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Leviticus
Chapter Fourteen
Leviticus 14
Chapter Contents
Of declaring the leper to be clean. (1-9) The sacrifices
to be offered by him. (10-32) The leprosy in a house. (33-53) Summary of the
law concerning leprosy. (54-57)
Commentary on Leviticus 14:1-9
The priests could not cleanse the lepers; but when the
Lord removed the plague, various rules were to be observed in admitting them
again to the ordinances of God, and the society of his people. They represent
many duties and exercises of truly repenting sinners, and the duties of
ministers respecting them. If we apply this to the spiritual leprosy of sin, it
intimates that when we withdraw from those who walk disorderly, we must not
count them as enemies, but admonish them as brethren. And also that when God by
his grace has brought to repentance, they ought with tenderness and joy, and
sincere affection, to be received again. Care should always be taken that
sinners may not be encouraged, nor penitents discouraged. If it were found that
the leprosy was healed, the priest must declare it with the particular
solemnities here described. The two birds, one killed, and the other dipped in
the blood of the bird that was killed, and then let loose, may signify Christ
shedding his blood for sinners, and rising and ascending into heaven. The
priest having pronounced the leper clean from the disease, he must make himself
clean from all remains of it. Thus those who have comfort of the remission of
their sins, must with care and caution cleanse themselves from sins; for every
one that has this hope in him, will be concerned to purify himself.
Commentary on Leviticus 14:10-32
The cleansed leper was to be presented to the Lord, with
his offerings. When God has restored us to enjoy public worship again, after
sickness, distance, or otherwise, we should testify our thanksgiving by our
diligent use of the liberty. And both we and our offerings must be presented
before the Lord, by the Priest that made us clean, even our Lord Jesus. Beside
the usual rites of the trespass-offering, some of the blood, and some of the
oil, was to be put upon him that was to be cleansed. Wherever the blood of
Christ is applied for justification, the oil of the Spirit is applied for
sanctification; these two cannot be separated. We have here the gracious
provision the law made for poor lepers. The poor are as welcome to God's altar
as the rich. But though a meaner sacrifice was accepted from the poor, yet the
same ceremony was used for the rich; their souls are as precious, and Christ
and his gospel are the same to both. Even for the poor one lamb was necessary.
No sinner could be saved, had it not been for the Lamb that was slain, and hath
redeemed us to God with his blood.
Commentary on Leviticus 14:33-53
The leprosy in a house is unaccountable to us, as well as
the leprosy in a garment; but now sin, where that reigns in a house, is a
plague there, as it is in a heart. Masters of families should be aware, and
afraid of the first appearance of sin in their families, and put it away,
whatever it is. If the leprosy is got into the house, the infected part must be
taken out. If it remain in the house, the whole must be pulled down. The owner
had better be without a dwelling, than live in one that was infected. The
leprosy of sin ruins families and churches. Thus sin is so interwoven with the
human body, that it must be taken down by death.
Commentary on Leviticus 14:54-57
When that God who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us by his
grace, Ephesians 2:4,5, we shall manifest the change by
repenting, and forsaking former sins. Let us follow after holiness, and let us
compassionate other poor lepers, and desire, seek, and pray for their
cleansing.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Leviticus》
Leviticus 14
Verse 2
[2] This
shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought
unto the priest:
He shall be brought to the priest — Not into the priest's house, but to some place without the camp or city,
which the priest shall appoint.
Verse 3
[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;
Healed by God-For God alone did heal or cleanse
him really, the priest only declaratively.
Verse 4
[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:
Two birds —
The one to represent Christ as dying for his sins, the other to represent him
as rising again for his purification or justification.
Clean —
Allowed for food and for sacrifice.
Cedar-wood — A
stick of cedar, to which the hyssop and one of the birds was tied by the
scarlet thread. Cedar seems to be chosen, to note that the leper was now freed
from that corruption which his leprosy had brought upon him, that kind of wood
being in a manner incorruptible.
Scarlet — A
thread of wool of a scarlet colour, to represent both the leper's sinfulness,
and the blood of Christ, and the happy change of the leper's colour and
complexion, which before was wan and loathsome, now sprightly and beautiful.
Hyssop —
The fragrant smell of which, signified the cure of the leper's ill scent.
Verse 5
[5] And
the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel
over running water:
Killed — By
some other man. The priest did not kill it himself, because it was not properly
a sacrifice, as being killed without the camp, and not in that place to which
all sacrifices were confined.
In an earthen-vessel — That is, over running water put in an earthen-vessel - Thus the blood of
the bird and the water were mixed together, partly for the conveniency of
sprinkling, and partly to signify Christ, who came by water and blood, 1 John 5:6. The running water, that is, spring
or river water by its liveliness and motion did fitly signify the restoring of
liveliness to the leper, who was in a manner dead before.
Verse 7
[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.
Into the open field —
The place of its former abode, signifying the taking off that restraint which
was laid upon the leper.
Verse 8
[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.
All his hair —
Partly to discover his perfect soundness; partly to preserve him from a relapse
through any relicks of it which might remain in his hair or in his clothes.
Out of his tent —
Out of his former habitation, in some separate place, lest some of his leprosy
yet lurking in him should break forth to the infection of his family.
Verse 9
[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.
All his hair —
Which began to grow again, and now for more caution is shaved again.
Verse 10
[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.
Oil is added as a fit sign of God's grace and
mercy, and of the leper's healing. A log is a measure containing six egg-shells
full.
Verse 11
[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:
Maketh him clean — The
healing is ascribed to God, Leviticus 14:13, but the ceremonial cleansing
was an act of the priest using the rites which God had prescribed.
Verse 12
[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:
A trespass-offering — To
teach them, that sin was the cause of leprosy, and of all diseases, and that
these ceremonial observations had a farther meaning, to make them sensible of
their spiritual diseases, that they might fly to God in Christ for the cure of
them.
Verse 14
[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:
The priest shall put it — To signify, that he was now free to hear God's word in the appointed
places, and to touch any person or thing without defiling it, and to go whither
he pleased.
Verse 15
[15] And
the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his
own left hand:
The oil — As
the blood signified Christ's blood by which men obtained remission of sins, so
the oil noted the graces of the spirit by which they are renewed.
Verse 16
[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:
Before the Lord —
Before the second veil which covered the holy of holies.
Verse 17
[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:
Upon the blood —
Upon the place where that blood was put.
Verse 25
[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:
The priest shall put the blood — Upon the extremities of the body, to include the whole. And some of the
oil was afterwards put in the same places upon the blood. That blood seems to
have been a token of forgiveness, the oil of healing: For God first forgiveth
our iniquities, and then healeth our diseases. When the leper was anointed, the
oil must have blood under it, to signify that all the graces and comforts of
the spirit, all his sanctifying influences are owing to the death of Christ. It
is by his blood alone that we are sanctified.
Verse 36
[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:
That all be not made unclean — It is observable here, that neither the people nor the household stuff
were polluted till the leprosy was discovered and declared by the priest, to
shew what great difference God makes between sins of ignorance, and sins
against knowledge.
Verse 37
[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;
In the walls of the house — This was an extraordinary judgment of God peculiar to this people,
either as a punishment of their sins, which were much more sinful and
inexcusable than the sins of other nations; or as a special help to repentance,
which God afforded them above other people; or as a token of the mischievous
nature of sin, typified by leprosy, which did not only destroy persons, but
their habitations also: Hollow streaks - Such as were in the bodies of leprous
persons.
Verse 40
[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:
An unclean place —
Where they used to cast dirt and filthy things.
Verse 57
[57] To
teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.
To teach — To
direct the priest when to pronounce a person or house clean or unclean. So it
was not left to the priests power or will, but they were tied to plain rules,
such as the people might discern no less than the priest.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Leviticus》
14 Chapter 14
Verses 2-32
The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.
Cleansing the leper
I. The disease.
1. Its peculiar designation. Leprosy the “plague of boils” (Deuteronomy 28:1-68.), which applies very
forcibly to sin.
2. Its distinguishing characteristics. Small in appearance; so in a
vicious course of life. It gradually spread, as does sin spread over all the
powers and faculties of a man.
3. Its pernicious consequences. The malady was injurious to society,
as being infectious and pernicious; to the person himself, excluding him from
all society, civil and religions. So sinners corrupt others, while their
abominable ways shut them from the communion of the faithful.
