exactly specified in the Heb.; but the Sam. and LXX. add of the first year, as in the following clause.
Lev_14:10. See Textual Note2 on Lev_2:1.
Lev_14:12. The Sam. and LXX. have the plural. Probably the sing, of the Heb. is not intended to have the priest for its nominative, but to be impersonal.
Lev_14:13. One MS., the Sam., LXX. and Vulg. supply the particle of comparison, כְּ.
Lev_14:17. Two MSS., the LXX. and Vulg. here read, as the Heb. in Lev_14:28, upon the place of the blood.
Lev_14:18. For בַּשֶּׁמֶן three MSS. and the Syr. read מִן־הַשֶׁמֶן, as in Lev_14:16. On this use of בְּ, however, see Fuerst, Lex. בְּ־, 3, b. γ. Gesen. Lex. A. 2.
Lev_14:18. יִתֵּן is better translated put, both as more agreeable to the meaning of the word itself, and because the oil remaining in the left hand could hardly suffice for pouring.
Lev_14:20. The Sam. and LXX. add before the Lord.
Lev_14:23. The preposition is here so liable to be misunderstood that it is better to change it. It has reference to the eighth day appointed for his cleansing (as the Vulg.), not to the sacrifices for his cleansing (as the LXX.). So Geddes and Boothroyd. In Lev_14:10 the difficulty does not occur.
Lev_14:26. עַל־כַּף הַכּהֵן, an expression understood by Houbigant to mean that one priest should pour into the hand of another; the sense given in the A. V. following the Vulg. is, however, doubtless correct.
Lev_14:29. The Sam. here reverses its change of reading in Lev_14:18, and has בְּ for מן.
Lev_14:36. שְׁקַעֲרוּרֹת, a word ἁπ. λέγ., but its meaning sufficiently well ascertained. The A. V. follows the LXX., Chald. and Vulg., and the same sense is given by Rosenm., Fuerst and Gesen, though by each with a different etymology.
Lev_14:37. See Notes13 on Lev_13:19; Lev_13:24 on Lev_14:49.
Lev_14:41. All the ancient versions except the Vulg. change the causative form of the verb to the plural, as the following verb is plural. Also in Lev_14:42-43; Lev_14:45; Lev_14:49, they have the plural.
Lev_14:47. The LXX. here adds, what is of course implied, and be unclean until the even.
Lev_14:51. The LXX. has dip them in the blood of the bird that has been killed over the living water, and this is doubtless the sense of the text.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
A. The Examination and its result.
The indications of the disease. Lev_14:1-8.
Lev_14:1. This communication is addressed to Moses and Aaron conjointly because it requires examinations and determinations entrusted to the priests.
Lev_14:2-8. The first case, of symptoms like leprosy. Lev_14:2. Man is of course used generically for a person of either sex. No stress is to be laid upon the fact that the expression skin of his flesh is found only in this chapter; for the word skin occurs here nearly as often as in all the rest of the Scripture put together, and very similar expressions do occur elsewhere, e.g.Exo_34:29-30; Exo_34:35, “the skin of his face,” and the skin is often spoken of as covering the flesh, e.g.Eze_37:6; Eze_37:8, etc.—A rising, a scab, or a bright spot, are different indications of incipient leprosy; the disease itself was more deeply seated, but it betrayed itself, as it does still, by these marks. The last two terms are only used in connection with this disease, and the first is only elsewhere used figuratively of dignity or excellency. “The name leprosyצָרַעַת is derived from צָרַע=to strike down, to strike to the ground: the leper is he who has been smitten by God.” Lange. For the examination of the leper one of the ordinary priests was sufficient as well as the high-priest; the Talmudists assert that priests debarred by physical imperfection from ministering at the altar were competent to the examination of lepers. The priests were expected, if occasion required, to consult with experts, but the formal sentence rested with them alone.
Lev_14:3. These marks, however, might exist without having been caused by leprosy. Two distinguishing characteristics are now mentioned, and if both these concurred, there could be no doubt about the case—the priest was at once to pronounce him unclean; (a) if the hair growing upon the spot had turned white. The hair of the Israelites was normally black; if it had turned white upon the spot it betrayed a cause at work beneath the surface of the skin. (b) If the spot was in appearance deeper than the skin. “These signs are recognized by modern observers (e.g. Hensler); and among the Arabs leprosy is regarded as curable if the hair remains black upon the white spots, but incurable if it becomes whitish in color.” Keil. Judgment was of course required in the application of the second test; but if the indications were clear, the case was decided, and the duty of the priest was to declare the existing fact.
Lev_14:4-8. The determination of cases in which the indications are not decisive. First, Lev_14:4-6, the case in which the suspicion of leprosy should prove unfounded. If there were suspicious looking spots, but yet they appeared on examination to be merely superficial, and there was no change in the color of the hair growing in them, either of two things might be possible: the spots might be the effect of true leprosy not yet sufficiently developed to give decisive indications: or they might be a mere eruption upon the skin, of no importance. To ascertain which of these was the fact, the priest was to bind up the spot seven days.—At the end of that time a second examination was to be made; if then the indications were favorable, the same process was to be repeated. If at the end of this time the indications were still favorable, and especially if the suspicious spot, had become faint, tending to disappear, the priest was to pronounce the man clean. Yet still the very suspicion, unfounded as it proved to be, had brought some semblance of a taint upon the man, and he must wash his clothes. These two periods of seven days each are usually looked upon as periods of a sort of quarantine, during which the man himself was to be secluded, and this view has been incorporated into the A. V. here and throughout these chapters. It is not, however, required by the Hebrew, and in view of the great hardship it would impose upon those who were in reality entirely free from the disease, it seems more likely that the simple rendering of the Hebrew gives the true sense. The extreme slowness with which leprosy is oftentimes developed has been considered a difficulty in the way of a determination in reality, in so short a time; however, the two things are not at all incompatible. A fortnight was quite long enough to determine the character of any ordinary eruption; if it was none of these, and yet possessed the characteristics of leprosy, then it must be decided to be leprosy, although months or years might pass before the disease showed much further progress. Lev_14:7-8, however, show that even the leprous spots themselves did not remain quite unchanged during this time. On the second examination the priest could ascertain if the spots had begun to spread. If not, the disease, although it might possibly already exist, was not pronounced; but if they had spread, all doubt was at an end; the priest shall pronounce him unclean. Another view is taken of Lev_14:7. Rosenmüller says that in the word לְטָהֳרָתוֹ the לְ is to be taken for postquam as in Exo_19:1; Num_1:1; 1Ki_3:18; this sense is followed in the Vulg. and Luther, and adopted by Vatablus, Patrick, and other commentators. According to this the law would relate to the breaking out of the leprosy afresh at some time after he had been pronounced clean by the priest. The translation of the A. V., however, which is here followed, seems more exactly the sense of the Hebrew.
Lev_14:9-11. The second case is one in which ulceration has already begun. Either it is a long-standing case in which the command for inspection has been neglected, or else one in which sentence of cleanness has been pronounced on insufficient grounds. With the appearance of a mark of raw flesh in the rising, in combination with the other indications, all doubt was removed; it must be an old leprosy, and the priest shall at once pronounce him unclean.
Lev_14:12-17. The third case is looked upon according to differing medical views, either as a different disease, the lepra vulgaris, which “scarcely affects the general health, and for the most part disappears of itself, though it often lasts for years” (Clark); or as a case of the true leprosy in which “the breaking out of the leprous matter in this complete and rapid way upon the surface of the whole body was the crisis of the disease; the diseased matter turned into a scurf, which died away and then fell off” (Keil). Patrick compares it to the eruptions in measles and small pox, when there is safety in their full development. The suspected person thus either had a harmless disease, or he had had the leprosy and was cured. In either case sentence of cleanness was to be pronounced. But (Lev_14:14-15) if ulceration appeared (it would seem either at the moment or afterwards) he was at once to be declared unclean. This ulceration, however, might proceed from some other cause; therefore, although the man must be declared unclean in view of so suspicious an indication, yet if it afterwards passed away, the sentence might be reversed, and the man pronounced clean without further investigation.
Lev_14:18-23. The fourth case is that of a suspected leprosy arising from an abscess or boil which had been healed. Such disturbed conditions of the surface were peculiarly apt to become the seat of disease. The indications are much the same as in the other cases, the terms first mentioned here being equally applicable to the others. Reliance is again placed (Lev_14:20) upon the depth of the spot and the change in the color of the hair. If these indications were clear, as in Lev_14:3, the priest should at once pronounce the man unclean; if they were doubtful, he was to proceed as in Lev_14:4, and be guided by the result of a second examination at the end of seven days. In such a case a single interval of a week appears to have been sufficient, and no further examination is provided for. After one week it could be certainly determined whether it was merely the scar of the ulcer, or whether leprosy had really broken out in it.
Lev_14:24-28. The fifth case is that of suspected leprosy developing from a burn, another of those injuries favorable for the development of the disease. The indications and the procedure are precisely the same as before. In Lev_14:26 the A. V. has inserted the word other unfortunately.
Lev_14:29-37. The case of leprosy suspected in an eruption upon the hairy part of the head, or upon the beard. Although this is spoken expressly in regard to both men and women, yet the indications are so dependent upon hair that it is not proper to substitute here chin for beard, as is done by Keil. The word used זָקָן is a different one from the שָׂפָם of Lev_14:45, which is often translated beard; the Ancient Versions, however, give beard here, and either mouth or lips there. Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. xxvi. 1) speaks of such a disease imported into Italy from Asia in the reign of Tiberius, neither painful nor fatal, “yet any death preferable to it.” In Lev_14:30 the A. V. has unnecessarily modified the symptoms by inserting the indefinite article before yellow thin hair. The word שֵׂעָר is collective, as in Lev_14:3, and freq. In this form of the disease the natural hair seems to have been supplanted by thin, yellow (צַהֹב=golden, shining) hair. This is declared to be נֶתֵק, translated in the A. V. dry scall, and immediately explained as a leprosy upon the head or beard. The word occurs only in these chapters. The indications given in Lev_14:29-30, were not absolutely decisive. It would seem from Lev_14:31, that in the coming on of true leprosy the effect upon the hair was only gradually produced, part of the hair remaining for a time of its natural color; while in the case of other harmless cutaneous eruptions, of more rapid progress, all the hair on the affected spot was speedily changed. Hence the entire absence of black hair at the first was a favorable symptom. In this view the text is consistent enough with itself as it stands, and Keil is wrong in saying “there is certainly an error in the text.” In case of this favorable symptom the priest should bind up the spot for two periods of a week, making a further examination at the end of each of them. The favorable indications were that the spot did not spread, did not appear to be deep-seated, and the yellow hair disappeared. If this was the case at the end of the first period, the person was to be shaven with the exception of the spot, and at the end of the second pronounced clean, and to wash his clothes.—If, however, (Lev_14:35-36) the trouble afterwards spread, the person was to be again examined by the priest, and being satisfied of this single fact, the priest must pronounce him unclean. Yet if this spreading was only temporary, he might finally be pronounced clean (Lev_14:37) provided the natural hair grew again in the spot.
Lev_14:38-39. This is the case of a harmless eruption in the skin termed בֹּהִק, LXX. ἀλφός. It is still known among the Arabs and called by the same name, bohak. “It is an eruption upon the skin, appearing in somewhat elevated spots or rings of unequal sizes and a pale white color, which do not change the hair; it causes no inconvenience, and lasts from two months to two years.” Keil. It is placed here, because it might be, without proper examination, mistaken for leprosy, and its appearance was probably most nearly assimilated to the symptoms last mentioned. The sufferer by it was at once discharged as clean, without further ceremony.
Lev_14:40-44. The baldness of the head, whether on the front or back, constitutes no uncleanness; yet leprosy might be developed in the bald parts, and then was to be dealt with as in other cases. The reason for speaking of baldness at all in this connection is probably that the color of the hair has been made of so much importance in determining the symptoms of leprosy, that the legislator would cut off all opportunity for cavil in suspected cases.
Lev_14:45-46. The law for the pronounced leper. The leper was in the first place to put on the signs of mourning (comp. Eze_24:17; Eze_24:22), some say “for himself as one over whom death had already gained the victory” (Clark); but it may have been merely as a mark of great affliction, and some of the signs were also signs of shame (comp. Mic_3:7). And shall cry, Unclean, unclean, as a warning to any passers by. This command is not, as sometimes asserted, to guard against the danger of communicating the disease; but rather to avoid making others ceremonially unclean by contact with a leper. The Rabbins carried this sort of defilement so far as to assert that “by merely entering a house, a leper polluted everything without it,” (Mishna, Kelim i. 4; Negaim xiii. 11, as cited by Keil). All the days.—The law constantly keeps in view the possibility of the recovery of the leper; but it is uncertain whether this indicates that the true leprosy was then less incurable than now, or whether it has regard to the possibility of error in the determination of the disease. In either case, while the symptoms continued for which he had been pronounced unclean, and until by the same authority he was again formally declared clean (Lev_14:1-32), he was to dwell apart; without the camp. Comp. Num_5:2-4; Num_12:14-15; 2Ki_15:5; Luk_17:12. The Jews say that there were three camps from all of which the leper was excluded: that of God (the tabernacle), that of the Levites, and that of Israel. After the settlement in the Holy Land the camp was considered in this, as in other commands, to be represented by the walled city. Yet after the erection of synagogues lepers were allowed to enter a particular part of them set apart for their use, (Mishna ubi supra).
B. Leprosy in clothing and Leather, Lev_13:47-59.
Only three materials for clothing are here mentioned: wool, linen, and skins. The two former were the usual materials among the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and only these are mentioned Deu_22:11; Pro_31:13; Hos_2:9. It is a dispute among the Talmudists whether garments of camel’s hair are included or not. Woolen and linen were forbidden by the law (Lev_19:19) to be mixed in the same garment. On the nature of the leprosy here described, see the preliminary note to this chapter. Lev_14:48. Whether it be in the warp or woof has occasioned much unnecessary perplexity on account of the supposed difficulty in one of these remaining unaffected in the cloth by any disintegration occurring in the other; and Keil would translate “the flax and the wool;” Clark, De Wette, Knobel and others, (with whom Keil also seems to concur) explain it of yarn prepared for warp and yarn prepared for woof. There is really however, no difficulty in the matter, if the trouble is supposed to arise from some original fault in the material or in the processes of its preparation. Whichever was made of such material would first show the defect, and it could be seen in the cloth that the trouble arose from either the warp or the woof, as the case might be. The same sort of thing is sometimes observed in cloth now when the proper proportion has not been observed between the strength of the two kinds of thread, so that the cloth will tear with undue ease in one direction but not in the other; or when, in cloth woven of different colors, one set of threads has been injured in the dyeing. A distinction is made between a skin and any thing made of skin. The former were whole skins, as sheep skins dressed with the wool on for a sort of cloak for the poor, or for mats, etc., and also made into leather for bottles and other uses; the latter the endless variety of smaller articles made of leather. Lev_14:49. A strong green or red spot was prima facie evidence of leprosy, and subjected that in which it appeared to priestly examination. According to Maimonides (cited by Patrick) the spot must be “as broad as a bean,” and if smaller than this was of no consequence. Lev_14:50. Bind up the spot.—Here as in Lev_14:4, etc., the usual interpretation is that of the A. V., shut up it that hath the spot; but the Hebrew in all these places only means necessarily the binding up of the spot itself, not a sort of quarantine upon the person or thing on which it is. See Textual note 4. In this case there is not the same hardship involved in the other rendering as in the case of the human subject: but still the rendering is objectionable as implying much more strongly than the law itself the idea of contagiousness. Lev_14:51-57 describe the appearances by which the priest must determine whether the suspicious spots were really leprosy or not. These turn upon whether the spot increased. If it did, then he was at once to burn that garment. The expression in Lev 14:52, 58, whether warp or woof, and in Lev_14:56 out of the warp or out of the woof is to be understood of the cloth in which the disease has appeared in either the warp or the woof. Fretting, Lev_14:51-52(Bochart, lepra exasperata), is equivalent to corroding. If however, the spot had not increased at the examination made at the end of a week, the suspected article was to be washed and the process repeated. If at the end of another week after the washing there was no change in the color of the spot, the thing was to be condemned and burned, although there was no apparent spreading. In such case it is fret inward,i.e., the material itself was faulty and unfit for use. Whether it be bare within or without; lit. bald in the head thereof, or in the forehead thereof, (Margin A. V. See Texual note 20). As the disease itself is figuratively named from its resemblance to the human leprosy, so these terms are used in the same way, and are generally considered to mean the right or the wrong side of the cloth or skin. On the other hand, if at the end of the week after the washing the spot had become less distinct (Lev_14:56), it was to be torn out of the garment or skin. If it reappeared (Lev_14:57) the thing was to be burned; but otherwise (Lev 14:58) to be washed a second time and then pronounced clean. Lev 14:59 is simply the usual conclusion, stating that the foregoing is the law for the cases specified.
C. Cleansing and restoration of the leper, Lev_14:1-32.
This communication was addressed to Moses alone, because there were no questions to be determined by priestly examination; it simply directs what is to be done in the case of a person already pronounced clean by the priest. Lev_14:1-20 prescribe the normal course, Lev_14:21-31 allow certain modifications for the poor, and Lev_14:32 is the conclusion.
A new Proper Lesson of the law begins here, and extends to the close of the following chapter; the parallel lesson from the prophets is 2Ki_7:3-20, containing the account brought into Samaria by the four lepers of the flight, of the besieging army of the Syrians.
Lange: “a. The theocratico-political atonement, or the taking again of the person pronounced clean into the camp, i.e., into the congregation of the people. Hence this first act of atonement took place without the camp (later, before the gate of the city). The leper was to be represented by two birds, living and clean. They must be wild birds, since the tame turtle doves or the young pigeons would not have flown away when released. Since these birds represent the maximum of free motion, we may certainly find this thought indicated: want of free motion was a chief cause of the leprosy.” [This inference, however, it is to be remembered, is only an inference, not a part of the law which carefully abstains from any mention of the causes]. “One of these birds was slain over a vessel in which there was already some fresh spring or river water. It is not to be understood that in this the purification by water was indicated together with the atoning blood, since the washing follows farther on; on the contrary, in the fresh water the thought of living motion is again brought out. The blood of the slain bird dropped into this water; the few drops of blood, in and of themselves, would not suffice for the sprinkling. Nevertheless also, the blood of the slain bird considered as typically sick, through death became fresh again in its signification. The living bird, which was to remain alive, was dipped in the augmented blood of the dead bird. But very note-worthy are the allegorical accompaniments which jointly serve to illustrate the living bird, and were therefore dipped with it in the blood; a piece of cedar wood, as a symbol of the endurance of life; a piece of scarlet, as a symbol of the freshness of life; some hyssop, as a symbol of the purity of life through constant purifications of life.” (See Keil, p. 106, [trans., p. 385 s.]). After the living bird with these accompaniments had been dipped in the blood, the person to be cleansed was sprinkled seven times with this blood. No further mention is made of the dead bird, since its flesh was not a sacrifice; but the living bird, hallowed by the blood of the dead, is set free. We may rightly see in the two birds the double position of the leper in his leprosy: in the slain bird he appears as he had fallen into death; in the one that is set free, on the contrary, he appears as by God’s mercy he is recovered to unrestrained motion. But we might also in this contrast find the thought, that the leprosy, as it falls upon one part of the community, keeps the other part all the more free; or, that health and disease are separated as opposite poles in regard to the common national life. In any case, it is a fact that, in regions where Cretinism prevails, which is analogous to leprosy, the freshest and strongest forms occur near the sick. Meanwhile, the person sprinkled with the blood must complete this purification in several ways: first, by washing his clothes; secondly, by cutting off all his hair from his whole body, (whether also his eyebrows and eyelashes?); thirdly, by bathing himself. Then he might go into the camp, but must yet add seven days more on the outside of his tent. Why? Keil answers with the Chaldee et non accedat ad latus uxoris suæ. But the law would not have been too modest to say so. With this is to be noticed that this same direction is applied to several analogous cases. He who is healed of a running issue, must wait seven days after the recognition of his healing before he can bring his sacrifice (Lev_15:13). The same applies to the woman with an issue of blood (ib. 28). So too, for the Nazarite in whose presence a man had died (Num_6:10). Particularly weighty is the direction of the seven days’ waiting which, according to Lev_8:35, must introduce the final consecration of the priests. We cannot say that during these seven days the priest was yet unclean; but he had not indeed become fully clean for the service of the priesthood. When we look back at the ordinance of the second seven days in reference to one who has been recognized as clean—the leprous man, or garment, or house,—there appears a distinction of cleanness of a first and second grade, a negative and a positive cleanness, which latter was a kind of priestly consecration. Every Israelite, in his degree should have this priestly consecration; but especially near to it stood the Nazarite, and next to him we place the cleansed leper. In the new covenant, the highly favored sinner stands higher than the Christian of less experience of salvation; the son, who was lost and found, higher than the elder brother; Mary Magdalene higher than a common maiden.” [It must be always borne in mind, however, that this superiority does not rest upon any advantage in having sinned, but upon the earnestness of love on the part of him who has been forgiven. See Luk_7:47. F. G.]. “This fact appears to have been typically represented in the Old Testament by the restoration of the cleansed leper to the worship of the congregation.” [It was represented, that is to say, in the very full ceremonies and sacrifices accompanying the restoration, but not in any higher position of the cleansed leper after his restoration was accomplished.—F. G.].
“b. The theocratico-religious atonement. The offering obligatory upon the leper was very extensive; two he-lambs, one ewe-lamb, three tenth parts of wheaten flour mingled with oil, and a log of oil. The trespass offering formed the beginning of the offering, for the leper has by the connection with his people come into its guilt.” [Nevertheless, it is hard to see how this could have been the reason, when the leper had been absolutely separated from his people, and was now to be restored to his connection with them. But see under Lev_14:12.—F. G.]. “The blood of this trespass offering was first treated like the blood of the trespass offering of the priest; it was put on the tip of the right ear, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the thumb or great toe of the right foot, all with the same meaning as in the consecration of the priests. In addition to this, the oil comes into use, which indeed, as being common oil, is different from the anointing oil of the priests, but is still a symbol of the Spiritual life. With this oil in minute measure, the priest, with a finger of his right hand dipped in the oil which had been poured into the hollow of the left, executed a seven-fold sprinkling before the Lord, i.e., towards the sanctuary. Then, with the rest of the oil, the three parts of the body were anointed which had been smeared with the blood of the trespass offering. The blood baptism preceded, as the negative consecration; the oil baptism must follow, as the positive atonement. The head of the leper was also anointed with the oil. He was thus to be made a man of the Spirit in each way, by his tribulation, and his deliverance. Then followed the sin offering, for which, in accordance with Lev_4:28; Lev_4:32, the ewe-lamb was to be used. In this place the addition is made: he shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed [Lev_14:31]. Plainly his sin is assumed in this to be individual guilt, in contradistinction from his share in the common guilt. It is rightly presupposed that the leprosy in each one stands in connection with his individual sinfulness; however light, it has for its result, sins of ill-will, of bitterness, of impatience, of self-forgetfulness, of prejudice toward the community. Now first can the presentation of the burnt offering follow, with the other he-lamb, and with the meat offering.”
“The ordinance may be modified in case the person to be purified is poor. The direction for the sacrifice itself is indeed almost analogous to the direction in the case of the poor woman in child-birth; only here the lamb for the trespass offering, the tenth deal of wheaten flour sprinkled with oil for a meat offering, and the log of oil for anointing, could not be dispensed with by the bringing of two doves or young pigeons. Moreover, the trespass offering, as well as the oil, is directed to be made a wave-offering before Jehovah. It is the same ritual as the wave or the consecration offering at the consecration of the priests (Lev_8:22; Lev_8:27). Thus this waving here also can only signify a peculiar consecration of the leper, which is more strongly expressed in the case of the poor leper who must be shaken free with his gift, must be brought to a swinging up, or heave offering (Aufschwung).”
Some points in the above will be found differently treated below.
Lev_14:1-3. The starting point for the following directions is the priestly inspection of the leper supposed to be healed. This must take place without the camp, and if it resulted favorably, then the following directions were to be observed. (The expression נִרְפָּא מִן, as Keil notes, is a “const. prægnans, healed away from, i.e., healed and gone away from”).
Lev_14:4-8. The restoration to the camp. This was formally accomplished by a very full and significant ritual, proportioned to the abhorrence in which leprosy was to be held, and the rigidness of the exclusion of the leper from the society of his people. There was no sacrifice, since the person to be cleansed was not yet in a condition to offer sacrifice, nor was anything offered, or even brought by him, nor was anything placed upon the altar. The ceremony was, however, a purification which is always related to sacrifice as a symbolic step towards a restoration to fellowship with God.
For the significance of the things used in this ceremony, Abarbanel is quoted by Patrick to the following effect: the living birds signify that the leper’s dead flesh was restored to life and vigor; the cedar wood restoration from putrefaction; the scarlet (wool, or thread, or a bit of cloth) restoration of the color of health to the complexion; the hyssop (which was fragrant) restoration from the exceedingly ill odor of the disease.
An earthen vessel was taken—probably that after this use it might be broken up and destroyed—and partly filled with water from a spring or brook, and one of the birds killed over it in such a way that its blood should fall into and be mingled with the water. In this the living bird was to be dipped with the other things, and then the person to be cleansed was sprinkled with it with that sevenfold sprinkling prescribed on occasions of peculiar solemnity (see Lev_4:6); and the person was then to be pronounced clean. After this the living bird was let loose into the open field. In attempting to estimate the significance of this rite, it is to be remembered that precisely the same ritual is prescribed for the cleansing of the leprous house (Lev_14:49-53), and the cedar, scarlet and hyssop, were also burned with the red heifer, whose ashes, placed in water, were to be used for purifications (Num_19:6). The water, the blood, the cedar and the scarlet are mentioned in the Ep. to the Heb. (Lev_9:19-20) as having been used by Moses in sprinkling the Book of the Covenant and the people (see Exo_24:6-8), and generally hyssop was used in various forms of sprinkling. Except therefore in regard to the birds, no significance can be attributed to these things which is not common to other purifications besides those of the leper, and even in regard to the birds, none which is not common to the cleansing of the leprous man and the leprous house (Lev_14:53). In view of this, and of the analogy of the scapegoat (Lev_16:21-22), the living bird let loose must be considered as bearing away the unclean-ness of the leper (Von Gerlach), and not as signifying the social resurrection of the leper in his restoration to the congregation. Of this last, the bird flying away to return no more could hardly have been a symbol. On the natural history of the cedar (Juniperus oxycedrus), and the hyssop, see Clarke. The scarlet is said in the Mishna to have been used for tying the other things to the living bird when they were dipped together in the water mingled with blood. Nothing is said of the disposal of all these things after they had fulfilled their purpose. After this ceremonial, the symbolical cleansing was still further set forth (Lev_14:8) by the leper’s washing his clothes, and shaving off all his hair, and bathing himself. He might then enter the camp, but not yet his own tent. This remaining restriction seems designed to still further impress upon the mind the fearful character of the disease from which the leper had recovered: and still more, to postpone the full restoration of the leper to his family until he had first, by the prescribed sacrifices, been restored to fellowship with God.
Lev_14:9. After an interval of a week, the restored person was to be again shaved completely, to again wash his clothes, and again bathe himself. He was now prepared to offer the prescribed sacrifices on the following day; for he was now clean.
Lev_14:10-20. The restoration to fellowship with God, and admission to the sanctuary. Now for the first time the cleansed leper brings himself the things necessary for the completion of his cleansing. Three victims are to be offered; for a trespass, for a sin, and for a burnt offering. With these also he brought the prescribed oblation and the oil for his anointing; the oil was to be waved with the trespass offering (Lev_14:12) as its consecration to God, and the whole oblation (although three tenth deals seem to be required with reference to the three sacrifices) was to be offered upon the altar with the burnt offering (Lev_14:20). The flour amounted to nearly six quarts, the separate oil to about half a pint. Lev_14:12. Offer him for a trespass offering.—The offering thus designated was not required to be of a definite value, as in the ordinary trespass offerings, and it was altogether peculiar in its ritual, being waved with the oil for a wave offering before the Lord.—This was never done with any part of the ordinary trespass offering (Lev_5:14 to Lev_6:7); only in the sacrifice of Lev_23:20 was the whole victim ever waved; as still another peculiarity, the wave offering was placed in this case, not in the hands of the offerer, but in those of the priest. What then was here the significance of the waving? Keil, Clark, and others, consider it as a consecration of the cleansed leper represented by the victim. It is true that there was, in the ritual as a whole, a kind of consecration of the person to his restored position as one of the people of the Lord; but this can scarcely have been the meaning of this particular ceremony. When the Levites were consecrated to the service of the Lord by a wave offering, they were themselves waved (Num_8:11; Heb. A. V. marg.); when the priests were consecrated, the wave offering was placed in their hands, and consisted of certain parts, not, of a trespass offering, but of their “ram of consecration” (Lev_8:25-28); when portions of the ordinary peace offerings were consecrated by waving, they were always placed in the hands of the offerer. From all these the waving of the whole ram of the leper’s trespass offering essentially differs; nor does it seem possible that it could signify his consecration, unless it were in some way placed in his own hands. More probably, this part of the ritual was simply designed to distinguish the leper’s from the ordinary trespass offering; that while it was still to be classed generically with that offering, it was yet specifically distinct from it. A consideration of this fact will remove, partially at least, the difficulty of understanding why a trespass offering should have been required of the cleansed leper. The reason given by Oehler and others, that it was a kind of fine, or satisfaction rendered for the fact, that during the whole period of his sickness, in consequence of his exclusion from the camp, the leper had failed to perform his theocratic duties, is shown by Keil to be entirely untenable, since no such offering was required in parallel cases of persons excluded from the sanctuary when affected with diseased secretions; to this it may be added, that no penalty was required, as in the case of trespass offerings for such offences. Nor is the reason above given by Lange quite satisfactory. The true idea in this offering seems to be that the leper, by his very sickness, had been in the condition of an offender against the theocratic law of purity; yet that this was, in his case, not an actual, but only a quasi trespass, is shown by the omission to require it to be of definite value and by the ritual directing it to be made also into a wave offering. The leper had not merely failed to present his required offerings in consequence of his exclusion from the camp, but he had actually lived in a condition of extremest theocratic uncleanness (far more so than in the case of the secretions), and consequently in symbolic opposition to the Head of the theocracy. He must therefore present a trespass offering; but as all this had been done not only involuntarily, but most unwillingly, the offering was distinguished by being waved. Lev_14:13. For as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering.—This, already known as the general law (Lev_7:7), is here repeated, because otherwise the peculiarity of this trespass offering might seem to make it an exception. It is most holy. See on Lev_2:3.
