This brief section reads out to us, after its own peculiar fashion,
the double lesson of "man's ruin and God's remedy." But though the
fashion is peculiar, the lesson is most distinct and impressive. It
is, at once, deeply humbling and divinely comforting. The effect of
all Scripture, when interpreted to one's own soul directly by the
power of the Holy Ghost, is to lead us out of self to Christ. Wherever
we see our fallen nature, at whatever stage of its history we
contemplate it--whether in its conception, at its birth, or at any
point along its whole career, from the womb to the coffin, it wears
the double stamp of infirmity and defilement. This is sometimes
forgotten amid the glitter and glare, the pomp and fashion, the wealth
and splendor, of human life. The mind of man is fruitful in devices to
cover his humiliation. In various ways he seeks to ornament and gild,
and put on an appearance of strength and glory, but it is all vain. He
has only to be seen as he enters this world, a poor helpless creature,
or as he passes away from it, to take his place with the clod of the
valley, in order to have a most convincing proof of the hollowness of
all his pride, the vanity of all his glory. Those whose path through
this world has been brightened by what man calls glory, have entered
in nakedness and helplessness, and retreated amid disease and death.
Nor is this all. It is not merely helplessness that belongs to
man--that characterizes him as he enters this life: there is
defilement also. "Behold," says the Psalmist, "I was shapen in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Ps. li. 5.) "How can
he be clean that is born of a woman?" (Job xxv. 4.) In the chapter
before us, we are taught that the conception and birth of "a
man-child" involved "seven days" of ceremonial defilement to the
mother, together with thirty-three days of separation from the
sanctuary; and these periods were doubled in the case of "a
maid-child." Has this no voice? Can we not read herein a humbling
lesson? Does it not declare to us, in language not to be
misunderstood, that man is "an unclean thing," and that he needs the
blood of atonement to cleanse him? Truly so. Man may imagine that he
can work out a righteousness of his own, he may vainly boast of the
dignity of human nature, he may put on a lofty air and assume a
haughty bearing as he moves across the stage of life; but if he would
just retire for a few moments and ponder over the short section of our
book which now lies open before us, his pride, pomp, dignity, and
righteousness would speedily vanish, and instead thereof, he might
find the solid basis of all true dignity, as well as the ground of
divine righteousness, in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The shadow of this cross passes before us in a double way in our
chapter; first, in the circumcision of the "man-child," whereby he
became enrolled as a member of the Israel of God; and secondly, in the
burnt-offering and sin-offering, whereby the mother was restored from
every defiling influence, rendered fit once more to approach the
sanctuary and to come in contact with holy things. "And when the days
of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter, she shall
bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt-offering, and a young
pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin-offering, unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest; who shall offer it
before the Lord, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be
cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that
hath born a male or a female." (Ver. 6, 7.) The death of Christ in its
two grand aspects is here introduced to our thoughts as the only thing
which could possibly meet and perfectly remove the defilement
connected with man's natural birth. The burnt-offering presents the
death of Christ according to the divine estimate thereof; the
sin-offering, on the other hand, presents the death of Christ as
bearing upon the sinner's need.
"And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two
turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for a burnt-offering and the
other for a sin-offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for
her, and she shall be clean." Nothing but blood-shedding could impart
cleanness. The cross is the only remedy for man's infirmity and man's
defilement. Wherever that glorious work is apprehended, by faith,
there is perfect cleanness enjoyed. Now, the apprehension may be
feeble, the faith may be but wavering, the experience may be shallow;
but let the reader remember, for his soul's joy and comfort, that it
is not the depth of his experience, the stability of his faith, or the
strength of his apprehension, but the divine value, the changeless
efficacy, of the blood of Jesus. This gives great rest to the heart.
The sacrifice of the cross is the same to every member of the Israel
of God whatever be his _status_ in the assembly. The tender
considerateness of our ever-gracious God is seen in the fact that the
blood of a turtle-dove was as efficacious for the poor as the blood of
a bullock for the rich. The full value of the atoning work was alike
maintained and exhibited in each. Had it not been so, the humble
Israelite, if involved in ceremonial defilement, might, as she gazed
upon the well-stocked pastures of some wealthy neighbor, exclaim,
Alas! what shall I do? how shall I be cleansed? how shall I get back
to my place and privilege in the assembly? I have neither flock nor
herd: I am poor and needy. But, blessed be God, the case of such an
one was fully met. A pigeon or turtle-dove was quite sufficient. The
same perfect and beautiful grace shines forth in the case of the leper
in chapter xiv. of our book--"And _if he be poor and cannot get so
much_, then he shall take, etc.... And he shall offer the one of the
turtle-doves, or of the young pigeons, _such as he can get; even such
as he is able to get_.... 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." (Ver. 21, 30-32.)
Grace meets the needy one just where he is and as he is. The atoning
blood is brought within the reach of the very lowest, the very
poorest, the very feeblest. All who need it can have it. "If he be
poor"--what then? Let him be cast aside? Ah, no; Israel's God could
never so deal with the poor and needy. There is ample provision for
all such in the gracious expression, "Such as he can get; even such as
he is able to get." Most exquisite grace! "To the poor the gospel is
preached." None can say, The blood of Jesus was beyond me. Each can be
challenged with the inquiry, How near would you have it brought to
you? "I bring _near_ My righteousness." How "near"? So near, that it
is "to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the
ungodly." (Rom. iv. 5.) Again, "The Word is _nigh_ thee." How "nigh"?
So nigh, "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. x. 9.) So also that most touching
and beautiful invitation, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to
the waters, and _he that hath no money_." (Is. lv. 1.)
What matchless grace shines in the expressions, "To him that _worketh
not_," and, "He that hath _no money_"! They are as like God as they
are unlike man. Salvation is as free as the air we breathe. Did we
create the air? did we mingle its component parts? No; but we enjoy
it, and, by enjoying it, get power to live and act for Him who made
it. So is it in the matter of salvation. We get it without a fraction,
without an effort. We feed upon the wealth of another, we rest in the
work finished by another; and, moreover, it is by so feeding and
resting that we are enabled to work for Him on whose wealth we feed
and in whose work we rest. This is a grand gospel paradox, perfectly
inexplicable to legality, but beautifully plain to faith. Divine grace
delights in making provision for those who are "not able" to make
provision for themselves.
But there is another invaluable lesson furnished by this twelfth
chapter of Leviticus. We not only read herein the grace of God to the
poor, but, by comparing its closing verse with Luke ii. 24, we learn
the amazing depth to which God stooped in order to manifest that
grace. The Lord Jesus Christ--God manifest in the flesh--the pure and
spotless Lamb--the Holy One, who knew no sin, was "made of a woman,"
and that woman (wondrous mystery!), having borne in her womb, and
brought forth, that pure and perfect, that holy and spotless, human
body, had to undergo the usual ceremonial, and accomplish the days of
her purification, according to the law of Moses. And not only do we
read divine grace in the fact of her having thus to purify herself,
but also the mode in which this was accomplished.--"And to offer a
sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, _a
pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons_." From this simple
circumstance we learn that the reputed parents of our blessed Lord
Jesus were so poor as to be obliged to take advantage of the gracious
provision made for those whose means did not afford "a lamb for a
burnt-offering." What a thought! The Lord of glory, the most high God,
Possessor of heaven and earth, the One to whom pertained "the cattle
upon a thousand hills"--yea, the wealth of the universe, appeared in
the world which His hands had made, in the narrow circumstances of
humble life. The Levitical economy had made provision for the poor,
and the mother of Jesus availed herself thereof. Truly there is a
profound lesson in this for the human heart. The Lord Jesus did not
make His appearance in this world in connection with the great or the
noble. He was pre-eminently a poor man. He took His place with the
poor.--"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that ye through His
poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.)
