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Leviticus
Chapter Thirteen
Leviticus 13
Chapter Contents
Directions to the priest to judge concerning leprosy.
(1-17) Further directions. (18-44) How the leper must be disposed of. (45,46)
The leprosy in garments. (47-59)
Commentary on Leviticus 13:1-17
The plague of leprosy was an uncleanness, rather than a
disease. Christ is said to cleanse lepers, not to cure them. Common as the
leprosy was among the Hebrews, during and after their residence in Egypt, we
have no reason to believe that it was known among them before. Their distressed
state and employment in that land must have rendered them liable to disease.
But it was a plague often inflicted immediately by the hand of God. Miriam's
leprosy, and Gehazi's, and king Uzziah's, were punishments of particular sins;
no marvel there was care taken to distinguish it from a common distemper. The
judgment of it was referred to the priests. And it was a figure of the moral
pollutions of men's minds by sin, which is the leprosy of the soul, defiling to
the conscience, and from which Christ alone can cleanse. The priest could only
convict the leper, (by the law is the knowledge of sin,) but Christ can cure
the sinner, he can take away sin. It is a work of great importance, but of
great difficulty, to judge of our spiritual state. We all have cause to suspect
ourselves, being conscious of sores and spots; but whether clean or unclean is
the question. As there were certain marks by which to know it was leprosy, so
there are marks of such as are in the gall of bitterness. The priest must take
time in making his judgment. This teaches all, both ministers and people, not
to be hasty in censures, nor to judge anything before the time. If some men's
sins go before unto judgment, the sins of others follow after, and so do men's
good works. If the person suspected were found to be clean, yet he must wash
his clothes, because there had been ground for the suspicion. We have need to
be washed in the blood of Christ from our spots, though not leprosy spots; for
who can say, I am pure from sin?
Commentary on Leviticus 13:18-44
The priest is told what judgment to make, if there were
any appearance of a leprosy in old sores; and such is the danger of those who
having escaped the pollutions of the world are again entangled therein. Or, in
a burn by accident, verse 24. The burning of strife and contention
often occasions the rising and breaking out of that corruption, which proves
that men are unclean. Human life lies exposed to many grievances. With what
troops of diseases are we beset on every side; and thy all entered by sin! If
the constitution be healthy, and the body lively and easy, we are bound to
glorify God with our bodies. Particular note was taken of the leprosy, if in
the head. If the leprosy of sin has seized the head; if the judgment be
corrupted, and wicked principles, which support wicked practices, are embraced,
it is utter uncleanness, from which few are cleansed. Soundness in the faith
keeps leprosy from the head.
Commentary on Leviticus 13:45,46
When the priest had pronounced the leper unclean, it put
a stop to his business in the world, cut him off from his friends and
relations, and ruined all the comfort he could have in the world. He must
humble himself under the mighty hand of God, not insisting upon his cleanness,
when the priest had pronounced him unclean, but accepting the punishment. Thus
must we take to ourselves the shame that belongs to us, and with broken hearts
call ourselves "Unclean, unclean;" heart unclean, life unclean;
unclean by original corruption, unclean by actual transgression; unclean,
therefore deserving to be for ever shut out from communion with God, and all
hope of happiness in him; unclean, therefore undone, if infinite mercy do not
interpose. The leper must warn others to take heed of coming near him. He must
then be shut out of the camp, and afterward, when they came to Canaan, be shut
out of the city, town, or village where he lived, and dwell with none but those
that were lepers like himself. This typified the purity which ought to be in
the gospel church.
Commentary on Leviticus 13:47-59
The garment suspected to be tainted with leprosy was not
to be burned immediately. If, upon search, it was found that there was a
leprous spot, it must be burned, or at least that part of it. If it proved to
be free, it must be washed, and then might be used. This also sets forth the
great evil there is in sin. It not only defiles the sinner's conscience, but it
brings a stain upon all he has and all that he does. And those who make their
clothes servants to their pride and lust, may see them thereby tainted with
leprosy. But the robes of righteousness never fret, nor are moth-eaten.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Leviticus》
Leviticus 13
Verse 2
[2] When
a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and
it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be
brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:
In the skin —
For there is the first seat of the leprosy, the bright spot shining like the
scale of a fish, as it is in the beginning of a leprosy.
The priest —
The priest was to admit to, or exclude from, the sanctuary, and therefore to
examine who were to be excluded.
Verse 3
[3] And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when
the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than
the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on
him, and pronounce him unclean.
When the hair is turned white — This change of colour was an evidence both of the abundance of
excrementious humours, and of the weakness of nature, as we see in old and sick
persons.
His flesh —
For the leprosy consumed both the skin and the flesh.
Verse 4
[4] If
the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper
than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall
shut up him that hath the plague seven days:
Seven days —
For greater assurance; to teach ministers not to be hasty in their judgments,
but diligently to search and examine all things before-hand. The plague is here
put for the man that hath the plague.
Verse 6
[6] And
the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague
be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall
pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be
clean.
Dark — Contrary
to the white colour of the leprosy. But the word may be rendered, have
contracted itself, and thus the opposition seems to be most clear as the
spreading of itself.
He shall wash his clothes — Though it was no leprosy, to teach us, that no sin is so small as not to
need to be washed by the blood of Christ, which was the thing designed by all
these washings.
Verse 10
[10] And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the rising be white in the
skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the
rising;
White in the skin —
With a preternatural and extraordinary whiteness.
Raw flesh —
This shewed it was not a superficial leprosy but one of a deeper and more
malignant nature, that had eaten into the very flesh, for which cause it is in
the next verse called an old or inveterate leprosy.
Verse 13
[13] Then
the priest shall consider: and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his
flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned
white: he is clean.
All his flesh —
When it appeared in some one part it discovered the ill humour which lurked
within, and withal the inability of nature to expel it; but when it overspread
all, it manifested the strength of nature conquering the distemper, and purging
out the ill humours into the outward parts.
Verse 14
[14] But
when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.
