LEVITICUS 14
We may note that chapter 13 is addressed to Moses and Aaron; chapter 14: 1 - 32 to Moses only; then chapter 14: 33 - 53 is to Moses and Aaron. Priestly discernment is called for in the sections where Aaron is addressed, but chapter 14: 1 - 32 is the setting forth of the mind of Jehovah as to the cleansing of the leper;
[p. 151] it is a wondrous unfolding of Jehovah’s grace through the mediator.
The leper must be “healed” before the priest can do anything. When will is active only God can deal with it. A course of persistent self-will must end disastrously if God does not come in in the sovereignty of His mercy. Paul delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan that they might be taught by discipline not to blaspheme. In their case we may see an instance of how God can put a check on the action of man’s will for the good of His saints without necessarily healing the leper. In another case, “An heretical man after a first and second admonition have done with, knowing that such a one is perverted, and sins, being self-condemned” (Titus 3: 10, 11). Such a man is a leper whose “sore is in his head”; he has to be left with God after being twice admonished. Then there are cases where those who oppose are to be set right in meekness, “if God perhaps may sometime give them repentance to acknowledgment of the truth, and that they may awake up out of the snare of the devil, who are taken by him, for his will” (2 Timothy 2: 25, 26). It is sovereign mercy if a man who has pursued a course of self-will wakes up out of it to be for God’s will.
The Lord puts the cleansing of the leper entirely on the ground of sovereignty in Luke 4, for He says, “There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian”. It seems as though the leper in Luke 5 had understood that, for he said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou art able to cleanse me”. He submitted himself to divine sovereignty.
In the case of a self-willed believer the advocacy of [p. 152] Christ might be answered by a discipline which would bring him to submission. Then God would use the attitude of the brethren towards him as a very deep exercise. It is brought home to him that the priest has pronounced him unclean, and that his dwelling is outside the camp. He has to take up all the exercise of this — to rend his garments, and uncover his head, and cry, “Unclean, unclean!” He has to acknowledge his condition, and to realize that he is unfit to be a companion of God’s people.
But all this has healing and cleansing in view. This chapter would encourage us to look for the healing of lepers. Indeed it is very clear evidence that God is with His people when healing comes about; one of His Names is Jehovah-Rophi — Jehovah that healeth thee. It is a serious exercise if the state of God’s Israel is such that He cannot manifest His healing power amongst them. The Lord’s service in Israel was marked by healing, feeding, and teaching; healing must come first, for an unhealed person cannot enjoy spiritual food or take in divine teaching.
For the cleansing of the leper the priest commands two clean living birds to be taken, and cedar-wood and scarlet and hyssop. The “two clean living birds” as typical of Christ would suggest what He was as coming down from heaven. It was characteristic of Him that He came down from heaven not to do His own will but the will of Him who sent Him (John 6: 38). He was of the things that are above, and the whole principle of His moral being was obedience. God presents to the healed leper, and to every one of us, a new and heavenly kind of Man in Christ. As marked by activity of will the leper has manifested that he was “of those things which are beneath” (see note to [p. 153] John 8: 23 in New Translation), but he is now to learn Christ as “of those things which are above” — the perfect contrast to all that has been active in himself. His self-judgment is to be according to an estimate formed in the light of what was true in Christ.
The “cedar-wood and scarlet and hyssop” would, I think, intimate things which had their anti-type in Christ. If the cedar speaks of “the loftiness of man”, as it does in Isaiah 2, and the scarlet of anything that would give him distinction, and the hyssop of his low estate, I think these things may be also suggestive of what Christ was in the days of His flesh. It is said of Him, “His bearing as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars” (Song of Songs 5: 15). Wherever we look at Him — in the home at Nazareth, in the temple at twelve years of age, at the baptismal water of Jordan, in the temptation, with His disciples, with the multitudes, with His adversaries — His bearing had at all times the excellency of the cedar.
Then “scarlet” is a distinguishing colour, as we may see in Genesis 38: 28; Joshua 2: 18; 2 Samuel 1: 24. “A cloth of scarlet” over the dishes, cups, bowls and goblets of the drink-offering and the continual bread on the table (Numbers 4: 8) seems to speak of the distinction which God will put upon Israel when they have their administrative place as sustained by Christ for God’s pleasure, and they become vessels of drink-offering as gladly devoted to Him. So the “scarlet” would set forth those features in Christ which in a marked way distinguished Him from all others as having the true glory of Man in contrast with every kind of vain-glory.