May it ever be our joy to feed upon this precious grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by which we have been made rich for time and for
eternity. He emptied Himself of all that love could give, that we
might be filled; He stripped Himself that we might be clothed; He died
that we might live. He, in the greatness of His grace, traveled down
from the height of divine wealth into the depth of human poverty, in
order that we might be raised from the dunghill of nature's ruin, to
take our place amid the princes of His people forever. Oh that the
sense of this grace, wrought in our hearts by the power of the Holy
Ghost, may constrain us to a more unreserved surrender of ourselves to
Him, to whom we owe our present and everlasting felicity, our riches,
our life, our all!
CHAPTERS XIII. & XIV.
Of all the functions which, according to the Mosaic ritual, the priest
had to discharge, none demanded more patient attention or more strict
adherence to the divine guide-book than the discernment and proper
treatment of leprosy. This fact must be obvious to every one who
studies, with any measure of care, the very extensive and important
section of our book at which we have now arrived.
There were two things which claimed the priest's vigilant care,
namely, the purity of the assembly, and the grace which could not
admit of the exclusion of any member save on the most clearly
established grounds. Holiness could not permit any one to remain in
who ought to be out; and on the other hand, grace would not have any
one out who ought to be in. Hence, therefore, there was the most
urgent need, on the part of the priest, of watchfulness, calmness,
wisdom, patience, tenderness, and enlarged experience. Things might
seem trifling which in reality were serious, and things might look
like leprosy which were not it at all. The greatest care and coolness
were needed. A judgment rashly formed, a conclusion hastily arrived
at, might involve the most serious consequences, either as regards the
assembly or some individual member thereof.
This will account for the frequent occurrence of such expressions as
the following; namely, "The priest shall look"--"The priest shall shut
up him that hath the plague _seven days_"--"And the priest shall look
on him the seventh day"--"Then the priest shall shut him up _seven
days more_"--"And the priest shall _look on him again_ the seventh
day"--"And the priest shall _see him_"--"Then the priest shall
_consider_." No case was to be hastily judged or rashly decided. No
opinion was to be formed from mere hearsay. Personal observation,
priestly discernment, calm reflection, strict adherence to the written
Word--the holy, infallible guide-book--all these things were
imperatively demanded of the priest if he would form a sound judgment
of each case. He was not to be guided by his own thoughts, his own
feelings, his own wisdom, in any thing. He had ample guidance in the
Word, if only he was subject thereto. Every point, every feature,
every movement, every variation, every shade and character, every
peculiar symptom and affection--all was provided for, with divine
fullness and forethought, so that the priest only needed to be
acquainted with and subject to the Word in all things, in order to be
preserved from ten thousand mistakes.
Thus much as to the priest and his holy responsibilities.
We shall now consider the disease of leprosy, as developed in a
person, in a garment, or in a house.
Looking at this disease in a physical point of view, nothing can
possibly be more loathsome; and being, so far as man is concerned,
totally incurable, it furnishes a most vivid and appalling picture of
sin--sin in one's nature, sin in his circumstances, sin in an
assembly. What a lesson for the soul in the fact that such a vile and
humiliating disease should be used as a type of moral evil, whether in
a member of God's assembly, in the circumstances of any member, or in
the assembly itself!
I. And first, then, as to leprosy in a person; or in other words, the
working of moral evil, or of that which might seem to be evil, in any
member of the assembly. This is a matter of grave and solemn import--a
matter demanding the utmost vigilance and care on the part of all who
are concerned in the good of souls and in the glory of God, as
involved in the well-being and purity of His assembly as a whole or of
each individual member thereof.
It is important to see that while the broad principles of leprosy and
its cleansing apply in a secondary sense to any sinner, yet in the
scripture now before us, the matter is presented in connection with
those who were God's recognized people. The person who is here seen as
the subject of priestly examination is a member of the assembly of
God. It is well to apprehend this. God's assembly must be kept pure,
because it is His dwelling-place. No leper can be allowed to remain
within the hallowed precincts of Jehovah's habitation.
But then, mark the care, the vigilance, the perfect patience,
inculcated upon the priest, lest aught that was not leprosy might be
treated as such, or lest aught that really was leprosy might be
suffered to escape. Many things might appear "in the skin"--the place
of manifestation--"like the plague of leprosy," which, upon patient,
priestly investigation, would be found to be merely superficial. This
was to be carefully attended to. Some blemish might make its
appearance upon the surface, which, though demanding the jealous care
of the one who had to act for God, was not, in reality, defiling. And
yet, that which seemed but a superficial blemish might prove to be
something deeper than the skin, something below the surface, something
affecting the hidden springs of the constitution. All this claimed the
most intense care on the part of the priest. (See ver. 2-11.) Some
slight neglect, some trifling oversight, might lead to disastrous
consequences. It might lead to the defilement of the assembly, by the
presence of a confirmed leper, or to the expulsion, for some
superficial blemish, of a genuine member of the Israel of God.
Now, there is a rich fund of instruction in all this for the people of
God. There is a difference between personal infirmity and the positive
energy of evil--between mere defects and blemishes in the outward
character, and the activity of sin in the members. No doubt it is
important to watch against our infirmities; for, if not watched,
judged, and guarded against, they may become the source of positive
evil. (See ver. 14-28.) Every thing of nature must be judged and kept
down. We must not make any allowance for personal infirmity _in
ourselves_, though we should make ample allowance for it _in others_.
Take, for example, the matter of an irritable temper. I should judge
it in myself; I should make allowance for it in another. It may, like
"the burning boil" in the case of an Israelite (ver. 19, 20.), prove
the source of real defilement--the ground of exclusion from the
assembly. Every form of weakness must be watched, lest it become an
occasion of sin. "A bald forehead" was not leprosy, but it was that in
which leprosy might appear, and hence it had to be watched. There may
be a hundred things which are not in themselves sinful, but which may
become the occasion of sin if not diligently looked after. Nor is it
merely a question of what, in our estimation, may be termed blots,
blemishes, and personal infirmities, but even of what our hearts might
feel disposed to boast of. Wit, humor, vivacity of spirit and
temper--all these may become the source and centre of defilement. Each
one has something to guard against--something to keep him ever upon
the watch-tower. How happy it is that we have a Father's heart to come
to and count on with respect to all such things! We have the precious
privilege of coming, at all times, into the presence of unrebuking,
unupbraiding love, there to tell out all, and obtain grace to help in
all, and full victory over all. We need not be discouraged so long as
we see such a motto inscribed on the door of our Father's
treasury--"He giveth more grace." Precious motto! It has no limit: it
is bottomless and boundless.
