Introduction
Leprosy is a picture of sin that becomes active in the believer, not as a temporary effect, but as a part of life. The picture of leprosy also focuses on the defiling effect of sin. We all can be caught in any trespass (Gal 6:1; Jam 3:2). That is something else than living in sin and that is what it is about with leprosy as a picture of sin.
Leprosy is the sin that defiles a person permanently. Its characteristic is perseverance in one’s own will. Such a person must be removed and dwell outside the camp (Lev 13:46). For the church this means: “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves” (1Cor 5:13b). The removal of the leper is with a view to self-preservation for the people, but also with a view to healing and restoration of the leper, because restoration is possible. This chapter describes how to deal in case of restoration.
1 - 9 Cleansing of the Leper
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, 3 and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper, 4 then the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed. 5 The priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water. 6 [As for] the live bird, he shall take it together with the cedar wood and the scarlet string and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slain over the running water. 7 He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird go free over the open field. 8 The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days. 9 It will be on the seventh day that he shall shave off all his hair: he shall shave his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair. He shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and be clean.
The LORD speaks here only to Moses (cf. Lev 13:1; 14:33), because he is a picture of the Lord Jesus as Mediator, as the One Who makes it all right between God and the member of God’s people who has lived in sin.
When the priest hears of the healing of a leper, he goes to the leper. In this we see a characteristic of a spiritual believer: he will pay attention to indications that there is a change for the better in someone who has been removed from among the believers because of perseverance in sin.
The priest does not do anything about healing, nor can he. He can only determine whether the infection of leprosy has healed. Then the cleansing can begin. The leprosy in the spiritual sense is disappeared when the believer “confesses and forsakes” sin (Pro 28:13). Then there will be complete humiliation noted.
If someone is healed, he cannot return to the camp immediately. Cleansing must happen first. The cleansing represents in picture that the Lord Jesus and His work in various aspects are placed before the attention, so that such a person may again take the right foundation before God. He has lost sight of this through his sin. Something has disappeared – the infection, the sin – and instead something, or rather: Someone, another Person: the Lord Jesus, must come. Confession is not enough. We must also become aware that the Lord Jesus had to suffer and die for that sin.
Two clean birds should be taken on the first day. They are a picture of the Lord Jesus. Actually this is not an offering. Nothing is brought on the altar and no blood is offered to God. The offerings will only come on the eighth day (from verse 10). The two birds together must depict that the Lord Jesus is the Man Who came from heaven, Who died, but rose again. One bird is slain. The other is identified with it and is let go free over the open field. This shows that the Lord Jesus is both “delivered over because of our transgressions” and “raised because of our justification” (Rom 4:25). After living in sin for a period, we must become aware of this again.
The blood of the slain bird is in an “earthenware vessel” in which is “running water”. That too refers to the Lord Jesus and His work. The earthenware vessel indicates that He became Man (Heb 2:14a). Running water is water that rises from the earth. It is not stagnant water, but there is life in it. It refers to the Word of God that is made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Lord Jesus we see the Holy Spirit at work; the Word of God is in Him; He is the Word and is eternal. In addition, there is the blood as a result of His death.
When the Lord Jesus died and one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, “immediately blood and water came out” (Jn 19:34). Blood and water are both needed for cleansing. Blood is for atonement, “for without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22b). The blood is more in connection with God. The water has more to do with confession and is more connected to the sinner. If he confesses his sins, he may know that God is “faithful” to His Word “and righteous” in view of the work of Christ, “to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9).
There are other things: cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop. Cedarwood comes from Lebanon. It speaks of impressive, natural grandeur. Hyssop is a small, little plant that does not impress. Solomon speaks of both as extremes (1Kgs 4:33a). Crimson or scarlet is a picture of royal, earthly glory. All this is present with the Lord Jesus. We see that in the Gospels. It is all gone in the death, His death. But He has risen and because of that these things regain their meaning.
All previous actions are then applied to the leper. In this picture we see that cleansing is not removing the wrong thing, but getting a view of the Lord Jesus and His work again. Then he who has been cleansed must wash his clothes, which speaks of bringing his conduct under the control of God’s Word (Eph 5:26). He must also shave off all his hair, which says that he renounces all natural honor (1Cor 11:15). Then he must bathe himself in water, which means that he places his whole life under the Word of God, so that there is no more room for sin.
He is allowed to come back to the camp, but has to stay outside his tent for seven days. He has been taken up again in the people of God, but has not yet taken his own familiar place again. Someone who has a gift can be restored to God’s people after a sinful way, but cannot immediately exercise that gift again. That too takes time. After a fullness of time, seven days, he has to shave off all his hair again and wash his clothes and body and then he is clean.
