The great outstanding type of cleansing in
Leviticus is that of the leper, given in
chapter xiv. — “The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing”. Before we can hope to appreciate the blessing
of this typical cleansing we must have some understanding of the nature of the
defilement, and this necessitates a consideration of chapter xiii.
also. In chapter
xiii. the priest pronounces the leper
unclean, while in chapter xiv. he pronounces him clean.
Alongside the main subject of the leper
and his cleansing are the related subjects of leprosy in a garment or in a
house. Leprosy in the person is typical
of sin within, it is indeed “deeper than the skin” (Lev. xiii. 2). Leprosy in the garments is typical of our
“habits” — the English idiom retains the figure, for we still speak of some clothing
as a “habit”, e.g., “a riding habit”.
Scripture uses the figure continually.
“Be clothed with humility.” “The
robe of righteousness.” “Put on (as
clothing) the new man.” The house speaks
of relationships — home, witness, service, etc., “The house of God”, “The
household of God”, “The household of faith”.
The subject matter of Leviticus
xiii. & xiv. is disposed as
follows:--
The law of
leprosy (Leviticus
xiii. & xiv.).
A | xiii. 1-46.
The leper. Pronounced unclean.
B
| xiii. 47-57. Leprosy in a garment.
C |
xiii. 58. Cleansing of garment.
D | xiii. 59.
“The law.”
A |
xiv. 1-32. The leper. Pronounced clean.
B |
xiv. 33-47. Leprosy in a house.
C | xiv. 48-53.
Cleansing of house.
D |
xiv. 54-57. “The law.”
Upon
reading Leviticus xiii. one of the first impressions received is the
extraordinary care that the priest must exercise in judging as to whether the
person before him is, or is not, suffering from leprosy. No hasty judgment is allowed. No indiscriminate generalizings, for leprosy
cuts a man off from fellowship with God and his neighbours, deprives him of all
visible means of grace, all domestic and social privileges, and consequently it
must be dealt with most carefully. The
priest is given the most detailed account of the symptoms, and his diagnosis
does not depend upon his feelings or his reasoning, but upon the Word of
God. Then, observe the care that must be
exercised whenever there is a doubt in the mind of the priest.
“Then the priest shall shut
up him that hath the plague seven days” (Lev.xiii.4).
If at the end of that time there is still
uncertainty, the suspected person must be shut up for yet a further seven days
(xiii. 5). How this should warn us
against hasty judgments, uncharitable interpretations, or biased opinions of
the actions of others.
“It is but a scab” (xiii. 6). The whole subject is loathsome, but also is
sin, and we are but looking into the mirror of the Word. A scab may, or may not, be a cause for
putting away. The one great point that
the priest was to observe was that “it spread not”. If, however, spreading be evident, “he shall
be seen of the priest again”, then, if the spreading continues, the dread
sentence goes forth, “it is leprosy”.
Here is a lesson that should give us pause. The person is pronounced leprous and unclean
when the plague with which he is afflicted spreads! If we would have this interpreted for us in
spiritual language, we may heed the apostle’s statement:--
“I know, and am persuaded by the Lord
Jesus, that there is nothing unclean (or common) of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be
unclean, to him it is unclean” (Rom.xiv.14).
“All
things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man that eateth with offence” (Rom.
xiv. 20).
“Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in
that thing which he alloweth” (Rom. xiv. 22).
“We
know that an idol is nothing in the world . . . . . howbeit there is not in
every man that knowledge: for some with
conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol ... and through thy knowledge the weak brother is perishing, for whom
Christ died” (I.Cor.viii.4-11).
While we live and walk in this world it is
impossible to avoid contact with evil somewhere, and while this is to be
deplored, it is but an indication of the present state of things, and the
effect upon us is described in the language of the type as, it is but a “scab”. Though by no means spiritual or right, such
things are not a sufficient ground for the breaking off of fellowship, for
“then must ye needs go out of the world”.
But where anything tends to “spread”, and weaker brethren are stumbled,
then it is time to judge the thing and pronounce it unclean.
The law of
cleansing.
While we should not too quickly turn away
from the awful picture of sin given in
chapter xiii., our immediate
object is rather the cleansing of the leper, which is given in chapter xiv. Referring
to the structure (see above “A”),
we see that the section dealing with the cleansing of the leper occupies verses
1-32. This, we shall discover upon reading,
is further divided into two sections.