We shall now proceed to inquire what was done in every case in which
the plague of leprosy was unquestionably and unmistakably defined. The
God of Israel could bear with infirmity, blemish, and failure; but the
moment it became a case of defilement, whether in the head, the beard,
the forehead, or any other part, it could not be tolerated in the holy
assembly. "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. 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." (Ver. 45, 46.) Here was the
leper's condition, the leper's occupation, the leper's place. With
rent garments, bare head, and covered lip; crying, "Unclean, unclean;"
and dwelling outside, in the dreary solitude--the dismal desert waste.
What could be more humiliating, what more depressing, than this? "He
shall dwell alone." He was unfit for communion or companionship. He
was excluded from the only spot in all the world in which Jehovah's
presence was known or enjoyed.
Reader, behold, in the poor, solitary leper, a vivid type of one in
whom sin is working. This is really what it means. It is not, as we
shall see presently, a helpless, ruined, guilty, convicted sinner,
whose guilt and misery have come thoroughly out, and who is,
therefore, a fit subject for the love of God and the blood of Christ.
No; we see in the excluded leper one in whom sin is actually
working--one in whom there is the positive energy of evil. This is
what defiles and shuts out from the enjoyment of the divine presence
and the communion of saints. So long as sin is working, there can be
no fellowship with God or with His people. "He shall dwell alone;
without the camp shall his habitation be." How long? "All the days
wherein _the plague_ shall be in him." This is a great practical
truth. The energy of evil is the death-blow to communion. There may be
the outward appearance--the mere form--the hollow profession, but
communion there can be none so long as the energy of evil is there.
It matters not what the character or amount of the evil may be--if it
were but the weight of a feather--if it were but some foolish thought,
so long as it continues to work, it must hinder communion--it must
cause a suspension of fellowship. It is when it rises to a head--when
it comes to the surface--when it is brought thoroughly out that it can
be perfectly met and put away by the grace of God and by the blood of
the Lamb.
This leads us to a deeply interesting point in connection with the
leper--a point which must prove a complete paradox to all save those
who understand God's mode of dealing with sinners. "And if a leprosy
break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of
him that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, wheresoever
the priest looketh; 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." (Chap.
xiii. 12, 13.) The moment a sinner is in his true place before God,
the whole question is settled: directly his real character is fully
brought out, there is no further difficulty. He may have to pass
through much painful exercise ere he reaches this point--exercise
consequent upon his refusal to take his true place--to bring out "all
the truth" with respect to what he is; but the moment he is brought to
say, from his heart, "_Just as I am_," the free grace of God flows
down to him. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon
me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." (Ps. xxxii. 3,
4.) How long did this painful exercise continue? Until the whole truth
was brought out--until all that which was working inwardly came fully
to the surface.--"I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions unto the
Lord,' and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." (Ver. 5.)
It is deeply interesting to mark the progress of the Lord's dealing
with the leprous man, from the moment that the suspicion is raised, by
certain features in the place of manifestation, until the disease
covers the whole man, "from the crown of the head unto the sole of the
foot." There was no haste and no indifference. God ever enters the
place of judgment with a slow and measured pace; but when He does
enter, He must act according to the claims of His nature. He can
patiently investigate. He can wait for "seven days;" and should there
be the slightest variation in the symptoms, He can wait "seven days
more;" but the moment it is found to be the positive working of
leprosy, there can be no toleration. "Without the camp shall his
habitation be." How long? Until the disease comes fully to the
surface. "If the leprosy have covered _all_ his flesh, he shall
pronounce him clean." This is a most precious and interesting point.
The very smallest speck of leprosy was intolerable to God; and yet
when the whole man was covered, from head to foot, he was pronounced
clean--that is, he was a proper subject for the grace of God and the
blood of atonement.
Thus is it, in every case, with the sinner. God is "of purer eyes than
to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity" (Hab. i. 13.); and yet
the moment a sinner takes his true place, as one thoroughly lost,
guilty, and undone--as one in whom there is not so much as a single
point on which the eye of Infinite Holiness can rest with
complacency--as one who is so bad that he cannot possibly be worse,
there is an immediate, a perfect, a divine settlement of the entire
matter. The grace of God deals with sinners, and when I know myself to
be a sinner, I know myself to be one whom Christ came to save. The
more clearly any one can prove me to be a sinner, the more clearly he
establishes my title to the love of God and the work of Christ. "For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God." (1 Pet. iii. 18.) Now, if I am "unjust," I
am one of those very people for whom Christ died, and I am entitled to
all the benefits of His death. "There is not a just man upon earth;"
and inasmuch as I am "upon earth," it is plain that I am "unjust," and
it is equally plain that Christ died for me--that He suffered for my
sins. Since, therefore, Christ died for me, it is my happy privilege
to enter into the immediate enjoyment of the fruits of His sacrifice.
This is as plain as plainness itself. It demands no effort
whatsoever. I am not called to be any thing but just what I am. I am
not called to feel, to experience, to realize any thing. The Word of
God assures me that Christ died for me just as I am; and if He died
for me, I am as safe as He is Himself. There is nothing against me:
Christ met all. He not only suffered for my "_sins_," but He "made an
end of _sin_." He abolished the entire system in which, as a child of
the first Adam, I stood, and He has introduced me into a new position,
in association with Himself, and there I stand before God, free from
all charge of sin and all fear of judgment.
"Just as I am--without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!"
How do I know that His blood was shed for me? By the Scriptures.
Blessed, solid, eternal ground of knowledge! Christ suffered for sins:
I have gotten sins. Christ died, "the just for the unjust:" I am
unjust. Wherefore the death of Christ appropriates itself to me as
fully, as immediately, and as divinely as though I were the only
sinner upon earth. It is not a question of my appropriation,
realization, or experience. Many souls harass themselves about this.
How often has one heard such language as the following: "Oh, I believe
that Christ died for sinners, but I cannot _realize_ that my sins are
forgiven. I cannot apply, I cannot appropriate, I do not experience
the benefit of Christ's death"! All this is self, and not Christ; it
is feeling, and not Scripture. If we search from cover to cover of
the blessed volume, we shall not find a syllable about being saved by
realization, experience, or appropriation. The gospel applies itself
to all who are on the ground of being lost. Christ died for sinners.
That is just what I am; wherefore He died for me. How do I know this?
is it because I feel it? By no means. How then? By the Word of God.
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried,
and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." (1 Cor. xv.
3, 4.) Thus it is all "according to the Scriptures." If it were
according to our feelings, we should be in a deplorable way, for our
feelings are hardly the same for the length of a day, but the
Scriptures are ever the same. "Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in
heaven."--"Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name."
