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Leviticus Chapter Thirteen

 

Leviticus 13

Chapter Contents

Directions to the priest to judge concerning leprosy. (1-17) Further directions. (18-44) How the leper must be disposed of. (45 46) The leprosy in garments. (47-59)

Commentary on Leviticus 13:1-17

The plague of leprosy was an uncleanness rather than a disease. Christ is said to cleanse lepers not to cure them. Common as the leprosy was among the Hebrews during and after their residence in Egypt we have no reason to believe that it was known among them before. Their distressed state and employment in that land must have rendered them liable to disease. But it was a plague often inflicted immediately by the hand of God. Miriam's leprosy and Gehazi's and king Uzziah's were punishments of particular sins; no marvel there was care taken to distinguish it from a common distemper. The judgment of it was referred to the priests. And it was a figure of the moral pollutions of men's minds by sin which is the leprosy of the soul defiling to the conscience and from which Christ alone can cleanse. The priest could only convict the leper (by the law is the knowledge of sin ) but Christ can cure the sinner he can take away sin. It is a work of great importance but of great difficulty to judge of our spiritual state. We all have cause to suspect ourselves being conscious of sores and spots; but whether clean or unclean is the question. As there were certain marks by which to know it was leprosy so there are marks of such as are in the gall of bitterness. The priest must take time in making his judgment. This teaches all both ministers and people not to be hasty in censures nor to judge anything before the time. If some men's sins go before unto judgment the sins of others follow after and so do men's good works. If the person suspected were found to be clean yet he must wash his clothes because there had been ground for the suspicion. We have need to be washed in the blood of Christ from our spots though not leprosy spots; for who can say I am pure from sin?

Commentary on Leviticus 13:18-44

The priest is told what judgment to make if there were any appearance of a leprosy in old sores; and such is the danger of those who having escaped the pollutions of the world are again entangled therein. Or in a burn by accident verse 24. The burning of strife and contention often occasions the rising and breaking out of that corruption which proves that men are unclean. Human life lies exposed to many grievances. With what troops of diseases are we beset on every side; and thy all entered by sin! If the constitution be healthy and the body lively and easy we are bound to glorify God with our bodies. Particular note was taken of the leprosy if in the head. If the leprosy of sin has seized the head; if the judgment be corrupted and wicked principles which support wicked practices are embraced it is utter uncleanness from which few are cleansed. Soundness in the faith keeps leprosy from the head.

Commentary on Leviticus 13:45 46

When the priest had pronounced the leper unclean it put a stop to his business in the world cut him off from his friends and relations and ruined all the comfort he could have in the world. He must humble himself under the mighty hand of God not insisting upon his cleanness when the priest had pronounced him unclean but accepting the punishment. Thus must we take to ourselves the shame that belongs to us and with broken hearts call ourselves "Unclean unclean;" heart unclean life unclean; unclean by original corruption unclean by actual transgression; unclean therefore deserving to be for ever shut out from communion with God and all hope of happiness in him; unclean therefore undone if infinite mercy do not interpose. The leper must warn others to take heed of coming near him. He must then be shut out of the camp and afterward when they came to Canaan be shut out of the city town or village where he lived and dwell with none but those that were lepers like himself. This typified the purity which ought to be in the gospel church.

Commentary on Leviticus 13:47-59

The garment suspected to be tainted with leprosy was not to be burned immediately. If upon search it was found that there was a leprous spot it must be burned or at least that part of it. If it proved to be free it must be washed and then might be used. This also sets forth the great evil there is in sin. It not only defiles the sinner's conscience but it brings a stain upon all he has and all that he does. And those who make their clothes servants to their pride and lust may see them thereby tainted with leprosy. But the robes of righteousness never fret nor are moth-eaten.

── Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on Leviticus

 

Leviticus 13

Verse 2

[2] When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising a scab or bright spot and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest or unto one of his sons the priests:

In the skin — For there is the first seat of the leprosy the bright spot shining like the scale of a fish as it is in the beginning of a leprosy.

The priest — The priest was to admit to or exclude from the sanctuary and therefore to examine who were to be excluded.

Verse 3

[3] And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean.

When the hair is turned white — This change of colour was an evidence both of the abundance of excrementious humours and of the weakness of nature as we see in old and sick persons.

His flesh — For the leprosy consumed both the skin and the flesh.

Verse 4

[4] If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh and in sight be not deeper than the skin and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

Seven days — For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be hasty in their judgments but diligently to search and examine all things before-hand. The plague is here put for the man that hath the plague.

Verse 6

[6] And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and behold if the plague be somewhat dark and the plague spread not in the skin the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

Dark — Contrary to the white colour of the leprosy. But the word may be rendered have contracted itself and thus the opposition seems to be most clear as the spreading of itself.

He shall wash his clothes — Though it was no leprosy to teach us that no sin is so small as not to need to be washed by the blood of Christ which was the thing designed by all these washings.

Verse 10

[10] And the priest shall see him: and behold if the rising be white in the skin and it have turned the hair white and there be quick raw flesh in the rising;

White in the skin — With a preternatural and extraordinary whiteness.

Raw flesh — This shewed it was not a superficial leprosy but one of a deeper and more malignant nature that had eaten into the very flesh for which cause it is in the next verse called an old or inveterate leprosy.

Verse 13

[13] Then the priest shall consider: and behold if the leprosy have covered all his flesh he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean.

All his flesh — When it appeared in some one part it discovered the ill humour which lurked within and withal the inability of nature to expel it; but when it overspread all it manifested the strength of nature conquering the distemper and purging out the ill humours into the outward parts.