Then the “hyssop” would typify the lowliness in which He took a bondman’s form, and was ever found [p. 154] amongst His own, and in the world, as the One who served. The lowliness of perfect obedience and subjection to the will of God ever marked Him.
The priest is to command that these things are to be taken for the healed leper. It is not the leper who brings them; they are taken for him along with the two clean living birds. He is to learn in Christ all that is truly excellent and distinctive of man as having honour from God, and the lowliness in which it was all sustained so that He never sought His own glory or pleasure but the glory of God and the good of men. What a contrast is all this to that of which leprosy speaks! What a humbling lesson does it all mean for the healed leper! And yet what a blessed instruction in Christ!
Then one bird is to be killed in an earthen vessel over running (or living) water. This would seem to suggest the death of Christ as that of which the witness is preserved for application to the soul in the power of the Spirit. The living bird, the cedar-wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop are all dipped in the blood of the killed bird, and the one who is to be cleansed is sprinkled seven times by the priest, and pronounced clean. Christ is seen here as the Living One, but as having become dead on account of that state which had characterized the leper. If all that in Him which was so excellent and distinctive, so morally suitable to God, had to go into death it gives a profound sense of the cost at which cleansing has been made possible for the leper. If Christ after the flesh, with all His supreme moral excellence, had to go in death, what does it make of man’s greatness or glory, or even of his voluntary humility? It is seen to be vanity, and to be subject to death, but a death into which [p. 155] Christ came in wondrous grace for the glory of God and to make cleansing possible for men. What powerful influence is this to bring to bear on the healed leper in seven-fold sprinkling! Christ has been into death to bring to an end the man after the flesh, with all the activities of his lawless will, so that those who believe on Him might be henceforth characterized by the living activities of the Spirit. Both the living water and the oil in this chapter are typical of the Holy Spirit. “Living water” would suggest inward refreshment which meets the thirst of the soul and puts it on the line of true satisfaction. The “oil” would refer to the Spirit as giving capability to hear and to serve and to walk in spiritual intelligence and power.
Then the living bird let loose into the open field would suggest that Christ is known as having returned from death to heavenly associations. He has died to sin, and has done with it, and He now lives to God. It is good to get an apprehension of Christ as living to God, for if He lives to God it is that we may take account of ourselves as alive to God in Christ Jesus. There is something very attractive to an exercised soul in the thought of living to God; that is, for God’s pleasure. There is One blessed Man who does so absolutely, but He lives to God that we also may live to God in Him, no longer on the line of what we are as in the flesh, but in a new order of man — in Christ Jesus.
Up to this point all has been done for the man who is to be cleansed, but now he has to do something for himself. He has to wash his garments, shave all his hair, and bathe in water. In the light of Christ as having died to sin and living to God the healed leper brings his garments — all his outward associations and [p. 156] habits — under a process of moral cleansing. He has to overhaul himself, and to bring everything about him into suitability for the camp. One in whom there has been a leprous working of will is sure to have defiled his garments. Everything about him has been affected by his wilful state, and now that he is healed and self-judged he has to adjust and cleanse everything before he can resume the normal life of a saint as living to God. This is an exercise which can only be gone through with feelings of shame, but there is also an encouraging sense that one’s exercises are now on the line of obedience and righteousness, and not on the line of one’s own will.
The leper is not, typically, an unconverted man, but one of the people of God who has got into a wilful state. The exercises of such, in view of recovery, are deeper and more humbling than those of a convicted sinner, because the believer has known grace, has valued Christ, and has received the Spirit. And all this adds to the depth of his self-abhorrence when mercy grants him repentance and heals his leprosy.
Such a one has to “shave all his hair, and bathe in water”. He feels the necessity for bringing under judgment everything about him that has been the outcome of his unclean state, or identified with it. He must resume his place in the camp as one who has obviously set aside, by the sharp razor of self-judgment, everything that has been affected by, or that has taken character from, his leprous state. He comes back to be wholly on the ground of Christ, and in the Spirit not in the flesh. All that he was naturally had come under the taint of the terrible moral disease which had worked in him, and he is now set to refuse it all, and to be on the line of the spiritual.
