LEVITICUS 13
We have something here much more serious than the sin of inadvertence, or the trespass, of chapters 4 and 5. It is not simply that there is sin in the flesh, and no good there, and that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. That is true of the flesh in each one of us, and it has to be judged in secret with God. But leprosy is the breaking out of the lawlessness of the flesh in acts or words so as to call for the priestly discernment and pronounced judgment of the saints. It renders one unfit to occupy one’s tent, or to partake in the privileges of the congregation of God.
The fact that such a condition is set before us in type with so much detailed instruction shows that it is likely to be met with amongst the people of God. It also shows that He would have His priests skilled in ability to discern it, faithful in dealing with it, and also qualified to render all the service needed for [p. 141] cleansing when His mercy has brought in healing. One cannot doubt that the instruction of these two long chapters has an important present application.
All unrighteousness is sin, but it is not always leprosy. Leprosy is a sore betraying the existence of a deep-seated constitutional taint, which becomes for the time characteristic of the person affected. It represents the coming into evidence in a pronounced way of the will of the flesh, so that for the time being the individual is characterized by it. This is a terrible thing, for the will of the flesh is unclean and abhorrent to God. It is like the presumptuous sin of Psalm 19: 13, which David prayed to be kept from. One really characterized by it is unsuitable for the companionship of God’s people. “He shall dwell apart; outside the camp shall his dwelling be” (verse 46).
Miriam spoke against Moses; Gehazi in his covetousness spoiled the witness of free grace to the Gentile; and Uzziah presumed to exercise priesthood without divine title. All three were smitten with leprosy, and are examples of moral conditions which in the government of God result in leprosy. This shows how important it is to judge a corrupt and wilful state of soul, for if it is not judged in secret it will, sooner or later, come into evidence in the body by word or deed.
These chapters (13, 14) are wonderful instruction in grace, for if they emphasize the seriousness of leprosy they also intimate very clearly the possibility of the leper being healed and cleansed. The healing of a leper is entirely of God; it is not the priest’s work to heal him, though when he is healed the priest has a good deal to do with his cleansing. When there is pronounced activity of the will of the flesh God alone can bring a man to judge it. When self-judgment [p. 142] comes in the leper is healed. He must be healed before anything can be done for his cleansing. If the priest went outside the camp and looked at the leper and found him healed he knew that the power of God had been in operation. When a man in whom will has been active says, as Isaiah did, “Woe unto me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts”, the leprosy is healed. In that chapter (Isaiah 6) we see how by the touch of the glowing coal from the altar his iniquity was taken away, and his sin expiated. His lips were cleansed so that he spoke of the glory of Christ. “These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”. See Isaiah 6: 1 - 7; John 12: 41. How wonderful the grace of it! The deeper the lesson of self-knowledge and self-judgment the more profound the sense of grace. We have to do with the God of all grace.
There may be sores which look like leprosy, but which are not really leprous, and hence priestly discernment and care become most important. In doubtful cases nothing is to be done in a hurry. There are certain symptoms which have to be carefully noted. The hair in the sore turned white is a serious indication. It suggests definite signs of spiritual decline and decay. The neglect of the private reading of the Scriptures and of prayer cannot be seen by others, but when persons lose their interest in the meetings and in the people of God, and begin fault-finding and taking up worldly interests and associations, these are obvious and suspicious signs. Viewed along with other things they serve to guide the priest in his judgment. Then “the sore looketh deeper than the skin of his flesh”. This settles the question; “it is the sore of leprosy”. It is not merely an infirmity of manner, or a manifestation of irritability, but a settled and determined working of the will of the flesh. The man’s mind and spirit are really characterized by what is displeasing to God; the “sore” is “deeper than the skin”. Such a one can only be pronounced “unclean”. He is, for the time being, unfit to enjoy the privilege of the sanctuary, or of the fellowship to which saints are called.
There is a more doubtful case in verses 4 - 6, and it requires patience for the discernment of its true character. The man with a “sore” has to be shut up for seven days, and possibly another seven, before it can be determined whether it is leprosy or not. In such a case the man is not definitely pronounced “unclean”, but he is “shut up”. There is enough in his case to cause considerable exercise and waiting upon God, and the restriction of his liberty, until the true nature of what is working can be determined. The shutting up is really in the patience of grace; it is because the priest has noted certain favourable indications (verse 4), and he is hopeful that no necessity may arise to pronounce the man unclean. But the case is sufficiently grave to demand care, and the man cannot be regarded as free from question, or as one who can move in and out freely as having the confidence of his brethren.
