Leviticus chapter 13 and 14, these are God's words. And you always spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, when a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons, the priests. The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body, and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine him and pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days. And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day. And indeed, if the sore appears to be as it was, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days. Then the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day. And indeed, if the sore has faded, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scab should at all be spread over the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again. And if the priest sees that the scab has indeed spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy. When the leprosaur is on a person, then he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall examine him. And indeed, if the swelling on the skin is white, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of raw flesh in the swelling, it is an old leprosy on the skin of his body. The priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not isolate him, for he is unclean. And if leprosy break out all over the skin, and the leprosy covers all the skin of the one who has the sore from his head to his foot, whoever the priest looks, then the priest shall consider it indeed if leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean who has the sore. It is all turned white. He is clean. But when raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean, and the priest shall examine the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean, for the raw flesh is unclean, it is leprosy. Or if the raw flesh changes and turns white again, he shall come to the priest, and the priest shall examine him, and indeed if the sore has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean, who has the sore, he is clean. If the body develops a boil in the skin, and it is healed, and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling, or a bright spot, reddish-white, then it shall be shunned to the priest. And if, when the priest sees it, it indeed appears deeper than the skin, and its hair has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprosaur which has broken out of the boil. But if the priest examines it, and indeed there are no white hairs in it, and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days. And if it should at all spread over the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprosaur. But if the priest Sorry, but if the bright spot stays in one place, and has not spread, it is the scar of the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him clean. Or if the body receives a burn on its skin by fire, and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a bright spot, reddish or white, then the priest shall examine it, and indeed, if the hair of the bright spot has turned white, and it appears deeper than the skin, it is leprosy broken out in the burn. Therefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean, as is leprosaur. where the priest examines it, and indeed there are no white hairs in the bright spot, and it is not deeper than the skin, but has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days, and the priest shall examine him on the seventh day. If it has at all spread over the sin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean, it is a leprosaur. But if the bright spot stays in one place, and has not spread on the skin, but has faded, it is a swelling from the burn. The priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is the scar from the burn. If a man or woman has a sore on the head or the beard, then the priest shall examine the sore, and indeed if it appears deeper than the skin, and there is in it thin yellow hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a scaly leprosy of the head or the beard. But if the priest examines the scaly sore, and indeed it does not appear deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale seven days. On the seventh day, the priest shall examine the sore, and indeed, if the scale is not spread, then there is no yellow hair in it, and the scale does not appear deeper than the skin. He shall shave himself, but the scale he shall not shave, and the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale another seven days. On the seventh day, the priest shall examine the scale, and indeed, if the scale has not spread over the skin, and does not appear deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. He shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scale should at all spread over the skin after his cleansing, then the priest shall examine him. And indeed, if the scale has spread over the skin, the priest need not seek, for yellow hair he is unclean. But if the scale appears to be at a standstill, and there is black hair grown up in it, the scale has healed, he is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean. If a man or woman has bright spots on the skin of the body, specifically white bright spots, then the priest shall look, and indeed if the bright spots on the skin of the body are dull white, it is a white spot that grows on the skin, he is clean. As for the man whose hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean. He whose hair has fallen from his forehead, he is bald on the forehead, but he is clean. And if there is on the bald head or the bald forehead a reddish-white sore, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead. And the priest shall examine it. Indeed, if the swelling in the sore is reddish-white on his bald head or his bald forehead, it is the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body. He is a leprous man. He is unclean. And the priest shall surely pronounce him unclean. His sore is on his head. Now the leper, on him the sore is, his clothes shall be torn, and his head bare, and he shall cover his moustache, and cry, unclean, unclean, he shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore, he shall be unclean, he is unclean. He shall dwell alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp. Also if a garment has a leper's plague in it, whether it is a woolen garment or a linen garment, whether it is in the warp, or the woof, or the linen, or wool, whether in the leather, or anything made of leather. And if the plague is greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the leather, whether in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything made of leather, it is a leprous