At first glance, this passage in Leviticus 14 is simply a set of ceremonial rules to make a formerly leprous man ceremonially clean once again. This passage is not giving rules for making a leprous man clean or verifying the leprous man had been cleansed (that was provided in the immediate context). But, if a man had been cleansed, this passage lays out some rules to make him once again clean and acceptable to come back into the camp of God’s people.
This is more than just an emotionless, rote religious ceremony. In the rules themselves we can see something of the holiness of God. It is interesting that it is not enough for the leprous man to simply be made well, but that that man must also take the extra steps to be made clean. It’s not enough to simply not be dirty or defiled, but to be even in the same camp as God a man must be truly clean and set apart
Yet, who can really do this? If simply having leprosy was enough to defile you before God, what about the more vile and wicked things we do? Do those not separate us from God even more? After all, the man cleansed from leprosy had to take two birds, kill one, dip the live bird (along with hyssop, cedar and scarlet yarn) in the blood of the dead bird (over running water) and then sprinkle that blood and water mix over the man seven times (the number of completeness) in order for the man to come back into the camp. Yet, that man was still not ready to enter his tent, as he had a bit of bathing and shaving and waiting to do and then he had to sacrifice a spotless lamb for a guilt offering and some grain for a grain offering and after all of that, then he could be cleansed!
Thank God for Christ! In Christ we are cleansed! We’re washed with HIS blood and clothed with HIS righteousness. We no longer need the sacrifices of lambs and birds and grain to atone for our defilement. Christ’s work on the Cross was greater than Namaan’s miraculous healing at the hand of Elijah or Christ’s healing of the Ten Lepers. His sacrifice was complete and his body was broken and bruised. Like the killed bird and the sacrificed lamb, Christ was slain so that we might be acceptable before God. In Christ and Him alone we have access to the Father and we are always admitted into His body, the Church. Christ’s work accomplished a spiritual cleansing; something much deeper than anything the Old Testament priest could provide. In Christ, that work of salvation has been completed and our sins are forgiven and Christ loves us and we are loved by the Father, no matter our sicknesses, foibles or sins. In Christ even the poorest and nastiest and grossest of us can have forgiveness and admittance and access to the Father. Thanks be to God!
“People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa….It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege.”