Leviticus 14 BEFORE THE LORD After watching the leprosy being diagnosed as real and not only contaminating, but also contagious, one would lose hope, and in daily misery would lament his condition as day after day the disease overcame him completely. He could not hide his condition from others and he had to face himself as he really was. How often people try to excuse themselves and say of sin they practice, "It is only a habit." Not until a person faces up to their sin themselves can there ever be hope for cleansing. Others may see our problem before we do and seek to bring us to where we must face our sin before God, in a similar way one would bring the leper to the priest who judged the leper unclean. There is a hopelessness associated with sin that some people do not want to face. They may hope it is not too serious and can be overlooked. Leprosy on the forehead could not be hidden any more than the nature of sin within a person can be hidden. The problem of indwelling sin not only affects me personally, but what I am influences what I do, and what I do has an effect on what goes on around me.
One day when an observer saw the leper outside the camp, there was not just a small spot on the forehead or some part of the leper's body, but it was obvious he was completely covered with evidence of leprosy. It had reached to every part of the person until he was conscious of the fact that there was nothing hidden from anyone, let alone from God. When a person faces the fact that from the "sole of the foot unto the head" there is nothing in us that make us fit for God's presence, that person is not far from the kingdom of God. They are not just saying words like the leper when he said, "Unclean, unclean," but now there is nothing at all to hid behind. When one comes to the place where they say, and mean it, "God be merciful to me a (the) sinner," that person is at the place spiritual cleansing can happen.
The friend or family member would fetch the priest who would go outside the camp where the leprous person who was totally covered in leprosy was, and he would carefully examine him to see if this was a completed illness. When a person has faced up to their great need of salvation, they are willing to listen to anyone who can show them how to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing from sin. One may feel themselves beyond the place where there is any hope for them, but the caring soul-winner will assure them that "him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out," are the words of the welcoming Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ willingly came into the world "to seek and to save that which was lost." The priest went out of the camp to meet the leper in the same way that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The leper who no longer tried to hide anything was in a place where miraculous cleansing could take place. The priest who saw the leper completely covered, could then show the way of cleansing. Healing the soul or body is the work of God. As a result of the healing work of God, there was a cleansing to be made as evidence of what had already happened. Any short cuts the leper would try to make would negate the whole cleansing. When a person is ready and willing to turn to God alone for salvation, there is cleansing power in the blood. "The is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
The priest looked carefully at the leper covered completely with leprosy to see if he was healed. The cleansing can now happen after the healing power of God had done its work. It is the work of Christ alone that saves the sinner. When one is pronounced by God to have eternal life and is saved, that is a work of God entirely. In the cleansing of the leper, another person provides for the leper what he needs. The spiritual mind can discern evidence of the reality of salvation in a repentant sinner. The sinner understands who Christ is in His lofty dignity as the Son of God from heaven who was sent by the Father to save us. The leper would see the cedar wood and know the lasting nature, the sweet scent and the lofty tree it was taken from to provide for his cleansing. The scarlet taken originally from a worm would remind us of the lowly dignity of our Lord Jesus who was found here in fashion as a man and was sacrificed for us and gave His life blood as a ransom from us. The hyssop that grew on the ground teaches us of the humility of Christ who took the low place, "even the death of the cross," that we might be cleansed from our sin and accepted in Him. The two living birds make one complete picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a man in His humanity for us. The word of God and the Spirit of God and pictured in type by the bird that was killed over running (living) water, and its blood caught in the clay vessel.
The blood was sprinkled seven times over that leprous, ravaged body and the leper was pronounced clean, not because of what was seen but because of what was said. There is power in the Word of God because of the Person that word comes from. The priest had the authority to make that pronouncement even though the bystander who brought what was needed by the leper would not have seen the fact visibly. The leper was clean, not because he felt any different, but because the priest gave his word. Evidence of the cleanness followed the fact. It is not the right of a preacher or the person who responds to the work of Christ on his behalf to say they are cleansed. It is what God says in His Word that gives us assurance of salvation. Our responsibility to those we bring to Christ is to give them the Word of God, and let God give them the assurance of His cleansing from sin in His way - through the scriptures of truth. What man cannot see outwardly, God sees when He looks on the heart.