In regard to the order of the various offerings: here the sin offering (Lev_14:19) precedes the burnt offering according to the general rule; but the trespass offering comes before them both. The reason above given why the trespass offering should have been offered at all, explains also why it should have been offered first. In the case of the reconsecration of the defiled Nazarite (Num_6:11-12), the condition of the offerer was different; he was already in full standing as a member of the theocracy, and offered the sin-offering first, and then the trespass offering. Here the healed leper must present the trespass offering first, as the mark of his restoration to the privileges of the theocratic community, before he offers any other sacrifice.
The restored leper was touched with the blood of the victim (Lev_14:14) in the same way as the priests with the blood of the ram of consecration (Lev_8:23), and doubtless with the same general symbolical meaning. Next comes the use of the oil. It was first employed in a sevenfold sprinkling towards the sanctuary (Lev_14:16), and then touched with the finger of the priest upon all the points which had already been touched with the blood of the victim, “which seems to have been a token of forgiveness by the blood, and of healing by the oil.” Patrick. With the remnant of the oil in his hand, the priest was to anoint the head of him that is to be cleansed. In all this then there appears with sufficient plainness, a kind of consecration; but it was a consecration, not to any peculiar position or privilege, but simply to his becoming again one of the chosen people—the nation who were by their calling “a kingdom of priests,”—from whom he had been temporarily excluded. This is sufficiently shown by the following clause, to make an atonement for him before the LORD. The unction was not as a propitiation for his sin. in the ordinary sense of the word—that is provided for by the same expression in connection with the sin offering in the following verse (Lev_14:19); but it was to cover over the gulf by which he had been separated, to make an at-one-ment for him who had been alienated and separated by his leprosy. Then follows the sin offering with its proper atonement. There need be no question here of the propriety of the sin offering; it was always in place for sinful man, but especially for one who had been so long debarred from bringing it to the altar. Lastly, came also (Lev_14:20) the burnt offering with its atonement. With the last was offered a three-fold oblation; for although the oblation might not be offered with the trespass and sin offering, yet in this case these were so peculiar in their use that they were able each to pass on an additional oblation, as it were, to the burnt offering.
Lev_14:21-31. The alternative offering of the poor leper. In this case all things proceed as before with the same offerings and the same ritual, except that for the sin and burnt offerings, turtle doves or young pigeons are allowed, and the oblation is reduced to the normal oblation for the burnt offering (Num_15:4) of one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil.
It will be seen that the restoration of the healed leper thus consisted of several stages. First, he was examined by the priest, and satisfactory evidence being found that the disease was cured, he was then purified without the camp by a solemn and significant ceremonial, which yet was not a sacrifice. After this he was admitted to the camp, but must still remain a week without entering either his own tent or the sanctuary. At the end of this time he offered a singularly full and solemn sacrifice, consisting of a modified trespass offering, together with a sin and burnt offering. He was touched with the blood of his offering and anointed with oil. Each stage of his restoration was marked by lustrations. Thus at last was he once more restored to full communion with God and full fellowship with the covenant people.
D. Leprosy in a house. Lev_14:33-53.
The communication on this subject is again addressed to Moses and Aaron conjointly, since here again the exercise of the priestly functions of examination and determination is called into play (Lev_14:33), and it all looks forward distinctly to the future, when ye be come into the land of Canaan(Lev_14:34), for in the wilderness, of course, they had no houses. The wholly prospective character of this part of the law explains why it is placed last of all.
“This regulation is plainly concerning keeping the houses clean,—the sanitary police as regards the houses;—just as the Jewish poor-law (see Winer, Art. Arme etc.) is a striking proof of the humanity of the Mosaic legislation. One may well say:—the tender care for the superintendence of health and of the poor, which here appears in Israel in typical and legal form, still in the Christian commonwealth comes far short of the true spiritual realization. Trouble of dwellings and poor troubles, bad dwellings and faulty superintendence of the poor, are a chapter which our time has first taken into the circle of its activity.” Lange. That the “leprous” houses were unhealthy, does not yet seem established on sufficient proof; so far as this law is concerned, it may be that the legislation rests entirely on other grounds. At the same time, the view of Lange may be true.
Lev_14:34. I put the spot of leprosy in a house.—“Thus also these evil conditions in houses are decrees of Jehovah. As the house is the enlarged human family, so the decree upon the house is an enlargement of the decree upon man.” Lange. “Jehovah here speaks as the Lord of all created things, determining their decay and destruction, as well as their production; comp. Isa_45:7.” Clark. Abundant quotations from Jewish authorities are cited by Patrick, showing that they looked upon this infliction (from which, however, they considered Jerusalem to be exempted) as a special and direct divine judgment. Certainly, as Keil notes in opposition to Knobel, the expression here excludes the idea that the leprosy was communicated to houses by infection from man; and this becomes still more certain from the fact that the people who had been in the house are regarded as clean.
When notice had been sent to the priest (Lev_14:35) of a suspicious appearance in the house, he was first to order it to be “cleared (Lev_14:36), lest everything in it should become unclean. Consequently, as what was in the house became unclean only when the priest had declared the house affected with leprosy, the reason for the defilement is not to be sought for in physical infection, but must have been of an ideal or symbolical kind.” Keil. The rules guiding the priestly examination, and the course to be pursued in consequence of his decision (Lev_14:37-47), are as nearly as possible like those given in the case of cloth and of skin. First: If on the preliminary examination there seemed to be good ground for suspicion, the house was to be shut up for a week (Lev_14:38); it was then re-examined, and if the grounds of suspicion were confirmed by the spread of the trouble, the affected stones were to be taken out, the inside of the house scraped, and the stones and dirt to be carried without the city unto an unclean place. Then other stones were to be put in their place, and the house plastered with other mortar, (Lev_14:42). This ended the matter, if no fresh ground of suspicion arose. But if the trouble reappeared, the priest must examine the house once more, and if he found that the leprosy had broken out afresh, he must command the entire demolition of the house, and the carrying forth of its material to an unclean place (Lev_14:45). Any one entering the house while shut up became unclean till evening; and if he ate or slept in the house, he must also wash his clothes (Lev_14:46-47). From what has been said before, it is clear that the ground of this provision was not any supposed danger of infection, but to prevent the contraction of symbolical uncleanness.
Lev_14:48-53. The ceremony of purification. In case the leprosy did not spread in the house after the means used for its cure, the priest was to pronounce it clean, and then to perform purificatory rites exactly like those used for the leper without the camp. In reference to the views expressed there, Lange says, here “One may indeed ask whether the allegorizing there spoken of would also be proper here. The contrast between the living bird, which flies free, and the dead bird, seems here to illustrate the contrast between the healthy sojourn under God’s free heaven, and the harmful sojourn in musty, diseased houses. But the fact is also here well worthy of note, that there is not the least mention made of any atoning worship.” In ver 53 it is said that the priest shall make an atonement for the house. This is often spoken of as figurative; but in fact it is better to take it quite literally. According to the primary meaning of the Hebrew word “he shall cover,” i.e., he shall, by this ceremony, put out of sight the uncleanness of the house; or in its derived and customary sense, he shall make an at-one-ment, i.e., he shall restore the house from its tainted character, shut up and forbidden to be used, to its proper relations and purposes. On leprosy in garments and houses, see preliminary note.
E. Conclusion. Lev_14:54-57.
These verses simply form the conclusion of the whole law of leprosy contained in chapters 13 and 14. Although these chapters are made up of no less than three separate divine communications (Lev_13:1; Lev_14:1; Lev_14:33), yet they constitute altogether but one closely connected series of laws. The summary is in the usual form; but in Lev_14:56 the names of the symptoms of various forms of leprosy are repeated from Lev_13:2.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. On leprosy in clothes: “The alternative, according to which the Levitical regulations are to have either a religious typical meaning alone, or a dietetic sanitary purpose alone, is here shown with especial clearness to be incorrect. The typical point, indeed, is not to be mistaken: even the attire of men was not to be infected with plague spots of sinful corruption. But not less prominently, the point of the moral duty of cleanliness is brought forward upon a religious basis.” Lange. Exeg.
II. On leprosy in man: “We must distinguish between the horror of death of the Grecian spirit, and the theocratic antipathy against the signs of death in life, and the remains of the living in the corpse. The act of dying was ethical for the Hebrews in a bad, or in a good sense. Even the Old Testament knows an ethical Euthanasia opposed to the death of despair. But in a sphere where all is founded upon immortal life, a being for life and not for death, all signs of decay must be put aside.” Lange, Exeg.
III. The peculiar defilement of leprosy, leading to exclusion from the camp, or in other words, to excommunication from the ancient church, evidently has its foundation in the peculiar character of the disease. It was especially associated with death, usually ultimately resulting in death, and being in its later stages, a sort of living death—a death already begun in the members—and presenting a fearful image of death. But death was the sentence upon sin, and hence leprosy and its treatment have always been understood as symbolizing sin and its treatment, both by Jewish and Christian commentators.
IV. The examination and determination of leprosy was intrusted to the priests, not on account of their being supposed to possess superior medical knowledge, but only in view of its theocratic relations. Any other treatment of the leper might properly be undertaken by physicians when any were to be had; but the exclusion of the leper from, or his restoration to the commonwealth of Israel, the communion of the church of God, was properly a priestly act. It is to this alone that the law applies. This was indeed, in strictness the province of God Himself; but as He committed the administration of His church in general to human hands, so also particularly in this matter. The sentence of the priests was final, and admitted of no appeal; the authority had been Divinely committed to them, and although they might perhaps sometimes decide wrongly, there was no other redress than a further examination when there seemed to be occasion for it, by the same authority. Thus was the priestly authority to bind and loose in the ancient church confirmed in heaven. Of course their decrees of exclusion from the earthly church did not determine anything concerning the leper’s salvation.
V. By the extension of the term leprosy to garments and houses, and the similar treatment of them when thus affected, it seems to be taught that there is not merely an analogy, but a certain sympathy between man and the inanimate things by which he is surrounded. (Comp. Rom_8:22). They are to be associated in his mind with his own state and condition, and are to be so treated as to bring home to him in a lively way the things that concern himself. The Rabbins consider the trouble in houses as confined to the land of Canaan, and Divinely sent as a warning to the people against their sinfulness. If this warning were unheeded, then the leprosy passed to their clothes, and finally to their persons. However this may be, it is noticeable that the leprosy here treated is only, as suggested by Lange, in the various habitations of the human spirit; in the body, which is indeed an actual part of the man himself, but which is often looked upon and spoken of as the tabernacle of the soul; in the clothing, which was a still more outer covering; and finally in the house, the outermost dwelling. Not a word is ever spoken of leprosy in animals.
VI. In the ceremonial for the purification of leprosy, so much more full than for any other defilement, it is seen how the purificatory rites rise in importance as the uncleanness becomes a more striking symbol of the impurity of sin. This symbolism reached its climax in the leper, and in his purification; but yet it was only symbolism; for as the defilement of sin lies deeper, so must the sacrifice for its removal be higher.
VII. Calvin observes that the final cleansing of the leper was appointed for the eighth day after his entrance into the camp. As his circumcision, or first admission into the church of God was on the eighth day after his birth into the world; so now he was, on the corresponding day, to be born again into the church after his exclusion. Another parallel, too, may be here carried out between first entering into communion with God, and being restored to it by repentance after having been alienated by sin.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
“The priestly people of God have always a war to wage with the defilements of the natural life.… Especially is the uncleanness of leprosy, and in it of all diseases, to be combated; so also all the Unhealthy conditions of houses and clothes are an object of the priestly battle, of the wrestling after an ideal moulding of all the conditions of life. How much these costly types still lack of their complete fulfillment in the Christian community has already been pointed out.” Lange.
Leprosy defiled all who came in contact with it; a lively image of the contaminating effect of sin. See 1Co_15:33. Yet it did not defile the priests, who were to make a close and careful inspection of it, because this was their commanded duty; so neither does sin contaminate those who, in the fear of God and as duty to Him, strive to the utmost to recover and save the sinner.
As the priest for the purification of the leper went without the camp, and there stayed and held converse with the leper for his cleansing, so Christ left His dwelling-place in heaven and came among sinners that He might purify them from their sin. Hesychius. “It is remarkable how well even the Jewish teachers themselves understood the symbolical meaning of this regulation” [concerning the exclusion of the leper from the camp]; “for thus speaks one of them on this place: ‘If a man considers this, he will be humbled and ashamed on account of his sin; since every sin is a leprosy, a spot upon his soul. And, as it is written of the leper, his clothes shall be rent, etc.; in like manner, the defilement on his soul, which is far removed from the holiness on high, shall equally separate him from the camp of Israel. And if a man turns to repentance in order to be cleansed from his spots, behold he is clean from his leprosy, but otherwise the leprosy remains clinging to his soul; and in this world, and in the world to come, he is far removed from the whole camp there above until he has become cleansed.’ The law instructs how to know leprosy, pronounces the leper unclean, shuts him out from the congregation, but it has not power to heal him; this was reserved for the Son of God, to cleanse bodily in figure, and spiritually also, as the true Redeemer from sin and its consequences.” Von Gerlach.
“Ceremonial uncleanness involves ceremonial guilt, and demands an atonement. So moral impurity involves moral guilt, which requires a propitiation. The uncleanness and the guilt mutually imply each other; yet they are totally distinct, and must be removed by totally different means. The Spirit of God by the truth of Revelation removes moral impurity; the Mediator, by His undertaking for the guilty, relieves him from the consequences of his guilt.…. The symbols of purification and propitiation come together in the ceremonial connected with the leper’s re-entrance into communion with God. The water and the blood meet in the initial sacrifice; the oil and the blood are associated in the final one.” Murphy.
As the cicatrices left by ulcers and burns were points where leprosy was peculiarly likely to be developed, so Origen, following the allegorical interpretation, notes that the wounds upon the soul, though healed, are peculiarly liable to become the occasion for the development of sin. The integrity of purity once lost, there is a dangerous spot in the heart which needs the care of the great Physician of souls.
The Christian Fathers generally give a spiritual interpretation of the two birds used in the purification of the leper or the leprous house. Thus Theodoret (Qu. 19): “They contain a type of the Passion of salvation. For as the one bird was slain and the other, dipped in its blood, was set free; so our Lord was crucified for leprous humanity, the flesh indeed receiving death, but the Divinity appropriating to itself the suffering of the humanity.” This thought is quite common in the Fathers. The two birds typify the two natures of Christ, and the purification of the sinner is accomplished only by their union in Him.
The Fathers also consider the leprous house symbolical of Israel. (See e.g. Theodoret. Qu. 18): Israel was examined and purified, and the evil stones of its building removed by the many judgments upon the nation, and especially by the carrying away “without the camp” to Babylon. But at last when its incurable sin broke out afresh in the crucifixion of the Lord of life, the whole house was pulled down and its stones cast out into an unclean place.
Blood and water are constantly joined together in the purifications of the law, as in this of leprosy, so in all other cases. Whatever may be the underlying truth on which this symbolism rests, the symbolism itself culminates in the reality of the purification for sin accomplished by Christ upon the cross, out of whose side flowed the blood and the water for the cleansing of the world. See Joh_19:34; 1Jn_5:6; 1Jn_5:8.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev_14:2. נֶגַע, a word of very frequent occurrence in these two chapters where it is uniformly translated in the A. V. (except Lev_13:42-43, sore) plague, as it is also in Gen_12:17; Exo_11:1; Deu_24:8 (in reference also to leprosy); 1Ki_8:37-38; Psa_91:10. Elsewhere the renderings of the A. V. are very various: sore, stroke, stripe, wound. By far the most common rendering in the LXX. is ἁφή=tactus, ictus. The idea of the word is a stroke or blow, and then the effect of this in a wound or spot. Clark therefore would translate here stroke, which meets well enough the meaning of the word itself, but does not in all cases convey the sense in English. It is perhaps impossible to find one word in English which can be used in all cases; but that which seems best adapted to Leviticus is the one given by Horsley and Lee, and adopted here: spot. So Keil, Wilson and others. There is no article in the Heb.
[2] Chap. 14. Lev_14:4. The Sam., LXX. and Syr. here read the verb in the plural, expressing the fulfillment of the command.
[3]Lev_14:4. The margin of the A. V. reads sparrows, for which there seems to be no other authority than the Vulg. The Heb. does not define the kind of bird at all.
[4]Lev_14:5. Better, living water, which is the exact rendering of the Heb. Ordinarily living water is a figure for running water; but here the water is contained in a vessel, and had therefore simply been filled from a spring or running stream.
[5]Lev_14:6. אֵת. The conjunction which seems to be needed at the beginning of this verse is supplied in the Sam. and 6 MSS. There is nothing in Heb. answering to the as for of the A. V.
[6]Lev_14:8. רָחַץ is applied only to the washing of the surface of objects which water will not penetrate. Comp. Lev_1:9; Lev_1:13; Lev_9:14, etc. It is a different word from כָּבַם of the previous clause, which is used of a more thorough washing or fulling. The English is unable in all cases to preserve the distinction; but it should be done as far as possible, and רָחַץ is frequently translated bathe in the following chapter (Lev_15:5-8; Lev_15:10-11; Lev_15:13; Lev_15:18; Lev_15:21-22; Lev_15:27) and elsewhere.
[7]Lev_14:10. שְׁנֵי־כְבָשִׂים. See Textual Note5 on Lev_3:7. The age is not exactly specified in the Heb.; but the Sam. and LXX. add of the first year, as in the following clause.
[8]Lev_14:10. See Textual Note2 on Lev_2:1.
[9]Lev_14:12. The Sam. and LXX. have the plural. Probably the sing, of the Heb. is not intended to have the priest for its nominative, but to be impersonal.
[10]Lev_14:13. One MS., the Sam., LXX. and Vulg. supply the particle of comparison, כְּ.
[11]Lev_14:17. Two MSS., the LXX. and Vulg. here read, as the Heb. in Lev_14:28, upon the place of the blood.
[12]Lev_14:18. For בַּשֶּׁמֶן three MSS. and the Syr. read מִן־הַשֶׁמֶן, as in Lev_14:16. On this use of בְּ, however, see Fuerst, Lex. בְּ־, 3, b. γ. Gesen. Lex. A. 2.
[13]Lev_14:18. יִתֵּן is better translated put, both as more agreeable to the meaning of the word itself, and because the oil remaining in the left hand could hardly suffice for pouring.
[14]Lev_14:20. The Sam. and LXX. add before the Lord.
[15]Lev_14:23. The preposition is here so liable to be misunderstood that it is better to change it. It has reference to the eighth day appointed for his cleansing (as the Vulg.), not to the sacrifices for his cleansing (as the LXX.). So Geddes and Boothroyd. In Lev_14:10 the difficulty does not occur.
[16]Lev_14:26. עַל־כַּף הַכּהֵן, an expression understood by Houbigant to mean that one priest should pour into the hand of another; the sense given in the A. V. following the Vulg. is, however, doubtless correct.
[17]Lev_14:29. The Sam. here reverses its change of reading in Lev_14:18, and has בְּ for מן.
[18]Lev_14:36. שְׁקַעֲרוּרֹת, a word ἁπ. λέγ., but its meaning sufficiently well ascertained. The A. V. follows the LXX., Chald. and Vulg., and the same sense is given by Rosenm., Fuerst and Gesen, though by each with a different etymology.
[19]Lev_14:37. See Notes13 on Lev_13:19; Lev_13:24 on Lev_14:49.
[20]Lev_14:41. All the ancient versions except the Vulg. change the causative form of the verb to the plural, as the following verb is plural. Also in Lev_14:42-43; Lev_14:45; Lev_14:49, they have the plural.
[21]Lev_14:47. The LXX. here adds, what is of course implied, and be unclean until the even.
[22]Lev_14:51. The LXX. has dip them in the blood of the bird that has been killed over the living water, and this is doubtless the sense of the text.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 10, 21, 34, 48 two birds--literally, "sparrows." The Septuagint, however, renders the expression…
two birds--literally, "sparrows." The Septuagint, however, renders the expression "little birds"; and it is evident that it is to be taken in this generic sense from their being specified as "clean"--a condition which would have been altogether superfluous to mention in reference to sparrows. In all the offerings prescribed in the law, Moses ordered only common and accessible birds; and hence we may presume that he points here to such birds as sparrows or pigeons, as in the desert it might have been very difficult to procure wild birds alive.
cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop--The cedar here meant was certainly not the famous tree of Lebanon, and it is generally supposed to have been the juniper, as several varieties of that shrub are found growing abundantly in the clefts and crevices of the Sinaitic mountains. A stick of this shrub was bound to a bunch of hyssop by a scarlet ribbon, and the living bird was to be so attached to it, that when they dipped the branches in the water, the tail of the bird might also be moistened, but not the head nor the wings, that it might not be impeded in its flight when let loose.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 53 THE CEREMONIAL CLEANSING OF THE LEPER, Lev_14:1-32.
THE CEREMONIAL CLEANSING OF THE LEPER, Lev_14:1-32.
Our position that the treatment of the leprosy was founded on ceremonial, rather than sanitary, grounds, is confirmed by the minute ritual required for the cleansing of the leper after he has been healed, together with the total absence of any medicinal prescriptions for his cure. By what natural means this was ever effected we are not informed in the Scriptures. The only cures which are detailed are miraculous, as Miriam, in answer to the prayer of Moses, Num_12:13-15; Naaman, at the command of Elisha, 2Ki_5:14; and the instances of healing by Jesus Christ, Mat_8:3; Luk_17:14. In his sermon to his indignant towns-men on the universality of the divine regards, Jesus gives two very valuable historical items: 1. That in the long and eventful life of Elisha not an Israelite leper was healed; and 2. That “many lepers were in Israel” at that time. Luk_4:27. We infer, therefore, that the perfect healing of the leprosy was a rare exertion of supernatural power, and that the cases provided for in this chapter are either instances of miraculous healing, or, more probably, cases in which the disease had reached the stage of complete whiteness, when the patient has become clean, (Lev_13:13, note,) and may be constructively called healed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 33, 54 The purification of the leper (ch. Lev_14:1-32)
The purification of the leper (ch. Lev_14:1-32)
The ceremonies to be observed are of two kinds:
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(1) before the leper is brought into the camp,
(a) by the priest (Lev_14:2-7),
(b) by the leper (Lev_14:8),
(2) after the leper is readmitted to the camp, but remaining outside his tent seven days,
(c) by the leper on the seventh day (Lev_14:9),
(d) the sacrificial ritual on the eighth day (Lev_14:10-20),
(e) modification for the poor leper (Lev_14:21-32).
The leper was regarded (1) as one dead (see on Lev_13:45 f.), (2) as unclean, (3) as smitten of God: hence the ceremonial indicated (1) restoration to life, (2) removal of uncleanness, (3) readmission to God’s presence.
(1) is thought to represent the older rite, while Lev_14:14-20 are later, giving more detail and laying greater stress on religious motives.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 54, 57 (1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—The regulations for…
XIV.
(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—The regulations for the purification of the leper are delivered to Moses alone, who is to communicate them to Aaron and his sons, whilst the rules by which the distemper is to be discerned were given both to Moses and Aaron. (See Lev_13:1.) The reason for this is probably that Moses was designed by God as the great law-giver and teacher of the priesthood as well as of the laity.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Leviticus 13 - 14
Leviticus 13 - 14
Of all the functions which, according to the Mosaic ritual, the priest had to discharge, none demanded more patient attention, or more strict adherence to the divine guide-book, than the discernment and proper treatment of leprosy. This fact must be obvious to every one who studies, with any measure of care, the very extensive and important section of our book at which we have now arrived.
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There were two things which claimed the priest’s vigilant care, namely, the purity of the assembly, and the grace which could not admit of the exclusion of any member, save on the most clearly-established grounds. Holiness could not permit any one to remain in who ought to be out; and, on the other hand, grace would not have any one out who ought to be in. Hence, therefore, there was the most urgent need, on the part of the priest, of watchfulness, calmness, wisdom, patience, tenderness, and enlarged experience. Things might seem trifling which, in reality, were serious; and things might look like leprosy which were not it at all. The greatest care and coolness were needed. Judgement rashly formed, a conclusion hastily arrived at, might involve the most serious consequences, either as regards the assembly or some individual member thereof.
This will account for the frequent occurrence of such expressions as the following, namely, "The priest shall look;" - "The, priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days;" - "And the priest shall look on him the seventh day;" - "Then the priest shall shut him up seven days more" - "And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day;" - "And the priest shall see him;" - "Then the priest shall consider." No case was to be hastily judged, or rashly decided. No opinion was to be formed from mere hearsay. Personal observation, priestly discernment, calm reflection, strict adherence to the written word - the holy, infallible guide book - all these things were imperatively demanded of the priest, if he would form a sound judgement of each case. He was not to be guided by his own thoughts, his own feelings, his own wisdom, in any thing. He had ample guidance in the word, if only he was subject thereto. Every point, every feature, every movement, every variation, every shade and character, every peculiar symptom and affection - all was provided for, with divine fullness and forethought; so that the priest only needed to be acquainted with, and subject to, the word in all things, in order to be preserved from ten thousand mistakes.
Thus much as to the priest and his holy responsibilities.
We shall now consider the disease of leprosy, as developed in a person, in a garment, or in a house.
Looking at this disease in a physical point of view, nothing can possibly be more loathsome; and being, so far as man is concerned, totally incurable, it furnishes a most vivid and appalling picture of sin - sin in one’s natures - in his circumstances - sin in an assembly. What a lesson for the soul in the fact that such a vile and humiliating disease should be used as a type of moral evil, whether in a member of God’s assembly, in the circumstances of any member, or in the assembly itself!
1. And first, then, as to leprosy in a person; or, in other words, the working of moral evil, or of that which might seem to be evil, in any member of the assembly. This is a matter of grave and solemn import - a matter demanding the utmost vigilance and care on the part of all who are concerned in the good of souls and in the glory of God, as involved in the well-being and purity of His assembly as a whole, or of each individual member thereof.
It is important to see that, while the broad principles of leprosy and its cleansing apply, in a secondary sense, to any sinner, yet, in the scripture now before us, the matter is presented in connection with those who were God’s recognised people. The person who is here seen as the subject of priestly examination, is a member of the assembly of God. It is well to apprehend this. God’s assembly must be kept pure, because it is His dwelling-place. No leper can be allowed to remain within the hallowed precincts of Jehovah’s habitation.
But, then, mark the care, the vigilance, the perfect patience, inculcated upon the priest, lest ought that was not leprosy might be treated as such, or lest ought that really was leprosy might be suffered to escape. Many things might appear "in the skin" - the place of manifestation" - like the plague of leprosy," which, upon patient, priestly investigation, would be found to be merely superficial. This was to be carefully attended to. Some blemish might make its appearance, upon the surface, which, though demanding the jealous care of the one who had to act for God, was not, in reality, defiling. And, yet, that which seemed but a superficial blemish might prove to be something deeper than the skin, something below the surface, something affecting the hidden springs of the constitution. All this claimed the most intense care on the part of the priest. (See ver. 2-11) Some slight neglect, some trifling oversight, might lead to disastrous consequences. It might lead to the defilement of the assembly, by the presence of a confirmed leper, or to the expulsion, for some superficial blemish, of a genuine member of the Israel of God.