II. The cure of the
disease.
1. No human means could be availing. The leper would gladly have
cured himself. No art of man was effectual (2 Kings 5:7). We have no remedy of
man’s devising for sin (Romans 7:19; Romans 7:24).
2. If the leper was cured, it was by God alone, without the
intervention of human means (Luke 17:14; Isaiah 51:7). Nothing was prescribed or
attempted for the removal of this distemper. And none but God can remove sin,
&c. (Romans 7:10; Romans 7:18; Ephesians 5:9; 1 Peter 2:2).
3. But the cure was associated with blood and water. And to be
cleansed from the leprosy of sin we must have applied the blood and spirit of
Christ (1 John 1:7; Ezekiel 36:25).
III. The
confirmation of the cure by the priest,
1. A person was not to be pronounced clean on a sudden. The priest
was to use much caution and deliberation. Caution should be exercised by
ministers and office-bearers in the Church towards those who are candidates for
fellowship.
2. When it evidently appeared that soundness had been imparted to his
disordered body, this was declared with due solemnity. Here we see the pre-eminence
of our High Priest; for while the priest merely declared the leper healed, He most
effectually heals. Let those infected with the leprosy apply to their souls the
Divinely appointed remedy; and let those who have been cleansed from it
carefully discharge the duty enjoined on them. (Leviticus 14:10, &c.). (W. Sleigh.)
The leper
1. How God is the Author of plagues and diseases. Not to hurt man,
but to help him; for man being afflicted, is humbled; being humbled, he runs to
Him who can raise him up.
2. That sin infects men’s bodies, garments, and houses.
3. Of the office of ministers, in visiting the sick (Leviticus 14:44).
4. Of our cleansing by the blood of Christ.
5. Of the honourable calling of physicians. They should be--
Lessons
1. Regeneration must be total in every part.
2. That vicious persons be not with too great facility reconciled.
3. God accepts of our obedience according to our heart.
4. To give thanks to God for our health. (A. Willet, D. D.)
The leper cleansed
Although leprosy was not curable by human remedies, it did not
always continue for life. It was often sent as a special judgment, as in the
eases of Miriam, Azariah, and Gehazi. The Jews generally looked upon it in this
light. Its very name denotes a stroke of the Lord. This of itself rather
implies that it may cease with the repentance and forgiveness of the smitten
offender. It was the anticipation of the healing, of at least some persons
leprously affected, that formed the basis of the provisions here laid down.
They constitute “the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing”; and if
there was no possibility of cure, there was no use of this law. You will
observe, however, that these regulations were not for the cure of the
leper, but for his ceremonial cleansing after the cure. The disease had
first to be stayed, and then began this process of cleansing off all its
lingering effects and disabilities. I therefore take the deepest intention of
these rites to be to illustrate the nature of sanctification. Justification is
also implied, but only as connected
with sanctification.
1. In the first place, it is presupposed that the leper’s disease had
been stayed. And this healing again points to some putting forth of Divine
power and grace quite different from anything here brought to view, and far
anterior to the commencement
of these services. The first motion of our salvation is from God. It begins
while we are yet in the very depths of our defilement and guilt. “While we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.” A full and free forgiveness of all our sins
is provided. And the only remaining requirement is to “go show thyself to the
priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded.”
2. The leper, finding his leprosy stayed, was to go to the judge in
the case and claim exemption from the sentence that was upon him. And to render
this the more easy for him, the priest had to “go forth out of the camp” to
meet him. The very moment the sinner believes in the healing proclaimed to him
in the gospel, and sets himself to move for his cleansing, Christ meets him.
3. And when the healed leper thus presented himself to the priest,
there was no alternative left. He had to be pronounced cured. And so Christ
hath bound Himself to acquit and absolve every sinner who thus comes to Him in
the strength of the gospel message. There is no further hindrance in the way.
The man is justified. The sentence that was against him is rescinded and taken
away. But the mere absolution of the priest did not fully restore the leper.
Though his disease was stayed, there was a taint of it remaining to be purged
off before he could join the camp or the holy services. And so our whole
salvation must miscarry if it does not also take in an active holiness,
purifying our hearts and lives, and transforming us into the image of our
Redeemer. How this sanctification is effected is what we are now to consider.
I. To cleanse the
recovered leper, the first thing to be done was the procurement of two clean
birds, the one of which was to be slain, and the other to be dipped in its
fellow’s blood and set at liberty. These two doves, the gentlest of all God’s
creatures, at once carry our thoughts back to Christ and His wonderful history.
The fate of the one shows us how He was mangled for human guilt, crushed to
death for the sins of others, and brought down to the depths of the earth. The
other, coming up out of the earthern vessel, out of the blood of its fellow,
shows us how Jesus rose again from the rocky sepulchre, and ascended up out of
the hand of His captor on strong and joyous pinions far into the high abodes of
heaven, scattering as He went the gracious drops of cleansing and salvation.
The introduction of these birds, in this connection, presents a great
theological fact. As they typify Christ, they show that our sanctification, as
well as our justification, proceeds from His Cross and resurrection.
II. The next thing
to be done for the cleansing of the recovered leper was the arrangement and use
of means to apply the cleansing of blood. Christ has appointed certain
instruments and agencies to convey to us the purifying elements. First of all
is the cedar stem of His Word, durable, fragrant, and instinct with celestial
power and life, speaking through all the visible creation, but much more
distinctly and powerfully in the written Scriptures. Along with this, and
fastened to it, is the scarlet wool of the holy sacraments, absorbing, as it
were, the whole
substance of’ Christ crucified, and performing an important part in the
impartation of the same to our souls. And along with this scarlet wool, and
bound to the same stem, are the many little aromatic stems of prayer, with the
sanctifying blood running out and hanging in drops on every point, ready to
flow upon and cleanse the humble worshipper.
III. A third
requirement for the leper’s cleansing was, that he should “wash his clothes,
and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water.” This was his own work.
It was to be done by the leper himself. Its spiritual significance is easily
understood. It refers to the sinner’s repentance and reformation. He must
cleanse himself from all his old and base surroundings. He must separate
between himself and everything suspicious.
IV. But there is
another particular entering into this ritual cleansing. After everything else
had been done, sacrifices were to be offered. We must wash, and repent, and
reform; but it avails nought without blood. Water, the purest that ever dropped
from mossy rock, or gushed from the mountain spring, is not able to cleanse a
man for heaven. Tears of repentance, though pure as those which trickled down
the Saviour’s cheeks, cannot wash out the stains of sin, except they be mingled
with the blood that dripped from His wounds. And no moral improvements can
entitle us to eternity’s honours if they are not connected with the suretyship
and sacrifice of Jesus. The source of all sanctification is in His death and
resurrection. All the glories of eternal life still refer us back to Calvary.
Grace in Christ Jesus commenced the work, and grace in Christ Jesus must
complete it. The only peculiarity which I notice here is that some of the blood
and oil was to be touched to the cleansed leper, the same as in the
consecration of the priests. It points to the very culmination and crown of
Christian sanctity. The blood of the trespass-offering stands for the blood of
Christ, and the holy oil for the Holy Spirit. These are the two great
consecrating elements of Christianity. “With these our High Priest approaches
us through the gospel, to complete our cleansing and ordain us to the dignities
and duties of our spiritual calling.
V. There is one
point more in these ceremonies to which I will call your attention. I refer to
the time which they required. A leper could by no possibility get through with
his cleansing under seven days. One day was enough to admit him into the camp;
but seven full days were requisite to admit him to his home. There was
therefore a complete period of time necessary to the entireness of his
cleansing. This arrangement was not accidental. It has its full typical
significance. It refers to the fact that no one is completely sanctified in the
present life; and that a complete period of time must ensue before we reach the
rest to which our cleansing entitles us. We have attained unto very high
honours. We have secured very exalted privileges. But everything has not yet
been done, and all our disabilities are not yet removed. Great services yet
remain to take place when the seven days have elapsed. And until then we must patiently
wait. The influences of sin still linger about the old tenement, and we must
suffer the consequences of it until the term of this present dispensation ends.