The blood-sprinkled man who had the blood applied on his body seven times, was pronounced a clean man. The blood had atoned for him. As the leper, the one who brought the leper and the priest together, and the priest stepped away from that stream of running water to the open field - the blood covered bird is let go into the air and is free. When the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, there was evidence of the cross-death on His body, but it in no way limited Him. He bears the marks of His suffering and death which has blessed us. Even though the leper may have looked the same to those who knew him, he knew he was cleansed because the priest had given his word, he had experienced the blood applied to him, and he had seen the evidence on the bird that flew upward from the earth.
The first thing the cleansed leper had to do was to wash his filthy garments that were stained with evidence of living alone outside the place of blessing. This washing would give visible evidence of a change. The habits and activities of a newly saved person give us the first evidence of the reality of genuine conversion to God. Then things become personal to him. The hair had to go. Some people are proud of that but anything that had sheltered any uncleanness on his person had to be cut off. Perhaps those who brought him to the priest did that for him. Others may be able to help us understand what is right and wrong when we are saved. He had then to wash himself completely indicating his personal responsibility to rid himself of all uncleanness. His baldness and the reproach connected with that, and the visible change would be evidence that something fundamental had taken place. He could come into the camp but not into his tent. There was evidence seen by all, that the leper had been cleansed. When one becomes a new creation in Christ, that cannot be hidden. The evidence is there and a person is in a place of public testimony where he can be questioned as to what had taken place in his life.
Seven days later, the cleansed leper shaved again taking his hair off completely. His beard, eyebrows, head
- everything that spoke of his old life was removed. Not only was there shaving again, but clothes and body were washed clean as well. Proof of the laying aside of the efforts of the past was seen when the clothes are washed, and then are washed again as another proof of reality. By shaving again there was evidence that he was done with the works of the flesh. The shaved head indicates that no longer do we look at things naturally but spiritually. The shaved off beard typifies our rejection of what we thought we knew by experience, but now we are as "new-born babes who desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby." The eyebrows shaved off indicate that what we have observed in the past, we are finished with now. This new person is intellectually, experientially and by observation - a completely different person than previously.
Now the evidence is able to be seen by all that this leper, this new person is Christ Jesus, is able to approach God and come into the on-going blessings of a new life of hope and joy. The priest took the cleansed leper to stand before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle even as a new believer is now
"accepted in the Beloved." Now we are able to enjoy our position in Christ, "Seated with Christ in heavenly places." With three lambs, two males and a female, he presents himself before the altar with the trespass offering, the meat offering and the burnt offering. Now "no longer far from Him, but now by precious blood brought nigh." The priest presented the cleansed leper before the Lord. The priest in every way made him accepted. The priest who pronounced him clean, now is the Mediator and Intercessor, even as our Lord Jesus Christ is for us. The rejected one is now presented, as we will be presented faultless before God. Nine times this person is before the Lord because of the priest. Blood on the ear, thumb and toe testify as to the fact the trespass offering has been made and the cleansed leper is changed in his intellectual life, his ability and his walk. The oil sprinkled before the Lord seven times and put on the ear, thumb and toe, then on top of the blood of the trespass offering and the rest on the head of the cleansed leper. This teaches us that the Holy Spirit gives the power to us to live for God, serve God and have fellowship with God which was impossible before. The cleansed leper had put his hand on the trespass offering and killed it that there would be freedom from guilt. In the burnt offering the blessing comes to him because of the value of the offering and fellowship with God can begin. In worship, thanksgiving and praise he is back where both he and God want him to be.
The cleansing of the house teaches us that sin is not to be overlooked in the house of God. Assemblies of God's people have to deal with sin when it arises. How greatly we need the value and virtues of our Lord Jesus Christ in every personal and public aspect of life. Sin is before the Lord and the cleansing from sin is also done before the Lord.