Now, there is a rich fund of instruction in all this for the people of God. There is a difference between personal infirmity and the positive energy of evil - between mere defects and blemishes in the outward character, and the activity of sin in the members. No doubt, it is important to watch against our infirmities; for, if not watched, judged, and guarded against, they may become the source of positive evil. (See ver. 14-25) Everything of nature must be judged and kept down. We must not make any allowance for personal infirmity, in ourselves, though we should make ample allowance for it in others. Take, for example, the matter of an irritable temper. I should judge it in myself; I should make allowance for it in another. It may, like "the burning boil," in the case of an Israelite, (ver. 19, 20,) prove the source of real defilement - the ground of exclusion from the assembly. Every form of weakness must be watched, lest it become an occasion of sin. "A bald forehead" was not leprosy, but it was that in which leprosy might appear, and, hence, it had to be watched. There may be a hundred things which are not, in themselves, sinful, but which may become the occasion of sin, if not diligently looked after. Nor is it merely a question of what, in our estimation, may be termed Blots, blemishes, and personal infirmities, but even of what our hearts might feel disposed to boast of. Wit, humour, vivacity of spirit and temper; all these may become the source and centre of defilement. Each one has something to guard against - something to keep him ever upon the watch-tower. How happy it is that we have a Father’s heart to come to and count on, with respect to all such things We have the precious privilege of coming, at all times, into the presence of unrebuking, unupbraiding love, there to tell out all, and obtain grace to help in all, and full victory over all. We need not be discouraged, so long as we see such a motto inscribed on the door of our Father’s treasury, "He giveth more grace." Precious motto! It has no limit. It is bottomless and boundless.
We shall now proceed to inquire what was done in every case in which the plague of leprosy was unquestionably and unmistakably defined. The God of Israel could bear with infirmity, blemish, and failure; but the moment it became a case of defilement, whether in the head, the beard, the forehead, or any other part, it could not be tolerated in the holy assembly. "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. 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." (Ver. 45, 46) Here was the leper’s condition - the leper’s occupation - the leper’s place. With rent garments, bare head, and covered lip; crying, Unclean, unclean; and dwelling outside, in the dreary solitude, the dismal desert waste. What could be more humiliating, what more depressing than this? "He shall dwell alone." He was unfit for communion or companionship. He was excluded from the only spot, in all the world, in which Jehovah’s presence was known or enjoyed.
Reader, behold, in the poor, solitary leper, a vivid type of one in whom sin is working. This is really what it means. It is not, as we shall see presently, a helpless, ruined, guilty, convicted sinner, whose guilt and misery have come thoroughly out, and who is, therefore, a fit subject for the love of God, and the blood of Christ. No; we see in the excluded leper, one in whom sin is actually working - one in whom there is the positive energy of evil. this is what defiles and shuts out from the enjoyment of the divine presence and the communion of saints. So long as sin is working, there can be no fellowship with God, or with His people. "He shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be." How long? "All the days wherein the plague shall be in him." This is a great practical truth. The energy of evil is the death-blow to communion. There may be the outward appearance, the mere form, the hollow profession; but communion there can be none, so long as the energy of evil is there. It matters not what the character or amount of the evil may be, if it were but the weight of a feather, if it were but some foolish thought, so long as it continues to work, it must hinder communion, it must cause a suspension of fellowship. It is when it rises to a head, when it comes to the surface, when it is brought thoroughly out, that it can be perfectly met and put away by the grace of God and by the blood of the Lamb.
This leads us to a deeply-interesting point in connection with the leper - a point which must prove a complete paradox to all save those who understand God’s mode of dealing with sinners. "And if a leprosy break; out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh; then the priest shall consider; and, behold, if the leprosy be covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean." (Lev. 13: 12, 13) The moment a sinner is in his true place before God, the whole question is settled. Directly his real character is fully brought out, there is no further difficulty. He may have to pass through much painful exercise, ere he reaches this point - exercise consequent upon his refusal to take his true place - to bring out "all the truth," with respect to what he is; but the moment he is brought to say, from his heart, "just as I am," the free grace of God flows down to him. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." (Ps. 32: 3, 4) How long did this painful exercise continue? Until the whole truth was brought out - until all that which was working inwardly came fully to the surface. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." (Ver. 5)
It is deeply interesting to mark the progress of the Lord’s dealing with the leprous man, from the moment that the suspicion is raised, by certain features in the place of manifestation, until the disease covers the whole man, "from the crown of the head unto the sole of the foot." There was no haste, and no indifference. God ever enters the place of judgement with a slow and measured pace; but when He does enter, He must act according to the claims of His nature. He can patiently investigate. He can wait for "seven days;" and should there be the slightest variation in the symptoms, He can wait for "seven days more;" but, the moment it is found to be the positive working of leprosy, there can be no toleration. "Without the camp shall his habitation be." How long? Until the disease comes fully to the surface. "If the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean." This is a most precious and interesting point. The very smallest speck of leprosy was intolerable to God; and yet, when the whole man was covered, from head to foot, he was pronounced clean - that is, he was a proper subject for the grace of God and the blood of atonement.
Thus is it, in every case, with the sinner. God is "Of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity;" (Hab. 1: 13;) and yet, the moment a sinner takes his true place, as one thoroughly lost guilty, and undone - as one in whom there is not so much as a single point on which the eye of Infinite Holiness can rest with complacency - as one who is so bad, that he cannot, possibly, be worse, there is an immediate, a perfect, a divine settlement of the entire matter. The grace of God deals with sinners; and when I know myself to be a sinner, I know myself to be one whom Christ came to save. The more clearly any one can prove me to be a sinner, the more clearly he establishes my title to the love of God, and the work of Christ. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3: 18) Now, if I am "unjust;" I am one of those very people for whom Christ died, and I am entitled to all the benefits of His death. "There is not a just man upon earth;" and, inasmuch as I am "Upon earth," it is plain that I am "unjust;" and it is equally plain that Christ died for me - that he suffered for my sins. Since, therefore, Christ died for me, it is my happy privilege to enter into the immediate enjoyment of the fruits of His sacrifice. This is as plain as plainness itself. It demands no effort whatsoever. I am not called to be anything but just what I am. I am not called to feel, to experience, to realise anything. The word of God assures me that Christ died for me just as I am; and if He died for me I am as safe as He is Himself. There is nothing against me. Christ met all. He not only suffered for my "sins," but He "made an end of sin." He abolished the entire system in which, as a child of the first Adam, I stood, and He has introduced me into a new position, in association with Himself, and there I stand, before God, free from all charge of sin, and all fear of judgement.
Just as I am - without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bidst me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!
How do I know that His blood was shed for me? By the Scriptures. Blessed, solid, eternal ground of knowledge! Christ suffered for sins. I have gotten sins. Christ died "the just for the unjust." I am unjust. Wherefore, the death of Christ appropriates itself to me, as fully, as immediately, and as divinely, as though I were the only sinner upon earth. It is not a question of my appropriation, realisation, or experience. Many souls harass themselves about this. How often has one heard such language as the following, "Oh! I believe that Christ died for sinners, but I cannot realise that my sins are forgiven. I cannot apply, I cannot appropriate, I do not experience the benefit of Christ’s death." All this is self and not Christ. It is feeling and not Scripture. If we search from cover to cover of the blessed volume, we shall not find a syllable about being saved by realisation, experience, or appropriation. The Gospel applies itself to all who are on the ground of being lost. Christ died for sinners. That is just what I am. Wherefore, He died for me. How do I know this? Is it because I feel it? By no means. How then? By the word of God. "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; he was buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." (1 Cor. 15: 3, 4) Thus it is all "according to the Scriptures." If it were according to our feelings, we should be in a deplorable way, for our feelings are hardly the same for the length of a day; but the scriptures are ever the same. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name
No doubt, it is a very happy thing to realise. to feel, and to experience; but, if we put these things in the place of Christ, we shall neither have them nor the Christ that yields them. If I am occupied with Christ, I shall realise; but if I put my realisation in place of Christ, I shall have neither the one nor the other. This is the sad condition of thousands. Instead of resting on the stable authority of "the Scriptures," they are ever looking into their own hearts, and, hence, they are always uncertain and, as a consequence, always unhappy. A condition of doubt is a condition of torture. But how can I get rid of my doubt? Simply by relying on the divine authority of "the Scriptures." Of what do the Scriptures testify? Of Christ. (John 5) They declare that Christ died for our sins, and that He was raised again for our justification. (Rom. 4) This settles everything. The self-same authority that tells me I am unjust, tells me also that Christ died for me. Nothing can be plainer than this. If I were ought else than unjust, the death of Christ could not be for me at all, but being unjust, it is divinely fitted, divinely intended, and divinely applied to me. If I am occupied with anything in, of, or about myself, it is plain I have not entered into the full spiritual application of Lev. 13: 12, 13. I have not come to the Lamb of God, "just as I am." It is when the leper is covered from head to foot that he is on the true ground. It is there and there alone that grace can meet him. "Then the priest shall consider; and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean." Precious truth! "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound." So long as I think there is a single spot which in not covered with the direful disease, I have not come to, the end of myself. It is when my true condition is fully disclosed to my view, that I really understand the meaning of salvation by grace.
The force of all this will be more fully apprehended when we come to consider the ordinances connected with the cleansing of the leper, in Lev. 14. We shall, now, briefly enter upon the question of leprosy in a garment, as presented in Lev. 13: 47-59.
2. The garment or skin suggests to the mind the ides of a man’s circumstances or habits. This is a deeply practical point. We are to watch against the working of evil in our ways just as carefully as against evil in ourselves. The same patient investigation is observable with respect to, a garment as in the case of a person. There is no haste; neither is there any indifference. "The priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days." There must be no indifference, no indolence, no carelessness. Evil may creep into our habits and circumstances, in numberless ways; and, hence, the moment we perceive ought of a suspicious nature, it must be submitted to a calm, patient process of priestly investigation. It must be "shut up seven days," in order that it may have full time to develop itself perfectly.
"And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin, or in any work that is made of skin, the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean. He shall therefore burn that garment." The wrong habit must be given up, the moment I discover it. If I find myself in a thoroughly wrong position, I must abandon it. The burning of the garment expresses the act of judgement upon evil, whether in a man’s habits or circumstances. There must be no trifling with evil. In certain cases the garment was to be "washed," which expresses the action of the Word of God upon a man’s habits. "Then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more." There is to be patient waiting in order to ascertain the effect of the Word. "And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed; and, behold, if the plague have not changed . . . . thou shalt burn it in the fire." When there is any thing radically and irremediably bad in one’s position or habits, the whole thing is to be given up. "And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague be somewhat dark: after the washing of it; then he shall rend it out of the garment." The Word may produce such an effect as that the wrong features in a man’s character, or the wrong points in his position, shall be given up, and the evil be got rid of; but if the evil continue, after all, the whole thing must be condemned and set aside.
There is a rich mine of practical instruction in all this. We must look well to the position which we occupy, the circumstances in which we stand, the habits we adopt, the character we wear. There is special need of watchfulness. Every suspicious symptom and trait must be sedulously guarded, lest it should prove, in the sequel, to be "a fretting "or "spreading leprosy," whereby we ourselves and many others may be defiled. We may be placed in a position attached to which there are certain wrong things which can be given up, without entirely abandoning the position; and, on the other hand, we may find ourselves in a situation in which it is impossible to" "abide with God." Where the eye is single, the path will be plain. Where the one desire of the heart is to enjoy the divine presence, we shall easily discover those things which tend to deprive us of that unspeakable blessing.
May our hearts be tender and sensitive. May we cultivate a deeper, closer walk with God; and may we carefully guard against every form of defilement, whether in person, in habit, or in association!
We shall, now, proceed to consider the beauteous and significant ordinances connected with the cleansing of the leper, in which we shall find some of the most precious truths of the gospel presented to us.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest: and the priest shall go forth out of the camp." (Lev. 14: 1-3) We have already seen the place which the leper occupied. He was outside the camp, in the place of moral distance from God - from His sanctuary and His assembly. Moreover, he dwelt in dreary solitude, in a condition of uncleanness. He was beyond the reach of human aid; and, as for himself, he could only communicate defilement to every one and every thing he touched. It was, therefore, obviously impossible that he could do ought to cleanse himself. If, indeed, he could only defile by his very touch, how could he possibly cleanse himself How could he contribute towards, or co-operate in, his cleansing? Impossible. As an unclean leper, he could not do so much as a single thing for himself; all had to be done for him. He could not make his way to God, but God could make His way to him. He was shut up to God. There was no help for him, either in himself or in his fellow-man. It is clear that one leper could not cleanse another; and it is equally clear that if a leper touched a clean person he rendered him unclean. His only resource was in God. He was to be a debtor to grace for everything.
Hence we read, "The priest shall go forth out of the camp. It is not said, "the leper shall go." this was wholly out of the question. It was of no use talking to the leper about going or doing. He was consigned to dreary solitude; whither could he go? He was involved in helpless defilement; what could he do? He might long for fellowship and long to be clean; but his longings were those of a lonely helpless leper. He might make efforts after cleansing; but his efforts could but prove him unclean, and tend to spread defilement. Before ever he could be pronounced "clean," a work; had to be wrought for him - a work which he could neither do nor help to do - a work which had to be wholly accomplished by another. The leper was called to "stand still," and behold the priest doing a work in virtue of which the leprosy could be perfectly cleansed. The priest accomplished all. The leper did nothing.
"Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed, two birds, alive and clean, and cedarwood, and scarlet, and hyssop. and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water." In the priest going forth from the camp - forth from God’s dwelling place - we behold the blessed Lord Jesus coming down from the bosom of the Father, His eternal dwelling-place, into this polluted world of ours, where He beheld us sunk in the polluting leprosy of sin. He, like the good Samaritan, "came where we were." He did not come half-way, merely. He did not come nine-tenths of the way. He came all the way. This was indispensable. He could not, consistently with the holy claims of the throne of God, have bidden our leprosy to depart had He remained in the bosom. He could call worlds into existence by the word of His mouth; but when leprous sinners had to be cleansed, something more was needed. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." When worlds were to be framed, God had but to speak, When sinners had to be saved, He had to give His Son. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 9, 10)
But there was far more to be accomplished than the mission and incarnation of the Son. It would have availed the leper but little indeed, had the priest merely gone forth from the camp and looked upon his low and forlorn condition. Blood shedding was essentially necessary ere leprosy could be removed. The death of a spotless victim was needed. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." (Heb. 9: 22) And, be it observed, that the shedding of blood was the real basis of the leper’s cleansing. It was not a mere circumstance which, in conjunction with others, contributed to the leper’s cleansing. By no means. the giving up of the life was the grand and all-important fact. when this was accomplished the way was open; every barrier was removed; God could deal in perfect grace with the leper. this point should be distinctly laid hold of, if my reader would fully enter into the glorious doctrine of the blood.
"And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water." Here we have the acknowledged type of the death of Christ, "who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God." "He was crucified in weakness." (Heb. 9; 2 Cor. 13) The greatest, the mightiest, the most glorious, the most momentous work that ever was accomplished, throughout the wide universe of God, was wrought "in weakness." Oh! my reader, how terrible a thing must sin be, in the judgement of God, when His own beloved Son had to come down from heaven, and hang upon yonder cursed tree, a spectacle to men, to angels, and to devils, in order that you and I might be forgiven! And what a type of sin have we in leprosy! Who would have thought that that little "bright spot" appearing on the person of some member of the congregation was a matter of such grave consequence? But, ah! that little "bright spot" was nothing less than the energy of evil, in the place of manifestation. It was the index of the dreadful working of sin in the nature; and ere that person could be fitted for a place in the assembly, or for the enjoyment of communion with a holy God, the Son of God had to leave those bright heavens, and descend into the lowest parts of the earth, in order to make a full atonement for that which exhibited itself merely in the form of a little "bright spot." Let us remember this. Sin is a dreadful thing in the estimation of God. He cannot tolerate so much as a single sinful thought. Before one such thought could be forgiven, Christ had to die upon the cross. The most trifling sin, if any sin can be called trifling, demanded nothing less than the death of God’s Eternal and Co-equal Son. But, eternal praise be to God, what sin demanded, redeeming love freely gave; and now God is infinitely more glorified in the forgiveness of sins than He could have been had Adam maintained his original innocency. God is more glorified in the salvation, the pardon, the justification, the preservation, and final glorification of guilty man, than He could have been in maintaining an innocent man in the enjoyment of creation blessings. Such is the precious mystery of redemption. May our hearts enter, by the power of the Holy Ghost, into the living and profound depths of this wondrous mystery!
"As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field." The blood being shed, the priest can enter directly and fully upon his work. Up to this, we read, "the priest shall command;" but now he acts immediately himself. The death of Christ is the basis of His priestly ministration. Having entered with His own blood into the holy place, He acts as our Great High Priest, applying to our souls all the precious results of His atoning work, and maintaining us in the full and divine integrity of the position into which His sacrifice has introduced us. "For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth he should not be a priest." (Heb. 8: 3, 4)
We could hardly have a more perfect type of the resurrection of Christ than that presented in "the living bird let loose into the open field." It was not let go until after the death of its companion; for the two birds typify one Christ, in two stages of His blessed work, namely, death and resurrection. Ten thousand birds let loose would not have availed for the leper. It was that living bird, mounting upward into the open heavens, bearing upon his wing that significant token of accomplished atonement - it was that which told out the great fact that the work was done - the ground cleared, the foundation laid. Thus is it in reference to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. His resurrection declares the glorious triumph of redemption. "He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." "He was raised again for our justification." It is this that sets the burdened heart free, and liberates the struggling conscience. The scripture assures me that Jesus was nailed to the cross under the weight of my sins; but the same Scriptures assure me that He rose from the grave without one of those sins upon Him. Nor is this all. The same Scriptures assure me that all who put their trust in Jesus are as free from all charge of guilt as He is; that there is no more wrath or condemnation for them than for Him; that they are in Him, one with Him, accepted in Him; co-quickened, co-raised, co-seated with Him. Such is the peace giving testimony of the Scriptures of truth - such, the record of God who cannot lie. (See Rom. 6: 6-11; Rom. 8: 1-4; 2 Cor, 5: 21; Eph. 2: 5, 6; Col. 2: 10-15, 1 John 4: 17)
But we have another most important truth set before us in ver 6 of our chapter. We not only see our full deliverance from guilt and condemnation, as beautifully exhibited in the living bird let loose, but we see also our entire deliverance from all the attractions of earth and all the influences of nature. "The scarlet" would be the apt expression of the former, while "the cedar wood and hyssop" would set forth the latter. The cross is the end of all this world’s glory. God presents it as such, and the believer recognises it as such. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Gal. 6: 14)
Then, as to the "cedar wood and hyssop," they present to us, as it were, the two extremes of nature’s wide range. Solomon "spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." (1 Kings 4: 33) From the lofty cedar which crowns the sides of Lebanon, down to the lowly hyssop - the wide extremes and all that lies between - nature, in all its departments, is brought under the power of the cross; so that the believer sees, in the death of Christ, the end of all his guilt, the end of all earth’s glory, and the end of the whole system of nature - the entire old creation. And with what is he to be occupied? With Him who is the Antitype of that living bird, with blood-stained feathers, ascending into the open heavens. Precious, glorious, soul-satisfying object! A risen, ascended, triumphant, glorified Christ, who has passed into the heavens, bearing in His sacred Person the marks of an accomplished atonement. It is with Him we have to do. We are shut up to Him. He is God’s exclusive object. He is the centre of heaven’s joy, the theme of angels’ song. We want none of earth’s glory, none of nature’s attractions. We can behold them all, together with our sin and guilt, for ever set aside by the death of Christ. We can well afford to dispense with earth and nature, inasmuch as we have gotten, instead thereof "the unsearchable riches of Christ."
"And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy, seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the bird loose into the open field." The more deeply we ponder over the contents of Lev. 13 the more clearly we shall see how utterly impossible it was for the leper to do ought towards his own cleansing. All he could do was to "put a covering upon his upper lip;" and all he could say was, "Unclean, unclean." It belonged to God, and to Him alone, to devise and accomplish a work whereby the leprosy could be perfectly cleansed; and, further, it belonged to God, and to Him alone, to pronounce the leper "clean." Hence it is written," the priest shall sprinkle;" and "he shall pronounce him clean." It is not said, "the leper shall sprinkle, and pronounce, or imagine himself, clean." This would never do. God was the Judge - God was the Healer - God was the Cleanser. He alone knew what leprosy was, how it could be put away, and when to pronounce the leper clean. The leper might have gone on all his days covered with leprosy, and yet be wholly ignorant of what was wrong with him. It was the word of God - the Scriptures of truth - the divine Record, that declared the full truth as to leprosy; and nothing short of the self-same authority could pronounce the leper clean, and that, moreover, only, on the solid and indisputable ground of death and resurrection. There is the most precious connection between the three things in verse 7: the blood is sprinkled, the leper pronounced clean, and the living bird let loose. There is not so much as a single syllable about what the leper was to do, to say, to think, or to feel. It was enough that he was a leper; a fully revealed, a thoroughly judged leper, covered from head to foot. this sufficed for him; all the rest pertained to God.
It is of all importance, for the anxious inquirer after peace, to enter into the truth unfolded in this branch of our subject. So many are tried by the question of feeling, realising, and appropriating, instead of seeing, as in the leper’s case, that the sprinkling of the blood was as independent and as divine as the shedding of it. It is not said, "The leper shall apply, appropriate, or realise, and then he shall be clean." By no means. The plan of deliverance was divine; the provision of the sacrifice was divine; the shedding of the blood was divine; the sprinkling of the blood as divine; the record as to the result was divine: in short, it was all divine.
It is not that we should undervalue realisation, or, to speak more correctly, communion, through the Holy Ghost, with all the precious results of Christ’s work for as. Far from it: we shall see, presently, the place assigned thereto, in the divine economy. But then, we are no more saved by realisation, than the leper was cleansed by it. The gospel, by which we are saved, is that "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." There is nothing about realisation here. No doubt, it is happy to realise. It is a very happy thing for one, who was just on the point of being drowned, to realise himself in a life-boat; but, clearly, he is saved by the boat and not by his realisation. So it is with the sinner that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is saved by death and resurrection. Is it because he realises it? No; but because God says it. It is "according to the Scriptures." Christ died and rose again; and, on that ground, God pronounces him clean.
"No condemnation, O, my soul!
’Tis God that speaks the word…
This gives immense peace to the soul. I have to do with God’s plain record, which nothing can ever shake. That record has reference to God’s own work. It is He Himself, who has wrought all that was needful, in order to my being pronounced clean in His sight. My pardon no more depends upon my realisation than upon any "works of righteousness that I have done;" and it no more depends upon my works of righteousness than it does upon my crimes. In a word, it depends, exclusively, upon the death and resurrection of Christ. How do I know it? God tells me. It is "according to the scriptures."
There are, perhaps, few things which disclose the deep-seated legality of our hearts, more strikingly, that this oft-raised question of realisation. We will have in something of self, and thus so sadly mar our peace and liberty in Christ. It is mainly because of this that I dwell, at such length, upon the beautiful ordinance of The cleansing of the leper, and especially on the truth unfolded in Lev. 14: 7. It was the priest that sprinkled the blood; and it was the priest that pronounced the leper clean. Thus it is in the case of the sinner. The moment he is on his true ground, the blood of Christ and the word of God apply themselves without any further question or difficulty whatever. But the moment this harassing question of realisation is raised, the peace is disturbed, the heart depressed, and the mind bewildered. the more thoroughly I get done with self, and become occupied with Christ, as presented in "the Scriptures," the more settled my peace will be. If the leper had looked at himself, when the priest pronounced him clean, would he have found any basis for the declaration? Surely not. The sprinkled blood was the basis of the divine record, and not anything in, or connected with, the leper. The leper was not asked how he felt, or what he thought. He was not questioned as to whether he had a deep sense of the vileness of his disease. He was an acknowledged leper; that was enough. It was for such an one the blood was shed; and that blood made him clean. How did he know this? Was it because he felt it? No; but because the priest, on God’s behalf, and by His authority told him so. The leper was pronounced clean on the very same ground that the living bird was let loose. The same blood which stained the feathers of that living bird was sprinkled upon the leper. This was a perfect settlement of the whole affair, and that, too, in a manner entirely independent of the leper, the leper’s thoughts, his feelings, and his realisation. Such is the type. had when we look from the type to the Antitype, we see that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ entered heaven, and laid on the throne of God the eternal record of an accomplished work, in virtue of which the believer enters also. This is a most glorious truth, divinely calculated to dispel from the heart of the anxious inquirer every doubt, every fear, every bewildering thought, and every harassing question. A risen Christ is God’s exclusive object, and He sees every believer in Him. May every awakened soul find abiding repose in this emancipating truth.
"And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days." (Ver. 8) The leper, being pronounced clean, can begin to do what he could not even have attempted to do before, namely, to cleanse himself, cleanse his habits, shave off all his hair; and, having done so, he is privileged to take his place in the camp - the place of ostensible, recognised, public relationship with the God of Israel, whose presence in that camp it was which rendered the expulsion of the leper needful. The blood having been applied in its expiating virtue, there is the washing of water, which expresses the action of the word on the character, the habits, the ways, so as to render the person, not only in God’s view, but also in the view of the congregation, morally and practically fit for a place in the public assembly.
But, be it observed, the man, though sprinkled with blood and washed with water, and thus entitled to a position in the public assembly, was not permitted to enter his own tent. He was not permitted to enter upon the full enjoyment of those private, personal privileges, which belonged to his own peculiar place in the camp. In other words, though knowing redemption through the shed and sprinkled blood, and owning the word as the rule, according to which his person and all his habits should be cleansed and regulated, he had yet to be brought, in the power of the Spirit, into full, intelligent communion with his own special place, portion, and privileges in Christ.
I speak according to the doctrine of the type; and I feel it to be of importance to apprehend the truth unfolded therein. It is too often overlooked. There are many, who own the blood of Christ as the alone ground of pardon, and the word of God as that whereby alone their habits, ways, and associations are to be cleansed and ordered, who, nevertheless, are far from entering, by the power of the Holy Ghost, into communion with the preciousness and excellency of that One, Whose blood has put away their sins, and whose word is to cleanse their practical habits. They are in the place of ostensible and actual relationship; but not in the power of personal communion. It is perfectly true, that all believers are in Christ, and, as such, entitled to communion with the very highest truths. Moreover, they have the Holy Ghost, as the power of communion. All this is divinely true; but, then, there is not that entire setting aside of all that pertains to nature, which is really essential to the power of communion with Christ, in all the aspects of His character and work. In point of fact, this latter will not be fully known to any until "the eighth day" - the day of resurrection-glory, when we shall know even as we are known. Then, indeed, each one for himself, and all together, shall enter into the full, unhindered Power of communion with Christ, in all the precious phases of His Person, and features of His character, unfolded from verse 10 to 20 of our chapter. Such is the hope set before us; but, even now, in proportion as we enter, by faith, through the mighty energy of the indwelling Spirit, into the death of nature and all pertaining thereto, we can feed upon and rejoice in Christ as the portion of our souls, in the place of individual communion.
"But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean." (Ver. 9.) Now, it is clear, that the leper was just as clean, in God’s judgement, on the first day, when the blood was sprinkled upon him, in its sevenfold or perfect efficacy, as he was on the seventh day. Wherein, then, was the difference? Not in his actual standing and condition, but in his personal intelligence and communion. On the seventh day, he was called to enter into the full and complete abolition of all that pertained to nature. He was called to apprehend that, not merely was nature’s leprosy to be put away, but nature’s ornaments - yea, all that was natural - all that belonged to the old condition.
It is one thing to know, as a doctrine, that God sees my nature to be dead, and it is quite another thing for me to "reckon" myself as dead - to put off, practically, the old man and his deeds - to mortify my members which are on the earth. This, probably, is what many godly persons mean when they speak of progressive sanctification. They mean a right thing, though they do not put it exactly as the Scriptures do. The leper was pronounced clean, the moment the blood was sprinkled upon Him; and yet he had to cleanse himself. How was this? In the former case, he was clean, in the judgement of God; in the latter, he was to be clean practically, in his own personal intelligence, and in his manifested character. Thus it is with the believer. He is, as one with Christ, "washed, sanctified, and justified" - "accepted" - "complete." (1 Cor. 6: 11; Eph. 1: 6; Col 2: 10) Such is his unalterable standing and condition before God. He is as perfectly sanctified as he is justified, for Christ is the measure of both the one and the other, according to God’s judgement and view of the case. But, then, the believer’s apprehension of all this, in his own soul, and his exhibition thereof in his habits and ways, open up quite another line of things. Hence it is we read," Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 7: 1) It is because Christ has cleansed us by His precious blood that therefore we are called to" cleanse ourselves" by the application of the word, through the Spirit. "This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness. because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." (1 John 5: 6-8) Here we have atonement by the blood, cleansing by the word, and power by the Spirit, all founded upon the death of Christ, and all vividly foreshadowed in the ordinances connected with the cleansing of the leper.
"And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil. And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord." (Ver. 10-12) The entire range of offerings is here introduced; but it is the trespass offering which is first killed, inasmuch as the leper is viewed as an actual trespasser. This in true in every case. As those, who have trespassed against God, we need Christ as the one who atoned, on the cross, for those trespasses. "Himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree." The first view which the sinner gets of Christ is as the Antitype of the trespass offering.