In it —
That is in the place where the appearance of leprosy was, when the flesh was
partly changed into a whiter colour, and partly kept its natural colour, this
variety of colours was an evidence of the leprosy, as one and the same colour
continuing, was a sign of soundness.
Verse 15
[15] And
the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean: for the
raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.
The raw flesh —
This is repeated again and again, because raw or living flesh might rather seem
a sign of soundness, and the priest might easily be deceived by it, and
therefore he was more narrowly to look into it.
Verse 16
[16] Or
if the raw flesh turn again, and be changed unto white, he shall come unto the
priest;
Unto white — As
it is usual with sores, when they begin to be healed, the skin which is white,
coming upon the flesh.
Verse 21
[21] But
if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and if
it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut
him up seven days:
Dark —
Or, and be contracted.
Verse 22
[22] And
if it spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him
unclean: it is a plague.
A plague — Or
the plague of leprosy, of which he is speaking.
Verse 24
[24] Or
if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the
quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white;
A hot burning — A
burning of fire, by the touch of any hot-iron, or burning coals, which
naturally makes an ulcer or sore in which the following spot is.
Verse 28
[28] And
if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not in the skin, but it be
somewhat dark; it is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce
him clean: for it is an inflammation of the burning.
Of the burning —
Arising from the burning mentioned, Leviticus 13:24.
Verse 30
[30] Then
the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the
skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce
him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.
A yellow, thin hair —
The leprosy in the body turned the hair white, in the head or beard it turned
it yellow. And if a man's hair was yellow before, this might easily be
distinguished from the rest, either by the thinness or smallness of it, or by
its peculiar kind of yellow, for there are divers kinds of the same colour
manifestly differing from one another.
Verse 31
[31] And
if the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, it be not in sight
deeper than the skin, and that there is no black hair in it; then the priest
shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days:
No black hair —
For had that appeared, it had ended the doubt, the black hair being a sign of
soundness and strength of nature, as the yellow hair was a sign of unsoundness.
Verse 33
[33] He
shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up
him that hath the scall seven days more:
He shall be shaven —
For the more certain discovery of the growth or stay of the plague.
Verse 36
[36] Then
the priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin,
the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean.
He shall not seek — He
need not search for the hair, or any other sign, the spreading of it being a
sure sign of leprosy.
Verse 39
[39] Then
the priest shall look: and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their
flesh be darkish white; it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin; he is
clean.
If the spots be darkish white — Or, contracted, or confined to the place where they are, and white.
Verse 42
[42] And
if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a
leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.
It is a leprosy — It
is a sign that such baldness came not from age, or any accident, but from the
leprosy.
Verse 45
[45] And
the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare,
and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean,
unclean.
His clothes shall be rent — In the upper and fore parts, which were most visible. This was done
partly as a token of sorrow, because though this was not a sin, yet it was an
effect of sin, and a sore punishment, whereby he was cut off both from converse
with men, and from the enjoyment of God in his ordinances; partly as a warning
to others to keep at a due distance from him wheresoever he came.
And his head bare —
Another sign of mourning. God would have men though not overwhelmed with, yet
deeply sensible of his judgments.
A covering on his upper lip — Partly as another badge of his sorrow and shame, and partly for the
preservation of others from his breath or touch.
Unclean, unclean — As
begging the pity and prayers of others, and confessing his own infirmity, and
cautioning those who came near him, to keep at a distance from him.
Verse 46
[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.
He shall dwell alone — Partly for his humiliation; partly to prevent the infection of others;
and partly to shew the danger of converse with spiritual lepers, or notorious
sinners.
Verse 47
[47] The
garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment,
or a linen garment;
Leprosy in garments and houses is unknown in
these times and places, which is not strange, there being some diseases
peculiar to some ages and countries. And that such a thing was among the Jews,
cannot reasonably be doubted; for, if Moses had been a deceiver, a man of his
wisdom, would not have exposed himself to the contempt of his people by giving
laws about that which their experience shewed to be but a fiction.
Verse 48
[48]
Whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin,
or in any thing made of skin;
In the warp or woof — A
learned man renders it in the outside, or in the inside of it. If the
signification of these words be doubtful now, as some of those of the living
creatures and precious stones are confessed to be, it is not material to us, this
law being abolished; it sufficeth that the Jews understood these things by
frequent experience.
Verse 55
[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.
If it have not changed its colour — If washing doth not take away that vicious colour, and restore it to its
own native colour.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Leviticus》
13 Chapter 13
Verses 2-46
The plague of leprosy.
The cleansing of the leper
I. The loathsome
and ghastly spectacle of a leper.
1. A leper was extremely loathsome in his person. But let me remind
you that this, fearful as it seems to be, is a very poor portrait of the
loathsomeness of sin. If we could bear to hear what God could tell us of the
exceeding wickedness and uncleanness of sin, I am sure we should die. God hides
from all eyes but His own the blackness of sin.
2. The leper was not only loathsome in his person, but was defiled in
all his acts. If he drank out of a vessel, the vessel was defiled. If he lay
upon a bed, the bed became unclean, and whosoever sat upon the bed afterwards
became unclean too. All that he did was full of the same loathsomeness as was
himself. Now this may seem to be a very humiliating truth, but faithfulness
requires us to say it, all the actions of the natural man are tainted with sin.
Whether he eats, or drinks, or whatsoever he does, he continues to sin against
his God.
3. Being thus the medium of contagion and defilement wherever he
went, the Lord demanded that he should be shut out from the society of Israel.
Living apart from their dearest friends, shut out from all the pleasures of
society, they were required never to drink of a running stream of water of
which others might drink; nor might they sit down on any stone by the roadside
upon which it was probable any other person might rest. They were, to all
intents and purposes, dead to all the enjoyments of life, dead to all the
endearments and society of their friends. Ay, and such is the case with the sinner
with regard to the people of God.
