Lev. 13:38-46; 14:1-738If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots; 39Then the priest shall look: and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white; it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin; he is clean. 40And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean. 41And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald: yet is he clean. 42And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead. 43Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh; 44He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head. 45And 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. 46All 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. (Leviticus 13:38‑46)
1And 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)
Nothing can be more wonderful than that a poor sinner should be able to confide in perfect peace, here on earth, in the midst of his leprosy and misery, in the very One who is on the throne of God in the heavens. Wondrous grace, that such a One up there in glory should have a heart full of pity for guilty, daring rebels! Just conceive, if possible, for a moment, what such tidings would be to a poor, friendless, hopeless, homeless rebel, whose sins and sorrows had reached to such a height that nothing but despair was left; for him to hear that any one thinks of him, or cares for him, is good news so wonderful that he almost fears it is too good to be true. A Savior in glory, who died for rebels on the earth, are contrasts indeed, and yet such is the testimony of God at this moment—a testimony to be repeated wherever there is a sinner, a guilty, lost one, on the face of the whole earth.
In writing a little concerning the Scriptures above quoted, my object is to point out, as simply as I can, the place the Word of God has in convicting and assuring the soul. I greatly desire to press upon the conscience the all-important fact, that the discovery of our misery, or of the only One who has heart and power to meet us in it, are in no way consequent upon our feeling or sense, but upon the unchanging Word of the living God. I have heard the question asked, “Do you feel you are a sinner?” Yet I humbly submit it is not the first question. It would be felt, no doubt, if the testimony of God about man as a child of Adam were believed. We may be well assured that the testimony of God is as clear and distinct as can be. By nature man is a leper before God—without Christ, without hope, without God in the world; an unclean rebel, with a mind and will set against God. Hear His Word, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-1810As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:10‑18)).
Nothing could be more decisive or convicting. It is the great antitype of the leper, who is convicted and shut out of the camp of Israel by the word of the priest. It was not a question of his feeling his leprosy; the question was, what the priest had said—what was his word who knew the fatal plague spot? The leper in Israel, with rent clothes, his head bare, a covering upon his upper lip, crying “Unclean, unclean!” must go outside the camp; that is, he must take the position the priest of Israel by his word placed him in. What a solemn picture of the condition of man as a child of Adam now! God has shut every man’s mouth, has pronounced man unclean, unfit for his presence; but along with this (of which no adequate picture could be given), that same blessed God assures man that there are in Himself springs of compassion and mercy, of which He has the heart to make guilty, polluted, loathsome lepers, the object. This, God has announced to sinners, has demonstrated in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and bestows now wherever there is the faith that casts itself on Him. How wonderful to know that I have a Savior in glory! A Savior who came to earth and died for me, rose again from the dead, having, in death, closed my history as a leper before God; and because of who He was, as well as having righteously met all the claims of the throne of God, took His seat on high in glory, from whence He lets His voice be heard and His light seen, from whence all that I need comes, and to which glory it is the purpose of His heart to bring me. It is the word of God that convicts me of my condition, as seen and judged by Him in righteousness, and it is the same word that bids me take comfort, because He who shuts my mouth, if I may so say, opens His to tell me of the grace and mercy that is in Himself for me, as well as the full provision He has made through the agonies and the blood- shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take such as us out of the state in which, by nature, we are, at a distance from Him, and to bring us unto Himself. What a message to be put in trust with to poor man in this world, declaring to him in his leprosy and ruin, a love so wonderful, that it rests satisfied with nothing short of his complete deliverance from condemnation and death, and his full satisfaction in the place where God would have him, justified from all things, accepted in the Beloved, and united by the Holy Ghost to Christ in heaven. Oh! how wonderful this is, God’s own joy, accomplished in and through His own Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, let me press it upon my reader, all this is on the testimony of God, borne in the word of God to man’s ruin and God’s love; the picture of the former being the leper in Israel placed outside the camp by the word of the priest.
I turn now to look at the second Scripture, and there we shall find the same in principle. The leper being cleansed is once again to be brought back; but how?
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 shall 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 (vv. 4-7).