"And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot." "The ear" - that guilty member which had so frequently proved a channel of communication for vanity, folly, and even uncleanness - that ear must be cleansed by the blood of the trespass offering. Thus all the guilt, which I have ever contracted by that member, is forgiven according to God’s estimate of the blood of Christ. "The right hand," which had, so frequently, been stretched forth for the execution of deeds of vanity, folly, and even uncleanness, must be cleansed by the blood of the trespass offering. Thus all the guilt, which I have ever contracted by that member, is forgiven, according to God’s estimate of the blood of Christ. "The foot," which had so often run in the way of vanity, folly, and even uncleanness, must now be cleansed by the blood of the trespass offering, so that all the guilt, which I have ever contracted by that member, is forgiven, according to God’s estimate of the blood of Christ. Yes; all, all, all is forgiven - all is cancelled - all forgotten - all sunk as lead in the mighty waters of eternal oblivion. Who shall bring it up again? Shall angel, man, or devil, be able to plunge into those unfathomed and unfathomable waters, to bring up from thence those trespasses of "foot," "hand," or "ear," which redeeming love has cast thereinto? Oh! no; blessed be God, they are gone, and gone for ever. I am better off, by far, than if Adam had never sinned. Precious truth! To be washed in the blood is better far than to be clothed in innocency.
But God could not rest satisfied with the mere blotting out of trespasses, by the atoning blood of Jesus. This, in itself, is a great thing; but there is something greater still.
"And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand: and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering; and the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand, he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord." (Ver. 15-18) Thus, not only are our members cleansed by the blood of Christ, but also consecrated to God, in the power of the Spirit. God’s work is not only negative, but positive. The ear is no longer to be the vehicle for communicating defilement, but to be "swift to hear" the voice of the Good Shepherd. The hand is no longer to be used as the instrument of unrighteousness, but to be stretched forth in acts of righteousness, grace, and true holiness. The foot is no longer to tread in folly’s paths, but to run in the way of God’s holy commandments. And, finally, the whole man is to be dedicated to God in the energy of the Holy Ghost.
It is deeply interesting to see that "the oil" was put upon the blood of the trespass offering." The blood or Christ is the divine basis of the operations of the Holy Ghost. The blood and the oil go together. As sinners we could know nothing of the latter save on the ground of the former. The oil could not have been put upon the leper until the blood of the trespass offering had first been applied. "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise." The divine accuracy of the type evokes the acclamation of the renewed mind. The more closely we scrutinise it - the more of the light of Scripture we concentrate upon it - the more its beauty, force, and precision, are perceived and enjoyed. All, as might justly be expected, is in the most lovely harmony with the entire analogy of the word of God. There is no need for any effort of the mind. Take Christ as the key to unlock the rich treasury of the types; explore the precious contents by the light of Inspiration’s heavenly lamp; let the Holy Ghost be your interpreter; and you Cannot fail to be edified, enlightened, and blessed.
"And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness." Here we have a type of Christ, not only as the bearer of our trespasses, but also as the One, who made an end of sin, root and branch; the One, who destroyed the entire system of sin - "The Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." "The propitiation for the whole world." As the trespass offering, Christ put away all my trespasses. As the sin offering, He met the great root from whence those trespasses emanated. He met all; but it is as the trespass offering I first know Him, because it is as such I first need Him. It is the "conscience of sins" that first troubles me. This is divinely met by my precious Trespass Offering. Then, as I get on, I find that all these sins had a root, a parent stem, and what root or stem I find within me. This, likewise, in divinely met by my precious Sin Offering. The order, as presented in the leper’s case, is perfect. It is precisely the order which we can trace in the actual experience of every soul. The trespass offering comes first, and then the sin offering.
"And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering." This offering presents the highest possible aspect of the death of Christ. It is Christ offering Himself without spot to God, without special reference to either trespasses or sin. It is Christ in voluntary devotedness, walking to the cross, and there offering Himself as a sweet savour to God.
"And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean." (ver. 20.) The meat offering typifies "the man Christ Jesus" in His perfect human life. It is intimately associated, in the case of the cleansed leper, with the burnt offering; and so it is in the experience of every saved sinner. It is when we know our trespasses are forgiven, and the root or principle of sin judged, that we can, according to our measure, by the power of the Spirit, enjoy communion with God about that blessed One, who lived a perfect human life, down here, and then offered Himself without spot to God on the cross. Thus, the four classes of offerings are brought before us in their divine order, in the cleansing of the leper - namely, the trespass offering, the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the meet offering, each exhibiting its own specific aspect of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
Here closes the record of the Lord’s dealings with the leprous man; and, oh! what a marvellous record it is! What an unfolding of the exceeding hatefulness of sin, the grace and holiness of God, the preciousness of Christ’s Person, and the efficacy of His work! Nothing can be more interesting than to mark the footprints of divine grace forth from the hallowed precincts of the sanctuary, to the defiled place where the leper stood, with bare head, covered lip, and rent garments. God visited the leper where he was; but He did not leave him there. He went forth prepared to accomplish a work, in virtue of which he could bring the leper into a higher place, and higher communion than ever he had known before. On the ground of this work, the leper was conducted from his Place of defilement and loneliness to the very door of the tabernacle of the congregation, the priestly place, to enjoy priestly privileges. (Comp. Ex. 29: 20, 21, 32) How could he ever have climbed to such an elevation! Impossible For ought he could do, he might have languished and died in his leprosy, had not the sovereign grace of the God of Israel stooped to lift him from the dunghill, to set him among the princes of His people. If ever there was a case in which the question of human effort, human merit, and human righteousness, could be fully tried and perfectly settled, the leper is, unquestionably, that case. Indeed it were a sad loss of time to discuss such a question in the presence of such a case. It must be obvious, to the most cursory reader, that nought but free grace, reigning through righteousness, could meet the leper’s condition and the leper’s need. And how gloriously and triumphantly did that grace act! It travelled down into the deepest depths, that it might raise the leper to the loftiest heights. See what the leper lost, and see what he gained! He lost all that pertained to nature, and he gained the blood of atonement and the grace of the Spirit. I mean typically. Truly, he was a gainer, to an incalculable amount. He was infinitely better off than if he had never been thrust forth from the camp. Such is the grace of God! Such the power And value, the virtue and efficacy, of the blood of Jesus!
How forcibly does all this remind us of the prodigal, in Luke 15! In him, too, leprosy had wrought and risen to a head. He had been afar off in the defiled place, where his own sins and the intense selfishness of the far country had created a solitude around him. But, blessed for ever be a Father’s deep and tender love, we know how it ended. The prodigal found a higher place, and tasted higher communion than ever he had known before. "The fatted calf’ had never been slain for him before. "The best robe" had never been on him before. And how was this? Was it a question of the prodigal’s merit? Oh! no; it was simply a question of the Father’s love.
Dear reader, let me ask, can you ponder over the record of God’s dealings with the leper, in Leviticus 14, or the Father’s dealings with the prodigal, in Luke 15, and not have an enlarged sense of the love that dwells in the bosom of God, that flows through the Person and work of Christ, that is recorded in the Scriptures of truth, and brought home to the heart by the Holy Ghost? Lord grant us a deeper and more abiding fellowship with Himself!
From verse 21 to 32 we have "the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing." This refers to the sacrifices of "the eighth day," and not to the "two birds alive and clean." These latter could not be dispensed with in any case, because they set forth the death and resurrection of Christ as the alone ground on which God can receive a sinner back to Himself. On the other hand, the sacrifices of" the eighth day," being connected with the soul’s communion, must, in some degree, be affected by the measure of the soul’s apprehension. But, whatever that measure may be, the grace of God can meet it with those peculiarly touching words, "such as he is able to get." And, not only so, but" the two turtle doves" conferred the same privileges on the "poor," as the two lambs conferred upon the rich, inasmuch as both the one and the other pointed to "the precious blood of Christ," which is of infinite, changeless, and eternal efficacy in the judgement of God. All stand before God on the ground of death and resurrection. All are brought into the same place of nearness; but all do not enjoy the same measure of communion - all have not the same measure of apprehension of the preciousness of Christ in all the aspects of His work. They might, if they would; but they allow themselves to be hindered, in various ways. Earth and nature, with their respective influences, act prejudicially; The Spirit is grieved, and Christ is not enjoyed as He might be. It is utterly vain to expect that, if we are living in the region of nature, we can be feeding upon Christ. No; there must be self emptiness, self-denial, self-judgement, if we would habitually feed upon Christ. It is not a question of salvation. It is not a question of the leper introduced into the camp - the place of recognised relationship. By no means. It is only a question of the soul’s communion, of its enjoyment of Christ. As to this, the largest measure lies open to us. We may have communion with the very highest truths; but, if our measure be small, the unupbraiding grace of our Father’s heart breathes in the sweet words, "such as he is able to get." The title of all is the same, however our capacity may vary; and, blessed be God, when we get into His presence, all the desires of the new nature, in their utmost intensity, are satisfied; all the powers of the new nature, in their fullest range, are occupied. May we prove these things in our souls’ happy experience, day by day!
We shall close this section with a brief reference to the subject of leprosy in a house.
3. The reader will observe, that a case of leprosy, in a person, or in a garment, might occur in the wilderness; but, in the matter of a house, it was, of necessity, confined to the land of Canaan. "When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession, . . . . .then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. And he shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days."
Looking at the house as the type of an assembly, we have some weighty principles presented to us as to the divine method of dealing with moral evil, or suspicion of evil, in a congregation. We observe the same holy calmness and perfect patience with respect to the house, as we have already seen, in reference to the person or the garment. There was no haste, and no indifference, either as regards the house, the garment, or the individual. The man who had an interest in the house was not to treat with indifference any suspicious symptoms appearing in the wall thereof; neither was he to pronounce judgement himself upon such symptoms. It belonged to the priest to investigate and to judge. The moment that ought of a questionable nature made its appearance, the priest assumed a judicial attitude with respect to the house. The house was under judgement, though not condemned. The perfect period was to be allowed to run its course, ere any decision could be arrived at. The symptoms might prove to be merely superficial, in which case there would be no demand for any action whatever.
"And the priest shall come again The seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city." The whole house was not to be condemned. The removal of the leprous stones was first to be tried.
"And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after that he hath scraped the house, and after that it is plastered; then the priest shall come and look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house. it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. And he shall break; down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place." The case was hopeless, the evil irremediable, the whole building was annihilated.
"Moreover, he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes." This is a solemn truth. Contact defiles! Let us remember this. It was a principle largely inculcated under the Levitical economy; and, surely, it is not less applicable now.
"And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plastered; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed." The removal of the defiled stones, &c., had arrested the progress of the evil, and rendered all further judgement needless. The house was no longer to be viewed as in a judicial place; but, being cleansed by the application of the blood, it was again fit for occupation.
And, now, as to the moral of all this. It is, at once, interesting, solemn, and practical. Look, for example, at the church at Corinth. It was a spiritual house, composed of spiritual stones; but, alas! the eagle eye of the apostle discerned upon its walls certain symptoms of a most suspicious nature. Was he indifferent? Surely not. He had imbibed far too much of the spirit of the Master of the house to admit, for one moment, of any such thing. But he was no more hasty than indifferent. He commanded the leprous stone to be removed, and gave the house a thorough scraping. Having acted thus faithfully, he patiently awaited the result. And what was that result? All that the heart could desire. "Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more . . . . . . . In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter." (Comp. 1 Cor. 5 with 2 Cor. 7: 11) This is a lovely instance. The zealous care of the apostle was amply rewarded; the plague was stayed, and the assembly delivered from the defiling influence of unjudged moral evil.
Take another solemn example. "And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write: These things saith he that hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is; and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, Which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." (Rev. 2: 12-16.) Here the divine Priest stands in a judicial attitude with respect to His house at Pergamos. He could not be indifferent to symptoms so alarming; but He patiently and graciously gives time to repent. If reproof or warning, and discipline, prove unavailing, judgement must take its course.
These things are full of practical teaching as to the doctrine of the assembly. The seven churches of Asia afford various striking illustrations of the house under priestly judgement. We should ponder them deeply and prayerfully. They are of immense value. We should never sit down, at ease, so long as ought of a suspicious nature is making its appearance in the assembly. We may be tempted to say, "It is none of my business;" but it is the business of every one who loves the Master of the house to have a jealous, godly care, for the purity of that house; and if we shrink; from the due exercise of this care, it will not be for our honour or profit, in the day of the Lord.
I shall not pursue this subject any further in these pages and shall merely remark, in closing this section, that I do not doubt, in the least, that this whole subject of leprosy has a great dispensational bearing, not only upon the house of Israel, but also upon the professing church.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 33, 34, 35, 45, 46, 48, 54 THE FORM OF PURIFICATION OF THE LEPER. (Lev_14:1-32) This…
THE FORM OF PURIFICATION OF THE LEPER. (Lev_14:1-32) This is the most minute of all the forms of purification, those for purification from contact with a dead body (Nu 19) and for the cleansing of a defiled Nazarite (Nu 6) being alone to be compared with it in this respect. Some purifications were accomplished, as we have seen, in a very summary manner: one who touched the carcass of a beast that had died a natural death had only to wash his clothes. (Lev_11:40) The greater and more significative the defilement, the more careful and the more significative must be the cleansing. Leprous uncleanness excluded the leper both from the camp and from the sanctuary, from the rights both of citizen. ship and of Church-membership, with which the rights of the family were also associated; consequently there had to be a double form of restoration, each with its special ceremonies. The manner of the first reconciliation is detailed in verses 1-8, of the second in verses 9-32.
Vers. 1-32. The cleansing of the leper represents the absolution of the sinner,
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as his exclusion from the camp represented spiritual excommunication.
I THE LAW OF CHRISTIAN EXCOMMUNICATION AND ABSOLUTION, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". (Mat_16:19) "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". (Mat_18:18) "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained". (Joh_20:23)
II THE USE OF KEYS.
1. To admit.
2. To shut out.
3. To readmit.
1. The spiritual keys are used by God"s ministers for the purpose of admission, whenever they introduce into Christ"s kingdom, the Church, a new member by the use of the initiatory rite of baptism, which they are commissioned to employ for that end.
2. They are used for the purpose of exclusion, whenever the Church, or any duly constituted section of the Church, following the example of the Corinthian Church, as instructed and guided by St. Paul, shuts out from its fold one who has been guilty of gross immorality (1Co 5) or of depraving the faith, (1Ti_1:20) and continues obstinate in his sin.
3. They are used for the purpose of readmission, when the Church has become satisfied that the sinner whom she had excluded from her fold has ceased to be a sinner, and thereupon, like the Corinthian Church, once more under the direction of St. Paul, "forgives him and comforts him, lest such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow," and confirms its love towards him. (2Co_2:7, 2Co_2:8)
III THE FORMS FOR ADMISSION, EXCLUSION, AND READMISSION IN THE OLD AND NEW DISPENSATIONS. The form of admission into covenant with himself is, as we should expect, fixed by Divine authority in both dispensations. In the old dispensation it was circumcision. "Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations,... and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant". (Gen_17:10-13) In the New Testament it is baptism in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. "Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". (Mat_28:19) "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ". (Gal_3:26, Gal_3:27) These forms are unchangeable by any human authority.
The form of exclusion from the covenant people was not so definitely fixed under the old as the new dispensation. In the former it is ordained that for various transgressions a soul shall be cut off. "The uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant". (Gen_17:14) "If a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, both of them shall be cut off from among their people". (Lev_20:18) But it is only in the case of leprosy that the method of exclusion is given in detail. There we have seen that it is to consist of a careful examination on the part of God"s priest, and a pronunciation by him of the undoubted existence of the uncleanness in the person suspected, after which the latter is to exhibit all the signs of one mourning for himself as dead, to dwell alone, and" without the camp shall his habitation be". (Lev_13:45, Lev_13:46) So in the New Testament the power of "binding" as well as of "loosing," and of "retaining" bound as well as of "forgiving," is granted, and the obligation of exerting this power is involved in its grant; but no especial form by which it is to be done is given. It is only in the case of the incestuous Corinthian that we have an example of the way in which St. Paul judges that it shall be done. From thence it appears that the decision is to be passed by the chief Church officer, in the name of Jesus Christ, and promulgated by the assembled Church, the result being that the offender is translated from the kingdom of Christ to the outer world, the kingdom of Satan, "for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus". (1Co_5:3-5)
Nor is there any form definitely appointed either in the old or in the new dispensation for the readmission of those that had been cast out. No doubt in the old dispensation, it was always effected by the means of sacrifice, but we have a definite statement of the form adopted only in the case of reconciliation after leprosy. This form we have seen to be very elaborate and significative. Similarly in the new dispensation, we find no form authoritatively given for the restoration of the penitent; only we have, as before, the instance of the incestuous Corinthian, from which we learn that after sufficient punishment such a one is to be forgiven and taken back to the love of the brethren; and we have the general principle laid down elsewhere, "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted". (Gal_6:1)
The fact of a divinely authorized form being given for admission into covenant with God, but none for exclusion from it by excommunication or readmission to it by absolution, is significant. The first is under the new dispensation a sacrament ordained of Christ; the others are ecclesiastical rites, valuable for the well-being of the Church, but not appointed by its Founder as a necessary condition of its existence.
IV THE OFFICE OF THE PRIEST IS CLEANSING,
1. He did not cure the leprosy. "If the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper" (verse 3), then the priest shall begin the cleansing ceremonies. The healing of the disease was the work of God.
2. The action of the priest is necessary for the cleansing. If the healing is the work of God, the cleansing is the work of the priest. It is a complex ceremonial act, the result of which is not to deliver from the leprosy, but to serve as an assurance to the man himself and to the whole community that he is delivered from it, and therefore fit to be reinstated, and by that act reinstated, in the position of full communion which he had lost. So with absolution; it is God alone that forgives and heals sin. But after this has been accomplished, still it is necessary that a solemn ecclesiastical ceremony should reinstate in the communion of the faithful one who has been formally severed from it. And where the formal act of severance has not taken place, but a man"s distressed conscience tells him that he has separated himself from God, and can hardly allow him to believe in his forgiveness, the solemn declaration of that forgiveness by God"s minister serves as an assurance to the trembling soul, and restores to him the sense of peace which was lost.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Chapter 14The cleansing of sin as illustrated in the cleansing of the leper.
cf. 2Ki 5 Mat_8:1-4 Luk_5:12-15. We have seen the possibility of a cure of leprosy in the directions for its diagnosis given to the priests. The cured leper had also to be cleansed before admitted to the society of the faithful. In this chapter we have the cleansing of the leper detailed. In this we are to discern the cleansing of sin.
Naaman"s case is instructive upon this point. He was cured by Divine power. But be was not ceremonially cleansed or received into the fellowship of the Church of God. In his case the two elements of cure and cleansing were separated. But when our Lord directed the cured leper to go and offer for his cleansing, the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them, the elements were united. In the case of the cure of the leprosy of sin and its concomitant, the cleansing, the Great Physician who cures and the Priest who cleanses are one. It is our Divine Saviour who accomplishes both.
I WE MUST NOT CONFOUND THE CURE WITH THE CLEANSING OF SIN. The cure of sin is the sanctification of the inward nature, the imparting of the principle of righteousness, the regeneration of the once unholy nature. This is quite distinct from the cleansing which proceeds from the blood of Jesus Christ. In the latter case there is a justification through faith in his blood, so that we are accepted as well as pardoned on the ground of his merits. The one is a work of God in us, the other is a work of God on us. We are not accepted because we are regenerated; we are accepted "in the Beloved." The leper was not accepted on the ground of his cure, but on the ground of his sacrifice. The ritual of the leper is, therefore, admirably adapted to keep the two ideas distinct of justification and sanctification.
II THE RESTORATION OF THE LEPER EMBRACED TWO STAGES, WHICH HAVE THEIR COUNTERPART IN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SINNER. These stages are first, the restoration of the leper to the society of the living, and, secondly, his restoration to the society of the saints.
1. Restoration to the society of the living. The priest was directed to go to the leper outside the camp, and if he was satisfied about his cure, then he was to receive on the leper"s behalf "two live birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop," One of these is to be killed in an earthen vessel over running water, and its blood mingled with the water in the vessel. Of the cedar wood, scarlet wool, and hyssop the priest is to make a brush, in which he is temporarily to tie the remaining live bird, and having dipped them in the blood and water, he is to sprinkle therewith the leper seven times, pronouncing him clean, and then let the live bird free, The leper is then to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, wash himself carefully, and come into the camp, waiting, however, a week before taking up his permanent abode in his own tent.
Now, it seems clear that in this first stage of the leper"s restoration the live bird, baptized with water and blood, and then let loose to join its mates in the open fields, was a symbol of the healed leper, now to be restored to the fellowship of men. It has been, indeed, said that the live bird here is parallel to the live goat on the Day of Atonement, and should rather be supposed to carry the leper"s sin away. But, inasmuch as the live bird here receives a similar baptism to the leper himself, the first interpretation is preferable. Living water and blood, therefore, are the elements of the leper"s purification symbols of the Spirit and the blood of Jesus Christ. The brush of hyssop was the means by which these were applied to the leper, and might fittingly represent the Word of God, immortal like the cedar, humiliating like the hyssop, and invigorating like the "coccus-wool," by which the atonement and Spirit of Christ are applied to the sinful soul. It is thus by the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus that the soul, dead through the leprosy of sin, is restored to the society of the living. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins". (Eph_2:1)
2. Restoration to the society of the saints. After seven days" sojourn in the camp, but not in his own tent, the leper was allowed to approach the tabernacle with two he-lambs without blemish, one ewe-lamb without blemish of the first year, and three tenth-deals of fine flour for a moat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil. These were to be used as a trespass offering, a sin offering, and a burnt offering. These suggest respectively a sense of unprofitableness or shortcoming, atonement, and personal consecration. The blood of the trespass offering is to be applied to the right ear, thumb of right hand, and great toe of the right foot, and the oil of consecration to be added thereto. This corresponds exactly to the consecration of the priests (chapter 8). It suggests that it is out ode a sense of past unprofitableness that future consecration comes. (cf. Luk_17:5-10) It is when we realize how we have wronged our Lord that we are prepared to live, not unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us, as our atoning Sacrifice, and rose again. (2Co_5:14, 2Co_5:15) In case of the poverty of the leper, he is instructed to bring one lamb for the trespass offering, with turtle-doves or young pigeons, in place of two additional lambs, for the sin offering and burnt offering, and a smaller meat offering, But the emphasis being laid on the trespass offering is surely to show that a sinner, when quickened by the Lord, is to sincerely lament the profitless, isolated life he lived, and to resolve to dedicate himself with full purpose of heart to the service of the Saviour whose blood has taken away his sin. The saints are those who begin in a sense of trespass a life of grateful devotion.
III MAN"S HOME IS TO BE CLEANSED AND RESTORED IN THE SAME SPIRIT AS HIMSELF. The priest is directed to investigate a plagued house, and if by the use of prompt measures the plague is stayed and extirpated, then the first part of the ritual is to be carried out. One live bird is to be killed over the running water, and the house sprinkled with the blood and water as before, and then the other live bird liberated. Thus was the restoration of the house to the society of its mates, so to speak, symbolized. We have already taken this to indicate the careful purification of our environment, and there is no more important duty attaching to the religious man. Atonement is due, not only for the sin as it affects the person, but for sin in its ravages in the world. This blighted world of ours has need of atoning blood, and purification even by fire, before it can be restored to the favour of God. Christ has consecrated it through his blood, and his providence and Spirit will yet make the requisite arrangement for its complete purification and restoration to the holy. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-20. Restoration suggestions.
The ceremonies here enjoined in the event of leprosy being healed suggest four things.
I AN INTERESTING PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF OUR LORD. Our Saviour"s experiences may be divided into:
(1) his sufferings and death;
(2) his life (and example);
(3) his works.
Of these the last may be the least important, but they will never be unimportant. They will always remain one strong, convincing proof of his Godhead. And of these works the healing of leprosy incurable by human art was one of the most decisive. In this work of mercy, more vividly than in any other, we see him before us as the Divine Healer of the sin-smitten heart of man. Great interest belongs, therefore, to the incident related in Luk_5:12-15. And in the instruction given in verse 14 we see our Divine Lord:
(1) mindful of the Law of Moses, which he ever honoured; (Mat_3:15 Mat_5:17)
(2) while desirous of avoiding a noisy and hurtful notoriety, taking, due to establish the reality of his work.
II THE CONSIDERATION WE OWE TO OUR FELLOW-MEN. In virtue of the Divine precept the leper might not enter human society. But this was not the only ground of exclusion; by reason of the character of his malady he was wholly unfit to enter. Once exiled, therefore, he might not return until every guarantee had been given that he was "whole," until numerous and prolonged ceremonies of cleansing had removed all stigma from him, and made him likely to receive a cordial welcome back. Hence the elaborate ceremonial of the text:
(1) priestly examination (verses 2, 3);
(2) the ceremony of the two birds (verses 4-7);
(3) personal ablution (verse 8);
(4) further exclusion for a week (verse 8);
(5) additional ablution, etc. (verse 9);
(6) offerings at the altar, attended with peculiar rites with the blood and oil (verses 10-20).
When by any folly or guilt of ours we have incurred the distrust or dislike of our brethren, it is due to them that we should give them every possible guarantee of our "cleanness," our integrity of heart and life, before they abandon their suspicion and give us again their cordial confidence. Society has a right to require that the man whom it has necessarily shunned is pure of his moral and spiritual malady. We may be unable to gain any certificate of character, but we may, to regain confidence and readmission to human fellowship,
(1) show ourselves as humble, earnest worshippers in the house of the Lord;
(2) seek the open confidence of the acknowledged servants of Christ;
(3) give the pledge of a scrupulously virtuous life, that we are really "washed and sanctified... by the Spirit of our God". (1Co_6:11)
III THE OBLIGATIONS OF OFFICE. Those who hold high office have sometimes uninviting duties to discharge. The priests of Israel held honourable rank in the nation; doubtless they received a large share of public deference, and were regarded as those who occupied an enviable position. But their duties embraced some offices from which the humblest in the land might shrink. They had to make a most careful examination of the man who believed himself healed of leprosy. Probably, in their eagerness to return to the camp, these afflicted ones often sought readmission when the disease was still upon them. But the priest must examine all who came, clean or unclean. Those who now hold honourable positions in society (the minister, the medical man, etc.) must hold themselves ready, not only to do those duties which are inviting and congenial, but those also which are unpleasant and even painful, whether to the flesh or to the spirit.
IV THE OUTLOOK OF HUMAN MISERY. What was the prospect of the exiled leper? Human art had given him up as incurable, and human fellowship had cast him out as unworthy. What could he hope for? There were only two possible remedies a Divine cure or the grave; the one blessed enough but sadly improbable, the other sad enough but a welcome certainty. If for a while we look at leprosy as the picture, not of human sin, but of human misery, we may be reminded that, for a Christian man, there are two remedies:
(1) deliverance in time from affliction; (Psa_30:11)
(2) comfort in affliction during life, and then "the glory which shall be revealed". (Rom_8:18) Though the night of weeping be lifelong, "yet joy cometh in the morning" of the everlasting day. C.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE Vers. 1-20. Thorough purification.
Spiritual disease is often neglected by persons who are extremely anxious respecting some disease of the physical frame. For the former they seek no remedy, and display no concern as to its ultimate issue, whereas the latter is viewed with unceasing distress. Would that every spiritual leper entertained just conceptions regarding his state! The ceremonies of this chapter are pregnant with interest for us today. Two stages in the leper"s cleansing are set before us.
I THE RETURN TO THE comp.
1. The supposition that the leper might recover from his leprosy and be clean shows man"s superiority to inanimate nature. When endeavours are being made to confound matter and mind, and to reduce man to a level with the earth on which he lives, it is not unworthy of notice that the legislator here marks a vital distinction between a man and a dwelling. The latter, if on investigation pronounced utterly unclean, was destroyed (verse 45), and so with garments, (Lev_13:52) but the leprous man ever contained possibilities of recovery. Let us hold fast to the truth here imaged, and delight in the thought that no sinner is beyond hope of amendment.
2. As the priest journeyed outside the camp to the leper (verse 3), we are reminded of him who "suffered without the camp," who in his condescending love left his Father"s throne to dwell with the outcasts of earth, and who in his abode with men selected not the richest and purest, but the poor and the sinful, as the recipients of his intimacy and favour.
3. The death of the one bird showed forth the condition from which, by God"s grace, the leper had been rescued; the flight of the other bird, previously dipped in the blood, symbolized the enjoyment of life granted through the death of the appointed victim. How aptly does this apply to our deliverance through Jesus Christ, so that "we have passed from death unto life"! Delight in our present position should be combined with thankful remembrance of the means by which it has been secured to us.
4. The concomitants indicated the completeness of the new life received. There is no reason to reject the general interpretation that the cedar wood was an emblem of uncorruptness, the scarlet wool or braid of freshness and fullness of life, and the hyssop with its detergent properties of cleanness. These were employed in the preparation of the "water for separation". (Nu 19) Jesus Christ came that we might "have life, and have it more abundantly." He brought "life and incorruption to light through the gospel." He quickens those "dead through trespasses and sins." Life that invigorates the entire spirit is his "free gift.