Verse 14

[14] But when raw flesh appeareth in him he shall be unclean.

In it — That is in the place where the appearance of leprosy was when the flesh was partly changed into a whiter colour and partly kept its natural colour this variety of colours was an evidence of the leprosy as one and the same colour continuing was a sign of soundness.

Verse 15

[15] And the priest shall see the raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean: for the raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.

The raw flesh — This is repeated again and again because raw or living flesh might rather seem a sign of soundness and the priest might easily be deceived by it and therefore he was more narrowly to look into it.

Verse 16

[16] Or if the raw flesh turn again and be changed unto white he shall come unto the priest;

Unto white — As it is usual with sores when they begin to be healed the skin which is white coming upon the flesh.

Verse 21

[21] But if the priest look on it and behold there be no white hairs therein and if it be not lower than the skin but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:

Dark — Or and be contracted.

Verse 22

[22] And if it spread much abroad in the skin then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague.

A plague — Or the plague of leprosy of which he is speaking.

Verse 24

[24] Or if there be any flesh in the skin whereof there is a hot burning and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot somewhat reddish or white;

A hot burning — A burning of fire by the touch of any hot-iron or burning coals which naturally makes an ulcer or sore in which the following spot is.

Verse 28

[28] And if the bright spot stay in his place and spread not in the skin but it be somewhat dark; it is a rising of the burning and the priest shall pronounce him clean: for it is an inflammation of the burning.

Of the burning — Arising from the burning mentioned Leviticus 13:24.

Verse 30

[30] Then the priest shall see the plague: and behold if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

A yellow thin hair — The leprosy in the body turned the hair white in the head or beard it turned it yellow. And if a man's hair was yellow before this might easily be distinguished from the rest either by the thinness or smallness of it or by its peculiar kind of yellow for there are divers kinds of the same colour manifestly differing from one another.

Verse 31

[31] And if the priest look on the plague of the scall and behold it be not in sight deeper than the skin and that there is no black hair in it; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days:

No black hair — For had that appeared it had ended the doubt the black hair being a sign of soundness and strength of nature as the yellow hair was a sign of unsoundness.

Verse 33

[33] He shall be shaven but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall seven days more:

He shall be shaven — For the more certain discovery of the growth or stay of the plague.

Verse 36

[36] Then the priest shall look on him: and behold if the scall be spread in the skin the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean.

He shall not seek — He need not search for the hair or any other sign the spreading of it being a sure sign of leprosy.

Verse 39

[39] Then 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.

If the spots be darkish white — Or contracted or confined to the place where they are and white.

Verse 42

[42] And 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.

It is a leprosy — It is a sign that such baldness came not from age or any accident but from the leprosy.

Verse 45

[45] And 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.

His clothes shall be rent — In the upper and fore parts which were most visible. This was done partly as a token of sorrow because though this was not a sin yet it was an effect of sin and a sore punishment whereby he was cut off both from converse with men and from the enjoyment of God in his ordinances; partly as a warning to others to keep at a due distance from him wheresoever he came.

And his head bare — Another sign of mourning. God would have men though not overwhelmed with yet deeply sensible of his judgments.

A covering on his upper lip — Partly as another badge of his sorrow and shame and partly for the preservation of others from his breath or touch.

Unclean unclean — As begging the pity and prayers of others and confessing his own infirmity and cautioning those who came near him to keep at a distance from him.

Verse 46

[46] All 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.

He shall dwell alone — Partly for his humiliation; partly to prevent the infection of others; and partly to shew the danger of converse with spiritual lepers or notorious sinners.

Verse 47

[47] The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in whether it be a woollen garment or a linen garment;

Leprosy in garments and houses is unknown in these times and places which is not strange there being some diseases peculiar to some ages and countries. And that such a thing was among the Jews cannot reasonably be doubted; for if Moses had been a deceiver a man of his wisdom would not have exposed himself to the contempt of his people by giving laws about that which their experience shewed to be but a fiction.

Verse 48

[48] Whether it be in the warp or woof; of linen or of woollen; whether in a skin or in any thing made of skin;

In the warp or woof — A learned man renders it in the outside or in the inside of it. If the signification of these words be doubtful now as some of those of the living creatures and precious stones are confessed to be it is not material to us this law being abolished; it sufficeth that the Jews understood these things by frequent experience.

Verse 55

[55] And the priest shall look on the plague after that it is washed: and behold if the plague have not changed his colour and the plague be not spread; it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward whether it be bare within or without.

If it have not changed its colour — If washing doth not take away that vicious colour and restore it to its own native colour.

── John WesleyExplanatory Notes on Leviticus

                             

 

13 Chapter 13

 

Verses 2-46

Leviticus 13:2-46

The plague of leprosy.

The cleansing of the leper

I. The loathsome and ghastly spectacle of a leper.

1. A leper was extremely loathsome in his person. But let me remind you that this fearful as it seems to be is a very poor portrait of the loathsomeness of sin. If we could bear to hear what God could tell us of the exceeding wickedness and uncleanness of sin I am sure we should die. God hides from all eyes but His own the blackness of sin.

2. The leper was not only loathsome in his person but was defiled in all his acts. If he drank out of a vessel the vessel was defiled. If he lay upon a bed the bed became unclean and whosoever sat upon the bed afterwards became unclean too. All that he did was full of the same loathsomeness as was himself. Now this may seem to be a very humiliating truth but faithfulness requires us to say it all the actions of the natural man are tainted with sin. Whether he eats or drinks or whatsoever he does he continues to sin against his God.

