[Leviticus 14] Set Free by the Death of Christ! In Leviticus 14, God further instructs Moses in the cleansing ceremony for lepers and for what was called “leprous houses.” The priestly rite involved two birds, one sacrificed and the other set free. This is suggestive as a type and shadow of Jesus dying on our behalf that we might be cleansed from the contamination of sin (spiritual leprosy) and go free in Christ.
[Lev 14:1-57 KJV] 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. 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. 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. 33 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 34 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; 35 And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me [there is] as it were a plague in the house: 36 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: 37 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; 38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days: 39 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; 40 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: 41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place: 42 And they shall take other stones, and put [them] in the place of those stones; and he shall take other morter, and shall plaister the house. 43 And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plaistered; 44 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. 45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry [them] forth out of the city into an unclean place. 46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. 47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. 48 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 plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. 49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: 51 And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times: 52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet: 53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean. 54 This [is] the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, 55 And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house, 56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot: 57 To teach when [it is] unclean, and when [it is] clean: this [is] the law of leprosy.
At the beginning of our chapter, we see a beautiful picture of the substitutionary work of Christ. Remember that as we read these verses in the Old Testament, we must always ask ourselves, “what does this say about who Jesus is to me?” or “what does this say about my relationship to Christ?”. Paul stated that the dealings of God in the Old Testament are brought to us not just as history or even primarily as history but as a metaphor, typology, symbol, and shadow. The reference for this is found in 1 Cor. 10:11:
[1Co 10:11 KJV] 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
What then might we learn about who Jesus is to us in studying the “law of the leper” in Leviticus 14? When we look at these verses, we must also bear in mind that though they may deal with natural things such as leprosy in this case, they echo spiritual realities.
[1Co 15:46 KJV] 46 Howbeit that [was] not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
A leper was pronounced clean through a sacrifice involving two birds. Birds are creatures of flight and of the air which speaks to us of the spirit. One bird is sacrificed that the other might go free. The bird that is sacrificed is killed in an earthen vessel over running water. This is Jesus condescending into human form, into an earthen vessel as it were and rendering up His life for us upon the cross. Because of Jesus coming and dying in an earthen vessel, we go free as the release of the second bird in the law of the leper shows us most eloquently. This passage describing the bird in the earthen vessel gives us a picture of Jesus taking on human form in order to bring about our redemption. Paul speaks of this in Phil. 2:6-9.
[Phl 2:6-9 KJV] 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
When the cleansing ritual was carried out, the sacrifice was to be accompanied with cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. This is an unambiguous reference of the wood of the cross, the scarlet robe for which the soldiers cast lots and the hyssop, which was always connected with the Passover lamb, thus declaring Jesus’ death upon the cross the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
In vs. 7-10, we see that the bird that was set free was sprinkled seven times with the blood of the bird that was slain. Seven is a number of completion. The Hebrew word for “seven” carries the meaning “to be full, to be complete and satisfied.” It also means “to swear or make an oath…” The sprinkling of the live bird seven times with the blood of the sacrificial bird prefigures that death of Christ saying that in His shed blood, the obligation and expectation of a holy God upon sinful (spiritually leprous) man is fully and completely satisfied.
Notice that after the cleansing of the blood comes the offering of a cake mingled with oil. Oil represents the Holy Spirit. Before the oil was brought into the ritual, there was the sprinkling of blood, which speaks of forgiveness for us through Christ’s death and the washing with water. Water represents the word that cleanses us as Jesus declared saying, “Now you are clean through the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). The blood is applied again (v. 14), and then the oil is applied on the ear, the thumb and the big toe speaking to us of a cleansed mind, a cleansing of the works of our hands, and a cleansed walk before the Lord. The blood is enough. The blood qualifies us for the anointing which comes after. Without the shedding of blood – there is no cleansing of the plague of the fallen nature in our lives.
This ritual cleansing for the leper was always carried out on the 8th day of the month. The eighth day is a symbol of new beginnings. The glyph for the number eight is also the Arabic symbol for an infinite covenant. The numerical value of Jesus’ name is 888 speaking to us of the newness of life and a new beginning for both spirit, soul, and body. The Hebrew word for eight means “make fat” and is also a word for “oil.” It is the anointing within, and the anointing without that brings us to a new beginning. We are not expected to walk in the kingdom according to the sweat of our brow or our own willpower. It is the oil of the Holy Spirit that comes when we offer God the prescribed sacrifice. The leper could not bring the offering of his choice – he was required to bring the sacrificial blood of the lamb that represents Christ. In coming to God, you offer to Him nothing other than the shed blood of Christ – this is the equivalent of saving faith – having enough faith to come empty-handed other than your trust in the offering of the blood of Christ to render you whole and safe in the presence of a holy God.
In v. 34, we find instructions regarding the curious case of a house with a plague of leprosy. The cleansing of a house speaks to us of what some call “household salvation.” It also gives us a scriptural basis for a “house cleansing” that some do. When we moved into the house we lived in a few years ago, it carried the residue of heaviness, frustration, and sickness from its previous owners. We did a lot of praying and asked others to come to the house and pray as well. Homes in the Old Testament were cleansed by the sprinkling of blood. We need not sprinkle animal blood, but by our prayers, we apply the efficacy of the blood of Christ to the places where we live in order to secure our borders and protect us when we sleep from the encroachment of spiritual influences left over as a residue from previous tenants.