5. What trouble was necessary, and would be willingly incurred, in order to regain temporal advantages! Unless cleansed by ablution of himself and clothes, and the removal of hair from the head, no entrance into the assembly of his brethren was permissible. Yet how readily would all be performed, just as today no efforts are deemed too great to allow of participation in valued social or political movements! But for the cleansing from sin any commandment is accounted vexatious! Few care to sacrifice time or labour to become citizens of the heavenly commonwealth.
II THE RETURN TO THE TENT.
1. The provision for restoring the leper proves that God has no desire to exclude men unnecessarily from religious privileges. The seven days" interval served to guard against a possible error on the part of the priest, and impressed the leper with a deeper conviction of the holiness of God. It is only sin that bars men from the light of God"s presence, and only obstinate persistence in sin that need cause despair of forgiveness. "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life" was our Lord"s indictment of men"s impenitent folly.
2. See, once more, the function of the priest to appear between man and God. "The priest that maketh him clean shall present the man before the Lord," and "the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord." We have our Advocate with the Father, in whose name, and sheltered by whose intercession, we may approach boldly the throne of grace. Hereafter he shall present us holy and without blemish, and unreprovable before him. (Col_1:22 Jud_1:24) Having Christ to introduce us, who can be afraid?
3. The cleansing not complete without an atonement. All marks of disease may have disappeared, or at least the fear of infection may have vanished, and yet to enter upon the fresh period of existence is not sufficient unless the past transgressions be remembered and atoned for. To forsake sin is well, but, in addition, the sin of the past must be confessed and pardoned. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ enables the sinner to start upon his pilgrimage with shoulders eased from the burden of guilt. A gulf separates him from the land of iniquity and stumbling; he is free to commence again under happier auspices. The old score is wiped out; a clean tablet marks the returned prodigal"s position.
4. The purification must be coextensive with the disease. Leprosy affected the whole man; hence the tips of the ear, the hand, and the foot must be touched with the atoning blood, that all parts may be redeemed from corruption. All spheres of activity must be brought under the power of the cross of Christ. The cleansing becomes a consecration of the entire man. The resemblance of this rite to that enjoined at the setting apart of the priests to their holy office cannot fail to be observed. The leper offered a trespass offering to compensate for breaches of the commandment committed by reason of his absence through sin from the sanctuary, a sin offering because of transgressions inadvertently committed, a burnt offering as an act of individual worship in which there was self-surrender to the Lord, and a meat offering, the natural accompaniment testifying grateful homage. And, besides blood, oil also was sprinkled upon the leper, and poured upon his head, and sprinkled seven times (the covenant number) before the Lord, so that we have here a recognition of the truth that Israel was intended to be a "kingdom of priests." Typical of the sanctification required in the people of God, reaching to every part of their character, until all is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. "As ye presented your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members servants to righteousness unto sanctification.
5. The consecrated man is fit for the discharge of ordinary duties and the enjoyment of lawful pleasures. After the sacrifices, the man could once more enter his tent and mingle with his family, and pursue his wonted avocation. Jehovah proved himself in these regulations the God of the families of Israel. He protected their relationships and imparted to them his blessing. It is a mistaken idea to place affection for our kindred before love to God. Regard for God is the surest guarantee for the performance of human obligations. Well for the land if this were oftener remembered in the establishment of households and in the contracting of domestic ties!
CONCLUSION. Only when "clean" could the leper send for the priest. We go to Jesus Christ with all our guilt; he looks upon us and pronounces us clean, he touches us, and lo! we are healed; for there is sanatory power in his look and touch. What the Saviour exemplified when on earth, he is constantly effecting now from heaven. S.R.A.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-9. The cleansing of the leper ceremonies outside the camp.
As leprosy is evidently a remarkable emblem of sin, so must the cleansing of the leper represent the purification of the sinner, and the laws of the cleansing, the provisions of the gospel. The text brings under our notice
I THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED. These were:
1. That the leprosy be healed.
(1) Healing and cleansing are distinct things. The priest did not heal. Before pro ceeding to cleanse he had to see that the leprosy was healed (verse 3). Our Lord healed lepers, and then sent them to the priest to be cleansed. (see Mat_8:2-4 Mar_1:40-44 Luk_5:12-14 Luk_17:14)
(2) The gospel of this is that repentance is not salvation. The body may be healed, outward reformation may be considerable, while the heart is morally putrescent. (see Mat_23:25-28) The leper, though healed, unless also cleansed, must not enter the holy place or eat of the holy things. A genuine change of heart will manifest itself in a pure life. When these exist together, fellowship with God is established.
2. That the priest certify the fact.
(1) "He shall be brought unto the priest," viz. for this purpose. He is brought by his friends, or they apprise the priest of his condition. Those are the true friends of sinners who bring them to Jesus in person or in prayer.
(2) "The priest shall go forth out of the comp." This did Jesus, who came to seek and save the lost. The Pharisees found fault with him for mingling with "publicans and sinners" when he acted as the priest among the lepers.
(3) The repentance that satisfies Jesus is genuine. (see Luk_18:10-14) And this he certifies in his offices of cleansing.
II THE OFFERING MADE.
1. The sacrifice.
(1) This consisted of two birds. We say "this in the singular, for the birds must be together viewed as one sacrifice. Unitedly they were intended to prefigure the one true Sacrifice for sins.
(2) The birds were "alive," to represent him that" hath life in himself.
(3) They were" clean." They might be sparrows or quails any wild birds of the clean kinds. Cleanness was requisite to foreshadow One whose birth and life were spotlessly pure.
2. Its treatment.
(1) One bird was killed over running or "living" water, which was the emblem of the living, purifying Spirit of God. Blood and water together flowed from the opened side of Jesus. (see Joh_19:34, 35 1Jn_5:6, 1Jn_5:8) The infinitely superior virtue of the blood of Christ lay in that, being God as well as man, he was able to offer himself through the eternal Spirit without spot. (Heb_9:13, Heb_9:14)
(2) The "living bird" was dipped "in the blood of the bird that was killed," to show that our guilt was laid upon the soul of Jesus as well as upon his body. This truth is indeed expressed in the blood shed; for the "blood is the life of the flesh." But to impress it upon us it is here presented under another figure. (see Isa_53:10-12)
III ITS APPROPRIATION. This was:
1. Through the sprinkling of blood.
(1) The atonement availed the leper nothing without the application of the blood to his person. So the blood of Christ avails only to those who appropriate its benefits by faith.
(2) The blood was sprinkled upon the leper "seven times" to express perfection and sufficiency, and to point to the seventh period or rest of the gospel, (Heb_4:10) in which the atonement by Christ satisfies all the promises of the types. Then he was pronounced "clean.
(3) The next thing was to let the living bird, stained with the blood of that killed in sacrifice, loose in the open field. What a lively picture! As the leper is assured that he is clean he sees his guilt carried away, and loses sight of it as the bird disappears in the wood. So does Christ bear our sins into oblivion.
2. Through the washing of water.
(1) The leper was to wash his clothes and appear in clean white linen, the emblem of the "righteousness of the saints.
(2) He had also to shave off all his hair, which had been dishonoured by the plague, that a new growth might crown him in purity.
(3) He had likewise to wash his flesh; and that too "seven times," to express the thoroughness of his purification. (comp. 2Ki_5:10; also Psa_51:2) But the true purifier is that sevenfold Spirit of the gospel, issuing as the river of life, from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Rev_5:6 Rev_22:1)
3. By the ministry of the word.
(1) The blood was sprinkled upon the leper by means of a whisk composed of "cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop." A branch of hyssop seems to have been tied to a handle of cedar by a thread of scarlet wool. But the materials used were evidently intended as emblems, else they would not have been so carefully specified. And we find these very materials on another occasion, thrown into the fire of the altar, to be consumed with the red heifer. (see Num_19:6)
(2) As to the hyssop and cedar, they seem to be, as it were, at the extremes in the kingdom of trees, and so generally represent that kingdom. For Solomon in his wisdom "spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall". (1Ki_4:33) We know that the servants of God are compared to trees. (Psa_1:3 Psa_92:12 Isa_61:3) They are various in their abilities, yet all serviceable as ministers and instruments of the gospel. (1Co_12:21)
(3) As to the wool; it is from the fleece of an animal proper for sacrifice, and its colour is that of blood. A cord of the same colour was hung from her window by Rahab, to express faith in the blood of the Passover to protect her and her house from destruction. It would not be lawful in her to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle its blood; but she did what she might, and expressed her faith by this sign. (Joh_3:18, Joh_3:19) The scarlet cord of a common faith in the blood of Christ binds his servants together, and in their unity makes them efficient instruments in carrying his gospel to mankind.
(4) If it be asked why should the cedar and scarlet and hyssop be burnt with the red heifer, the answer is that there is a sense in which faithful ministers may be "offered upon the sacrifice and service" of the faith of those they benefit. J.A.M. (see Act_9:4 2Co_1:5, 6 4:10 Php_2:17 3:10 Col_1:24 2Ti_1:8 2Ti_2:10)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2, 34 The law of the leper in the day of…
Lev_14:2-32
The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.
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Cleansing the leper
I. The disease.
1. Its peculiar designation. Leprosy the plague of boils (Deu_28:1-68.), which applies very forcibly to sin.
2. Its distinguishing characteristics. Small in appearance; so in a vicious course of life. It gradually spread, as does sin spread over all the powers and faculties of a man.
3. Its pernicious consequences. The malady was injurious to society, as being infectious and pernicious; to the person himself, excluding him from all society, civil and religions. So sinners corrupt others, while their abominable ways shut them from the communion of the faithful.
II. The cure of the disease.
1. No human means could be availing. The leper would gladly have cured himself. No art of man was effectual (2Ki_5:7). We have no remedy of mans devising for sin (Rom_7:19; Rom_7:24).
2. If the leper was cured, it was by God alone, without the intervention of human means (Luk_17:14; Isa_51:7). Nothing was prescribed or attempted for the removal of this distemper. And none but God can remove sin, &c. (Rom_7:10; Rom_7:18; Eph_5:9; 1Pe_2:2).
3. But the cure was associated with blood and water. And to be cleansed from the leprosy of sin we must have applied the blood and spirit of Christ (1Jn_1:7; Eze_36:25).
III. The confirmation of the cure by the priest,
1. A person was not to be pronounced clean on a sudden. The priest was to use much caution and deliberation. Caution should be exercised by ministers and office-bearers in the Church towards those who are candidates for fellowship.
2. When it evidently appeared that soundness had been imparted to his disordered body, this was declared with due solemnity. Here we see the pre-eminence of our High Priest; for while the priest merely declared the leper healed, He most effectually heals. Let those infected with the leprosy apply to their souls the Divinely appointed remedy; and let those who have been cleansed from it carefully discharge the duty enjoined on them. (Lev_14:10, &c.). (W. Sleigh.)
The leper
1. How God is the Author of plagues and diseases. Not to hurt man, but to help him; for man being afflicted, is humbled; being humbled, he runs to Him who can raise him up.
2. That sin infects mens bodies, garments, and houses.
3. Of the office of ministers, in visiting the sick (Lev_14:44).
4. Of our cleansing by the blood of Christ.
5. Of the honourable calling of physicians. They should be--
(1) Skilful.
(2) Faithful to their patient.
(3) Religious, referring all to Gods glory.
(4) Not covetous. (A. Willet, D. D.)
Lessons
1. Regeneration must be total in every part.
2. That vicious persons be not with too great facility reconciled.
3. God accepts of our obedience according to our heart.
4. To give thanks to God for our health. (A. Willet, D. D.)
The leper cleansed
Although leprosy was not curable by human remedies, it did not always continue for life. It was often sent as a special judgment, as in the eases of Miriam, Azariah, and Gehazi. The Jews generally looked upon it in this light. Its very name denotes a stroke of the Lord. This of itself rather implies that it may cease with the repentance and forgiveness of the smitten offender. It was the anticipation of the healing, of at least some persons leprously affected, that formed the basis of the provisions here laid down. They constitute the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing; and if there was no possibility of cure, there was no use of this law. You will observe, however, that these regulations were not for the cure of the leper, but for his ceremonial cleansing after the cure. The disease had first to be stayed, and then began this process of cleansing off all its lingering effects and disabilities. I therefore take the deepest intention of these rites to be to illustrate the nature of sanctification. Justification is also implied, but only as connected with sanctification.
1. In the first place, it is presupposed that the lepers disease had been stayed. And this healing again points to some putting forth of Divine power and grace quite different from anything here brought to view, and far anterior to the commencement of these services. The first motion of our salvation is from God. It begins while we are yet in the very depths of our defilement and guilt. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. A full and free forgiveness of all our sins is provided. And the only remaining requirement is to go show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded.
2. The leper, finding his leprosy stayed, was to go to the judge in the case and claim exemption from the sentence that was upon him. And to render this the more easy for him, the priest had to go forth out of the camp to meet him. The very moment the sinner believes in the healing proclaimed to him in the gospel, and sets himself to move for his cleansing, Christ meets him.
3. And when the healed leper thus presented himself to the priest, there was no alternative left. He had to be pronounced cured. And so Christ hath bound Himself to acquit and absolve every sinner who thus comes to Him in the strength of the gospel message. There is no further hindrance in the way. The man is justified. The sentence that was against him is rescinded and taken away. But the mere absolution of the priest did not fully restore the leper. Though his disease was stayed, there was a taint of it remaining to be purged off before he could join the camp or the holy services. And so our whole salvation must miscarry if it does not also take in an active holiness, purifying our hearts and lives, and transforming us into the image of our Redeemer. How this sanctification is effected is what we are now to consider.
I. To cleanse the recovered leper, the first thing to be done was the procurement of two clean birds, the one of which was to be slain, and the other to be dipped in its fellows blood and set at liberty. These two doves, the gentlest of all Gods creatures, at once carry our thoughts back to Christ and His wonderful history. The fate of the one shows us how He was mangled for human guilt, crushed to death for the sins of others, and brought down to the depths of the earth. The other, coming up out of the earthern vessel, out of the blood of its fellow, shows us how Jesus rose again from the rocky sepulchre, and ascended up out of the hand of His captor on strong and joyous pinions far into the high abodes of heaven, scattering as He went the gracious drops of cleansing and salvation. The introduction of these birds, in this connection, presents a great theological fact. As they typify Christ, they show that our sanctification, as well as our justification, proceeds from His Cross and resurrection.
II. The next thing to be done for the cleansing of the recovered leper was the arrangement and use of means to apply the cleansing of blood. Christ has appointed certain instruments and agencies to convey to us the purifying elements. First of all is the cedar stem of His Word, durable, fragrant, and instinct with celestial power and life, speaking through all the visible creation, but much more distinctly and powerfully in the written Scriptures. Along with this, and fastened to it, is the scarlet wool of the holy sacraments, absorbing, as it were, the whole substance of Christ crucified, and performing an important part in the impartation of the same to our souls. And along with this scarlet wool, and bound to the same stem, are the many little aromatic stems of prayer, with the sanctifying blood running out and hanging in drops on every point, ready to flow upon and cleanse the humble worshipper.
III. A third requirement for the lepers cleansing was, that he should wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water. This was his own work. It was to be done by the leper himself. Its spiritual significance is easily understood. It refers to the sinners repentance and reformation. He must cleanse himself from all his old and base surroundings. He must separate between himself and everything suspicious.
IV. But there is another particular entering into this ritual cleansing. After everything else had been done, sacrifices were to be offered. We must wash, and repent, and reform; but it avails nought without blood. Water, the purest that ever dropped from mossy rock, or gushed from the mountain spring, is not able to cleanse a man for heaven. Tears of repentance, though pure as those which trickled down the Saviours cheeks, cannot wash out the stains of sin, except they be mingled with the blood that dripped from His wounds. And no moral improvements can entitle us to eternitys honours if they are not connected with the suretyship and sacrifice of Jesus. The source of all sanctification is in His death and resurrection. All the glories of eternal life still refer us back to Calvary. Grace in Christ Jesus commenced the work, and grace in Christ Jesus must complete it. The only peculiarity which I notice here is that some of the blood and oil was to be touched to the cleansed leper, the same as in the consecration of the priests. It points to the very culmination and crown of Christian sanctity. The blood of the trespass-offering stands for the blood of Christ, and the holy oil for the Holy Spirit. These are the two great consecrating elements of Christianity. With these our High Priest approaches us through the gospel, to complete our cleansing and ordain us to the dignities and duties of our spiritual calling.
V. There is one point more in these ceremonies to which I will call your attention. I refer to the time which they required. A leper could by no possibility get through with his cleansing under seven days. One day was enough to admit him into the camp; but seven full days were requisite to admit him to his home. There was therefore a complete period of time necessary to the entireness of his cleansing. This arrangement was not accidental. It has its full typical significance. It refers to the fact that no one is completely sanctified in the present life; and that a complete period of time must ensue before we reach the rest to which our cleansing entitles us. We have attained unto very high honours. We have secured very exalted privileges. But everything has not yet been done, and all our disabilities are not yet removed. Great services yet remain to take place when the seven days have elapsed. And until then we must patiently wait. The influences of sin still linger about the old tenement, and we must suffer the consequences of it until the term of this present dispensation ends. Then shall our High Priest come forth again, and change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His own glorious body. The last lurking-places of defilement shall then be cut off. The last act of the lepers cleansing was to shave off his hair. When that was done he entered upon all the high services of the Tabernacle, and went to his home a saved man. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Ceremonies on recovery of the leper
First of all, he shall be brought unto the priest; and the priest shall go forth out of the camp, and see him; and then the priest, when he finds that he is clean, shall pronounce him clean. Next the priest was to take two birds alive and clean, and cedar-wood and scarlet, and hyssop: and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthern vessel over running water. Now it seems absurd to speak of an earthern vessel, and water in it called running water. But all the absurdity is taken away when we recollect that the original is living water. It is the same expression that occurs in other parts of Scripture. I will give unto him living water--It shall be in him a well of living water. And the real meaning of this passage is fresh water from the fountain, and not stagnant, and unfit for physical, or for spiritual, or for ecclesiastical purposes. Then it has been supposed that the one bird that was slain was meant to describe the death of Christ; and the dismissal of the other bird, after being dipped in the blood of the slain bird, was meant to be a type and prefiguration of the resurrection. It is nowhere in Scripture said to be so, but it is obviously typical of sacrifice; and no one sacrifice, no one symbol, could set forth the completeness of the work of Christ; and therefore many symbols may have been employed and combined to set forth that great and blessed act. We read, then, that the person, after this, was still to present an offering of two he-lambs, without blemish; and to remain at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation till the priest had offered these; and by this he was to have access to the congregation. We read that the priest was to sprinkle him seven times; that is, completely, the number meant to denote perfection. He was also to touch the tip of his right ear, to denote that that ear should be opened only to all that was pure. He was also to touch the thumb of the right hand, to teach that every act was to be consistent with his character. And upon the right foot, to show that he was to walk in Gods ways, which are ways of pleasantness and of peace. So that the man should feel--what is stated by the apostle in Rom_12:1-21.
that he was to present himself, soul and body, a living sacrifice, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now the language employed here-the hyssop, and the cedar-wood, and the sprinkling--casts light upon many passages in the Psalms, and those passages, again, cast light upon the phraseology of the New Testament. Ye are come unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. We read again, in another passage, of the sprinkling of His blood, the blood of sprinkling. The meaning of that is, just as the life of the turtledove, the lamb, or the bird, was sacrificed by the shedding of its blood, and typically and ecclesiastically, or Levitically, virtue or qualification was imparted to the person related to it; so the efficacy of Christs death, represented by His blood--that is, the atoning efficacy of it--is to be applied so to our hearts and consciences that we may have peace with God, free pardon of our sins, and the hope of an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
Do not forget the remedy
Cecil had been a great sufferer for years, and none of his medical friends had been able to ascertain the cause. At length Mrs. Cecil was told of a physician who was extremely skilful in intricate cases, and whom she entreated him to consult. On entering the physicians room, he said, Welcome, Mr. Cecil; I know you well by character, and as a preacher. We must have some conversation after I have given you my advice. Mr. Cecil then described his sufferings. The physician considered a moment, and then said, Dear sir, there is only one remedy in such a case as yours; do first try it; it is perfectly simple, and then he mentioned the medicine. Mr. Cecil, fearing to occupy too much of his time, rose to leave, but the physician said, No, sir, we must not part so soon, for I have long wished for an opportunity of conversing with you. So they spent half an hour more, mutually delighted with each others society. On returning home, Mr. Cecil said to his wife, You sent me to a most agreeable man--such a fund of anecdote, such originality of thought, such a command of language. Well, but what did he prescribe for you? Mrs. Cecil anxiously inquired. There was a pause, and then Mr. Cecil exclaimed, I have entirely forgotten the remedy; his charms of manner and conversation put everything else out of my mind. Now, young men, said Mr. Cecil, it will be very pleasant for you if your congregations go away saying, What eloquence! what original thought! and what an agreeable deliver! Take care they do not forget the remedy, the only remedy, Christ and His righteousness, Christ and His atonement, Christ and His advocacy. (Memoir of Wm. Marston.)
The cured and uncured
Christ cared the demoniac, the paralytic, the leper. He took the most chronic and complicated diseases, and they could not stand before His fiat. To one He said, Be thou clean; to another He said, Take up thy bed and walk; to another, Damsel, arise; and all these were not only cured as to the body, but cured as to the sicknesses of the soul. A pastor went into the house where there was a young Christian dying in great triumph. He entered the room to congratulate her as she was about to enter heaven, and as he went into the room and began to talk cheerfully about the joys that were immediately before her, her sister left the room. A few weeks after the pastor was called to the same house, and this sister who had left the room was about to take her departure into the eternal world, but she was not ready. She said to the pastor, You dont remember me, do you? Oh, yes, he replied, I remember you. Do you remember when you were talking to my sister about heaven I left the room? Yes, he said, I remember that. She said, Do you know why I left? No, he replied, I dont. Well, she said, I didnt want to hear anything about my soul, or about heaven, and now I am dying. Oh, sir, it is a dreadful thing to die! Now, what was the difference between those two sisters? The one was perfectly cured of the terrible disease of sin, the other was not. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Christ the only Healer
Now, children, if my watch has lost its mainspring, where shall I go to get it mended? To the tailors? No. To the blacksmiths? No. To the watchmakers? Yes. Why? Because he makes watches, and knows how to mend them. Now, if your hearts are bad, where will you go to have them healed? To your parents? No. To the priest? No. To Jesus Christ? Yes. Why? Because Be made the heart, and knows how to heal it. (The Church Scholars Magazine.)
Christ is an Almighty Doctor
Christ is an Almighty Doctor. At midnight a sudden disease comes upon your little child. You hasten for a physician, or you telegraph for the doctor as soon as you can, and hour after hour there is a contest between science and the King of Terrors. And yet you stand there and you watch and you see the disease is conquering fortress of strength after fortress of strength, until after a while you stand over the lifeless form and have to confess that there is a limit beyond which human medicament cannot go. But I hail at this moment an Almighty Doctor, who never lost a patient. Why, a leper came out with a bandage over his mouth and utterly loathsome, so they drove him out from all society, and when he came out the people all ran, and Christ ran. But Christ ran in a different direction from the people. They all ran away from the poor man; Christ ran towards him. And then a second leper came out with a bandage over his mouth, and a third, and a fourth, and so on until there were ten lepers, and I see Christ standing among them. It is a dangerous experiment, you say. Why, if you caught the breath of one such man as that, it would be certain death. There, sublimely great in goodness, Christ stood among the ten lepers, and He cured the first, and the second, and the tenth. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Christ can remove the root of the disease of sin
Some time ago a man wished to cut down a tree in his garden, and took it in hand to do it himself. Taking a spade, he cleared away the earth from the roots, and laid them bare for the axe. He hewed all the roots and suckers he saw, and then pushed and pulled at the tree, but it remained as firm as ever. Going to his gardener, he consulted him about it, and his reply was, Ah, sir, you have not cut the tap-root. You may hack and cut away at all the rest of the roots, but unless you cut it the tree will never fall. There are hundreds of sin-sick souls who persist in pruning away this sin and that sin, but they wilfully refuse to cut the tap-root of sin.
Two birds.--
The two birds considered typically
I. In the first bird let us see the saviour.
1. The bird was to be clean. Christ perfectly holy.
2. A birds being chosen in this rite may point us whence our Saviour came--from heaven.
3. The bird was slain. Christ tasted death for us. This shows--
(1) The evil of sin.
(2) The certainty of its punishment.
(3) Gods unspeakable love.
4. As to what bird it was, we do not certainly know, but commentators tell us all the birds prescribed by Moses were common and accessible. So the Saviour is not far off, but near at hand.
5. The earthern vessel reminds us of the Saviours humanity. And the fact that it contained not only blood but also clear water, may remind us that He saves by His Spirit as well as by His blood--that His salvation includes sanctification as well as justification.
II. Let us see in the other bird the believer.
1. That the Christian is represented by a bird, just as the Saviour is, may teach us--
(1) That Jesus in some sense makes the Christian equal to Himself; and
(2) That every Christian should seek to be Christlike (see 1Jn_3:4).
2. That the Christian is represented by a clean bird teaches--
(1) That the man who believes is justified from all things; and
(2) That the Christians effort should ever be after cleanness of character as well as of condition.
3. That this bird was dipped in the blood of the slain bird shows us plainly the way of salvation--by faith.
4. That the bird on being dipped was then let loose into the open field, teaches the blessed freedom, the glorious change which immediately takes place on a mans believing.
5. May we not also learn that while the Christian is free, yet he will always use his liberty as the bird does, not to sink earthward, but to soar heavenward?
III. As the living bird seems to have been dipped into the blood of the dead by means of a cedar staff, to which, along with a bundle of hyssop, it was attached by a band of scarlet wool, we take this staff as a representation of the gospel, through the foolishness of preaching which it pleases God to save them who believe. Doing so, we learn from 1Ki_4:30, that cedar-wood and hyssop were regarded as the two extremes of vegetable creation; and so the gospel is
(1) adapted to the two extremes of men;
(2) addressed to the highest and lowest;
(3) to the best and the worst. (D. Jamison, B. A.)
The two birds
As in all the Levitical types, so in this case, at the very entrance on the redeemed life stands the sacrifice of a life, and the service of a priest as mediator between God and man. Blood must be shed if the leper is to be admitted again into covenant standing with God; and the blood of the sacrifice in the law ever points to the sacrifice of Christ. But that great Sacrifice may be regarded in various aspects. Sin is a many-sided evil, and on every side it must be met. As often repeated, because sin as guilt requires expiation, hence the type of the sin-offering; in that it is a defrauding of God of His just rights from us, satisfaction is required, hence the type of the guilt-offering; as it is absence of consecration, life for self instead of life for God, hence the type of the burnt-offering. And yet the manifold aspects of sin are not all enumerated. For sin, again, is spiritual death; and, as death, it involves corruption and defilement. It is with special reference to this fact that the work of Christ is brought before us here. In the clean bird, slain that its blood may be applied to the leper for cleansing, we see typified Christ, as giving Himself, that His very life may be imparted to us for our life. In that the blood of the bird is mingled with water, the symbol of the Word of God, is symbolised the truth, that with the atoning blood is ever inseparably united the purifying energy of the Holy Ghost through the Word. Not the water without the blood, nor the blood without the water, saves, but the blood with the water, and the water with the blood (1Jn_5:6). But the type yet lacks something for completeness; and for this reason we have the second bird, who, when by his means the blood has been sprinkled on the leper, and the man is now pronounced clean, is released and flies away heavenward. What a beautiful symbol of that other truth, without which even the atonement of the Lord were nought, that He who died, having by that death for us procured our life, was then released from the bonds of death, rising from the dead on the third day, and ascending to heaven, like the freed bird, in token that His life-giving, cleansing work was done. Thus the message which, as the liberated bird flies carolling away, sweet as a heavenly song, seems to fall upon the ear is this (Rom_4:25). (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)
The two birds
There is nothing more suggestive than a caged bird. In the down of its breast you can see the glow of southern climes. In the sparkle of its eyes you can see the flash of distant seas. In its voice you can hear the song it learned in the wild wood. It is a child of the sky in captivity.
1. Now the dead bird of my text, captured in the air, suggests the Lord Jesus, who came down from the realms of light and glory. He once stood in the sunlight of heaven. He was the favoured of the land. He was the Kings Son. But one day there came word to the palace that an insignificant island was in rebellion, and was cutting itself to pieces with anarchy. I hear an angel say: Let it perish. The Kings realm is vast enough without the island. The tributes to the King are large enough without that. We can spare it. Not so, said the Prince, the Kings Son; and I see Him push out one day, under the protest of a great company. He starts for the rebellious island. He lands amid the execrations of the inhabitants, that grow in violence until the malice of earth has smitten Him, and the spirits of the lost world put their black wings over His dying head and shut the sun out. The hawks and vultures swooped down upon this dove of the text, until head and breast and feet ran blood--until, under the flocks and beaks of darkness the poor thing perished. No wonder it was a bird taken and slain over an earthern vessel of running water. It was a child of the skies. It typified Him who came down from heaven in agony and blood to save our souls.