4. Once more, the leper was wholly unable to come up to the house of
God. Other men might offer sacrifices, but not the leper; others had a share in
the high priest’s great sacrifice, and when he went within the veil he appeared
for all others; but the leper had neither part nor lot in this matter. He was
shut out from God, as well as shut out from man. He was no partaker of the
sacred things of Israel, and all the ordinances of the Tabernacle were as
nothing to him. Think of that, sinner! As a sinner full of guilt thou art shut
out from all communion with God. True, He gives thee the mercies of this life
as the leper had his bread and water, but thou hast none of the spiritual joys
which God affords to His people.
II. I shall now
bring the leper up to the high priest. Here he stands; the priest has come out
to meet him. Mark, whenever a leper was cleansed under the Jewish law--the
leper did nothing--the priest did all. My text asserts that if there was found
any sound place in him, he was unclean. But when the leprosy had covered him,
wheresoever the priest looked, then the man became by sacrificial rights a
clean leper. Now, let me bring up the sinner before the great High Priest this
morning. How many there are, who, as they come up hither, are ready to confess
that they have done many things which are wrong, but they say, “Though we have
done much which we cannot justify, yet there have been many good actions which
might almost counterbalance the sin. Have we not been charitable to the poor,
have we not sought to instruct the ignorant, to help those that are out of the
way? We have some sins we do confess; but there is much at the bottom which is
still right and good, and we therefore hope that we shall be delivered.” I put
you aside in God’s name as unclean lepers. For you there is no hope, and no
promise of salvation whatever. Here comes a second. “Sir, a month or two ago I
would have claimed a righteousness with the very best of them. I, too, could
have boasted of what I have done; but now I see my righteousness to be as
filthy rags, and all my goodness is as an unclean thing. As for the future, I
can make no promise; I have often promised, and so often lied. Lord, if ever I
am made whole, Thy grace must make me so.”
III. Having thus
brought the man before the priest, we shall now briefly turn our attention to
the ceremonies which the priest used in the cleansing of the leper.
1. You will perceive, first, that the priest went to the leper, not
the leper to the priest. We go not up to heaven, first, till Christ comes down
from His Father’s glory to the place where we as lepers are shut out from God.
Thou dost take upon Thyself the form of man. Thou dost not disdain the Virgin’s
womb; Thou comest to sinners; Thou eatest and drinkest with them!
2. But the coming of the priest was not enough, there must be a
sacrifice, and on this occasion, in order to set out the two ways by which a
sinner is saved, there was sacrifice mingled with resurrection. First, there
was sacrifice. One of the birds was taken, and its blood was shed in a vessel
which was full, as the Hebrew hath it, of “living water”--of water which had
not been stagnant, but which was clean. Just as when Jesus Christ was put to
death, blood and water flowed from His side to be “of sin a double cure,” so in
the earthen vessel there was received, first, the “living water” and then the
blood of the bird which had just been slain. If sin is put away it must be by
blood. There is no way of patting sin from before the presence of God except by
the streams which flow from the open veins of Christ. The leper was made clean
by sacrifice and by resurrection, but he was not clean till the blood was
sprinkled on him. Christians, the Cross does not save us till Christ’s blood is
sprinkled on our conscience. Yet the virtual salvation was accomplished for all
the elect when Christ died for them upon the tree.
IV. That after the
leper was cleansed, there were certain things which he had. To do. Yet, until
he is cleansed, he is to do nothing. Tim sinner can do nothing towards his own
salvation. His place is the place of death. Christ must be his life. The sinner
is so lost that Christ must begin, and carry on, and finish all; but, when the
sinner is saved then he begins to work in right good earnest. When once he is
no more a leper, but a leper cleansed, then, for the love he bears his Master’s
name, there is no trial too arduous, no service too hard; but he spends his
whole strength in magnifying and glorifying his Lord. I will not detain you
further than to notice that this man, before he might further enjoy the
privileges of his healed estate, was to bring an offering, and the priest was
to take him to the very door of the Tabernacle. He never dare come there
before, but he may come now. So the pardoned man may come right up to God’s
mercy-seat, and may bring the offering of holiness and good works. He is a
pardoned man now. You ask me how? Not by anything he did, but by what the
priest did, and that alone. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Leprosy, a special type of sin
I. In the first
place, leprosy is undoubtedly selected to be a special type of sin, on account
of its extreme loathsomeness. Beginning, indeed, as an insignificant spot, “a
bright place,” a mere scale on the skin, it goes on progressing ever from worse
to worse, till at last limb drops from limb, and only the hideous mutilated
remnant of what was once a man is left.
II. But it will be
rejoined by some: surely it were gross exaggeration to apply this horrible
symbolism to the case of many who, although indeed sinners, unbelievers also in
Christ, yet certainly exhibit truly lovely and attractive characters (see Mark 10:21). But this fact only makes
leprosy the more fitting symbol of sin. For another characteristic is its
insignificant and often imperceptible beginning. We are told that in the case
of those who inherit the taint, it frequently remains quite dormant in early
life, only gradually appearing in later years. How perfectly the type, in this
respect, then, symbolises sin! No comfort can be rightly had from any
complacent comparison of our own characters with those of many, perhaps
professing more, who are much worse than we. No one who knew that from his
parents he had inherited the leprous taint, or in whom the leprosy as yet
appeared as only an insignificant bright spot, would comfort himself greatly by
the observation that other lepers were much worse; and that he was, as yet,
fair and goodly to look upon. Though the leprosy were in him but just begun,
that would be enough to fill him with dismay and consternation. So should it be
with regard to sin.
III. And it would so
affect such a man the more surely, when he knew that the disease, however
slight in its beginnings, was certainly progressive. This is one of the
unfailing marks of the disease. And so with sin. No man can morally stand
still. Sin may not develop in all with equal rapidity, but it does progress in
every natural man, outwardly or inwardly, with equal certainty.
IV. It is another
mark of leprosy, that sooner or later it affects the whole man; and in this,
again, appears the sad fitness of the disease to stand as a symbol of sin. For
sin is not a partial disorder, affecting only one class of faculties, or one
part of our nature. It disorders the judgment; it obscures the moral
perceptions; it either perverts the affections or unduly stimulates them in one
direction while it deadens them in another; it hardens and quickens the will
for evil, while it paralyses its power for the volition of that which is holy.
