In the messages on Leviticus 13 we saw that leprosy may be in a person and also in one’s garments. In this message we shall consider the leprosy in a house.
Everything in the book of Leviticus is a type. This includes the house in chapter fourteen. Based upon the principle that Leviticus is written in the form of types, we may interpret the house in 14:33-53 as a type of the church. As New Testament believers, we recognize that our real house is not our physical house but the church. Without the proper church life, we are homeless. Only when we are in the church and live the proper church life are we truly at home. Many have testified upon entering into the church life that they are now at home. The house in Leviticus 14, therefore, typifies the church as our house, our home, and the leprosy in a house signifies sins and evils in the church (vv. 33-48).
Leviticus 14:34 speaks of God’s putting a leprous disease in a house of the land of Israel’s possession. This signifies that when the condition of a church becomes abnormal, God causes the leprous sin to appear in the church, reminding and warning the believers that they no longer have a house to live in and are no longer able to enjoy all the blessings God promised in His salvation.
During the more than fifty years I have been in the Lord’s recovery, I have passed through many turmoils. Sometimes the turmoil reached the point that there was leprosy in the house. When the church becomes leprous, sick because of sins and evils, we have the sense that we have lost our home, that we have become homeless. Furthermore, when the church is sick of leprosy, we lose the enjoyment of Christ. Since there is no longer a proper church, we are no longer able to enjoy all the blessings God has promised in His salvation.
“When you enter into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put a leprous disease in a house of the land of your possession, then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, Something like a leprous disease has appeared in my house” (vv. 34-35). The owner’s coming and telling this to the priest signifies that the leading brothers or those who are concerned for the church approach the Lord or the apostle, the Lord’s deputy, and tell the Lord or His deputy. This is what we need to do when the church is sick.
“The priest shall then order that they empty the house before he goes in to examine the disease, so that all that is in the house shall not become unclean” (v. 36a). This signifies to do one’s best to prevent and eliminate the contagion.
In order to stop the contagion, we should be careful about our talking, for gossiping will spread the disease. From experience we know that gossip spreads the contagious disease in the church. If we listen to gossip, we shall be contaminated. By being careful about gossip, we shall help to stop the spread of the contagious disease.
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