Introduction
Despite the fact that it is mentioned only a
few times in Scripture, the disease of leprosy occupies a prominent
place in the minds of Christians. This may be because of its
association with two of the towering figures of the OT—Moses and
Elijah—and its presence in the ministry of the Lord Himself. Serious
Bible students, however, will also want to know in what sense such
incidents have been “written for our instruction” (Rom. 15: 4). The
only way to do this effectively is to keep our minds focused
solely on how the
Bible describes leprosy and not allow our thoughts to be influenced
by modern medicine. I say this because many Bible teachers directly
equate what we
now refer to as
leprosy with the leprosy of Scripture, whereas it is quite clear
that the latter, since it also infected both clothing and houses
(see Lev. 13: 47–59; 14: 33–53), was
not the same.
The First Mention
The first instance of leprosy in Scripture is
in connection with Moses, and, as often with the first mention, it
provides the key to the understanding of its meaning in the rest of
the Bible. “And Jehovah said moreover to him, Put now thy hand into
thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom, and took it out, and
behold, his hand was leprous, as snow” (Ex. 4: 6). The lesson here
conveyed is very simple: what was in the heart of Moses displayed
itself in his hand. It is a picture of indwelling sin.
Thus: “For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;
these are the things which defile man” (Matt. 15: 19, 20). The
outward expression of evil is merely a reflection of what lies
within. We commit sins because of the sin that dwells in us. The one
is the fruit of the tree, the other the root. Yet there is more: if
defilement begins at the heart, then so must the cleansing. Thus
Moses is instructed “Put thy hand into thy bosom again. And he put
his hand into his bosom again, and took it out of his bosom, and
behold, it was turned again as his flesh” (Ex. 4: 7).
The First Symptoms of Leprosy
The identification of leprosy is of course the
first thing, and for this the marks are given in detail in Leviticus
13. Significantly, that chapter deals with leprosy
in Israel, the people of God,
and this gives it a particular resonance with the people of God
today—Christians. Now the Christian still has sin within him, for
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us” (1 John 1: 8). What this chapter is teaching, however,
does not concern the isolated failures to which we are all liable,
but the active working of a
defiling principle in our lives, which, though it may remain
hidden for a time, is sure to eventually reveal itself on the
surface. This is why any mark on the skin was to be examined to see
whether it was merely superficial, or really the manifestation of
something deeper.
Now the beginning of leprosy is like the
beginning of sin. It is small and insidious, and not at first
alarming: “When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising
or a scab, or bright spot, and it become in the skin of his flesh a
sore [as] of leprosy ... ” (Lev. 13: 2). The detail of these words
is very significant. “A rising” reminds us of the pride that so easily puffs up every
one of us, causes contention, and is the root and core of so many
evils. Even those who believe themselves to be most humble are in
reality
pleased with their
humility. Again, how striking it is to see that 1 Cor. 8: 1
(“knowledge puffs up”) is in relation to Christian things. It has
been said that there is pride
of race, pride of place,
pride of face, but the worst pride of all is
pride of grace. Next, we have “a
scab” (Lev. 13: 2). This would speak of that which covers up
some old wound. Perhaps somebody has treated us badly in the past
and we have never really forgiven them. It is like the “root of
bitterness”, hidden away, but liable to spring up at any time so
that many more are “defiled by it” (Heb. 12: 15). Then there is “a bright spot” (Lev. 13:
2). We read in Heb. 11: 25 of the “pleasure of sin” and in Heb. 3:
13 of “the deceitfulness of sin”. Sin often looks bright and
attractive, but its appearance is deceptive. Satan has been busy
preparing these “bright” spots ever since Eve was deceived in Eden,
but the end of them is a full–blown, ugly disease.