10 - 20 Cleansing on the Eighth Day
10 “Now on the eighth day he is to take two male lambs without defect, and a yearling ewe lamb without defect, and three-tenths [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log* of oil; 11 and the priest who pronounces him clean shall present the man to be cleansed and the aforesaid before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 12 Then the priest shall take the one male lamb and bring it for a guilt offering, with the log of oil, and present them as a wave offering before the LORD. 13 Next he shall slaughter the male lamb in the place where they slaughter the sin offering and the burnt offering, at the place of the sanctuary—for the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy. 14 The priest shall then take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put [it] on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 15 The priest shall also take some of the log of oil, and pour [it] into his left palm; 16 the priest shall then dip his right-hand finger into the oil that is in his left palm, and with his finger sprinkle some of the oil seven times before the LORD. 17 Of the remaining oil which is in his palm, the priest shall put some on the right ear lobe of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt offering; 18 while the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s palm, he shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the LORD. 19 The priest shall next offer the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Then afterward, he shall slaughter the burnt offering. 20 The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be clean.
*One log is about half a liter.
Then the eighth day comes. That speaks of a new beginning. This new beginning is again characterized in a special way by the Lord Jesus, His Person and work, as expressed in the offerings brought on that day.
The first offering is a guilt offering (verse 12). Living in sin is a choice, an act, by which someone is taking guilt on himself. The three cases of leprosy of the people of God in the Old Testament – Miriam, Gehazi and Uzziah (Num 12:5-10; 2Kgs 5:20-27; 2Chr 26:16-21) – show this. For this reason, a guilt offering must be brought, which speaks of the awareness that the Lord Jesus had to undergo the judgment of God because of that choice for sin. This was the only way in which this guilt could have been extinguished.
The blood of the guilt offering is put on the lobe of the right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. The whole practical life is brought under the value of the blood. The question we have to ask ourselves when we listen to something, when we want to do something or when we want to go somewhere is: Is it all sanctified by the blood?
Oil is put on the blood. Oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit. The blood of Christ for justification and the anointing of the Holy Spirit for sanctification are inextricably linked. After the price of the blood through which we are justified and purchased, follows a life of holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit allows us to live according to the value of the blood applied.
The rest of the oil is put on the head of the one to be cleansed. It is a special blessing for someone who, as a believer, confesses his sinful way. It is not necessary to live in sin to get such a blessing. It is the privilege of every priest. To be a priest, it is not necessary to have been a leper first. This requires fellowship with God. This leads to higher blessings.
Then the sin offering and the burnt offering are brought. This results in full restoration. The full scope of the Lord Jesus’ work is placed before the attention of the restored believer. He sees how the source, the root, of sin was judged in the Lord Jesus and how he is accepted by God on the basis of His work and in Him. He is clean.
21 - 32 Cleansing of Someone Who Is Poor
21 “But if he is poor and his means are insufficient, then he is to take one male lamb for a guilt offering as a wave offering to make atonement for him, and one-tenth [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil, 22 and two turtledoves or two young pigeons which are within his means, the one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. 23 Then the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, at the doorway of the tent of meeting, before the LORD. 24 The priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall offer them for a wave offering before the LORD. 25 Next he shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt offering; and the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put [it] on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 26 The priest shall also pour some of the oil into his left palm; 27 and with his right-hand finger the priest shall sprinkle some of the oil that is in his left palm seven times before the LORD. 28 The priest shall then put some of the oil that is in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one 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 guilt offering. 29 Moreover, the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s palm he shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement on his behalf before the LORD. 30 He shall then offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, which are within his means. 31 [He shall offer] what he can afford, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement before the LORD on behalf of the one to be cleansed. 32 This is the law [for him] in whom there is an infection of leprosy, whose means are limited for his cleansing.”
Someone who is poor may come with a smaller offering. This does not apply to the guilt offering. The picture here is one who has come to confess his wrong way, but who spiritually does not have much insight into the scope of sin and therefore does not have such a deep understanding of what the Lord Jesus had to suffer. He does know, however, that his guilt has been removed by the work of the Lord Jesus. He does not know much about the source of sin and being accepted by God. For the rest it is dealt with as in the previous case.
33 - 42 A Mark of Leprosy on a House
33 The LORD further spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: 34 “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession, 35 then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘[Something] like a mark [of leprosy] has become visible to me in the house.’ 36 The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house. 37 So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface, 38 then the priest shall come out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days. 39 The priest shall return on the seventh day and make an inspection. If the mark has indeed spread in the walls of the house, 40 then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city. 41 He shall have the house scraped all around inside, and they shall dump the plaster that they scrape off at an unclean place outside the city. 42 Then they shall take other stones and replace [those] stones, and he shall take other plaster and replaster the house.