No doubt it is a very happy thing to realize, to feel, and to
experience; but if we put these things in the place of Christ, we
shall neither have them nor the Christ that yields them. If I am
occupied with Christ, I shall realize; but if I put my realization in
place of Christ, I shall have neither the one nor the other. This is
the sad condition of thousands. Instead of resting on the stable
authority of "the Scriptures," they are ever looking into their own
hearts, and hence they are always uncertain and, as a consequence,
always unhappy. A condition of doubt is a condition of torture; but
how can I get rid of my doubt? Simply by relying on the divine
authority of "the Scriptures." Of what do the Scriptures testify? Of
Christ. (John v.) They declare that Christ died for our sins, and that
He was raised again for our justification. (Rom. iv.) This settles
every thing. The self-same authority that tells me I am unjust tells
me also that Christ died for me. Nothing can be plainer than this. If
I were aught else than unjust, the death of Christ would not be for me
at all; but being unjust, it is divinely fitted, divinely intended,
and divinely applied to me. If I am occupied with any thing in, of, or
about myself, it is plain I have not entered into the full spiritual
application of Leviticus xiii. 12, 13--I have not come to the Lamb of
God "_just as I am_." It is when the leper is covered from head to
foot that he is on the true ground. It is there and there alone that
grace can meet him. "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." Precious
truth! "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." So long as I
think there is a single spot which is not covered with the direful
disease, I have not come to the end of myself. It is when my true
condition is fully disclosed to my view that I really understand the
meaning of salvation by grace.
The force of all this will be more fully apprehended when we come to
consider the ordinances connected with the cleansing of the leper, in
chapter xiv. of our book. We shall now briefly enter upon the
question of leprosy in a garment, as presented in chapter xiii. 47-59.
II. The garment or skin suggests to the mind the idea of a man's
circumstances or habits. This is a deeply practical point. We are to
watch against the working of evil in our ways just as carefully as
against evil in ourselves. The same patient investigation is
observable with respect to a garment as in the case of a person. There
is no haste, neither is there any indifference.--"The priest shall
look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days."
There must be no indifference, no indolence, no carelessness. Evil may
creep into our habits and circumstances in numberless ways, and hence
the moment we perceive aught of a suspicious nature, it must be
submitted to a calm, patient process of priestly investigation. It
must be "shut up seven days," in order that it may have full time to
develop itself perfectly.
"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. He shall therefore burn that garment." The
wrong habit must be given up the moment I discover it. If I find
myself in a thoroughly wrong position, I must abandon it. The burning
of the garment expresses the act of judgment upon evil, whether in a
man's habits or circumstances. There must be no trifling with evil. In
certain cases the garment was to be "washed," which expresses the
action of the Word of God upon a man's habits. "Then the priest shall
command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall
shut it up _seven days more_." There is to be patient waiting, in
order to ascertain the effect of the Word. "And the priest shall look
on the plague, after that it is washed; and, behold, if the plague
have not changed, ... thou shalt burn it in the fire." When there is
any thing radically and irremediably bad in one's position or habits,
the whole thing is to be given up. "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." The Word may produce such an effect
as that the wrong features in a man's character, or the wrong points
in his position, shall be given up, and the evil be got rid of; but if
the evil continue after all, the whole thing must be condemned and set
aside.
There is a rich mine of practical instruction in all this. We must
look well to the position which we occupy, the circumstances in which
we stand, the habits we adopt, the character we wear. There is special
need of watchfulness. Every suspicious symptom and trait must be
sedulously guarded, lest it should prove, in the sequel, to be "a
fretting" or "spreading leprosy," whereby we ourselves and many others
may be defiled. We may be placed in a position attached to which there
are certain wrong things which can be given up without entirely
abandoning the position; and on the other hand, we may find ourselves
in a situation in which it is impossible to "abide with God." Where
the eye is single, the path will be plain. Where the one desire of the
heart is to enjoy the divine presence, we shall easily discover those
things which tend to deprive us of that unspeakable blessing.
May our hearts be tender and sensitive; may we cultivate a deeper,
closer walk with God; and may we carefully guard against every form of
defilement, whether in person, in habit, or in association.
We shall now proceed to consider the beauteous and significant
ordinances connected with the cleansing of the leper, in which we
shall find some of the most precious truths of the gospel presented to
us.
"And the Lord 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." (Chap. xiv.
1-3.) We have already seen the place which the leper occupied. He was
outside the camp, in the place of moral distance from God--from His
sanctuary and His assembly. Moreover, he dwelt in dreary solitude, in
a condition of uncleanness. He was beyond the reach of human aid, and
as for himself, he could only communicate defilement to every one and
every thing he touched. It was therefore obviously impossible that he
could do aught to cleanse himself. If, indeed, he could only defile by
his very touch, how could he possibly cleanse himself? how could he
contribute towards, or co-operate in, his cleansing? Impossible. As
an unclean leper, he could not do so much as a single thing for
himself; _all_ had to be done _for_ him. He could not make his way to
God, but God could make His way to him. He was shut up to God. There
was no help for him either in himself or in his fellow-man. It is
clear that one leper could not cleanse another; and it is equally
clear that if a leper touched a clean person, he rendered him unclean.
His _only_ resource was in God. He was to be a debtor to grace for
every thing.
Hence, we read, "The priest shall go forth out of the camp." It is not
said, The leper shall go. This was wholly out of the question. It was
of no use talking to the leper about going or doing. He was consigned
to dreary solitude; whither could he go? He was involved in helpless
defilement; what could he do? He might long for fellowship and long to
be clean, but his longings were those of a lonely helpless leper. He
might make efforts after cleansing, but his efforts could but prove
him unclean, and tend to spread defilement. Before ever he could be
pronounced "clean," a work had to be wrought for him--a work which he
could neither do nor help to do--a work which had to be wholly
accomplished by another. The leper was called to "stand still" and
behold the priest doing a work in virtue of which the leprosy could be
perfectly cleansed. The priest accomplished _all_: the leper did
_nothing_.
"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.
And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an
earthen vessel over running water." In the priest going forth from the
camp--forth from God's dwelling-place--we behold the blessed Lord
Jesus coming down from the bosom of the Father, His eternal
dwelling-place, into this polluted world of ours, where He beheld us
sunk in the polluting leprosy of sin. He, like the good Samaritan,
"came where we were." He did not come half-way merely; He did not come
nine-tenths of the way; He came all the way. This was indispensable.
He could not consistently with the holy claims of the throne of God
have bidden our leprosy to depart had He remained in the bosom. He
could call worlds into existence by the word of His mouth, but when
leprous sinners had to be cleansed, something more was needed. "God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." When worlds were
to be framed, God had but to speak; when sinners had to be saved, He
had to give His Son. "In this was manifested the love of God towards
us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins." (1 John iv. 9, 10.)
But there was far more to be accomplished than the mission and
incarnation of the Son. It would have availed the leper but little
indeed had the priest merely gone forth from the camp and looked upon
his low and forlorn condition. Blood-shedding was essentially
necessary ere leprosy could be removed. The death of a spotless victim
was needed. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." (Heb. ix.
22.) And be it observed that the shedding of blood was the real basis
of the leper's cleansing. It was not a mere circumstance, which, in
conjunction with others, contributed to the leper's cleansing. By no
means. The giving up of the life was the grand and all-important fact.
When this was accomplished, the way was open, every barrier was
removed, God could deal in perfect grace with the leper. This point
should be distinctly laid hold of if my reader would fully enter into
the glorious doctrine of the blood.
"And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an
earthen vessel over running water." Here we have the acknowledged type
of the death of Christ, "who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without spot to God." "He was crucified in weakness." (Heb.
ix.; 2 Cor. xiii.) The greatest, the mightiest, the most glorious, the
most momentous work that ever was accomplished, throughout the wide
universe of God, was wrought "in weakness." Oh, my reader, how
terrible a thing must sin be in the judgment of God when His own
beloved Son had to come down from heaven and hang upon yonder cursed
tree, a spectacle to men, to angels, and to devils, in order that you
and I might be forgiven! And what a type of sin have we in leprosy!