And not only Scripture, but observation itself, teaches us that sin, in many
cases, also affects the body of man, weakening its powers, and bringing in, by
an inexorable law, pain, disease, death.
V. It is another
remarkable feature of the disease that, as it progresses from bad to worse, the
victim becomes more and more insensible. A recent writer says: “Though a mass
of bodily corruption, at last unable to leave his bed, the leper seems happy
and contented with his sad condition.” Is anything more characteristic than
this of the malady of sin? The sin which, when first committed, costs a keen
pang, afterward, when frequently repeated, hurts not the conscience at all.
Judgments and mercies, which in earlier life affected one with profound
emotion, in later life leave the impenitent sinner as unmoved as they found
him.
VI. Another element
of the solemn fitness of the type is found in the persistently hereditary
nature of leprosy. It may indeed sometimes arise of itself, even as did sin in
the case of certain of the holy angels, and with our first parents; but when
once it is introduced, in the case of any person, the terrible infection
descends with unfailing certainty to all his descendants; and while, by
suitable hygiene, it is possible to alleviate its violence, and retard its
development, it is not possible to escape the terrible inheritance. Is anything
more uniformly characteristic of sin? The most cultivated and the most
barbarous alike, come into the world so constituted that, quite antecedent to
any act of free choice on their part, we know that it is not more certain that
they will eat than that, when they begin to exercise freedom they will, each
and every one, use their moral freedom wrongly--in a word will sin.
VII. And again, we
find yet another analogy in the fact that, among the ancient Hebrews, the disease
was regarded as incurable by human means; and, notwithstanding occasional
announcements in our day that a remedy has been discovered for the plague, this
seems to be the verdict of the best authorities in medical science still. That
in this respect leprosy perfectly represents the sorer malady of the soul,
every one is witness. No possible effort of will or fixedness of determination
has ever availed to free a man from sin. Neither is culture, whether
intellectual or religious, of any more avail.
VIII. Last of all,
this law teaches the supreme lesson, that as with the symbolic disease of the
body, so with that of the soul--sin shuts out from god and from the fellowship
of the holy (see Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15). (S. H. Kellogg, D.
D.)
Discipline in the Church
1. Of the necessity and moderation of discipline in the Church.
2. That the discipline of the Church be advisedly exercised, not
rashly precipitated.
3. Of the wholesome power left to the Church, of binding and loosing,
and of obedience to be given thereunto.
4. The law declares men’s sins, but does not heal them.
5. Of the diversity of censures in the Church. (A. Willet, D. D.)
Sin as a disease
1. Sin the cause of diseases.
2. To take heed of the least sins.
3. Ministers to rebuke sin.
4. Not to go forward in sin.
5. Not to sin against the conscience.
6. Not to be swift to judge others.
7. To shun the company of the wicked.
8. Against pride in apparel. (A. Willet, D. D.)
Leprosy
Sin is a corrupting and disorganising disease, as well as a brutal
degradation and hereditary uncleanness. It is a loathsome putrescence of the
whole nature. It is a sickness of the whole head, and a faintness of the whole
heart. Deliverance from it is called a cure and a healing, as well as a pardon.
Notice its beginnings. Leprosy was, for the most part, hereditary. After doing
its work in the parent it was very apt to break out in the child. Sin began in
Adam, and having wrought nine hundred years in him he died; but the taint of it
was left in all who sprang from him. But leprosy was not always hereditary.
Hence the necessity of a special symbol on the subject of innate depravity,
such as we have in the preceding chapter. The germ of all human sin is derived
from our connection with a fallen parentage. But leprosy, whether hereditary,
or contracted by contagion or otherwise, began far within. Its seat is in the
deepest interior of the body. It is often in the system as many as three or a
dozen years before it shows itself. How exactly this describes sin l Nero and
Caligula were once tender infants, apparently the very personifications of
innocence. Who that saw their sweet slumbers upon the bosoms of their mothers
would ever have suspected that in those gentle forms were latent seeds which
finally developed into bloody butchery, and tyranny, and vice, at which the
world for ages has stood amazed! And little do we know of those depths of
deceit which we carry in ourselves, or to what enormities of crime we are
liable any day to be driven. The taint of leprosy is within, and nothing but
watchfulness and grace can keep it from breaking out in all its corrosive and
wasting power.
1. The first visible signs of leprosy are often very minute and
inconsiderable, and not easily detected. A small pustule or rising of the flesh--a
little bright red spot like that made by a puncture from a pin--a very trifling
eruption, indentation, or scaliness of the skin--or some other very slight
symptom, is usually the first sign which it gives of its presence. And from
these small beginnings the whole living death of the leper is developed. How
vivid the picture of the fact, that the worst and darkest iniquities may grow
out of the smallest beginnings! A look of the eye, a desire of the heart, a
thought of the imagination, a touch of the hand, a single word of compliance,
is often the door of inlet to Satan and all bell’s troops.
2. Leprosy is also gradual in its development. It does not break out
in its full violence at once. Its first manifestations are so trifling that one
who did not understand it would consider it nothing at all. No man is an
outbreaking and confirmed villain at once. People are shocked, and hold up
their hands in horror at scandalous crimes; but they forget that these are only
the easy sequences of little indulgences and sins of which they take no
account. They need to be told that there is a close interior brotherhood and
cohesion between sins, and that he who takes one to his favour is at once beset
with all the rest.
3. Again, leprosy is in itself an exceedingly loathsome and offensive
disorder--a kind of perpetual small-pox, only more deeply seated and attended
with more inward corruption.
