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The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Leviticus 14:2-32 Cleansing the leper W. Sleigh. I. THE DISEASE. 1. Its peculiar designation. Leprosy the "plague of boils" ( Deuteronomy 28 .), which applies very forcibly to sin. 2. Its distinguishing characteristics. Small in appearance; so in a vicious course of life. It gradually spread, as does sin spread over all the powers and faculties of a man. 3. Its pernicious consequences. The malady was injurious to society, as being infectious and pernicious; to the person himself, excluding him from all society, civil and religions. So sinners corrupt others, while their abominable ways shut them from the communion of the faithful. II. THE CURE OF THE DISEASE. 1. No human means could be availing. The leper would gladly have cured himself. No art of man was effectual ( 2 Kings 5:7 ). We have no remedy of man's devising for sin ( Romans 7:19, 24 ). 2. If the leper was cured, it was by God alone, without the intervention of human means ( Luke 17:14 ; Isaiah 51:7 ). Nothing was prescribed or attempted for the removal of this distemper. And none but God can remove sin, &c. ( Romans 7:10, 18 ; Ephesians 5:9 ; 1 Peter 2:2 ). 3. But the cure was associated with blood and water. And to be cleansed from the leprosy of sin we must have applied the blood and spirit of Christ ( 1 John 1:7 ; Ezekiel 36:25 ). III. THE CONFIRMATION OF THE CURE BY THE PRIEST, 1. A person was not to be pronounced clean on a sudden. The priest was to use much caution and deliberation. Caution should be exercised by ministers and office-bearers in the Church towards those who are candidates for fellowship. 2. When it evidently appeared that soundness had been imparted to his disordered body, this was declared with due solemnity. Here we see the pre-eminence of our High Priest; for while the priest merely declared the leper healed, He most effectually heals. Let those infected with the leprosy apply to their souls the Divinely appointed remedy; and let those who have been cleansed from it carefully discharge the duty enjoined on them. (ver. 10, &c.). ( W. Sleigh. ) The leper A. Willet, D. D. 1. How God is the Author of plagues and diseases. Not to hurt man, but to help him; for man being afflicted, is humbled; being humbled, he runs to Him who can raise him up. 2. That sin infects men's bodies, garments, and houses. 3. Of the office of ministers, in visiting the sick (ver. 44). 4. Of our cleansing by the blood of Christ. 5. Of the honourable calling of physicians. They should be — (1) Skilful. (2) Faithful to their patient. (3) Religious, referring all to God's glory. (4) Not covetous. ( A. Willet, D. D. ) Lessons A. Willet, D. D. 1. Regeneration must be total in every part. 2. That vicious persons be not with too great facility reconciled. 3. God accepts of our obedience according to our heart. 4. To give thanks to God for our health. ( A. Willet, D. D. ) The leper cleansed J. A. Seiss, D. D. Although leprosy was not curable by human remedies, it did not always continue for life. It was often sent as a special judgment, as in the cases of Miriam, Azariah, and Gehazi. The Jews generally looked upon it in this light. Its very name denotes a stroke of the Lord. This of itself rather implies that it may cease with the repentance and forgiveness of the smitten offender. It was the anticipation of the healing, of at least some persons leprously affected, that formed the basis of the provisions here laid down. They constitute "the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing"; and if there was no possibility of cure, there was no use of this law. You will observe, however, that these regulations were not for the cure of the leper, but for his ceremonial cleansing after the cure. The disease had first to be stayed, and then began this process of cleansing off all its lingering effects and disabilities. I therefore take the deepest intention of these rites to be to illustrate the nature of sanctification. Justification is also implied, but only as connected with sanctification. 1. In the first place, it is presupposed that the leper's disease had been stayed. And this healing again points to some putting forth of Divine power and grace quite different from anything here brought to view, and far anterior to the commencement of these services. The first motion of our salvation is from God. It begins while we are yet in the very depths of our defilement and guilt. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." A full and free forgiveness of all our sins is provided. And the only remaining requirement is to "go show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded." 2. The leper, finding his leprosy stayed, was to go to the judge in the case and claim exemption from the sentence that was upon him. And to render this the more easy for him, the priest had to "go forth out of the camp" to meet him. The very moment the sinner believes in the healing proclaimed to him in the gospel, and sets himself to move for his cleansing, Christ meets him. 3. And when the healed leper thus presented himself to the priest, there was no alternative left. He had to be pronounced cured. And so Christ hath bound Himself to acquit and absolve every sinner who thus comes to Him in the strength of the gospel message. There is no further hindrance in the way. The man is justified. The sentence that was against him is rescinded and taken away. But the mere absolution of the priest did not fully restore the leper. Though his disease was stayed, there was a taint of it remaining to be purged off before he could join the camp or the holy services. And so our whole salvation must miscarry if it does not also take in an active holiness, purifying our hearts and lives, and transforming us into the image of our Redeemer. How this sanctification is effected is what we are now to consider. I. To cleanse the recovered leper, the first thing to be done was THE PROCUREMENT OF TWO CLEAN BIRDS, THE ONE OF WHICH WAS TO BE SLAIN, AND THE OTHER TO BE DIPPED IN ITS FELLOW'S BLOOD AND SET AT LIBERTY. These two doves, the gentlest of all God's creatures, at once carry our thoughts back to Christ and His wonderful history. The fate of the one shows us how He was mangled for human guilt, crushed to death for the sins of others, and brought down to the depths of the earth. The other, coming up out of the earthern vessel, out of the blood of its fellow, shows us how Jesus rose again from the rocky sepulchre, and ascended up out of the hand of His captor on strong and joyous pinions far into the high abodes of heaven, scattering as He went the gracious drops of cleansing and salvation. The introduction of these birds, in this connection, presents a great theological fact. As they typify Christ, they show that our sanctification, as well as our justification, proceeds from His Cross and resurrection. II. The next thing to be done for the cleansing of the recovered leper was THE ARRANGEMENT AND USE OF MEANS TO APPLY THE CLEANSING OF BLOOD. Christ has appointed certain instruments and agencies to convey to us the purifying elements. First of all is the cedar stem of His Word, durable, fragrant, and instinct with celestial power and life, speaking through all the visible creation, but much more distinctly and powerfully in the written Scriptures. Along with this, and fastened to it, is the scarlet wool of the holy sacraments, absorbing, as it were, the whole substance of' Christ crucified, and performing an important part in the impartation of the same to our souls. And along with this scarlet wool, and bound to the same stem, are the many little aromatic stems of prayer, with the sanctifying blood running out and hanging in drops on every point, ready to flow upon and cleanse the humble worshipper. III. A third requirement for the leper's cleansing was, THAT HE SHOULD "WASH HIS CLOTHES, AND SHAVE OFF ALL HIS HAIR, AND WASH HIMSELF IN WATER." This was his own work. It was to be done by the leper himself. Its spiritual significance is easily understood. It refers to the sinner's repentance and reformation. He must cleanse himself from all his old and base surroundings. He must separate between himself and everything suspicious. IV. But there is another particular entering into this ritual cleansing. After everything else had been done, SACRIFICES WERE TO BE OFFERED. We must wash, and repent, and reform; but it avails nought without blood. Water, the purest that ever dropped from mossy rock, or gushed from the mountain spring, is not able to cleanse a man for heaven. Tears of repentance, though pure as those which trickled down the Saviour's cheeks, cannot wash out the stains of sin, except they be mingled with the blood that dripped from His wounds. And no moral improvements can entitle us to eternity's honours if they are not connected with the suretyship and sacrifice of Jesus. The source of all sanctification is in His death and resurrection. All the glories of eternal life still refer us back to Calvary. Grace in Christ Jesus commenced the work, and grace in Christ Jesus must complete it. The only peculiarity which I notice here is that some of the blood and oil was to be touched to the cleansed leper, the same as in the consecration of the priests. It points to the very culmination and crown of Christian