Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Leviticus 14:1-32 comments: malignant skin diseases (cont.)

 

Leviticus 14:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2  This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: 3  And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; 4  Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 5  And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 6  As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: 7  And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. 8  And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. 9  But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

 

Notice here how God has used a physical disease to make a spiritual point. This ritual would not cure a person today of Leprosy and probably would not have cured an Egyptian or a Greek of that time from the various skin diseases that fall under the heading of Leprosy. However, the Hebrew could be cured and ritually cleansed. The Hebrew had the opportunity for physical healing just as they had the opportunity for spiritual healing by obeying God’s commands. Some skeptic might say that the process described would not cure Leprosy and they are right. But, with God all things are possible. Is it more likely that a Leper could be healed or that a wicked man be forgiven of his sins and have eternal life? Remember, the scene with the man with the palsy on the bed who was lowered through the roof of a house in Mark 2:1-12 by his friends?  Then, also this statement;

Matthew 19:26  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

 

Notice also that when Christ healed the ten lepers they were to report to the priests as the Law commanded. See Luke 17:12-19.

Think of the comparison with the treatment of Leprosy here and what was commanded in the early church.

James 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

 

The linkage between sickness healed and sins forgiven cannot be ignored. Paul commanded of the Thessalonians that, while admonishing a disobedient brother as a brother, they were not to associate with him.

2Thessalonians 3:13  But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. 14  And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.

15  Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

 

Like Leprosy, sin stains everyone around it and we all know is rather contagious. Leprosy and sin make a good comparison study, I think.

Matthew Henry and others made some interesting comparisons regarding the materials and animals used with things like the cedar and hyssop representing the value in service of the highest and the lowest ranks in the church and with the dead bird representing the death of Christ for our sins and the living bird the resurrection of Christ for our attaining of eternal life.

 

Leviticus 14:10 ¶  And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil. 11  And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: 12  And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: 13  And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy: 14  And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: 15  And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand: 16  And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD: 17  And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering: 18  And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD. 19  And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering: 20  And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

 

Some have said that the blood is the token of forgiveness and the oil of healing. One commentator noted that the significance of the ear was what you hear from God, the toe was represented where your feet go for God, and the thumb represented what you do for God.

What is very interesting to me is that there are many different commentaries on Leviticus that do not differentiate between teaching and preaching interpretations. When you are preaching, exhorting a congregation to action or thought, comparisons and analogies can be made even to the point of twisting the text like taffy. But, teaching the text first must regard the text just as it is written to whom it was written in the time it was written and for the purpose it was recorded. Remember what I said in my comments on Genesis.

 

“As a scholar of Ancient Greece, Stephen Todd, said about what a historian must consider when approaching an ancient text, we must ask ourselves why it was written and then, why it was preserved.”[1]

In the circumstances in which we find these detailed instructions on skin diseases called Leprosy there is a clear conclusion that can be drawn. Sometimes God revealed to the Hebrews a comparison with the outward condition of inner sin by way of the evidence of external disease. For us, this is a good analogy that helps us to see that sin, like an infection or plague, shows itself on us often and not just in us invisible to others.  Considering the admonition in Job, though, we would be careful to assume the nonsensical and cruel notion that modern disease is always proof of a hidden sin. The context of these Laws given to Moses and Aaron for the Hebrews is in God carving out a physical nation for Himself from the heathen nations as part of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself.

Let us also consider that Leviticus 13 and 14 are like a medical manual for priests but it is important that the intended results have a lot to do with how God will interact with the sick person. These are not just random events but for this “treatment” to work it is based on God’s response to the ritual work of the priest and the sinner. This lays the groundwork for the analogy with Christ dealing with our sins, a spiritual healing versus a physical healing here.

Leviticus 14:21 ¶  And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil; 22  And two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering. 23  And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD. 24  And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: 25  And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: 26  And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand: 27  And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the LORD: 28  And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering: 29  And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the LORD. 30  And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get; 31  Even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the LORD. 32  This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.

 

Allowances are made for the poor leper. A person is not refused access to these mercies because of his or her social status, wealth, or lack thereof. Neither is a person excused from serving or honoring God because of their poverty. There is something they can do and something they can offer right where they are at without the shame of poverty that used to afflict people in this country in particular, that is accepted by God. A Matthew Henry noted, The poor are as welcome to God’s altar as the rich.”



[1] Stephen Todd, “The Use and Abuse of Attic Orators,” Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Oct., 1990), 164. (From a paper delivered at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1988.)

 

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