“[p. 157] And afterwards shall he come into the camp, and shall abide outside his tent seven days”. He is now morally suited to the congregation of God, but he has a further exercise before he can be really at home as to his affections amongst the saints. Many have known what it is to be clear in conscience without being yet in perfect freedom of heart. This is reached on the eighth day, but not without passing through another exercise on the seventh day which is more searching as to every detail than the former one. He is, now to shave “his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, even all his hair shall he shave, and he shall wash his garments, and shall bathe his flesh in water, and he is clean”.
What a comprehensive and particular process of exercise does this suggest! Every detail of what had stood connected with his leprous state is thoroughly dealt with in unsparing practical separation. It is not merely a general self-judgment, but a sharp and decisive refusal in detail of all that has grown out of that state of uncleanness in which he has been involved. Do not let us pass lightly over this, or think that it can be dispensed with. The exercises typified here are essential to cleansing where there has been a persistent action of self-will.
“The eighth day” completes the cleansing, and all is now “before Jehovah, at the entrance of the tent of meeting”. The eighth day, it will be remembered, is in another connection the circumcision day — typically the day when the flesh is seen to be cut off in the death of Christ. Here it is the day when the healed and cleansed leper is restored to the full privilege of an Israelite; it answers to 2 Corinthians 2: 8. He is now to learn Christ and the Spirit in a very blessed way after [p. 158] having learned himself in a very humbling way. He is now to be brought into line with his brethren in their apprehensions and appreciations of Christ. But in relation to all this he is the subject of priestly service. Indeed, the amount of care and service that God makes available for the healed leper is a striking feature of this chapter. As we give more place to the truth of the assembly I am persuaded that priestly service will come more into evidence. There will be more spiritual ability to discern leprosy, but also to do all that is necessary for the cleansing of the healed leper. The leper cannot cleanse himself; he cannot take up his spiritual privileges without coming under priestly service. Sometimes we hear of a man who has been naughty and wilful pronouncing himself to be healed and cleansed, and being quite hurt when his brethren do not at once accept his testimony. I think God would have such a one to recognize that he needs priestly service, and that he is dependent upon the priestly element in his brethren. But this raises a very real exercise as to how far we are competent to render priestly service. It requires the conditions set forth in type in the garments and consecration of the priesthood.
The first thing which the priest presents is the he-lamb for a trespass-offering. The priest and the healed leper are together in the recognition that what has come in needed the death of Christ to make atonement for it. There has been specific violation of some commandment of the Lord. The tendency is to be too general — to admit general failure, but not to own frankly what one has done wrong. Priestly service would help as to this. When we are really self-judged we are prepared to call things by their right names.
[p. 159] It is striking to see that the trespass-offering and the log of oil are presented and waved together. The man is led to see as before God that he has trespassed, and what his trespass meant to Christ who bore it in love, but I think there may be a suggestion here that he is also led to see what it meant to the Holy Spirit who was grieved by it. Indeed “the log of oil” might teach us to recognize that what answers to leprosy in a believer comes about by ignoring the Spirit of God. I should not fulfil the lust of the flesh if I walked in the Spirit, much less should I maintain it in will.
But “the log of oil” is more than the reminder of this. It intimates that the healed leper is henceforth to be a spiritual man. What is before God is the ability of Christ to bear the judgment of the trespass, but also that the one who trespassed is now to take character from the presence of the Spirit.
The priest has spiritual intelligence as to all this. And he has exercises in spiritual affections and sensibilities and sympathies also. The trespass-offering is his; he has to eat it. He makes the trespass his own. One would desire so to walk with one’s brethren that if a brother had been leprous and had been healed he might be able to count upon one doing this for him.
