Leviticus 13–15

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus chapter 13. Leviticus chapter 13. Hey, it's the section we've all been looking forward to. Leprosy and bodily discharges. So I know you all have just been waiting for this moment. Well, we're here. That's right. You can go ahead and just cheer a little on the inside if you want to. But like the rest of the section of Leviticus that we've been covering that don't always

at face value seem very interesting, there is spiritual application that comes out of this. And so as we pick up in chapter 13, again, we've been looking. We've been looking at kind of the second section of the book of Leviticus that has to do with sanctification and walking set apart. He dealt with dietary laws that were not only for their health, but also because of holiness that they were supposed to avoid certain things, certain things that they could and could not eat.

And then, of course, dealing with the aspect of quarantining after childbirth. And now we move into this aspect of leprosy. It says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, verse 1 of chapter 13, and to Aaron, saying, When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or a scab or a bright spot, and it becomes an infection of leprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. The priest shall look at the mark on the skin of the body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white, and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is an infection of leprosy.

When the priest has looked at him, he shall pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate him who has the infection for seven days. The priest shall look at him on the seventh day, and if in his eyes the infection has not changed, and the infection has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him. The priest shall look at him for seven more days.

The priest shall look at him again on the seventh day, and if the infection has faded, and the mark has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It's only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. If the scab spreads further on the skin after he has shown himself to the high priest, or to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again to the priest. The priest shall look, and if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It's leprosy. When the infection of leprosy is on a man, then he shall be brought to the priest. The priest shall then look, and if there is a white swelling in the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is quick raw flesh in the swelling, it is a chronic leprosy on the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.

If the leprosy breaks out farther on the skin, and the leprosy is on the skin, and the leprosy covers all the skin of him who has the infection from his head, even to his feet, as far as the priest can see, then the priest shall look, and behold, if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean, who has the infection. It has all turned white, and he is clean. But whenever the raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean. The priest shall look at the raw flesh, and he shall pronounce him unclean.

The raw flesh is unclean. It is leprosy. Or if the raw flesh turns again, and is changed to white, then he shall come to the priest, and the priest shall look at him. Behold, if the infection has turned to white, then the priest shall pronounce clean him who has the infection. He is clean. Now, this section, this chapter 13, really kind of divides up into four different sections

of him talking about this leprosy. This first section, the first 17 verses, deals with the general diagnosing of leprosy. Now, I always start preparing for Wednesday, on about Monday afternoon. That's when I decide, okay, I need to start kind of reading over it, and just kind of familiarizing myself with the scripture. And may I say, ever since Monday afternoon,

I have looked at a lot of things on my skin. I'm not gonna lie. It's kind of like the fact that right now, every time I get a headache, I think, is this it? Is this COVID? Right, because that's exactly what goes through my mind right now. Only then I added the fact that I'm studying about leprosy. And so I'd look and I'd go,

nope, I'm good. Okay. It just makes you do that. For whatever reason, this was a major issue that they dealt with at this point in time. A major issue that they dealt with in this particular era of history, partly because you and I, and we'll deal with this as we get to the kind of practical application of this section on leprosy, but they didn't bathe on a daily basis like you and I do today, right?

Like, I'm always happy if I can take a couple of showers a day. One shower to cleanse my body, the other one because it's like, the massage, you know, and my muscles get sore and I like the warm water running over me. That's not the way they lived at that point in time. It wasn't practical. They're in the desert. Water's not nearly as available as it is today.

And so bathing was not quite as often at that point in time. So this was a much bigger deal. We'll find that bathing is actually one of the things that would help prevent leprosy. One of the things that they've discovered, that consistent washing. And so this was a major issue. Now, as we move through chapter 13, we're going to notice that leprosy is a word that is used that could cover perhaps

a whole wide genre of skin diseases. The first of which we look at in this first section, which was a particularly bad skin disease that once it developed, it began to take over the entire body. And depending on who you read, there really still is no true cure for it. There are only ways to deal with it. And so he gives kind of the things that the priest was supposed to do.

And we'll discuss those in just a minute because they'll all be the same for each of these. So the first one he deals with in the first 17, verses is the general diagnosing of leprosy. Now, it's also important to point out that the priest at this point in time was more the public health officer, not necessarily the doctor. He wasn't given the treatment for what he was supposed to do to take away the leprosy.