Who would have thought that that little "bright spot" appearing on the
person of some member of the congregation was a matter of such grave
consequence? But, ah! that little "bright spot" was nothing less than
the energy of evil in the place of manifestation. It was the index of
the dreadful working of sin in the nature; and ere that person could
be fitted for a place in the assembly, or for the enjoyment of
communion with a holy God, the Son of God had to leave those bright
heavens and descend into the lowest parts of the earth, in order to
make a full atonement for that which exhibited itself merely in the
form of a little "bright spot." Let us remember this. Sin is a
dreadful thing in the estimation of God. He cannot tolerate so much as
a single sinful thought. Before one such thought could be forgiven,
Christ had to die upon the cross. The most trifling sin (if any sin
can be called trifling,) demanded nothing less than God's eternal and
coequal Son. But, eternal praise be to God, what sin demanded,
redeeming love freely gave; and now God is infinitely more glorified
in the forgiveness of sins than He could have been had Adam maintained
his original innocency. God is more glorified in the salvation, the
pardon, the justification, the preservation, and final glorification
of guilty man than He could have been in maintaining an innocent man
in the enjoyment of creation-blessings. Such is the precious mystery
of redemption. May our hearts enter, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
into the living and profound depths of this wondrous mystery.
"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 the living bird
loose into the open field." The blood being shed, the priest can enter
directly and fully upon his work. Up to this, we read, "The priest
shall command;" but now he acts immediately himself. The death of
Christ is the basis of His priestly ministration. Having entered with
His own blood into the holy place, He acts as our great High-Priest,
applying to our souls all the precious results of His atoning work,
and maintaining us in the full and divine integrity of the position
into which His sacrifice has introduced us. "For every high-priest is
ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity
that this Man have somewhat also to offer. For if He were on earth, He
should not be a priest." (Heb. viii. 3, 4.)
We could hardly have a more perfect type of the resurrection of Christ
than that presented in "the living bird let loose into the open
field." It was not let go until after the death of its companion; for
the two birds typify one Christ in two stages of His blessed work,
namely, death and resurrection. Ten thousand birds let loose would not
have availed for the leper. It was that living bird, mounting upward
into the open heavens, bearing upon his wing the significant token of
accomplished atonement--it was that which told out the great fact that
the work was done, the ground cleared, the foundation laid. Thus is
it in reference to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. His resurrection
declares the glorious triumph of redemption. "He rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures." " He was raised again for our
justification." It is this that sets the burdened heart free and
liberates the struggling conscience. The Scriptures assure me that
Jesus was nailed to the cross under the weight of my sins; but the
same Scriptures assure me that He rose from the grave without one of
those sins upon Him. Nor is this all. The same Scriptures assure me
that all who put their trust in Jesus are as free from all charge of
guilt as He is; that there is no more wrath or condemnation for them
than for Him; that they are in Him, one with Him, accepted in Him,
co-quickened, co-raised, co-seated, with Him. Such is the peace-giving
testimony of the Scriptures of truth--such the record of God who
cannot lie. (See Rom. vi. 6-11; viii. 1-4; 2 Cor. v. 21; Eph. ii. 5,
6; Col. ii. 10-15; 1 John iv. 17.)
But we have another most important truth set before us in verse 6 of
our chapter. We not only see our full deliverance from guilt and
condemnation, as beautifully exhibited in the living bird let loose,
but we see also our entire deliverance from all the attractions of
earth and all the influences of nature. "The scarlet" would be the apt
expression of the former, while "the cedar-wood and hyssop" would set
forth the latter. The cross is the end of all this world's glory. God
presents it as such, and the believer recognizes it as such. "God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."
(Gal. vi. 14.)
Then, as to the "cedar-wood and hyssop," they present to us, as it
were, the two extremes of nature's wide range. Solomon "spake of
trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall." (1 Kings iv. 33.) From the lofty
cedar which crowns the sides of Lebanon, down to the lowly hyssop--the
wide extremes and all that lies between--nature in all its departments
is brought under the power of the cross; so that the believer sees in
the death of Christ the end of all his guilt, the end of all earth's
glory, and the end of the whole system of nature--the entire old
creation. And with what is he to be occupied? With Him who is the
Antitype of that living bird, with blood-stained feathers, ascending
into the open heavens. Precious, glorious, soul-satisfying object! A
risen, ascended, triumphant, glorified Christ, who has passed into the
heavens, bearing in His sacred Person the marks of an accomplished
atonement. It is with Him we have to do: we are shut up to Him. He is
God's exclusive object; He is the centre of heaven's joy, the theme of
angels' song. We want none of earth's glory, none of nature's
attractions. We can behold them all, together with our sin and guilt,
forever set aside by the death of Christ. We can well afford to
dispense with earth and nature, inasmuch as we have gotten, instead
thereof, the "unsearchable riches of Christ."
"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
bird loose into the open field." The more deeply we ponder over the
contents of chapter xiii, the more clearly we shall see how utterly
impossible it was for the leper to do aught towards his own cleansing.
All he could do was to "put a covering upon his upper lip;" and all he
could say was, "Unclean, unclean." It belonged to God, and to Him
alone, to devise and accomplish a work whereby the leprosy could be
perfectly cleansed; and further, it belonged to God, and to Him alone,
to pronounce the leper "clean." Hence it is written, "The priest shall
sprinkle," and "he shall pronounce him clean." It is not said, The
leper shall sprinkle and pronounce or imagine himself clean. This
would never do. God was the Judge--God was the Healer--God was the
Cleanser. He alone knew what leprosy was, how it could be put away,
and when to pronounce the leper clean. The leper might have gone on
all his days covered with leprosy, and yet be wholly ignorant of what
was wrong with him. It was the Word of God--the Scriptures of
truth--the divine Record that declared the full truth as to leprosy;
and nothing short of the self-same authority could pronounce the leper
clean, and that, moreover, only on the solid and indisputable ground
of death and resurrection. There is the most precious connection
between the three things in verse 7: the blood is sprinkled, the
leper pronounced clean, and the living bird let loose. There is not so
much as a single syllable about what the leper was to do, to say, to
think, or to feel. It was enough that he was a leper--a fully
revealed, a thoroughly judged leper, covered from head to foot. This
sufficed for him; all the rest pertained to God.
It is of all importance for the anxious inquirer after peace to enter
into the truth unfolded in this branch of our subject. So many are
tried by the question of _feeling_, _realizing_, and _appropriating_,
instead of seeing, as in the leper's case, that the sprinkling of the
blood was as independent and as divine as the shedding of it. It is
not said, The leper shall apply, appropriate, or realize, and then he
shall be clean. By no means. The plan of deliverance was divine; the
provision of the sacrifice was divine; the shedding of the blood was
divine; the sprinkling of the blood was divine; the record as to the
result was divine: in short, it was all divine.