3. Being thus the medium of contagion and defilement wherever he went the Lord demanded that he should be shut out from the society of Israel. Living apart from their dearest friends shut out from all the pleasures of society they were required never to drink of a running stream of water of which others might drink; nor might they sit down on any stone by the roadside upon which it was probable any other person might rest. They were to all intents and purposes dead to all the enjoyments of life dead to all the endearments and society of their friends. Ay and such is the case with the sinner with regard to the people of God.

4. Once more the leper was wholly unable to come up to the house of God. Other men might offer sacrifices but not the leper; others had a share in the high priest’s great sacrifice and when he went within the veil he appeared for all others; but the leper had neither part nor lot in this matter. He was shut out from God as well as shut out from man. He was no partaker of the sacred things of Israel and all the ordinances of the Tabernacle were as nothing to him. Think of that sinner! As a sinner full of guilt thou art shut out from all communion with God. True He gives thee the mercies of this life as the leper had his bread and water but thou hast none of the spiritual joys which God affords to His people.

II. I shall now bring the leper up to the high priest. Here he stands; the priest has come out to meet him. Mark whenever a leper was cleansed under the Jewish law--the leper did nothing--the priest did all. My text asserts that if there was found any sound place in him he was unclean. But when the leprosy had covered him wheresoever the priest looked then the man became by sacrificial rights a clean leper. Now let me bring up the sinner before the great High Priest this morning. How many there are who as they come up hither are ready to confess that they have done many things which are wrong but they say “Though we have done much which we cannot justify yet there have been many good actions which might almost counterbalance the sin. Have we not been charitable to the poor have we not sought to instruct the ignorant to help those that are out of the way? We have some sins we do confess; but there is much at the bottom which is still right and good and we therefore hope that we shall be delivered.” I put you aside in God’s name as unclean lepers. For you there is no hope and no promise of salvation whatever. Here comes a second. “Sir a month or two ago I would have claimed a righteousness with the very best of them. I too could have boasted of what I have done; but now I see my righteousness to be as filthy rags and all my goodness is as an unclean thing. As for the future I can make no promise; I have often promised and so often lied. Lord if ever I am made whole Thy grace must make me so.”

III. Having thus brought the man before the priest we shall now briefly turn our attention to the ceremonies which the priest used in the cleansing of the leper.

1. You will perceive first that the priest went to the leper not the leper to the priest. We go not up to heaven first till Christ comes down from His Father’s glory to the place where we as lepers are shut out from God. Thou dost take upon Thyself the form of man. Thou dost not disdain the Virgin’s womb; Thou comest to sinners; Thou eatest and drinkest with them!

2. But the coming of the priest was not enough there must be a sacrifice and on this occasion in order to set out the two ways by which a sinner is saved there was sacrifice mingled with resurrection. First there was sacrifice. One of the birds was taken and its blood was shed in a vessel which was full as the Hebrew hath it of “living water”--of water which had not been stagnant but which was clean. Just as when Jesus Christ was put to death blood and water flowed from His side to be “of sin a double cure ” so in the earthen vessel there was received first the “living water” and then the blood of the bird which had just been slain. If sin is put away it must be by blood. There is no way of patting sin from before the presence of God except by the streams which flow from the open veins of Christ. The leper was made clean by sacrifice and by resurrection but he was not clean till the blood was sprinkled on him. Christians the Cross does not save us till Christ’s blood is sprinkled on our conscience. Yet the virtual salvation was accomplished for all the elect when Christ died for them upon the tree.

IV. That after the leper was cleansed there were certain things which he had. To do. Yet until he is cleansed he is to do nothing. Tim sinner can do nothing towards his own salvation. His place is the place of death. Christ must be his life. The sinner is so lost that Christ must begin and carry on and finish all; but when the sinner is saved then he begins to work in right good earnest. When once he is no more a leper but a leper cleansed then for the love he bears his Master’s name there is no trial too arduous no service too hard; but he spends his whole strength in magnifying and glorifying his Lord. I will not detain you further than to notice that this man before he might further enjoy the privileges of his healed estate was to bring an offering and the priest was to take him to the very door of the Tabernacle. He never dare come there before but he may come now. So the pardoned man may come right up to God’s mercy-seat and may bring the offering of holiness and good works. He is a pardoned man now. You ask me how? Not by anything he did but by what the priest did and that alone. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Leprosy a special type of sin

I. In the first place leprosy is undoubtedly selected to be a special type of sin on account of its extreme loathsomeness. Beginning indeed as an insignificant spot “a bright place ” a mere scale on the skin it goes on progressing ever from worse to worse till at last limb drops from limb and only the hideous mutilated remnant of what was once a man is left.

II. But it will be rejoined by some: surely it were gross exaggeration to apply this horrible symbolism to the case of many who although indeed sinners unbelievers also in Christ yet certainly exhibit truly lovely and attractive characters (see Mark 10:21). But this fact only makes leprosy the more fitting symbol of sin. For another characteristic is its insignificant and often imperceptible beginning. We are told that in the case of those who inherit the taint it frequently remains quite dormant in early life only gradually appearing in later years. How perfectly the type in this respect then symbolises sin! No comfort can be rightly had from any complacent comparison of our own characters with those of many perhaps professing more who are much worse than we. No one who knew that from his parents he had inherited the leprous taint or in whom the leprosy as yet appeared as only an insignificant bright spot would comfort himself greatly by the observation that other lepers were much worse; and that he was as yet fair and goodly to look upon. Though the leprosy were in him but just begun that would be enough to fill him with dismay and consternation. So should it be with regard to sin.

