Leviticus Chapter 13 Second Continued
In the last few lessons, we have been studying about leprosy and its spiritual meaning (sin).
We will pick up the lesson now in:
Leviticus 13:35 "But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing;"
After he has been declared clean by the priest.
For it was possible that it might spread after this, though so much precaution had been used, and so much time taken to observe it, with this (compare 2 Peter 1:9).
Leviticus 13:36 "Then the priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he [is] unclean."
Again, and which is no less than the fourth time.
For notwithstanding his being pronounced clean, he was still subject to the inspection of the priest, if any alteration appeared.
"And, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin": Which was a certain sign of a leprosy.
"The priest shall not seek for yellow hair":
Or be solicitous about that, whether there is any or not.
For either one or the other of these signs were sufficient to determine the case. "He is unclean":
And so to be pronounced.
We decided in a previous lesson, that this is a leader of the church under accusation. The spreading in the skin means that whatever sin this is; it has become a habit.
When sin takes a person over to the extent that the sin becomes a habit, the sinner's heart gets hardened, and they soon do not count anything they do sin.
This would be pretty bad.
1 Timothy 4:2 "Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"
This is the first step to total destruction.
Leviticus 13:37 "But if the scall be in his sight at a stay, and [that] there is black hair grown up therein; the scall is healed, he [is] clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean."
If in a few days, or in a short space of time after this, it should appear that the scall is at a full stop, and does not spread any further at all.
"And that there is black hair grown up therein":
Which is a sign of health and soundness, and so of purity.
Yea, if it was green or red, so be it, it was not yellow, according to Jarchi, it was sufficient.
"The scall is healed":
From whence it appears that it had been a leprous scall, but was now healed, an entire stop being put to the spread of it.
And though yellow hairs might have appeared in it, yet, as Gersom observes, two black hairs having grown up in it, it was a clear case that the corruption of the blood had departed, and it had returned to its former state.
"He is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean":
He was clean before, and that is the reason why he pronounces him so.
Wherefore it is not the sentence of the priest, but the truth of his case that makes him clean.
Teaching, as Ainsworth observes, that the truth of a man's estate, discerned by the word and law of God, made the man clean or unclean, and not the sentence of the priest, if it swerved from the law.
This person has really repented and turned away from sin.
Just as new life (black Hair), has come up inside of this sore, new life has been rekindled in this sinner's heart.
The fact that this sore is not spreading shows that this person is no longer practicing this sin.
The sin is not spreading.
The church leader, in this case would say, He is forgiven.
Let us take him back into the fold.
Leviticus 13:38 "If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, [even] white bright spots;"
One or the other, for the law concerning leprosy respected both.
"Have in the skin of their flesh bright spots":
And them only; not any rising or swelling, nor scab, nor scall, nor boil, nor burning, only bright spots, a sort of freckles or blemish.
"Even white bright spots":
These, Ben Gersom observes, are white spots, but not plagues.
And which were in whiteness inferior to the four species of the plague of leprosy, the white spot, the white swelling, and the scab of each.
Leviticus 13:39 "Then the priest shall look: and, behold, [if] the bright spots in the skin of their flesh [be] darkish white; it [is] a freckled spot [that] groweth in the skin; he [is] clean."
Upon the man or woman that has these spots, and upon the spots themselves, and examine them of what kind they are.
"And, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white":
Their whiteness is not strong, as Jarchi observes; but dusky and obscure, or "contracted". Small white spots, not large and spreading.
"It is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin":
A kind of blemish, which the above writer describes as a sort of whiteness which appears in the flesh of a ruddy man.
"He is clean":
From leprosy.
This is observed, lest a person that is freckled and has a blemish should be mistaken for a leprous person.
As every man that has some spots, failings, and infirmities, is not to be reckoned a wicked man.
Since the people are more likely to have leprosy who live in a desert area, where there is much sunshine, it is not unusual for someone to be freckled.
Again in this, the person may appear to sin, but on closer examination, they are not sinning.
Leviticus 13:40 "And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he [is] bald; [yet is] he clean."
That is, from the back part of his head, from the crown of his head toward his neck behind. "He is bald":
In that spot of the head where the hair is fallen off.
And it denotes such a baldness as is occasioned by that.
For it signifies one that had hair, but it is fallen off.
Whereas the baldness after spoken of is thought by some to be of such who never had any hair. Though others will have it, that this intends a person bald all over.
But it seems plain from what follows, that it designs one whose hair was fallen off behind, and was bald on that part only.
And it may be observed, that this is only said of a man, not of a woman.
