Leviticus 14:1

This remarkable chapter deals not with the cure of leprosy, but with the ceremonies affecting the reception of the healed person back into the communion with the covenant people and his re-admission to the status that he formerly held in the community and within his family. These complicated rituals are admittedly very ancient and their appearance here is altogether consistent with their having been included here, at God's command, by Moses himself. Lofthouse commented that, "Leviticus 14 shows into what a distant period the whole law must be pushed back."[1] In our opinion, the "pushing back" will never be accurate until it rests in the time of Moses!

It is astounding that some scholars profess to find a connection here with the magical rites of ancient paganism. Lofthouse, for example, said, "There is possibly an original connection with what would now be called magic, getting rid of the spirit or demon of disease."[2] The error in such a view is manifest in the fact that the leper in this chapter had to be healed FIRST, before any of the ceremonies here mentioned could begin. No efficacy whatever to heal the victim is implied or attributed to the ceremonies. As Wenham declared:

"Israel differed from her neighbors, who went in for exorcism and magical attempts to cure disease. In Israel, a man had to seek help directly from God in prayer, and not rely on the dubious remedies of folk medicine."[3]

Since it is obvious that this chapter has nothing to do with the healing of disease, what is the significance of it? Allis discerned this as follows:

"The fact that leprosy is dealt with so elaborately indicates that this particularly loathsome and intractable disease is to be regarded as a type of that indwelling sin in which all the ills and afflictions of mankind have their cause and origin."[4]

We accept this observation as accurate, for it appears that David considered his forgiveness regarding the transgression with Bathsheba as recalling, at least in some particulars, the rites of this chapter. "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalms 51:7).

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest: 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, then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and the priest shall command to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 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: and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let go the living bird into the open field. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days. And 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, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be clean."

"The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing ..." This carries overtones of that ultimate "day" when the Son of God who actually had power to heal leprosy would appear, bringing salvation to people. It is as an effective type of sin that the leprosy appears here, and it is as a type of the sinner that the leper himself must be understood. Of course, there is no intimation whatever that lepers were actually sinners, some innocents doubtless being among the sufferers from this terrible malady. Just as the apostle Peter's status as a bound prisoner, naked in darkness, guarded, and condemned to death in Acts 12 appears as an amazing type of all sinners, yet himself being altogether innocent of any particular sin, in like manner, the horrible state of the leper in this chapter stands as a true picture of the way it actually is with sinful people.

"Him that is to be cleansed ..." This expression occurs in Leviticus 14:4,7,8,11,14,17,18,19; and it is of the very greatest interest that eminent Hebrew authorities challenge and deny the rendition appearing here, affirming that:

"The text uses the reflexive rather than passive inflection to refer to the leper's process of purification. In both instances (Leviticus 14:7,11) the leper is referred to as "he who is to cleanse himself" and not as "he who is to be cleansed." This is to indicate that the leper must do his share to become pure. He himself must seek to attain purity by way of repentance and appropriate conduct.[5]

That the Jewish understanding of this is correct is corroborated by the N.T. appearance of exactly the same thought in the commandment of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins ..." (Acts 22:16).[6] The significance of the middle voice in that passage makes the meaning, "Arise, and get THYSELF baptized."

"Two living clean birds ..." (Leviticus 14:4). The law did not specify the name of the birds, and the use of sparrows in this ritual appeared to be normal in the Jewish customs of later ages (after Moses), but we cannot resist the acceptance of McGee's opinion that, "Most likely they were doves."[7]

"If a plague of leprosy be healed ..." (Leviticus 14:2). Nothing in these ceremonies had anything to do with the healing, because that had to occur as a direct action of God, totally removed from anything else. How did it come about? We are not told. That the sufferer indeed sought remedies and prayed to God may be inferred. It will be remembered that Moses prayed for Miriam when she was afflicted with leprosy (Numbers 12:13).

"Cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop ..." (Leviticus 14:4). The hyssop mentioned here is often held to be unidentifiable; but Bamberger stated that, "It is probably to be identified with Syrian majoram."[8] That both cedar wood and hyssop were to be used was understood to mean that, "he was stricken because he exalted himself like the cedar, but when he abased himself like the hyssop, he was healed."[9] Such views are not sound, because the attribution to personal sin of the leper as the cause of his malady is not supported by the text. The scarlet is usually thought to have been red wool yarn used to make a convenient bundle of the items mentioned here, which were then used as a kind of broom with which to do the sprinkling.

"Let go the living bird into the open field ..." (Leviticus 14:7). All kinds of notions exist with reference to this. "It was the survival of the extremely ancient idea of the transference of uncleanness to animals."[10] "It was a symbol of the leper's new freedom."[11] "It symbolized the former leper's release from his disease."[12] There is some merit in all these ideas, but something more is meant. "The letting go of the living bird (Leviticus 14:53) in connection with the cleansing of a house indicates that no liberty, privilege, or ability thus came to the house, and so it must be assumed here that the symbolism points not to new found freedom of the sufferer but to the means of his deliverance. In the great antitype, the forgiveness of sin, the means is plain enough, namely, the death and resurrection of the Son of God, and these two birds are a perfect representation of that. The slaughtered one represented the death of Christ, and the released one represented his resurrection. Micklem, therefore, was not amiss in declaring that, "We may suppose that the escaping bird brought home to the leper the bearing away of his uncleanness."[13] It was more effectively stated thusly by Jellie: "The symbolism of the slain bird suggests the death of Christ, and the soaring bird the resurrection of Christ."[14]

This release of the bird also suggests a similar thing observable in the two goats on the Day of Atonement, one being sacrificed, the other being released to roam beyond the camp, and the certain identification of that ceremony with Jesus Christ (as outlined in Hebrews 13:12,13) makes it very likely that a similar identification is also in this. In the scapegoat analogy, the goat bore the sins of Israel away into the wilderness, but here the released bird, sprinkled with the blood, flies away into heaven, suggesting the offering of Christ's blood "in heaven" for us (Hebrews 10:12).