First the full ceremonial (1-20), then the provision for one who might
be too poor and unable to afford so much.
This, therefore, reduces our field of investigation to the first twenty
verses. The intricate detail of this
passage is apt to overwhelm the reader, and he may thus miss one or two most
essential distinctions. To enable all to
see these features we set out verses 2-20 as follows:--
A1 | xiv. 2-7.
Out of the camp.
A2 | xiv. 8, 9.
Into the camp.
A3 | xiv. 10-20.
At the door of the tabernacle.
It is vital to the understanding of this
lesson that these three divisions shall be kept distinct. Each has its own ceremonial, and what is done
at the door of the tabernacle would be impossible either outside the camp, or
during the seven days tarrying abroad in the camp. We can now fill in the detail of each
section:--
A1 | xiv. 2-7.
Out of the camp.
a | The two birds.
b | Cedar, scarlet, hyssop.
a |
The two birds.
B1 |
xiv. 7. “HE SHALL PRONOUNCE HIM
CLEAN.”
A2 | xiv. 8, 9.
Into the camp.
c | Wash clothes, shave and wash flesh.
d | Seven days tarrying.
d |
Seventh day.
c |
Shave, wash clothes and wash flesh.
B2 |
xiv. 9. “AND HE SHALL BE CLEAN.”
A3 | xiv. 10-20.
At the door.
e | Trespass offering.
f | Wave offering.
g | The blood applied.
g | The oil applied.
e |
Sin offering.
f | Burnt offering and meat offering.
B3 |
xiv. 20. “AND HE SHALL BE
CLEAN.”
As
we observe what is said regarding the cleansing of the leper, we shall find
food for thought. In the first section
he is “pronounced clean”. In the second,
he begins to take active part “that he may be clean” (verse 8). “And he shall be clean.” In the third, there seems at first to be a
set-back. He is spoken of as “the man
that is to be made clean” (verses 11, 18 & 19), and not until atonement has
been made do we read, “and he shall be clean” (verse 20). It is evident that deep teaching is here. May we look ever to the Lord that we may be
guided into the truth.
The two birds.
First let us consider the initial act of
cleansing. The margin tells us that the
birds may be sparrows, and there is a possibility that the English word is derived
from the Hebrew, which is tsippor.
With these two birds are taken cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop. Perhaps we may never penetrate the typical
intention, yet these things are written for our learning. A variety of suggestions have been made from
time to time, which it would serve no useful purpose to repeat here. But two N.T. passages come before the mind
that seem to point the way to the truth intended. The spiritual equivalent of leprosy is found
in the words:--
“Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 23).
“Keep himself unspotted from the world” (James i. 27).
The flesh and the world are the two great
sources of spiritual defilement, and nothing but the cross of Christ can
deliver the believer from their contamination:
“They that are Christ’s have crucified the
flesh” (Gal. v. 24).
“The world is crucified unto me”
(Gal. vi. 14).
By nature we are all defiled and
unclean. “In the flesh . . . . . and in
the world” is the centre and circumference of the natural man (Eph. ii. 11,
12). The combination of cedar and hyssop
makes one think of I Kings iv. 33, where the whole range of the vegetable
kingdom seems comprehended in the words:
“He spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the
hyssop that springeth out of the wall”.
Scarlet is what we know as cochineal, and the combination may indicate
the world and the flesh, the contaminating agents, being placed under the power
of the death and resurrection of Christ.
However this may be, the great feature of this offering is found in the
two birds.
It is not often that we have, in one
offering, so vivid a picture of both the death and resurrection of Christ as we
have here. One of the birds was taken
and killed in an earthen vessel over running water (the same word as “living”
in verse 6), and then the living bird, together with the cedar wood, scarlet,
and hyssop, were dipped into the blood of the bird that was killed: the leper was then sprinkled seven times, and
the living bird let loose into the open field.
The two aspects
of cleansing.
As a result of this, the man is
“pronounced clean”. Here is the initial
cleansing. All this while the leper has
done nothing. He is brought to the
priest. The priest goes out of the camp
to inspect him. The priest commands to
take for the leper the two birds. The
priest kills the one bird, the priest dips the bird, the priest sprinkles the
leper, the priest pronounces him clean.