Then the ear, the hand, and the foot of the healed man have to carry the blood of the trespass-offering and the oil. What is first before God has then to leave its mark on the man. The blood claims him for the will of God. If the memorial of the trespass-offering is on his ear, hand and foot, those members can be no longer surrendered to the will of the flesh. Then there is the Spirit to give character to his hearing, action and walk. His members are to be held as dead in regard to his own will, but the Spirit comes in as life [p. 160] to control them for God. He is to be characterized by spiritual hearing, action and walk. It suggests, too, in a blessed way how the Lord went through this scene entirely under the Spirit’s control. The priest has a great sense of the place the Spirit has before God; he sprinkles the oil seven times before Jehovah. This indicates how the perfection of divine pleasure is only to be brought about in the power of the Spirit.
“The remainder of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed”. Such is the wonderful grace of God that the one who had been a leper gets something that he never had before as an ordinary Israelite. He gets an anointing which speaks of spiritual intelligence and dignity such as he had not before. We may see something like this in the Corinthians and Galatians, who had turned away from what was of the Spirit of God, but who got through divine healing and the priestly service of Paul more than they had had before. What a thought it gives us of grace!
Naturally we might feel doubtful whether one who has manifested the will of the flesh in such a way as to be pronounced unclean would ever again be quite what he was before. But this chapter would teach us the immensity of a mercy and grace that can not only heal and cleanse a leper, but can give him more than he had before. It shows that whenever we go through a real exercise with God, however humbling the occasion of it may be, we get spiritual enlargement and enrichment. Some might be inclined to say that this puts a premium on departure and sell-will! Nothing of the kind! It puts a premium on having to do with God! If we went on steadily with God we should learn the same lessons in a deeper and better way,
[p. 161] and our exercises would have more of a priestly character all through. One feels assured that the priest who cleansed the leper learned all that the leper learned, and learned it more deeply because of his greater nearness to God. Paul got for his own soul all that he passed on to the Corinthians and Galatians, but he got it in a priestly way; that is, by spiritual exercise without the experience of having failed in the same way himself.
The sin-offering is more general in character; it comes in here with reference to the man’s uncleanness. And there is also the oblation and the burnt-offering. The whole state of man in the flesh, with all his uncleanness, has been judged and removed sacrificially in the death of Christ as the sin-offering. This clears the ground. Then the burnt-offering is the sweet savour of the death of Christ as the basis for the bringing in of everything that is for divine pleasure. And the oblation gives the preciousness of Christ as Man in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the character of Man which will eventually fill all things for the pleasure of God. The man with oil upon his head can appreciate all this in a spiritual way.
What is priestly always helps in the direction of self-judgment, truer and more enlarged apprehension and appreciation of Christ, and a better knowledge of what is connected with the Spirit. One is impressed by the prominence given in this chapter to the priestly service rendered towards the healed leper. There is first discernment as to his being healed, and then ability to do all that is necessary for his cleansing and reinstatement in complete clearance, freedom and dignity in relation to the tent of meeting.
In verses 21 - 32 we have gracious provision for the [p. 162] one who is poor, and whose hand is “not able to get” the normal offerings. This reminds us that God considers, and His priests consider, the spiritual means and ability of those who need cleansing. “What is regularly prescribed” may not be obtainable in all cases. In such cases one lamb and two turtle-doves take the place of the three lambs in the normal offering; and one tenth part of fine flour mingled with oil is accepted for the oblation instead of three tenth parts in the normal offering. The same apprehensions of Christ have to be there, with their corresponding self-judgment, but a smaller measure is accepted when one is poor. There is a compassionate taking account of the means of the one concerned. The precious and tender grace disclosed in this is “good to the feeblest heart”.
The “leprous plague in a house of the land of your possession” (verse 34) would refer to an assembly character of things. It is something which affects the way in which saints are set together. And this not looked at as in wilderness conditions but in relation to their enjoyment together of what is over Jordan. The normal privilege of the assembly is to enjoy in “house” conditions what is beyond death, and what is heavenly in character. If something comes in to disturb those “house” conditions, and to interfere with the comfort and restfulness of the saints together, it is easy to see that the mutual enjoyment of the land of their possession will be suspended. If roots of bitterness and envyings and jealousies come in they interfere with peaceful “house” conditions. Principles begin to work which are not suited to divine holiness, nor in accord with the truth of the house of God.