Because, as Aben Ezra remarks, she has much moisture in her, and therefore her head does not become bald.
Hair being like grass, which flourishes in moist places. "Yet is he clean":
From the leprosy, or from the scalls, as Jarchi observes.
Because he is not judged by the signs of the head and beard, which are the place of hair. But by the signs of leprosy in the skin of the flesh, i.e. by the raw flesh and spreading.
Leviticus 13:41 "And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he [is] forehead bald: [yet is] he clean."
That is, from the crown of his head towards his forehead and temples, the fore part of his head.
And so the Misnic doctors distinguish baldness, which is from the crown of the head descending behind to the channel of the neck.
And that here mentioned, which is from the crown of the head descending to his face and forehead, over against the hair above.
"He is forehead bald":
To distinguish him from him that is bald behind.
"Yet is he clean":
As the other: these cases are observed, that it might not be concluded that every man that shed his hair or was bald either before or behind was a leper, because the hair of a leper used to fall off from him.
If he had not the other signs of leprosy, and which were the sure and true signs of it before mentioned.
Baldness is not a sign of leprosy.
Baldness on a man's head is hereditary.
If your father was bald, then you will be bald in all probability.
Baldness was not common among the Israelites, and for a man to be bald, would make himself suspect.
2 Kings 2:23 "And he went up from thence unto
We see from this Scripture in Kings, that it was certainly not something someone wanted.
He was laughed at for having a bald head.
From the spiritual sense, we could say that the person this symbolizes perhaps, has some superficial habit that is not pleasing to others, but yet is not sin.
Perhaps, this person thinks about things that are not in his best interest.
More than sin, we would call these blemishes in their character.
Leviticus 13:42 "And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it [is] a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.
Or, "but if there be", or, "when there shall be", or shall appear to be. "In the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore":
White and red mixed, as the Targum of Jonathan.
Having something of both colors, neither a clear white nor thorough red.
Though, according to Bochart, it should be rendered "a white sore exceeding bright" (see notes on Lev. 13:19).
"It is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead": The signs of which were raw flesh and spreading.
So it is said in the Misnah, "those two sorts of baldness defile in two weeks, by two signs, by quick raw flesh and by spreading.''
If there was the bright spot and no quick flesh, then he was to be shut up seven days, and looked upon at the end of them.
And if there was either quick flesh or a spreading, he was pronounced unclean. But if neither, he was shut up seven days more.
And if either of the above signs appeared he was pronounced unclean, if not he was set free.
Leviticus 13:43 "Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, [if] the rising of the sore [be] white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh;"
The white reddish sore.
"And, behold, if the rising of the sore": Or the swelling of it.
"Be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead" See notes on Lev. 13:42.
"As the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh":
As (in Lev. 13:2); having the signs of the leprosy there given.
Anyone of them, excepting the white hair, which in this case could be no sign, there being none. Jarchi's note is, according to the appearance of the leprosy (said in Lev. 13:2).
And what is said in it is, it defiles by four appearances, and is judged in two weeks.
But not according to the appearance of the leprosy said of the boil, and burning, which were judged in one week.
Nor according to the appearance of the scalls, of the place of hair, which do not defile by the four appearances, the rising or swelling, and the scab of it, the bright spot, and the scab of that.
Leviticus 13:44 "He is a leprous man, he [is] unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague [is] in his head."
And so to be pronounced and accounted.
Only a leprous man is mentioned, there being no leprous women, having this sort of leprosy. Their hair not falling off, or they becoming bald.
"The priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean": As in any other case of leprosy.
"His plague is in his head":
An emblem of such who have imbibed bad notions and erroneous principles.
And are therefore, like the leper, to be avoided and rejected from the communion of the saints (Titus 3:10).
And shows that men are accountable for their principles as well as practices, and liable to be punished for them.
The beginning of sin is in the mind.
Evil thoughts bring evil deeds.
A person who looks at pornography, will eventually do some of the things they fantasize while reading this filthy literature.
This pronouncing this man unclean, it seems, is even more serious.
He is pronounced not just unclean, but utterly unclean.
To me, this sin would be some sort of perversion.
Our society is sick in their minds.
They have watched
The horrible rock music has planted down deep all sorts of lyrics that encourage sin.
This person can see no wrong in any of these things.
Remember, anything your eyes see, and anything your ears hear, becomes a part of you.
It is recorded in that little thing we call a brain.
Look at the following Scripture that lets us know we are in control of what goes into our mind.
1 Peter 1:13 "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;"
My suggestion to all is, to guard your mind carefully.
Turn off any movie or T.V. program that has bad language, or has explicit sex scenes.