Then shall our High Priest come forth again, and “change our vile bodies, and
fashion them like unto His own glorious body.” The last lurking-places of
defilement shall then be cut off. The last act of the leper’s cleansing was to
shave off his hair. When that was done he entered upon all the high services of
the Tabernacle, and went to his home a saved man. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Ceremonies on recovery of the leper
First of all, “he shall be brought unto the priest; and the priest
shall go forth out of the camp,” and see him; and then the priest, when he
finds that he is clean, shall pronounce him clean. Next the priest was to take
“two birds alive and clean, and cedar-wood and scarlet, and hyssop: and the
priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthern vessel over
running water.” Now it seems absurd to speak of an earthern vessel, and water
in it called “running water.” But all the absurdity is taken away when we
recollect that the original is “living water.” It is the same expression that
occurs in other parts of Scripture. “I will give unto him living water”--“It
shall be in him a well of living water.” And the real meaning of this passage
is “fresh water” from the fountain, and not stagnant, and unfit for physical,
or for spiritual, or for ecclesiastical purposes. Then it has been supposed
that the one bird that was slain was meant to describe the death of Christ; and
the dismissal of the other bird, after being dipped in the blood of the slain
bird, was meant to be a type and prefiguration of the resurrection. It is
nowhere in Scripture said to be so, but it is obviously typical of sacrifice;
and no one sacrifice, no one symbol, could set forth the completeness of the
work of Christ; and therefore many symbols may have been employed and combined
to set forth that great and blessed act. We read, then, that the person, after
this, was still to present an offering of “two he-lambs, without blemish”; and
to remain at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation till the priest had
offered these; and by this he was to have access to the congregation. We read
that the priest was to sprinkle him seven times; that is, completely, the
number meant to denote perfection. He was also to touch the tip of his right
ear, to denote that that ear should be opened only to all that was pure. He was
also to touch the thumb of the right hand, to teach that every act was to be
consistent with his character. And upon the right foot, to show that he was to
walk in God’s ways, which are ways of pleasantness and of peace. So that the
man should feel--what is stated by the apostle in Romans 12:1-21.
that he was to present himself, soul and body, a living sacrifice,
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now the language employed here-the
hyssop, and the cedar-wood, and the sprinkling--casts light upon many passages
in the Psalms, and those passages, again, cast light upon the phraseology of
the New Testament. “Ye are come unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.” We
read again, in another passage, of “the sprinkling of His blood,” the “blood of
sprinkling.” The meaning of that is, just as the life of the turtledove, the
lamb, or the bird, was sacrificed by the shedding of its blood, and typically
and ecclesiastically, or Levitically, virtue or qualification was imparted to
the person related to it; so the efficacy of Christ’s death, represented by His
blood--that is, the atoning efficacy of it--is to be applied so to our hearts
and consciences that we may have peace with God, free pardon of our sins, and
the hope of an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. (J. Cumming,
D. D.)
Do not forget the remedy
Cecil had been a great sufferer for years, and none of his
medical friends had been able to ascertain the cause. At length Mrs. Cecil was
told of a physician who was extremely skilful in intricate cases, and whom she
entreated him to consult. On entering the physician’s room, he said, “Welcome,
Mr. Cecil; I know you well by character, and as a preacher. We must have some
conversation after I have given you my advice.” Mr. Cecil then described his
sufferings. The physician considered a moment, and then said, “Dear sir, there
is only one remedy in such a case as yours; do first try it; it is perfectly
simple,” and then he mentioned the medicine. Mr. Cecil, fearing to occupy too much
of his time, rose to leave, but the physician said, “No, sir, we must not part
so soon, for I have long wished for an opportunity of conversing with you.” So
they spent half an hour more, mutually delighted with each other’s society. On
returning home, Mr. Cecil said to his wife, “You sent me to a most agreeable
man--such a fund of anecdote, such originality of thought, such a command of
language.” “Well, but what did he prescribe for you?” Mrs. Cecil anxiously
inquired. There was a pause, and then Mr. Cecil exclaimed, “I have entirely
forgotten the remedy; his charms of manner and conversation put everything else
out of my mind.” “Now, young men,” said Mr. Cecil, “it will be very pleasant
for you if your congregations go away saying, ‘ What eloquence! what original
thought! and what an agreeable deliver!’ Take care they do not forget the
remedy, the only remedy, Christ and His righteousness, Christ and His
atonement, Christ and His advocacy.” (Memoir of Wm. Marston.)
The cured and uncured
Christ cared the demoniac, the paralytic, the leper. He took the
most chronic and complicated diseases, and they could not stand before His
fiat. To one He said, “Be thou clean”; to another He said, “Take up thy bed and
walk”; to another, “Damsel, arise”; and all these were not only cured as to the
body, but cured as to the sicknesses of the soul. A pastor went into the house
where there was a young Christian dying in great triumph. He entered the room
to congratulate her as she was about to enter heaven, and as he went into the
room and began to talk cheerfully about the joys that were immediately before
her, her sister left the room. A few weeks after the pastor was called to the
same house, and this sister who had left the room was about to take her
departure into the eternal world, but she was not ready. She said to the
pastor, “You don’t remember me, do you?” “Oh, yes,” he replied, “I remember
you.” “Do you remember when you were talking to my sister about heaven I left
the room?” “Yes,” he said, “I remember that.” She said, “Do you know why I
left?” “No,” he replied, “I don’t.” “Well,” she said, “I didn’t want to hear
anything about my soul, or about heaven, and now I am dying. Oh, sir, it is a
dreadful thing to die!” Now, what was the difference between those two sisters?
The one was perfectly cured of the terrible disease of sin, the other was not.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Christ the only Healer
Now, children, if my watch has lost its mainspring, where
shall I go to get it mended? To the tailor’s? No. To the blacksmith’s? No. To
the watchmaker’s? Yes. Why? Because he makes watches, and knows how to mend
them. Now, if your hearts are bad,
where will you go to have them healed? To your parents? No. To the priest? No.
To Jesus Christ? Yes. Why? Because Be made the heart, and knows how to heal it.
(The Church Scholars’ Magazine.)
Christ is an Almighty Doctor
Christ is an Almighty Doctor. At midnight a sudden disease
comes upon your little child. You hasten for a physician, or you telegraph for
the doctor as soon as you can, and hour after hour there is a contest between
science and the King of Terrors. And yet you stand there and you watch and you
see the disease is conquering fortress of strength after fortress of strength,
until after a while you stand over the lifeless form and have to confess that
there is a limit beyond which human medicament cannot go. But I hail at this
moment an Almighty Doctor, who never lost a patient. Why, a leper came out with
a bandage over his mouth and utterly loathsome, so they drove him out from all
society, and when he came out the people all ran, and Christ ran. But Christ
ran in a different direction from the people. They all ran away from the poor
man; Christ ran towards him. And then a second leper came out with a bandage over his mouth, and a
third, and a fourth, and so on until there were ten lepers, and I see Christ
standing among them. It is a dangerous experiment, you say. Why, if you caught
the breath of one such man as that, it would be certain death. There, sublimely
great in goodness, Christ stood among the ten lepers, and He cured the first,
and the second, and the tenth. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Christ can remove the root of the disease of sin
Some time ago a man wished to cut down a tree in his garden, and
took it in hand to do it himself. Taking a spade, he cleared away the earth
from the roots, and laid them bare for the axe. He hewed all the roots and
suckers he saw, and then pushed and pulled at the tree, but it remained as firm
as ever. Going to his gardener, he consulted him about it, and his reply was,
“Ah, sir, you have not cut the tap-root. You may hack and cut away at all the
rest of the roots, but unless you cut it the tree will never fall.” There are
hundreds of sin-sick souls who persist in pruning away this sin and that sin,
but they wilfully refuse to cut the tap-root of sin.
Two birds.--
The two birds considered typically
I. In the first
bird let us see the saviour.
1. The bird was to be “clean.” Christ perfectly holy.
2. A bird’s being chosen in this rite may point us whence our Saviour
came--from heaven.
3. The bird was slain. Christ tasted death for us. This shows--
4. As to what bird it was, we do not certainly know, but commentators
tell us all the birds prescribed by Moses were common and accessible. So the
Saviour is not far off, but near at hand.
5. The “earthern vessel” reminds us of the Saviour’s humanity. And
the fact that it contained not only blood but also clear water, may remind us
that He saves by His Spirit as well as by His blood--that His salvation includes
sanctification as well as justification.
II. Let us see in
the other bird the believer.