4. Again, leprosy under this law carried with it a most melancholy
condemnation of Jewish leper was not only horribly diseased, but also fearfully
cursed in
consequence of his disease. He was pronounced unclean by the law and by the
priests. Such is the type, and it is the same with the antitype. Every sinner
is condemned as well as diseased, and condemned for the very reason that he is
diseased. There
is a sentence of uncleanness
and exclusion upon him. He has no fellowship with the saints, and no share in
the holy services of God’s people. He is a spiritual outcast--a moral
leper--unclean, and ready for the realms of everlasting banishment and death.
5. And yet the picture is not quite complete. It remains to be said
that there was no earthly cure for leprosy. The prophet of God, by his
miraculous power, could remove it, but no human power or skill could. It was
beyond the reach of physician or priest. And so it is with sin. It is a
consumption which cannot be cured--a cancer which cannot be extracted--a
leprosy which cannot be cleansed--except by the direct power of Divine grace. (J.
A. Seiss, D. D.)
The gospel of the leprosy
1. It is a work both difficult and weighty for people to discern and
judge aright of their own spiritual condition. This appears by all these rules
and directions.
2. It is the priest’s office to judge of the leprosy. Goal has given
His ministers power to retain and remit sins (John 20:23).
3. Note the rules of trial, whereby the priest is to judge of the
leprosy.
(a) The natural reason. It is a sign of some inward strength of
nature, that it expels the disease, and sends it forth to the outward parts.
(b) The spiritual reason. A humble acknowledgment of the overspreading
corruption of our nature, and flying to Christ for help under a thorough
conviction and sense of our total uncleanness and pollutedness; this is a sign
the plague is healed, and the leper made clean.
4. Note the duties imposed upon the leper (Leviticus 13:45-47).
Avoidance of false suspicion
When you read in the fourth verse of shutting up the parties for
seven days, and then to look on it again, you may note with yourself, how
greatly God hateth hasty, rash, and uncharitable judgment. A thing which many
men and women, otherwise honest and good, are carried away withal, to their own
great hurt, not only in soul, but in worldly reputation also, and to the bitter
and biting discomfort of those whom they ought to love and judge well of. Nay,
you may reason further with yourself thus: That if in a matter thus subject to
the eye, as these sores were, yet God would have no haste, but a stay for seven
days, and longer as occasion served, before any judgment should be given that
the party was unclean. Oh, how much more doth He abhor haste and love leisure, in
pronouncing of the hearts and thoughts of our friends and neighbours which are
not seen, nor subject to an easy censure? (Bp. Babington.)
Sin may be invisible to human eyes
A lady, whose portrait had often been successfully taken
before, paid a visit one day to the photographer’s for the purpose of having a
new one taken. After she had sat for it in the usual way, the photographer
retired with the plate to examine the picture which the sun’s light had drawn
there, but as the lines gradually developed in the chemical bath a strange
sight was revealed. In the portrait the lady’s face appeared covered with a
number of dark spots; but yet no one looking at her that day was able to detect
the slightest trace of them in her face I But the next day the explanation
came. The spots had then become distinctly visible. The lady was ill of
small-pox, of which she died. The faint yellow of the spots, some time before
human eyes could discern it, had been marked by the pure light of the sun, and
traced in darkened spots in that inexorably true picture drawn on the
photographic plate, revealing the horrible disease that already, though as yet
invisible to human eyes, was seated there. (Biblical Treasury.)
The importance of attending to the disease of sin
Sin is an awful disease. I hear people say, with a toss of
the head, and with a trivial manner: “Oh, yes, I’m a sinner.” Sin is an awful
disease. It is
leprosy. It is dropsy. It is consumption. It is all moral disorders in one.
Now, you know there is a crisis in a disease. Perhaps you have had some
illustration of it in your own family. Sometimes the physician has called, and
he has looked at the patient and said: “That case was simple enough; but the
crisis has passed. If you had called me yesterday, or this morning, I could
have cured the patient. It is too late now; the crisis has passed.” Just so it
is in the spiritual treatment of the soul--there is a crisis. Before that,
life. After that, death. Oh, as you love your soul, do not let the crisis pass
unattended to. There are some here who can remember instances in life when, if
they had bought a certain property, they would have become very rich. A few
acres that would have cost them almost nothing were offered them. They refused
them. Afterwards a large village or city sprang up on those acres of ground,
and they see what a mistake they made in not buying the property. There was an
opportunity of getting it. It never came again. And so it is in regard to a
man’s spiritual and eternal fortune. There is a chance; if you let that go,
perhaps it never comes back. Certainly that one never comes back. (H. W.
Beecher.)
Leprosy and six hereditary
Never shall I forget a visit which I paid to the leper hospital
outside the East Gate of Damascus, which tradition says occupies the site of
Naaman’s house. A woman was crossing the courtyard, whose loathsome features
seemed all but eaten away by disease. In her hands--the fingers of which were
almost consumed by leprosy--she held a sweet-looking infant, as fair and pretty
a child as one could desire to see. The contrast was most painful. Life and
health and innocence seemed to sleep in the arms of sin, disease, and death. I
said to the missionary who accompanied me, “Surely the woman is not the mother
Of the child?” He said, “Yes, she is”; the child does not show the leprosy now,
but it is in the blood, and before long it will probably appear; and if the
infant live long enough she will be as bad as the mother.” Who can bring a
clean thing out of an unclean? (J. W. Bardsley.)
Ministers must seek to produce conviction of sin
A devoted minister relates the following: “A friend of mine was
visiting a dying carter, and said to him, ‘My friend, do you feel yourself a
sinner?’ ‘I do not know that I am,’ was the reply; ‘I suppose I am like other
people; I do not feel very bad.’ ‘We must get that point settled,’ said my
friend. ‘Let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever taken too much to
drink?’ ‘Well, fellows like me, you know, are likely to do that now and then,
out as we are in all weathers.’ ‘I am not asking you about the weathers, my
question is, Have you done this?’ ‘Yes, I have.’ ‘Have you ever sworn?’ ‘Well,
we carters are a rough lot, and a man’s temper sometimes--’ ‘Stop! you admit
that you have sworn, that you have cursed, and taken God’s name in vain. Did
you ever break the Lord’s day?’ ‘Well, it would be difficult for us carters,
busy as we are with our horses, to keep the Lord’s day.’ ‘Stop! here are three
things--drunkenness, profane swearing, and Sabbath-breaking-that you admit yourself
guilty of. How can you say that you are not a sinner? You must take your place
as a sinner, my friend; and the sooner you do it, the better.’ He did so, and
found mercy and pardon through the atoning blood of Christ.” It is of no use
for men to deny, or try to explain away, the fact of their sinfulness; they
will never take their true place until they do so as sinners in the sight of
God.