sanctity. The blood of the trespass-offering stands for the blood of Christ, and the holy oil for the Holy Spirit. These are the two great consecrating elements of Christianity. "With these our High Priest approaches us through the gospel, to complete our cleansing and ordain us to the dignities and duties of our spiritual calling. V. There is one point more in these ceremonies to which I will call your attention. I refer to THE TIME WHICH THEY REQUIRED. A leper could by no possibility get through with his cleansing under seven days. One day was enough to admit him into the camp; but seven full days were requisite to admit him to his home. There was therefore a complete period of time necessary to the entireness of his cleansing. This arrangement was not accidental. It has its full typical significance. It refers to the fact that no one is completely sanctified in the present life; and that a complete period of time must ensue before we reach the rest to which our cleansing entitles us. We have attained unto very high honours. We have secured very exalted privileges. But everything has not yet been done, and all our disabilities are not yet removed. Great services yet remain to take place when the seven days have elapsed. And until then we must patiently wait. The influences of sin still linger about the old tenement, and we must suffer the consequences of it until the term of this present dispensation ends. Then shall our High Priest come forth again, and "change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His own glorious body." The last lurking-places of defilement shall then be cut off. The last act of the leper's cleansing was to shave off his hair. When that was done he entered upon all the high services of the Tabernacle, and went to his home a saved man. ( J. A. Seiss, D. D. ) Ceremonies on recovery of the leper J. Cumming, D. D. First of all, "he shall be brought unto the priest; and the priest shall go forth out of the camp," and see him; and then the priest, when he finds that he is clean, shall pronounce him clean. Next the priest was to take "two birds alive and clean, and cedar-wood and scarlet, and hyssop: and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthern vessel over running water." Now it seems absurd to speak of an earthern vessel, and water in it called "running water." But all the absurdity is taken away when we recollect that the original is "living water." It is the same expression that occurs in other parts of Scripture. "I will give unto him living water" — "It shall be in him a well of living water." And the real meaning of this passage is "fresh water" from the fountain, and not stagnant, and unfit for physical, or for spiritual, or for ecclesiastical purposes. Then it has been supposed that the one bird that was slain was meant to describe the death of Christ; and the dismissal of the other bird, after being dipped in the blood of the slain bird, was meant to be a type and prefiguration of the resurrection. It is nowhere in Scripture said to be so, but it is obviously typical of sacrifice; and no one sacrifice, no one symbol, could set forth the completeness of the work of Christ; and therefore many symbols may have been employed and combined to set forth that great and blessed act. We read, then, that the person, after this, was still to present an offering of "two he-lambs, without blemish"; and to remain at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation till the priest had offered these; and by this he was to have access to the congregation. We read that the priest was to sprinkle him seven times; that is, completely, the number meant to denote perfection. He was also to touch the tip of his right ear, to denote that that ear should be opened only to all that was pure. He was also to touch the thumb of the right hand, to teach that every act was to be consistent with his character. And upon the right foot, to show that he was to walk in God's ways, which are ways of pleasantness and of peace. So that the man should feel — what is stated by the apostle in Romans 12 . — that he was to present himself, soul and body, a living sacrifice, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now the language employed here-the hyssop, and the cedar-wood, and the sprinkling — casts light upon many passages in the Psalms, and those passages, again, cast light upon the phraseology of the New Testament. "Ye are come unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus." We read again, in another passage, of "the sprinkling of His blood," the "blood of sprinkling." The meaning of that is, just as the life of the turtledove, the lamb, or the bird, was sacrificed by the shedding of its blood, and typically and ecclesiastically, or Levitically, virtue or qualification was imparted to the person related to it; so the efficacy of Christ's death, represented by His blood — that is, the atoning efficacy of it — is to be applied so to our hearts and consciences that we may have peace with God, free pardon of our sins, and the hope of an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. ( J. Cumming, D. D. ) Do not forget the remedy Memoir of Wm. Marston. Cecil had been a great sufferer for years, and none of his medical friends had been able to ascertain the cause. At length Mrs. Cecil was told of a physician who was extremely skilful in intricate cases, and whom she entreated him to consult. On entering the physician's room, he said, "Welcome, Mr. Cecil; I know you well by character, and as a preacher. We must have some conversation after I have given you my advice." Mr. Cecil then described his sufferings. The physician considered a moment, and then said, "Dear sir, there is only one remedy in such a case as yours; do first try it; it is perfectly simple," and then he mentioned the medicine. Mr. Cecil, fearing to occupy too much of his time, rose to leave, but the physician said, "No, sir, we must not part so soon, for I have long wished for an opportunity of conversing with you." So they spent half an hour more, mutually delighted with each other's society. On returning home, Mr. Cecil said to his wife, "You sent me to a most agreeable man — such a fund of anecdote, such originality of thought, such a command of language." "Well, but what did he prescribe for you?" Mrs. Cecil anxiously inquired. There was a pause, and then Mr. Cecil exclaimed, "I have entirely forgotten the remedy; his charms of manner and conversation put everything else out of my mind." "Now, young men," said Mr. Cecil, "it will be very pleasant for you if your congregations go away saying, ' What eloquence! what original thought! and what an agreeable deliver!' Take care they do not forget the remedy, the only remedy, Christ and His righteousness, Christ and His atonement, Christ and His advocacy." ( Memoir of Wm. Marston. ) The cured and uncured T. De Witt Talmage. Christ cared the demoniac, the paralytic, the leper. He took the most chronic and complicated diseases, and they could not stand before His fiat. To one He said, "Be thou clean"; to another He said, "Take up thy bed and walk"; to another, "Damsel, arise"; and all these were not only cured as to the body, but cured as to the sicknesses of the soul. A pastor went into the house where there was a young Christian dying in great triumph. He entered the room to congratulate her as she was about to enter heaven, and as he went into the room and began to talk cheerfully about the joys that were immediately before her, her sister left the room. A few weeks after the pastor was called to the same house, and this sister who had left the room was about to take her departure into the eternal world, but she was not ready. She said to the pastor, "You don't remember me, do you?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I remember you." "Do you remember when you were talking to my sister about heaven I left the room?" "Yes," he said, "I remember that." She said, "Do you know why I left?" "No," he replied, "I don't." "Well," she said, "I didn't want to hear anything about my soul, or about heaven, and now I am dying. Oh, sir, it is a dreadful thing to die!" Now, what was the difference between those two sisters? The one was perfectly cured of the terrible disease of sin, the other was not. ( T. De Witt Talmage. ) Christ the only Healer The Church Scholars' Magazine. Now, children, if my watch has lost its mainspring, where shall I go to get it mended? To the tailor's? No. To the blacksmith's? No. To the watchmaker's? Yes. Why? Because he makes watches, and knows how to mend them. Now, if your hearts are bad, where will you go to have them healed? To your parents? No. To the priest? No. To Jesus Christ? Yes. Why? Because Be made the heart, and knows how to heal it. ( The Church Scholars' Magazine. ) Christ is an Almighty Doctor T. De Witt Talmage. Christ is an Almighty Doctor. At midnight a sudden disease comes upon your little child. You hasten for a physician, or you telegraph for the doctor as soon as you can, and hour after hour there is a contest between science and the King of Terrors. And yet you stand there and you watch and you see the disease is conquering fortress of strength after fortress of strength, until after a while you stand over the lifeless form and have to confess that there is a limit beyond which human medicament cannot go. But I