The Diagnosis by the Priest
The suspected leper “shall be brought unto
Aaron the priest” (Lev. 13: 2). Only he—the one habitually in the
presence of Jehovah—could judge whether a man had leprosy or not. It
is the light of the sanctuary that decides the matter—the man or the
persons that brought him were not asked. Where the case was obvious,
and “the hair in the sore is turned white” (a sign of an internal
disorder, the hair being rooted
beneath the surface), “and
the sore looketh
deeper than the skin …
the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean” (v3, my
emphasis). In less certain cases, the man was to be quarantined for
seven days, and if, after that, “the sore remaineth as it was” (v5),
shut up another week. Only then, provided the lesion “is become
pale” (that is, any active disease is on the wane) and “hath not
spread in the skin” could the priest “pronounce him clean” (v6).
This dealing with each case on its merits must not be overlooked.
Thus, for example, the man “taken in some fault” (Gal. 6: 1) is to
be regarded quite differently from the “wicked person” (1 Cor. 5:
13). There is nothing commendable about either leniency or harshness
in discipline. A blind eye may be turned to what is really evil
dressed up as good, while there can be unseemly haste in dismissing
a weaker brother on some flimsy pretext. The fact that Leviticus 13
devotes 59 verses to the subject only goes to show that
great care is needed in
diagnosing leprosy.
Leprosy in the Head
Perhaps no greater care is required than in
diagnosing leprosy of the head (see Lev. 13: 29–44). On the one
hand, it might actually be an innocent baldness (see vs. 40, 41), a
defect no doubt, but nothing more. The judgment in such a case must
be “he is clean”. On the other hand, in a real case of leprosy
“which hath broken out in his bald head” (v42), the man was to be
pronounced “utterly
unclean” (v44, my emphasis). This language surely shows the
seriousness with which God regards sin actively working in a
believer’s mind. How many there are today who have the plague of
leprosy in their heads: they reason things out with their own minds
and they trust to their own ideas, instead of to the Word of God. We
may see a terrible example of this in king Uzziah who “went into the
temple of Jehovah to burn incense upon the altar of incense … and
behold, he was leprous in his forehead” (2 Chron. 26: 16, 20). Being
“marvellously helped” (v15) will not preserve you from leprosy of
the head—indeed, such blessing magnifies the danger. Significantly,
the related condition of leprosy in the beard (see Lev. 13: 29) is a
danger,
not for the spiritual babe (see Eph. 4: 14), but the
mature believer. There
have been many such who have “gone astray” (2 Tim. 2: 18) as to the
truth. Again, take the incident when Miriam and Aaron spoke against
Moses: “And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them…..And
behold, Miriam was leprous as snow” (Num. 12: 9, 10). Aaron was high
priest, Miriam was a prophetess (see Ex. 15: 20), but privilege and
position must not be allowed in any way to infringe the unique place
occupied by Christ (Moses here is a type of Christ—see Num. 12: 7;
Heb. 3: 2). Yet how many otherwise faithful saints have allowed
themselves to be pope in all but name, or overlooked the fact that
their words were being put on a par with Scripture? Is this not
taking a position that belongs to Christ alone? However great the
gift we may have, we only have it as the “gift of the Christ” (Eph.
4: 7).
The Reappearance of Leprosy
Lev. 13: 9–28 deals with the case of a man with
a past history of leprosy on whom a new, suspicious lesion had
appeared. If there was “a trace of raw flesh ... in the rising”
(v10), this living tissue witnessed to the re–emergence of the
disease, and the priest’s decision was to be immediate and
unsparing: “the priest shall pronounce him unclean,
and he shall not shut him up,
for he is unclean” (v11, my emphasis). In NT language, the
individual had only
appeared to have
purified himself from his course of sin (see 2 Cor. 7: 1): his
repentance was merely skin–deep.