1. That the Christian is represented by a bird, just as the Saviour
is, may teach us--
2. That the Christian is represented by a clean bird teaches--
3. That this bird was dipped in the blood of the slain bird shows us
plainly the way of salvation--by faith.
4. That the bird on being dipped was then let loose into the open
field, teaches the blessed freedom, the glorious change which immediately takes
place on a man’s believing.
5. May we not also learn that while the Christian is free, yet he
will always use his liberty as the bird does, not to sink earthward, but to
soar heavenward?
III. As the living
bird seems to have been dipped into the blood of the dead by means of a cedar
staff, to which, along with a bundle of hyssop, it was attached by a band of
scarlet wool, we take this staff as a representation of the gospel, through the
foolishness of preaching which it pleases God to save them who believe. Doing
so, we learn from 1 Kings 4:30, that cedar-wood and
hyssop were regarded as the two extremes of vegetable creation; and so the
gospel is
The two birds
As in all the Levitical types, so in this case, at the very
entrance on the redeemed life stands the sacrifice of a life, and the service
of a priest as mediator between God and man. Blood must be shed if the leper is
to be admitted again into covenant standing with God; and the blood of the sacrifice
in the law ever points to the sacrifice of Christ. But that great Sacrifice may
be regarded in various aspects. Sin is a many-sided evil, and on every side it
must be met. As often repeated, because sin as guilt requires expiation, hence
the type of the sin-offering; in that it is a defrauding of God of His just
rights from us, satisfaction is required, hence the type of the guilt-offering;
as it is absence of consecration, life for self instead of life for God, hence
the type of the burnt-offering. And yet the manifold aspects of sin are not all
enumerated. For sin, again, is spiritual death; and, as death, it involves
corruption and defilement. It is with special reference to this fact that the
work of Christ is brought before us here. In the clean bird, slain that its
blood may be applied to the leper for cleansing, we see typified Christ, as
giving Himself, that His very life may be imparted to us for our life. In that
the blood of the bird is mingled with water, the symbol of the Word of God, is
symbolised the truth, that with the atoning blood is ever inseparably united
the purifying energy of the Holy Ghost through the Word. Not the water without
the blood, nor the blood without the water, saves, but the blood with the
water, and the water with the blood (1 John 5:6). But the type yet lacks
something for completeness; and for this reason we have the second bird, who,
when by his means the blood has been sprinkled on the leper, and the man is now
pronounced clean, is released and flies away heavenward. What a beautiful
symbol of that other truth, without which even the atonement of the Lord were
nought, that He who died, having by that death for us procured our life, was
then released from the bonds of death, rising from the dead on the third day,
and ascending to heaven, like the freed bird, in token that His life-giving,
cleansing work was done. Thus the message which, as the liberated bird flies
carolling away, sweet as a heavenly song, seems to fall upon the ear is this (Romans 4:25). (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)
The two birds
There is nothing more suggestive than a caged bird. In the down of
its breast you can see the glow of southern climes. In the sparkle of its eyes
you can see the flash of distant seas. In its voice you can hear the song it
learned in the wild wood. It is a child of the sky in captivity.
1. Now the dead bird of my text, captured in the air, suggests the
Lord Jesus, who came down from the realms of light and glory. He once stood in
the sunlight of heaven. He was the favoured of the land. He was the King’s Son.
But one day there came word to the palace that an insignificant island was in
rebellion, and was cutting itself to pieces with anarchy. I hear an angel say:
“Let it perish. The King’s realm is vast enough without the island. The
tributes to the King are large enough without that. We can spare it.” “Not so,”
said the Prince, the King’s Son; and I see Him push out one day, under the
protest of a great company. He starts for the rebellious island. He lands amid
the execrations of the inhabitants, that grow in violence until the malice of
earth has smitten Him, and the spirits of the lost world put their black wings
over His dying head and shut the sun out. The hawks and vultures swooped down
upon this dove of the text, until head and breast and feet ran blood--until,
under the flocks and beaks of darkness the poor thing perished. No wonder it was
a bird taken and slain over an earthern vessel of running water. It was a child
of the skies. It typified Him who came down from heaven in agony and blood to
save our souls.
2. I notice also in my text that the bird that was slain was a clean
bird. The text demanded that it should be. The raven was never sacrificed, nor
the cormorant, nor the vulture. It must be a clean bird, says the text, and it
suggests the pure Jesus, the holy Jesus. Although He spent His boyhood in the
worst village on earth, although blasphemies were poured into His ear enough to
have poisoned any one else, He stands before the world a perfect Christ.
3. I remark also, in regard to this first bird, mentioned in the
text, that it was a defenceless bird. When the eagle is assaulted, with its
iron beak it strikes like a bolt against its adversary. This was a dove or a
sparrow--most probably the former. Take the dove, or pigeon, in your hand, and
the pecking of its beak upon your hand makes you laugh at the feebleness of its
assault. The reindeer, after it is down, may fell you with its antlers. The ox,
after you think it is dead, may break your leg in its death struggle. The
harpooned whale, in its last agony, may crush you in the coil of the unwinding
rope. But this was a dove--perfectly harmless, perfectly defenceless--type of
Him who said, “I have trod the winepress alone, and there was none to help.”
None to help! The murderers have it all their own way. Where was the soldier in
the Roman regiment who swung his sword in the defence of the Divine Martyr? Did
they put one drop of oil on His gashed feet? Was there one in all that crowd
manly and generous enough to stand up for Him? Were the miscreants at the Cross
any more interfered with in their work of spiking Him fast than the carpenter
in his shop driving a nail through a pine board? The women cried, but there was
no balm in their tears. None to help! none to help!
4. But I come now to speak of this second bird of the text. The
priest took the second bird, tied it to the hyssop branch, and then plunged it
in the blood of the first bird. Ah, that is my soul plunged for cleansing in
the Saviour’s blood. There is net enough water in the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans to wash away our smallest sin. Sin is such an outrage on God’s universe
that nothing but blood can atone for it. You know the life is in the blood, and
as the life had been forfeited, nothing could buy it back but blood. What was
it that was sprinkled on the door-post when the destroying angel went through
the land? Blood. What was it that went streaming from the altar of ancient
sacrifice? Blood. What was it that the priest carried into the Holy of Holies,
making intercession for the people? Blood. What was it that Jesus sweat in the
Garden of Gethsemane? Great drops of blood. What does the wine in the
sacramental cup signify? Blood. What makes the robes of the righteous in heaven
so fair? “They are washed in the blood of the Lamb.” What is it that cleanses
all our pollution? “The blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses from all sin.”
5. I notice now that as soon as this second bird was dipped in the
blood of the first bird, the priest unloosed it, and it was free--free of wing
and free of foot. It could whet its beak on any tree-branch it chose; it could
pick the grapes of any vineyard it chose. It was free. A type of our souls
after we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We can go where we will. We
can do what we will. You say, “Had you better not qualify that?” No; for I
remember in conversion the will is changed, and the man will not will that
which is wrong.
6. The next thing I noticed about this bird, when it was loosed--and
that is the main idea--is, that it flow away. Which way did it go? When you let
a bird loose from your grasp which way does it fly? Up. What are wings for? To
fly with. We should be going heavenward. That is the suggestion. But I know
that we have a great many drawbacks. You had them yesterday, or the day before;
and although you want to be going heavenward, you are constantly discouraged.
But, I suppose, when that bird went out of the priest’s hands it went by
inflections--sometimes stooping. A bird does not shoot directly up--but this is
the motion of a bird. So the soul soars towards God, rising up in love, and
sometimes depressed by trial. It does not always go just in the direction it
would like to go. But the main course is right. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Freedom and exultation of the restored life
Alas for any poor beguiled soul that turns away in scorn of the
glorious gospel of the blessed God! Ye mistake it who regard it as a summons to
a slavish and sorrowful life. It is a great voice out of heaven crying, “Come
up hither.” It is a call of the radiant dayspring as it bursts on the poor bird
nestling in the withering grass, revealing the grandeurs of the everlasting
firmament, that it may fly--fly--fly! Let me tell you again my old story of the
eagle. For many months it pined and drooped in its cage, and seemed to have
forgotten that it was of the lineage of the old plumed kings of the forest and
the mountain; and its bright eye faded, and its strong wings drooped, and its
kingly crest was bowed, and its plumes were torn and soiled amid the bars and
dust of its prison-house. So in pity of its forlorn life we carried its cage
out to the open air, and broke the iron wire and flung wide the lowly door; and
slowly, falteringly, it crept forth to the sultry air of that cloudy summer
noon and looked listlessly about it. But just then, from a rift in an
overhanging cloud, a golden sunbeam flashed upon the scene. And it was enough.
