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Leviticus Chapter 14
- Leviticus 14:1 And the LORD
spoke unto Moses, saying,
- 2 This shall be the law
of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought
unto the priest:
Now that the disease is healed the person
that had leprosy has to be ceremonially cleansed by the sacrifice
and offering done by the priest. Without this the leper would remain
unclean and defiled.
Leprosy and any disease is a picture of what
sin does to the soul. Like leprosy causes the body to be covered
with sores and the flesh is marred, sin does the same thing to the
soul. When we are still in our sins and we have not come to Christ
for cleansing, we are like a leper but it is invisible to us. We
can't see our soul but our soul is marred just like physical leprosy
mars the skin.
Before Christ the laws of sacrifice and
offering make temporary provision for cleansing both from the
disease and the sin of any individual who needs this done on his
behalf.
After Christ, He alone is the one who was
already the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Now we are cleansed
by simple faith in what He did for us. Of course in order for the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ to count on our behalf, we have to
acknowledge of our need to be saved from sin and allow the blood of
Jesus to cleanse us from sin by believing, asking and receiving
Jesus our Messiah in our lives.
- Leviticus 14:3 And 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;
- 4 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:
- 5 And the priest shall
command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel
over running water:
- 6 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:
- 7 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.
We see that this act of killing one bird and
the other go free is similar to the scapegoat pictured in Leviticus
chapter 16. One is killed as an offering for sin and the other is
set free.
Jesus Christ was our sacrifice while we go
free from sin. He took our sins upon Himself so that we could go
free.
- Leviticus 14:8 And he that is
to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his
hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after
that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of
his tent seven days.
- 9 But it shall be on the
seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and
his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave
off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh
in water, and he shall be clean.
- 10 And on the eighth day
he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of
the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine
flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of
oil.
- 11 And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean,
and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation:
- 12 And the priest shall
take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the
log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD:
They were very complete in their cleansing
ceremonials. It had to be perfect and without error just as Christ
had to be a perfect man without sin in order to qualify as a perfect
sacrifice to bear our sins.
- Leviticus 14:13 And he shall
slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering
and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin
offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering: it is
most holy:
- 14 And the priest shall
take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest
shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be
cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the
great toe of his right foot:
To me this shows a picture of the blood of
Christ and the ultimate cleansing of sin.
- Leviticus 14:15 And the priest
shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of
his own left hand:
- 16 And the priest shall
dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and
shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the
LORD:
The oil most likely represents the Holy
Spirit resting upon those that believe. We can read more of the
coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.
The Holy Spirit is the one that convicts a
sinner of sin and draws him or her to Jesus Christ to be cleansed
from sin. The Holy Spirit is the living water that Jesus spoke of to
the woman at the well in John chapter 4. We are born again by the
Holy Spirit when we come to Christ as described in John chapter 3 to
Nicodemus.
- Leviticus 14:17 And of the rest
of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip
of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the
thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right
foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:
- 18 And the remnant of
the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall pour upon the head
of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an
atonement for him before the LORD.
- 19 And the priest shall
offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to
be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill
the burnt offering:
- 20 And the priest shall
offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar:
and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be
clean.
- 21 And if he be poor,
and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a
trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and
one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat
offering, and a log of oil;
Atonement and cleansing of sin is provided
also for those that cannot afford to bring the more expensive
sacrifices and offerings to the Lord. These things have to be
done exact and perfect showing us the that "The Way" to be saved
from sin and reverse the curse caused by the disobedience of Adam.
That is why Jesus is sometimes referred to as the 2nd Adam. He
reversed the curse but only for those that believe and to really
believe is to receive the way of salvation God freely gives to those
that come to the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God....Jesus. His
Hebrew name is Yeshua.
With Jesus Christ, His gift of salvation is
for the poor as well as the rich. It is freely given. He paid the
price for every person in the whole earth to be saved. The majority
will not be saved because we have a free will and most will not
choose the path to everlasting life.
- Leviticus 14:22 And two
turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get;
and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt
offering.
- 23 And he shall bring
them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the
LORD.