Conversely, a man in whom “the leprosy covereth
all his flesh” and “is all turned white” (v13) was to be pronounced
clean. Why? Because all the disease had been brought to the surface
in a lifeless scale, ready to peel off. It is the case of a man in
whom sin is no longer actively at work—everything is out, confessed
and dealt with. However, “on the day when raw flesh appeareth in
him, he shall be unclean” (v14) since raw flesh is evidence of
active disease. (Incidentally, the fact that the “man full of
leprosy” in Luke 5: 12 was regarded as unclean suggests that the
expression there means full of
active disease).
Then there is the case of leprosy developing in
a healed boil or an inflammation which had apparently been resolved.
“Boil” and “burning inflammation” (Lev. 13: 18, 24) immediately
remind us of Eph. 4: 31: “Let all bitterness, and heat of passion,
and wrath, and clamour, and injurious language, be removed from you,
with all malice”. It is not without reason that Eph. 4: 26 tells us
“Be angry, and do not sin; let not the sun set upon your wrath,
neither give room for the devil”. Anyone can lose his temper on
occasion, but prolonged ill–feeling is a sign of a more entrenched
sickness, “deeper than the skin” (Lev. 13: 20).
The Judgment of the Leper
To receive a diagnosis of leprosy was a
personal disaster: “his garments shall be rent, and his head shall
be uncovered, and he shall put a covering on his beard” (all classic
oriental signs of mourning) “and shall cry, Unclean, unclean!”
(v45). As unclean, the leper was not to be given the right hand of
fellowship, for “he shall dwell apart; outside the camp shall his
dwelling be” (v46). Thus Uzziah, though a king, “dwelt in a separate
house” (2 Kings 15: 5), and the ten lepers in Luke 17 “stood afar
off” (v12). Sadly, spiritual leprosy is not always judged in the
same way, and is often tolerated on the grounds that God’s love
welcomes all, completely overlooking the fact that we are to be
“holy, for I am holy” (1
Pet. 1: 16). Corinth was
condemned for not
removing the sinner from their midst (see 1 Cor. 5: 2).
It was an outcast of this kind that met the
Lord immediately after He had delivered the so–called
Sermon on the Mount (see
Matt. 8: 1–4). Dispensationally, the leper was representative of the
defiled state of Israel, and the nation’s incapacity to embrace the
kingdom’s moral principles set out in that discourse. On a personal
level, however he did have an appreciation of the kingdom power
invested in Christ: “Lord, if thou wilt,
thou art able to
cleanse me” (v1, my emphasis). In response, the Lord “stretched out
his hand and touched him saying, I will; be cleansed” (v3). The
English word touched here is inadequate. The original Greek carries the sense of
handling freely, and in
doing this, the Lord was demonstrating that He was able to cleanse
absolutely. No priest had ever witnessed such a thing (Miriam being
the only previous case of an Israelite cured of leprosy) and the
cleansing ritual outlined in Leviticus 14 had never been used. This
gives force to the Lord’s words “go, shew thyself to the priest, and
offer the gift which Moses ordained,
for a testimony to them”
(Matt. 8: 4, my emphasis).
The Cleansing of the Leper
Now the “gift which Moses ordained” (Matt. 8:
4) referred back to Lev. 14: 10, 21 and the connected fact that just
as the newly diagnosed leper had to be declared
unclean by the priest
so, on his healing, would the leper have to be pronounced
clean before he could
resume his normal place in the camp of Israel. It was not simply a
case of the leper being personally satisfied that he was now free of
disease, for he was to be brought (by others) to the priest who then
examined him to see if “the sore of leprosy is healed” (v3). If
healed, the leper was declared clean (see Lev. 13: 17), but that was
not the end of the matter. There then followed a lengthy cleansing
ritual, divided into three parts, and at various points of which the
leper was said to be “clean” (see Lev. 14: 7, 8, 9, 20). The lesson
conveyed to the Christian by the imagery used is that restoration
from a course of evil demands both a deep appreciation of personal
defilement and a fresh appreciation that it is the blood of Jesus
Christ, that cleanses from
all sin (see 1 John 1:
7).