The difficulty of knowing aright one’s true spiritual state
A young lady, who was under concern of soul, said to Dr. Nettleton:
“I certainly do desire to be a Christian. I desire to be holy. I would give all
the world for an interest in Christ.” “What you say will not bear examination,”
said Dr. Nettleton. “If you really desire religion for what it is, there is
nothing to hinder you from possessing it. I can make a representation which
will show you your heart, if you are willing to see it.” “I am,” she replied.
“It will look very bad,” said Dr. N., “but if you are willing to see it,
I will make the representation. Suppose you were a young lady of fortune; and
suppose a certain young man should desire to possess your fortune, and should,
for that reason, conclude to pay his addresses to you. But he does not happen
to be pleased with your person. He does not love you, but hates you. And
suppose he should come to you, and say, ‘I really wish I could love you, but I
do not. I would give all the world if I could love you; but I cannot.’ What
would you think of that young man?” We may readily guess the confusion and
silence to which she was brought, by this faithful exposure of the deception
which she had practised upon herself. (Sword and Trowel.)
Sinners ought to be willing to know their true state
A man once said this to Dr. Nettleton, “I sincerely desire to be a
Christian. I have often gone to the house of God, hoping that something which
should be said might be sent home to my mind by the Spirit of God, and be
blessed to my salvation.” “You are willing, then, are you not,” said Dr. N., “that I should
converse with you, hoping that my conversation may be the means of your
conversion?” “I am,” was his reply. “If you are willing to be a Christian,”
added Dr. Nettleton, “you are willing to perform the duties of religion; for
this is what is implied in being a Christian. Are you willing to perform these
duties?” “I do not know but that I am,” was the rather doubtful reply. “Well,
then, you are the head of a family. One of the duties of religion is family
prayer. Are you willing to pray in your family?” “I should be,” he replied, “if
I were a Christian; but it cannot be the duty of such a man as I am to pray.
The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.” “And is it not,”
said Dr. Nettleton, “an abomination unto the Lord to live without prayer? But
just let me show you how you deceive yourself. You think you really desire to
be converted. But you are not willing to be convicted. Just as soon as I
mention a duty which you are neglecting, you begin to excuse and justify
yourself, on purpose to keep your sin out of sight. You are not willing to see
that it is an heinous sin to live in the neglect of family prayer. How can you
expect to be brought to repentance until you are willing to see your
sinfulness; and how can you flatter yourself that you really desire to be a
Christian while you thus close your eyes against the truth?” (Sword and
Trowel.)
A diseased nature
It is not necessary to split hairs over the doctrine of “original
sin,” nor to trip against stumblingblocks labelled “transmitted iniquity,” in
order to arrive at the conclusion that man as he is in this world needs moral
helps. It was forcibly said, by way of illustration, that a wolf cub has
probably never killed a sheep, but it undoubtedly will if it lives and has a
chance--because it has the wolf nature. Man does not need to look outside of
his own heart, if he be honest, to know that he has in his nature a tendency to
sin-that he needs constraints around him and a new spirit within him to keep
him true to the higher life. Sin progressive:--Amongst many other diseases
that the body is incident unto, there is one that is called by the name of gangrena,
which doth altogether affect the joints, against which there is no remedy
but to cut off that joint where it settled, otherwise it will pass from joint
to joint, till the whole body is endangered. Such is the nature of sin, which
unless it be cut off in the first motion, it proceedeth unto action, from
action to delectation, from delight unto custom, and from that unto habit,
which being as it were, a second nature, is never, or very hardly removed
without much prayer and fasting. (J. Spencer.)
The power of one sin
While I was walking in the garden one bright morning, a breeze
came through and set all the flowers and leaves a-fluttering. Now, that is the
way flowers talk, so I pricked up my ears and listened. Presently an old
eldertree said: “Flowers, shake off your caterpillars.” “Why?” said a dozen
altogether, for they were like some children who always say, “Why?” when they
are told to do anything. Bad children, those! The elder said: “If you don’t,
they’ll gobble you up.” So the flowers set themselves a-shaking, till the
caterpillars were shaken off. In one of the middle beds there was a beautiful
rose, which shook off all but one, and she said to herself: “Oh, that’s a
beauty! I’ll keep that one.” The elder overheard her, and called out: “One
caterpillar is enough to spoil you.” “But,” said the rose, “look at his brown
and crimson fur and his beautiful black eyes, and scores of little feet. I want
to keep him. Surely one won’t hurt me.” A few mornings after I passed the rose
again. There was not a whole leaf on her; her beauty was gone, she was all but
killed, and had only life enough to weep over her folly, while the tear stood
like dewdrops on her tattered leaves. “Alas! I didn’t think one caterpillar
would ruin me!”
“If the plague be turned into white, then the priest shall
pronounce him clean”
At first sight it seems strange to ordain that the man
should be reckoned clean if the leprosy were out upon him and covered him
wholly. The reason, however, may be--
1. Natural.
2. Moral.
If natural, then it is either because the leprosy is not so
infectious when it has thus come all out on the body, the hard, dry scurf not
being likely to spread infection, whereas the ichor of raw flesh would (see
Bagster); or, because it really is not a proper leprosy if it so come out--it
is a salt humour cast out by the strength of the man’s constitution, and is not
deep-seated. It is rather a relief to the constitution; as when measles or small-pox
come out to the surface of the body, recovery is hopeful. If it was for a moral
reason, then it seems meant to teach that the Lord has a deep abhorrence of a
corrupt nature--deeper far than merely of corrupt actions. We are ever ready to
take home the guilt of evil deeds, but to palliate the evil of a depraved
heart. But the Lord reverses the case. His severest judgment is reserved for
inward depravity. And yet more. Is it not when a soul is fully sensible of
entire corruption (as Isaiah 1:5) that salvation is nearest? A
complete Saviour for a complete sinner? If there appeared any “raw flesh,” then
the man is unclean. For this indicates inward disease--not on the surface only.
