Leprosy in a house is another line of instruction. It seems typically to refer to the house on earth now — a local assembly. It did not contemplate any application till Israel got into the land. Canaan to us is typical of heavenly places; not heaven, but heavenly places; where we are spoken of as now having our standing. Though actually living on earth, we are
We are not yet in heaven, but as to life and standing we are in heavenly places, and have conflict (like Joshua in Canaan) to stand consciously in this place of blessing, where God in grace has set us, and which Satan would keep us from possessing now by faith if he could. This is why the Israelites in Canaan are figurative of us while now on earth, and why therefore the instruction of a leprous house has a strong typical bearing on an assembly on earth. We therefore read,
Leprosy in a house, then, was a direct infliction from Jehovah, and about it His directions were most explicit and decided. If found to be really leprous, the plague must be got rid of, even if it necessitated the pulling down of the house. This was imperative. No faithful Israelite could go into a leprous house without becoming unclean; and so now,
In the case of suspected leprosy in a house, the first thing enjoined, as we have seen with a leprous man and a garment, was to
tell the priest.
The owner of the house being the most interested, and most responsible as to the house, was to
When sin appears in an assembly, the first thing is to go to the Lord Jesus about it, and to ask Him to make manifest its real character; and those who feel responsibility to the Lord about the state of His assembly will be the persons who will do so. They will spread it all before His all-searching and omniscient eye.
Then, according to the priest’s command, there would be the greatest activity and diligence in so emptying or preparing the house, that
And so now, when the Lord is appealed to, and supplicated to shew the real character of the evil, all in the assembly are troubled and moved about it, and fear, lest, if it be a case of leprosy, it should spread and infect others. If saints in an ordinary condition of things were enjoined to be
how much more care is called for when any godly soul says,
The inspection takes place. It is not an imaginary case, not one of mere suspicion, which Christian charity always forbids; for love
thinketh no evil {1 Cor. 13.5}.
But there are found to be on the walls of the house
and the house is shut up for
This shutting up of the house is very solemn, inasmuch as it so brings before us God’s mind as to practical holiness, that faithful ones are not permitted of Him to have to do with a local assembly in which flagrant evil is being solemnly investigated, so that it may be dealt with according to His mind. There is never uncertainty in the ways of faith. We see also, as we have been taught over and over again, both as to dealing with supposed cases of leprosy, whether personal or in a garment, that there is to be no haste in arriving at a sure conclusion in the matter.
On the seventh day, (the close of a complete period of time, when patience has had her perfect work), the house is again inspected, and the plague being found to 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: and be 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: and they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaister the house (Lev. 14:39-4239And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house; 40Then 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: 41And he 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 he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house. (Leviticus 14:39‑42)).
This reads to us lessons plain enough. The priest commands the stones to be removed. The Lord says,
Certain persons, after patient investigation and unquestionable proof, having been found guilty of loathsome workings of fleshly activity, are therefore removed from fellowship — put away. They are left outside in an unclean place — the world, the place of uncleanness in God’s sight. That being done, a process of humiliation and self-judgment goes on all through the assembly, when much uncleanness is scraped from the house; the old leaven being purged out, it all becomes a new lump, as the newly-plastered walls give a new character to the house. Though a stone had been removed at Corinth, yet the apostle intimates they had not
scraped within round about,
as they should have done; and he fears he would be humbled by God among them on account of it, when he comes to them again (2 Cor. 12:20, 2120For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: 21And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. (2 Corinthians 12:20‑21)).
Nor does it always follow that the removal of some from fellowship would be enough. The leprosy might have more widely spread than former inspections had disclosed. The evil may have so permeated the assembly that it must be entirely disallowed, and treated altogether as an unclean place; no longer to be regarded as connected with heavenly places, or as a corporate witness on earth of Him, and His truth, who is the
holy
and the
And thus we read,
THEN the house must be inspected again. The priest must be called in again, and
It (that is the house) is unclean. It must be entirely disallowed; it must be razed to the ground.
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 (Lev. 14:43-4543And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he 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 be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. 45And 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. (Leviticus 14:43‑45)).
Does not this clearly show that a local assembly may be in happy fellowship with other local assemblies gathered to the Lord’s name, and practically acting on the ground of God’s one assembly on earth, and afterwards become so leavened by allowed and unjudged evil, as to be entirely disowned by faithful saints, as no longer endeavoring to keep the Holy Spirit’s unity?
