Leviticus 14

There should always have been considerable value in appreciating the metaphors of the ceremonial law, such as the various skin diseases called “leprosy” in Leviticus. These metaphors could have helped the people to apprehend the depth of the problem of sin among mankind. But Israel needed much more than the knowledge of sin. Israel needed healing.

There was a law for the cleansing of lepers, but this law was a testimony of healing that had occurred. It was not a protocol to follow in order to heal skin diseases. It certainly was not a way to heal the soul problems of mankind. It did have value, especially as a testimony to a great Healer who would one day appear to Israel.

The ceremonial law anticipated a day when the leprous person would be cleansed. On that day, he was to be brought to the priest, but not in a holy place. The priest actually was to go to him outside the camp. He was to go to the outcast. There he was to look at the evidence of healing and consider.

If the person was indeed healed, that person and the priest were to perform a ritual involving two birds. One of the birds was to be killed, but the other bird would live. The priest would set the living bird free, but first he would dip it in the blood of the bird that was sacrificed. Then the priest would take the live bird, now with the blood of the dead bird on it, and he would sprinkle the one who had been leprous with the blood of the sacrificed bird.

When Jesus cleansed a leper, He instructed him, “Show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” This is part of the procedure He was referring to. The two birds, the scarlet yarn, the hyssop, the blood of the sacrificed bird, the other bird dipped in that blood to fly away free, the washing of clothes, the shaving of the head, the bathing in water, the return to the camp, the seven days more outside his tent, more shaving of all hair, more washing of clothes, more bathing in water, and then more offerings commanded by God... This was how a person was pronounced “clean.”

The offerings reinforced another message that was a part of the sacrificial system for all of Israel, whether clean or unclean. Through these common offerings, rather than through a verbal declaration, the leper was to acknowledge and testify to this plain fact: “I need a substitute who will stand in my place. I need an acceptable guilt offering. I need a whole burnt offering. I need a grain offering. I need a sin offering.” In the case of the healed leper, this testimony was to take place on the eighth day after the ceremony of the two birds. The offerings were made by a man who had once been unclean, but now was clean. Yet he needed this final testimony of cleansing connected to these normal offerings for Israelites who could approach God.

The priest was to bring the man before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of the meeting. The man would be marked by the blood of the offering as the priest was marked at the beginning of his own ministry. The blood was to be put on his right ear, his right thumb, and the big toe of his right foot. The priest was to sprinkle some oil from the offering before the Lord, and then to put the oil on the man in the same three places, from head to toe, with the remaining oil in the hand of the priest placed on the head of the man. This new cleansed man was a servant of God through the shedding of blood and the oil offered up to the Lord.

Finally, the priest was to offer the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the grain offering in accord with the word of the Lord for each ceremony. This was what it meant to “make atonement for him before the Lord.” This was the testimony required by God in the law. At last the words that he would have longed to hear, “Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.”

Once again, there was a provision for the poor who could not afford all those animals. Such a man was still fully cleansed from his leprous disease. He just could not afford the offerings for his cleansing.

This kind of disease affected individuals and their personal possessions. It could even attack an entire house. God indicated that He Himself might put a case of leprous disease in a house. The owner, when he discovered the problem, was not to hide it, but to bring the matter to the attention of the priest. Words were given in the law that fit the situation: “There seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.” The word “house” was obviously referring to a physical structure, but it was not an accident that the same word could be used to refer to the people who lived together as a family within that structure, and even to the future generations that would come from those people.

God gave detailed regulations that the priest could use to discern the condition of a house, and detailed ceremonies for declaring a house to be “clean.” But who can do more than cleanse us with a ceremonial ritual? Who can heal us, and bring health back to our home and to our family line?

The Lord has provided Himself for the necessary sacrifice. He has brought us into His own household in Jesus Christ. This great priest was able to discern all that was necessary to restore His people to right relationship with His Father, and to bring them into the temple of the Holy Spirit as His royal priesthood. Do not despair. He who cleansed the leper will not leave you or your house fatally infected with the disease of sin that can only bring eternal destruction. His house will stand. He is the Cornerstone of our every hope.