Leprosy
If leprosy appeared in a garment, whether of woolen, or linen, or of skin, the priest was to shut it up seven days; if the plague had spread in the garment that garment was to be burnt. If the plague had not spread they were to wash the garment. Then, if the stain remained indelible, the garment had to be burnt. If, on the other hand, the plague was somewhat dark after the washing of it, that part was to be cut out. If, after that, it appeared still in the garment, there was nothing for it but its total destruction by fire. Such were the directions for the priests of the house of Aaron. In what light are we to view them?
Disease in the flesh of an Israelite might make him unclean. The working of the flesh in any Christian may render him unfit to be in the company of his brethren in the enjoyment of Christian privileges.
But every disease was not the dreaded infliction o leprosy, so every outbreak of the flesh in a Christian would not warrant his exclusion from fellowship at the table of the Lord. Care was to be exercised by the priest, who had divine directions for his guidance. Care must be exercised by the assembly, for which guidance is also provided in the Word. Further, since it might have been an old leprosy breaking out afresh (v. 11), and since also it involved exclusion from the camp, till the person was healed, we shall miss the instruction of these chapters if we view leprosy as here typical of man's condition by birth. It is not to one who has never been accredited as a Christian, to whom we are to apply it; for how put out a person who has never had a place in the camp? For usthen, this portion treats of discipline towards a Christ tiara, or one who has been reckoned as such, and not of the salvation of a sinner.
But if, on inspection by the priest, the leprosy had covered the man all over, and had all turned white, he was clean. For him in that state no exclusion was needful. He was clean, and no clean person was put outside the camp; only the unclean were thus dealt with. So there are occasions when, if the sin is really confessed, all being brought out, and no longer working in him, that man is to be reckoned clean, and for him in that state excommunication would not by God's Word be demanded. To this condition of the leper Matt. 18:1717And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. (Matthew 18:17) may be analogous. If the offending brother leaves the church, the matter drops, and further proceedings are not called for. The leprosy in a garment may remind us of the circumstances, the surroundings, of a Christian, in which there is something clearly wrong. If that which is wrong can be cut off, well and good. If, on the other hand, that which is inconsistent with Christianity cannot be thus got rid of, the person must get out of the circumstances to rid himself of that which is wrong, as the Israelite had to lose his whole garment by fire, when it was found that nothing else would check the spread of the plague. Uncompromising was Jehovah, that Israel learned. But His ways of grace they had proved, and could speak well of. It might seem to some hard to repent outside the camp, for the working of that with in them which they derived from natural descent. It might seem, too, a hard sacrifice to part with the garment without any equivalent in money to buy another. But the Israelite was part of Jehovah's redeemed people, and He was their God. What other nation was so favored? This might reconcile him to the loss of his garment, whilst the death of the bird and animals in sacrifice would show him at what cost, even the life of the substitute, the plague-stricken leper could be cleansed. Yet, till healed, his place was outside, to await the action of Jehovah in mercy and goodness to him.
God's holiness cared for by the exclusion of the leper from the camp, the Lord Jehovah again speaks, but this time only to Moses (14:1-32). Had the maintenance of this holiness been all that Jehovah was concerned with, the leper would have remained outside the camp in perpetual separation from the. Tabernacle, and from social intercourse with God's people. But He cared for the leper, and provided for his reinstatement into a his privileges in the camp, if only he was first healed Then the priest came forward to readmit the one whose exclusion at the outset, and the continuance of it till then, had resulted from his judgment of the case. Money, entreaties, promises, efforts, all would be of no avail. Jehovah Himself must, heal the man, or he never could be cleansed. Hence grace had scope to display itself, when the claims of divine holiness had been acknowledged.
But though the law provided for the leper's cleansing, and assumed the possibility of Jehovah's healing him, of which the law-giver himself had proof in his own' personal history (Ex. 4:6-76And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. 7And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. (Exodus 4:6‑7)), we read not in the Old Testament of any one in Israel, smitten by God, being healed save Miriam the sister of Aaron. And one only from among the Gentiles shard, that we read of, in Jehovah's goodness in this respect during all that time, and that was Naaman the Syrian, healed in divine goodness, when the kingdom of Israel was in a state of apostasy from God. Yet the disease was clearly not so uncommon (Luke 4:2727And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. (Luke 4:27)), though, from all that we know, recovery from it was rare, till He came, Jehovah Himself, who touched the leper, and by the fiat of His own will, being moved with compassion, healed him on the spot (Mark 1:4141And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. (Mark 1:41)). Power, that leper owned, Christ had, but was He willing to heal him? That was the question in the poor outcast's mind. He was willing. He healed him. Then what had been unknown in the days of Elisha, was frequently experienced, and the priests had to acknowledge it. Lepers were healed (Matt. 11:55The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matthew 11:5); Luke 7:22; 17:722Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. (Luke 7:22)
7But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? (Luke 17:7)), for Jehovah had visited His people in grace, after the ministry of John the Baptist had proclaimed their utter and hopeless failure under the law. Till then it may have been like that which went on at Bethesda; that healing was but sparingly known. The people's condition, however, manifested that God was free to act in the fullness of His grace.