2. I notice also in my text that the bird that was slain was a clean bird. The text demanded that it should be. The raven was never sacrificed, nor the cormorant, nor the vulture. It must be a clean bird, says the text, and it suggests the pure Jesus, the holy Jesus. Although He spent His boyhood in the worst village on earth, although blasphemies were poured into His ear enough to have poisoned any one else, He stands before the world a perfect Christ.
3. I remark also, in regard to this first bird, mentioned in the text, that it was a defenceless bird. When the eagle is assaulted, with its iron beak it strikes like a bolt against its adversary. This was a dove or a sparrow--most probably the former. Take the dove, or pigeon, in your hand, and the pecking of its beak upon your hand makes you laugh at the feebleness of its assault. The reindeer, after it is down, may fell you with its antlers. The ox, after you think it is dead, may break your leg in its death struggle. The harpooned whale, in its last agony, may crush you in the coil of the unwinding rope. But this was a dove--perfectly harmless, perfectly defenceless--type of Him who said, I have trod the winepress alone, and there was none to help. None to help! The murderers have it all their own way. Where was the soldier in the Roman regiment who swung his sword in the defence of the Divine Martyr? Did they put one drop of oil on His gashed feet? Was there one in all that crowd manly and generous enough to stand up for Him? Were the miscreants at the Cross any more interfered with in their work of spiking Him fast than the carpenter in his shop driving a nail through a pine board? The women cried, but there was no balm in their tears. None to help! none to help!
4. But I come now to speak of this second bird of the text. The priest took the second bird, tied it to the hyssop branch, and then plunged it in the blood of the first bird. Ah, that is my soul plunged for cleansing in the Saviours blood. There is net enough water in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to wash away our smallest sin. Sin is such an outrage on Gods universe that nothing but blood can atone for it. You know the life is in the blood, and as the life had been forfeited, nothing could buy it back but blood. What was it that was sprinkled on the door-post when the destroying angel went through the land? Blood. What was it that went streaming from the altar of ancient sacrifice? Blood. What was it that the priest carried into the Holy of Holies, making intercession for the people? Blood. What was it that Jesus sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane? Great drops of blood. What does the wine in the sacramental cup signify? Blood. What makes the robes of the righteous in heaven so fair? They are washed in the blood of the Lamb. What is it that cleanses all our pollution? The blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses from all sin.
5. I notice now that as soon as this second bird was dipped in the blood of the first bird, the priest unloosed it, and it was free--free of wing and free of foot. It could whet its beak on any tree-branch it chose; it could pick the grapes of any vineyard it chose. It was free. A type of our souls after we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We can go where we will. We can do what we will. You say, Had you better not qualify that? No; for I remember in conversion the will is changed, and the man will not will that which is wrong.
6. The next thing I noticed about this bird, when it was loosed--and that is the main idea--is, that it flow away. Which way did it go? When you let a bird loose from your grasp which way does it fly? Up. What are wings for? To fly with. We should be going heavenward. That is the suggestion. But I know that we have a great many drawbacks. You had them yesterday, or the day before; and although you want to be going heavenward, you are constantly discouraged. But, I suppose, when that bird went out of the priests hands it went by inflections--sometimes stooping. A bird does not shoot directly up--but this is the motion of a bird. So the soul soars towards God, rising up in love, and sometimes depressed by trial. It does not always go just in the direction it would like to go. But the main course is right. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Freedom and exultation of the restored life
Alas for any poor beguiled soul that turns away in scorn of the glorious gospel of the blessed God! Ye mistake it who regard it as a summons to a slavish and sorrowful life. It is a great voice out of heaven crying, Come up hither. It is a call of the radiant dayspring as it bursts on the poor bird nestling in the withering grass, revealing the grandeurs of the everlasting firmament, that it may fly--fly--fly! Let me tell you again my old story of the eagle. For many months it pined and drooped in its cage, and seemed to have forgotten that it was of the lineage of the old plumed kings of the forest and the mountain; and its bright eye faded, and its strong wings drooped, and its kingly crest was bowed, and its plumes were torn and soiled amid the bars and dust of its prison-house. So in pity of its forlorn life we carried its cage out to the open air, and broke the iron wire and flung wide the lowly door; and slowly, falteringly, it crept forth to the sultry air of that cloudy summer noon and looked listlessly about it. But just then, from a rift in an overhanging cloud, a golden sunbeam flashed upon the scene. And it was enough. Then it lifted its royal crest, the dim eye blazed again, the soiled plumes unfolded and rustled, the strong wings moved themselves, with a rapturous cry it sprang heavenward. Higher, higher, in broader, braver circles it mounted toward the firmament, and we saw it no more as it rushed through the storm-clouds and soared to the sun. And would, O ye winged spirits! who dream and pine in this poor earthly bondage, that only one ray from the blessed Sun of Righteousness might fall on you this hour! for then would there be the flash of a glorious eye, and a cry of rapture, and a sway of exulting wings, as another redeemed and risen spirit sprang heavenward unto God! (C. Wadsworth, D. D.)
Blood-washed Christians
It is said in Germany, of one Prince Henry, when a little boy, that he had a great aversion to his bath. He didnt like it, and cried and squealed every morning when the time for his ablutions came round. One morning, to his very great pleasure, the nurse said he need not have it, and he soon took to showing to the other children how he had conquered the nurse to his royal mothers aggravation. He went out for a walk later in the day, and when he entered the palace gates on the return journey, the sentinel at that point offered him no salute, and that had never happened before. Being a prince he was greatly respected, and felt proud of the salute of the soldiers. Coming up to the palace door, there the soldier stood on guard, but no salute was given. The little boy went up to the stalwart sentinel quite angry, and said, Do you know who I am? . . . Oh, yes, Prince Henry, but we never salute unwashed princes. He never said anything in reply, but passed quietly into the palace, and the next morning he took his bath as required. They did not salute unwashed princes, and the world does not salute unwashed Christian:.. You are a royal blood-washed prince if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the world will take knowledge of you if you have been with Jesus, taking knowledge of Christ in you the hope of glory. (J. Spencer.)
Appropriate return for the Saviours blood-shedding
In an Italian hospital was a severely wounded soldier. A lady visitor spoke to him, dressed his wounds, smoothed his pillow, and made him all right for the day. When leaving she took a bouquet of flowers, and laid it beside his head. The soldier, with his pale face and eyes full of tears, looked up, and said: That is too much kindness. She was a lady with a true Italian heart, and looking back to the soldier, she quietly replied, No, not too much for one drop of Italian blood. Shall we not freely own that the consecration of all our powers of body and spirit is not too much to give in return for the shedding of our Emmanuels blood on our behalf? (S. S. Chronicle.)
Christian consecration
Did you ever hear of Hedley Vicars, that good soldier? He was once reading the Bible, and accidentally--he was not religious then, I believe--accidentally he happened to come upon the verse--The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Be thought, Is that true? Is that true to me? Does the blood of Jesus Christ wash out all my sin? Then I resolve I will henceforth live as a man who has been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. A noble resolve! Remember it-- I will live as a man ought to live who has been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. How is a man to live who has been washed in the blood of Christ? That was a noble resolve! (John Vaughan.)
Hyssop.--
A sermon to children on hyssop
(Lev_14:4.) Text chosen to illustrate one simple truth. A very little and insignificant thing may be used for very important work. Of this hyssop the Jews were to make a sort of brush to sprinkle the door-posts with. It was but a little plant, for of Solomon it is said, He spake of trees, from the cedar-tree even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. It is a short-stemmed plant, growing in crevices like the ferns in our walls. It is bristly, and so suitable for making into a brush. It is bitter, and so it was thought to have cleansing properties; and, therefore, the Psalmist prays, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
1. God uses little things for His work. True He uses the great cedar for making His temple, and the acacia boards for His tabernacle; but He also uses the little hyssop. Children are but little things, and yet the Lord needs and uses them. Illustration: Naamans maid. Children at our Lords triumphal entry. The nurse who influenced the good Lord Shaftesbury.
2. God chooses the little things He wants to use. There are many little plants besides the hyssop; but only that one was chosen for this particular work. There are many sorts of grass, but only one, with specially interlacing roots, is used to keep up the great dams that hold back the sea in Holland. God will find out some particular work for each one of us; and all through life, as well as now, our joy will be to do what He finds for us to do.
3. God expects us to put something of our own into our service. The hyssop had something of its own. It put it into its work when it was used to soothe Christs pain on the Cross. It is not enough just to do right, we must try to do right earnestly, skilfully, cheerfully, prettily: putting our own best selves into the doing. We are to be Gods agents, but we must never forget this--He would have us put our love, our goodwill, our abilities, and our happy spirit, into all His work.
If he be poor.--
Provision for the poor
The poor man is often overlooked. There is always a strong tendency in the more favoured classes to pass him by, and to forget, if not to despise him. But God does not forget him. The directions for his particular case are just as special and authoritative as any contained in this ritual. The Lord would thus assure him of His care--that He feels for him the same deep interest as for others, and brings atonement equally within his reach. There is a common level in the Divine administrations, upon which the rich and poor meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of them all. The poor are His children, as well as the rich. He anointed His Son Jesus, to preach the gospel to them. And the most neglected and down-trodden child of want has just as good a right to cleansing and heaven, and may count as much upon the sympathy and grace of God, as his wealthy neighbour. If he cannot get three lambs, he is just as welcome and acceptable with one lamb and two doves. The poor widows mite cast into the treasury of the Lord receives a higher commendation than all the costly donations of the wealthy. Mary, with her two young pigeons is just as completely cleansed as she who could add thereto a lamb of a year old. But although the law favoured the leper who was poor it did not exempt him. It accommodated the burden to his strength, but it did not remove it. If he could not bring three lambs he was still bound to bring one lamb and two doves. If he could not get three deals of flour one deal had to be forthcoming. There are sore, people who make poverty a virtue, and claim exemption from everything because they are poor. But Gods commands are upon the poor as well as upon those more favoured in earthly possessions. He does not excuse them because they are indigent. They are sinners as well as other men, and must be cleansed by the same processes. There is no more merit in being poor than in being rich. Poverty cannot save a man. Beggars may go down to eternal death as well as millionaires. There is often as much crime in lags as in purple and fine linen. All classes are infected, and all classes must have recourse to the blood of the Lamb and receive upon them the same blood of sprinkling, and the same consecrating oil of the Spirit. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Such as he can get.--
According to ability
He shalt offer. That is the law. But he shall offer only such as he can get. That is the mercy. But in mercy there is a law. Pity is not unruly, out of harmony with eternal righteousness and truth; tears are part of the Divine economy, as well as constellations. See how everywhere in the holy Book we find judgment and mercy, law and love, discipline and rest of soul. Christianity is a yoke, a burden, but light and easy. Here is the considerateness of God even in law. The law is not cast-iron; the law is not an expression of arbitrary will. The law rises high as heaven, and yet it stoops as lowly as human infirmity and need. The next verse is even more explicit in its tenderness; Lev_14:31 begins, Even such as he is able to get. The emphasis is on the word able; all the meaning is to be found in that word. Not, such as he can casually pick up; not, such as may happen to come in his way at the moment; that is not law, that is folly, h thought of that kind would wreck the order and unity of creation. How very different is the instruction or injunction, Even such as he is able to get--after he has walked ten miles, after he has done the very best in his power, after he has strained his thought to the agony of anxiety; then if his offering, how poor soever it be, shall prove to be the very best of his ability, it shall go right up into heaven and be accepted there as if it were a kings offering, without spot or blemish, without infirmity of age, or without sign of unequal conflict. Here, then, is unity combined with diversity. If you bring a thousand pounds, it may be much, it may be nothing. If you bring the smallest coin of the realm, which indeed is no coin at all but a mere token, if it be all you can do, if it be such as you are able to get, it is a mountain of fine gold and there is hardly room for such a gift in heaven. What a variety of offering may be found on the Christian altar! There is a great offering of gold. Some men have nothing but gold to give, but they give it with both hands, they give it with a blessing; they send their love with it, and love doubles every gift. Here is a great offering of work; morning, noon, and night the offerer is wondering what he can do next. All his time is Gods; he will accept any position that may be given to him. He does not elect his own place, he simply tells what his faculty is, and he is willing to give the whole of that faculty twelve hours in the day to the service of Christ. Here is a great offering of music; here is a leading voice, here is a spiritual interest in that sweet department of public worship; the voice is given, all that the voice means is joyously contributed; the giver says, I would give more if I could, but this is all I have been able to get, take it, O Christ, it is given in Thy name; receive it all. Here is a great offering of home-service. That home-church has never had its history written. The history of the home-church never can be put into words. It is the great church, it is the church out of which all other churches are cut, like palaces out of the solid rocks. Palaces owe themselves to the great quarries of the earth; they are not select, dainty, specially-jewelled stone; the great cathedrals all came out of the quarry. And the home-church is, if it may be so expressed without roughness, the quarry, the stone bed, out of which all the other churches are built, though they be called minsters and temples and cathedrals. What a great offering there is of love. Love has no hours. Love never entered into a union or a federation for the purpose of seeing how little it could do and how much it could get. Love never begins, because it never ceases. Such as he can get. Nor is this the only phrase that indicates the tenderness of law. In Lev_14:21 of this very chapter we read, And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then, &c. We need not ask if this book is an inspired book. The righteousness, the tenderness, meet so uniquely and cooperate so perfectly that there must be more than human thought in all these economic and considerate arrangements. Points of this kind are the true arguments for inspiration. If he be poor, and cannot get so much; then, &c. Thus God makes room at the altar for the poor man, and any altar that makes room for the poor, stands on earth, but reaches up to heaven. By this sign know ye that ye are in front of Gods altar. Such as he can get often means nothing more than, Such as God has given him. What have we that we have not received? God orders the business of men. If men would recognise this they would be quieter and more thankful. There is a sense in which we can all do more. What is that sense? It is only true in so far as it proceeds out of the deeper doctrine that we can all be more. This is a question of quality; this a question of moral capacity. The great thing in this Christian education and discipline is to make the man himself more, his quality finer, his sensitiveness more exquisite, his consciousness of indebtedness to God profounder and livelier. We shall never have any revival of hand-action that is worth anything until we have a revival of heart-life, heart-love, heart-faith. Let us pray for increase of heart. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 THE ceremonies for the restoration of the leper, when…
THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER
Lev_14:1-32
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THE ceremonies for the restoration of the leper, when healed of his disease, to full covenant privileges, were comprehended in two distinct series. The first part of the ceremonial took place without the camp, and sufficed only to terminate his condition as one ceremonially dead, and allow of his return into the camp, and his association, though still under restriction, with his fellow Israelites. The second part of the ceremonial took up his case on the eighth day thereafter, where the former ceremonial had left him, as a member, indeed, of the holy people, but a member still under defilement such as debarred him from approach to the presence of Jehovah; and, by a fourfold offering and an anointing, restored him to the full enjoyment of all his covenant privileges before God.
This law for the cleansing of the leper certainly implies that the disease, although incurable by human skill, yet, whether by the direct power of God, as in several instances in Holy Scripture, or for some cause unknown, might occasionally cease its ravages. In this case, although the visible effects of the disease might still remain, in mutilations and scars, yet he would be none the less a healed man. That occasionally instances have occurred of such arrest of the disease, is attested by competent observers, and the law before us thus provides for the restoration of the leper in such cases to the position from which his leprosy had excluded him.
The first part of the ceremonial (Lev_14:3-9) took place without the camp; for until legally cleansed the man was in the sight of the law still a leper, and therefore under sentence of banishment from the congregation of Israel. Thus, as the outcast could not go to the priest, the priest, on receiving word of his desire, went to him. For the ceremony which was to be performed, he provided himself with two living, clean birds, and with cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; also he took with him an earthen vessel filled with living water, -i.e., with water from some spring or flowing stream, and therefore presumably pure and clean. One of the birds was then killed in such a manner that its blood was received into the vessel of water; then the living bird and the hyssop-bound, as we are told, with the scarlet band to the cedar wood-were dipped into the mingled blood and water, and by them the leper was sprinkled therewith seven times by the priest, and was then pronounced clean; when the living bird, stained with the blood of the bird that was killed, was allowed to fly away. Thereupon, the leper washed his clothes, shaved off all his hair, bathed in water, and entered the camp. This completed the first stadium of his restoration.
Certain things about this symbolism seem very clear. First of all, whereas the leper, afflicted, as it were, with a living death, had become, as regards Israel, a man legally dead, the sprinkling with blood, in virtue of which he was allowed to take his place again in the camp as a living Israelite, symbolised the impartation of life; and, again, inasmuch as death is defiling, the blood was mingled with water, the uniform symbol of cleansing. The remaining symbols emphasise thoughts closely related to these. The cedar wood (or juniper), which is almost incorruptible, signified that with this new life was imparted also freedom from corruption. Scarlet, as a colour, is the constant symbol, again, like the blood, of life and health. What the hyssop was is still in debate; but we can at least safely say that it was a plant supposed to have healing and purifying virtues.
So far all is clear. But what is the meaning of the slaying of the one bird, and the loosing afterward of the other, moistened with the blood of its fellow? Some have said that both of the birds symbolised the leper: the one which was slain, the leper as he was, -namely, as one dead, or under sentence of death by his plague; the other, naturally, then, the leper as healed, who, even as the living bird is let fly whither it will, is now set at liberty to go where he pleases. But when we consider that it is by means of being sprinkled with the blood of the slain bird that the leper is cleansed, it seems quite impossible that this slain bird should typify the leper in his state of defilement. Indeed, if this bird symbolised him as under his disease, this supposition seems even absurd; for the blood which cleansed must then have represented his own blood, and his blood as diseased and unclean!
Neither is it possible that the other bird, which was set at liberty, should represent the leper as healed, and its release, his liberation; however plausible, at first thought, this explanation may seem. For the very same ceremony as this with. the two birds was also to be used in the cleansing of a leprous house (Lev_14:50-53), where it is evident that the loosing of the living bird could not have any. such significance; since the notion of a liberty given would be wholly inapplicable in the case of a house. But whatever the true meaning of the symbolism may be, it is clear that it must be one which will apply equally well in each of the two cases, the cleansing of the leprous house, no less than that of the leprous person.
We are therefore compelled to regard the slaying of the one bird as a true sacrifice. No doubt there are difficulties in the way, but they do not seem insuperable, and are, in any case, less than those which beset other suppositions. It is true that the birds are not presented before Jehovah in the tabernacle; but as the ceremony took place outside the camp, and therefore at a distance from the tabernacle, this may be explained as merely because of the necessity of the case. It is true, again, that the choice of the bird was not limited, as in the tabernacle sacrifices, to the turtledove or pigeon; but it might easily be that when, as in this case, the sacrifice was elsewhere than at the tabernacle, the rules for service there did not necessarily apply. Finally and decisively, when we turn to the law for the cleansing of the leprous house, we find that atoning virtue is explicitly ascribed to this rite with the birds (Lev_14:53): "He shall make atonement for the house."
But sacrifice is here presented in a different aspect from elsewhere in the law. In this ceremonial the central thought is not consecration through sacrifice, as in the burnt offering; nor expiation of guilt through sacrifice, as in the sin offering; nor yet satisfaction for trespass committed, as in the guilt offering. It is sacrifice as procuring for the man for whom it is offered purity and life, which is the main thought.
But, according to Lev_14:52-53, the atonement is made with both the dead and the living bird. The special thought which is emphasised by the use of the latter, seems to be merely the full completeness of the work of cleansing which has been accomplished through the death of the other bird. For the living bird was represented as ideally identified with the bird which was slain, by being dipped in its blood; and in that it was now loosed from its captivity, this was in token of the fact that the bird, having now given its life to impart cleansing and life to the leper, has fully accomplished that end.
Obviously, this explanation is one that will apply no less readily to the cleansing of the leprous house than of the leprous person. For the leprosy in the house signifies the working of corruption and of decay and death in the wall of the house, in a way adapted to its nature, as really as in the case of the person; and the ceremonial with the birds and other material prescribed means the same with it as with the other, -namely, the removal of the principle of corruption and disease, and impartation of purity and wholesomeness. In both cases the sevenfold sprinkling, as in analogous cases elsewhere in the law, signified the completeness of the cleansing. to which nothing was lacking, and also certified to the leper that by this impartation of new life, and by his cleansing, he was again brought into covenant relations with Jehovah.
With these ceremonies, the lepers cleansing was now in so far effected that he could enter the camp; only he must first cleanse himself and his clothes with water and shave his hair, -ceremonies which, in their primary meaning, are most naturally explained by the importance of an actual physical cleansing in such a case. Every possible precaution must be taken that by no chance he bring the contagion of his late disease into the camp. Of what special importance in this connection, besides the washing, is the shaving of the hair, will be apparent to all who know how peculiarly retentive is the hair of odours and infections of every kind.
The cleansed man might now come into the camp; he is restored to his place as a living Israelite. And yet he may not come to the tabernacle. For even an Israelite might not come, if defiled for the dead; and this is precisely the lepers status at this point. Though delivered from the power of death, there is yet persisting such a connection of his new self with his old leprous self as precludes him from yet entering the more immediate presence of God. The reality of this analogy will appear to anyone who compares the rites which now follow (Lev_14:10-20) with those appointed for the Nazarite, when defiled by the dead. {Num_6:9-12}
Seven days, then, as in that case, he remains away from the tabernacle. On the seventh day, he again shaves himself even to the eyebrows, thus ensuring the most absolute cleanness, and washes himself and his clothes in water. The final restoration ceremonial took place on the eighth day, -the day symbolic of the new creation, -when he appeared before Jehovah at the tent of meeting with a he-lamb for a guilt offering, and another for a sin offering, and an ewe-lamb for a burnt offering; also a meal offering of three tenth-deals, one tenth for each sacrifice, mingled with oil, and a log (3.32 qts.) of oil. The oil was then waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as also the whole lamb of the guilt offering (an unusual thing), and then the lamb was slain and offered after the manner of the guilt offering.
And now followed the most distinctive part of the ceremonial. As in the case of the consecration of the priests was done with the blood of the peace offering and with the holy oil, so was it done here with the blood of the guilt offering and with the common oil-now by its waving consecrated to Jehovah-which the cleansed leper had brought. The priest anoints the mans right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the great toe of his right foot, first with the blood of the guilt offering, and then with the oil, having previously sprinkled of the oil seven times with his finger before the Lord. The remnant of the oil in the hand of the priest he then pours upon the cleansed lepers head; then offers for him the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering; and therewith, at last, the atonement is complete, and the man is restored to his full rights and privileges as a living member of the people of the living God.
The chief significance of this ceremonial lies in the prominence given to the guilt offering. This is evidenced, not only by the special and peculiar use which is made of its blood, in applying it to the leper, but also in the fact that in the case of the poor man, while the other offerings are diminished, there is no diminution allowed as regards the lamb of the guilt offering, and the log of oil. Why should the guilt offering have received on this occasion such a place of special prominence? The answer has been rightly given by those who point to the significance of the guilt offering as representing reparation and satisfaction for loss of service due. By the fact of the mans leprosy, and consequent exclusion from the camp of Israel, God had been, for the whole period of his excision, defrauded, so to speak, of His proper dues from him in respect of service and offerings; and the guilt offering precisely symbolised satisfaction made for this default in service which he had otherwise been able to render.
Nor is it a fatal objection to this understanding of the matter that, on this principle, he also that for a long time had had an issue should have been required, for his prolonged default of service, to bring a guilt offering in order to his restoration; whereas from him no such demand was made. For the need, before the law, for the guilt offering lay, not in the duration of the leprosy, as such apprehend it, but in the nature of the leprosy, as being, unlike any other visitation, in a peculiar sense, a death in life. Even when the man with an issue was debarred from the sanctuary, he was not, like the leper, regarded by the law as a dead man; but was still counted among them that were living in Israel And if precluded for an indefinite time from the service and worship of God at the tabernacle, he yet, by his public submission to the demands of the law, in the presence of all, rendered still to God the honour due from a member of the living Israel. But in that the leper, unlike any other defiled person, was reckoned ceremonially dead, obviously consistency in the symbolism made it impossible to regard him as having in any sense rendered honour or service to God so long as he continued a leper, any more than if he had been dead and buried. Therefore he must bring a guilt offering, as one who had, however unavoidably, committed "a trespass in the holy things of the Lord." And so this guilt offering, in the case of the leper, as in all others, represented the satisfaction of debt; and as the reality or the amount of a debt cannot be affected by the poverty of the debtor, the offering which symbolised satisfaction for the debt must be the same for the poor leper as for the rich leper.
And the application of the blood to ear, hand, and foot meant the same as in the case of the consecration of the priests. Inducted, as one now risen from the dead, into the number of the priestly people, he receives the priestly consecration, devoting ear, hand, and foot to the service of the Lord. And as it was fitting that the priests, because brought into a relation of special nearness to God, in order to be ministers of reconciliation to Israel, should therefore be consecrated with the blood of the peace offering, which specially emphasised the realisation of reconciliation, -so the cleansed leper, who was reestablished as a living member of the priestly nation, more especially by the blood of the guilt offering, was therefore fittingly represented as consecrated in virtue, and by means of that fact.
So, like the priests, he also was anointed by the priest with oil; not indeed with the holy oil, for he was not admitted to the priestly order; yet with common oil, sanctified by its waving before God, in token of his consecration as a member of the priestly people. Especially suitable in his case was this anointing, that the oil constantly stands as a symbol of healing virtue, which in his experience he had so wondrously received.
Remembering in all this how the leprosy stands as a preeminent type of sin, in its aspect as involving death and corruption, the application of these ceremonies to the antitypical cleansing, at least in its chief aspects, is almost self-evident. As in all the Levitical types, so in this case, at the very entrance on the redeemed life stands the sacrifice of a life, and the service of a priest as mediator between God and man. Blood must be shed if the leper is to be admitted again into covenant standing with God; and the blood of the sacrifice in the law ever points to the sacrifice of Christ. But that great Sacrifice may be regarded in various aspects. Sin is a many-sided evil, and on every side it must be met. As often repeated, because sin as guilt requires expiation, hence the type of the sin offering; in that it is a defrauding of God of His just rights from us, satisfaction is required, hence the type of the guilt offering; as it is absence of consecration, life for self instead of life for God, hence the type of the burnt offering. And yet the manifold aspects of sin are not all enumerated. For sin, again, is spiritual death; and, as death, it involves corruption and defilement. It is with special reference to this fact that the work of Christ is brought before us here. In the clean bird, slain that its blood may be applied to the leper for cleansing, we see typified Christ, as giving Himself, that His very life may be imparted to us for our life. In that the blood of the bird is mingled with water, the symbol of the Word of God, is symbolised the truth, that with the atoning blood is ever inseparably united the purifying energy of the Holy Ghost through the Word. Not the water without the blood, nor the blood without the water, saves, but the blood with the water, and the water with the blood. So it is said of Him to whom the ceremony pointed: {1Jn_5:6} "This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood."
But the type yet lacks something for completeness; and for this reason we have the second bird, who, when by his means the blood has been sprinkled on the leper, and the man is now pronounced clean, is released and flies away heavenward. What a beautiful symbol of that other truth, without which even the atonement of the Lord were naught, that He who died, having by that death for us procured our life was then released from the bonds of death, rising from the dead on the third day, and ascending to heaven, like the freed bird, in token that His life-giving, cleansing, work was done. Thus the message which, as the liberated bird flies carolling away, sweet as a heavenly song, seems to fall upon the ear, is this, "Delivered up for our trespasses, and raised for our justification." {Rom_4:25; see Gr.}
But although thus and then restored to his standing as a member of the living people of God, not yet was the cleansed leper allowed to appear in the presence of God at the tent of meeting. There was a delay of a week, and only then, on the eighth day, the day typical of resurrection and new creation, does He appear before God. Is there typical meaning in this delay? We would not be too confident. It is quite possible that this delay of a week, before the cleansed man was allowed to present himself for the completion of the ceremonial which reinstated him in the plenary enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of a child of Israel, may have been intended merely as a precautionary rule, of which the purpose was to guard against the possibility of infection, and the defilement of the sanctuary by his presence, through renewed activity of the disease; while, at the same time, it would serve as a spiritual discipline to remind the man, now cleansed, of the extreme care and holy fear with which, after his defilement, he should venture into the presence of the Holy One of Israel; and thus, by analogy, it becomes a like lesson to the spiritually cleansed in all ages.