It is working into the flesh. But if the “raw flesh,” turn and be “changed into
white,” then it is plain that the disease is not gone inwards; it is playing on
the skin only. Let him stand, therefore, as clean. Perhaps the case of a
pardoned man may be referred to again in this type. His iniquity comes all out
to view, when it is thrown into the fountain opened; and the inner source of it
is checked. The seat of corruption has been removed, But if, after the
appearance of pardon, the man turn aside to folly (if “raw flesh” appear), he
is to be counted unclean. If, however, this turning aside to folly be checked,
if this backsliding be healed, then it is like the “raw flesh,” turning “into
white”--it evidences that his nature is sound--it has not returned to its state
of thorough depravity. (A. A. Bonar.)
Unclean, unclean.
The leper diseased
Leper, canst thou not read thy case here? Afflicted, exercised,
tempted, downcast child of God, dost thou not see thy character here described
by an inspired pen?
1. “The leper in whom the plague is.” Is sin your plague? Take all
your worldly anxieties, tie them up in one bundle, and put them into the scale;
now place in the other scale the plague of sin. Which scale goes down? If you are
a spiritual leper, you will say, “Oh, it is sin, sin, that I sometimes fear
will be a millstone to drown my soul in hell.” And canst thou find this mark,
“the leper in whom the plague is”? Is not this a very striking expression, “In
whom “? I think Paul has hit the matter to a nicety; and well he might, for he
wrote as a man who knew what he was writing about; he says, “The sin that
dwelleth in me.” Sin is not like a martin that builds its nest under the eaves,
which sticks to the house, but is not in the house. Neither is sin a lodger to
whom you can give a week’s or a month’s notice to quit; nor is it a servant
whom you may call up, pay him his month’s wages, and send him about his
business. No, no. Sin is one of the family who dwells in the house, and will
not be turned out of the house--haunts every room, nestles in every corner, and
like the poor ejected Irish of whom we read, will never leave the tenement
while stick or stone hangs together. Is not this the case with you? Does not
sin dwell in you, work in you, lust in you, go to bed with you, get up with
you, and all the day long, more or less, crave, design, or imagine some evil
thing? Do you feel sin to be a plague and a pest, as it must be to every living
soul? Then are you not something of a leper if the plague dwell in you?
2. But the leper’s clothes were to be rent.
3. But the leper was also to have his head bare. No covering from
God’s wrath was allowed him; bareheaded he stood exposed to the winds and
storms of heaven, bare before the lightning’s flash. And does not this
represent the poor sinner without a covering before God; sensible that he is
amenable to God’s justice and eternal indignation?
4. But he was also to have a covering on his upper lip. And this for
the same reason that we cover the mouth of the grave--to present the infection
of his breath. If he covered but the lower lip, the breath might come forth.
Have you ever thought and felt that there was sin enough in your heart to
infect a world? that if every man and woman in the world were perfectly holy,
and you were left freely to give vent to every thought and imagination of your
carnal mind, there was sin enough there to taint every individual? It is so,
felt or not; for sin is of that infectious nature that there is enough in one
man’s heart to fill all London with horror. Oh, when a man knows this he is
glad to have a covering for his upper lip! He cannot boast then of what a good
heart he has, nor what good resolutions he has made, or what great performances
he means to accomplish. He has at times a very Vesuvius in him, and wants no
one to come within the mouth of the crater. If a man has a covering upon the
upper lip he will not boast of his goodness.
5. But the leper was to have a cry in his mouth. That cry was
“Unclean, unclean.” It was a warning cry. He was to shout to the passengers, if
any were drawing near, “Unclean, unclean; come not near me; I am a leper; I
shall pollute you; beware of my breath, it carries infection with it; touch me
not; if you touch me you will be tainted with the same malady; beware of me;
keep your distance; standoff!” Yes, but you say, “Come; I am not so bad as
that; I am religious, and holy, and consistent. I am sure I need not cover my
upper lip and cry, Unclean, unclean.” Oh, no; certainly not. You are not a
leper. You have had years ago a rising, or a boil, and at the priest’s
direction you have washed your clothes and are clean. But if you do not feel to
be a leper, there are those who do; and such do cry, and ever must cry,
“Unclean, unclean.” And if they do not uncover all their sores to men, they can
do so to God.
6. But all the (lays wherein the plague was in the leper he was to be
defiled; he was unclean. Such is a spiritual leper; defiled by sin; polluted
from head to foot, as long as the leprosy remains.
7. But what was the necessary consequence of this? “He shall dwell
alone.” A solitary religion is generally a good religion. God’s tried people
have not many companions. The exercised cannot walk with the unexercised; the
polluted with the unpolluted; the sick with the well; tile leper with the
clean; for “how can two walk together except they be agreed?” (J. C.
Philpot.)