plague, and shall be shown to the priest. The priest shall examine the plague, and isolate that which has the plague seven days. And he shall examine the plague on the seventh day. And if the plague is spread on the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, in the leather or anything made of leather, the plague is an act of leprosy. It is unclean. He shall therefore burn the garment in which is the plague, whether warp or woof, in wool or linen, or in anything of leather, for it is an act of leprosy. The garment shall be burned in the fire. If the priest examines it, and indeed the plague is not spread in the garment, either in the wolf or in the wolf, or in anything made of leather, then the priest shall command that they wash the thing in which is the plague, and he shall isolate it another seven days. Then the priest shall examine the plague after it has been washed, and indeed if the plague has not changed its color, though the plague is not spread, it is unclean, and you shall burn it in the fire. It continues eating away, whether the damage is inside or outside. If the priest examines it, and indeed the plague has faded after watching it, then he shall tear it out of the garment, whether out of the warp or out of the leather, but if it appears again in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything made of the leather, it is a spreading plague, you shall burn it with fire, that in which is the plague. And if you wash the garment, either warp or woof, or whatever is made of leather, if the plague has disappeared from it, then it shall be washed a second time and shall be clean. This is the law of the leprous plague, in a garment of wool or linen, either in the warp or the woof, or in anything made of leather, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean. Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him. And indeed, if the leprosy is healed in a leper, then the priest shall command to take, for him who is to be cleansed, two living and clean birds, cedarwood, scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedarwood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in the water that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days. But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in the water, and he shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil. Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things before Yahweh at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering. and the log of oil, and wave them as a wave-offering before Yahweh. Then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin-offering and the burnt-offering in a holy place. For as the sin-offering is the priest's, so is the trespass-offering. It is most holy. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass-offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. Then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh. And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, on the big toe of his right foot, and on the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh. Then the priest shall offer the sin offering and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. Then the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be clean. But if he is poor and cannot afford it, he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waived to make atonement for him. One tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering. a log of oil, and two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford. One shall be a sin-offering, the other a burnt-offering. He shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day for his cleansing, to the door of the tabernacle, and meeting before Yahweh. And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass-offering, and the log of oil. And the priest shall waive them as a waive-offering before Yahweh. Then 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 on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. Then the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh. And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed. on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering, the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand, he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh. And he shall offer one of the turtle doves or young pigeons, such as he can afford, such as he is able to afford. The one is a sin offering, and the other is a burnt offering. with the grain offering so the priest shall make atonement for him who was to be cleansed before Yahweh. This is the law for one who had a leprous sore who cannot afford the usual cleansing. And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give you as a possession, and I put the leprous plague in a house in the land of your possession, and he who owns the house comes and tells the priest, saying, It seems to me that there is some plague in the house. Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes into it to examine the plague, that all that is in the house may not be made unclean, And afterward the priest shall go in to examine the house. And he shall examine the flag, and, indeed, if the flag is on the walls of the house, with ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish, which appear to be deep in the wall, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look, and indeed if the plague has spread on the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take away the stones, and which is the plague, and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall cause the house to be scraped inside all around, and the dust that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of these stones, and he shall take other mortar and plaster the house. Now if the plague comes back and breaks out in the house, after he has taken away the stones, after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered, then the priest shall come and look, and indeed if the plague has spread in the house, it is an act of leprosy in the house. It is unclean. And he shall break down the house, its stones, its timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them outside the city to an unclean place. Moreover, he who goes into the house at all, while it is shut up, shall be unclean until evening. And he who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes. But if the priest comes in and examines it, and indeed the plague is not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, cedarwood, scarlet, and hyssop. Then he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water, and he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. And he shall cleanse the house of the blood of the