hail at this moment an Almighty Doctor, who never lost a patient. Why, a leper came out with a bandage over his mouth and utterly loathsome, so they drove him out from all society, and when he came out the people all ran, and Christ ran. But Christ ran in a different direction from the people. They all ran away from the poor man; Christ ran towards him. And then a second leper came out with a bandage over his mouth, and a third, and a fourth, and so on until there were ten lepers, and I see Christ standing among them. It is a dangerous experiment, you say. Why, if you caught the breath of one such man as that, it would be certain death. There, sublimely great in goodness, Christ stood among the ten lepers, and He cured the first, and the second, and the tenth. ( T. De Witt Talmage. ) Christ can remove the root of the disease of sin Some time ago a man wished to cut down a tree in his garden, and took it in hand to do it himself. Taking a spade, he cleared away the earth from the roots, and laid them bare for the axe. He hewed all the roots and suckers he saw, and then pushed and pulled at the tree, but it remained as firm as ever. Going to his gardener, he consulted him about it, and his reply was, "Ah, sir, you have not cut the tap-root. You may hack and cut away at all the rest of the roots, but unless you cut it the tree will never fall." There are hundreds of sin-sick souls who persist in pruning away this sin and that sin, but they wilfully refuse to cut the tap-root of sin. Two birds. The two birds considered typically D. Jamison, B. A. I. In the first bird let us see the SAVIOUR. 1. The bird was to be "clean." Christ perfectly holy. 2. A bird's being chosen in this rite may point us whence our Saviour came — from heaven. 3. The bird was slain. Christ tasted death for us. This shows — (1) The evil of sin. (2) The certainty of its punishment. (3) God's unspeakable love. 4. As to what bird it was, we do not certainly know, but commentators tell us all the birds prescribed by Moses were common and accessible. So the Saviour is not far off, but near at hand. 5. The "earthern vessel" reminds us of the Saviour's humanity. And the fact that it contained not only blood but also clear water, may remind us that He saves by His Spirit as well as by His blood — that His salvation includes sanctification as well as justification. II. Let us see in the other bird the BELIEVER. 1. That the Christian is represented by a bird, just as the Saviour is, may teach us — (1) That Jesus in some sense makes the Christian equal to Himself; and (2) That every Christian should seek to be Christlike (see 1 John 3:4 ). 2. That the Christian is represented by a clean bird teaches — (1) That the man who believes is justified from all things; and (2) That the Christian's effort should ever be after cleanness of character as well as of condition. 3. That this bird was dipped in the blood of the slain bird shows us plainly the way of salvation — by faith. 4. That the bird on being dipped was then let loose into the open field, teaches the blessed freedom, the glorious change which immediately takes place on a man's believing. 5. May we not also learn that while the Christian is free, yet he will always use his liberty as the bird does, not to sink earthward, but to soar heavenward? III. As the living bird seems to have been dipped into the blood of the dead by means of a cedar staff, to which, along with a bundle of hyssop, it was attached by a band of scarlet wool, we take this staff as a representation of the GOSPEL, through the foolishness of preaching which it pleases God to save them who believe. Doing so, we learn from 1 Kings 4:30 , that cedar-wood and hyssop were regarded as the two extremes of vegetable creation; and so the gospel is (1) adapted to the two extremes of men; (2) addressed to the highest and lowest; (3) to the best and the worst. ( D. Jamison, B. A. ) The two birds S. H. Kellogg, D. D. As in all the Levitical types, so in this case, at the very entrance on the redeemed life stands the sacrifice of a life, and the service of a priest as mediator between God and man. Blood must be shed if the leper is to be admitted again into covenant standing with God; and the blood of the sacrifice in the law ever points to the sacrifice of Christ. But that great Sacrifice may be regarded in various aspects. Sin is a many-sided evil, and on every side it must be met. As often repeated, because sin as guilt requires expiation, hence the type of the sin-offering; in that it is a defrauding of God of His just rights from us, satisfaction is required, hence the type of the guilt-offering; as it is absence of consecration, life for self instead of life for God, hence the type of the burnt-offering. And yet the manifold aspects of sin are not all enumerated. For sin, again, is spiritual death; and, as death, it involves corruption and defilement. It is with special reference to this fact that the work of Christ is brought before us here. In the clean bird, slain that its blood may be applied to the leper for cleansing, we see typified Christ, as giving Himself, that His very life may be imparted to us for our life. In that the blood of the bird is mingled with water, the symbol of the Word of God, is symbolised the truth, that with the atoning blood is ever inseparably united the purifying energy of the Holy Ghost through the Word. Not the water without the blood, nor the blood without the water, saves, but the blood with the water, and the water with the blood ( 1 John 5:6 ). But the type yet lacks something for completeness; and for this reason we have the second bird, who, when by his means the blood has been sprinkled on the leper, and the man is now pronounced clean, is released and flies away heavenward. What a beautiful symbol of that other truth, without which even the atonement of the Lord were nought, that He who died, having by that death for us procured our life, was then released from the bonds of death, rising from the dead on the third day, and ascending to heaven, like the freed bird, in token that His life-giving, cleansing work was done. Thus the message which, as the liberated bird flies carolling away, sweet as a heavenly song, seems to fall upon the ear is this ( Romans 4:25 ). ( S. H. Kellogg, D. D. ) The two birds T. De Witt Talmage. There is nothing more suggestive than a caged bird. In the down of its breast you can see the glow of southern climes. In the sparkle of its eyes you can see the flash of distant seas. In its .voice you can hear the song it learned in the wild wood. It is a child of the sky in captivity. 1. Now the dead bird of my text, captured in the air, suggests the Lord Jesus, who came down from the realms of light and glory. He once stood in the sunlight of heaven. He was the favoured of the land. He was the King's Son. But one day there came word to the palace that an insignificant island was in rebellion, and was cutting itself to pieces with anarchy. I hear an angel say: "Let it perish. The King's realm is vast enough without the island. The tributes to the King are large enough without that. We can spare it." "Not so," said the Prince, the King's Son; and I see Him push out one day, under the protest of a great company. He starts for the rebellious island. He lands amid the execrations of the inhabitants, that grow in violence until the malice of earth has smitten Him, and the spirits of the lost world put their black wings over His dying head and shut the sun out. The hawks and vultures swooped down upon this dove of the text, until head and breast and feet ran blood — until, under the flocks and beaks of darkness the poor thing perished. No wonder it was a bird taken and slain over an earthern vessel of running water. It was a child of the skies. It typified Him who came down from heaven in agony and blood to save our souls. 2. I notice also in my text that the bird that was slain was a clean bird. The text demanded that it should be. The raven was never sacrificed, nor the cormorant, nor the vulture. It must be a clean bird, says the text, and it suggests the pure Jesus, the holy Jesus. Although He spent His boyhood in the worst village on earth, although blasphemies were poured into His ear enough to have poisoned any one else, He stands before the world a perfect Christ. 