In the above verses, which describe the cleansing of the leper, we have a striking picture of the principle on which God now justifies the ungodly, namely, on the ground of the death of Christ, by which sin is condemned and righteousness established, and the resurrection of Christ, which proclaims God’s satisfaction and our justification.
The bird killed in an earthen vessel, over running water, is, in picture, Christ crucified, and the living bird let loose, Christ risen and glorified, and all this the result of that which was in God’s heart respecting poor sinners on earth, helpless and hopeless in their ruin. What a comfort to be able to show all this to poor sinners as God’s testimony, that the word which silences him on his side opens the door of hope on God’s side. Wonderful message! yet more wonderful messenger, He, the beloved Son, who came from heaven to make it all good in His death and resurrection for us.
One point more, and I close. We have seen, I trust, that it is God’s testimony to man’s ruin, not man’s feelings or thoughts about his ruin, that is the question; and that God has likewise given testimony to all that was in His heart in the gift, death, resurrection, and glory, of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. There is another point of testimony to which I would direct attention: how did the leper know he was cleansed? On the same authority as that which convicted him of leprosy. As at first he was pronounced unclean by the priest, so now being cleansed, he is “pronounced clean.” As at first, on the word of the priest, he took his place outside, so now, on the word of the priest, he takes his place inside; in both cases it was the word of the priest. How important, how blessed is this! Many a soul perplexes itself from want of simply taking God at His word, which is the true source and spring of all known enjoyment, as it is written, “The God of hope fill you with all joy, and peace in believing.” And on the other hand, many a soul is blinded and deceived, judging the state they are in by their own apprehension of it, or their own feeling about themselves; they consequently fail to see the complete ruin they are in, and the wonderful provision God has in perfect suitability to Himself made in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to meet them where they are.
Another point of great beauty is the fact, that from the same spot whence trouble came, comfort likewise comes; and this is seen constantly in scripture. If we look at Isa. 6 we find it—the glory of Jehovah’s presence convicts Isaiah; the throne with all its holiness and majesty penetrates the depths of the prophet’s conscience, and he is as the leper in Israel; the light of the throne is too much for him, he is compelled to write the sentence of death on himself, and that he does so the following words sufficiently attest—“Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
Now, observe, when the prophet’s trouble was, as it were, at its height; comfort is ministered to him from the very same place whence that which produced his unhappiness flowed:
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo; this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
The rapidity with which the comfort flows is worthy of note, it is like His heart whose mission it was in person, and now by the Holy Ghost, “to bind up the broken-hearted.” It is like Him of whom it is said, “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
How very blessed it is to see that from this moment the prophet dates his commission; his ear was open when his heart was healed!
“I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.”
It is a wondrous sight this; the heart healed, the ear opened, and the feet swift to run in Jehovah’s service—“I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast enlarged my heart.” Again, we shall find the very same thing in the New Testament; turn to Luke 5, and who can deny it was a leading moment in Peter’s history and life? What else can that moment be to any of us, in which the sense of what we are is present to us in His light who makes manifest the secrets of the heart? Such was this scene in Luke 5. The beloved Son had met Satan in the wilderness, and driven him away by the obedience and dependence of a perfect man, in ch. 4; and here, in ch. 5, He is as perfectly God on the lake of Gennesaret as He was perfectly man in the wilderness; by His power He commands the treasures of the deep into Peter’s net, and at the same moment commanded the light of His own glory to shine around Peter’s soul; and in His presence what could Peter say but “I am a sinful man, O Lord?” And mark it well, as in Isa. 6, so here in Luke 5, “Fear not,” comes from His lips whose glory produced that state which nothing but His “Fear not” could meet. Blessed, blessed Lord, perfect everywhere!
“Lord Jesus, to tell of Thy love,
Our souls shall for ever delight;
And sing of Thy glory above
In praises by day and by night!
Wherever we follow Thee Lord,
Admiring, adoring, we see
That love which was stronger than death
Flow out without limit and free!”
And mark it well, how all is here forsaken and left to follow Him who that day won Peter’s heart for Himself, and though Peter grievously failed after this, and was restored again, yet a link was forged between him and the blessed Lord on the Lake of Gennesaret which nothing ever could break. May our hearts be sensible of His convicting power, that we only confide in Him.—Amen.