[p. 163] When such things come in the first thing is to recognize that God has allowed it. Indeed it says, “And I put a leprous plague”, etc. It is an exercise the Lord has brought upon us to bring to light the true state of things, and to teach His saints needed lessons, and to make manifest those whom He approves (1 Corinthians 11: 19). When difficulties arise we are apt to get occupied with facts and persons, and not to take sufficient account of what the Lord may have to say in connection with it. But we should first of all ask, What is the Lord calling attention to by this state of things?
We find here a responsible person — “he whose house it is”. “The angel of the assembly” in the New Testament (Revelation 2, Revelation 3) would answer to this. I doubt if there is anything of assembly character without an “angel”. The “angel” is that element which is conscious of responsibility to the Lord, and which takes up exercises that arise in the light of that responsibility. We ought all to feel that we have a responsibility as to the “house”; something of “angel” character ought to be in every saint. We can all see defects; that does not need spiritual vision. But to feel that responsibility attaches to one before the Lord as to the house and its conditions is another matter. If there is no “angel” one would hardly expect to find the priest there. For a due sense of responsibility taken up in sobriety with God would be essential to priestly conditions being present. The priestly element is that which considers for God, and has spiritual discernment. “He whose house it is shall come and tell the priest”. The one who feels responsibility calls what is priestly into activity. Both brothers and sisters who have a care for the “house” are distressed if anything comes in which is not of God; they feel the seriousness of it, and cry to God about it. It was from the house of a sister (Chloe) that Paul heard of the disorder at Corinth. No doubt there was something of “angel” character about Chloe! Her name means “Tender verdure”, which would be suggestive of the fact that being in spiritual freshness and vitality herself she and her house were sensitive as to the unhappy local conditions, and they seem to have told the “priest” by communicating with Paul. It is not only that those who love the Lord feel that His honour is affected, but they love the brethren, and they want the brethren to enjoy together the land of their possession. Leprosy in the house hinders the enjoyment of the land, and if we love the saints we cannot bear that they should be deprived of the spiritual joy of their possession. Every one of us should take a real and serious interest in the “house”.
Then the priest is to command that the house be emptied before he goes into it. The principle seems to be that the uncleanness shall be limited as much as possible. The priest is not concerned to hold as much as possible unclean, but rather the contrary. He is anxious that everything that can be preserved from defilement shall be preserved.
The priest knows what the right colour of the house is; he knows the holiness, truth, grace and love which rightly mark “house” conditions. He knows the meekness and lowliness and forbearance in which saints can walk together in mutuality, and enjoy the land of their possession. So that when he goes into the house and sees “greenish or reddish hollows, and their look is deeper than the surface of the wall”, he [p. 165] knows it is something quite different from the normal colour. It is something that is of the flesh working either on carnal or legal or mental lines. The priest knows it to be contrary to the true character of the house.
Now the question arises as to whether it is active, and as to how deeply things may be affected by it? It may possibly be the outcome of infirmity or ignorance, and not exactly will. Where will is working energetically the shutting up of the house seven days will make more manifest that it is so. But if grace is in the ascendant it will be exerting its sway all the time to set aside through righteous self-judgment what is of the flesh. So that at the end of “seven days” the suspicious indications will be arrested or reduced. Patience is often needed to give time for the grace of the Lord to do its blessed work.
If the suspicious symptoms spread it is a bad sign. To see an evil principle spreading and getting a firmer hold gives the gravest concern to every one who cares for the well-being of the house. It shows that there is something that has to be positively rejected as unsuitable to the house. “The stones in which the plague is” are to be cast out in an unclean place. I take it that these stones represent principles that are not of God. They have to be absolutely rejected. If individuals identify themselves with such principles and seek to make them an integral part of the “house”, and maintain this in face of instruction and admonition, they can only be regarded, for the time at any rate, as identified with the principles they espouse.
If we seek to maintain suitable “house” conditions we shall be called upon to exercise priestly discernment as to the character of the stones which go to [p. 166] make up the house. Can we accept that human order and clerical rule, or anything that is in principle sectarian, are suitable stones for the “house”? Can we believe that it is of God that christian fellowship should continue with one who teaches false doctrine as to the Person or work of our Lord Jesus Christ, or who questions the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures? Can we admit the principle of independency into our “house” conditions if we have learned that there is one body and one spirit, and but one divine and spiritual order universally? Can neutrality be pleasing to the Lord when questions arise with reference to what is vital? Can anything be really suitable to God without moral conditions and spiritual vitality? Can anything be really clean that sets aside any part of the truth concerning Christ and the assembly?