If at the end of the first seven days “the sore remaineth as it was, the sore hath not spread in the skin”, it is another favourable indication, and gives further hope that it is not a case of leprosy. And he is shut up “seven days a second time”. If things remain as they are and do not increase, it is, so far, favourable.
[p. 144] When any evil spreads it is a bad sign; it shows that there is an active energy about it. A root of bitterness springing up may trouble the saints, and many be defiled by it. But if will is not persistently active — if it is not really leprosy — under the normal working of grace sores “become pale”; they die down, and the virulence disappears. A bad feeling between saints, or on the part of one towards others, is a “sore”, but there is always a secret and persistent working of grace which tends to heal such things. All ministry, and mutual spiritual activities amongst saints, and pastoral care, tend to healing.
You may feel very angry with a brother or sister, but as the days pass grace begins to assert its power in your soul, and the result is that you feel inclined to make a little more allowance than you did at first. Then it occurs to you that perhaps you were not so wise and gracious yourself as you might have been. Now if these exercises are being produced in your soul under the influence of grace you may be assured that the same process is going on in your brother or sister. The “sore” is becoming “pale”! It is always so with the people of God if they judge the activity of their own wills. And as this is seen it is the happy indication that the “sore” is not leprosy.
Under grace there is always a working towards healing. So that if a sore spreads and becomes more virulent it is very serious. It indicates that, for the time, the will of the flesh is more in evidence than the power of divine grace in the soul. If sores do not become”pale”, and if they spread, it indicates some positive working of the will of the flesh.
There may be much that is trying in a brother or a sister, but we must not be in a hurry to pronounce it [p. 145] leprosy. Perhaps if we got spiritually near to them we should find that those things were more trying to them than they are to us. The conscience is sensitive as to them, and the heart mourns them. In such a case there may be much the soul has to be humbled about, but there is not leprosy. The priest knows how to distinguish between infirmities of manner and habits of speech which may be a trial, but which are not “deeper than the skin”, and those manifestations which indicate a positive and active working of the will.
In verses 9 - 11 we have a more definite case. “Behold, there is a white rising in the skin, and it hath turned the hair white, and a trace of raw flesh is in the rising: it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh”. In this case things are so manifest that there is no need for delay in pronouncing upon it. There is clear evidence. “It is an old leprosy”. There has been something there unjudged, perhaps for years, but it has now come to light. If things are gone on with in secret — perhaps allowed to work in the mind unjudged — there comes a time when, in the governmental ways of God, they are exposed. There is often a long secret history behind an open outbreak of leprosy.
What is seen in verses 12, 13, is in marked contrast to “an old leprosy” that has been long working in secret. Here the leprosy covers “all the skin of him that hath the sore, from his head even to his foot, wherever the eyes of the priest look”. In this case all is out. It speaks of full confession. The priest pronounces him clean, and it is emphatically added, “he is clean”. There is no guile in such a man; truth is in his inward parts. There is not the slightest pretension to be other than what he is; not a single spot “wherever the eyes of the priest look” where there is any hypocrisy or dissimulation. He is leprous, but he is, in type, upright with God and with his brethren about it. “He is clean”.
But with such a one there may be again the appearance of “raw flesh”, and on the day when this appears “he shall be unclean”. There is the sad possibility, even after an upright and open acknowledgment of what has worked in one’s flesh, that there may be again an activity of that flesh. How humbling is the thought of this! What watchfulness and prayerfulness does it necessitate! We need to be at all times in absolute dependence upon God, “kept guarded by the power of God through faith” (1 Peter 1: 5). To those of us who have known by experience how “raw flesh” can come into evidence, perhaps again and again, it is a comfort to see that this paragraph does not end without a suggestion of the “raw flesh” changing again and becoming white, so that the man can come to the priest, and be once more pronounced clean because “he is clean”. How wondrous is the grace and mercy of God that can bring about restoration even in such a case as is typified here!
Then “a boil” (verses 18 - 23) or “a burning inflammation” (verses 24 - 28) are suspicious signs, and are very apt to be starting points of leprosy. I think these things would refer to outbreaks of natural heat and irritability and bad temper. Probably such things are found with most of us at times, though some may be specially liable to them. There can be no doubt that such things often lead to prolonged ill-feeling. An immense amount of blessing and joy is hindered by personal feelings coming in amongst the people of God. Such things interfere with the activity of the Spirit,
[p. 147] and are a great restraint upon spiritual freedom when saints come together. We have to be careful that what begins in personal infirmity does not end in a positive and persistent activity of the will of the flesh.