Then it lifted its royal crest, the dim eye blazed again, the soiled plumes
unfolded and rustled, the strong wings moved themselves, with a rapturous cry
it sprang heavenward. Higher, higher, in broader, braver circles it mounted toward
the firmament, and we saw it no more as it rushed through the storm-clouds and
soared to the sun. And would, O ye winged spirits! who dream and pine in this
poor earthly bondage, that only one ray from the blessed Sun of Righteousness
might fall on you this hour! for then would there be the flash of a glorious
eye, and a cry of rapture, and a sway of exulting wings, as another redeemed
and risen spirit sprang heavenward unto God! (C. Wadsworth, D. D.)
Blood-washed Christians
It is said in Germany, of one Prince Henry, when a little boy,
that he had a great aversion to his bath. He didn’t like it, and cried and
squealed every morning when the time for his ablutions came round. One morning,
to his very great pleasure, the nurse said he need not have it, and he soon
took to showing to the other children how he had conquered the nurse to his
royal mother’s aggravation. He went out for a walk later in the day, and when
he entered the palace gates on the return journey, the sentinel at that point
offered him no salute, and that had never happened before. Being a prince he
was greatly respected, and felt proud of the salute of the soldiers. Coming up
to the palace door, there the soldier stood on guard, but no salute was given.
The little boy went up to the stalwart sentinel quite angry, and said, “Do you
know who I am?” . . . “Oh, yes, Prince Henry, but we never salute unwashed
princes.” He never said anything in reply, but passed quietly into the palace,
and the next morning he took his bath as required. They did not salute unwashed
princes, and the world does not salute unwashed Christian:.. You are a royal
blood-washed prince if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the world will
take knowledge of you if you have been with Jesus, taking knowledge of Christ in
you the hope of glory. (J. Spencer.)
Appropriate return for the Saviour’s blood-shedding
In an Italian hospital was a severely wounded soldier. A lady
visitor spoke to him, dressed his wounds, smoothed his pillow, and made him all
right for the day. When leaving she took a bouquet of flowers, and laid it
beside his head. The soldier, with his pale face and eyes full of tears, looked
up, and said: “That is too much kindness.” She was a lady with a true Italian
heart, and looking back to the soldier, she quietly replied, “No, not too much
for one drop of Italian blood.” Shall we not freely own that the consecration
of all our powers of body and spirit is not too much to give in return for the
shedding of our Emmanuel’s blood on our behalf? (S. S. Chronicle.)
Christian consecration
Did you ever hear of Hedley Vicars, that good soldier? He was once
reading the Bible, and accidentally--he was not religious then, I
believe--accidentally he happened to come upon the verse--“The blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Be thought, “Is that true? Is that
true to me? Does the blood of Jesus Christ wash out all my sin? Then I resolve
I will henceforth live as a man who has been washed in the blood of Jesus
Christ.” A noble resolve! Remember it--” I will live as a man ought to live who
has been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.” How is a man to live who has
been washed in the blood of Christ? That was a noble resolve! (John Vaughan.)
Hyssop.--
A sermon to children on hyssop
(Leviticus 14:4.) Text chosen to
illustrate one simple truth. A very little and insignificant thing may be used
for very important work. Of this “hyssop” the Jews were to make a sort of brush
to sprinkle the door-posts with. It was but a little plant, for of Solomon it
is said, “He spake of trees, from the cedar-tree even unto the hyssop that
springeth out of the wall.” It is a short-stemmed plant, growing in crevices
like the ferns in our walls. It is bristly, and so suitable for making into a
brush. It is bitter, and so it was thought to have cleansing properties; and,
therefore, the Psalmist prays, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.”
1. God uses little things for His work. True He uses the great cedar
for making His temple, and the acacia boards for His tabernacle; but He also
uses the little hyssop. Children are but “little things,” and yet the Lord
needs and uses them. Illustration: Naaman’s maid. Children at our Lord’s
triumphal entry. The nurse who influenced the good Lord Shaftesbury.
2. God chooses the little things He wants to use. There are many
little plants besides the hyssop; but only that one was chosen for this
particular work. There are many sorts of grass, but only one, with specially
interlacing roots, is used to keep up the great dams that hold back the sea in
Holland. God will find out some particular work for each one of us; and all
through life, as well as now, our joy will be to do what He finds for us to do.
3. God expects us to put something of our own into our service. The
hyssop had something of its own. It put it into its work when it was used to
soothe Christ’s pain on the Cross. It is not enough just to do right, we must
try to do right earnestly, skilfully, cheerfully, prettily: putting our own
best selves into the doing. We are to be God’s agents, but we must never forget
this--He would have us put our love, our goodwill, our abilities, and our happy
spirit, into all His work.
If he be poor.--
Provision for the poor
The poor man is often overlooked. There is always a strong
tendency in the more favoured classes to pass him by, and to forget, if not to
despise him. But God does not forget him. The directions for his particular
case are just as special and authoritative as any contained in this ritual. The
Lord would thus assure him of His care--that He feels for him the same deep
interest as for others, and brings atonement equally within his reach. There is
a common level in the Divine administrations, upon which “the rich and poor
meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of them all.” The poor are His
children, as well as the rich. He anointed His Son Jesus, to preach the gospel
to them. And the most neglected and down-trodden child of want has just as good
a right to cleansing and heaven, and may count as much upon the sympathy and
grace of God, as his wealthy neighbour. If he cannot get three lambs, he is
just as welcome and acceptable with one lamb and two doves. The poor widow’s
mite cast into the treasury of the Lord receives a higher commendation than all
the costly donations of the wealthy. Mary, with her two young pigeons is just
as completely cleansed as she who could add thereto a lamb of a year old. But
although the law favoured the leper who was poor it did not exempt him. It
accommodated the burden to his strength, but it did not remove it. If he could
not bring three lambs he was still bound to bring one lamb and two doves. If he
could not get three deals of flour one deal had to be forthcoming. There are
sore, people who make poverty a virtue, and claim exemption from everything
because they are poor. But God’s commands are upon the poor as well as upon
those more favoured in earthly possessions. He does not excuse them because
they are indigent. They are sinners as well as other men, and must be cleansed
by the same processes. There is no more merit in being poor than in being rich.
Poverty cannot save a man. Beggars may go down to eternal death as well as
millionaires. There is often as much crime in lags as in purple and fine linen.
All classes are infected, and all classes must have recourse to the blood of
the Lamb and receive upon them the same “blood of sprinkling,” and the same
consecrating oil of the Spirit. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Such as he can get.--
According to ability
He shalt “offer.” That is the law. But he shall offer only
“such as he can get.” That is the mercy. But in mercy there is a law. Pity is
not unruly, out of harmony with eternal righteousness and truth; tears are part
of the Divine economy, as well as constellations. See how everywhere in the
holy Book we find judgment and mercy, law and love, discipline and rest of
soul. Christianity is a yoke, a burden, but light and easy. Here is the
considerateness of God even in law. The law is not cast-iron; the law is not an
expression of arbitrary will. The law rises high as heaven, and yet it stoops
as lowly as human infirmity and need. The next verse is even more explicit in
its tenderness; Leviticus 14:31 begins, “Even such as he
is able to get.” The emphasis is on the word “able”; all the meaning is to be
found in that word. Not, such as he can casually pick up; not, such as may
happen to come in his way at the moment; that is not law, that is folly, h
thought of that kind would wreck the order and unity of creation. How very
different is the instruction or injunction, “Even such as he is able to
get”--after he has walked ten miles, after he has done the very best in his
power, after he has strained his thought to the agony of anxiety; then if his
offering, how poor soever it be, shall prove to be the very best of his
ability, it shall go right up into heaven and be accepted there as if it were a
king’s offering, without spot or blemish, without infirmity of age, or without
sign of unequal conflict. Here, then, is unity combined with diversity. If you
bring a thousand pounds, it may be much, it may be nothing. If you bring the
smallest coin of the realm, which indeed is no coin at all but a mere token, if
it be all you can do, if it be such as you are able to get, it is a mountain of
fine gold and there is hardly room for such a gift in heaven. What a variety of
offering may be found on the Christian altar! There is a great offering of gold.