But immediately following this extremely passive attitude comes one of
personal activity:--
“He shall wash his clothes, and shave off
all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean” (Lev. xiv. 8).
“That he may be clean.” What does that mean? He had been pronounced clean already, yet
upon his own washing and shaving the words are added, “that he may be
clean”. The same idiom and the same
explanation are found elsewhere:--
“Love your enemies … that ye
may be the children of your Father” (Matt.v.45).
Does any one understand this to mean, that
a man may bring about his own regeneration by loving his enemies? No, it is understood to mean “that ye may be manifestly
the children of your Father”. The
lesson is this. First our cleansing is
entirely the work of God in applying to our need the death and resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Then when this is
done, and we are “pronounced” clean, the newly awakened soul begins to stir
itself, that it may be in act, what it is in fact. This is set forth by the washing of the
clothing — the habits, and the flesh — by our own act, and the shaving off of all
the hair which has been associated with the disease (see Leviticus
xiii.), and II Cor. vii. 1 is a commentary upon the type:--
“Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
To this same Corinthian church the apostle
had already written:--
“But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God” (I Cor. vi. 11).
The same sequence is the same as in Leviticus xiv.:--
I & II Corinthians
|
Leviticus xiv.
|
“Ye
are washed.”
“Let
us cleanse ourselves.”
|
“Pronounced
clean.”
“He
shall wash himself.”
|
Another precious parallel is found in John xiii. 10
where a due consideration of the two words translated “wash” is most
helpful:--
“He that hath been bathed
needeth not save to wash his feet,
but is clean every whit.”
The
eighth day.
The washing and shaving is repeated on the
seventh day after the admission back into camp, and the word then goes forth, and
he shall be clean. With the eighth
day, however, we seem to start all over again.
We read now of “the priest that maketh him clean”, and “the man that is
to be cleansed”. The man is now
“presented” at the door of the tabernacle, and full acceptance, conscious
access, real service is in view, and for that a further preparation is
necessary. In other articles we have
shown that redemption (exodus) and atonement (eisodus) are
complementary. The former is set forth
by the two birds, with never a word about trespass, sin or acceptance, and the
latter is set forth by the full fourfold offering — trespass, sin, meal and
burnt offering — fully set out in
Leviticus i.-vii., and analysed
with some care in other articles of this magazine. In this cleansing, the whole man is not
sprinkled, but three representative members are touched, first with the blood
and then with the oil. The right ear,
the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot. This is a symbol full of service. The servant must hearken in order to obey,
and then hand and foot are engaged in loving obedience. All this takes place on “the eighth day”, the
day of circumcision, which finds its exposition in Philippians iii. and
Colossians ii.:--
“We are the circumcision, which worship
God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh” (Phil. iii. 3).
“In Whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh
(R.V.) by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians ii. 11).
Here is the resurrection stand. Here is where and when the four great
offerings of Leviticus i.-vii. have their place. Redemption is for the sinner, atonement for
the saint. First deliverance from,
and then access to.
The oil on
the blood.
Here is a most important order, a
corrective to much mischievous teaching that is abroad to-day. Sanctification of the Spirit is taught in the
Word. Cleansing by the Word is
scriptural. But the Spirit is powerless,
and the Word unavailing, unless behind and beneath all is the precious blood
of Christ. An undue emphasis
upon the Holy Spirit may not be from God.
It is the Spirit’s office to glorify the Son of God. The true order in sanctification is that
of Leviticus xiv. First
the application of the blood, then the application of the oil “upon the place
of the blood” (Leviticus.xiv.28). Just as the
initial cleansing of Leviticus.xiv.2-7 underlies all that follows, so the
initial sanctification by the blood of Christ underlies all progressive
appreciation on our part. The trespass
offering speaks of personal acts of sin, the sin offering speaks of inherent,
radical sinfulness, the burnt offering is the recognition of the satisfaction
which the Father found in His beloved Son, and the bloodless meat offering, the
gift of thankfulness for mercy received.
The Lord, Who cleansed the leper, and
whose once-offered sacrifice did away, for ever, with all the offerings of the
law, endorsed the whole typical teaching of
Leviticus xiv., and bade the
cleansed leper “offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them”
(Matt. viii. 4).
We do most earnestly pray that every
reader, after pondering the teaching of
Leviticus xiv. together, will
appreciate perhaps more than ever the blessed meaning of the words, “The
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin”.
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