Or, in fact, any of them that do not teach good moral character.
Read 2nd Timothy chapter 3 to tell what time element we are living in now.
This person with this sickness, is so sick, that they call good evil and evil good.
I really believe Matthew says it the best.
Matthew 6:23 "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great [is] that darkness!"
This then is a sin that began in the imagination of man, and became a horrible sin.
The following tells how God feels about perverted minds.
Romans 1:28 "And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;"
Verses
A “leper” was not allowed to live in “the camp”.
The law demanded that anyone with this disease must be removed from the general population and cry, “Unclean, unclean so that others could avoid him or her.
The sadness of those who suffered in this way was incalculable.
Leviticus 13:45" And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean."
“Unclean, Unclean”:
Here are the symbols of grief and isolation.
This same cry is heard from the survivors of Jerusalem’s destruction (compare Lam. 4:15).
Leviticus 13:46 "All the days wherein the plague [shall be] in him he shall be defiled; he [is] unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp [shall] his habitation [be]."
Reckoned an unclean person, and avoided as such. "He is unclean":
In a ceremonial sense, and pronounced as such by the priest.
And was to be looked upon as such by others during the time of his exclusion and separation, until he was shown to the priest and cleansed, and his offering offered.
"He shall dwell alone":
In a separate house or apartment, as Uzziah did (2 Chron. 26:21).
None were allowed to come near him, nor he to come near to any.
Yea, according to Jarchi, other unclean persons might not dwell with him. "Without the camp shall his habitation be":
Without the three camps, as the same Jewish writer interprets it.
The camp of God, the camp of the Levites, and the camp of Israel.
So Miriam, when she was stricken with leprosy, was shut out of the camp seven days (see Numbers 12:14).
This was observed while in the wilderness.
But when the Israelites came to inhabit towns and cities, then lepers were excluded from there.
For they defiled, in a ceremonial sense, every person and thing in a house they came into, whether touched by them or not.
So Bartenora observes, that if a leprous person goes into any house, all that is in the house is defiled, even what he does not touch.
And that if he sits under a tree, and a clean person passes by, the clean person is defiled.
And if he comes into a synagogue, they make a separate place for him ten hands high, and four cubits broad, and the leper goes in first, and comes out last.
This law concerning lepers shows that impure and profane sinners are not to be admitted into the church of God.
And that such who are in it, who appear to be so, are to be excluded from it.
Communion is not to be had with them.
And that such, unless they are cleansed by the grace of God, and the blood of Christ, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
For into that shall nothing enter that defiles, or makes an abomination, or a lie (see 1 Cor. 5:7; Rev. 21:27).
It would really be dangerous to associate with a person practicing this perversion.
We become like those we are around and this would be a terrible thing to catch.
Perversion produces perversion.
The best thing to do, is to have nothing to do with that person.
Even in our liberal society, perversion is against the law.
You could get arrested and sent to jail.
Certainly, in the eternal realm, God will not look the other way at this sort of sin.
This will separate you from God and from true believers who want no part of this terrible sin.
Verses
Deals with garments worn by infected persons.
In addition to serving as physicians, the priests also conducted the inspection for unclean garments and houses
Leviticus 13:47 "The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, [whether it be] a woolen garment, or a linen garment;"
Whether this sort of leprosy proceeded from natural causes, or was extraordinary and miraculous, and came immediately from the hand of God, and was peculiar to the Jews, and unknown to other nations, is a matter of question.
The latter is generally asserted by the Hebrew writers, as Maimonides, Abraham Seba, and others.
But others are of opinion, and Abarbanel among the Jews, that it might be by the contact or touch of a leprous person.
Indeed, it must be owned, as a learned man observes, that the shirts and clothes of a leper must be equally infectious, and more so than any other communication with him.
And the purulent matter which adheres thereunto must needs infect; such who put on their clothes.
"Whether it be a woolen garment or a linen garment":
And, according to the Misnic doctors, only wool and linen were defiled by leprosy.
Aben Ezra indeed says, that the reason why no mention is made of silk and cotton is because the Scripture speaks of what was found then in use as (in Exodus 23:5).
Wherefore, according to him, woolen and linen are put for all other garments.
Leviticus 13:48 "Whether [it be] in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woolen; whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin;"
When these are woven and mixed together, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to judge whether the plague of leprosy was in the one or in the other.
One would think it should be unavoidably in both.
Wherefore Castalio renders the words, whether "in the outer part of it, or in the inner".
In the outside or inside, or what we call the right side or the wrong side of the cloth.
But to me it seems that the warp and woof, whether of linen or woolen, are here distinguished not only from garments made of them, but from the cloth itself, of which they are made.