Some men have nothing but gold to give, but they give it with both hands, they
give it with a blessing; they send their love with it, and love doubles every
gift. Here is a great offering of work; morning, noon, and night the offerer is
wondering what he can do next. All his time is God’s; he will accept any
position that may be given to him. He does not elect his own place, he simply
tells what his faculty is, and he is willing to give the whole of that faculty
twelve hours in the day to the service of Christ. Here is a great offering of
music; here is a leading voice, here is a spiritual interest in that sweet
department of public worship; the voice is given, all that the voice means is
joyously contributed; the giver says, “I would give more if I could, but this
is all I have been able to get, take it, O Christ, it is given in Thy name;
receive it all.” Here is a great offering of home-service. That home-church has
never had its history written. The history of the home-church never can be put
into words. It is the great church, it is the church out of which all other
churches are cut, like palaces out of the solid rocks. Palaces owe themselves
to the great quarries of the earth; they are not select, dainty,
specially-jewelled stone; the great cathedrals all came out of the quarry. And
the home-church is, if it may be so expressed without roughness, the quarry,
the stone bed, out of which all the other churches are built, though they be
called minsters and temples and cathedrals. What a great offering there is of
love. Love has no hours. Love never entered into a union or a federation for
the purpose of seeing how little it could do and how much it could get. Love
never begins, because it never ceases. “Such as he can get.” Nor is this the
only phrase that indicates the tenderness of law. In Leviticus 14:21 of this very chapter we
read, “And if he be
poor, and cannot get so much; then,” &c. We need not ask if this book is an
inspired book. The righteousness, the tenderness, meet so uniquely and
cooperate so perfectly that there must be more than human thought in all these
economic and considerate arrangements. Points of this kind are the true
arguments for inspiration. “If he be poor, and cannot get so much; then,”
&c. Thus God makes room at the altar for the poor man, and any altar that
makes room for the poor, stands on earth, but reaches up to heaven. By this
sign know ye that ye are in front of God’s altar. “Such as he can get” often
means nothing more than, “Such as God has given him.” What have we that we have
not received? God orders the business of men. If men would recognise this they
would be quieter and more thankful. There is a sense in which we can all do
more. What is that sense? It is only true in so far as it proceeds out of the
deeper doctrine that we can all be more. This is a question of quality; this a
question of moral capacity. The great thing in this Christian education and
discipline is to make the man himself more, his quality finer, his
sensitiveness more exquisite, his consciousness of indebtedness to God
profounder and livelier. We shall never have any revival of hand-action that is
worth anything until we have a revival of heart-life, heart-love, heart-faith. Let
us pray for increase of heart. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Leprosy in a house.
Leprosy of house and garments
(see also Leviticus 13:49):--Few subjects have
proved more perplexing to the student of Scripture than this. That human
dwellings and garments should exhibit a similar disease to that which infects
the human body seems at first sight to be highly improbable. We are indebted to
the recent discoveries of the microscope for the first intimation of the true
nature of the leprosy of house and garments. A careful examination of the
Levitical narrative in the light of modern science leaves no room to doubt that
the conclusions of Sommer, Kmtz, and other recent authors, who attribute a
vegetable origin to this plague, are correct. ‘The characteristics mentioned
are such as can belong only to plants. There are some species of fungi which
could have produced all the effects described, and whose form and colour answer
admirably to the appearances presented by the leprosy. We are therefore safe in
believing that the phenomena in question were caused by fungi. The language of
Moses is evidently popular, not scientific, and may therefore be supposed to
include not only different species, but even different genera and orders of
fungi as concerned in the production of the effects described. The leprosy of
the house consisted of reddish and greenish patches. The reddish patches on the
wall were in all likelihood caused by the presence of a fungus well known under
the common name of dry-rot, and called by botanists Merulius lachrymans. Builders
have often painful evidence of the virulent and destructive nature of this
scourge. It is frequent all the year round, being in this respect different
from other fungi, which are usually confined to the season of decay. If once
established dry-rot spreads with amazing rapidity, destroying the best houses in
a very short time. The law regarding it in Leviticus is founded upon this
property; seven days only were allowed for its development, so that its true
nature might be placed beyond doubt. The precautions here adopted are in entire
accordance with the nature and habits of fungi. By emptying the house of its
furniture, shutting the doors and windows, and excluding the air and light, the
very conditions were provided in which the dry-rot would luxuriate and come to
maturity. If the walls were completely impregnated with its seed and spawn,
this short period of trial would amply suffice to show the fact, and the
building might then safely be condemned to undergo a process of purification.
There are no means of restoring rotten timber to a sound condition, and the
dry-rot can only be eradicated by removing the decayed and affected parts,
clearing away all the spawn and destroying the germs with which the plaster and
the other materials of the walls may have been impregnated. For this purpose
the process of kyanising and burnetising have been recommended--that is,
washing the walls or the woodwork with a strong solution of corrosive sublimate
or chloride of zinc. If the dry-rot is not fairly established in a house it may
be removed with tolerable ease by these processes; should the disease, however,
have become widespread and deep-seated, no means of dealing with the evil can
be depended upon, except that of removing altogether the corrupted and
contagious matter and admitting a free circulation of air. This was exactly
what the Jewish priest was commanded to do (verses 40-42). It often happens,
however, that even this severe operation proves ineffectual; and after repeated
repairs of the same nature, it is found that the building is so hopelessly
ruined that it must be abandoned and dismantled (verses 43-45). Dr. Thomson, in
“The Land and the Book,” mentions that the upper rooms of the houses in
Palestine, if not constantly ventilated, become quickly covered with mould and
are unfit to live in. In many cases the roofs of the houses are little better
than earth rolled hard, and it is by no means uncommon to see grass springing
into a short-lived existence upon them. Such habitations must be damp and
peculiarly subject to the infection of fungi. During the months of November and
December especially, fungi make their appearance in the wretched ephemeral
abodes of the poorer classes; and in the walls of many a dwelling at the
present day may be seen the same leprous appearances described by Moses three
thousand years ago. When the Israelites entered Palestine they occupied the
dwellings of the dispossessed aboriginal inhabitants instead of building new
houses for themselves. And in these dwellings, as the Canaanites lived in the
midst of moral and physical impurity, and were, moreover, ignorant of all
sanitary conditions, the plague of leprosy would be very apt to manifest
itself. The Bible speaks of it as sent expressly by God Himself: “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.” It was so sent in
mercy and not in judgment, to show to them, by a palpable proof appealing to
the eye, what could not be so well revealed by other evidence. It was the
visible manifestation of a hidden insidious unwholesomeness--the breaking out,
as it were, of an internal and universal disease. It directed attention to the
unhealthy character of the house, and stimulated inquiry as to how it could be
remedied. Whereas if no such abnormal appearance presented itself, the
inhabitants might remain unconsciously in the midst of conditions which would
slowly but surely undermine their health, and in the end prove fatal. In the
Levitical narrative we read that in the walls of the affected houses there were
greenish as well as reddish streaks. These greenish streaks were caused by a
much humbler kind of fungus than the tile Merulius lachrymans, or
dry-rot, concerned in the production of tim reddish streaks. Every one is
familiar with the common green mould, or Penicillium glaucum, of
botanists. This fungus is extremely abundant everywhere, and seems to have been
no less general in the ancient world, for we find traces of it pretty
frequently in amber, mixed with fragments of lichens and mosses. It grows on
all kinds of decaying substances, and is very protean in its appearance,
assuming different forms according to the nature of the body or situation which
it affects. Common mould grows on every substance, whether animal or vegetable,
in a state of decay. It grows even upon the human body when it is in an
enfeebled or disordered condition; and many diseases of the skin are owing to
its efforts to develop and spread itself. The thrush in children, the
muscardine so destructive to silkworms, the fungoid growth which so often
causes the death of the common house-fly in autumn, are all different forms of
the common mould. Its germs or spores are constantly floating in the air or
swimming in the water in incalculable myriads, so that it is difficult to conceive
how any place can be free from their presence. The atmosphere of our houses is
loaded with them; and were we endowed with microscopic vision, we should see
them dancing about in the draughts and currents of our rooms, or shining among
the motes in the pencilled rays of sunshine. The ubiquity of mould has given
rise to the theory of spontaneous generation, still held by a certain class of
naturalists; but the immense profusion of its seeds, and their wonderful powers
of adaptability under varying circumstances, and of entering through the finest
conceivable apertures, will easily account for its presence in every situation,
without being under the necessity of admitting what has never yet been
proved--that substances in a particular state of decay can, without seeds or
germs of any kind, generate low forms of life. Many medical men are of opinion
that various zymotic diseases, if not originated, are increased by the presence
of these minute cellules in the blood, and by their deleterious action in
developing themselves. The injuries inflicted by fungi are indeed incalculable.