bird, and the running water, and the living bird, and the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet. Then he shall let the living bird loose outside the city in an open field, and make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean. This is the law for any leprous sore and scale, for the leprosy of a garment and of a house, for a swelling in a scab and a bright spot, to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy. Amen. This ends this reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. And as you could hear at the end of chapter 14, the summary statement goes all the way back to the beginning of 13. So the Lord expects us to take this all as a unit. This is indeed one of the primary reasons why it was so necessary to preserve Aaron, Ithamar, and Eliezer. You remember all the way back in chapter 10 and verses 10 and 11, it was important that they not die because they had to distinguish between the clean and unclean. between the holy and the common, and to teach all of the Lord's judgments and statutes to the children of Israel. And so you have here verse 57, to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. And the Lord is giving Israel then this extended reminder that so long as we are in this world, we have death in ourselves. in our sin, and we are susceptible not only to that which is in us, but that which is in the world. The world also has death within it. And you can hear, excuse me, you can hear the Apostle who had been a Pharisee, the Apostle Paul, at the end of Romans 7, as he sees the sin that is in him that cannot be got rid of And he cries out, wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death? Now, that would have been more obvious to us if our translators would have been consistent. The word that is translated plague in the section on the garments, the word that is translated plague in the section on the houses is the same word that is translated sore. throughout the majority of chapter 13 and not only consistency then if it had been translated plague all the way through we would have been able to see that God is describing plague that is on a person not even not only that is in the garment or that is in the house and the word that is translated leprosy here in our English version at the time that it was translated referred to a very specific disease that we now medically call Hansen's disease. but did not appear for another several hundred years after Leviticus was written. The word just means infection. And so whenever you see leprous sore or leprous plague, it is saying an infection of plague or an infection of smiting or an infection of marking. And indeed, when God talks about what will happen when they come into the land, he says, and if I put an infection of smiting or an infection of plague in the house, he describes what we know from our doctrine of providence, that this is something that God providentially does. And it is a lesson then to us not just of infection and examining to see how deep an infection is or how infectious and spreading an infection is, but it's a reminder that there is a deeper and more infectious infection that is sin. Why? Because the whole context of all of this is whether or not the person can attend the worship. And even whether or not the person can continue to live in the camp. And this is not just, you know, so that worshipers don't get ill. This is not like the Leviticus 13 and 14 COVID-19 protocols for the tabernacle. It is because of the uncleanness before God. When death, death is not to be permitted then into the worship of God. Indeed, the worship of God displays for us displays for us an atonement of death, a substitute of death that God provides for us so that we may live, so that we may live forever, so that we may live a resurrected life, so that we may live a resurrected and ascended life and have a fellowship with God that is neither marred by sin nor interrupted by death. And so the instruction about the infectious smiting, the infectious plague is an important and significant part of the priest's job. And one of the things then that is communicated even by the procedure that you have to go through is that our sin is deceitful above all things. It's actually very difficult to tell. whether or not something is something that is just an ordinary part of life and it will heal or if it is in fact an infectious plague from God and that the person is unclean. And so at first he's looking to see if it's too deep in the skin and if the hair has turned white or if there's no hair at all, you have to wait till there is hair and particularly in the case of a burn and see if it's going to be black or if it's going to be yellow. And even when it passes the initial test, if there aren't immediately indicators that he is clean, then he has to be quarantined for seven days and you check again. And if then it's indeterminate, there's another seven days and there's this tedious, repeated, difficult procedure. And this corresponds exactly to what the Lord says about our sin. Isn't this what he says in Jeremiah 17, that our hearts are deceitful above all things? And there the verb or actually the adjective means tracked over. There are so many conflicting evidences that it's difficult to know what's going on in our hearts. But not just deceitful above all things, but desperately wicked. And that's actually the scary thing in Genesis, not Genesis, Jeremiah 17, because the very next verse, after the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? The next verse says, oh Yahweh, you know the heart, you search the heart. And so the Lord knows what our hearts are like. But the desperate wickedness, the unfixableness of the sinful heart is actually seen in what has to happen then If it is an infectious plague, which is a better way, the way we are translating the phrase leprosaur, then whoever it is, whoever has it, actually has to mourn for himself like he is dead. He has to die. And so he uncovers his head and he tears his clothes. The things that, you remember Aaron and Ithamar and Eleazar, were not permitted to do in chapter 10 when Nadab and Abihu died. And the appropriate thing would have been to mourn in response. But they can't take the thing, their hat off and throw ashes on their heads because they're wearing the holy hats. They can't tear their garments. They're wearing the holy robes, the holy clothing, the linen garments for the boys and the high priestly garments for Aaron. And so the leper is to mourn. as if he is dead. Sin is a death that is inside us, and this was something that God communicated. And multiple times, whether it's Miriam or the Israelite king who offered sacrifices as if he was a