“Overthrowing reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ” (2 Corinthians 10: 5) would get rid of every leprous stone, and would secure suitable “house” conditions so that saints might enjoy together the land of their possession. In rejecting leprous stones the thought is that we disallow that which is contrary to the true character and blessing of all saints. If we refuse a wrong and unclean principle to which some of our brethren adhere, our refusing it is really a kind and true service to them. In refusing it we are acting on their behalf, and for their good. Because what is unsuitable to divine “house” conditions is unsuitable to all those who by divine grace and calling are entitled to participate in those conditions; that is, all saints. It is in love to all saints that every principle is to be refused which priestly examination [p. 167] has proved to be unclean. Such action will probably very often be misunderstood, but we must be content to leave this to be cleared up in the day when all things are manifested.
If true believers will identify themselves with principles which are not of God we cannot put them right, but we can pray for them, and for ourselves that we may more clearly discern what is suitable to “house” conditions, and how indispensable those conditions are to the enjoyment of the land of our possession.
After the leprous stones have been cast out the house is to be scraped, and the dust poured out in an unclean place. The seriousness of having been associated with what is unclean has to be felt throughout the house; there is no going on as if nothing had happened. People say sometimes, after serious “house” exercises have been raised, We are just going on the same as we were before. But this cannot be if the Lord has been calling attention to something that ought to be removed. The scraping of the house brings home to all the gravity of the issue raised, and the necessity for complete purification.
But things do not stop there. “And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and they shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house”. It is not only that human and corrupting principles are to be judged and refused, but there is to be positive gain by replacing them by principles which are according to truth and holiness, and the very face of things — the plaster of the house — has to be brought into keeping therewith. If saints discover that they have been associated with some principle that was not of God, and they cast it out,
[p. 168] and replace it with what they have learned to be according to the commandments of the Lord, they will find it necessary to renew the “plaster” also. The very face of things in the house — the way things are done, and all that comes into view — will take a changed character.
But this scripture suggests that there may be cases where not even the removal of leprous stones and the introduction of new ones, and the re-plastering of the house, will put matters right. “And if the plague come again ... it is a corroding leprosy in the house; it is unclean”. There is no remedy for such a state of things. “They shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house, and shall carry them forth out of the city to an unclean place”. In this case it becomes manifest that things cannot be divinely corrected or adjusted. There is something radically wrong with the whole principle of the house. It is not that certain features have had place which are not of God and which may be dealt with under priestly direction so that the “house” is preserved in suitable condition. But in such a case as is typified here the whole principle of association is contrary to God’s mind, and has to be rejected altogether. One cannot doubt that there are houses of this kind today. Houses which are leprous because the whole principle of their constitution carries the impress of the mind and will of man rather than the impress of the mind and will of God.
If the plague does not spread in the house “after the house hath been plastered, the priest shall pronounce the house clean; for the plague is healed”. The leprous stones having been rejected, and new [p. 169] ones put in, and the house plastered, it is now found after priestly examination that the plague is arrested. But another exercise remains to be taken up even after the plague is healed, and the house pronounced clean. It has still to be purged from the defilement (verse 49), and this by bringing in positive apprehensions and appreciations of Christ, as set forth in type in verses 49 - 53. If these were not present, wrong principles might be rejected, and right ones accepted, without the fellowship being really spiritual. The way we are set together must take character from our appreciation of Christ, or we cannot enjoy together in an undefiled way our “house” conditions, or the land of our possession.
In the case of leprosy in a house I have no doubt we see typified an action of human will in the principles on which the people of God walk together. There is purification from the defilement of that in the appreciation of Christ, for in Him we see an entirely different principle of moral being. He came into the world saying, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God; thy will” (Hebrews 10: 7). In considering Him we come under the influence of what will cleanse us from the hidden, subtle root of all that is unclean.