The third case of leprosy is that on a house. That is only now being discussed because it is a special case. This case cannot happen in the wilderness, where the Israelites have no houses. They only have them in the land. God points to that time (verse 34).
The house can be applied to the house of Israel, which will ultimately be leprous and must be torn down. God will have to set aside the house of Israel, His people, when it appears that they forget Him, and serve the idols, and reject their Messiah. It is also applicable to professing Christianity as a whole.
Another application is that to a local church as an expression of the house of God. If sin is found there, it must be judged. It can be limited to the mark of leprosy on one or a few stones, on one person or a few persons. Just as stones can be broken away, those who live in sin must be removed from the local church. Stones represent believers (1Pet 2:5). Believers who live in sin must be removed from among the believers of the local church (1Cor 5:13b).
It is God Who puts the mark of leprosy on a house (verse 34). That is, if sin is given a place in a local church, we must acknowledge that God has allowed it. He allows this to reveal who is for Him (1Cor 11:19).
The owner of the house refers to those who bear responsibility, that in the church everything goes as God wills. This thought is represented in “the angel of the church” (Rev 2:1,8,12,18; 3:1,7,14). They can be addressed as people who recognize evil. They go with it to the priest. He is expected to do something about it, for he is supposed to be spiritual-minded and to know God’s thoughts. He, in practice, lives in God’s presence.
The priest investigates. He knows what the stones should look like. He can determine whether stones have a different color. He is not hasty. First the house is cleared, so that evil does not spread any further. The house is then closed for seven days. When after that it turns out that there are stones with the mark of leprosy, those stones must be torn out.
When the leprous stones have been removed, the whole house must be scraped. The local church must cleanse itself of the influence of sin. The members must humble themselves, acknowledge their share and prove themselves clean (2Cor 7:11). Then other stones are put in their place. The Lord gives blessing when discipline is exercised in the right mind and thus compensates for the loss.
43 - 47 The Mark Breaks Out Again in the House
43 “If, however, the mark breaks out again in the house after he has torn out the stones and scraped the house, and after it has been replastered, 44 then the priest shall come in and make an inspection. If he sees that the mark has indeed spread in the house, it is a malignant mark in the house; it is unclean. 45 He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take [them] outside the city to an unclean place. 46 Moreover, whoever goes into the house during the time that he has quarantined it, becomes unclean until evening. 47 Likewise, whoever lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
The mark can break out again in the house. This happens when the previous case of leprosy has not been thoroughly purified. The whole house must then be torn down and taken out of town. It is the picture of a local church that does not judge sin in its midst. Such a local church can then no longer be recognized as such by the Lord. If sin is not judged, He cannot be in the midst.
A church where the evil has penetrated so much that there is no longer any cleansing can no longer be recognized as a church. It is removed from the circle of houses that make up the city and is taken out of the city. In the practice of the interconnectedness that exists between local churches it will mean that such a church will no longer be visited and other local churches will not receive anyone from such a church. This is related to the fact that the Lord Jesus can no longer be there because of not removing the evil from the midst. Every spiritually-minded church will see this and act in accordance with it.
Anyone who somehow still has something to do with the house, even briefly, before it is torn down, is unclean. By reading God’s Word, the defilement is removed. By reading God’s Word, inverted influences gained through the stay are discovered and condemned and the thoughts are focused on the Lord Jesus.
48 - 53 Cleansing of the House
48 “If, on the other hand, the priest comes in and makes an inspection and the mark has not indeed spread in the house after the house has been replastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the mark has not reappeared. 49 To cleanse the house then, he shall take two birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop, 50 and he shall slaughter the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water. 51 Then he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet string, with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird as well as in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52 He shall thus cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water, along with the live bird and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the scarlet string. 53 However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”
Pronouncing a house clean, as with a person, happens by putting the Person of Christ before the attention, as He is represented in the various offerings (verses 4-9).
54 - 57 Summary
54 This is the law for any mark of leprosy—even for a scale, 55 and for the leprous garment or house, 56 and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot— 57 to teach when they are unclean and when they are clean. This is the law of leprosy.
We are at the end of the detailed description of the forms of leprosy and its cleansing. The LORD here says again that the law He has given for this applies to every form of leprosy: the leprous person, the leprous garment and the leprous house.
This law serves “to teach”. Paul says to Timothy: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching … in righteousness” (2Tim 3:16). Teaching has to do with being ‘trained’ or ‘educated’. What Paul connects with righteousness, we can connect here with unclean and clean. The training or education for this happens when we read God’s Word. We then get teaching in how to see when something is unclean and when something is clean.