If wrong feelings come in, to speak of them to others is only spreading the sore. It is better to have “seven days” alone with God. That would check the springing up and spreading of roots of bitterness. It is because we lack the grace of God that these things come in; if that grace continually acted on our spirits it would set them aside; they would go like the morning mists before the sun.
It is striking that only in connection with leprosy in the head is the man pronounced “utterly unclean”. I think this shows that the will of the flesh taking form in thoughts and teaching is the most serious form of leprosy. It might be said of every teacher of evil doctrine that “his sore is in his head”. If a man has wrong thoughts of God or of Christ he is “utterly unclean”. There was probably never more head leprosy than there is today — the proud will of the flesh manifesting itself in all kinds of evil thought and teaching. There is much that is not merely the fruit of human infirmity or ignorance but which is Satanic in origin and anti-christian in character, and which has in it all the elements of apostasy.
Holding Christ as Head, and deriving from Him, is the divine preservative from this kind of leprosy. There are no pure and holy thoughts apart from Christ and the Holy Spirit. A saint of 300 years ago had some sense of this when he said
“Profaneness in my head,
Defects and darkness in my breast”.
But he could also add:
“Only another Head
I have, another Heart and Breast”.“Christ is my only Head,
“My alone only Heart and Breast.“My doctrine tuned by Christ, Who is not dead
But lives in me while I do rest”. (George Herbert)
To have by His Spirit the intelligence and affections of Christ would preserve us from every form of leprosy.
The leper with garments rent and head uncovered, and with the cry, “Unclean, unclean!” upon his lips, had to “dwell apart; outside the camp shall his dwelling be”. He had to realize his condition, and to own it publicly, and to accept the fact that he was unsuitable for companionship with the people of God, or for the enjoyment of their holy privileges. He found himself, like the wicked person at Corinth, removed from amongst the people of God, but not to be forgotten by them. He was still to be the subject of priestly solicitude and care. “His tent” would ever be a reminder that he was of Israel, and in the light of these two chapters there would ever be the desire that he might be healed and cleansed, and brought back to his tent and his privileges.
The closing part of the chapter refers to leprosy in a garment, which would represent something not exactly personal, but closely identified with the person, such as one’s occupation or habits or associations. In this case the man is not leprous, but his garment lies under suspicion and must be “shown unto the priest”. Some callings are unclean, and a believer could not abide in them with God. In such a case the whole [p. 149] garment is infected, and must be burned with fire. The spreading of the sore is an important indication, as it was in the person, and would prove it to be “a corroding leprosy”.
If something which there is reason to suspect to be evil increases, and makes its character more apparent, it must be dealt with unsparingly. The first indication may not be sufficient to decide the matter, but as soon as it is seen to be extending it is known as “a corroding leprosy”. If the sore has not spread after seven days the garment is washed and shut up a second seven days. The word, bringing in the moral cleansing power of the death of Christ, is applied to the existing conditions, and space given for the effect to be made manifest. If after the washing the sore has not changed its appearance, this is sufficient to prove it unclean even if the sore has not spread. There has been no effect from the application of the word, and this is serious. It is in this case “a fretting sore”; not so virulent, perhaps, as the “corroding leprosy” of verses 51, 52, but decidedly “unclean”, and the garment in which it is must be burned with fire. There are certain habits or associations which give indications that there is something about them which is not of God, and when the word is brought in and applied to them, and no change is produced, it makes apparent that they are unclean.
But if the sore becomes pale after washing it may be possible that the whole garment is not unclean, but only the piece where the sore is, which has to be rent from it. Sometimes it is not the whole of a certain association that is unclean, but only a part of it, in which case the unclean part only is to be got rid of. But if, after doing this, the sore appears again, it is [p. 150] evident that the whole is infected and must be burned. But if after washing the sore departs, “it shall be washed a second time, and it is clean”. There are certain conditions which only need the application of the word of cleansing to bring them into moral suitability: in this case there is no leprosy. But there are other conditions which are in themselves so unclean that there is no remedy but unsparing judgment, and getting rid of all that is connected with them.
The people of God are to cleanse themselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in His fear. They are to hate the garment spotted by the flesh, and to keep themselves unspotted from the world. If any occupation, or habit, or association is found to hinder one’s liberty with God, or the enjoyment of spiritual things, or happy fellowship with one’s brethren, or power in service, it is to be suspected that there is some “sore of leprosy” about it, and it should be subjected at once to priestly scrutiny and care. Do not go on with anything that you cannot connect with God. If it cannot be done to His glory it is better to tear it out, or to burn the whole garment.