He was only given the instructions for how to identify the leprosy so that it would not be then become a problem within the camp. And so once it was discovered, the individual that had it had to isolate. So now we deal with the second issue, and that has to do with boils and burns. That's right. It gets more interesting as we go. When the body has a boil on its skin and it is healed and in the place of the

boil, there is a white swelling or a reddish white bright spot, then it shall be shown to the priest and the priest shall look and behold, if it appears to be lower than the skin and the hair on it has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is the infection of leprosy. It has broken out in the boil, but if the priest looks at it, behold, there are no white hairs in it and it is not lower than the skin and is faded, then the priest shall isolate him for seven days. And if it spreads farther on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It is an infection. But if the bright spot remains in its place and does not spread, it is only the scar of the boil and the priest shall pronounce him clean. Or if the body sustains in its skin a burn by fire and the raw flesh of the boil, then the priest shall look at it and if the hair in the bright spot has turned white and it appears to be deeper than the skin, it is leprosy. It is broken out on the burn.

Therefore, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is an infection of leprosy. But if the priest looks at it and indeed there is no white hair in the bright spot, it is no deeper than the skin, but is dim, then the priest shall isolate him for seven days and the priest shall look at it and say, look at him on the seventh day. If it spreads further in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It is an infection of leprosy. But if the bright spot remains in its place and has not spread in the skin, but is dim, it is the swelling from the burn. The priest shall pronounce him clean for it is only the scar of the burn. So this is again a similar process that's followed. If you'll continue to bear with me as we read through this, I, I promise I'll bring it all to a really interesting point at the end.

Now, verse 29, if a man or a woman has an infection on the head or on the beard, so now he goes a little bit further and, and we're dealing with things that may show up in the beard or on the head of the hair or the hair of the head, then the priest shall look at the infection. And if it appears to be deeper than the skin and there is thin yellowish hair in it, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a scar, it is a scale. It is leprosy of the head or of the beard.

But if the priest looks at the infection of the scale and indeed it appears to be no deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the person with the scaly infection for seven days. On the seventh day, the priest shall look at the infection and if the scale is not spread and no yellowish hair has grown in it, the appearance of the scale is no deeper than the skin. Then he shall shave himself, but he shall not, he shall not shave the scale and the priest shall isolate the person with the scale seven more days. Then on the seventh day, the priest shall look at the scale and if the scale has not spread in the skin and it appears to be no deeper than the skin,

the priest shall pronounce him clean and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scale spreads further in the skin after his cleansing, then the priest shall look at him and if the scale has spread in the skin, the priest need not seek for the yellowish hair. He's unclean. If in his sight, the scale has remained, however, and the black hair has grown in it, the scale has healed.

He is clean and the priest shall pronounce him clean. When a man or woman has bright spots on the skin of the body, even white bright spots, then the priest shall look and if the bright spots on the skin of their bodies are a faint white, it is eczema that has broken out on the skin. He is clean and now come two of my favorite verses in the Bible. Now, if a man loses the hair of his head, he is bald.

He is clean. If his head becomes bald at the front and the sides, he is bald on the forehead. He is clean. I just want to say I claim those verses every year. Every year when I read through this in my reading time, I come across these verses and all I can say is praise God. Praise God for the cleanness of the bald head. But if on the bald head or on the bald forehead there occurs a reddish white infection,

it is leprosy. This is what I'm always looking for. Breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead. I don't know why they repeat the word bald so many times there. Every time I read through this, I'm like, is God laughing while he's saying this? He's like, deal with it, Moses. Okay, it's going to be funny. The people are going to love it. Wait till Elijah comes along.

So,

verse 43, then the priest shall look at him and if the swelling of the infection is reddish white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, like the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the body, he is a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean. His infection is on his head. As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn.

The hair of his head shall be uncovered and he shall cover his mustache and cry unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside. The camp now to me, this really brings to a point the true sadness of what happens when a person has a skin disease. Now, it's it's very necessary for a group of people that are going to live together.

If you've got a couple of million people all living in the same community, it's important that the community remains clean because as we have seen when communicable diseases begin to spread, it can really become a problem. So it was necessary to deal with it. But what a heartbreaking thing to have this discovered in the life of an individual to wear for the rest of their life. First of all, they have to live alone and not only do they have to live alone, but their life is literally when someone comes near, they have to make sure that they shout at the top of their voice unclean telling everybody exactly what is true about you.