III. And it would so affect such a man the more surely when he knew that the disease however slight in its beginnings was certainly progressive. This is one of the unfailing marks of the disease. And so with sin. No man can morally stand still. Sin may not develop in all with equal rapidity but it does progress in every natural man outwardly or inwardly with equal certainty.

IV. It is another mark of leprosy that sooner or later it affects the whole man; and in this again appears the sad fitness of the disease to stand as a symbol of sin. For sin is not a partial disorder affecting only one class of faculties or one part of our nature. It disorders the judgment; it obscures the moral perceptions; it either perverts the affections or unduly stimulates them in one direction while it deadens them in another; it hardens and quickens the will for evil while it paralyses its power for the volition of that which is holy. And not only Scripture but observation itself teaches us that sin in many cases also affects the body of man weakening its powers and bringing in by an inexorable law pain disease death.

V. It is another remarkable feature of the disease that as it progresses from bad to worse the victim becomes more and more insensible. A recent writer says: “Though a mass of bodily corruption at last unable to leave his bed the leper seems happy and contented with his sad condition.” Is anything more characteristic than this of the malady of sin? The sin which when first committed costs a keen pang afterward when frequently repeated hurts not the conscience at all. Judgments and mercies which in earlier life affected one with profound emotion in later life leave the impenitent sinner as unmoved as they found him.

VI. Another element of the solemn fitness of the type is found in the persistently hereditary nature of leprosy. It may indeed sometimes arise of itself even as did sin in the case of certain of the holy angels and with our first parents; but when once it is introduced in the case of any person the terrible infection descends with unfailing certainty to all his descendants; and while by suitable hygiene it is possible to alleviate its violence and retard its development it is not possible to escape the terrible inheritance. Is anything more uniformly characteristic of sin? The most cultivated and the most barbarous alike come into the world so constituted that quite antecedent to any act of free choice on their part we know that it is not more certain that they will eat than that when they begin to exercise freedom they will each and every one use their moral freedom wrongly--in a word will sin.

VII. And again we find yet another analogy in the fact that among the ancient Hebrews the disease was regarded as incurable by human means; and notwithstanding occasional announcements in our day that a remedy has been discovered for the plague this seems to be the verdict of the best authorities in medical science still. That in this respect leprosy perfectly represents the sorer malady of the soul every one is witness. No possible effort of will or fixedness of determination has ever availed to free a man from sin. Neither is culture whether intellectual or religious of any more avail.

VIII. Last of all this law teaches the supreme lesson that as with the symbolic disease of the body so with that of the soul--sin shuts out from god and from the fellowship of the holy (see Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15). (S. H. Kellogg D. D.)

Discipline in the Church

1. Of the necessity and moderation of discipline in the Church.

2. That the discipline of the Church be advisedly exercised not rashly precipitated.

3. Of the wholesome power left to the Church of binding and loosing and of obedience to be given thereunto.

4. The law declares men’s sins but does not heal them.

5. Of the diversity of censures in the Church. (A. Willet D. D.)

Sin as a disease

1. Sin the cause of diseases.

2. To take heed of the least sins.

3. Ministers to rebuke sin.

4. Not to go forward in sin.

5. Not to sin against the conscience.

6. Not to be swift to judge others.

7. To shun the company of the wicked.

8. Against pride in apparel. (A. Willet D. D.)

Leprosy

Sin is a corrupting and disorganising disease as well as a brutal degradation and hereditary uncleanness. It is a loathsome putrescence of the whole nature. It is a sickness of the whole head and a faintness of the whole heart. Deliverance from it is called a cure and a healing as well as a pardon. Notice its beginnings. Leprosy was for the most part hereditary. After doing its work in the parent it was very apt to break out in the child. Sin began in Adam and having wrought nine hundred years in him he died; but the taint of it was left in all who sprang from him. But leprosy was not always hereditary. Hence the necessity of a special symbol on the subject of innate depravity such as we have in the preceding chapter. The germ of all human sin is derived from our connection with a fallen parentage. But leprosy whether hereditary or contracted by contagion or otherwise began far within. Its seat is in the deepest interior of the body. It is often in the system as many as three or a dozen years before it shows itself. How exactly this describes sin l Nero and Caligula were once tender infants apparently the very personifications of innocence. Who that saw their sweet slumbers upon the bosoms of their mothers would ever have suspected that in those gentle forms were latent seeds which finally developed into bloody butchery and tyranny and vice at which the world for ages has stood amazed! And little do we know of those depths of deceit which we carry in ourselves or to what enormities of crime we are liable any day to be driven. The taint of leprosy is within and nothing but watchfulness and grace can keep it from breaking out in all its corrosive and wasting power.

1. The first visible signs of leprosy are often very minute and inconsiderable and not easily detected. A small pustule or rising of the flesh--a little bright red spot like that made by a puncture from a pin--a very trifling eruption indentation or scaliness of the skin--or some other very slight symptom is usually the first sign which it gives of its presence. And from these small beginnings the whole living death of the leper is developed. How vivid the picture of the fact that the worst and darkest iniquities may grow out of the smallest beginnings! A look of the eye a desire of the heart a thought of the imagination a touch of the hand a single word of compliance is often the door of inlet to Satan and all bell’s troops.

2. Leprosy is also gradual in its development. It does not break out in its full violence at once. Its first manifestations are so trifling that one who did not understand it would consider it nothing at all. No man is an outbreaking and confirmed villain at once. People are shocked and hold up their hands in horror at scandalous crimes; but they forget that these are only the easy sequences of little indulgences and sins of which they take no account. They need to be told that there is a close interior brotherhood and cohesion between sins and that he who takes one to his favour is at once beset with all the rest.