3. I remark also, in regard to this first bird, mentioned in the text, that it was a defenceless bird. When the eagle is assaulted, with its iron beak it strikes like a bolt against its adversary. This was a dove or a sparrow — most probably the former. Take the dove, or pigeon, in your hand, and the pecking of its beak upon your hand makes you laugh at the feebleness of its assault. The reindeer, after it is down, may fell you with its antlers. The ox, after you think it is dead, may break your leg in its death struggle. The harpooned whale, in its last agony, may crush you in the coil of the unwinding rope. But this was a dove — perfectly harmless, perfectly defenceless — type of Him who said, "I have trod the winepress alone, and there was none to help." None to help! The murderers have it all their own way. Where was the soldier in the Roman regiment who swung his sword in the defence of the Divine Martyr? Did they put one drop of oil on His gashed feet? Was there one in all that crowd manly and generous enough to stand up for Him? Were the miscreants at the Cross any more interfered with in their work of spiking Him fast than the carpenter in his shop driving a nail through a pine board? The women cried, but there was no balm in their tears. None to help! none to help! 4. But I come now to speak of this second bird of the text. The priest took the second bird, tied it to the hyssop branch, and then plunged it in the blood of the first bird. Ah, that is my soul plunged for cleansing in the Saviour's blood. There is net enough water in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to wash away our smallest sin. Sin is such an outrage on God's universe that nothing but blood can atone for it. You know the life is in the blood, and as the life had been forfeited, nothing could buy it back but blood. What was it that was sprinkled on the door-post when the destroying angel went through the land? Blood. What was it that went streaming from the altar of ancient sacrifice? Blood. What was it that the priest carried into the Holy of Holies, making intercession for the people? Blood. What was it that Jesus sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane? Great drops of blood. What does the wine in the sacramental cup signify? Blood. What makes the robes of the righteous in heaven so fair? "They are washed in the blood of the Lamb." What is it that cleanses all our pollution? "The blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses from all sin." 5. I notice now that as soon as this second bird was dipped in the blood of the first bird, the priest unloosed it, and it was free — free of wing and free of foot. It could whet its beak on any tree-branch it chose; it could pick the grapes of any vineyard it chose. It was free. A type of our souls after we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We can go where we will. We can do what we will. You say, "Had you better not qualify that?" No; for I remember in conversion the will is changed, and the man will not will that which is wrong. 6. The next thing I noticed about this bird, when it was loosed — and that is the main idea — is, that it flow away. Which way did it go? When you let a bird loose from your grasp which way does it fly? Up. What are wings for? To fly with. We should be going heavenward. That is the suggestion. But I know that we have a great many drawbacks. You had them yesterday, or the day before; and although you want to be going heavenward, you are constantly discouraged. But, I suppose, when that bird went out of the priest's hands it went by inflections — sometimes stooping. A bird does not shoot directly up — but this is the motion of a bird. So the soul soars towards God, rising up in love, and sometimes depressed by trial. It does not always go just in the direction it would like to go. But the main course is right. ( T. De Witt Talmage. ) Freedom and exultation of the restored life C. Wadsworth, D. D. Alas for any poor beguiled soul that turns away in scorn of the glorious gospel of the blessed God! Ye mistake it who regard it as a summons to a slavish and sorrowful life. It is a great voice out of heaven crying, "Come up hither." It is a call of the radiant dayspring as it bursts on the poor bird nestling in the withering grass, revealing the grandeurs of the everlasting firmament, that it may fly — fly — fly! Let me tell you again my old story of the eagle. For many months it pined and drooped in its cage, and seemed to have forgotten that it was of the lineage of the old plumed kings of the forest and the mountain; and its bright eye faded, and its strong wings drooped, and its kingly crest was bowed, and its plumes were torn and soiled amid the bars and dust of its prison-house. So in pity of its forlorn life we carried its cage out to the open air, and broke the iron wire and flung wide the lowly door; and slowly, falteringly, it crept forth to the sultry air of that cloudy summer noon and looked listlessly about it. But just then, from a rift in an overhanging cloud, a golden sunbeam flashed upon the scene. And it was enough. Then it lifted its royal crest, the dim eye blazed again, the soiled plumes unfolded and rustled, the strong wings moved themselves, with a rapturous cry it sprang heavenward. Higher, higher, in broader, braver circles it mounted toward the firmament, and we saw it no more as it rushed through the storm-clouds and soared to the sun. And would, O ye winged spirits! who dream and pine in this poor earthly bondage, that only one ray from the blessed Sun of Righteousness might fall on you this hour! for then would there be the flash of a glorious eye, and a cry of rapture, and a sway of exulting wings, as another redeemed and risen spirit sprang heavenwa

Benson Commentary Leviticus 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Leviticus 14:1 . The priests having been instructed in the foregoing chapter how to judge of the leprosy, are here directed concerning the kinds and manner of those sacrifices and ceremonies which were requisite for the legal purification of the leper, after the priest judged him to be healed, in order that he might be readmitted to the civil and religious privileges of the Jewish community. Leviticus 14:2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: Leviticus 14:2 . He shall be brought to the priest — Not to the priest’s tent or house, but to some place without the camp, or city, where the priest should appoint to meet him. 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; Leviticus 14:3 . Healed — By God, for God alone did heal or cleanse him really, the priest only declaratively. Leviticus 14:4 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: Leviticus 14:4 . Two birds — The one to represent Christ as dying for his sins, the other to represent him as rising again for his purification or justification. Alive and clean — Allowed for food and for sacrifice. Cedar-wood — A stick of cedar, to which the hyssop and one of the birds were tied by the scarlet thread. Cedar seems to be chosen, to denote that the leper was now freed from that corruption which his leprosy had brought upon him, that kind of wood being in a manner incorruptible. Scarlet — A thread of wool of a scarlet colour, to represent both the leper’s sinfulness, and the blood of Christ, and the happy change of the leper’s colour and complexion, which before was wan and loathsome, now sprightly and beautiful. Hyssop — The fragrant smell of which signified the cure of the leper’s ill scent. Leviticus 14:5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: Leviticus 14:5 . That one of the birds be killed — By some other man. The priest did not kill it himself, because it was not properly a sacrifice, as being killed without the camp, and not in that place to which all sacrifices were confined. In an earthen vessel — That is, over running water put in an earthen vessel. Thus the blood of the bird and the water were mixed together, partly for the convenience of sprinkling, and partly to signify Christ, who came by water and blood, 1 John 5:6 . The running water, (that is, spring or river water,) by its liveliness and motion, did fitly signify the restoring of liveliness to the leper, who was in a manner dead before. Leviticus 14:6 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: Leviticus 14:7 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. Leviticus 14:7 . Into the open field — The place of its former abode, signifying the taking off that restraint which was laid upon the leper, and that he was restored to free conversation with his neighbours. 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. Leviticus 14:8 . All his hair — Partly to discover his perfect soundness, partly to preserve him from a relapse through any relics of it which might remain in his hair or in his clothes. Out of his tent — Out of his former habitation, in some separate place, lest some of his leprosy, yet lurking in him, should break forth to the infection of his family. Leviticus 14:9 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. Leviticus 14:9 . He shall shave all his hair — Which began to grow again, and now, for more caution, is again shaved off. He shall be clean — Legally declared so to be, so as to be readmitted both to his family and the public worship. Leviticus 14:10 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. Leviticus 14:10 . Two he-lambs, and one ewe-lamb — For three kinds of sacrifice, namely, a trespass-offering, a sin-offering, and a burnt-offering. Flour for a meal-offering — For to each of these sacrifices there was a meal or bread- offering appropriated, consisting of a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour. Mingled with oil — This is added as a fit sign of God’s grace and mercy, and of the leper’s being healed. A log is a measure containing about six egg-shells full. Leviticus 14:11 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: Leviticus 14:11 . Maketh him clean — The healing is ascribed to God, ( Leviticus 14:13 ,) but the ceremonial cleansing was an act of the priest, using the rites which God had prescribed. Leviticus 14:12 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: Leviticus 14:12 . A trespass-offering — This being the first time of the leper’s appearing in the assembly for God’s worship after his recovery, it was proper he should pay this public testimony of homage and gratitude to his deliverer, beginning with an act of humiliation for sin, which is the source of all those pains and diseases to which mankind are obnoxious. 