- 24 And the priest shall
take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and
the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD:
- 25 And he shall kill the
lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of
the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of
the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb
of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
- 26 And the priest shall
pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand:
- 27 And the priest shall
sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his
left hand seven times before the LORD:
Seven is the number of perfection and also
reminds us of the Holy Spirit.
- Revelation 3:1 And unto the
angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that
hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy
works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Those were the words of Jesus Himself who
was filled with the Holy Spirit completely.
- Leviticus 14:28 And the priest
shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the
right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of
his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon
the place of the blood of the trespass offering:
- 29 And the rest of the
oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of
him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before
the LORD.
- 30 And he shall offer
the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he
can get;
- 31 Even such as he is
able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a
burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall
make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the
LORD.
Atonement is the means by which man,
estranged from God, is restored to complete communion with
God. Atonement was provided in the Old Testament by sacrifices and
offerings of animals but now atonement for sin is provided through
faith in Jesus Christ as savior from sin.
- Leviticus 14:32 This is the law
of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able
to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.
- 33 And the LORD spoke
unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
- 34 When ye be come into
the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I
put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your
possession;
- 35 And he that owneth
the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to
me there is as it were a plague in the house:
- 36 Then the priest shall
command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it
to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made
unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house:
- 37 And he shall look on
the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the
house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, which in sight
are lower than the wall;
- 38 Then the priest shall
go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the
house seven days:
- 39 And the priest shall
come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the
plague be spread in the walls of the house;
- 40 Then the priest shall
command that they take away the stones in which the plague is,
and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the
city:
- 41 And he shall cause
the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour
out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an
unclean place:
- 42 And they shall take
other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he
shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
- 43 And if the plague
come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken
away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after
it is plastered;
- 44 Then the priest shall
come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the
house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.
- 45 And he shall break
down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and
all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out
of the city into an unclean place.
So we see it is possible for houses to have
leprosy and need cleansing. Cleansing was needed for anyone who went
into the house.
Notice also that God at times plagued the
house with leprosy. Perhaps that came as a particular judgment for
an individual or a group of individuals who sinned against God and
caused a curse upon their property.
This is my own opinion and not to be taken
as truth but I wonder if the sin that would bring such a judgment
was because the owner may have not used his houses and possessions
with righteous living but for evil instead. Perhaps he used his house to worship idols. Anything
like that could have occurred but I'm guessing that for a house to
be cursed, it had to be used for evil in such a manner as to really
be an affront to God by a person who knowingly sinned against God. There are lots of homes that are lived in by people who sinned and
they have not particular curse on them so it had to be a sin of some
great thing that knowingly opposed God.
- Leviticus 14:46 Moreover he
that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall
be unclean until the even.
- 47 And he that lieth in
the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the
house shall wash his clothes.
- 48 And if the priest
shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath
not spread in the house, after the house was plastered: then the
priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is
healed.
- 49 And he shall take to
cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and
hyssop:
- 50 And he shall kill the
one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water:
- 51 And he shall take the
cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living
bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the
running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:
- 52 And he shall cleanse
the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running
water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and
with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:
- 53 But he shall let go
the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make
an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.
- 54 This is the law for
all manner of plague of leprosy, and scurf,
- 55 And for the leprosy
of a garment, and of a house,
- 56 And for a rising, and
for a scab, and for a bright spot:
- 57 To teach when it is
unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.
The house had to be ceremonially cleansed
just like an individual who had leprosy.
We may be tempted to think God was kind of
strict here but remember that it kept disease under control. Places
where God's laws are observed when it comes to diet and cleansing
are most probably places that have less disease.
God is out for the good of His creation. It
is us who mess up, not Him.
As long as we do not make diet and bodily
cleansing part of salvation and the gospel, it is okay to observe
these things for health reasons. After all, it was the Lord
God who thought of all these things so they must have been a very
good reason.
After Christ came, we are no longer under
the curse of the law as far as sacrifice and offerings. However, we
can follow the example of diet and being clean for physical health.
Salvation from sin though is provided only by the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. DC
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