It is well to notice the purity that God’s order of discipline demands, while evil is being investigated and judged. If a man entered the house while it was shut up, he would be unclean till the even. If a man lieth in the house, he would have to wash his clothes; and if a man ate in the house, he
Such would have to bring their near surroundings under the searching, cleansing action of the word after such an impure association. How repeatedly it is said in Scripture,
In the instruction concerning a leprous house, there is also a provision for a house that is healed of the plague. This is the happy side of the narrative:
If the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed (Lev. 14:4848And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. (Leviticus 14:48)).
We know who is walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and how happy it is to have His approval, even as to separation from what is evil in His sight. He who said to some,
and to others,
and who commended a few in Sardis because they had not defiled their garments, is
If, on the one hand, the heart is sad and humbled, because we find a house shut up on account of grave fears as to evil, on the other hand the spirit is relieved and cheered by the decided way in which an assembly has cleared itself; so that the Spirit’s testimony as to its having cleared itself is most unmistakably made known. Though it had been a time of mourning and tears; though the removal of the stones, and putting them away in an unclean place, had been with anguish of heart; though scraping the walls, and carrying away the dust, had not been without much self-judgment and brokenness of heart; and though bringing in, according to the word of God, new material to give freshness and purity to the house had been connected with much diligent labour; yet how blessed it is, even under such circumstances, to have the Lord’s approval, and to have the testimony of the Holy Ghost saying by His servant,
Of the faithful at such a time it may be truly said,
Ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter (2 Cor. 7:10, 1110For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 11For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Corinthians 7:10‑11)).
The house having been healed of the plague, it remains only for the priest to make an atonement for the house, and thus pronounce it to be cleansed. The two birds, with cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop, are used, as we saw in the beginning of the chapter, when the healed man was first brought before the priest; the house is sprinkled with the blood seven times; the living bird, marked with the blood of the dead bird, is let loose in the open fields: an atonement is made for the house, and it shall be clean. For an individual who had had leprosy, and for a house in which the plague had been, a sacrifice was offered. Both were sprinkled with blood; and, atonement being made, they were pronounced clean. Not so the garment; and why? Because we are looked at as redeemed by the precious sacrifice of Christ, both individually and collectively. Individually we can say,
corporately we read,
We are never told that Christ gave Himself for our circumstances, our surroundings, that with which we connect ourselves, our garments. Oh, no! But we know that, being children of God, redeemed from all iniquity, and having received the Holy Ghost, we are not to touch the unclean thing, not to connect ourselves with what is dishonoring to God. The omission, then, of any sacrifice as to a leprous garment which was never healed, and only to be consumed by fire; the long details that are given for the cleansing of a leper, first by blood, then cleansing himself, his clothes, &c., &c., for seven days, and also the atonement for a leprous house without such washings and other sacrifices, only show the perfection of holy Scripture, and the reality of its typical instruction.
That Christians have this threefold responsibility to the Lord, Scripture clearly marks out. Individually, we are to present our
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service {see Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)},
and to do all for His glory, because we are not our own, but bought with a price. Corporately, we are to be subject to His rule who is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, each filling up the place of a member of His body in which His grace has set us. Then as to our surroundings, the Word abounds with instructions in reference to family order and piety, business transactions, separation from the world as not of it, not to be yoked with unbelievers, not to touch even the unclean thing, nor to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Our houses, family arrangements, social ways, necessary business, and labors of every kind, should all be done for the glory of God. The difficulty is to have such a continual sense in our souls of being redeemed, and of our standing in Christ in all His acceptability, and of having God dwelling in us by His Holy Spirit, as to answer to His desire in all our various obligations to Him. How often you see a man careful about his own soul, but with personal surroundings unclean! Or, you may see another most zealous for the truth in a corporate sense, and yet loose as to his circumstances. What need have we to cry,
for —
“It is the Lord, enthroned in light,
Whose claims are all divine,
Who hath an undisputed right
To govern me and mine.”
As it is clear that discipline in regard to God’s assembly on earth, can only be carried out, according to the Lord’s mind, by such as are really gathered together in His name, we propose in our next paper to consider what Scripture teaches on this important point.