It is not that we should undervalue realization, or, to speak more
correctly, communion, through the Holy Ghost, with all the precious
results of Christ's work for us. Far from it: we shall see presently
the place assigned thereto in the divine economy. But then we are no
more saved by realization than the leper was cleansed by it. Theνυκτα
και ημεραν gospel, by which we are saved, is that "Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He
rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." There is
nothing about realization here. No doubt it is happy to realize. It is
a very happy thing for one who was just on the point of being drowned
to realize himself in a life-boat; but clearly he is saved by the boat
and not by his realization. So it is with the sinner that believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is saved by death and resurrection. Is it
because he realizes it? No; but because God says it. It is "_according
to the Scriptures_." Christ died and rose again, and on that ground
God pronounces him clean.
"No condemnation, O my soul!
_'Tis God that speaks the word._"
This gives immense peace to the soul. I have to do with God's plain
record, which nothing can ever shake. That record has reference to
God's own work. It is He Himself who has wrought all that was needful
in order to my being pronounced clean in His sight. My pardon no more
depends upon my realization than upon any "works of righteousness that
I have done;" and it no more depends upon my works of righteousness
than it does upon my crimes. In a word, it depends exclusively upon
the death and resurrection of Christ. How do I know it? God tells me.
It is "according to the Scriptures."
There are perhaps few things which disclose the deep-seated legality
of our hearts more strikingly than this oft-raised question of
realization. We _will_ have in something of self, and thus so sadly
mar our peace and liberty in Christ. It is mainly because of this
that I dwell at such length upon the beautiful ordinance of the
cleansing of the leper, and especially on the truth unfolded in
chapter xiv. 7. It was the priest that sprinkled the blood, and it was
the priest that pronounced the leper clean. Thus it is in the case of
the sinner. The moment he is on his true ground, the blood of Christ
and the Word of God apply themselves without any further question or
difficulty whatever; but the moment this harassing question of
realization is raised, the peace is disturbed, the heart depressed,
and the mind bewildered. The more thoroughly I get done with self, and
become occupied with Christ, as presented in "the Scriptures," the
more settled my peace will be. If the leper had looked at himself when
the priest pronounced him clean, would he have found any basis for the
declaration? Surely not. The sprinkled blood was the basis of the
divine record, and not any thing in or connected with the leper. The
leper was not asked how he felt or what he thought; he was not
questioned as to whether he had a deep sense of the vileness of his
disease. He was an acknowledged leper; that was enough. It was for
such an one the blood was shed, and that blood made him clean. How did
he know this? was it because he felt it? No; but because the priest,
on God's behalf and by His authority, told him so. The leper was
pronounced clean on the very same ground that the living bird was let
loose. The same blood which stained the feathers of that living bird
was sprinkled upon the leper. This was a perfect settlement of the
whole affair, and that, too, in a manner entirely independent of the
leper, the leper's thoughts, his feelings, and his realization. Such
is the type. And when we look from the type to the Antitype, we see
that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ entered heaven and laid on the
throne of God the eternal record of an accomplished work, in virtue of
which the believer enters also. This is a most glorious truth,
divinely calculated to dispel from the heart of the anxious inquirer
every doubt, every fear, every bewildering thought, and every
harassing question. A risen Christ is God's exclusive object, and He
sees every believer in Him. May every awakened soul find abiding
repose in this emancipating truth.
"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." (Ver. 8.) The leper, being pronounced clean, can
begin to do what he could not even have attempted to do before,
namely, to cleanse himself, cleanse his habits, shave off all his
hair; and, having done so, he is privileged to take his place in the
camp--the place of ostensible, recognized, public relationship with
the God of Israel, whose presence in that camp it was which rendered
the expulsion of the leper needful. The blood having been applied in
its expiating virtue, there is the washing of water, which expresses
the action of the Word on the character, the habits, the ways, so as
to render the person, not only in God's view, but also in the view of
the congregation, morally and practically fit for a place in the
public assembly.
But, be it observed, the man, though sprinkled with blood and washed
with water, and thus entitled to a position in the public assembly,
was not permitted to enter his own tent. He was not permitted to enter
upon the full enjoyment of those private, personal privileges which
belonged to his own peculiar place in the camp. In other words, though
knowing redemption through the shed and sprinkled blood, and owning
the Word as the rule according to which his person and all his habits
should be cleansed and regulated, he had yet to be brought, in the
power of the Spirit, into full, intelligent communion with his own
special place, portion, and privileges in Christ.
I speak according to the doctrine of the type; and I feel it to be of
importance to apprehend the truth unfolded therein. It is too often
overlooked. There are many who own the blood of Christ as the alone
ground of pardon, and the Word of God as that whereby alone their
habits, ways, and associations are to be cleansed and ordered, who
nevertheless are far from entering, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
into communion with the preciousness and excellency of that One whose
blood has put away their sins and whose Word is to cleanse their
practical habits. They are in the place of ostensible and actual
relationship, but not in the power of personal communion. It is
perfectly true that all believers are in Christ, and, as such,
entitled to communion with the very highest truths; moreover, they
have the Holy Ghost as the power of communion,--all this is divinely
true; but then there is not that entire setting aside of all that
pertains to nature, which is really essential to the power of
communion with Christ in all the aspects of His character and work. In
point of fact, this latter will not be fully known to any until "the
eighth day"--the day of resurrection-glory, when we shall know even as
we are known. Then, indeed, each one for himself, and all together,
shall enter into the full, unhindered power of communion with Christ,
in all the precious phases of His Person and features of His character
unfolded from verse 10 to 20 of our chapter. Such is the hope set
before us; but even now, in proportion as we enter, by faith, through
the mighty energy of the indwelling Spirit, into the death of nature
and all pertaining thereto, we can feed upon and rejoice in Christ as
the portion of our souls, in the place of individual communion.
"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." (Ver. 9.) Now, it is clear
that the leper was just as clean, in God's judgment, on the first day,
when the blood was sprinkled upon him in its sevenfold or perfect
efficacy, as he was on the seventh day. Wherein, then, was the
difference? Not in his actual standing and condition, but in his
personal intelligence and communion. On the seventh day he was called
to enter into the full and complete abolition of all that pertained to
nature. He was called to apprehend that not merely was nature's
leprosy to be put away, but nature's ornaments--yea, all that was
natural--all that belonged to the old condition.
It is one thing to know, as a doctrine, that God sees my nature to be
dead, and it is quite another thing for me to "reckon" myself as
dead--to put off, practically, the old man and his deeds--to mortify
my members which are on the earth. This, probably, is what many godly
persons mean when they speak of progressive sanctification. They mean
a right thing, though they do not put it exactly as the Scriptures do.
The leper was pronounced clean the moment the blood was sprinkled upon
him, and yet he had to cleanse himself. How was this? In the former
case, he was clean in the judgment of God; in the latter, he was to be
clean practically, in his own personal intelligence, and in his
manifested character. Thus it is with the believer. He is, as one with
Christ, "washed, sanctified, and justified"--"accepted"--"complete."
(1 Cor. vi. 11; Eph. i. 6; Col. ii. 10.) Such is his unalterable
standing and condition before God. He is as perfectly sanctified as he
is justified, for Christ is the measure of both the one and the other,
according to God's judgment and view of the case. But then the
believer's apprehension of all this in his own soul, and his
exhibition thereof in his habits and ways, open up quite another line
of things. Hence it is we read, "Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us _cleanse ourselves_ from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor.
vii. 1.) It is because Christ has cleansed us by His precious blood
that therefore we are called to "cleanse ourselves" by the application
of the Word, through the Spirit. "This is He that came by water and
blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it
is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For
there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water, and the
blood; and these three agree in one." (1 John v. 6, 8.) Here we have
atonement by the blood, cleansing by the Word, and power by the
Spirit--all founded upon the death of Christ, and all vividly
foreshadowed in the ordinances connected with the cleansing of the
leper.
