Leviticus 14:1-71And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: 3And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; 4Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 5And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 6As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: 7And 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. (Leviticus 14:1‑7)
WE NOW come to the wonderfully interesting and instructive lesson — “the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.”
“He shall be brought unto the priest: and the priest shall go forth out of the camp.”
Thus far the Spirit of God has been occupying us with the dread plague of leprosy, God’s type of sin with all its defilement and ruin. But now we come to the other side, that wondrous grace that can and does cleanse the leper. What a mercy this is in a world full of misery and suffering through sin! The sinner cannot cleanse himself, nor can he expect help from his fellowman; but God is love and there is power in that love. How precious then to see God Himself take up the case of the poor sinner, cleanse him from all his sin in a way worthy of Himself, and make him fit to be at peace in His presence forever.
“The leper was to be brought unto the priest.” But the leper could not come where the priest was, the priest must go out of the camp to the leper. Here, viewed typically, the priest is the mediator, the Saviour. We read, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).
In the story of the cleansing of the leper (Mark 1), the man came to the Lord saying, “If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” He knew the Lord could heal him, but there was distrust of the heart that went out to him in his pitiful condition. And this is man everywhere. It needed the love of God to go out to him where he was in all his sin and distance, for man would never come in of himself, for he distrusts the heart of God. But the gospel is God’s answer to the unbelief of man, for “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9,109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10).
How wondrous the love of God! and wondrous too the journey of His Son, from the bosom of the Father to a sin-stained world! Nothing was here to draw forth His love but man’s need; and with all this, He came to the place where the sinner was!
“Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds 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.”
This is very precious. The little clean birds tell of the cleanness, the spotlessness of God’s Lamb. The death of one of them tells of Christ’s offering Himself through the eternal Spirit, 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)). And the other, soaring aloft into the heavens, tells of Jesus risen from the dead, bearing the tokens of His blood-shedding up into the heavenly sanctuary—entering in the holiest by His own blood (Heb. 9:1212Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12)). All this was done by him who acted for God, in the sight of the poor leper.
What had he been doing all the while? He had been “standing still, to see the salvation of God” — gang in silence at all this wonderful ceremony being performed for him; more than this he could not do. Till the work was complete, and he sprinkled with the blood, and his eye had followed the little bird as it ascended towards the heavens, bearing on its wings the blood that had been shed and sprinkled upon him, he had but to stand still and behold! How his heart must have rejoiced to hear the priest who spoke for God declaring that he was clean, through the sevenfold sprinkled blood.
ML-03/05/1972