Disease and sin
This great fact that a disease in the body was typical of a malady
in the soul reminds us at once that there was perfect harmony between the body
and the soul, between things spiritual and things temporal, between things
heavenly and things earthly. There is enough of the harmony still surviving to
show what and how rich it once was. The historical statement in this chapter
is, that the leprosy overspread the whole body, till it became, in language
used by one of the prophets, “white as snow”; the whole physical economy was
infected with its deadly poison. And, in that respect, it was the type, and is
indeed referred to in the New Testament as the type, of that sin which has
infected the whole soul and body of mankind. Take any one faculty that is
within us, and we shall find on it the great leprosy, or taint, or moral
influence of sin. Man’s intellect has in it still remaining energies that give
token of what it once was; but it has in it also defects, and tremulousness,
and weakness, and paralysis, that indicate that it is the subject of some great
derangement. I need not attempt to prove that the heart also is defiled. Our
blessed Lord gives the heart its faithful character when He says, “Out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, and such like; and these are the
things that defile a man.” Truly, therefore, and justly did the Psalmist pray,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God: renew a right spirit within me.” But not
only are the heart and intellect affected, as I have shown you, but the
conscience also has suffered, and is poisoned by the universal disease. It is
sometimes overflowed by guilty passions, it is sometimes silent when it ought
to rebuke them; sometimes quiescent when it ought to assert its original
authority, and sometimes the democracy of the passions rises in fierce array,
dethrones the monarch that ought to govern them, and prompts man to pursue the
infatuated course that leads to his ruin. And in the worst of cases this power
of conscience is often perverted to the wrong side, sanctioning the sins which it ought to
abhor. When the intellect that discerns, the heart that loves or hates, and the
conscience that testifies what is right or wrong, are thus infected, truly may
we say with Isaiah, “The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint,” &c.
Were the tokens and the evidences of the assertion I have made not so obvious
and so numerous as they actually are, you find other proofs in the miser fixing
his heart upon gold, in spite of the decisions of intellect, the better
impulses of the heart, and the rebukes of conscience. You find the drunkard
still indulging in his cups, notwithstanding a thousand testimonies within and
without, that he is ruining soul and body. You find the Pharisee robbing
widows’ houses, and making long prayers for a pretence. You find the very
religion of love and truth corrupted into the religion of superstition, of
hate, and a lie. So depraved and fallen is man that it looks that, if he had
the power, he would turn redemption itself into a nullity, or into a curse.
There is, then, on all sides the evidence of some great derangement. We never
can suppose we were made so. Disease seems to us natural, but it is most
unnatural; error, sin, hate, all seem to us normal and ordinary, but they are
really altogether the reverse. We find, on tracing the similitude between the
disease which is here mentioned, that the leper had to be insulated from the
rest of the world, and left by himself to get rid of the disease that thus
separated him. So the sinner, in God’s moral government, must be for ever
separated from the communion and company of the holy, if he continue the
subject of this great moral malady--sin. The leper’s disease was so bad that it
was incurable by human means. It is so with sin. Like the leprosy, in the next
place, sin is contagious. The characteristic disease of the Israelite spread
from person to person, from house to house, and throughout the whole land. And
who needs to be taught that “evil communications corrupt good manners”? Who
needs to learn that there is in an evil word, in a crooked course, a contagious
influence that is distilled upon susceptible and sensitive and living hearts?
In the ancient economy, the party to whom the leper presented himself, was not
the physician, as in other diseases, but the priest. And this shows that it was
a disease in some shape intimately associated with man’s guilt, or with sin. A
Jew of old, like a Gentile now, if taken ill, applied to the physician; but
when infected with this great typical disease, he did not go to the physician,
but to the priest. But, more than this, even the priest could not heal him; the
priest had no prescription that could heal him, no balm that could remove it.
All that he could do was to say, “You are healed,” or “You are not healed,” or,
“You are advancing towards convalescence,” or the reverse. The priest was to
pronounce him clean, or to pronounce him unclean. But how much better is the
economy under which we live! Our High Priest can not only pronounce us clean,
but make us clean; He can not only say that we are justified, but He can
justify us by His perfect righteousness, forgive us by His atoning blood, by
His sanctifying Spirit, through His inspired Word. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
The separating influences of sin
Any one who has visited Jerusalem may have seen the lepers
standing day by day near the Jaffa Gate soliciting alms from those passing the
threshold of the city which they themselves were not allowed to enter. Most
travellers who have either witnessed this painful sight or visited the houses
of the lepers at the Zion Gate must have recalled the words, “Without the camp
shall his habitation be.” No type so strikingly brings out the separating
influences of sin as that of leprosy; telling the sinner, in no uncertain
tones, that unless his sin be pardoned, his leprosy cleansed, he shall never
enter the gates of the heavenly city. Howels, in one of his sermons, finely
says that when Adam sinned, God, having locked the gate of Paradise to prevent
the entrance of men, cast the key into the very depths of hell. There it lay,
and man must for ever have been excluded--“without the camp,” the place of
God’s dwelling, whether typified by garden, camp, or city, must his habitation
have been--had not the Son of God, with His Father’s will and pleasure, wrought
our deliverance. As He stood on the edge of the fiery abyss--the wrath of God
due to man’s sin--He drew back. Again He looked into the terrible gulf. Then,
with a love incomprehensible were it not Divine, He plunged into its depths,
found the key, ascended upon high, led captivity captive, opened the gate of
Paradise; and now the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. (J. W. Bardsley,
M. A.)
Leprous outcasts in England
A gentleman visiting the venerable church of St. Mary’s in the
village of Minster, near Ramsgate, said to the guide, “What means this hole
through the wall?” “That,” replied the guide, “recalls a fact which is full of
interest and pathos. In the twelfth century there were a number of lepers in
the neighbourhood. You will understand, of course, that they were obliged to
live by themselves, and were supported by charity. Over at the old Abbey you
may still see the place where bread and other food was passed out to them.
Being unclean, and afflicted with a horrible and incurable disease which was
contagious, they were not allowed in church, or to come in contact with healthy
persons, so they had no way of taking any direct part in the worship of God.
Both as to soul and body they were driven out from all intercourse with the
rest of mankind. Yet many of them longed for some sound or sight that might
comfort them in their sad, loathsome, and hopeless condition. Taking pity on
the poor creatures, the monks made this hole in the wall, so that, one at a
time, they could see the priests ministering at the altar, hear the music, and
perhaps a few words of the Mass. Then they would go back to their huts and caves,
trusting that in heaven, if not on earth, they might be free from the dreadful
curse under which they suffered. That is why this hole is called the Leper’s
Squint. Poor outcasts! my heart aches to think of them, though they are all
dead and gone these seven hundred years.”
──《The Biblical Illustrator》