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: Leviticus 14:14 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: Leviticus 14:14 . The priest shall put it — To signify that he was now free to hear God’s word in the appointed places, and to touch any person or thing without defiling it, and to go whither he pleased. 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: Leviticus 14:15-17 . The oil — As the blood signified Christ’s blood, by which men obtain remission of sins, so the oil denoted the graces of the Spirit, by which they are renewed. Before the Lord — Before the second veil which covered the holy of holies. Upon the blood — Upon the place where that blood was put. Leviticus 14:16 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: 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: Leviticus 14:18 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. Leviticus 14:19 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: Leviticus 14:20 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. Leviticus 14:21 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; 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. Leviticus 14:23 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. Leviticus 14:24 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: Leviticus 14:25 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: Leviticus 14:25 . The priest shall put the blood — Upon the extremities of the body, to include the whole. And some of the oil was afterward put in the same places upon the blood. That blood seems to have been a token of forgiveness, the oil of healing; for God first forgiveth our iniquities, and then healeth our diseases. When the leper was anointed, the oil was to have blood under it, to signify that all the graces and comforts of the Spirit, all his sanctifying influences, are owing to the death of Christ. It is by his blood alone that we are sanctified. Leviticus 14:26 And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand: Leviticus 14:27 And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the LORD: 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: Leviticus 14:29 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. Leviticus 14:30 And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get; Leviticus 14:31 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. 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. Leviticus 14:33 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Leviticus 14:34 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; Leviticus 14:34 . I put the plague of leprosy in a house — Now they were in the wilderness, dwelt in tents, and had no houses; and therefore this law is made only as an appendix to the former laws concerning the leprosy, because it related not to their present state, but to their future settlement in Canaan. The leprosy in a house is as unaccountable as the leprosy in a garment: but if we do not see what natural causes can be assigned for it, we may resolve it into the power of the God of nature, who here saith, I put the leprosy in a house, as ( Zechariah 5:4 ) his curse is said to enter into a house and consume it, with the stones and timber thereof. Leviticus 14:35 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: Leviticus 14:36 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: Leviticus 14:36 . That all be not made unclean — It is observable here, that neither the people nor the household stuff were polluted till the leprosy was discovered and declared by the priest, to show what great difference God makes between sins of ignorance, and sins against knowledge. Leviticus 14:37 And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall; Leviticus 14:37 . In the walls of the house — This, it seems, was an extraordinary judgment of God peculiar to this people, either as a punishment of their sins, which were much more aggravated and inexcusable than the sins of other nations; or as a special help to repentance, which God afforded them above other people; or as a token of the mischievous nature of sin, typified by leprosy, which did not only destroy persons, but their habitations also. Hollow streaks — Such as were in the bodies of leprous persons. Leviticus 14:38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: Leviticus 14:39 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; Leviticus 14:40 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: Leviticus 14:40 . That they may take away the stones — Some have thought the leprosy in the house was typical of the idolatry which did strangely cleave to the Jewish Church, and though some of the reforming kings took away the infected stones, yet still it broke out again, till, by the captivity in Babylon, God took down the house and carried it to an unclean land; and that proved an effectual cure of their inclination to idols, and idolatrous worship. An unclean place — Where they used to cast dirt and filthy things. Leviticus 14:41 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: Leviticus 14:42 And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other morter, and shall plaister the house. Leviticus 14:43 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 plaistered; Leviticus 14:44 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. Leviticus 14:45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. Leviticus 14:46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. Leviticus 14:47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. Leviticus 14:48 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 plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. Leviticus 14:49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: Leviticus 14:50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: Leviticus 14:51 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: Leviticus 14:52 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: Leviticus 14:53 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. Leviticus 14:54 This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, Leviticus 14:55 And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, Leviticus 14:56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot: Leviticus 14:57 To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy. Leviticus 14:57 . To teach when it is unclean and when it is clean — To direct the priest when to pronounce a person or house clean or unclean. Upon the whole, we may see in these laws the religious care we ought to take of ourselves to keep our minds from the dominion of all sinful affections and dispositions, which are both their disease and their defilement, that we may be fit for the service of God. We ought also to avoid all bad company, and, as much as may be, coming within the danger of being affected by it. Touch not the unclean thing, saith the Lord, and I will receive you. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . 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Expositor's Bible Commentary Leviticus 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER Leviticus 14:1-32 THE ceremonies for the restoration of the leper, when healed of his disease, to full covenant privileges, were comprehended in two distinct series. The first part of the ceremonial took place without the camp, and sufficed only to terminate his condition as one ceremonially dead, and allow of his return into the camp, and his association, though still under restriction, with his fellow Israelites. The second part of the ceremonial took up his case on the eighth day thereafter, where the former ceremonial had left him, as a member, indeed, of the holy people, but a member still under defilement such as debarred him from approach to the presence of Jehovah; and, by a fourfold offering and an anointing, restored him to the full enjoyment of all his covenant privileges before God. This law for the cleansing of the leper certainly implies that the disease, although incurable by human skill, yet, whether by the direct power of God, as in several instances in Holy Scripture, or for some cause unknown, might occasionally cease its ravages. In this case, although the visible effects of the disease might still remain, in mutilations and scars, yet he would be none the less a healed man. That occasionally instances have occurred of such arrest of the disease, is attested by competent observers, and the law before us thus provides for the restoration of the leper in such cases to the position from which his leprosy had excluded him. The first part of the ceremonial ( Leviticus 14:3-9 ) took place without the camp; for until legally cleansed the man was in the sight of the law still a leper, and therefore under sentence of banishment from the congregation of Israel. Thus, as the outcast could not go to the priest, the priest, on receiving word of his desire, went to him. For the ceremony which was to be performed, he provided himself with two living, clean birds, and with cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; also he took with him an earthen vessel filled with living water, - i.e. , with water from some spring or flowing stream, and therefore presumably pure and clean. One of the birds