Well, there's one more section we deal with before we get to the point of the whole thing. When a garment has a mark of leprosy in it, whether it is a wool garment or linen garment, whether in warp or wolf or linen or wool, whether in leather or in any article made of leather, if the mark is greenish or reddish in the garment or in the leather and the warp or the wolf or in any article of leather, it is a leprous mark and shall be shown to the priest. Then the priest shall look at the mark and shall quarantine the article within the mark with the mark for seven days. He shall then look at the mark on the seventh day.

If the mark is spread in the garment, whether in the warp or in the wolf or in the leather, whatever the purpose for which, the leather is used, the mark is a leprous malignancy. It is unclean. So he shall burn the garment, whether the warp or the wolf and the wool, the linen, any article of leather in which the mark occurs for it is a leprous malignancy. It shall be burned in the fire.

But if the priest shall look and indeed the mark has not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the wolf or in any letter article of leather, then the priest shall order them to wash the thing in which the mark occurs. And he shall quarantine it for seven more days. After the article with the mark has been washed, the priest shall again look, and if the mark has not changed in its appearance, even though the mark has not spread, it is unclean. You shall burn it in the fire, whether an eating away has produced bareness on the top of it or on the front of it.

Then if the priest looks and the mark is faded, after it has been washed, then he shall tear it out of the garment or out of the leather, whether from the warp, or from the wolf. And it appears again in the garment, whether in the warp or in the wolf, I don't know how many times I have to say that tonight, or in any article of leather, it is an outbreak. The article with the mark shall be burned in the fire. The garment, one more time, whether the warp or the wolf, in any article of leather from which the mark has departed, when you washed it, it shall then be washed a second time and be clean.

This is the law for the mark of leprosy in a garment of wool or linen, whether in the warp or in the wolf, got it again, or in any article of leather for pronouncing it clean or unclean. Now, first of all, congratulations for enduring chapter 13. I found it kind of interesting. I was listening to Chuck Smith yesterday on this, and he doesn't even read through the chapter.

He just tells you what happened in the chapter. So see, look, we're one step above right there from the Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, way back when. Now, there's a handful of things I'd like to point out to you, and they fall under three main points. The first, is the identification process. I thought it was kind of interesting, that no matter what particular instance it was,

the identification process always remained the same. The first thing that you took note of, was the presenting of the problem to the priest. Whether it was within your garment, whether it was something on your skin, in a sore, your hair, your beard, whatever it was, the first thing that would take place is when it was discovered, it was then shown to the priest. After it was shown to the priest, the priest, would, examine, the issue.

In other words, there would be a deep examination, a looking closely at whatever this, this mark that was seen on the body. I think that that's kind of an interesting thing, and I'm going to bring a spiritual point to that in just a minute. There was the presenting of the issue to the priest, and then there was the time of examination by the priest. Sometimes the examination meant that he had to take a little extra time.

Sometimes he would take seven days, but after seven days, if he was still unsure, about the examination, if he was still unsure of what he was dealing with, he would have that individual quarantine for another seven days. So up to 14 days that this individual would quarantine, while the priest was making sure that he took the time to examine, so he knew exactly what he was dealing with. But then after the examination process, there was the pronouncement. Either it was pronounced, what you're dealing with is not leprosy, and you are clean, you can go back to living your life as normal, or whether the heartbreaking pronouncement of the fact that what you're dealing with is leprosy, and your life will never be the same again.

Because the fourth part of this examination process was the separation. The separation from the camp, the separation from the people, the separation from your home, the separation from the tabernacle, ultimately, the separation from the worship of the Lord. This was the process, no matter what aspect of leprosy you were dealing with, no matter what aspect of skin disease you were dealing with, once it was identified that this is a major problem, the separation had to take place. Now, there's something very interesting to pay attention to about leprosy, because as we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, leprosy and sin, very synonymous.

