The Live Bird Let Loose: Cleansing as Seen in Leviticus 14
Charles Stanley
Table of Contents
The Leper and the Live Bird
How very good God has been in giving us such plain pictures in His Word, setting forth man’s moral condition and his own great deliverance, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And certainly there are few more striking than the picture or type of the two birds. To a person deeply anxious to know, with certainty, that he is cleansed from sin, this picture is most valuable. I have seen such brought by the blessed truth set forth in this type into the most abiding confidence of faith. And God gives me this confidence, that many more will be brought, by this little paper, into His own perfect peace.
Let us now look at the picture. This was the law appointed of God in Israel: “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” (Lev. 13:4546).
What a terrible picture of sin leprosy is — what a living death of wretchedness and desolation. The disease itself was most loathsome, with the person covered with sores so as to be unfit for human eye, wandering alone or with others in like wretchedness. Those most dear to him were not allowed to come near. His food must be left for him by a brook or under a tree, or he must live as best he could from the wild fruits of the desert. At times there must have been heart-aching longings for home. One thing was very remarkable: If the leprosy had covered him all over, from head to foot, all turned white, then he was clean.
The priest is appointed of God to express God’s mind or judgment in the case. The manner of his cleansing was this: “Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds [or, sparrows; see margin] alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and 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” (Lev. 14:47).
Then the priest comes down to this poor, anxious leper by the brook in the valley. Solemn moment for the poor leper! Will he be rejected and left in his wretchedness, or cleansed and restored to his longed-for home? He watches every movement of the priest. One bird is killed and its blood falls into the earthen vessel. How expressive of the death of Christ! And now the priest takes the other bird in his hand; watch him! He dips it in the blood of the dead bird; you see the blood on its feathers. He sprinkles the blood on the poor leper seven times, the perfect number. He is about to speak the sentence of God on the poor, anxious leper.
The leper listens with breathless silence. He fixes his eyes on that live bird, held captive in the priest’s hand —thoughts of happy home rush into his mind — his liberty is bound up in that little, captive bird. If it is let go, then the leper is free. The priest pronounces him clean — the bird is let go loose into the open field — tears of joy gush down the cheeks of the cleansed leper — his streaming eyes gaze on the flight of the blood-stained bird, a living witness of his cleansing and liberty.
Ask him how he knows he is cleansed, and his reply would be, “The priest of God pronounces me clean. The bird is free and flown away. That is how I know.” Yes, as certain as the living bird is flown away, so certain is it that he is cleansed, for this is the way God has made known His mind to the poor leper. The bird could not be set free until he was pronounced cleansed. Then followed the washing of his person in water. Nothing could be more plain or more precious than the truth thus set forth. The one bird shows the death and the other the resurrection of our blessed Lord. This is God’s only way of cleansing the wretched sinner from his sins. And, blessed be God, your case cannot be too bad for God’s cleansing. If you recognize that you are a sinner all over; if, like the leper, the leprosy having spent itself turns white; if you have spent all in sin; if character, health, friends and home are all gone; if weary of life, however wretched and desolate, then God meets you in the death of His own beloved Son, with the certainty of the forgiveness of all sins, through His blood, to everyone that believes.
I think I hear my reader saying, “Yes, yes, I have read that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin, but how am I to know that it cleanses me?” You say, “My poor, trembling, anxious heart wants to know that! Can you tell me?” Oh, yes, blessed be God, His Word leaves no uncertainty. How did the leper know he was cleansed? He believed God’s priest and the token he gave him in the living bird.
And has not the precious blood of Jesus been shed? Has it not been spilled on this earth, as the blood of the bird that was killed? One bird could not be killed and then let fly, so there had to be two, to show the death and resurrection of our precious Substitute. Watch that bleeding Surety die for sin and then laid captive for you (trembling believer) in death. Now, as the blood of the bird was sprinkled seven times on the leper before the living bird could be set free, has not God as surely pronounced His judgment as to the perfect and everlasting efficacy of the blood of Jesus for every one that believes Him? The bird was let loose because the leper was cleansed —Christ is risen — the believer is purged.
You don’t suppose that the priest, if he had the mere feelings of man, would pronounce the words so that the leper could not tell whether he was cleansed or not — nothing could be more cruel than such uncertainty. There was the priest’s word, and the bird flew away. This gave him the utmost certainty and joy. And can we then suppose that God has spoken in His Word so indistinctly as to leave the anxious believer in cruel uncertainty? Oh, no; God could not have spoken more plainly. He says, having raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:3839). Do you believe Jesus died on the cross, bearing your sins in His own body on the tree, there taking our place as Substitute for our sins? Just as the bird could not be let go unless the leper was pronounced clean, so Christ our Surety could not be let go from the prison of death, if His blood had not purged our sins. But God, by the very raising of our Substitute from the grave, pronounces every believer justified from all things.
I repeat again, the leper knew he was cleansed; the priest said so; the bird was free in the open field. I know I am forgiven and justified from all things; God says so, and my captive Surety, the blessed Jesus, is risen and free in the highest heavens. God could not give me a greater proof of the certainty of my justification than He has in raising Jesus from the dead for my justification.
Then, do you believe the precious blood of Jesus has been shed? And do you believe that God has raised Him from the dead? Then God pronounces the forgiveness of all your sins through Jesus. And, more than that, He pronounces you and every believer justified from all things. God pronounces every believer justified. This gives you the clearest certainty.
Now, as the leper being cleansed by this sprinkled blood then washed his person in water, so, my fellow-believer, being justified, let me beg you to seek the constant washing of the Word. Your standing is certain, justified from all things in the risen Christ. But your walk needs the constant washing of His precious, priestly service.
As the blood was put upon the ear, the thumb and the toe of the cleansed leper, and the oil upon the blood, so may we who are cleansed with His precious blood be filled, led and kept by the Holy Spirit. Yea, may body, soul and spirit be henceforth sanctified wholly unto Him. Amen.