In the first part of the cleansing ritual, the
priest is to the fore, and was “to take for him that is to be
cleansed two clean living birds” (Lev. 14: 4)—these represent for us
that sinless Man whose native home was heaven. At the same time, the
priest was to take “cedar–wood, and scarlet, and hyssop” (v4). The
cedar–wood and hyssop typify the full range of all that we glory and
boast in as natural men, whether great or small (see 1 Kings 4: 33).
The scarlet reinforces this imagery, for scarlet is a type of the
glory of this world (see Rev. 17: 3, 4). One of the living birds was
then killed “in an earthen vessel over running water” (Lev. 14: 5)—a
picture of the restrictive conditions of the body in which Christ
died, while the “running water” shows that all was done in the power
of the Spirit (see John 7: 38, 39). The remaining bird was then
taken,
together with the cedar–wood, scarlet and hyssop (see Lev. 14:
6), and dipped in the blood of the slaughtered bird. This blood was
then sprinkled seven times on the leper (a perfect cleansing, seven
being the number of perfection), after which the remaining living
bird was set free (see v7). Together the two birds answer to Christ
as “put to death in flesh, but made alive in [the] Spirit” (1 Pet.
3: 18)—restored to heaven, having dealt with all that I am as a
natural man. On this basis, the leper can thus be pronounced “clean”
(Lev. 14: 7) for “the blood of Jesus Christ … cleanses … from all
sin” (1 John 1: 7).
The second part of the cleansing ritual (see
Lev. 14: 8, 9) refers to the leper’s response to what has been done
on his behalf. Another has cleansed him by blood,
now he will cleanse himself by water. The one follows as a
consequence of the other. As repentant, the leper was to wash his
garments (see v8)—that is, rid himself of any defilement in his
immediate associations—bathe himself, and to shave all his hair—that
is, divest himself of all that would naturally give him pride and
dignity. This was a lengthy process for after seven days, the
procedure was repeated again, but this time with more intensity,
shaving even his eyebrows. The lesson of this seems to be that the
truly restored believer will be marked by a deepening sense of what
God demands from one who has made a profession of holiness.
The third part of the cleansing ritual (see
Lev. 14: 10–20) took place on the eighth day and here we have moved
beyond what man requires, and into a deeper contemplation of what is
due to God. This is properly the “gift which Moses ordained”
(Matt. 8: 4, my emphasis). The healed leper is presented “before
Jehovah, at the entrance of the tent of meeting” (Lev. 14:
11)—remarkably the first time that God is introduced in the
instruction of Leviticus 13 and 14. The man is not to come with his
hands empty, for “he shall take two he–lambs without blemish, and
one yearling ewe–lamb without blemish, and three tenth parts of fine
flour mingled with oil, for an oblation, and one log of oil” (Lev.
14: 10). Three offerings (all speaking of Christ) are to be made: a
sin–offering, a burnt offering and a trespass offering (see vs.
12–20), but it is the latter that is prominent, for the
rights of God have
been infringed when one of his people lapse into defilement. Note
also the application of not only the blood but also the oil to the
leper’s ear, thumb and toe (see vs. 14, 17). This suggests that not
only does God reiterate His claim upon the restored believer in his
entirety (His ears open to hear the Word of God, his hands ready for
His service and his feet walking in His ways), but that the man is
given
power to do so (oil, as an anointing medium, is a type of the
Holy Spirit).
Conclusion
Finally, “the remainder of the oil that is in
the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be
cleansed” (Lev. 14: 18). We might doubt whether anyone in whom evil
had been actively working could ever be quite what he was before,
even if restored.
This is not how God sees
things. In the grace of God, the healed leper gets something
that he
never had before as an ordinary Israelite! This anointing speaks
of an advancement in spiritual intelligence and dignity that the man
never knew previously. Let us all then, whatever has been the
pattern of our lives up to now, take encouragement from these
Scriptures.