And even to be considered before they are wrought together in the loom. And, according to the Jews, when upon the spindle.
"Whether in a skin, or anything made of skin":
That is, whether in unwrought skin, which is not made up in anything, or in anything that is made of skins, as tents, bottles, etc.
But skins of fishes, according to the Jewish traditions, are excepted.
For so they say, sea skins, i.e. skins of fishes, are not defiled by plagues (of leprosy).
For which the commentators give this reason, that as wool and linen are of things which grow out of the earth, so must the skins be.
That is, of such animals as live by grass, that springs out of the earth.
But if anything was joined unto them, which grew out of the earth, though but a thread, that received uncleanness, it was defiled.
Leviticus 13:49 "And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it [is] a plague of leprosy, and shall be showed unto the priest:"
Either of these two colors were signs of leprosy in garments.
But it is not agreed whether stronger or weaker colors are designed.
The radicals of both these words being doubled, according to some, and particularly Aben Ezra, lessen the sense of them.
And so our translators understand it.
But, according to Ben Gersom, the signification is increased thereby, and the meaning is, if it be exceeding green or exceeding red.
And this is evidently the sense of the Misnah; garments are defiled by green in greens, and by red in reds, that is, by the greenest and reddest.
The green, the commentators say, is like that of the wings of peacocks and leaves of palm trees, and the red like crimson or scarlet.
And now these garments or skins, in which the green or red spots appeared, must be white, and not colored or dyed.
The canon runs thus; skins and garments dyed are not defiled with plagues (of leprosy).
A garment whose warp is dyed, and its woof white, or its woof dyed, and its warp white, all goes according to the sight.
That is, according to what color to the eye most prevails, whether white or dyed.
"Either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of the skin":
The same held good of these as of a garment, or anything else made of them.
"It is a plague of leprosy":
It has the signs of one, and gives great suspicion that it is one.
"And shall be shewed unto the priest":
By the person in whose possession it is, that it may be examined and judged of whether it is a leprosy or not.
We know that when we are free from sin, we wear a robe of linen, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Jude 1:23 "And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."
The Scripture in Jude here, shows what soils the garment.
It is the flesh.
The flesh of man causes him to sin.
In the Scriptures above from Leviticus, and this one from Jude, we see that it does not matter how fine and expensive the clothing is, it can be contaminated by the evil person wearing it.
All of the materials mentioned above are materials of some sort or the other, but the only garment that makes you and me acceptable before God, is the white linen garment of the righteous.
This white linen garment has been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (the Lamb), and has become whiter than snow.
To sum up this lesson today, we would see the importance of the cleansing of our thoughts.
The mind is evil, before it is cleansed by Jesus.
In fact, the mind is spoken of as the enemy of God.
Romans 8:7 "Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
The carnal mind is a mind that is constantly thinking of things of the earth.
To be what Jesus would have us to be, we must crucify the desires of the flesh and the carnal mind, and let Jesus come inside of us and live through us.
Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
The final statement is to have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16 " For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
The we, that have the mind of Christ, are the Christians.
Leviticus Chapter 13 Second Continued Questions
1.What is the spiritual meaning of leprosy?
2.What type of person are verses 35 and 36 telling about?
3.The spreading in the skin means what spiritually?
4.Where do we find the Scripture that says, "Having their conscience seared with a hot iron"?
5.What is a sign that the man is clean in verse 37?
6.What is meant spiritually by the black hair growing?
7.The fact that the sore is not spreading shows what spiritually?
8.Describe a freckle spot.
9.Baldness is not a sign of __________.
10.In 2 Kings 2:23, how was this bald headed man treated?
11.More than sin, we would call baldness where there is no sore, what?
12.The beginning of sin is in the ____.
13.If a person watches pornography, what will happen to him?
14.The uncleanness of the bald man, who has a sore, is called one more word that shows perversion of the mind is terrible, what is it?
15.What are some of the things modern society is doing that causes a sick mind?
16.Anything you see, and anything you hear, becomes a _______ of _____.
17.Wherefore gird up the loins of your _______.
18.Where do we find the Scriptures that warn of the evil day we are living in?
19.We read that God turned them over to a ____________ mind, who did not retain God in their knowledge.
20.What would happen to a person who fellowshipped with someone who had a perverted mind?
21.What one word describes our uncleanness today?
22.When we are free from sin, what will our robe be made of?
23.What makes it white?
24.What soils the garment?
25.Besides our deeds, what must we clean up to please God?
26.The carnal mind is enmity against _____.
27.Who has the mind of Christ in them?