But to return. The leper healed, he remained outside the camp, until visited by the priest, who certified of Jehovah's goodness, and in recognition of it took immediate steps for the person's readmission into the camp. So he commanded two birds alive and clean to be taken for the healed one, with cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop, the one bird to be killed in a vessel over running (i.e., not stagnant water), and the other to be dipped alive in the blood of its fellow. That done, the priestly work began by sprinkling him that was to be cleansed seven times, pronouncing him clean, and letting the living bird loose into the open field. Now the person could re-enter the camp, though as yet he could not go into his tent. Much more had to take place ere that could be allowed. But here let us pause for a moment.
What lessons have we before us? The outbreak of sin in a Christian may necessitate his exclusion from our midst. " Put away from among yourselves the wicked person " (1 Cor. 5:1313But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (1 Corinthians 5:13)), may be the direction I suited to the case. Then should grace work in that person, restoration would follow. Now living, as we do, in a day when no animal sacrifices are offered to God, we are in danger of forgetting, in a way an Israelite was not, the need of death and bloodshedding for restoration to Christian privileges. True, Christ lives to die no more; yet had He not died, and made propitiation by His blood, the offender could never be restored. Hence in thought we must go back to the Lord's death and resurrection, as often as restoration is required. This the two birds typified, as the live one identified with the dead bird, by being dipped in its blood, winged its way into the air in all the freedom of life. For by His blood atonement is effected, and by His resurrection all who believe on Him are cleared from all charge of guilt that can be brought against them (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)).
Further, as the cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop were dipped in the blood of the bird that was slain, all that spoke of nature, the cedar, and the hyssop (the whole range of it as 1 Kings 4:3333And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. (1 Kings 4:33) views it), and what betokened the glory of the world, the scarlet, all were viewed through the medium of the death of the substitute. Has, nature, has the world been the occasion of a Christian's fall, in what a different light is he to view them, as he sees them in the light of the cross. How easy it is to man to sin, because we are sinful creatures, having a nature which is only evil. But how much is needed for restoration to be known. For besides the Lord's death and resurrection, which have taken place, the Holy Ghost must work on the conscience, and apply to it the knowledge of the efficacy of the blood of Christ. By the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God (Heb. 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)); so the bird's blood fell into an earthen vessel of running water, the symbol of the Lord as man in whom the Holy Ghost was. And the blood and the water, it would appear, were both sprinkled on the one who was to be cleansed (v. 52), for it is only as the word is applied by the Spirit to the offender's conscience, that he efficacy of that precious blood in God's sight comes home to him. How much then is required. The true sacrifice had to be provided. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)). The Son by the eternal Spirit offered Himself to die. And the Holy Ghost has to bring home in power to the conscience the remembrance of the abiding value of the blood of Christ.
Foundation truth thus shadowed forth, viz., the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the efficacy of His precious blood (1 John 2:22And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)), who, is the propitiation for our sins, the man found that he had something to do. As yet what had been done, had been done for the leper. Now he washed his clothes, shaved off all his hair, and washed himself in water. Then he was clean, and could come into the camp, though he could not even yet re-enter his tent. Cleansing one's self from old associations, putting away all appearance of natural strength, or of that in which one has prided one's self, and separating by the action of the word from all that makes one unclean, such is the teaching to us conveyed in the directions furnished to the leper.
Resting in the camp, but outside his tent, he washed his clothes, and his person, and shaved himself again on the seventh day. How complete was that work! The hair of his head, of his beard, and of his eyebrows was all shaved off, and he stood divested of, any appearance of natural strength or personal comeliness, to be restored on the eighth day to all the privileges of an Israelite, one of the redeemed people, but only after the appointed sacrifices should be offered up on his behalf. This time he brought his own offerings, a trespass-offering, a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, and a meat-offering mingled with oil, and one log of oil; for from out of the five offerings enumerated in Lev. 1-7, all typical of the Lord Jesus, were required for his full cleansing.
Nothing could be effected for the man apart from the death of Christ on the cross. But the special features of the eight days' ceremonies, were the trespass offering and the oil. All the other offerings were needed, though pre-eminence is given to the two just mentioned.
The trespass offering came first, and rightly so, for whatever Israel may have understood of the value and import of the different offerings, we can see that since the leper typifies one who had sinned inside the camp and so had to be excluded, the trespass offering, which had its special place where God or man had beet defrauded of their rights (Bible Herald, vol. 3., p. 242), would here naturally come first. " So the priest," we read, " 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. And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering," &c. (14:12, 13). The priest bringing the lamb to the altar, waving it, and then slaying it, was a course of procedure peculiar to this occasion; for the animal, be it remarked, was waved before death, the token that the man here on earth, should be for God, as He was in His life of whom that he lamb was the type. Now in this it was that the man, viewing this history in its typical light, had failed. The lamb waved, the trespass offering was killed, and some of its blood was put on the tip of the man's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. After that the priest sprinkled of the oil before the Lord seven times. Next he put some on the healed one's person, where he had just put some of the blood, and after that poured the remnant of the oil that was in his hand on the person's head, who was to be cleansed, and made an atonement for him before the Lord, in token that he was to be, as it were, consecrated to God, and endued with power as such by the Holy Ghost. But for the atonement we cannot receive the Holy Ghost. Without the Spirit we have no power to serve God. Of these things the action of the priest here reminds us. But that action, though typical of these truths, must not be taken to teach the reception of the Spirit a second tithe. That cannot be any more than the Lord can die again. But the restored one surely has need to be reminded of that precious blood, and of the power in which alone he can walk, viz., that of the Holy Ghost.