was then killed in such a manner that its blood was received into the vessel of water; then the living bird and the hyssop-bound, as we are told, with the scarlet band to the cedar wood-were dipped into the mingled blood and water, and by them the leper was sprinkled therewith seven times by the priest, and was then pronounced clean; when the living bird, stained with the blood of the bird that was killed, was allowed to fly away. Thereupon, the leper washed his clothes, shaved off all his hair, bathed in water, and entered the camp. This completed the first stadium of his restoration. Certain things about this symbolism seem very clear. First of all, whereas the leper, afflicted, as it were, with a living death, had become, as regards Israel, a man legally dead, the sprinkling with blood, in virtue of which he was allowed to take his place again in the camp as a living Israelite, symbolised the impartation of life; and, again, inasmuch as death is defiling, the blood was mingled with water, the uniform symbol of cleansing. The remaining symbols emphasise thoughts closely related to these. The cedar wood (or juniper), which is almost incorruptible, signified that with this new life was imparted also freedom from corruption. Scarlet, as a colour, is the constant symbol, again, like the blood, of life and health. What the hyssop was is still in debate; but we can at least safely say that it was a plant supposed to have healing and purifying virtues. So far all is clear. But what is the meaning of the slaying of the one bird, and the loosing afterward of the other, moistened with the blood of its fellow? Some have said that both of the birds symbolised the leper: the one which was slain, the leper as he was, -namely, as one dead, or under sentence of death by his plague; the other, naturally, then, the leper as healed, who, even as the living bird is let fly whither it will, is now set at liberty to go where he pleases. But when we consider that it is by means of being sprinkled with the blood of the slain bird that the leper is cleansed, it seems quite impossible that this slain bird should typify the leper in his state of defilement. Indeed, if this bird symbolised him as under his disease, this supposition seems even absurd; for the blood which cleansed must then have represented his own blood, and his blood as diseased and unclean! Neither is it possible that the other bird, which was set at liberty, should represent the leper as healed, and its release, his liberation; however plausible, at first thought, this explanation may seem. For the very same ceremony as this with. the two birds was also to be used in the cleansing of a leprous house ( Leviticus 14:50-53 ), where it is evident that the loosing of the living bird could not have any. such significance; since the notion of a liberty given would be wholly inapplicable in the case of a house. But whatever the true meaning of the symbolism may be, it is clear that it must be one which will apply equally well in each of the two cases, the cleansing of the leprous house, no less than that of the leprous person. We are therefore compelled to regard the slaying of the one bird as a true sacrifice. No doubt there are difficulties in the way, but they do not seem insuperable, and are, in any case, less than those which beset other suppositions. It is true that the birds are not presented before Jehovah in the tabernacle; but as the ceremony took place outside the camp, and therefore at a distance from the tabernacle, this may be explained as merely because of the necessity of the case. It is true, again, that the choice of the bird was not limited, as in the tabernacle sacrifices, to the turtledove or pigeon; but it might easily be that when, as in this case, the sacrifice was elsewhere than at the tabernacle, the rules for service there did not necessarily apply. Finally and decisively, when we turn to the law for the cleansing of the leprous house, we find that atoning virtue is explicitly ascribed to this rite with the birds ( Leviticus 14:53 ): "He shall make atonement for the house." But sacrifice is here presented in a different aspect from elsewhere in the law. In this ceremonial the central thought is not consecration through sacrifice, as in the burnt offering; nor expiation of guilt through sacrifice, as in the sin offering; nor yet satisfaction for trespass committed, as in the guilt offering. It is sacrifice as procuring for the man for whom it is offered purity and life, which is the main thought. But, according to Leviticus 14:52-53 , the atonement is made with both the dead and the living bird. The special thought which is emphasised by the use of the latter, seems to be merely the full completeness of the work of cleansing which has been accomplished through the death of the other bird. For the living bird was represented as ideally identified with the bird which was slain, by being dipped in its blood; and in that it was now loosed from its captivity, this was in token of the fact that the bird, having now given its life to impart cleansing and life to the leper, has fully accomplished that end. Obviously, this explanation is one that will apply no less readily to the cleansing of the leprous house than of the leprous person. For the leprosy in the house signifies the working of corruption and of decay and death in the wall of the house, in a way adapted to its nature, as really as in the case of the person; and the ceremonial with the birds and other material prescribed means the same with it as with the other, -namely, the removal of the principle of corruption and disease, and impartation of purity and wholesomeness. In both cases the sevenfold sprinkling, as in analogous cases elsewhere in the law, signified the completeness of the cleansing. to which nothing was lacking, and also certified to the leper that by this impartation of new life, and by his cleansing, he was again brought into covenant relations with Jehovah. With these ceremonies, the leper’s cleansing was now in so far effected that he could enter the camp; only he must first cleanse himself and his clothes with water and shave his hair, -ceremonies which, in their primary meaning, are most naturally explained by the importance of an actual physical cleansing in such a case. Every possible precaution must be taken that by no chance he bring the contagion of his late disease into the camp. Of what special importance in this connection, besides the washing, is the shaving of the hair, will be apparent to all who know how peculiarly retentive is the hair of odours and infections of every kind. The cleansed man might now come into the camp; he is restored to his place as a living Israelite. And yet he may not come to the tabernacle. For even an Israelite might not come, if defiled for the dead; and this is precisely the leper’s status at this point. Though delivered from the power of death, there is yet persisting such a connection of his new self with his old leprous self as precludes him from yet entering the more immediate presence of God. The reality of this analogy will appear to anyone who compares the rites which now follow ( Leviticus 14:10-20 ) with those appointed for the Nazarite, when defiled by the dead. {Num 6:9-12} Seven days, then, as in that case, he remains away from the tabernacle. On the seventh day, he again shaves himself even to the eyebrows, thus ensuring the most absolute cleanness, and washes himself and his clothes in water. The final restoration ceremonial took place on the eighth day, -the day symbolic of the new creation, -when he appeared before Jehovah at the tent of meeting with a he-lamb for a guilt offering, and another for a sin offering, and an ewe-lamb for a burnt offering; also a meal offering of three tenth-deals, one tenth for each sacrifice, mingled with oil, and a log (3.32 qts.) of oil. The oil was then waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as also the whole lamb of the guilt offering (an unusual thing), and then the lamb was slain and offered after the manner of the guilt offering. And now followed the most distinctive part of the ceremonial. As in the case of the consecration of the priests was done with the blood of the peace offering and with the holy oil, so was it done here with the blood of the guilt offering and with the common oil-now by its waving consecrated to Jehovah-which the cleansed leper had brought. The priest anoints the man’s right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the great toe of his right foot, first with the blood of the guilt offering, and then with the oil, having previously sprinkled of the oil seven times with his finger before the Lord. The remnant of the oil in the hand of the priest he then pours upon the cleansed leper’s head; then offers for him the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering; and therewith, at last, the atonement is complete, and the man is restored to his full rights and privileges as a living member of the people of the living God. The chief significance of this ceremonial lies in the prominence given to the guilt offering. This is evidenced, not only by the special and peculiar use which is made of its blood, in applying it to the leper, but also in the fact that in the case of the poor man, while the other offerings are diminished, there is no diminution allowed