But we have nevertheless a grand compensation in the benefits which they confer
in accelerating, by their unparalleled rapidity of growth, the process of
decay, and removing frown the atmosphere into their own tissues, where they arc
innocuous, the putrescent effluvia of dead substances. They also economise the
stock of organised material which has been slowly and tediously gained from the
earth, air, and water, by preventing it from going back through decomposition
to the mineral state, and preserving it in an organic form to be at once made
available for the purposes of higher animal and plant life. Mould, for these
reasons, is not so much an evil in itself as an indication of evil conditions
in the World, and by minimising these it renders an all-important service in
the economy of nature. Its great purpose is purely benevolent; but, like the
storm intended to purify the atmosphere, it sometimes oversteps its limits, and
proves injurious in particular cases. The minute regulations for inspecting and
cleansing those houses where symptoms of leprosy appeared, indicate how
complete was the sanitary system under which the ancient Israelites lived. God
considered no part of their domestic and social economy, however humble,
beneath His notice. Cleanliness in person, in dress, in dwellings, and in all
outward appointments, was enforced by statutes of a peculiarly solemn
character. All these ceremonial enactments were in the first instance intended
for sanitary purposes. God had respect to the physical health and well-being of
His people. He wished them to be patterns of purity, models of beauty, their
bodies to be perfectly developed in the midst of the most favourable
circumstances; and therefore the most admirable arrangements were made for
securing cleanly, orderly, and healthy habitations. But not for purely physical
purposes alone were the Levitical laws regarding the leprosy of the house
enforced. They had also a spiritual significance. All experience tells us of
the mysterious connection, founded upon the constitution of our twofold nature,
between physical and moral evil--between external and internal impurity. The
proverb, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” is truer even than it is admitted
to be. Physical filth has in innumerable instances been the means of turning
away the Lord from the homes of those who endure it. For want of a little more
room and a little more purity in their dwellings, the sublimest truths fall
dead upon the ears of thousands. The salvation of the poor, though to them the
gospel is preached, is in very many cases rendered impossible, humanly
speaking, on account of the degrading conditions amid which they live, and the
deadening, hardening influence which familiarity with noxious sights and smells
produces. How often are the spiritual instructions of the district visitor
thrown away on account of the unhallowed effects of filthy surroundings! Sad it
is to think of the leprosy of the house being the type of the leprosy of sin
which infects the earthly tabernacle of this body. We bear about with us this
plague in all our members. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot
there is no soundness in us. Be it ours to put our natures entirely under the
purifying power of God’s Spirit, so that they may be cleansed from all impure
desires, &c. So much for the leprosy of the house. The leprosy of
garments may have been caused by the same fungi. Precisely the same appearances
manifested themselves in the one case as in the other. I am disposed to
attribute the greenish streaks on the garments to the common green mould; for,
as I have observed, it is ubiquitous, and grows as readily on clothes as on
house walls, when left in damp, ill-ventilated, ill-lighted places. The reddish
patches, however, seem to me to have been produced by the growth of the Sporendonema,
or red mould, very common on cheese; or of the Palmella prodigiosa. This
last-mentioned plant is occasionally found on damp walls in shady places, and
on various articles of dress and food, sometimes extending itself over a
considerable area. It is usually a gelatinous mass of the colour and general
appearance of coagulated blood, whence it has received the famous name of
Gory-dew. Though formerly ranked with the algae, or seaweed family, it is now
ascertained by more accurate physiological researches to be a species of mould;
so that, under whatever names we may class them, the plants which occasioned
the strange appearances on houses and garments belong to the same tribe.
Instances of reddish patches suddenly investing linen and woollen clothes are
by no means confined to the Levitical narrative. A whole volume might be filled
with similar examples. Along with other marvellous prodigies they abound in the
mediaeval chronicles; and were they not authenticated by the most trustworthy
evidence, we should hesitate--from their very extraordinary character--to
accept them as true. It was by no means rare to find, in the Middle Ages,
consecrated wafers and priestly vestments sprinkled with a minute red substance
like blood. Such abnormal appearances were called Signacula, as tokens
of the Saviour’s living body; and pilgrimages were not unfrequently made to
witness them. In several cases the Jews were suspected, on account of their
abhorrence of Christianity, of having caused sacramental hosts to bleed, and
were, therefore, ruthlessly tormented and put to death in large numbers.
Upwards of ten thousand were slaughtered at Rotil, near Frankfort, in 1296, for
this reason. The bleeding of the host, produced in consequence of the
scepticism of the officiating priest, gave rise to the miracle of Bolsena in
1264; the priest’s garment stained with this bloody-looking substance being
preserved until recent times as a relic. This gave rise to the festival of the
Corpus Christi founded by Urban
IV. Before the
potato-blight broke out in 1846, red mould spots appeared on wet linen surfaces
exposed to the air in bleaching-greens, as well as on household linen kept in
damp places, in Ireland. In September, 1848, Dr. Eckard, of Berlin, while
attending a cholera patient, observed the same production on a plate of
potatoes which had been placed in a cupboard in the patient’s house. All these
instances-and hundreds more might be enumerated--though somewhat exaggerated by
the dilated eye of fear, were found by microscopic investigation to be caused
by the extraordinary development in abnormal circumstances of the red mould.
Occurring, as most of them did, before the outbreak of epidemics, which they
were supposed to herald,
they obviously point to the conclusion that they were developed by unhealthy
conditions of the atmosphere. In ordinary times but few of the fungi which
caused these alarming appearances are produced, and then only in obscure and isolated
localities; but their seeds lie around us in immense profusion, waiting but the
recurrence of similar atmospheric conditions as existed in former times, to
exhibit as extraordinary a development. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works; in
wisdom hast Thou made them all!” is the thought that arises in the devout soul
at the contemplation of the wonderful structure and history of these minute
existences, which live and die unknown to the great majority of mankind. Even a
mould, requiring the highest powers of the microscope for its examination, can
become in His hands a mighty scourge or a transcendent benefit. (H.
Macmillan, D. D.)
House leprosy
The particular nature of this affection I cannot very certainly
determine. Michaelis thinks it was a sort of mural efflorescence, which often
appears in damp situations, cellars, and ground-floors, and so corrodes walls
and plastering as to affect and damage everything near it, and sometimes quite
destroying the entire building. Calmet thinks it was a disorder caused by
animal-eulse which eroded the walls, and finally destroyed them, if left
undisturbed. But perhaps we cannot do better than to agree with the Rabbins and
early Christian Fathers, who believed that this leprosy was not natural, but
sent of God as an extraordinary judgment, to compel men to the public
acknowledgment and expiation of some undetected negligence or crime. It was the
stone crying out of the wall against the sinner, and the beam out of the timber
answering it (Habakkuk 2:11). It came like a great
domestic affliction, saying, “This is not your rest, because it is polluted.”
It was the hand of God upon the forgetters of His law. It was “the curse of the
Lord, in the house of the wicked.” Its typical significance will at once
suggest itself. It plainly points to the fact that not only man, and his
surroundings in life, but his very dwelling-place--the earth itself--is
infected. The whole surface and framework of the world bespeaks infection,
disobedience, and disorder. We must tear it with instruments of iron, and mix
its mould with tears and sweat, before it will yield us bread. Walls and houses
must be built to shelter us from its angry blasts. And with all that we can do,
the sea will now and then engulf the proudest navies, and the hailstones blast
the budding harvests, and famine and pestilence cut down the strength of
empires, and earthquakes bury up great cities in a common tomb, and the sun and
the moon flash down death in their rays, and the very winds come laden with
destruction. And even in a moral aspect, the material world, though meant for
spiritual as well as other good, has often been to man a source of defilement.