But perhaps we may see a deeper significance in this week of delay, and his appointed appearance before the Lord on the eighth day. If the whole course of the leper, from the time of his infection till his final reappearing in the presence of Jehovah at the tent of meeting, be intended to typify the history and experience of a sinner as saved from sin; and if the cleansing of the leper without the camp, and his reinstatement thereupon as a member of Gods Israel, represents in type the judicial reinstatement of the cleansed sinner, through the application of the blood and Spirit of Christ, in the number of Gods people; one can then hardly fail to recognise in the weeks delay appointed to him, before he could come into the immediate presence of God, an adumbration of the fact that between the sinners acceptance and the appointed time of his appearing, finally and fully cleansed, before the Lord, on the resurrection morning, there intervenes a period of delay, even the whole lifetime of the believer here in the flesh and in the disembodied state. For only thereafter does he at last, wholly perfected, appear before God in the heavenly Zion. But before thus appearing, the accepted man once and again had to cleanse his garments and his person, that so he might remove everything in which by any chance uncleanness might still lurk. Which, translated into New Testament language, gives us the charge of the Apostle Paul {2Co_7:1} addressed to those who had indeed received the new life, but were still in the flesh: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
But, at last, the week of delay is ended. After its seventh day follows an eighth, the first-day morning of a new week, the morning typical of resurrection and therewith completed redemption, and the leper now, completely restored, appears before God in the holy tabernacle. Even so shall an eighth-day morning dawn for all who by the cleansing blood have been received into the number of Gods people. And when that day comes, then, even as when the cleansed man appeared at the tent of meeting, he presented guilt offering, sin offering, and burnt offering, as the warrant for his presence there, and the ground of his acceptance, so shall it be in that day of resurrection, when every one of Gods once leprous but now washed and accepted children shall appear in Zion before Him. They will all appear there as pleading the blood, the precious blood of Christ; Christ, at last apprehended and received by them in all His fulness, as expiation, satisfaction, and righteousness. For so John represents it in the apocalyptic vision of the blood-washed multitude in the heavenly glory: {Rev_7:14-15} "These are they which come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple."
And as it is written {Rom_8:11} that the final quickening of our mortal bodies shall be accomplished by the Spirit of God, so the leper, now in Gods presence, receives a special anointing; a type of the unction of the Holy Ghost in resurrection power, consecrating the once leprous ear, hand, and foot, and therewith the whole body, now cleansed from all defilement, to the glad service of Jehovah our God and our Redeemer.
Such, in outline at least, appears to be the typical significance of this ceremonial of the cleansing of the leper. Some details are indeed still left unexplained, but, probably, the whole reason for some of the regulations is to be formal in the immediate practical necessities of the lepers condition.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Leprosy Cleansed
Leprosy Cleansed
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Lev_14:2.—In the day of his cleansing. Remedy and respite came to the pitiable leper. Although his case seemed forlorn and dismal—unclean, and an outcast—yet the hope was left to him that the plague might be healed, and he be again restored to society and the sanctuary. The darkest lot of human life is illumined by hope; faint may be its ray, yet it breaks the dreariest gloom. Weary indeed were “all the days wherein the plague was in him” (Lev_13:46), but after long waiting there might come in due season “the day of his cleansing.” Yes, the possibilities of better things cheer us in every adverse case; the promises of God alleviate the desolation of all who wait for Him, even as the outlook for “the accepted time and the day of salvation” cheers the languishing soul in its conscious misery and sin. To every plague-bound soul this solace remains—“the day of his cleansing” may perchance come.
Lev_14:3.—The priest shall go forth out of the camp. No restoration from banishment to God, no removal of the bane of uncleanness, except through priestly mediation. Between the soul and salvation comes the priest. And the whole work of reinstating the outcast in his lost privileges begins in this act of the priest going forth to the place of the leper’s banishment. The coming forth of Christ Jesus to us, to where we were in our banishment, that was the initial incident in our restoration to God. No one but the priest could come nigh a leper without contracting defilement; no one but the sacred person of our divine Priest could approach us “in our sins” and both Himself remain “holy, harmless, undefiled,” and also bring the unclean life back to purity and privilege.
Lev_14:4.—Two birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop. Symbols of ceremonial and sacrificial cleansing. The one bird was killed, the other set at liberty. The one bird dead, symbolising that the leprous life of the victim was now also dead; the other bird free, symbolising that henceforth a new life of liberty was set before the restored leper. Or the evangelical symbolism may suggest to us in the slain bird the death, and in the soaring bird the resurrection of Christ—two aspects of His perfected redemption for the sinner.
The “cedar” in Scripture is the symbol of loftiness and pride, and leprosy was regarded as God’s rebuke for arrogance and haughtiness. “Hyssop” symbolised lowliness. Tradition affirms, “Pride was the cause of the distemper, which cannot be cured till man becomes humble, and keeps himself as low as hyssop.”
“Scarlet,” a binding of crimson wool, by which the cedar and hyssop were connected; suggestive of “sins as scarlet,” and equally of the blood of atonement; or it may symbolise the now purified and healthy blood flowing in the cleansed leper’s veins.
Lev_14:7.—Sprinkle upon him seven times. Welcome to the leper those sprinklings of the blood; each one being a testimony of his deliverance. And to a sin-burdened life how welcome “the blood of sprinkling.” There is no impatience while the sign of cleansing is “seven times “repeated. Naaman might resent the requirement of the seven washings in Jordan; but it was in ignorance of the fact that “seven” is the sign of perfectness. The life which craves emancipation from uncleanness and banishment, frets not under the repeated application of the purifying blood; it is to him “precious blood,” and his outcry is “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.” They who have experienced the bitterness of sin, weary not under the process of cleansing.
Lev_14:8-9.—He that is to be cleansed. The first process of personal purifying restored the leper to the camp, the place of acknowledged relationship to Jehovah; he entered the society of Israel. Even so does the repentant sinner, who has been recalled from his outcast life, seeks to cleanse himself from evil ways and outward defilements, and then takes his place amid the congregations of God’s people. It is the beginning of his new and better life. He ventures not yet into “his tent,” nor treads the floors of the sanctuary; for these nearer and more sacred felicities require a fuller sanctifying. He must be “clean” who would dwell in “the camp”; doubly cleansed who could enter the family of God’s people in happy “tent” fellowship; supremely sanctified if he would tread the sanctuary of holy privilege, accepted within the very presence of the Lord.
Lev_14:10-20.—He shall take two lambs, etc. For now, at the end of seven days the soul is to come “before the Lord” (Lev_14:11); and who will venture near Him without sacrifice? The priest leads him to the very “door of the tabernacle,” waves the “trespass offering” in God’s presence, slays the “sin offering and burnt offering in the holy place,” then applies the trespass-offering blood, to the person of the suppliant together with the oil of consecration, making atonement for him, that he may be clean. The priestly ministries, and the sacrificial offerings reveal to us the works of Jesus; the applied blood and oil suggest the gracious offices of the Holy Spirit. All the most effective methods of purifying are called into requisition if a leper is to be made acceptable to God. True types of the needs of guilty men. It is not by easy and superficial processes they can be reinstated in grace. The priestly offices and sacrificial merits of Christ, the direct ministries of the Holy Spirit in applying the healing virtues of redemption, are imperative for their acceptance with the Lord. The sinner needs all that Christ and the Spirit can do for him if he is to stand without spot or rebuke before God.
Lev_14:21-32.—If he be poor. Poverty is left without plea of inability by such concessions; and equally is saved from fear of rejection by such evidence that God thinks specially of the poor.
Lev_14:33-53.—Leprosy in a house. A law given in the desert which was applicable to their future lot in the Land of Promise. It is thus a hostage that they would “come into the land of Canaan.” God sees the end from the beginning. He knows the way we take, and He arranges the goal we shall reach. It is so in our earthly movements; it is certainly so in our spiritual pilgrimage.
God would have our homes pure. No care could be too minute, no toil too heavy, no sacrifice too serious, in order to keep the house clean from plague. The habitations of the righteous should be free from all impurities; the walls bared of all suggestions of wrong thoughts and passions; the house free from every enticement to indulgence and sin. Modern Art is responsible for many a plague spot on the walls of our houses; and Luxury is to-day laying decoys on our tables which allure to habits whose issue is sin. Christian houses should be free from all occasions to such defilement. At all costs, though it mean the parting with ideal pictures and valued sculpture in the adornment of our rooms, or the removing of indulgences from our board, which may encourage in our children impure thoughts or perilous habits, let us show ourselves to be God’s people by keeping our homes clean. For a Christian home is earth’s best type of the beauteous and blissful heaven.
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: THE LAW OF CLEANSING (Lev_14:1-3)
The “law of cleansing” is clearly and emphatically shown at the outset; man’s part in his own purifying is to “stand still, and see the salvation of God.” All is to be done for him, nothing done by him. The leper must make no advances, could effect no purifying; he must for ever remain unclean and an outcast if help and deliverance are not brought him. And in the redemption, in the recreation of the sinner, all must be of God, all of grace; “not of works, lest any man should boast.” [Addenda to chap. xiv., Helplessness.]
I. GUILTY MAN’S ABSOLUTE HELPLESSNESS.
1. His position. The leper’s place was outside the camp, in the place of (symbolical) banishment from God. He was consigned to solitude, dreary isolation, beyond the reach of human aid. Doubly outlawed, from God and man; all help divorced from him; far off from the agencies of healing and amelioration; shut out from divine and human regard. In the ranks of sinful men and women to-day, there are thousands equally outlawed from help; living far off from God, apparently untouched by gracious influences of heaven, never hearing of Christ, unarrested and unawakened, living as outcasts. Nor do their fellow men come to their aid; “no man careth for their soul;” they are shunned as criminals, abandoned as hopeless. Let not this be supposed true only of the lower classes of society; in the highest stations there are those of whom, so far as sacred agencies reaching them, God seems to say, “Let them alone!” and to whom no delivering help or saving word ever appears to come from those who know the way of salvation.
2. His condition. Beyond human aid, certainly the leper was beyond self-aid. How could he act to secure his own cleansing? He could only communicate defilement to everything and every one he touched. He was a defiled and a defiling leper; could make nothing clean, only unclean. Without any helper, he was absolutely helpless. Are sinners thus? Can we minimise or escape our guilt? If it were possible for us to do “works of righteousness,” they would not diminish the guilt to our past account or obliterate present sinfulness. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; “there is none that doeth good and sinneth not.” It is mournfully true that the unclean cannot act any single part for the removal of their uncleanness.
Add to this the fact that one leper could not cleanse another, and the sum of his helplessness is complete. Neither in himself nor in his fellow-men, clean or unclean, could deliverance or healing be found.
When shut out from men we are shut up to God. Grace meets us in our extremity. Jesus finds him whom men “cast out” (Joh_9:35), and receives sinners whom society rejects (Mat_9:11-12).
When penitence has wept in vain
Over some foul dark spot,
One only stream, a stream of blood,
Can wash away the blot.
II. GOD’S ABOUNDING HELPFULNESS.
Since his only resource was in God, He alone devised and accomplished the plan of his cleansing.
1. The outgoing of divine help. “The priest shall go forth out of the camp.” He was in this the “minister of God,” acting out God’s purpose. In the priest God approached the leper. Later in time, to guilty men there came the Supreme Priest; man could not, in his sin, come to God, but God came to man in Christ. And still He comes, by mediatorial agencies, to the lone spirit in the misery of sin. The first step in a sinner’s salvation is taken by God. He does not shrink from leprous scenes. Where sinners are the Saviour comes. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us” (1Jn_4:9-10).
2. The process of divine cleansing. Having “began a good work,” God carries it on to completion (Lev_14:5; Lev_14:7). Sacrificial bloodshedding follows (Lev_14:6), then the blood of sprinkling is applied (Lev_14:7) in token of redeeming merits communicated; followed by the soaring bird (Lev_14:7), symbolic of the risen life into which God’s grace calls the soul whose death is both symbolised and substituted in the offering slain.
3. Cleanness proclaimed. The priest “shall pronounce him clean,” that it may convey glad assurance to the sufferer, that he may fearlessly claim the privileges now his. A wondrous hour to the stricken spirit is that when God pronounces him clean; it brings with it the “peace of God which passeth all understanding,” it imparts strong confidence and acceptance to the long outcast life. For as truly as the leper heard, and heard with eagerness, the priest’s voice of acquittal, so to the sinner entering into the Saviour’s grace comes the “witness in himself,” the voice of blessed testimony for the Lord, “Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.”
One only band, a piercѐd hand,
Can salve the sinner’s wound.
“I am the Lord that healeth thee.” [Addenda to chap. xiv., Cleansed.]
Topic: ANXIETY FOR RECOVERY (Lev_14:1-3)
Medicinal remedies were not prescribed for leprosy; it was treated more as an uncleanness than as a disease, and the sufferer repaired not to the physician, but the priest. From the decision of the priest there was no appeal. In the leper was expected—
I. WILLINGNESS TO BE HEALED. There was anxiety in the congregation that the diseased should submit to the required regulations, and become quickly healed. The leper must not, through feelings of shame, hide his complaint, or keep from the necessary scrutiny. He must be willing to submit frequently, if needed, and follow closely the directions given. The first step towards moral recovery is to know, and acknowledge the plague of sin in the heart; to have anxiety to be searched by the candle of the Lord, and have every evil way rooted out. It is good when an anxious inquirer exclaims from solemn conviction: “I am altogether as an unclean thing, and my righteousness is as filthy rags.”
II. CONFIDENCE IN HIS HEALER. Faith in the priest would lie at the basis of the leper’s obedience to the requirements of the Ceremonial Law; abandoning all dependence in any other means. The priest was to confirm the cure God had wrought by directing a process of cleansing, which would exercise and prove the offerer’s faith. The priest was the representative of Jehovah; the directions he gave were to be regarded as the commands of the Lord; confidence in him, and implicit obedience to his directions, were accepted as compliance with the expressed purposes of God.
To be completely recovered from the leprosy of sin, unshaken confidence must be reposed in Him who alone has power to heal, who alone can give us the inward witness that we have passed from death unto life. Meeting the priest outside the camp, as mediator between God and His people, would give comfort and composure to the suppliant for mercy; so, God coming to meet us in the likeness of man, and unattended by overawing manifestations, awakens confidence in the earnest seeker after salvation. Willingness to be saved, belief in the Saviour, personal appropriation of the blessings of redemption, are the sole and indispensible requisites for deliverance from sin and death.—F. W. B.
Topic: REMEDIAL MEASURES (Lev_14:4-9)
Leprosy, next to death, was regarded as a symbol of the pollution and loathsomeness of sin. The care taken in the purification of the leper may be regarded as peculiarly referring to the fact that sin separates man from all pure and holy beings, or the whole family of God, and as setting forth the restoration of the penitent to the company of all faithful people, by means of the great appointed sacrifice. The ceremony to be observed would impress the mind of the restored, not only with the fact that he had become whole, but that a fresh tide of life had started in his veins; and, as he saw the live bird escape and soar towards heaven, he would probably have suggested to his mind that, henceforth, he was to rise superior to earthly things, and seek those that are above.
I. RESTORATION TO THE DIVINE FAVOUR IS THROUGH DIVINELY APPOINTED SACRIFICES.
The leper may have wondered what connection there was between the sacrifices and the cleansing he desired; yet it was not for him to question but to obey, and accept gratefully the blessing conferred. So, in what we are commanded to do for our cleansing and sanctifying the reason may not be apparent, but, since God has enjoined obligations upon us, exceptions and questionings are excluded. These offerings certainly suggest that only by the sacrifice of the life of a substitute can we be cleansed from defilements, only by compliance with divine directions can we obtain restoration to divine favour.
II. WHEN RESTORED TO DIVINE FAVOUR, THE FACT SHOULD HAVE PUBLIC DECLARATION.
The leper was to be cleansed at the door of the tabernacle, “before the Lord,” and there he was to be pronounced whole when the rites of purification were completed. Thus the whole camp would know that the man who had been unclean and excommunicated was now recovered, and re-admitted into the society of his friends. His ear, hand, and foot having been consecrated by the priest, a pledge was given that henceforth a new life would be lived before Israel. So, when persons are restored from the plague of sin, and cleansed by the influences of the Holy Ghost, public confession is expected and becoming to the honour of God, and for the encouragement of goodness. Christ has enjoined the duty of confessing Him publicly upon all His disciples, and declared that He will be ashamed of those in the last day who are now ashamed of Him.—F. W. B.
Topic: PROGRESSIVE CLEANSING (Lev_14:8-20)
Until a change came upon the leper’s state which was both (a) a conscious change to himself, and (b) an evident change to the priest, nothing could be done towards his admission to God’s fold. So long as a sinner remains dead in his sin, without feeling or desire towards salvation, destitute of penitence and faith, the way of his reception to the community of Christ’s redeemed is barred: he must, in contact with the priest, prove his awakened state.
This initial movement accomplished, there follows the application of the merits of sacrificial blood, and the liberation of the soul for a freed and a resurrection life, as one “alive from the dead,” alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. These are all the basis incidents of the Christian life, upon which are superadded the fuller cleansings, the advancing experiences, the higher privileges.
I. FULLER CLEANSINGS.
The seven-fold sprinklings (Lev_14:7) declare the reiterated application and the abounding virtues of the atonement of Christ. But there is yet more to come. Note:
1. Human co-operation with God’s working. The priest’s acts stand for the divine operations in the sinner’s cleansing; but the man himself has to “co-work together with God”; he must shave himself and wash himself. The sinner must “put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust” (Eph_4:22; comp. Col_3:8-10); rid himself of all sinful excresences, and taints, and indulgences, and habits. He must also apply the pure water of the Word, the truths and precepts of religion, enforcing upon himself the sacred teachings and requirements of the gospel. “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you” (Joh_15:14). “Sanctify them through thy truth” (Joh_17:17). “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (Joh_15:3).
2. Repeated efforts after perfect cleansing. What was done at first before he could be admitted to the camp, the congregation of Israel (Lev_14:8), must be repeated seven days after, even more scrupulously and minutely (Lev_14:9), as a preparation for his entering his own “tent” (Lev_14:8) and the “tabernacle” of the Lord (Lev_14:11). It is needful that he who has been living in sin reform his life and cleanse his ways before he becomes even an attendant on sacred scenes, entering into the camp and society of Christians; but if he is to come into the more intimate fellowship of the saints (“tent” nearness, and family intimacy), and into personal communion with the Lord (“tabernacle” access to God), he must purge himself of every relic of his former life of impurity, get rid of his old self, and seek a more thorough cleanness by most sedulous use of sanctifying gospel aids. The sources of spiritual cleansing are Scripture, prayer, self-mortification, cross-bearing after Jesus, the Holy Spirit’s energies, the culture of a godly mind and a pure heart. [Addenda to chap. xiv., Sanctification]
II. ADVANCING EXPERIENCES.
That soaring bird was emblematic of the freed and aspiring career now set before him. The whole of the new life came not to him at a bound: he had to “go from strength to strength,” to move forward by intervals and stages.
1. Time intervals separated his experiences. Though allowed to come into the camp at once he had to put “seven days,” a slow space of time, between that event and the next,—entrance into his tent; and “on the eighth day” followed his presentation before the Lord in the tabernacle of the congregation. The soul being “made nigh,” translated “from the power of darkness into “the kingdom of God’s dear Son,” moves onward by time stages; and sometimes the intervals are wide, years coming between the successive incidents of his progress. Human nature is sluggish, cannot move rapidly into new conditions of life; and so also it is slow to apprehend the transformations of grace. They must come by deliberate advances upon the renewed life, or the soul is overwhelmed and confounded; “we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Co_3:18).
2. Attainments follow successively. To the priest, the camp, the tent, the tabernacle. Is there any of us who can “count himself to have attained, or already perfect”? Much advance has through divine love and help been made; but there are further possibilities. “To the mark for the prize of our high calling of God.” [Addenda to chap. xiv., Progress.]
III. HIGHER PRIVILEGES.
Blessed the initial incident to the long outcast soul which brought him to the priest, in living contact with one who could declare him clean. Glad the experience of his cleansing which gave him qualification again for the fellowship with Israel.
1. According to fitness so is privilege regulated. The first cleansing only gave him access to the camp (Lev_14:8); the seven days’ waiting qualified him to enter his tent (Lev_14:8); the after purging fitted him for the tabernacle. More grace for those who aspire higher. But the successive advancements in the divine life come according to our preparedness to enter into them.
2. Spiritual favours increase as we go forward. The longer we live in Christ and press forward in the culture of Christian virtues and habits, the more blessed becomes our state; more intimate and assured enjoyments, richer delights and loftier elevations. Piety gives not its most precious fruits at the outset. The luxuries are more entrancing, the triumphs are more splendid, the satisfaction is more complete, the virtues are more Christ-like the longer we abide in grace and seek the things that are above. The most blissful sanctuary life has yet only began to “taste” how gracious the Lord is. The most ample application of the “blood” and “oil”—graces of redemption and consecration—may be exceeded by the still richer realizations; for “He giveth more grace.” So may we advance nearer yet, till we “appear in Zion before God,” and gain the highest sanctity and the loftiest bliss.”
Topic: GRACE FOR THE POOR (Lev_14:21-32)
“The law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.”
“If he be poor”: thus opens the gentle message of Heaven to the needy. “And cannot get so much.” What then? Let him bring the lesser offering, and it shall be accepted for his atonement as readily as the larger offerings (Lev_14:8) of the rich man who is able to get “that which pertaineth to his cleansing.”
I. POVERTY IS NO BARRIER TO GOD’S CLEANSING GRACE.
1. Grace meets the needy one just where he is, and as he is. The atoning blood is brought within reach of the very lowest, the very feeblest. All who need it can have it. “He that hath no money,” etc. (Isa_55:1).
2. The lowly need fear no heedless disregard. Man may despise them, put them aside: not so our gracious Saviour. Within those whose lot is hard there may be beauteous souls, “rich in faith.”
Let us be very tender;
The lowliest soul may be
A temple of priceless treasure
That only God can see.
II. POVERTY HAS NO INFLUENCE ON THE MERITS OF ATONING SACRIFICE.
1. The value of atonement lies, not in the offerer’s social status and resources, but in the sacrificial blood. It is not what we are, but what Christ is and has done for us, that forms the sure basis of our acceptance. The sacrifice of the cross has the same efficiency to every soul that brings it before God as his offering, whether lowly or wealthy. And in the smaller offering, equally with the richer, there was exhibited the full value of the atoning work, “precious blood,” a spotless victim, a perfect substitute for man’s uncleanness.
2. The acceptance of the poor is guaranteed by this sacrifice. There need be no trepidation in the breast of the lowly, the feeble, the needy, the misgiving; all are welcomed on the ground of an offering such as they are “able to get.” Nothing beyond. Jesus said of the woman, “She hath done what she could.”
III. POVERTY AFFORDS NO EXCUSE FOR FAILING TO SEEK GOD’S MERCY.
1. Without the presentation of sacrificial offering none could be readmitted to divine favour and fellowship. God would not dispense with atonement, however straightened the individual’s case. Every one, the poorest, must come with sacrifice. Christ Jesus must be every one’s trust and hope. And there is grace in His meritorious cross for each. God will allow none to excuse themselves. Sacrifice or rejection!
2. The terms of admission to the divine life are that we bring our utmost. “Such as he be able to get.” Not pleading poverty as a reason for doing poorly, offering a meaner presentation than is justifiable. The poor may not cover themselves from God’s requirements by their penury: but must bring “such as they are able to get,” their very best. None may “offer to God that which costs him nothing.” God would reject it as a “vain oblation.” The widow’s mite was pleasing to Christ as being “all her living.”
“Little faith” is but a poor offering to bring to Christ: but if the trembling and anxious soul can only bring that, “it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.”
Our treasury offerings to the sanctuary, our working energies in Christian service, our talents for speaking to others for Christ, or in prayers to God for blessing on sacred work; all stand on this divine principle, “such as he be able.” Then the sacrifices will be welcomed, and the soul admitted into all the fellowship and felicities of grace. [Addenda to chap. xiv., Poverty.]
Topic: PURITY IN THE HOUSE (Lev_14:34-53)
It awakes wonder that leprosy could cling to the walls, could fix itself upon the very stones of a house, in some cases defying purgation, necessitating, therefore, the demolition of the structure and the casting out of all its fouled materials into an unclean place. The precautions here so expressly given show the danger, and denote that God abhorred house defilement equally with uncleanness in the human person. It is not alone that “sinners shall not dwell in His sight” (Psa_5:4-5), but unclean things were revolting to Him—“whatsoever (as well as whosoever) worketh abomination or maketh a lie” (Rev_21:27) is hateful to Him. So God is emphatic in condemnation of any defiling thing in His people’s abodes. Themselves clean, their homes must be pure.
I. HOUSEHOLD CLEANLINESS SHOULD DISTINGUISH THE ABODES OF THE GOOD.
1. Surely a pure mind will express itself in scrupulous cleanliness in its surroundings. Virtue and piety are as sensitive plants, recoiling from every physical uncleanness.
Burns speaks of the devout Cotter’s return to
His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie’s smile.
Goldsmith marks the Traveller’s delight as
His loved partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board.
It would prove a pleasing study to note how character may be tested by such minute domestic purities.
2. Certainly the cleanliness of a home reflects its influence upon those who dwell therein. If the occupants’ purity stamps itself on the house, the condition of the house casts back impressions of the occupant.
Thomson says:
Even from the body’s purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.
And not less so from the purity of home scenes.
3. The motive to such cleanliness will be with the Christian a regard for God’s approval. What care would not Martha feel that every spot and article in her Bethany home should be spotless and bright, knowing that the Lord Jesus might be there any hour as a Guest. Cleanliness is fostered by a spirit of reverence.
A servant with this clause,
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th’ action fine.—Geo. Herbert.
4. Such care for simple home satisfactions renders the dwellings delightful to its inmates. It is the sense of the purity and the carefulness which we find at home that leads us to rest so confidingly there. Suspicion and detraction may disturb thought and spoil enjoyment when in scenes which love and piety have not made sweet for us; but all is good and genial at home. “No little room so warm and bright” (Tennyson) anywhere in the great world, as that where gentle hands have made all so satisfactory for us.
And though, as the French proverb affirms, “to every bird its nest is fair,” yet it is not easy to believe it fair if the nest be fouled.
The sober comfort, all the peace which springs
From the large aggregate of little things;
On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,
The almost sacred joys of home depend.—HANNAH MORS.
II. HOME SANCTITIES WILL BE SCRUPULOUSLY MAINTAINED BY THE GODLY.
1. Impurities would force entrance into the homes of God’s people still. Not leprous spots cleaving to the structure, but moral plague spots and intellectual defilements. Nude art, and sensuous pictures, and indecent drawings, by which incautious parents adorn their rooms; books and magazines, containing articles and stories in which there is a taint upon virtue, or a sneer against truth, are recklessly laid upon the table, because it is fashionable to subscribe for such literature. Companionships press into our family enclosure, which it is difficult to refuse; friendships which are desirable for wordly ends are allowed in Christian households, but whereby is fulfilled the warning, “evil communications corrupt good manners.” Verily in all such cases “it seemeth to me there is, as it were, a plague in the house” (Lev_14:25).
2. Devout minds will resolutely cleanse from the family all such defilements. It would not be easy or pleasant work to “empty the house” (Lev_14:36), to “take away the stones in which the plague is” (Lev_14:40), to “have the house scraped within round about” (Lev_14:41); but the work has to be rigorously done in the name of God! “Abhor that which is evil!” giving no assent or connivance to what may defile. Duty, not agreeableness, is the Christian’s law. Parents are home-guardians. The husband is the house band. There may be no looseness in the keeping of the home. “If any provide not for his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1Ti_5:8).
Home has been designated “Heaven’s fallen sister”; and it is—where pure and hallowed—the nearest similitude to Heaven. To Adam, paradise was home; to the Christian, home should be paradise. Let there be unsullied purity in the house.
Around each pure, domestic shrine,
Bright flowers of Eden bloom and twine,
Our hearths are altars all.—KEBLE.
III. HABITATIONS INCURABLY DEFILED ARE DESTINED TO DESTRUCTION.
There is no alternative. If the plague cannot be arrested and removed, the habitation must be demolished; “he shall break down the house” (Lev_14:45).
1. Destroyed habitations; let them warn against the faintest beginnings of error and sin, against the connivance of the slightest dereliction from sanctity. Wrong works ruin! Purest homes have become devastated by incautious inattention to small impieties. If a house is to be saved, sin must be out-barred.
2. Sanctified homes. Evil may be purged (Lev_14:49). Ask holy visitants to come in; not “priests” now, but the presence of the good, the virtuous, the Christian, and let the atoning blood (Lev_14:50) have application, and “the running water” of God’s word, the living stream of sacerd truth, be used. There is remedy for home defects and defilements; and the doom of a family may be averted, the “salvation of a house” (Luk_19:9) may be secured, by the admission therein of the Saviour Himself, and the graces of His kingdom, the agencies of religion, and the sanctifying influence of family prayer and Scripture reading; for so the plague shall be expelled, and the house “shall be clean” (Lev_14:53). [Addenda to chap. xiv., Home.]
OUTLINES OF VERSES ON CHAPTER 14
Lev_14:2.—Theme: CLEANSING THE LEPER “This is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest.”
Consider—
I. THE DISEASE.
1. Its peculiar designation Leprosy the “plague of boils” (Deuteronomy 28), which applies very forcibly to sin.
2. Its distinguishing characteristics. Small in appearance; so in a vicious course of life. It gradually spread, as does sin spread over all the powers and faculties of a man.