The cedar-wood, scarlet and hyssop are put along with the blood and the running water and the living bird for the purging of the house (verse 52). Everything truly great and glorious is seen in Christ joined with a lowliness that made Him the Servant of all. God has taken us in hand so that we may get, through our affections being engaged with Christ, an entirely new thought of greatness. The will of man always works along the line of making something of himself,
or pleasing himself. But “the Christ also did not please himself” (Romans 15: 3). Gabriel said of Him to the virgin, “He shall be great”, but it was the greatness of One who was to lie in a manger, and not to have where to lay His head. If we are truly great it will put us in the lowliest place here. When the disciples wanted to learn who was greatest in the kingdom of the heavens, Jesus called a little child to Him, and said, “Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens” (Matthew 18: 1 - 4).
The “hyssop” suggests the lowliness of Christ. Solomon’s wisdom embraced all the trees “from the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall” (1 Kings 4: 33). Christ expressed the whole range of moral perfection and beauty. The excellent bearing and dignity of the cedar was there, and the lowliness of the hyssop. He could truly say, “My heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty” (Psalm 131: 1). And all the “scarlet” in Him — everything that distinguished Him from others — was of God; there was no element of man’s will in it. When Peter and those who were with him on the holy mount fully woke up they saw His glory, but it was glory that shone in a praying Man, who received all from God the Father in absolute dependence, and took no glory from Satan or from men. He is the One who says, “Come to me ... learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11: 28 - 30). We cannot entertain the thought of that in our affections without being purified from everything that is of the nature of leprosy. If I am truly a little child in the arms of Jesus I shall not readily take offence, and when offended I shall be very ready to [p. 171] forgive. (See Matthew 18) This brings in a spirit which provides good “house” conditions.
If there have been leprous stones — which speak of elements coming in characterized by the will of the flesh — they have to be replaced by such features as were characteristic of Christ. Any greatness or glory or even voluntary humility that is of the will of man has to go out. Perhaps this is suggested in the cedar and scarlet and hyssop being cast by the priest into the burning of the red heifer (Numbers 19). The cedar and scarlet and hyssop go into the fire, there to be consumed — never to come out again. But in Leviticus 14 the cedar and scarlet and hyssop are dipped in the blood; they go into death in type; but they come out again for the purifying of the man or the house. All the excellent bearing, and distinction, and humility of Christ were devoted to the will and glory of God in death, but God has approved them all by resurrection. There was nothing morally in Christ that could remain in death, or be held there. If I went into death there is a good deal that would never appear again, and I can say, Thank God; that it will not. But with Him there was nothing that death could hold; every moral feature that was seen in Him has come out of death to appear and be perpetuated in the saints as having the Spirit of Christ; to appear in a healed and purified Israel in a future day; and indeed to give character to the moral universe, purifying it from every taint of creature will. Before the day of public purifying the blood, the running water, the living bird, the cedar-wood, the hyssop and the scarlet are the spiritual means by which the defilement of creature will can be cleansed either in an individual, or in what pertains to the “house” conditions in which God sets [p. 172] His saints together. But cleansing only takes place after healing. If self-will has been active there must be first God-given repentance.
If everything great and glorious and suitable to God, and attractive to my heart as taught of God, has gone into death here, what does it make of any greatness or distinction that I could attach to myself as in the flesh? The silver cord has been loosed, and the golden bowl broken! Can I want to assert my will, or to be distinguished in any way, in the place where Christ died? If I wish to retain what is of the will of the flesh I cannot have a true appreciation of Christ, for in Him there is nothing but what is of the will of God. For Christians not to judge what is evil in their associations is very serious. “Cease to do evil: learn to do well” is an important word in this connection. Whatever the conditions of weakness may be the Lord will always help faithful ones to disown evil principles, and give evidence that they are calling on Him out of a pure heart.
These chapters (Leviticus 13, Leviticus 14) have no doubt an application to Israel as well as a present bearing. The sin of Miriam and of Gehazi and of Uzziah are typical of the guilt into which Israel has fallen, and the leprosy with which they were smitten is a figure of Israel’s state today. Israel’s house, too, is leprous today, but it will yet be healed in the sovereignty of God’s mercy, and will be purged and made clean by the application of all that is typified in Leviticus 14: 51, 52, and Israel will dwell in holy and happy conditions in the land of their possession.