You may have learned to hate evil,
But you will still never know peace,
Until you learn to love God.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:54-57
54 This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall,
55 And for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house,
56 And for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot:
57 To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.
Today we finish the two chapters of guidance on how leprosy was to be handled among people, cloth, and houses. A common theme throughout this has been that of corruption, and the physical treatment of it is echoed in the social and spiritual frames as well. We saw how corruption, itself, must be destroyed, but the question was whether it could be removed without destroying the host. Sometimes it could be, and then the host could return to its full status and calling. Sometimes it couldn’t, and then, to contain the corruption, either destruction or quarantine of the host had to occur.
For both a garment and a house, persistent leprosy required complete destruction. But for a person, God did not command that the afflicted person be killed. They did have to be removed, though. They had to become dead to society. And then if they healed and could return to the fold, it was treated much like a rebirth.
Thus, leprosy is a lesson on corruption, purging, destruction, and restoration. It is a pattern that has been imbued throughout the universe, and observing it in any manifestation teaches us about it in all.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:48-53
48 And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plastered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.
49 And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
50 And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water:
51 And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:
52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:
53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.
Today we learn what happens if the infected part of a house is removed, and then the mold does not return. The ritual that follows is the same as that of a leper who was healed. We see the symbolic pattern of the two birds, one killed in a pot over water, the other dipped in its blood along with wood and hyssop and scarlet, then set free in a field.
As I said before, I see the ritual with the two birds as being symbolic of Jesus being condemned so that we may go free. In the case of the leper that applied at the individual level, here we see it applied at the level of a household. It is not only our inner trouble that Christ can liberate us from, but our interpersonal issues as well. We can be healed as an individual, as a family, as a community, as a nation, and as the entire human race. Impending doom can be reversed at each of these scales, but only through him.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:43-47
43 And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plastered;
44 Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.
45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
46 Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.
47 And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes; and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.
In the last post we heard that if the mold (leprosy) was spreading in the house, then the infected portion had to be removed and replaced. Today we hear what would happen if that did not resolve the matter, and tomorrow we will hear what would happen if it did.
It turns out that the house only got one chance to be redeemed. If after the first replacement the mold reappeared, then that was it. The whole thing had to be destroyed. Stone by stone, timber by timber, all of it deconstructed and hauled out of the entire city.
It may seem an extreme course, but it is better that people destroy their homes than wait for their homes to destroy them, as could very well be the case with weakened timbers and respiratory disease. So, too, when our societies are sick, we sometimes hesitate to make the difficult sacrifices necessary, and the result is that the contamination destroys us instead. A man whose house caves in on him when he had the chance to dismantle it has earned his demise. So it is with a society as well.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:37-42
37 And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall;
38 Then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days:
39 And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house;
40 Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city:
41 And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place:
42 And they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, leprosy in the house would mean a spreading mold. Of course, identifying and removing mold from a house is a very wise and important thing to do, as otherwise it can weaken the structure and trigger disease. Mold in a house is sneaky, because at first it just seems like a discoloration, but repeated cases of collapsed homes and respiratory illnesses must have awoken even the ancient people to its true threat.
Mold is also difficult to evaluate because what we see of it is not always its furthest extent. Hence the test where the priest waits to see it spread, then has them scrape away the entire area. If the homeowner is lucky, just a replacement of the afflicted area will be enough to eradicate the problem, but as we will see in tomorrow’s verses, if it reappeared, then more drastic actions become necessary.
Mold in a house can be seen as another symbol of infectious ideologies, something that spreads throughout a society, whose color seems a little off. At first appearance it may seem of little concern but could lead to unforeseen structural compromises down the road. A modern-day example of this would be those who believe that the Earth is flat. As in verse 38 from today’s verses, it is wise to have a period of waiting and observing. Perhaps what we find is that this notion does not spread, it does not become mainstream, it does not go deeper in its claims. So far it seems to me that that is the case. It looks like flat-earth theories were mostly a passing fad, with fewer and fewer adherents as time goes on, and this isn’t of serious concern and doesn’t present any threat.
Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this seemingly innocuous trend is but the beginning of a wider culture of reality-denial. Then the mold is likely to weaken the timbers of our home and a society should try to dismantle and replace these cultures, but it may be impossible to do so. It may be that the society is already condemned.
That may seem an exaggerated claim, but we have seen it in the real world. Consider the case of Jonestown in Guyana, where a quirky ideology grew, avoided disbandment, and culminated in the mass suicide of its entire population. In the most extreme cases, a society gone rogue can indeed result in the destruction of the whole.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:33-36
33 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
34 When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;
35 And he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house:
36 Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house:
In the Old Testament the term “leprosy” is used for any sort of spreading infection. Obviously, a house could not have the same sort of disease that people get in their skin, but it could have a spreading mold. It is interesting that the world is setup such that the “skin” of a house is susceptible to creeping infestation like our skin is, as if God is using both to represent a fundamental pattern of the world.
That pattern, of course, is spreading evil. It is a pattern that shows up in all spheres, where something that is bad, can spread bad elsewhere. Faulty electrical wires take down the whole system, corrupt ideologies compromise an entire nation, a few tumbling stones trigger a rockslide, an infection in the skin spreads as leprosy, and mold in the walls eats the whole thing away. It is entropy. It is blight. It is corruption. It is the endless unmaking force that is in, around, and through all things. A fundamental, defining principle of our fallen world. And so, it takes one who is beyond our world, but also wholly immersed in it, to take that spreading corruption into himself to reverse its effects and let the rest of us go free.