Creation is a standing miracle to show us eternal power and Godhead. Every ray
of light is an electric cord let down from the unknown heavens to lift our
hearts into communion with “the Father of light.” Every night puts us into the
midst of a sublime temple in which the tapers burn around the everlasting
altar, and through which rolls the vesper anthem of the heavenly spheres, to
inspire us with adoration. And the innumerable changes that pass before our
eyes are but so many letters to spell out to us the name of the unknown God, in
whom we live and have our being. But, how often have these very things tended
to establish men in unbelief, and tempted them from the ways of piety and
peace? How often have persons looked up into the starry sky, and reasoned,
until they were led to say the gospel is a forgery?--or dug into the earth, and
insisted that Moses was mistaken in its age?--or cut among the arteries and
tissues of organic life, and denied man’s immortality?--or watched the
uniformity of God’s common laws, and pronounced a miracle impossible?--or dipped
a little into physical science, and controverted the very existence of a deity?
How often have earth’s products proven to be mere baits and lures to unguarded
souls to lead them down to death? How have its wines tempted men to
intemperance, and its beautiful groves to the licentiousness of the idolater?
How frequently the very gold or silver of its rocks have taken the place of God
Himself, and fastened everlasting condemnation on the worshipper? And what
scene of beauty contained in this world, but has served to draw the heart of some
one from the Lord? But it shall not always be so. The leprosy in our
dwelling-place may pass away as well as leprosy in our persons, or in our
clothing. God has appointed rites for its cleansing. The time is coming when “there
shall be no more curse.” But it is to be the last thing cleansed. Regeneration
begins first in the spirit. From the spirit it extends to the outward life,
then to the redemption of the body. And after that comes the grand deliverance,
when “the creature (or creation) itself shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Not only our
personal nature is to be renewed, but the very world in which we live. And it
is only upon the theory of the ultimate and complete recovery of the world from
all damage of sin, that the prescriptions now before us can be explained. The
first thing to be done to a house found to be leprous, was to have the affected
stones removed, the walls scraped, and the plastering renewed. This done, all
parties were to wait to see what the effect would be upon the disorder. This
evidently recalls the flood, and God’s dealings with the earth at that time. It
was then that He broke up the old and tainted foundations, swept away the scum
of its surface, and overcast it with a new order of things. All is therefore in
waiting now, till our great High Priest and Judge shall come forth again to
inspect the earth. After the lapse of an appropriate time of trial, which is
left indefinite in the record, the priest was again to examine the house that
had been thus dealt with; and if the plague had broken out again, and had
spread in the house, he was to break it down, “the stones of it, and the timber
thereof, and all the mortar of the house, and carry them forth out of the city
into an unclean place.” If the leprous symptoms were not stayed, it was to be
completely and for ever demolished. There was no further hope for it. It
perished in its uncleanness. I take this as a type, not of what is to befall
the world, but of what would have befallen it without the redemption that has
come in to stay its corruption and save it from ruin. How, then, was a leprous
house to be cleansed? We have seen what was to be done to it upon the first
appearance of the plague. We accordingly read that, after the lapse of a
suitable time to test whether the infection was stayed, “the priest shall come
in,” &c. (Leviticus 14:48-53). All this refers us
back to the blood-shedding, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and holds
forth the great fact that the world is made clean to us now, and will be
entirely cleansed hereafter, by virtue of the redemptive work of our great High
Priest. Because Jesus was slain, and has redeemed us to God by His blood, the
saints may take it as their song, “We shall reign on the earth.” Some suppose
that this dwelling-place of man is some day to fall to pieces, and pass away,
and be no more. Had Christ not died, or having died, not risen again, it might
be so; but now a light of glory rises upon its futurity. It shall not die, but
live. Great changes may yet pass upon it, but it shall survive unharmed. This
world was Heaven’s gift to man. It was his patrimonial estate. It was his sin
that blighted it. And just so far as he is redeemed, he shall get his own
again, and hold it by a charter written in his Saviour’s blood. (J. A.
Seiss, D. D.)
The plague in the house
I fancy you have heard words like these before, though you
might never have known that they were in the Bible. But you have heard mother
or father, when worried and vexed, often say, “It almost seems as if there was
a plague in the house!”
I. The kind of
plague the text speaks about was a strange one. It first appeared in a little
green or reddish spot, growing on the wall of the house. When that was noticed,
the person who lived in the house had to go to the priest and say to him, “It
seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house.” Then the priest came
and looked at the spot, and ordered the house to be locked up for a week. At
the end of that time, if the spot had not grown any larger, it was simply cut
out, and the house was declared to be quite safe to dwell in. But if the spot
had increased, then they knew that it was the plague, and all the stones round
about it were taken out and new ones put in their places, and the old ones were
carried away to a distance. But if, after all this care had been taken, the
spot appeared again, then they knew it was no use trying further that way. This
was a “fretting leprosy,” as it was called; so the house was ordered to be
pulled down, and all its stones carried far away, and a new house built in its
stead with entirely new stones.
II. Haven’t we
plagues in the house now, something different from that perhaps, and yet
something like too?
1. There is a bad temper. What a plague that is in the house! There
is a sulky temper and a quick temper. The sulky one is when a boy or girl goes
moping, moping, and won’t speak or do anything cheerfully. It is a very hurtful
plague in the house. Then there is the quick temper, up in a moment, over in a
moment! Perhaps this is better than the other, if we are to make any
distinction; but better be rid of bad temper altogether.
2. Selfishness is another plague in the house.
3. Disobedience is another plague in the house. No boy or girl ever
yet came to good who did not try to obey father and mother.
III. Where the
plague breaks out.
1. Where ventilation is bad. Now what fresh air is to the body, God’s
Spirit is to the soul--that which keeps it fresh and free from plague. Maintain
that Spirit in the house, prayer and love for God, and--striving to obey
Him--no plague shall come nigh thy dwelling.
2. The plague also breaks out where sunshine never comes. What a
healing thing is the sunshine! How glorious it can make even the dingiest
street! The plague never comes where the sunshine is, and cheerfulness is the
sunshine of the home. There was a great scholar once, Dr. Dwight, a big man with
a great broad chest. Once when the students in the college were not getting on
well, he said to them, “Gentlemen, I see there is something wrong; you are
becoming too melancholy. You must learn to laugh, that’s the way to cure the
plague.” So he broadened his own chest, took a big breath, and burst into such
a hearty laugh that all the others laughed too. “That’s very good,” he said,
“very good for a beginning; but see that you keep it up!” And it is good
practice in the house to have a hearty laugh. Keep cheerfulness there, and the
plague won’t trouble you. (J. Reid Howatt.)
The way to remove the plague
When plague, or pestilence, or war, or famine, come on a land,
there are two classes of persons who act in opposite ways. One class will pray
only that God may remove them, and do nothing more; another class will set
about sanitary reform--a most precious and important thing--but they will do
nothing more. Now, we are taught in this chapter that the two are to be
combined. The priest not only applied to God, and offered sacrifices that the
plague might be removed from the house, but he set to work and pulled down the
stones, and broke the timbers, and scraped the house, and had it plastered and
cleansed; and thus there was the most effective sanitary process, accompanied
with the most sacred and Christian appeal to Him who is the Lord and the Giver
of life; and who alone healeth, and when He healeth none can make ill. Now, it
is the happy combination of these that constitutes in all things the perfection
of Christian conduct. If we so think of means as to think of nothing else, we
shall have no blessing; if we so think of, or engage in prayer, as to exclude
means, we shall have no blessing. If we suppose that by attending to all that
is just, and proper, and obligatory in sanitary measures, we may defy God, we
blaspheme; but on the other hand, if we act as some, pray, and appoint days of
fasting and of prayer, but do nothing to lift the poor from their degradation,
to improve their dwellings, to increase their comforts, to give raiment to the
naked, food to the hungry, a shelter and a home to them that have none, then
that is downright hypocrisy. But if we can combine the two, by using all the
means that God in His providence has given us, as vigorously as if all depended
upon the means, and yet, while we do so, look up to God as if the means were
worthless, and He must do all, then we shall combine the blessed heavenly
benediction with the use of the most effective earthly means, and God, our own
God, shall crown us with His blessing. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》