46 All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be. 47 The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment; 48 Whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in anything made of skin; 49 And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin; it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest: 50 And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days: 51 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 a skin, or in any work that is made of skin; the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean. 52 He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or 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. 53 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; 54 Then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more: 55 And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and, behold, if the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread; it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without. 56 And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it; then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof: 57 And if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a spreading plague: thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire. 58 And the garment, either warp, or woof, or whatsoever thing of skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean. 59 This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the It has been previously observed, that throughout the Levitical dispensation, there seems to have been an evident design to turn every thing, every circumstance, and every event to some edifying purpose. The very animals, by way of typical slaughter and oblation, were made the silent, but significant, preachers of the gospel. More especially was the difference between holy and unholy, sacred and profane characters and things, pointed out by the distinction to be drawn between animals clean and unclean. We may observe the same, from the chapter before us, in another respect. Here the very diseases to which the people were liable are invested with the same office, and made to proclaim the same truths. As nothing is so deadly and loathsome as sin, so the most loathsome and fatal of all maladies is here employed to set forth its polluting and destructive feature; and the necessity we all have of being cleansed in that fountain which is opened for sin and uncleanness. It is the leprosy. Now, this is the law of the leprosy. Several cases are here described, embracing the existence and symptoms of this disease. One great part of the priestly office, in this respect, was to discover whether the malady, that appearedto be the leprosy, were really so; and how to act accordingly. The whole design of these directions and observances seems to point out, in a typical manner, the necessity of being enabled to judge correctly upon the several cases which may be brought before us, in which it is needful to discriminate between habitual and casual sin; or sin allowed in the heart, and sin occasionally committed by infirmity, surprise, or temptation. That there was something of this sort clearly intended appears from the fact, that all through the chapter, whether the disease existed in the person, garment, or building, there is a marked and evident distinction between the symptoms of the disease being lower than the skin, and being only in the skin itself. In the former case only was it proof of the malady, and the patient was pronounced utterly unclean. In the latter, it was pronounced to be otherwise, and the person was said to be clean (v. 3, 6, &c.). Now, is there not a great distinction between habitual and occasional sin? The latter, any child of God may fall into; the former is abhorrent to his spiritual nature, and bespeaks a soul in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity. St. John describes the two cases in these words, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." (1 John i. 6, 8.) A man may be clean in one respect, but utterly unclean in another. Take the case of Saul and David. Saul never had a renewed heart; he had another, but not a new heart: a heart for the kingdom, but not for God. His offences were deeply seated in his inmost soul. David had that new heart; not only a heart to govern the people, but a heart to live unto mourn, and lament his sin, the moment he caught the eye of his blessed Lord, which went like an arrow to his soul! (Luke xxii. 61, 62.) A case comes before you. It has all the appearance of the deadly and fatal malady of sin, in its worst form and condition. How are you to decide it? Is it not of the utmost moment that you should be enabled, by the rules, and directions of God's Word, to discriminate between a lapsed believer and a carnal professor; between habitual sins and occasional transgressions? If this be not the case, you may contravene the truth of Christ, and make the heart of the righteous sad whom the Lord hath not made sad; and strengthen the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his evil ways. (Ezek. xiii. 22.) CHAPTER XIV. 1 The rites and sacrifices in cleansing of the leper. 33 The signs of leprosy in a house. 43 The cleansing of that house. God. He sinned as well as Saul; but not in A the same way, nor with the same mind, nor with the same intent. His sins were casual; they were not habitual; they were not loved; they made him miserable and sorry, restless and uneasy, till they were forgiven. Saul gloated over his abominations; he pursued them; he allowed them; he took pleasure in them; he did not mourn over them; nor abandon them; nor crave the forgiveness of them. Take, again, the case of Judas and Peter. Both were disciples of Christ; both professed to love his person, and prize his salvation; both sinned grievously against the Lord; the one sold, the other denied him. Both, however, did not sin alike; nor with the same mind; nor in the same manner. Judas had long plotted his enormous deed. Peter was overcome by surprise and temptation. It was the sin of Judas in his heart to sell the Lord of Glory for thirty pieces of silver; he had long intended it, and he longed for the moment to do so. In his heart, Peter loved Christ; he was precious to his soul; he could have died for Christ's sake. His denial was the act of a moment; he was taken by fear; he was overcome by surprise. And, oh! how did he weep and ND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest : 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; 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: 5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 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: 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. 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. 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. 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. 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: 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: 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: 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: 15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand: 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: 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: 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. 