And so yes, just as there are laws regulating leprosy among the people, there are laws for leprosy in the houses and clothing. All of it is under the purview of the Lord’s redemption.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:32
32 This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.
The rest of this chapter will deal with other forms of “leprosy,” such as mold in a house, but first we have this final verse describing the plight of the cleansed leper, and it is a particularly moving description of his vulnerable state. Here he is described as one “whose hand is not able to get.”
We spoke already of how the priest had to come to the leper where he was to initiate the cleansing ritual, as the leper could not at first come to the tabernacle. Also, the leper might not have been able to work for some time, and may have had limited resources, and we discussed the allowances made for simpler offerings in case he was destitute. In short, God was well aware that the leper would not be able to get, and He would meet the leper where he was.
This is the essence of true charity. To find those “whose hand is not able to get,” and to provide for them. To give gifts that cannot be repaid. To make real what was impossible. As we become acquainted with our naturally damned state and the gift of redemption through Christ, we realize that God has rescued us where we could not help ourselves, and now we are expected to do the same for our brothers and sisters.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:23-31
23 And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord.
24 And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord:
25 And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
26 And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand:
27 And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord:
28 And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering:
29 And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the Lord.
30 And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he can get;
31 Even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lord.
The sacrifices in today’s verses mostly follow the familiar template for a sin and burnt offering, but in addition to the marking of the ear, thumb, and toe with blood, we have oil being applied to each of those body parts as well. We did, of course, already hear about applying blood to the same body parts of a priest before, and the anointing of his head with oil, but this ritual with the leper is the first we are hearing of oil on the ear, thumb, and toe.
Oil is often seen as symbolic of the Holy Spirit, so it could be representative of God’s Spirit impressing the leper’s hearing and actions and walk, though why would the same not be done to the priest? Another thought that occurs to me is that we often see an oily substance come out of our wounds, as well as our blood. Today that oily substance is called serum, and we now know that it is a part of blood. It is the liquid portion that separates out after the cells and clotting proteins form a scab to close the wound. The serum looks like oil and may very well have been interpreted as such by the Ancient Israelites. And it is entirely possible that such blood and oily serum were common sights upon lepers with open wounds and sores. Thus, the ritual application of blood and oil together may be a symbol of both the suffering and the healing of the leper, which suffering tenderized his soul and which healing taught him to rely upon the Lord.
This is a highly specific interpretation, of course, and maybe there are better ones. I do believe that God’s rituals were meant to have many lessons, and perhaps this was one.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:19-22
19 And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering:
20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21 And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil;
22 And two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
We have seen before how the conditions of an offering could be adjusted according to the wealth of the subject. Other things could not be, where the same offering required of rich and poor. The fact that variance was allowed in the offering of the healed leper speaks to the human condition where misfortune befalls us all.
Leprosy was not only an affliction of the poor and the old, but even of the young and the rich. It could even befall a high ranking military leader, such as Naaman. Righteous people could have leprosy, and wicked people could also.
It is woven into our nature to expect good for good, and bad for bad. That expectation is due to our appropriate understanding of justice. And to some extent, there is some truth to it. In general, the righteous avoid a great deal of affliction and stress because of their clean and honest living, while the wicked bring natural negative consequences by their dirty and offensive behavior. But in this fallen world, none of this is absolute. The righteous and the clean-living will still get cancer, still have to bury their child, still be at the mercy of the wicked. So, knowing that virtue alone will not protect us, we often seek further assurances in wealth. And with it many ailments of life may be staved off, but it is still not absolute. Even the rich will have an earthquake destroy their home, develop a crippling disease, or lose much of their estate in a messy divorce.
So, too, rich and poor alike could have leprosy, and their offering requirements for cleanliness would reflect that.
Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 14:12-18
12 And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord:
13 And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy:
14 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand:
16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord:
17 And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:
18 And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord.
We are now to phase two of the ritual to induct a former leper back into the Israelite community. This part sounds the most familiar to the other rituals we have heard of. A trespass and a sin offering are a common pairing, so it is no surprise to see them here as well. And of course, this does not mean that the leper was guilty of immoral sins, but that his leprosy had been an embodiment of the fallen world, not of heaven, and he had to be cleansed of that telestial stain.
So far this has been perfectly standard, but then we take a most unexpected turn. In verse 14, 17, and 18 we hear that the priest would take blood and oil, and apply it to the leper’s right ear, right thumb, and right great toe, as well as pouring oil on the leper’s clean-shaven head.
The only other times we have heard of blood being applied to ear, thumb, and toe, and anointing with oil, it was for the priests, to prepare them for their service in the tabernacle. Why would it also be done for a leper, who is certainly not being made into a priest?
When we previous saw the application of blood to the ear, thumb, and toe it seemed to represent consecrating one’s hearing, work, and path to the Lord, and obviously that should also apply to any Israelite who makes restitution with the Lord, yet we don’t see this same act being done for ordinary sin and trespass offerings. Only here for the lepers. So why?
Honestly, I’m probably going to need to think on this for longer, but the first suggestion that came to my mind was because of the sacredness of suffering that the leper had gone through. There is an incredibly sanctifying experience when we pass through deep pain, especially pain that is not due to our own sins. It makes our hearts tender, it makes our souls teachable, and it makes our priorities recalibrate. I have seen and personally experienced how those who suffer, and hold their faith through it, and then return to peaceable living, come back more consecrated than ever before. It is not unlike a priest who is more fully consecrated to the Lord just by his office. I wonder if this ritual was attached to the leper as a mark of respect and appreciation for who he had become by the things that he had suffered.
Spiritual Wanderings 