3. Again leprosy is in itself an exceedingly loathsome and offensive disorder--a kind of perpetual small-pox only more deeply seated and attended with more inward corruption.

4. Again leprosy under this law carried with it a most melancholy condemnation of Jewish leper was not only horribly diseased but also fearfully cursed in consequence of his disease. He was pronounced unclean by the law and by the priests. Such is the type and it is the same with the antitype. Every sinner is condemned as well as diseased and condemned for the very reason that he is diseased. There is a sentence of uncleanness and exclusion upon him. He has no fellowship with the saints and no share in the holy services of God’s people. He is a spiritual outcast--a moral leper--unclean and ready for the realms of everlasting banishment and death.

5. And yet the picture is not quite complete. It remains to be said that there was no earthly cure for leprosy. The prophet of God by his miraculous power could remove it but no human power or skill could. It was beyond the reach of physician or priest. And so it is with sin. It is a consumption which cannot be cured--a cancer which cannot be extracted--a leprosy which cannot be cleansed--except by the direct power of Divine grace. (J. A. Seiss D. D.)

The gospel of the leprosy

1. It is a work both difficult and weighty for people to discern and judge aright of their own spiritual condition. This appears by all these rules and directions.

2. It is the priest’s office to judge of the leprosy. Goal has given His ministers power to retain and remit sins (John 20:23).

3. Note the rules of trial whereby the priest is to judge of the leprosy.

(a) The natural reason. It is a sign of some inward strength of nature that it expels the disease and sends it forth to the outward parts.

(b) The spiritual reason. A humble acknowledgment of the overspreading corruption of our nature and flying to Christ for help under a thorough conviction and sense of our total uncleanness and pollutedness; this is a sign the plague is healed and the leper made clean.

4. Note the duties imposed upon the leper (Leviticus 13:45-47).

Avoidance of false suspicion

When you read in the fourth verse of shutting up the parties for seven days and then to look on it again you may note with yourself how greatly God hateth hasty rash and uncharitable judgment. A thing which many men and women otherwise honest and good are carried away withal to their own great hurt not only in soul but in worldly reputation also and to the bitter and biting discomfort of those whom they ought to love and judge well of. Nay you may reason further with yourself thus: That if in a matter thus subject to the eye as these sores were yet God would have no haste but a stay for seven days and longer as occasion served before any judgment should be given that the party was unclean. Oh how much more doth He abhor haste and love leisure in pronouncing of the hearts and thoughts of our friends and neighbours which are not seen nor subject to an easy censure? (Bp. Babington.)

Sin may be invisible to human eyes

A lady whose portrait had often been successfully taken before paid a visit one day to the photographer’s for the purpose of having a new one taken. After she had sat for it in the usual way the photographer retired with the plate to examine the picture which the sun’s light had drawn there but as the lines gradually developed in the chemical bath a strange sight was revealed. In the portrait the lady’s face appeared covered with a number of dark spots; but yet no one looking at her that day was able to detect the slightest trace of them in her face I But the next day the explanation came. The spots had then become distinctly visible. The lady was ill of small-pox of which she died. The faint yellow of the spots some time before human eyes could discern it had been marked by the pure light of the sun and traced in darkened spots in that inexorably true picture drawn on the photographic plate revealing the horrible disease that already though as yet invisible to human eyes was seated there. (Biblical Treasury.)

The importance of attending to the disease of sin

Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say with a toss of the head and with a trivial manner: “Oh yes I’m a sinner.” Sin is an awful disease. It is leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all moral disorders in one. Now you know there is a crisis in a disease. Perhaps you have had some illustration of it in your own family. Sometimes the physician has called and he has looked at the patient and said: “That case was simple enough; but the crisis has passed. If you had called me yesterday or this morning I could have cured the patient. It is too late now; the crisis has passed.” Just so it is in the spiritual treatment of the soul--there is a crisis. Before that life. After that death. Oh as you love your soul do not let the crisis pass unattended to. There are some here who can remember instances in life when if they had bought a certain property they would have become very rich. A few acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. They refused them. Afterwards a large village or city sprang up on those acres of ground and they see what a mistake they made in not buying the property. There was an opportunity of getting it. It never came again. And so it is in regard to a man’s spiritual and eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go perhaps it never comes back. Certainly that one never comes back. (H. W. Beecher.)

Leprosy and six hereditary

Never shall I forget a visit which I paid to the leper hospital outside the East Gate of Damascus which tradition says occupies the site of Naaman’s house. A woman was crossing the courtyard whose loathsome features seemed all but eaten away by disease. In her hands--the fingers of which were almost consumed by leprosy--she held a sweet-looking infant as fair and pretty a child as one could desire to see. The contrast was most painful. Life and health and innocence seemed to sleep in the arms of sin disease and death. I said to the missionary who accompanied me “Surely the woman is not the mother Of the child?” He said “Yes she is”; the child does not show the leprosy now but it is in the blood and before long it will probably appear; and if the infant live long enough she will be as bad as the mother.” Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? (J. W. Bardsley.)

Ministers must seek to produce conviction of sin

A devoted minister relates the following: “A friend of mine was visiting a dying carter and said to him ‘My friend do you feel yourself a sinner?’ ‘I do not know that I am ’ was the reply; ‘I suppose I am like other people; I do not feel very bad.’ ‘We must get that point settled ’ said my friend. ‘Let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever taken too much to drink?’ ‘Well fellows like me you know are likely to do that now and then out as we are in all weathers.’ ‘I am not asking you about the weathers my question is Have you done this?’ ‘Yes I have.’ ‘Have you ever sworn?’ ‘Well we carters are a rough lot and a man’s temper sometimes--’ ‘Stop! you admit that you have sworn that you have cursed and taken God’s name in vain. Did you ever break the Lord’s day?’ ‘Well it would be difficult for us carters busy as we are with our horses to keep the Lord’s day.’ ‘Stop! here are three things--drunkenness profane swearing and Sabbath-breaking-that you admit yourself guilty of. How can you say that you are not a sinner? You must take your place as a sinner my friend; and the sooner you do it the better.’ He did so and found mercy and pardon through the atoning blood of Christ.” It is of no use for men to deny or try to explain away the fact of their sinfulness; they will never take their true place until they do so as sinners in the sight of God.