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: 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. 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; 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. 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. 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: 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: 26 And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand : 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: 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: 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. 30 And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get; 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. 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. 33 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 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; 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: 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: 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; 38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: 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; 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: 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: 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. 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; 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. 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. 46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. 47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. 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. 49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: 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: 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: 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. 54 This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, 55 And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, 56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot: 57 To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy. THE law of the leprosy is one of the most instructive of all the Levitical institutions. The case itself, the particulars of the statement, the manner of the appearance of the disease, together with the ceremonial and sacrificial observances for its cleansing, all combine to clothe this typical law with the highest interest and deepest importance, as denoting the deadly and polluting nature of sin. Several things may be noted respecting it. It was a disease loathsome, offensive, deeplyseated, spreading; it cut the man off from all intercourse with his fellow-beings. He was doomed to separation from the camp; his clothes were to be burnt; his head bare; he was to have a covering upon his upper lip; he was to cry, "Unclean, unclean!" as a warning for every one to keep at a distance, to avoid the infectious contagion. What does all this mean? Sin. Sin is that fatal disease. Sin is the leprosy of the soul; it infects its whole existence; it pollutes all its faculties; it debases all its powers; it spreads throughout the whole man, not only without, but within also. "Unclean, unclean," is the appropriate cry of all the sons and daughters of Adam. "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." (Is. vi. 5). No mere expressions can ever set forth this dreadful malady. The mind, the understanding, the affections, the desires, the will, all are infected by this terrible disease; and all the members of the body, under its power, are its instruments unto death. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. (Is. i. 6.) Job saw and felt this when he cried, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job xlii. 6.) Isaiah, when he cried, "Woe is me! for I am undone." (Is. vi. 5.) Jeremiah, when he said, "He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope." (Lam. iii. 29.) Paul, also, when he groaned, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24.) One thing to be observed is, it was incurable by man. No human power could stay its progress. No human arm could remove its course. The priest may view it, and judge according to the symptoms; but he could not all these typical directions, behold Christ; Christ in his atoning blood, redeeming death, and mighty grace. That is the fountain opened; that is the offering made; that is the sacrifice appointed. The dying, rising, and ascending Redeemer, seen through these sacrificial types; the application of that finished work to the soul; the sprinkling of that precious blood upon the heart, that is the remedy provided, which is always efficacious, and never fails. The sinner who receives that salvation shall be cleansed and saved; and though the earthly tabernacle of the body come down to the grave, he shall live and reign with Christ for evermore. (Zech. xiii. 1; I John i. 7; 2 Cor. v. 1-5.) CHAPTER XV. 1 The uncleanness of men in their issues. 13 The cleansing of them. 19 The uncleanness of women in their issues. 28 Their cleansing. heal it. The man may feel its existence, and A bewail its ravages; but neither could he remove it. Nothing but a divine power, put forth in the order of the prescribed method, could avail for this end. Even the very walls of the building, where it was found to exist, must be pulled down, before it could be entirely extirpated (v 45). Is not this the nature of sin; the sin that dwelleth in us? How little do people seem to know of the terrible nature of indwelling sin! Can any man heal that malady, or obliterate that infection? Can any human means or human power avail to remove the guilt, the stain, the pollution, the dominion, the existence of sin? No. All the tears that ever were shed; all the prayers that were ever offered; all the cries that were uttered; all the exertions that were made by polluted, leprous man, can never suffice for this end. So far as such methods avail, the leprosy exists, and will exist for and the leper himself be cast out and cast away to all eternity from the presence of God and the company of the faithful. ever; ever ever ND the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a 'running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. 3 And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness. 4 Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and everything, whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean. 5 And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 6 And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. 7 And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. S And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be. unclean until the even. 9 And what saddle soever he rideth upon that hath the issue shall be unclean. 10 And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the even: and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. |