Verse 43
"And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken out the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered; then the priest shall come in and look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.
"And if the priest shall come in, and look, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plastered; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: 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: 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: but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open field: so shall he make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean."
It is of interest here that the cleansing of the house followed almost exactly the same ceremonies as those required for the cleansing of the leper, except that there were none of the required offerings such as the trespass-offering and the sin-offering.
Meyrick concluded from Leviticus 14:53 that the common interpretation that sees the loosing of the living bird as a representation of the new liberty and freedom of the cleansed leper must be wrong. "It certainly does not represent any such action that a house may take!"[23]
"This specific legislation comes to an end here. Diseases of the flesh, infected garments, diseased houses - all were intended to make the Israelite aware that he moved in a world of sin, that he was always in the midst of evil."[24]
Although there are many things in these chapters, especially Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14, that shall continue to appear arcane to us, the overwhelming TRUTH is that, whatever evil may be around us, or even in our flesh, or in our homes, there is always the privilege of recourse to God. God is the final Arbiter of life and death, disease and health, power and weakness; and the believer should always pray diligently for the blessing of the loving Father who is able to do all things:
See now that I, even I, am He,
and there is no god beside Me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal.
And there is none that can deliver out of my hand!
In these interesting teachings, the Israelites were taught not to rely upon men or upon the devices of men for the healing of themselves, their garments, or their houses, but upon God alone. In these days, men have presumably taken over all such functions for themselves by trusting their own remedies and devices, but death has neither been much delayed nor avoided. One wonders if our own generation could not learn from what the ancient covenant people were taught.
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