CLEANSING OF THE LEPER
[p. 193] CLEANSING OF THE LEPER
JT Chapter 13 speaks largely of the hair of the leprous person, whether the hair turned white or yellow, or whether it had fallen off the head, and the disease had manifested itself in the bald forehead. Disease showed itself in these connections indicating the lack of vitality, and the introduction of something different; the latter is suggested by the yellow hair. Then in the leprosy in the bald forehead, I think, the thought is, that it was the working of the mind. We must assume that the appearance of sin typically here is in those that are already in relationship to God. The appearance of sin in one who is a believer is the outcome of the Holy Spirit being grieved or disallowed.
FL Leprosy implies that which is deep-seated. Certain things might be examined for leprosy and not found to be deep-seated. Infirmity sometimes takes the appearance of leprosy, and it might be judged as being deep-seated, and the result of will, but infirmity is not the same thing as the will working, so the priest looks into it and examines it. Leprosy expresses the outward sign of that which is deep-seated, the will.
BFT Is the thought that when the Spirit is not allowed sin breaks out?
JT I suppose in the Christian it is. It shows itself when the Spirit is disallowed and the flesh works; so that where it is will, the hair turns white there is decay and a change in the outward appearance. Of course, there may be what apparently is leprosy, but it turns out to be just a local outbreak. The danger with us is that when sin occurs in what we may call a local way, that it becomes permanent through neglect, and want of self-judgment, hence [p. 194] the great importance of judging it at the beginning. In chapter 13:30 it speaks about “yellow thin hair”, which would point to something satanic, I think. And then in verse 42, “If there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore, it is a leprosy which hath broken out in his bald head, or his bald forehead”. And verse 44, “He is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his sore is in his head”; it seems the worst form of the evil.
BTF Would that be applicable to evil doctrine?
JT I think it would. It is pronounced utterly unclean, as if to emphasise the evil; and it is said to be in his head, “his sore is in his head”.
WLP That signifies will?
JT I think it would be mental activity in what is evil. You might have the will working in other ways, but when it is through the mind, it is like a person defiling the temple of God, as in 1 Corinthians 3:17.
AAT The priest is a man designated to discern this evil. Is there that in Christianity which corresponds?
JT It is addressed to “Moses and Aaron”. The instruction in chapter 13 is also addressed to “Moses and Aaron”, showing that it is Christ in His authority over us, and in His priestly function as well. As to actual service, when it says, “he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest”, there Christ is formally recognised; but when it says, “or unto one of his sons the priests”, I suppose the priestly state in the saints is referred to. So that while we recognise Christ over the house of God in these things, the saints exercise priestly service in detail.
FL It is important to see that God brings them in in that way and expects them to be morally fit for it.
JT So that all down the chapter it is the priests,
[p. 195] but you cannot have the discerning of sin before God apart from the recognition of the authority and priesthood of Christ, and the priestly state among the saints.
FL The position in which the leper was placed gives one a deep conception of the tremendous solemnity of the thing; he was excluded from family, camp, worship; he was an outcast in the wilderness.
JT Leprosy is a very solemn matter that seems to engage the Spirit in a more extended way, next to the offerings, than any other in this book. The space occupied by it appears to cover about the same space as that given to the offerings divided into six or seven chapters, showing how the Spirit would have us to look into the subject, how sin works in us and shows itself in us. And then how it is met in the way of self-judgment first of all. The leper was to pronounce himself “unclean”; following this a certain process had to be gone through, as we see in the beginning of chapter 14.
FL You find more or less reference to the priesthood and the offerings scattered over Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, but almost all the teaching as regards leprosy is concentrated in these two chapters.
BTF Speaking of shaving, does that not follow on exercise, indicated in the beginning of chapter 13?
JT The end of the instruction as to an individual in chapter 13 is, “the leper in whom the sore is, — his garments shall be rent, and his head shall be uncovered, and he ... shall cry, Unclean, unclean! All the days that the sore shall be in him he shall be unclean: he is unclean; he shall dwell apart; outside the camp shall his dwelling be”. The chapter has reference to the discernment of leprosy rather than the exercises of the leper; the latter belongs to chapter 14, which gives us the law of “the leper in the day of his cleansing”: The leper, as outside the camp, would [p. 196] necessarily undergo most terrible exercise; that is perhaps what we need to be reminded about so that sin might be felt. I believe, that in a measure every one coming into fellowship, as we speak, should go through this; there should be a sense, not that you are conferring an honour on the saints in coming amongst them, but that you feel what it is to be alone before you come. I do not mean that one is a leper, but the sense of having been in isolation and that we have been deprived of what we should have. I believe if that were felt, the assembly would be more valued. How this man would value being reinstated in the camp.