"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. 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. 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." (Ver. 10-12.) The
entire range of offerings is here introduced; but it is the
trespass-offering which is first killed, inasmuch as the leper is
viewed as an actual trespasser. This is true in every case. As those
who have trespassed against God, we need Christ as the One who atoned,
on the cross, for those trespasses. "Himself bare our _sins_ in His
own body on the tree." The first view which the sinner gets of Christ
is as the Antitype of the trespass-offering.
"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." "The ear,"--that guilty member which had
so frequently proved a channel of communication for vanity, folly, and
even uncleanness--that ear must be cleansed by the blood of the
trespass-offering. Thus all the guilt which I have ever contracted by
that member is forgiven according to God's estimate of the blood of
Christ. "_The right hand_," which had so frequently been stretched
forth for the execution of deeds of vanity, folly, and even
uncleanness, must be cleansed by the blood of the trespass-offering.
Thus all the guilt which I have ever contracted by that member is
forgiven according to God's estimate of the blood of Christ. "_The
foot_," which had so often run in the way of vanity, folly, and even
uncleanness, must now be cleansed by the blood of the
trespass-offering, so that all the guilt which I have ever contracted
by that member is forgiven according to God's estimate of the blood of
Christ. Yes; _all_, _all_, _all_ is forgiven--all is canceled--all
forgotten--all sunk as lead in the mighty waters of eternal oblivion.
Who shall bring it up again? Shall angel, man, or devil be able to
plunge into those unfathomed and unfathomable waters, to bring up from
thence those trespasses of "foot," "hand," or "ear," which redeeming
love has cast thereinto? Oh, no; blessed be God, they are gone, and
gone forever! I am better off, by far, than if Adam had never sinned.
Precious truth! To be washed in the blood is better far than to be
clothed in innocency.
But God could not rest satisfied with the mere blotting out of
trespasses by the atoning blood of Jesus. This in itself is a great
thing, but there is something greater still.
"And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into
the palm of his own left hand: 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. 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; 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." (Ver. 15-18.) Thus, not only are our members cleansed by the
blood of Christ, but also consecrated to God in the power of the
Spirit. God's work is not only negative, but positive. The ear is no
longer to be the vehicle for communicating defilement, but to be
"swift to hear" the voice of the Good Shepherd; the hand is no longer
to be used as the instrument of unrighteousness, but to be stretched
forth in acts of righteousness, grace, and true holiness; the foot is
no longer to tread in folly's paths, but to run in the way of God's
holy commandments: and, finally, the whole man is to be dedicated to
God in the energy of the Holy Ghost.
It is deeply interesting to see that "the oil" was put "upon the blood
of the trespass-offering." The blood of Christ is the divine basis of
the operations of the Holy Ghost. The blood and the oil go together.
As sinners, we could know nothing of the latter save on the ground of
the former. The oil could not have been put upon the leper until the
blood of the trespass-offering had first been applied. "In whom also,
after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of
promise." The divine accuracy of the type evokes the admiration of the
renewed mind. The more closely we scrutinize it--the more of the light
of Scripture we concentrate upon it, the more its beauty, force, and
precision are perceived and enjoyed. All, as might justly be expected,
is in the most lovely harmony with the entire analogy of the Word of
God. There is no need for any effort of the mind. Take Christ as the
key to unlock the rich treasury of the types; explore the precious
contents by the light of Inspiration's heavenly lamp; let the Holy
Ghost be your Interpreter; and you cannot fail to be edified,
enlightened, and blessed.
"And the priest shall offer the sin-offering, and make an atonement
for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness." Here we have a
type of Christ, not only as the Bearer of our trespasses, but also as
the One who made an end of sin, root and branch; the One who destroyed
the entire system of sin--"the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of
the world"--"the propitiation for the whole world." As the
Trespass-offering, Christ put away all my trespasses; as the
Sin-offering, He met the great root from whence those trespasses
emanated. He met all; but it is as the Trespass-offering I first know
Him, because it is as such I first need Him. It is the "conscience of
sins" that first troubles me. This is divinely met by my precious
Trespass-offering. Then, as I get on, I find that all these sins had a
root, a parent stem, and that root or stem I find within me. This,
likewise, is divinely met by my precious Sin-offering. The order, as
presented in the leper's case, is perfect. It is precisely the order
which we can trace in the actual experience of every soul. The
trespass-offering comes first, and then the sin-offering.
"And afterward he shall kill the burnt-offering." This offering
presents the highest possible aspect of the death of Christ. It is
Christ offering Himself without spot to God, without special reference
to either trespasses or sin: it is Christ, in voluntary devotedness,
walking to the cross, and there offering Himself as a sweet savor to
God.
"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." (Ver. 20.) The meat-offering typifies "the Man Christ
Jesus" in His perfect human life. It is intimately associated, in the
case of the cleansed leper, with the burnt-offering; and so it is in
the experience of every saved sinner. It is when we know our
_trespasses_ are forgiven, and the root or principle of _sin_ judged,
that we can, according to our measure, by the power of the Spirit,
enjoy communion with God about that blessed One who lived a perfect
human life down here and then offered Himself without spot to God on
the cross. Thus the four classes of offerings are brought before us in
their divine order in the cleansing of the leper, namely, the
trespass-offering, the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the
meat-offering, each exhibiting its own specific aspect of our blessed
Lord Jesus Christ.
Here closes the record of the Lord's dealings with the leprous man;
and, oh, what a marvelous record it is! what an unfolding of the
exceeding hatefulness of sin, the grace and holiness of God, the
preciousness of Christ's Person, and the efficacy of His work! Nothing
can be more interesting than to mark the footprints of divine grace
forth from the hallowed precincts of the sanctuary to the defiled
place where the leper stood, with bare head, covered lip, and rent
garments. God visited the leper where he was, but He did not leave
him there. He went forth prepared to accomplish a work in virtue of
which He could bring the leper into a higher place and higher
communion than ever he had known before. On the ground of this work,
the leper was conducted from his place of defilement and loneliness to
the very door of the tabernacle of the congregation, the priestly
place, to enjoy priestly privileges. (Comp. Exod. xxix. 20, 21, 32.)
How could he ever have climbed to such an elevation? Impossible! For
aught he could do, he might have languished and died in his leprosy
had not the sovereign grace of the God of Israel stooped to lift him
from the dunghill, to set him among the princes of his people. If ever
there was a case in which the question of human effort, human merit,
and human righteousness could be fully tried and perfectly settled,
the leper is unquestionably that case. Indeed it were a sad loss of
time to discuss such a question in the presence of such a case. It
must be obvious to the most cursory reader that naught but free grace
reigning through righteousness could meet the leper's condition and
the leper's need. And how gloriously and triumphantly did that grace
act! It traveled down into the deepest depths, that it might raise the
leper to the loftiest heights. See what the leper lost, and see what
he gained! He lost all that pertained to nature, and he gained the
blood of atonement and the grace of the Spirit. I mean typically.