The difficulty of knowing aright one’s true spiritual state

A young lady who was under concern of soul said to Dr. Nettleton: “I certainly do desire to be a Christian. I desire to be holy. I would give all the world for an interest in Christ.” “What you say will not bear examination ” said Dr. Nettleton. “If you really desire religion for what it is there is nothing to hinder you from possessing it. I can make a representation which will show you your heart if you are willing to see it.” “I am ” she replied. “It will look very bad ” said Dr. N. “but if you are willing to see it I will make the representation. Suppose you were a young lady of fortune; and suppose a certain young man should desire to possess your fortune and should for that reason conclude to pay his addresses to you. But he does not happen to be pleased with your person. He does not love you but hates you. And suppose he should come to you and say ‘I really wish I could love you but I do not. I would give all the world if I could love you; but I cannot.’ What would you think of that young man?” We may readily guess the confusion and silence to which she was brought by this faithful exposure of the deception which she had practised upon herself. (Sword and Trowel.)

Sinners ought to be willing to know their true state

A man once said this to Dr. Nettleton “I sincerely desire to be a Christian. I have often gone to the house of God hoping that something which should be said might be sent home to my mind by the Spirit of God and be blessed to my salvation.” “You are willing then are you not ” said Dr. N. “that I should converse with you hoping that my conversation may be the means of your conversion?” “I am ” was his reply. “If you are willing to be a Christian ” added Dr. Nettleton “you are willing to perform the duties of religion; for this is what is implied in being a Christian. Are you willing to perform these duties?” “I do not know but that I am ” was the rather doubtful reply. “Well then you are the head of a family. One of the duties of religion is family prayer. Are you willing to pray in your family?” “I should be ” he replied “if I were a Christian; but it cannot be the duty of such a man as I am to pray. The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.” “And is it not ” said Dr. Nettleton “an abomination unto the Lord to live without prayer? But just let me show you how you deceive yourself. You think you really desire to be converted. But you are not willing to be convicted. Just as soon as I mention a duty which you are neglecting you begin to excuse and justify yourself on purpose to keep your sin out of sight. You are not willing to see that it is an heinous sin to live in the neglect of family prayer. How can you expect to be brought to repentance until you are willing to see your sinfulness; and how can you flatter yourself that you really desire to be a Christian while you thus close your eyes against the truth?” (Sword and Trowel.)

A diseased nature

It is not necessary to split hairs over the doctrine of “original sin ” nor to trip against stumblingblocks labelled “transmitted iniquity ” in order to arrive at the conclusion that man as he is in this world needs moral helps. It was forcibly said by way of illustration that a wolf cub has probably never killed a sheep but it undoubtedly will if it lives and has a chance--because it has the wolf nature. Man does not need to look outside of his own heart if he be honest to know that he has in his nature a tendency to sin-that he needs constraints around him and a new spirit within him to keep him true to the higher life. Sin progressive:--Amongst many other diseases that the body is incident unto there is one that is called by the name of gangrena which doth altogether affect the joints against which there is no remedy but to cut off that joint where it settled otherwise it will pass from joint to joint till the whole body is endangered. Such is the nature of sin which unless it be cut off in the first motion it proceedeth unto action from action to delectation from delight unto custom and from that unto habit which being as it were a second nature is never or very hardly removed without much prayer and fasting. (J. Spencer.)

The power of one sin

While I was walking in the garden one bright morning a breeze came through and set all the flowers and leaves a-fluttering. Now that is the way flowers talk so I pricked up my ears and listened. Presently an old eldertree said: “Flowers shake off your caterpillars.” “Why?” said a dozen altogether for they were like some children who always say “Why?” when they are told to do anything. Bad children those! The elder said: “If you don’t they’ll gobble you up.” So the flowers set themselves a-shaking till the caterpillars were shaken off. In one of the middle beds there was a beautiful rose which shook off all but one and she said to herself: “Oh that’s a beauty! I’ll keep that one.” The elder overheard her and called out: “One caterpillar is enough to spoil you.” “But ” said the rose “look at his brown and crimson fur and his beautiful black eyes and scores of little feet. I want to keep him. Surely one won’t hurt me.” A few mornings after I passed the rose again. There was not a whole leaf on her; her beauty was gone she was all but killed and had only life enough to weep over her folly while the tear stood like dewdrops on her tattered leaves. “Alas! I didn’t think one caterpillar would ruin me!”