The beginning of chapter 14 indicates typically that the sin is judged. It says, “when the priest looketh, and behold, the sore of leprosy is healed in the leper, then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two clean living birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop”. The will has been judged and has ceased to act, and now we have a course of instruction to show how the person is cleansed and restored to communion.
CAM Do you apply this to a person coming into fellowship?
JT Not exactly. I was referring to it by the way, as to the importance of a Christian feeling spiritual isolation, and not supposing that you are conferring any honour on the saints by coming in; you feel that you must do so, you need the Christian circle.
CAM This has to go on before you can be there truly?
JT This strictly supposes one who had been there, but even if we had never been there, it is essential that there should be a judgment of what hindered us in being there; why have we not been there? What has hindered us?
FL If one had been there and had gone out, the [p. 197] day of recovery to him must have been a wonderful day. On the other hand those in the camp could not look upon his recovery except with thanksgiving; he is back again in the circle. I was thinking of the man excommunicated at Corinth, how the apostle let his heart go out as we see in the second epistle, on account of the recovery of such an one.
ANW If the house in the land suggests the local assembly thought, what does the camp in the wilderness suggest?
JT The camp, I think, is more the assembly as viewed in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians is not the land, but rather the gathering together of God’s people by the testimony presented. Paul said, he had declared unto them the testimony of God, and in that way they had been rallied around it in Corinth, hence it was said to be “The assembly of God which is in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2); you do not get that expression in Ephesians. The saints are viewed as brought together by the trumpet sound, the testimony, and as observing the order that becomes them in that condition, and this book speaks of the holiness that was suitable for God there; how He could be approached. Leviticus 13 is very much like the first letter to the Corinthians, and chapter 14 like the second letter.
FL That is interesting and helpful. The first epistle treats of the judgment of evil in the assembly, and of what is suitable to the Lord’s table, and the Lord’s supper; the second epistle speaks of restoration to communion.
PHP The apostle regards the company as clean.
JT Yes. He says “According as ye are unleavened”, 1 Corinthians 5:7. They were to purge out the old leaven on account of this truth.
AAT Would they not have become altogether contaminated otherwise?
JT Yes. But they were to become a new lump;
“a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6); if the sin remained unjudged it would have leavened them all.
PHP What about the two birds here?
JT I think the use of the bird is significant here. There were two goats on the day of atonement. Goats cannot fly, so they undoubtedly refer to cleansing of an earthly people. I think that the birds would perhaps suggest a reference here to Christians.
FL The living bird is, no doubt, a type of Christ as going up on high and making a place for us. It seems to me that characterises Christianity.
JT It says the living bird was to be let go into the open field.
ARS Would this typify the resurrection of Christ?
JT I think the living bird let loose represents more than Christ’s resurrection. Resurrection does not go beyond the earth. The scape goat would be a type of Christ risen too. Like Thomas, Israel will see Him in resurrection. Thomas saw Him, but not at the meeting which represents Christianity, with this first gathering with which Mary’s message seems specially connected. Thomas was present at the second meeting in which the Lord showed them His hands and side. There was the evidence that He had died and risen. Thomas said then, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28); he had said he would not believe unless he saw. What he saw answers I suppose to the scape goat; flying represents more than resurrection; it rises from the earth. In Ephesians it is said that God has raised us up together; that is not from the grave, but from the earth; it is elevation.
PHP The open field would be ascension.
JT The light of Christ’s ascension is, therefore, introduced here as a great element of cleansing. Of course, His resurrection is necessarily implied. He goes into death for us, and comes out of death for us, and goes into [p. 199] heaven for us.
ANW Normally the bird rises to its own atmosphere.
JT “If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?”, John 6:62.
AAT These two birds were to be “clean”. They typify Christ. The means of cleansing was not in the leper but in a different order of Man.