Matter of fact, there's a real interesting picture of sin, given to us in this skin disease of leprosy. A handful of these things I pulled from J. Vernon McGee's commentary, a handful from some other commentaries, but I got the general idea of this from J. Vernon McGee's commentary when he said, there's an interesting comparison between leprosy and sin. Number one,

leprosy always starts off small. It always starts off with a small mark on your body. Something that seems insignificant at the time, but something that you find yourself going, I should keep my eye on that. In the same way, sin oftentimes starts off in our lives very small. As a matter of fact, sometimes we can excuse it, because of the small nature in which it starts off and we think,

that's really not that big of a deal, is it? I don't think I should be too worried about it. It always starts off small. The second thing to take note of about leprosy is that it always progresses. It starts off progressing slowly but surely, but it always progresses on the skin, on the skin of an individual. And may I say sin is no different. Because sin, though it may start off very small,

it has a slow but sure progression. It's never one decision that they've made. The final decision is a culmination of a lot of very small decisions that have caused them to get off course. Let me give you a little bit of an example. I was helping put a roof on a steel building one time. And as we were putting the roof on this steel building, we were putting the ridge cap on it.

And as we were putting the ridge cap on it, all we could see was what was right in front of us right then. But what we didn't realize was, was with every piece of the ridge cap of this steel building, we were getting off about another sixteenth of an inch. Now, if you were going about a foot, you would never notice it. But when you're doing a steel building that's probably about as long as the building that we're in right now, by the time you get 15 or 20 foot down the row, you look and as you sight down that ridge, all of a sudden you're doing this.

And pretty soon you're not even on the ridge any longer. You see, that's the slow but sure progression of sin. It started off really small. It started off as not that big of a deal. But getting off just a little bit, if you continue to get off that little bit every single time, eventually you're not even on the market all anymore. You're not just kind of off of it.

You've completely missed it. It has a slow but sure progression. The next thing that's true about leprosy is that leprosy, ultimately, the major issue that you deal with is that leprosy dulls the senses. It makes it to where you can't feel things any longer. If you will, it causes you to be numb. And that's part of the issue that it causes because then you can get

injuries that you don't feel. And so they never heal because you don't take care of them properly. And may I say, sin does the exact same thing to us, is it begins to numb our senses to where what at one point in time was great conviction in our lives. We find that it's a lot easier to excuse. The next thing is that leprosy always causes separation because once it's discovered in the life,

there has to be that separation from the camp. And may I say that sin does the exact same thing in us. It always starts off with separation in our relationship with the Lord. And ultimately, it will always mean separation from our fellowship with each other, because, you know, as well as I do, that if you're in a church that's pursuing the Lord and you're pursuing sin, pretty soon you find that you no longer go to that church.

And then, of course, with leprosy, its end is always death. And of course, we're told that the wages of sin is death. So what is there for us to learn about leprosy? Now, we'll get into the cleansing ritual in just a moment. But what is there for us to learn as we look at these things with leprosy? Well, I think that there's three lessons and I think I had her put them up there.

Three lessons I think we should pay attention to. Number one, we should allow our great high priest to examine our lives. Our great high priest, of course, is Jesus Christ. And we should allow him into our lives to examine our lives. I think one of the greatest prayers that we can pray is the one that's found in the Psalms, where David says, Search me, O Lord, and know me and see if there is any wicked way in me

and then lead me in the way everlasting. But it causes us to have to allow our high priest to examine our lives. And sometimes, you know, as well as I do, there's portions of our lives that for some reason we think that we can hide from him. And of course, we can't because he sees it all. But we must allow him in to examine our lives. Number two, we must admit to our uncleanness.

You know, one of the keys for someone that had leprosy is they had to admit that there was something leprous about themselves. That was that whole process of being separated and shouting unclean. There must be within us a point in time where we admit the uncleanness that the high priest has pointed out in our lives. Can you imagine being someone who is leprous?

And the high priest says, well, you have leprosy all over your skin. And you say, no, I don't. Well, everybody can see it. You know, that was one of the things that J. Vernon McGee pointed out in his commentary is he said, here's the thing about leprosy, you can't hide it very long because eventually it shows itself in a really clear way. But you know what's true about sin?

We can try as hard as we want to to hide it. We really can't. And so we must admit to our uncleanness. But then number three, we must continually be cleansed by the word of God and by the blood of Jesus. We must continually be cleansed by the word of God. And by the blood of Jesus. Again, I pulled this from McGee's commentary, but I found it to be very interesting.

He quotes a doctor here. He says, and I quote, I would like to quote Dr. Laker, who is an author, who is an authority on leprosy. Leprosy is caused by tiny germs called leprosy bacilli, which can be seen only through a microscope. The bacilli were discovered in 1873 by the Norwegian doctor named Hansen, not the boy band. I put that part in. That is why leprosy is sometimes