Truly he was a gainer, to an incalculable amount. He was infinitely
better off than if he had never been thrust forth from the camp. Such
is the grace of God! such the power and value, the virtue and
efficacy, of the blood of Jesus!
How forcibly does all this remind us of the prodigal in Luke xv! In
him, too, leprosy had wrought and risen to a head. He had been afar
off, in the defiled place, where his own sins and the intense
selfishness of the far country had created a solitude around him; but,
blessed forever be a father's deep and tender love, we know how it
ended. The prodigal found a higher place and tasted higher communion
than ever he had known before; "the fatted calf" had never been slain
for him before; "the best robe" had never been on him before. And how
was this? was it a question of the prodigal's merit? Oh, no; it was
simply a question of the father's love.
Dear reader, let me ask, can you ponder over the record of God's
dealings with the leper in Leviticus xiv, or the father's dealings
with the prodigal in Luke xv, and not have an enlarged sense of the
love that dwells in the bosom of God, that flows through the Person
and work of Christ, that is recorded in the Scriptures of truth, and
brought home to the heart by the Holy Ghost? Lord grant us a deeper
and more abiding fellowship with Himself!
From verse 21 to 32 we have "the law of him in whom is the plague of
leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his
cleansing." This refers to the sacrifices of "the eighth day," and not
to the "two birds alive and clean." These latter could not be
dispensed with in any case, because they set forth the death and
resurrection of Christ as the alone ground on which God can receive a
sinner back to Himself. On the other hand, the sacrifices of "the
eighth day" being connected with the soul's communion, must, in some
degree, be affected by the measure of the soul's apprehension; but
whatever that measure may be, the grace of God can meet it with those
peculiarly touching words, "_such as he is able to get_." And not only
so, but the "two turtle-doves" conferred the same privileges on the
"poor" as the two lambs conferred upon the rich, inasmuch as both the
one and the other pointed to "the precious blood of Christ," which is
of infinite, changeless, and eternal efficacy in the judgment of God.
All stand before God on the ground of death and resurrection. All are
brought into the same place of nearness, but all do not enjoy the same
measure of communion--all have not the same measure of apprehension of
the preciousness of Christ in all the aspects of His work. They might,
if they would; but they allow themselves to be hindered in various
ways. Earth and nature, with their respective influences, act
prejudicially: the Spirit is grieved, and Christ is not enjoyed as He
might be. It is utterly vain to expect that if we are living in the
region of nature, we can be feeding upon Christ. No; there must be
self-emptiness, self-denial, self-judgment, if we would habitually
feed upon Christ. It is not a question of salvation; it is not a
question of the leper introduced into the camp--the place of
recognized relationship. By no means. It is only a question of the
soul's communion, of its enjoyment of Christ. As to this, the largest
measure lies open to us. We may have communion with the very highest
truths; but if our measure be small, the unupbraiding grace of our
Father's heart breathes in the sweet words, "_such as he is able to
get_." The title of all is the same, however our capacity may vary;
and, blessed be God, when we get into His presence, all the desires of
the new nature, in their utmost intensity, are satisfied; all the
powers of the new nature, in their fullest range, are occupied. May we
prove these things in our soul's happy experience day by day.
We shall close this section with a brief reference to the subject of
leprosy in a house.
III. The reader will observe that a case of leprosy in a person, or in
a garment, might occur in the wilderness; but in the matter of a
house, it was of necessity confined to the land of Canaan.
"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, ... 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: 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; then the priest
shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the
house seven days."
Looking at the house as the type of an assembly, we have some weighty
principles presented to us as to the divine method of dealing with
moral evil, or suspicion of evil, in a congregation. We observe the
same holy calmness and perfect patience with respect to the house as
we have already seen in reference to the person or the garment. There
was no haste and no indifference, either as regards the house, the
garment, or the individual. The man who had an interest in the house
was not to treat with indifference any suspicious symptoms appearing
in the wall thereof; neither was he to pronounce judgment himself upon
such symptoms: it belonged to the priest to investigate and to judge.
The moment that aught of a questionable nature made its appearance,
the priest assumed a judicial attitude with respect to the house. The
house was under judgment, though not condemned. The perfect period was
to be allowed to run its course ere any decision could be arrived at.
The symptoms might prove to be merely superficial, in which case there
would be no demand for any action whatever.
"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, 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." The whole house was not to be condemned: the removal of the
leprous stones was first to be tried.
"And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that
he hath taken away the stones, and after that he hath scraped the
house, and after that it is plastered; 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. 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." The case was hopeless, the evil irremediable,
the whole building was annihilated.
"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." This is a solemn truth. _Contact defiles!_ Let us remember
this. It was a principle largely inculcated under the Levitical
economy, and surely it is not less applicable now.
"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 plastered;
then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is
healed." The removal of the defiled stones, etc., had arrested the
progress of the evil, and rendered all further judgment needless. The
house was no longer to be viewed as in a judicial place; but being
cleansed by the application of the blood, it was again fit for
occupation.
And now as to the moral of all this. It is at once interesting,
solemn, and practical. Look, for example, at the church at Corinth. It
was a spiritual house, composed of spiritual stones; but, alas! the
eagle eye of the apostle discerned upon its walls certain symptoms of
a most suspicious nature. Was he indifferent? Surely not. He had
imbibed far too much of the spirit of the Master of the house to
admit, for one moment, of any such thing. But he was no more hasty
than indifferent. He commanded the leprous stone to be removed, and
gave the house a thorough scraping. Having acted thus faithfully, he
patiently awaited the result. And what was that result? All that the
heart could desire. "Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are
cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not by his coming
only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when
he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind
toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.... _In all things ye have
approved yourselves to be clear in this matter._" (Comp. 1 Cor. v.
with 2 Cor. vii. 11.) This is a lovely instance. The zealous care of
the apostle was amply rewarded; the plague was stayed, and the
assembly delivered from the defiling influence of unjudged moral evil.
Take another solemn example.--"And to the angel of the church in
Pergamos write: 'These things saith He that hath the sharp sword with
two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where
Satan's seat is; and thou holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My
faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who
was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things
against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of
Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children
of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto
thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth."
(Rev. ii. 12-16.) Here the divine Priest stands in a judicial attitude
with respect to His house at Pergamos. He could not be indifferent to
symptoms so alarming, but He patiently and graciously gives time to
repent. If reproof, warning, and discipline prove unavailing, judgment
must take its course.
These things are full of practical teaching as to the doctrine of the
assembly. The seven churches of Asia afford various striking
illustrations of the house under priestly judgment. We should ponder
them deeply and prayerfully; they are of immense value. We should
never sit down at ease so long as aught of a suspicious nature is
making its appearance in the assembly. We may be tempted to say, "It
is none of my business;" but it is the business of every one who loves
the Master of the house to have a jealous, godly care for the purity
of that house; and if we shrink from the due exercise of this care,
it will not be for our honor or profit in the day of the Lord.
I shall not pursue this subject any further in these pages; and shall
merely remark, in closing this section, that I do not doubt in the
least that this whole subject of leprosy has a great dispensational
bearing, not only upon the house of Israel, but also upon the
professing church.