In this message we come to a most wonderful thing-the cleansing of the leper. In the foregoing messages we saw a portrait of what we are in a negative way. This portrait exposes us to the uttermost, revealing what we are in ourselves. Now we come to the matter of cleansing, which is the all-inclusive salvation God has prepared and accomplished for us. Here we see a Christ who is all-inclusive. He has the blood, the Spirit, and everything we need to be cleansed. In Him we have the rich, complete, and extensive provision of God’s salvation. We all need to know this cleansing, this salvation, and experience it in full.
“This shall be the law of the leper on the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest” (Lev. 14:2). The leper being brought to the priest signifies an unclean person being brought to the Lord. In preaching the gospel we are actually bringing unclean persons, sinners, to the Lord.
The priest going outside the camp to examine the leper (v. 3a) signifies the Lord Jesus leaving His original place and humbling Himself to be nigh to the sinner. The Lord came from the heavens to the earth in order to be nigh to us, the sinners. This is portrayed in Matthew 8. “When He had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And behold, a leper approached and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing. You can cleanse me. And stretching out His hand, He touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (vv. 1-3). This leper should have been isolated, excluded, from the people of God. He should not have been touched by others, lest the contagious disease be passed on to them. Nevertheless, having sympathy in love for the leper, the Lord Jesus came nigh to him and touched him.
In Leviticus 14:4-9 we see that the leper who was to be cleansed needed to seek for cleansing before God. This signifies that the one who is sick of the sin of leprosy, although he has been healed by the life within, still needs to have his shortcomings and defilement dealt with before God that he might be cleansed. Cleansing from leprosy requires not only the action from God’s side but also the coordination from our side. As lepers, as sinners, we need to seek for cleansing. Our seeking is our cooperation with God’s grace and love.
The one who had been healed of leprosy still needed to be cleansed. To be healed is one thing, and to be cleansed is another. The process, the procedure, of cleansing includes many items which we shall now consider.
“The priest shall give orders to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds” (v. 4a). These two birds, which are clean and full of life, are types of Christ. Christ is here typified by the bird life, the life that is able to fly in the air above the earth.
Birds are able to transcend the earth. The birds in verse 4a signify that Christ came from the heavens and that He belongs to the heavens and transcends the earth.
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