“If the plague be turned into white then the priest shall pronounce him clean”

At first sight it seems strange to ordain that the man should be reckoned clean if the leprosy were out upon him and covered him wholly. The reason however may be--

1. Natural.

2. Moral.

If natural then it is either because the leprosy is not so infectious when it has thus come all out on the body the hard dry scurf not being likely to spread infection whereas the ichor of raw flesh would (see Bagster); or because it really is not a proper leprosy if it so come out--it is a salt humour cast out by the strength of the man’s constitution and is not deep-seated. It is rather a relief to the constitution; as when measles or small-pox come out to the surface of the body recovery is hopeful. If it was for a moral reason then it seems meant to teach that the Lord has a deep abhorrence of a corrupt nature--deeper far than merely of corrupt actions. We are ever ready to take home the guilt of evil deeds but to palliate the evil of a depraved heart. But the Lord reverses the case. His severest judgment is reserved for inward depravity. And yet more. Is it not when a soul is fully sensible of entire corruption (as Isaiah 1:5) that salvation is nearest? A complete Saviour for a complete sinner? If there appeared any “raw flesh ” then the man is unclean. For this indicates inward disease--not on the surface only. It is working into the flesh. But if the “raw flesh ” turn and be “changed into white ” then it is plain that the disease is not gone inwards; it is playing on the skin only. Let him stand therefore as clean. Perhaps the case of a pardoned man may be referred to again in this type. His iniquity comes all out to view when it is thrown into the fountain opened; and the inner source of it is checked. The seat of corruption has been removed But if after the appearance of pardon the man turn aside to folly (if “raw flesh” appear) he is to be counted unclean. If however this turning aside to folly be checked if this backsliding be healed then it is like the “raw flesh ” turning “into white”--it evidences that his nature is sound--it has not returned to its state of thorough depravity. (A. A. Bonar.)

Unclean unclean.

The leper diseased

Leper canst thou not read thy case here? Afflicted exercised tempted downcast child of God dost thou not see thy character here described by an inspired pen?

1. “The leper in whom the plague is.” Is sin your plague? Take all your worldly anxieties tie them up in one bundle and put them into the scale; now place in the other scale the plague of sin. Which scale goes down? If you are a spiritual leper you will say “Oh it is sin sin that I sometimes fear will be a millstone to drown my soul in hell.” And canst thou find this mark “the leper in whom the plague is”? Is not this a very striking expression “In whom “? I think Paul has hit the matter to a nicety; and well he might for he wrote as a man who knew what he was writing about; he says “The sin that dwelleth in me.” Sin is not like a martin that builds its nest under the eaves which sticks to the house but is not in the house. Neither is sin a lodger to whom you can give a week’s or a month’s notice to quit; nor is it a servant whom you may call up pay him his month’s wages and send him about his business. No no. Sin is one of the family who dwells in the house and will not be turned out of the house--haunts every room nestles in every corner and like the poor ejected Irish of whom we read will never leave the tenement while stick or stone hangs together. Is not this the case with you? Does not sin dwell in you work in you lust in you go to bed with you get up with you and all the day long more or less crave design or imagine some evil thing? Do you feel sin to be a plague and a pest as it must be to every living soul? Then are you not something of a leper if the plague dwell in you?

2. But the leper’s clothes were to be rent.

3. But the leper was also to have his head bare. No covering from God’s wrath was allowed him; bareheaded he stood exposed to the winds and storms of heaven bare before the lightning’s flash. And does not this represent the poor sinner without a covering before God; sensible that he is amenable to God’s justice and eternal indignation?

4. But he was also to have a covering on his upper lip. And this for the same reason that we cover the mouth of the grave--to present the infection of his breath. If he covered but the lower lip the breath might come forth. Have you ever thought and felt that there was sin enough in your heart to infect a world? that if every man and woman in the world were perfectly holy and you were left freely to give vent to every thought and imagination of your carnal mind there was sin enough there to taint every individual? It is so felt or not; for sin is of that infectious nature that there is enough in one man’s heart to fill all London with horror. Oh when a man knows this he is glad to have a covering for his upper lip! He cannot boast then of what a good heart he has nor what good resolutions he has made or what great performances he means to accomplish. He has at times a very Vesuvius in him and wants no one to come within the mouth of the crater. If a man has a covering upon the upper lip he will not boast of his goodness.

5. But the leper was to have a cry in his mouth. That cry was “Unclean unclean.” It was a warning cry. He was to shout to the passengers if any were drawing near “Unclean unclean; come not near me; I am a leper; I shall pollute you; beware of my breath it carries infection with it; touch me not; if you touch me you will be tainted with the same malady; beware of me; keep your distance; standoff!” Yes but you say “Come; I am not so bad as that; I am religious and holy and consistent. I am sure I need not cover my upper lip and cry Unclean unclean.” Oh no; certainly not. You are not a leper. You have had years ago a rising or a boil and at the priest’s direction you have washed your clothes and are clean. But if you do not feel to be a leper there are those who do; and such do cry and ever must cry “Unclean unclean.” And if they do not uncover all their sores to men they can do so to God.

6. But all the (lays wherein the plague was in the leper he was to be defiled; he was unclean. Such is a spiritual leper; defiled by sin; polluted from head to foot as long as the leprosy remains.

7. But what was the necessary consequence of this? “He shall dwell alone.” A solitary religion is generally a good religion. God’s tried people have not many companions. The exercised cannot walk with the unexercised; the polluted with the unpolluted; the sick with the well; tile leper with the clean; for “how can two walk together except they be agreed?” (J. C. Philpot.)