as regards the lamb of the guilt offering, and the log of oil. Why should the guilt offering have received on this occasion such a place of special prominence? The answer has been rightly given by those who point to the significance of the guilt offering as representing reparation and satisfaction for loss of service due. By the fact of the man’s leprosy, and consequent exclusion from the camp of Israel, God had been, for the whole period of his excision, defrauded, so to speak, of His proper dues from him in respect of service and offerings; and the guilt offering precisely symbolised satisfaction made for this default in service which he had otherwise been able to render. Nor is it a fatal objection to this understanding of the matter that, on this principle, he also that for a long time had had an issue should have been required, for his prolonged default of service, to bring a guilt offering in order to his restoration; whereas from him no such demand was made. For the need, before the law, for the guilt offering lay, not in the duration of the leprosy, as such apprehend it, but in the nature of the leprosy, as being, unlike any other visitation, in a peculiar sense, a death in life. Even when the man with an issue was debarred from the sanctuary, he was not, like the leper, regarded by the law as a dead man; but was still counted among them that were living in Israel And if precluded for an indefinite time from the service and worship of God at the tabernacle, he yet, by his public submission to the demands of the law, in the presence of all, rendered still to God the honour due from a member of the living Israel. But in that the leper, unlike any other defiled person, was reckoned ceremonially dead, obviously consistency in the symbolism made it impossible to regard him as having in any sense rendered honour or service to God so long as he continued a leper, any more than if he had been dead and buried. Therefore he must bring a guilt offering, as one who had, however unavoidably, committed "a trespass in the holy things of the Lord." And so this guilt offering, in the case of the leper, as in all others, represented the satisfaction of debt; and as the reality or the amount of a debt cannot be affected by the poverty of the debtor, the offering which symbolised satisfaction for the debt must be the same for the poor leper as for the rich leper. And the application of the blood to ear, hand, and foot meant the same as in the case of the consecration of the priests. Inducted, as one now risen from the dead, into the number of the priestly people, he receives the priestly consecration, devoting ear, hand, and foot to the service of the Lord. And as it was fitting that the priests, because brought into a relation of special nearness to God, in order to be ministers of reconciliation to Israel, should therefore be consecrated with the blood of the peace offering, which specially emphasised the realisation of reconciliation, -so the cleansed leper, who was reestablished as a living member of the priestly nation, more especially by the blood of the guilt offering, was therefore fittingly represented as consecrated in virtue, and by means of that fact. So, like the priests, he also was anointed by the priest with oil; not indeed with the holy oil, for he was not admitted to the priestly order; yet with common oil, sanctified by its waving before God, in token of his consecration as a member of the priestly people. Especially suitable in his case was this anointing, that the oil constantly stands as a symbol of healing virtue, which in his experience he had so wondrously received. Remembering in all this how the leprosy stands as a preeminent type of sin, in its aspect as involving death and corruption, the application of these ceremonies to the antitypical cleansing, at least in its chief aspects, is almost self-evident. As in all the Levitical types, so in this case, at the very entrance on the redeemed life stands the sacrifice of a life, and the service of a priest as mediator between God and man. Blood must be shed if the leper is to be admitted again into covenant standing with God; and the blood of the sacrifice in the law ever points to the sacrifice of Christ. But that great Sacrifice may be regarded in various aspects. Sin is a many-sided evil, and on every side it must be met. As often repeated, because sin as guilt requires expiation, hence the type of the sin offering; in that it is a defrauding of God of His just rights from us, satisfaction is required, hence the type of the guilt offering; as it is absence of consecration, life for self instead of life for God, hence the type of the burnt offering. And yet the manifold aspects of sin are not all enumerated. For sin, again, is spiritual death; and, as death, it involves corruption and defilement. It is with special reference to this fact that the work of Christ is brought before us here. In the clean bird, slain that its blood may be applied to the leper for cleansing, we see typified Christ, as giving Himself, that His very life may be imparted to us for our life. In that the blood of the bird is mingled with water, the symbol of the Word of God, is symbolised the truth, that with the atoning blood is ever inseparably united the purifying energy of the Holy Ghost through the Word. Not the water without the blood, nor the blood without the water, saves, but the blood with the water, and the water with the blood. So it is said of Him to whom the ceremony pointed: {1Jn 5:6} "This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood." But the type yet lacks something for completeness; and for this reason we have the second bird, who, when by his means the blood has been sprinkled on the leper, and the man is now pronounced clean, is released and flies away heavenward. What a beautiful symbol of that other truth, without which even the atonement of the Lord were naught, that He who died, having by that death for us procured our life was then released from the bonds of death, rising from the dead on the third day, and ascending to heaven, like the freed bird, in token that His life-giving, cleansing, work was done. Thus the message which, as the liberated bird flies carolling away, sweet as a heavenly song, seems to fall upon the ear, is this, "Delivered up for our trespasses, and raised for our justification." {Rom 4:25; see Gr.} But although thus and then restored to his standing as a member of the living people of God, not yet was the cleansed leper allowed to appear in the presence of God at the tent of meeting. There was a delay of a week, and only then, on the eighth day, the day typical of resurrection and new creation, does He appear before God. Is there typical meaning in this delay? We would not be too confident. It is quite possible that this delay of a week, before the cleansed man was allowed to present himself for the completion of the ceremonial which reinstated him in the plenary enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of a child of Israel, may have been intended merely as a precautionary rule, of which the purpose was to guard against the possibility of infection, and the defilement of the sanctuary by his presence, through renewed activity of the disease; while, at the same time, it would serve as a spiritual discipline to remind the man, now cleansed, of the extreme care and holy fear with which, after his defilement, he should venture into the presence of the Holy One of Israel; and thus, by analogy, it becomes a like lesson to the spiritually cleansed in all ages. But perhaps we may see a deeper significance in this week of delay, and his appointed appearance before the Lord on the eighth day. If the whole course of the leper, from the time of his infection till his final reappearing in the presence of Jehovah at the tent of meeting, be intended to typify the history and experience of a sinner as saved from sin; and if the cleansing of the leper without the camp, and his reinstatement thereupon as a member of God’s Israel, represents in type the judicial reinstatement of the cleansed sinner, through the application of the blood and Spirit of Christ, in the number of God’s people; one can then hardly fail to recognise in the week’s delay appointed to him, before he could come into the immediate presence of God, an adumbration of the fact that between the sinner’s acceptance and the appointed time of his appearing, finally and fully cleansed, before the Lord, on the resurrection morning, there intervenes a period of delay, even the whole lifetime of the believer here in the flesh and in the disembodied state. For only thereafter does he at last, wholly perfected, appear before God in the heavenly Zion. But before thus appearing, the accepted man once and again had to cleanse his garments and his person, that so he might remove everything in which by any chance uncleanness might still lurk. Which, translated into New Testament language, gives us the charge of the Apostle Paul {2Co 7:1} addressed to those who had indeed received the new life, but were still in the flesh: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." But, at last, the week of delay is ended. After its seventh day follows an eighth, the first-day morning of a new week, the morning typical of resurrection and therewith completed redemption, and the leper now, completely