3. Its pernicious consequences. The malady was injurious to society, as being infectious and pernicious; to the person himself, excluding him from all society, civil and religious. So sinners corrupt others, while their abominable ways shut them from the communion of the faithful.
II. THE CUBE OF THE DISEASE.
1. No human means could be availing. The leper would gladly have cured himself. No art of man was effectual (2Ki_5:7). We have no remedy of man’s devising for sin (Rom_7:19; Rom_7:24).
2. If the leper was cured it was by God alone, without the intervention of human means. Comp. Luk_17:14; Isa_51:7. Nothing was prescribed or attempted for the removal of this distemper And none but God can remove sin, etc. Rom_7:10; Rom_7:18; Eph_5:9; 1Pe_2:2.
3. But the cure was associated with blood and water. And to be cleansed from the leprosy of sin we must have applied the blood and spirit of Christ (1Jn_1:7; Eze_36:25).
II. THE CONFIRMATION OF THE CURE BY THE PRIEST.
1. A person was not to be pronounced clean on a sudden. The priest was to use much caution and deliberation. Caution should be exercised by ministers and office bearers in the church towards those who are candidates for fellowship.
2. When it evidently appeared that soundness had been imparted to his disordered body, this was declared with due solemnity. Here we see the pre-eminence of our High Priest; for while the priest merely declared the leper healed He most effectually heals.
Let those infected with the leprosy apply to their souls the divinely appointed remedy; and—
Let those who have been cleansed from it carefully discharge the duty enjoined on them (Lev_14:10, etc.).—W. Sleigh.
Lev_14:3 Theme: DIVINE COMPASSION EXHIBITED.
The lonely leper, desiring an audience with the priest, would go towards the camp, and wait for the opportunity to present his case. The priest, ascertaining that his services were required, would go forth out of the camp, and discharge his duty. This would indicate that the condition of the leper—
I. THOUGH HELPLESS WAS NOT HOPELESS. He could not cure himself—no mortal man could cure him, but the priest, as medium of communication from heaven, could be the channel of cleansing. Helpless in the presence of men, he was hopeful in the presence of the Lord. So, sinners, reprobated by their fellows, are renewed and restored by their Maker. The condition of the leper—
II. THOUGH REPULSIVE WAS NOT IRRECOVERABLE.
He was shunned by society, and branded as unclean; but the priest came out of the camp and met him, showing that Jehovah had not given him up, was not unwilling to heal him. God, by sending His dear Son into our world, has come forth to meet us, not to speak from a distance, and treat us as reprobates, but He has come close to us, touched us, worn our humanity, that we may be healed. Here, indeed, is divine compassion; meeting us, not in disdain or to destroy, but to sanctify and save.—F. W. B.
Lev_14:4.—Theme: A TYPE OF REDEMPTION.
Though the rite prescribed here was to be observed after the leper was cured, yet it may be regarded as typical of the offering made for the removal of sin from the soul of man.
I. THE LEPER’S CLEANSING WAS PROCURED BY—
(a) Infliction of death. Two live, clean birds brought to priest; one of them killed, its blood sprinkled on leper to be cleansed, seven times. Through sacrifice of life of Christ, through His blood, we have forgiveness of sins.
(b) Victory over death. The living bird after being dipped in the blood of the slain bird was let loose in the open field. Here we get, if not type—yet illustration, of conquest over the grave by Him who bare our sins in His own body on the tree.
II. THE LEPER’S CLEANSING WAS COMMUNICATED BY—
(a) Personal application. The blood was sprinkled upon the person to be cleansed. So, nothing short of actual contact with virtue of Christ’s death will cleanse from sin.
(b) Repeated application. The blood was sprinkled seven times, to denote that the cure was thorough and complete. We need the constant application of the merits of Christ’s sacrifice to remove the guilt we are constantly contracting from contact with a sinful world, and the uprising of remaining depravity in our hearts.
Thus, coming to the priest, and submitting to the ordinance of cleansing, the leper would be taught—
(1) Humility. He would be deeply impressed with his corruption and unworthiness.
(2) Gratitude. That God had devised means whereby so helpless a condition might be met, so miserable a state be changed.
(3) Responsibility. If cleansed thus he would be a new creature; expected to live a new life; under lasting obligation to Him who had given the healing. So, in redemption; those who are saved are taught humility, gratitude, consecration. “Ye are not your own,” etc.—F. W. B.
Lev_14:8-9.—Theme: SANCTIFICATION.
Personal efforts of the leper for himself to follow services performed for him by the priest. He to co-operate with the divine means employed. In directions given, means of sanctification are suggested, such as—
I. PURIFICATION OF ASSOCIATIONS. Leper to “wash his clothes.”
II. MORTIFICATION OF SELF. “Shave off all his hair.”
III. MEASURES OF REFORM. “Wash his flesh in water.”
IV. SCRUPULOUS SELF-EXAMINATION. “Tarry out of his tent seven days.”
V. CONGENIAL SOCIETY. When cleansed, the leper was restored to the worship of the tabernacle, publicly presented at the door before the Lord. He was then allowed to mingle with the sacred and social life of the nation.
Sanctification, a progressive work. We are “being saved” in this life. Our complete purification hinges on perseverance in use of divinely appointed means. Constant circumspection and introspection essential. Sanctification on earth culminates in presentation before the presence of the Lord in heaven, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.—F. W. B.
Lev_14:21-22.—Theme: NO EXCUSE FOR NEGLECTING MEANS OF CLEANSING.
As in other rites, provision is here made, so that even the poorest were not shut out from ordinance of healing, so that none could make excuse in justification of neglect. There was—
I. GRADATION IN THE OFFERINGS. The leper was to offer “such as he could get.’ God does not expect more than we can do. He demands the best we can offer; if we offer our best He accepts it.
II. EQUALITY IN THE OFFERERS. Whatever they brought they all stood upon a moral level before Jehovah. He makes no distinctions, in the bestowment of His mercy, between rich and poor.
III. COMPLETENESS IN THE RECOVERY. The smallness and poverty of the offering did not hinder a full blessing coming on the leper; all alike pronounced clean when conditions complied with. The merits of Christ’s sacrifice more than make up for any defects and deficiencies in our services. Though we and our works are less than nothing, He is all and in all.—F. W. B.
Lev_14:17; Lev_14:25; Lev_14:28-29.—Theme: COMPLETENESS OF CLEANSING.
The leper was not only cleansed from defilement, delivered from past disabilities, but introduced to a new life. He is now the servant of Jehovah, and expected to enter into solemn covenant with Him. There was to be henceforth—
I. DEVOUT ATTENTION TO DIVINE COMMANDS. The “right ear” of the cleansed leper touched with blood and oil.
II. ENERGETIC SERVICE. The “right hand” touched, etc.
III. READY OBEDIENCE. The “right foot” touched, etc.
IV. INTELLIGENT CONSECRATION. “Oil poured upon the head.” Thus all our powers should be set apart for the service and glory of Him who has interposed to save us, and who sets us apart as His peculiar people by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.—F. W. B.
Lev_14:33-34.—Theme: LEPROUS HOUSES.
Material things not evil in themselves, yet, since the Fall, they have often become vehicles of contamination, incentives to depravity. Man has disfigured the world and made it like a leprous house, so that “the whole creation groans and travails” on account of sin, syren songs are sung to beguile the unwary, and wrecking lights are held out from scenes which appear both beautiful and safe. The leprosy of lewdness, licentiousness, cling to many a dwelling in the midst even of civilised Christian society. Thus—
I. THE WORLD—AS THE HOUSE OF OUR RACE—HAS BECOME LEPROUS. Let us beware of its tempting, tainting influences.
II. THE BODY—AS THE HOUSE OF THE SOUL—HAS BECOME LEPROUS. It contains not only seeds of mortality, but of depravity. Corruption clings to all its issues and powers. The world will be purified by the final wrecking fires; the vile body of our mortality is to be changed by our risen Lord, if we live and die to Him.—F. W. B
Lev_14:45-49.—Theme: DEPRAVED SURROUNDINGS TO BE DEMOLISHED.
Every effort was to be made to effect the complete cleansing of leprous houses; such efforts failing, the houses were to be pulled down and the materials carried to an unclean place without the city. So—
I. STRENUOUS EFFORTS SHOULD BE MADE TO PURIFY CORRUPT SURROUNDINGS. In the world; our own homes; in our bodies; in our hearts.
II. COMPLETE DESTRUCTION MUST ENSUE WHERE CORRUPTION IS INCURABLE. At length the house was demolished, to prevent spread of infection, to show hatefulness of corruption. So, in the end, when period of probation is over, all uncured depravity will be removed to an unclean place; the finally impure, even in surroundings, will be destroyed. Purity shall ultimately triumph over corruption, and happiness over misery.—F. W. B.
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 14
HELPLESSNESS
A physician, attending a Christian patient, became concerned to gain such spiritual assurance and joy in Christ as the sufferer manifested, and asked how it might be secured. He replied:
“Doctor, I have felt that I could do nothing, and so I have put my case in your hands; I am trusting in you.”
He saw the simplicity of the way, absolute helplessness, but absolute trust in Christ; and he found peace therein.
“Lord, save me from my sin;
Thine is the work alone;
Come to this erring soul of mine
And make that power known.”
—OFFORD.
CLEANSED
His garb was simple, and his sandals worn;
His stature modelled with a perfect grace;
His countenance the impress of a God.
He looked on Helon earnestly awhile,
As if His heart were moved; and stooping down
He took a little water in His hand
And laved the sufferer’s brow, and said, ‘Be clean!’
And lo! the scales fell from him, and his blood
Coursed with delicious coolness through his veins,
And his dry palms grew moist, and on his lips
The dewy softness of an infant’s stole.
His leprosy was cleansed; and he fell down Prostrate at Jesus’ feet, and worshipp’d Him.”
—WILLIS: Room for the Leper.
SANCTIFICATION
“Justification regards something done for us; sanctification, something done in us. The one is a change in our state, the other in our nature. The one is perfect, the other gradual. The one is derived from obedience to the Saviour, the other from His Spirit The one gives a title to heaven, the other a meetness for it. Suppose you had a son; you forbade him to enter a place of contagion on pain of losing all you could leave him. He goes, and is seized with the infection. He is guilty, for he had transgressed your command; but he is also diseased. Do you not perceive that your forgiving him does not heal him? He wants not only the father’s pardon, but the physician’s aid. In vain is he freed from the forfeiture of his estate, if he be left under the force of the disorder.”—JAY.
“Who would be cleansed from every sin
Must to God’s holy altar bring
The whole of life—its joys, its tears,
Its hopes, its loves, its powers, its years,
The will, and every cherished thing.”
—ALLIS.
PROGRESS
“Flying birds are never taken in the fowler’s aware.”—SECKER.
“He never was so good as he should be, who does not strive to be better than he is.”—WARWICK.
“It is so with all climbing: Every upward step makes another needful; and so we must go on until we reach heaven, the summit of the aspiration of time.”—H. W. BEECHER
“All growth that is not growth towards God
Is growing to decay.”—GEO. MACDONALD.
POVERTY: THE SAINTLY POOR
“The shell may be coarse which encloses the pearl. An iron safe may hold treasures of gold. A broken frame may contain the most beautiful picture. Poor believers may be rich Christians.”—BOWES.
“There was no part of creature-holiness that I had so great a sense of the loveliness of as humility, brokenness of heart, and poverty of spirit; and there was nothing that I so earnestly longed for. My heart panted after this—to be before God as in the dust; that I might be as nothing, and that God might be All; that I might become a little child.”—EDWARDS.
“The Emperor heard that the treasures of the Church had been confided to St. Laurence; he was brought before the tribunal and required to confess where those treasures were concealed. He answered that in three days he would show them. On the third day St. Laurence gathered together the sick and the poor, to whom he had dispensed alms, and placing them before the tribune said, “Behold! here are the treasures of Christ’s Church.”
“God’s riches to my soul be given,
And ′tis enough for earth and heaven!”
—HANS SACHS.
“That life on earth may be the beat
In which by want the soul is tried;
For He whose word is ever sure,
Hath said that ‘Blessed are the poor.’ ”
—WELD.
HOME
“A man’s house should be on the hill-top of cherfulness and serenity; so high that no shadows rest upon it; and where the morning comes so early and the evening tarries so late that the day has twice as many golden hours as those of other scenes Home should be the centre of joy.”—BEECHER
“Oh, happy home! oh, home supremely blest,
Where Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, art entertained
As the most welcome and beloved guest,
With true devotion and with love unfeigned;
Where all hearts beat in unison with Thine,
Where eyes grow brighter as they look on Thee,
Where all are ready at the slightest sign
To do Thy will, and do it heartily.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 Lev 14:1 - Lev 14:7.
Leviticus
THE FIRST STAGE IN THE LEPER’S CLEANSING
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Lev 14:1 - Lev 14:7.
The whole treatment of leprosy is parabolic. Leprosy itself is a ‘parable of death.’ The horrible loathsomeness, the contagiousness, the non-curableness, etc. So the man was shut out from camp and from sanctuary. There was a double process in the cleansing rite, restoring to each.
I. Sketch the ceremonial. Two birds, one slain over a vessel of water so that its blood drained in. Then the living bird was to be dipped into this water and blood, along with cedar, scarlet, and hyssop, and the man sprinkled seven times and the living bird set loose.
II. The significance. This elaborate symbolism was partly intelligible even then. Two birds, like the two goats on the Atonement Day. Did both in some sense symbolise the man? The first one was not exactly a sacrifice. Its death points to the physical death which was the end of the disease, but also in some sense its death symbolised the death by which cleansing was secured.
{a} The purifying water is made by blood added to it, i.e. cleansing by sacrifice.
‘By water and by blood.’
{b} The sevenfold sprinkling. The cedar, symbol of incorruptibility; the scarlet, of full vital energy; the hyssop, of purifying. So the thought was suggested of the communication of cleansing, full health and incorruption, undecaying strength; all physical contrasts to leprosy sevenfold.
{c} The free, glad activity. The freed bird. The restored leper.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Purification of the Leper. The Leprosy of Houses
The Purification of the Leper. The Leprosy of Houses
When a leper has been cured of his plague, and has satisfied the priest that his cure is complete, he is required to go through a ceremonial purification before being readmitted to his place in society. The ritual of purification consists of three parts. (1) Two living birds are brought, with a rod of cedar wood, a piece of scarlet wool, and a bunch of hyssop, to the priest, who kills one of the birds over water. The living bird and the cedar rod, to which the hyssop is tied with the scarlet thread, are dipped in the blood, which is then sprinkled upon the man seven times. The living bird is then let loose. (2) The man then washes his clothes, shaves off all his hair, and bathes. After seven days he repeats this and is ready for the last act of his purifying. (3) On the eighth day he presents himself with his sacrifices at the door of the tent of meeting. A guilt offering, a sin offering, and a burnt offering are made, the right ear, thumb, and great toe of the man are touched, first with blood and then with oil, and he is once more ceremonially clean.
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4. Later usage required the birds to be sparrows. Cedar wood (probably not the cedar of Lebanon but a kind of juniper) may have been chosen on account of its antiseptic property, and hyssop (see on Exo_12:22) for its aromatic qualities. In later times, at least, their use was regarded as symbolical, in the one case of the pride which was supposed to be the cause of visitation by the disease, in the other of the humility which was an essential condition of its removal. The scarlet wool may have betokened the healthy blood now coursing in the veins of the erewhile leper. The same materials were employed in the ritual for purification after contact with dead bodies: see Num_19:6 and cp. Psa_51:7.
7. The release of the living bird signified the removal of the uncleanness, perhaps also the restored liberty of the leper. Cp. the release of the goat on the Day of Atonement, Lev_16:21, Lev_16:22.
10. A tenth deal (i.e. part) of an ephah, which was called an omer, was about four pints, the ephah being rather more than a bushel. A log is about a pint.
12. Wave them] see on Exo_29:24; The offering of these sacrifices shows that leprosy was regarded as a punishment of sin.
14. The anointing of these members signified their reconsecration to the service of God, and the readmission of the leper to the privileges of the tabernacle.
33-53 The leprosy of houses. This, like the leprosy of garments (see Lev_13:47-59), bears only an external resemblance to the leprosy of human beings. It is a fungus or discoloration making its appearance on the walls of houses: see on Lev_13:47-59. The legislation here is prospective: cp. the mention of 'the camp' in Lev_14:3 with that of 'the city' in Lev_14:40. The section may be post-Mosaic. It stands by itself; its natural position would be after Lev_13:59.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 20, 29, 53 go forth
go forth
As a type of Gospel salvation the points are:
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(1) The leper does nothing Rom 4:5; Rom 4:5.
(2) the priest seeks the leper, not the leper the priest Luk 19:10.
(3) "with-out shedding of blood is no remission" Heb 9:22.
(4) "and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain" 1Co 15:17.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 4. The Cleansing of the Leper
4. The Cleansing of the Leper
CHAPTER 14
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1. The cleansing of the leper (Lev 14:1-32)
2. Leprosy in the house and its purification (Lev 14:33-54)
The cleansing and restoration of the leper is full of significance, foreshadowing once more the blessed work of our Saviour. Two parts in this ceremonial are to be noticed first of all. The first thing done was to restore the leper among the people from whom he had been put away. The second part of the ceremony restored him fully to communion with God. The first part was accomplished on the first day; the second part on the eighth day. A careful distinction must be made between the healing and the cleansing. All the ceremonies could not heal the leper. Jehovah alone could heal that loathsome disease. But after the healing, the cleansing and restoration had to be accomplished. However, what was done for the leper is a most blessed illustration of the work of Christ and of the gospel in which the believing sinner is saved, and the sinning saint cleansed and restored. The leper outside the camp could not do anything for himself. He was helpless and could not cleanse himself; it had to be done for him. The priest had to make the start for his cleansing and restoration. He had to go forth out of the camp to seek the leper; the leper could not come to the priest, the priest had to come to him. Well may we think here of Him, who left the Father’s glory and came to this earth, the place of sin and shame, where the lepers are, shut out from God’s holy presence. He came to seek and to save what is lost.
Two birds which the priest commanded to be taken for the leper are a beautiful type of Christ in His death, and Christ risen from the dead. The birds are typically belonging to heaven. The first bird was killed in an earthen vessel over running water. This likewise typifies Christ. The earthen vessel stands for the humanity of Christ. The running water is the Holy Spirit, who filled Him and then He gave Himself and shed His precious blood. And that blessed blood of atonement is what cleanses from all sin, and on account of that blood the leper can be restored. The second bird did not die, but was set at liberty to take up a heavenward journey. The second bird was dipped into the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. This bird typifies Christ in resurrection. The bird in its upward flight, singing perchance a melodious song, bearing upon its white wings the precious token, the blood, typifies Christ in His accomplished work, risen from the grave and going back from where He came. He died for our offences and was raised for our justification. But with the living bird there was also used the cedar wood, the scarlet and the hyssop; these, with the living bird, were dipped into the blood. What do these things signify? Scarlet is the bright and flashing color, which typifies the glory of the world (Dan 5:7; Nah 2:3; Rev 17:3-4; Rev 18:12; Rev 18:16). Cedar wood and hyssop are things of nature. The cedar stands in God’s Word always for that which is high and lofty. The insignificant small hyssop typifies that which is low.
“From the lofty cedar which crowns the sides of Lebanon, down to the lowly hyssop--the wide extremes and all that lies between--nature in all its departments is brought under the power of the cross; so that the believer sees in the death of Christ the end of all his guilt, the end of all earth’s glory, and the end of the whole system of nature--the entire old creation. And with what is he to be occupied? With Him who is the antitype of that living bird, with blood-stained feathers, ascending into the open heavens. Precious, glorious, soul-satisfying object! A risen, ascended, triumphant, glorified Christ, who has passed into the heavens, bearing in His sacred person the marks of an accomplished atonement. It is with Him we have to do: we are shut up to Him. He is God’s exclusive object; He is the centre of heaven’s joy, the theme of angels’ song. We want none of earth’s glory, none of nature’s attractions. We can behold them all, together with our sin and guilt, forever set aside by the death of Christ” (C.H. Mackintosh).
It is a beautiful illustration of the great truth stated in Gal 6:14. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” The leper was sprinkled seven times with the dipped bird, scarlet, cedar wood and hyssop. It was put upon him. And thus it is upon us, redeemed by blood, to live as dead unto the world. Throughout the entire ceremony the leper did nothing. Only after the blood was sprinkled and the bird set loose began he to wash his clothes, shave off his hair, and wash himself in water. After we are saved and cleansed we must go to the Word and cleanse by it our habits and our ways.
The second part of the ceremony on the eighth day restored the leper completely to his privileges. All is done again “before the Lord,” a phrase missing in the first part of the ceremony but repeatedly mentioned in the second part. The trespass offering occupies the prominent place. And the blood of the lamb was put upon the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and upon the great toe of the right foot. The symbolical meaning is clear; the ear is cleansed and restored to hear the Word; the hand to serve and the foot to walk. The blood of atonement in its cleansing power is therefore blessedly foreshadowed in this ceremony. It has the same meaning as it had in the consecration of the priests. The leper was like one who came out of the realms of death and corruption to become again a member of the priestly nation. The oil was put then upon the blood. Where the blood was, the oil was also applied. The work of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of the redeemed sinner is typified by this anointing. The oil was then poured upon him, the type of the unction of the Holy One, which is upon all who are redeemed by blood.
But there is still another lesson connected with all this. The delay in the full acceptance of the healed and cleansed leper and his full reinstitution and presentation before the Lord on the eighth day is of deeper meaning. The eighth day in the Word of God represents the resurrection and the new creation. We are now as His redeemed people healed and cleansed but not yet in the immediate presence of the Lord. The seven days the cleansed leper had to wait for his full restoration and to enter in, typify our life here on earth, waiting for the eighth day, the blessed morning, when the Lord comes and we shall possess complete redemption and appear in the presence of Himself and behold His glory. The eighth day came and it was impossible for the leper, upon whom the blood of the sacrificial bird had been sprinkled, to be kept out from appearing in His presence and receive the blessings of full redemption. Even so there comes for us, His redeemed people, the eighth day. May we also remember that the leper, waiting for the eighth day, had to cleanse himself by the washing of water (verse 9). “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Co 7:1). “And every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (1Jn 3:3).
Nor must we forget Israel typified in this entire ceremony. Israel blinded is morally like a leper. They are outside and separated from Jehovah on account of their condition. In the future the remnant of Israel will be cleansed and then wait for that full restoration which God in His gracious purposes has promised unto them.
Then follows a description of the plague of leprosy in a house. Leprosy, like other diseases, is caused by germs. These germs existing in the blood of the victim also may exist outside of the body, and under favorable conditions, especially in darkness, multiplying rapidly, spread the infection over a house and its contents. Bacteriology after years of laborious research has discovered these facts. Moses did not know about these bacteria in a house, but Jehovah knew.
The house with leprosy in it has often been applied to Israel. What was done to the house to arrest the plague is applied to what God did to His people. But the plague re-appeared and culminated in the rejection of Christ; then the house was completely broken down. Others apply it to the church and see that the leprosy has entered into the professing church and will some day terminate in the complete judgment of Christendom. We do not believe this to be the entire meaning of leprosy in the house. It likewise typifies the presence and working of sin in the place where man has his abode, that is, the material creation of God. All has been dragged down by the fall of man. All creation is under a bondage of corruption, made subject to vanity and therefore travaileth in pain and groaneth. But there is hope, for groaning creation is to be delivered. Then for the cleansing of the house the same ceremony with the two birds was enacted and the house was cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood. This is typical of the work of Christ as it will eventually bring blessing to all creation and all things will be reconciled (Col 1:20). But here is also indicated the judgment by fire which is in store for the earth (2Pe 3:10). Then there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 33 The Manner Observed in Purifying a Leper
The Manner Observed in Purifying a Leper
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
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v. 2. This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing, when he is found cured of the terrible disease with which he had been suffering: He shall be brought unto the priest;
v. 3. and the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, literally, healed away from, that is, healed and gone away from, a careful inspection showing that all symptoms and marks of the disease have disappeared;
v. 4. then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar-wood, and scar let, and hyssop. The purpose was to make the person that had been sick Levitically clean. The living birds signified that the leper’s dead flesh, the body that was all but dead, was restored to life and vigor; the cedar-wood denoted restoration from evil-smelling rotting of the tissues and the endurance of life: the scarlet (wool or thread or a bit of cloth), restoration of the color of health and freshness to the skin; the fragrant hyssop, the restoration from the exceedingly bad odor of the disease and the purity of life which was now to be expected of the patient.
v. 5. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel, which could afterward be destroyed,over running water, the vessel having been partly filled with water from a spring or brook.
v. 6. As for the living bird, which yet remained, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water, so that the mixture of water and blood would cling to the feathers of the bird and to the other objects;
v. 7. and he (the priest) shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, as on similar occasions of peculiar solemnity, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in to the open field. This signified that the former leper was released from the fetters of his sickness and could once more return to the enjoyment of full social and religious fellowship with the other people of his nation.
v. 8. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, on his whole body, and wash himself in water that he may be clean; and after that he shall come in to the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. "This remaining restriction seems designed still further to impress upon the mind the fearful character of the disease from which the leper had recovered; and still more, to postpone the full restoration of the leper to his family until he had first, by the prescribed sacrifices, been restored to fellowship with God. " (Lange. )
v. 9. But it shall be on the seventh day that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off, for a second thorough cleansing; and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean, restored to full Levitical purity. He was now in a condition to offer the prescribed sacrifices of the eighth day.
v. 10. And on the eighth day he shall take two he-lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three-tenth deals of fine flour for a meat-offering, one-tenth of an epha (about two and one half quarts) being figured for each sacrificial animal, mingled with oil, and one log (about seven-tenths of a pint) of oil.
v. 11. And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, all the prescribed sacrifices, before the Lord, at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation;
v. 12. and the priest shall take one he-lamb, and offer him for a trespass-offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave-offering before the Lord, this ceremony distinguishing the leper’s sacrifice from others of the same kind and serving for the worshiper’s consecration;
v. 13. and he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin-offering and the burnt offering, in the Holy Place, north of the altar of burnt offering:for as the sin-offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass-offering; it is most holy.
v. 14. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass-offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip, or lobe,of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, to consecrate the organs of the hearing of the Word, of doing the will of the Lord, and of walking in the path of His commandments, as in the consecration of the priests.
v. 15. And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand;
v. 16. and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord, before the altar in the court;
v. 17. and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass-offering which he had just applied in the same manner;
v. 18. and the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to restore him to the privilege of his priestly kingship, from which he had been excluded by his disease; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. Thus was the propitiation made and the gulf which had existed between God and man bridged over and covered.
v. 19. And the priest shall offer the sin-offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness, for the leprosy was only the outward expression of the inner impurity of sin; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering, the ewe lamb which had been provided.
v. 20. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat-offering up on the altar; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean. All this was but a shadow and figure of the sacrifices of good works in which the believers of the New Testament are diligent.
v. 21. And if he be poor and can not get so much, then he shall take one lamb for a trespass-offering to be waved, instead of the two animals which the more well-to-do were expected to bring, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of fine flour (about two and one half quarts), mingled with oil for a meat-offering, and a log of oil (about seven-tenths of a pint);
v. 22. and two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get, as he can afford, according to his means; and the one shall be as in-offering and the other a burnt offering.
v. 23. And he shall bring them on the eighth day, after the first ceremony of washing or lustration, vv. 4-8, for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, before the Lord.
v. 24. And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass-offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before the Lord, to distinguish the leper’s offering from the ordinary sacrifices of the same kind and to symbolize his renewed consecration to the Lord
v. 25. And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass-offering; and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass-offering, and put it up on the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and up on the thumb of his right hand, and up on the great toe of his right foot;
v. 26. and the priest shall pour of the oil in to the palm of his own left hand;
v. 27. and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord;
v. 28. and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand up on the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and up on the thumb of his right hand, and up on the great toe of his right foot, up on the place of the blood of the trespass-offering;
v. 29. and the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put up on the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the Lord, as before, vv. 16-18, and with the same significance.
v. 30. And he shall offer the one of the turtle-doves or of the young pigeons, such as he can get,
v. 31. even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat-offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lord. The necessity of atonement, of propitiation, of bridging the gulf between God and sinful man by means of the sacrifices that prefigured the perfect offering of Christ, is brought out again and again.
v. 32. This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing, who is actually not in a position to afford the more expensive sacrifices. While cleansing was absolutely necessary, the Lord did not intend to place insuperable obstacles in the way of the person who wished to be restored to full communion with God and full fellowship with the covenant people.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30, 33, 36, 39, 41, 43, 45, 48, 49, 52, 54 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh tells Moses and Aaron what the people must do when someone is cleansed of a skin disease.
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the day of his cleansing
This refers to the day on which the priest declares the person to be ritually clean.
He must be brought to the priest
This can be translated in active form. AT: "Someone must bring him to the priest" or "He must go to the priest" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
law, laws
clean
priest
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 33, 34, 36, 37, 54 14:1-32 These verses, dealing with the purification of infected…
14:1-32 These verses, dealing with the purification of infected individuals, are best understood when read in conjunction with 13:1-46.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.