Disease and sin

This great fact that a disease in the body was typical of a malady in the soul reminds us at once that there was perfect harmony between the body and the soul between things spiritual and things temporal between things heavenly and things earthly. There is enough of the harmony still surviving to show what and how rich it once was. The historical statement in this chapter is that the leprosy overspread the whole body till it became in language used by one of the prophets “white as snow”; the whole physical economy was infected with its deadly poison. And in that respect it was the type and is indeed referred to in the New Testament as the type of that sin which has infected the whole soul and body of mankind. Take any one faculty that is within us and we shall find on it the great leprosy or taint or moral influence of sin. Man’s intellect has in it still remaining energies that give token of what it once was; but it has in it also defects and tremulousness and weakness and paralysis that indicate that it is the subject of some great derangement. I need not attempt to prove that the heart also is defiled. Our blessed Lord gives the heart its faithful character when He says “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murder adultery and such like; and these are the things that defile a man.” Truly therefore and justly did the Psalmist pray “Create in me a clean heart O God: renew a right spirit within me.” But not only are the heart and intellect affected as I have shown you but the conscience also has suffered and is poisoned by the universal disease. It is sometimes overflowed by guilty passions it is sometimes silent when it ought to rebuke them; sometimes quiescent when it ought to assert its original authority and sometimes the democracy of the passions rises in fierce array dethrones the monarch that ought to govern them and prompts man to pursue the infatuated course that leads to his ruin. And in the worst of cases this power of conscience is often perverted to the wrong side sanctioning the sins which it ought to abhor. When the intellect that discerns the heart that loves or hates and the conscience that testifies what is right or wrong are thus infected truly may we say with Isaiah “The whole head is sick the whole heart is faint ” &c. Were the tokens and the evidences of the assertion I have made not so obvious and so numerous as they actually are you find other proofs in the miser fixing his heart upon gold in spite of the decisions of intellect the better impulses of the heart and the rebukes of conscience. You find the drunkard still indulging in his cups notwithstanding a thousand testimonies within and without that he is ruining soul and body. You find the Pharisee robbing widows’ houses and making long prayers for a pretence. You find the very religion of love and truth corrupted into the religion of superstition of hate and a lie. So depraved and fallen is man that it looks that if he had the power he would turn redemption itself into a nullity or into a curse. There is then on all sides the evidence of some great derangement. We never can suppose we were made so. Disease seems to us natural but it is most unnatural; error sin hate all seem to us normal and ordinary but they are really altogether the reverse. We find on tracing the similitude between the disease which is here mentioned that the leper had to be insulated from the rest of the world and left by himself to get rid of the disease that thus separated him. So the sinner in God’s moral government must be for ever separated from the communion and company of the holy if he continue the subject of this great moral malady--sin. The leper’s disease was so bad that it was incurable by human means. It is so with sin. Like the leprosy in the next place sin is contagious. The characteristic disease of the Israelite spread from person to person from house to house and throughout the whole land. And who needs to be taught that “evil communications corrupt good manners”? Who needs to learn that there is in an evil word in a crooked course a contagious influence that is distilled upon susceptible and sensitive and living hearts? In the ancient economy the party to whom the leper presented himself was not the physician as in other diseases but the priest. And this shows that it was a disease in some shape intimately associated with man’s guilt or with sin. A Jew of old like a Gentile now if taken ill applied to the physician; but when infected with this great typical disease he did not go to the physician but to the priest. But more than this even the priest could not heal him; the priest had no prescription that could heal him no balm that could remove it. All that he could do was to say “You are healed ” or “You are not healed ” or “You are advancing towards convalescence ” or the reverse. The priest was to pronounce him clean or to pronounce him unclean. But how much better is the economy under which we live! Our High Priest can not only pronounce us clean but make us clean; He can not only say that we are justified but He can justify us by His perfect righteousness forgive us by His atoning blood by His sanctifying Spirit through His inspired Word. (J. Cumming D. D.)

The separating influences of sin

Any one who has visited Jerusalem may have seen the lepers standing day by day near the Jaffa Gate soliciting alms from those passing the threshold of the city which they themselves were not allowed to enter. Most travellers who have either witnessed this painful sight or visited the houses of the lepers at the Zion Gate must have recalled the words “Without the camp shall his habitation be.” No type so strikingly brings out the separating influences of sin as that of leprosy; telling the sinner in no uncertain tones that unless his sin be pardoned his leprosy cleansed he shall never enter the gates of the heavenly city. Howels in one of his sermons finely says that when Adam sinned God having locked the gate of Paradise to prevent the entrance of men cast the key into the very depths of hell. There it lay and man must for ever have been excluded--“without the camp ” the place of God’s dwelling whether typified by garden camp or city must his habitation have been--had not the Son of God with His Father’s will and pleasure wrought our deliverance. As He stood on the edge of the fiery abyss--the wrath of God due to man’s sin--He drew back. Again He looked into the terrible gulf. Then with a love incomprehensible were it not Divine He plunged into its depths found the key ascended upon high led captivity captive opened the gate of Paradise; and now the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. (J. W. Bardsley M. A.)

Leprous outcasts in England

A gentleman visiting the venerable church of St. Mary’s in the village of Minster near Ramsgate said to the guide “What means this hole through the wall?” “That ” replied the guide “recalls a fact which is full of interest and pathos. In the twelfth century there were a number of lepers in the neighbourhood. You will understand of course that they were obliged to live by themselves and were supported by charity. Over at the old Abbey you may still see the place where bread and other food was passed out to them. Being unclean and afflicted with a horrible and incurable disease which was contagious they were not allowed in church or to come in contact with healthy persons so they had no way of taking any direct part in the worship of God. Both as to soul and body they were driven out from all intercourse with the rest of mankind. Yet many of them longed for some sound or sight that might comfort them in their sad loathsome and hopeless condition. Taking pity on the poor creatures the monks made this hole in the wall so that one at a time they could see the priests ministering at the altar hear the music and perhaps a few words of the Mass. Then they would go back to their huts and caves trusting that in heaven if not on earth they might be free from the dreadful curse under which they suffered. That is why this hole is called the Leper’s Squint. Poor outcasts! my heart aches to think of them though they are all dead and gone these seven hundred years.”

──The Biblical Illustrator