restored, appears before God in the holy tabernacle. Even so shall an eighth-day morning dawn for all who by the cleansing blood have been received into the number of God’s people. And when that day comes, then, even as when the cleansed man appeared at the tent of meeting, he presented guilt offering, sin offering, and burnt offering, as the warrant for his presence there, and the ground of his acceptance, so shall it be in that day of resurrection, when every one of God’s once leprous but now washed and accepted children shall appear in Zion before Him. They will all appear there as pleading the blood, the precious blood of Christ; Christ, at last apprehended and received by them in all His fulness, as expiation, satisfaction, and righteousness. For so John represents it in the apocalyptic vision of the blood-washed multitude in the heavenly glory: {Rev 7:14-15} "These are they which come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple." And as it is written {Rom 8:11} that the final quickening of our mortal bodies shall be accomplished by the Spirit of God, so the leper, now in God’s presence, receives a special anointing; a type of the unction of the Holy Ghost in resurrection power, consecrating the once leprous ear, hand, and foot, and therewith the whole body, now cleansed from all defilement, to the glad service of Jehovah our God and our Redeemer. Such, in outline at least, appears to be the typical significance of this ceremonial of the cleansing of the leper. Some details are indeed still left unexplained, but, probably, the whole reason for some of the regulations is to be formal in the immediate practical necessities of the leper’s condition. Leviticus 14:33 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, OF LEPROSY IN A GARMENT OR HOUSE Leviticus 13:47-59 ; Leviticus 14:33-53 "The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment; whether it be in warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin; if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest: and the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up that which hath the plague seven days: and he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in the skin, whatever service skin is used for; the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean. And he shall burn the garment, whether the warp or the woof, in woollen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire. And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it tip seven days more: and the priest shall look, after that the plague is washed: and, behold, if the plague have not changed its colour, and the plague be not spread, it is unclean thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is a fret, whether the bareness be with n or without. And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague be dim after the washing thereof, then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof: and if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is breaking out: thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire. And the garment, either the warp, or the woof, or whatsoever thing of skin it he, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean. This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or the woof, or any thing of skin, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 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; then he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, There seemeth to me to be as it were a plague in the house: and the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go in 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: and he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, and the appearance thereof be lower than the wall; then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: 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; then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which the plague is, and cast them into an unclean place without the city: and he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the mortar that they serape off without the city into an unclean place: and they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar and shall plaister the house. And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken out the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plaistered; then the priest shall come in and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. 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. Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. And if the priest shall come in, and look, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: 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: 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: but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open field: so shall he make atonement for the house: and it shall be clean." There has been much debate as to what we are to understand by the leprosy in the garment or in a house. Was it an affection identical in nature with the leprosy of the body? or was it merely so called from a certain external similarity to that plague? However extraordinary the former supposition might once have seemed, in the present state of medical science we are at least able to say that there is nothing inconceivable in it. We have abundant experimental evidence that a large number of diseases, and, not improbably, leprosy among them, are caused by minute parasitic forms of vegetable life; and, also, that in many cases these forms of life may, and do, exist and multiply in various other suitable media besides the fluids and tissues of the human body. If, as is quite likely, leprosy be caused by some such parasitic life in the human body, it is then evidently possible that such parasites, under favourable conditions of heat, moisture, etc., should exist and propagate themselves, as in other analogous cases, outside the body; as, for instance, in cloth, or leather, or in the plaster of a house; in which case it is plain that such garments or household implements, or such dwellings, as might be thus infected, would be certainly unwholesome, and presumably capable of communicating the leprosy to the human subject. But we have not yet sufficient scientific observation to settle the question whether this is really so; we can, however, safely say that, in any case, the description which is here given indicates a growth in the affected garment or house of some kind of mould or mildew; which, as we know, is a form of life produced under conditions which always imply an unwholesome state of the article or house in which it appears. We also know that if such growths be allowed to go on unchecked, they involve more or less rapid processes of decomposition in that which is affected. Thus, even from a merely natural point of view, one can see the high wisdom of the Divine King of Israel in ordering that, in all such cases, the man whose garment or house was thus affected should at once notify the priest, who was to come and decide whether the appearance was of a noxious and unclean kind or not, and then take action accordingly. Whether the suspicious spot were in a house or in some article it contained, the article or house (the latter having been previously emptied) was first shut up for seven days. {Lev 13:50, Lev 14:38} If in the garment or other article affected it was found then to have spread, it was without any further ceremony to be burnt. {Lev 13:51-52} If it had not spread, it was to be washed and shut up seven days more, at the end of which time, even though it had not spread, if the greenish or reddish colour remained unchanged, it was still to be adjudged unclean, and to be burned. {Lev 13:55} If, on the other hand, the colour had somewhat "dimmed," the part affected was to he cut out; when, if it spread no further, it was to be washed a second time and be pronounced clean. {Lev 13:58} If, however, after the excision of the affected part, the spot appeared again, the article, without further delay, was to be burned. {Lev 13:57} The law, in the case of the appearing of a leprosy in a house, {Lev 14:33-53} was much more elaborate. As in the former case, when the occupant of the house suspects, "as it were a plague in the house," he is to go and tell the priest; who is, first of all, to order the emptying of the house before he goes in, lest that which is in the house, should it prove to be the plague, be made unclean ( Leviticus 14:36 ). The diagnosis reminds us of that of the leprosy in the body; greenish or reddish streaks, in appearance "lower than the wall," i.e. , deep seated ( Leviticus 14:37 ). Where this is observed, the empty house is to be shut up for seven days ( Leviticus 14:38-39 ); and at the end of that time, if the spot has spread, "the stones in which the plague is" are to be taken out, the plaster scraped off the walls of the house, and all carried out into an unclean place outside of the city, and new stones and new plaster put in the place of the old ( Leviticus 14:40-42 ). If, after this, the plague yet reappear, the house is to be adjudged unclean, and is to be wholly torn down, and all the material carried into an unclean place without the city ( Leviticus 14:44-45 ). If, on the other hand, after this renewal of the interior of the house, the spots do not reappear, the priest "shall pronou