Cleansing of Skin Diseases

INTRO

Yesterday, we talked about unclean diseases, which in the Bible often revealed sin. By correlating sin to skin disease, it prompts certain images—[sin] is below the skin, it spreads, it defiles us, and it can ultimately destroy us. That was a lot of bad news. But when there’s bad news, there’s got to be good news. Leviticus 14 is the good news. God always has a plan, He has an outlet. Jesus is our outlet: Jesus is our Atonement, our substitution, our imputation. He took the death we deserve, and now we can have life through His blood. Leviticus 13 described all the things you don’t want. Leviticus 14 is about restoration.

TEACHING

Leviticus 14:1: Constantly throughout Leviticus, the Lord spoke with Moses, and Moses wrote everything down. Wiersbe said that in this chapter, a procedure for cleansing and restoring the one afflicted by leprosy was revealed.¹Constable pointed out these procedures were rituals, not cures.²This cleansing of disease was not medicine or methods for healing, rather these rituals allowed people to be cleansed.

Leviticus 14:2–3: This was the law explaining how people who had been afflicted with skin diseases could be cleansed. Wiersbe described this as a five-step procedure.³the person with leprosy lived outside the camp, the priest went to the leper to examine him. Scripture reveals that Jesus performed a similar service for us. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” When will we lose the mentality that the lost will come to us? Luke 7:34 says, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” Jesus showed Himself to be a friend of the leper. He had no problem going outside the camp to those who needed Him. We need to have the mentality to go after the people.

Leviticus 14:4–7: When the priest verified the skin disease was gone, he ordered that two live and clean birds, along with cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for cleansing the person. The victim then offered the two birds, which was an image of atonement. The first bird was slaughtered, and its blood was sprinkled seven times on the one to be cleansed. This bird represented death. After being dipped into the blood from the first bird, the second bird was released in the open countryside. This second bird represented the freedom that comes through death. This was a picture of substitutionary atonement.

Our freedom comes only through the blood of Christ. John 3:13 and 31 reveal that Jesus came down from heaven. John 6:38 and 42 say Jesus came to earth to do the will of the Father. Atonement is available to us because the Son of Man came to earth, died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1–4). In this process you see purification. Hebrews 9:22 says, “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” In 2 Kings 5:10–14, Naaman was a leper who washed seven times in the Jordan River, as instructed by the prophet Elisha, and he was made clean. Sometimes we want answers from God in a certain way, but God can do things however He wants.

Leviticus 14:8–9: Next the person had to cleanse himself by washing his clothes, shaving off all his hair, and bathing with water. He could then reenter the camp but had to remain outside his tent for seven days. On the seventh day, he cleansed himself again by shaving off all his hair again, washing his clothes, and bathing with water.

Leviticus 14:10–11: On the eighth day, he offered the required sacrifices of two unblemished male lambs, an unblemished year-old ewe lamb, and a grain offering before the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Again, the process on its own didn’t save or cleanse anyone. This was the process to experience cleansing. The process seems similar to the four sacrifices Aaron offered on the very first day.

Leviticus 14:12–18: The verses describe in specific detail how the offerings would be made. The required sacrifices included the restitution offering (also called a trespass or guilt offering). The priest took one male lamb and the olive oil and waved them before the Lord (v. 12). He also made a sin offering and burnt offering (v. 13). The priest then put some of the blood on the right ear lobe, right thumb, and right big toe of the person being cleansed. Next, the priest took some of the olive oil and sprinkled it seven times before the Lord, applied some to the right ear, thumb, and big toe of the person, and put whatever was left on the person’s head.

Leviticus 14:19–20: The priest then sacrificed the sin offering to make atonement for the person, along with the burnt offering and the grain offering. When the priest made atonement for the person, he was made clean. The imagery of priests anointing people with olive oil became familiar to them. In Mark 6:13, Jesus commissioned His disciples to anoint many people with olive oil and heal them. Jesus took aspects of the law God had given to the priests and carried them over into His ministry. All of this makes us think of a big checklist. There was so much they had to go through. And when this process was done, the priest made atonement, and the person was made clean.

Leviticus 14:21–57: Although these verses were not covered in detail, they describe several other ritual cleansings. Verses 21–32 made provision for cleansing for someone who couldn’t afford the sacrifices already described. Verses 33–57 describe how contaminated objects could be cleansed as well as the sacrifices to be offered afterwards.

CLOSING

Luke 17:11–19 tells the story of ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. Only one realized he was healed and came back to give glory to Jesus. Jesus told him, “Your faith has made you well.” This leper experienced the good news. When you have faith, you have the good news. When you have faith, that faith has made you well. You can go from sin and death to experiencing life because you have faith in the Messiah.