JT It says, “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. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his garments, and shave all his hair”, verses 7 - 8. What we are engaged with here is the subjective side; we have to shave off the hair. All that which I was, the exercise of my will; all that appearance in which I may have prided myself has to go. That is a point of great importance. The appearance that you have borne in the exercise of your will does not correspond with the blessed Man who has died and is risen and gone into heaven. Here the heavenly order of things to which you are recovered is in view, I think, so that Colossians comes in.
ANW And the nearer you come, the more severe is the shave! The nearer you come to the camp, there is a further process of shaving; compare verses 8 and 9. “and afterwards shall he come into the camp, and shall abide outside his tent seven days. And it shall come to pass on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair, his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, even all his hair shall he shave”.
FL There is tremendous subjective work implied here, which answers in the soul to the death of Christ. There is the removal of everything which has contamination. The recovery of one who has sinned in this way needs great care on the part of the saints. Those seven days in which he is to remain outside his tent are very important. In those days he may [p. 200] go over the whole of his sinful course with God; otherwise the work may have to be done over again.
TH Where does this man get the appreciation of Christ indicated in verses 9 - 20 after being outside so long?
JT As has been pointed out, he has been inside the camp seven days, verse 8. The “eighth day” suggests a wholly new beginning; the “seven days” refer to the period in which the evil is thoroughly gone into and judged in relation to the camp, in which God was known. The “eighth day” is the positive thing. Christ is now before the soul in all His intrinsic and sacrificial perfections. It is in connection with all this that the soul is positively restored. Communion is established.
AP What is the cure of leprosy?
JT The cure as regards what was due to God is in the bird, but the cure obviously in the man is the experience outside the camp under the sense of God’s judgment of him; every time he said, “Unclean, unclean”, and every moment that he feels his isolation from the people of God, he was reminded that it was on account of sin.
AP Why all this cleansing if he is cured?
JT There is the death of one of the birds, and the other dipped in the blood of the one slain is let loose in the open field. This refers to the death and resurrection of Christ, and how God’s claims have been met, as we have been saying. This is the objective side; then there is the washing of the man’s clothes, the shaving of his hair and his abiding outside his house, although in the camp, seven days. All this sets forth exercise of soul as to sin, and to adjustment with God and the saints. I think the eighth day is the new beginning; it is not a reinstating of the man as he was, but a new beginning. In Colossians the man totally disappears; he dies with Christ. The first day is a totally new beginning; it [p. 201] does not recognise any previous day, but the eighth day recognises the previous seven days and the exercises which we have had in responsibility.
AFM It is more the first day in Ephesians.
CAM Why did the Lord send the cleansed leper to the priests for a testimony?
JT I think it indicates a testimony to what was there in His Person. The priests should have the evidence of the power of God working in their midst. A man cured of his leprosy was a very great testimony to this.
CAM To what does the washing here allude?
JT Washing his garments, I suppose, refers to bringing in the death of the Lord on those circumstances, but when you come to verse 10 you come to a new order of things, a new beginning, and so you have two he-lambs without blemish, referring to the intrinsic excellency of Christ. Here we are on the line of acceptance. On the eighth day the cleansed person is set up before God typically in all the acceptability of Christ; “he shall take two he-lambs without blemish, and one yearling ewe-lamb without blemish, and three tenth parts of fine flour mingled with oil for an oblation, and one log of oil. And the priest that cleanseth him shall present the man that is to be cleansed and those things, before Jehovah”, verses 10, 11.
CAM It is still “the man that” is to be made clean notwithstanding all that preceded.
JT I think it shows that cleansing is not alone in what is negative, that is self-judgment, it also includes the soul’s appropriation of Christ in His intrinsic excellences as offered for sin; also the reception of the Holy Spirit.
FL So that when the blood and oil have their rightful place, restoration is complete, first the blood and then the oil.
JT In verse 12 we see God’s part in the procedure,
[p. 202] and in verse 10 Christ is seen as having His portion in it. In these verses we are on most blessed ground. It is a spiritual scene filled with all the excellence of Christ the cleansed person is in it, indeed he is the occasion of it. He is made consistent with it through the blood put on his right ear, hand and foot. Then the oil is sprinkled by the priest before the Lord and afterwards the cleansed person is anointed with it. It seems to me to be a wonderful setting forth of the Christian’s position. The oil on the head implies that the man is dignified according to God, and so has his place in relation to Christ.