priest, multiple times in the Bible, the Lord does strike with a leprosy immediately. And even here you have in the offerings that are offered when God cleanses someone from their leprosy, you have multiple offerings. First, the purification ritual with the doves that mirrors the day of the atonement with the scapegoats. And then after the purification ritual with the doves, they still have to offer a sin offering with an ascension offering. And so there's an indication that this particular affliction, this particular plaguing by the Lord of someone was often or perhaps even always related to a specific sin. And so this is for us something that we need to apply by following the end of James chapter one. which tells us that pure and undefiled religion is not just the keeping of orphans and widows, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of the Lord, not just the keeping of orphans and widows, or taking care of orphans and widows, but the keeping of oneself unspotted by the world. remembering that there's not only the potential for infection within us and in our flesh, literally in the surface of their flesh in this passage, but even garments had to be kept track of and examined and houses had to be kept track of and examined because our inward inner susceptibility made us susceptible to outer circumstances as well. And so we have to be aware that there's a world full of things that are going to be occasions for sin if we are not committed to this pure and undefiled religion before God, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. And so, the Lord provides a ceremonial cleansing, of course, that looks forward to Christ. We don't have to keep track of doves and hyssop and cedar wood and make sure that there's some source of running water nearby so that we can do the thing. But the reason we can do all that is because our priest has already come outside the camp to where we are. The initial procedure when someone was cleansed, and praise God, If this was ever done in the Old Testament, we don't even know. Perhaps in the case of Miriam. But the couple of times that we do read about following this procedure are when Jesus tells lepers, whether in Matthew 8 or Luke 17, when Jesus tells lepers whom he has cleansed to go and do this. And you wonder, whether it was ever done or how common it was or if the priests had the supplies and what an impact it might have had upon them. But Jesus is signifying himself as the one who has come to us outside the camp. Of course, the purification, the examination had to be outside the camp. Why? Because the leper wasn't allowed inside the camp. And so when a leper Actually thought he had been healed from his leprosy the priest had to come outside the camp to examine him This is what Hebrews 13 says the Lord Jesus has done for us He has come outside the camp. He has suffered in the place where the unclean are Because it is by his once-for-all sacrifice who were cleansed and so you don't need to do the two doves initially you don't need to do two lambs or a lamb and and eternal dove with an additional dove. We don't need to do all of these atonement things because our Lord has come and he suffered for us outside the camp. And one of the ways that we even apply then that he has done so, Hebrews 13 tells us is Jesus who made himself low to identify himself with us so that he could purify us we should be willing to be considered as lepers, as unclean, to the world. In that case, in Hebrews 13, it was to the Jews, who were then the world. And we go to Him outside the camp, and we are glad to be despised for His sake. If He is despised, we'll be despised with Him. But the Lord here pictures Christ to us This does not just teach us who will save me from the body of this death. It also teaches us the next line at the end of Romans 7. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God's promises were not being fulfilled by bringing them into the land. In fact, a big chunk of what we read only applies in the land. That's why the house part is at the end. They didn't immediately need these instructions. Because that was only when they came into the land. Coming into the land was not going to free them from the body of this death. Coming into the land was not going to free them from their sin. It is Jesus. It is Jesus who atones for sin. It is Jesus who puts an end to the great infection that is in us. It is Jesus who has one for us and will apply to us resurrection. itself. And so while skin conditions no longer make us ceremonially impure, they still remind us, don't they? That we are in the body of this death. But the great infection is that of our remaining sin. Christ has atoned for us once for all, and we need the continued application of his atonement to us, and his life to us, How grateful we ought to be for our priest who came to us outside the camp and who has taken us back in with himself now, not into the city of Jerusalem, but into glory. We're in union with him by faith. We are ascended and seated and already counted as holy until the day he finishes cleansing us as holy and brings us there finally and fully. Amen, let's pray. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this portion of your word. We thank you, even Lord, for how long and tedious the procedures were. It felt long for us, even Lord, just to read it, let alone to read and memorize and then have to implement it. But we praise you all the more, then, for what Christ has done and how you communicate to us the greatness of his atonement, the greatness of his cleansing, the greatness of his delivering us from the body of this death. We thank you, O God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and we ask that you would help us, Lord, then, be watchful against the infection of sin. Make us those who are committed before your face to keeping ourselves unspotted by the world. and bring us at last, we pray, not only with the work that you have begun in us, completed in the last day, each one of us individually, but as members of your bride, who you present to yourself in the last day, in every single part and every single member and also in the whole, as blameless and without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We look forward, O God, to a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwell. We look forward, O God, to when there is no longer any sin that dwells in our hearts. We look forward, O God, to when we have bodies in which there is no longer any death. And so we pray that you would stir up our hope in the Lord Jesus, that we would lay hold of him by faith, that you'd make us to live before you by the confidence that is in him. For we ask it in his name. Amen.