Jacob Milgrom tells us a little of the cultural understanding:
The ancients feared impurity because they imputed to it a malignant power of supernatural origin. They conceived of it as demonic, aggressively alive, and contagious not just to touch, but as reaching out through air and solid matter to assail its victims:
The highest wall, the thickest walls
Like a flood they pass
From house to house they break through
No door can shut them out
No bolt can turn them back
Through the door like a snake they glide
Through the hinge like a wind they blow.
(A quote from The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia)
Leviticus 14:1-20
The fact that there was a method of cleansing a former leper is telling. Leprosy was a category of skin issues and not the incurable leprosy we used to think. Hansen's disease may or may not have been part of this category. Most skin afflictions were not an issue. Those deeper than the skin, those spreading, turning a hair white, raw or oozing were unclean and an association with death. Once again, we see that life at times brought uncleanness because sin was in the world. God provided a way to be cleansed and return to the holy place in His presence.
The specificity and multi steps of the process indicate the seriousness of returning to cleanness.
- Two clean birds. No indication of type or kind, just clean.
- Items see in other purity rituals.
- Cedar wood.
- Scarlett is a wool thread died red
- Hyssop, a kind of nature's paintbrush
Step 1
These actions appear to be taken outside the camp. One bird is killed in an earthen vessel over running water. The living bird, cedar, scarlet thread and hyssop are then dipped in the blood of the bird killed over the water. There is then a sprinkling repeated 7 times on the man to be cleansed. The bird is then freed in an open field so it doesn't return; a symbol of the impurity being carried away. The man declared clean.
Step 2
The man is then to was his clothes and shave off all his hair and wash himself. He can then return to the camp, but stay outside his tent for seven days.
Step 3
On the seventh day, he was to shave off his hair, beard and eyebrows, all his hair was to be shaved off, apparently a second time. All would be able to see that there was no leprosy under his hair. Again, he was to wash his clothes and wash his body.
Step 4
On the 8th day, the man brought an offering to the tabernacle. The priest who declared him clean would present him before the Lord. The first offering is called a trespass offering, thought to be for reparations; for any offerings missed or offenses during the time when he was unclean and outside the camp. The priest put some blood on the man's right ear, thumb of right hand and big toe of right foot. He would then sprinkle it 7 times before the Lord. With the oil, he would dab some in the same three places. The remaining was put on the head of the one to be cleansed. The atonement is the cleansing ritual that he may be returned to full worship and presence in the tabernacle.
The sin offering is mad by the priest, then the burnt offering with grain offering. Then the man shall be clean.
Leviticus 14:21-32
The provision for the poor makes it clear that restoration and return to worship of the Lord was not limited to those with means but to all 'such as he is able to afford'. The two birds substitute for the two lambs of the burnt offering and purification offering. The procedure is essentially the same for the pour man, other than slight modifications due to the different animals. The purpose and outcome remain the same. There is some suggestion, possibly just speculation, that the lamb would be provided for the person if they had no sacrifice. This is certainly supported by God's intent and work throughout scriptures, even if it isn't present in the language.
Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.
[The New King James Version (Ge 22:7–8). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
Leviticus 14:33-42
This section applies to Israel when they are settled in homes in the Promised Land. When it was given to them, this instruction should have given them confidence in the promise they would enter the land.
The Lord made it clear to Moses that He put the leprous plague in the house. The 'leprous plague' is a surface affliction, affecting the 'plaster' on the walls. In the wider culture, this kind of fungal infection was considered to be an evil omen. The IVP commentary said that the location of the fungus was an indicator of which family member would die. The Lord addresses this fungal infection as something he brought, not a demon. No one would die, there were no demonic acts or trouble. It is only the home that needed to have the ritual applied, not the people.
The family needed to empty the house prior to the priest arriving to examine it. These seemed to accomplish two things:
- Allowed the priest to see the entire house.
- If the house was declared unclean, all the contents would also be unclean.
With the house clean, the priest examined it. Ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish deep in the wall were a concern. This became the reference point. The house was shut up for 7 days. On the 7th day he would be able to tell if the plague spread on the walls. If it spread, the afflicted stones would be removed and cast away. The old plaster would be scraped and removed. The stones could then be replaced, mortared and the house plastered. The house has still not been declared unclean.
Leviticus 14:43-47
If the plague comes back to the house, it is then considered active and declared unclean. At this point the home was to be torn down and cast away to the unclean place. Anyone entering the house would be unclean until evening. Anyone lying down in the house or eating in the house would have to wash his clothes.
Leviticus 14:48-53
If the priest came back and inspected the home and found that the plague hadn't spread, he then acted to cleanse the home. He uses essentially the same process as cleansing a leper. The birds were not sacrifices. The blood of the first was used to cleanse the house (atonement) and the other symbolically carried it away.
Leviticus 14:54-57
The law was laid out here for these things to teach the priests when it was unclean and when it was clean.
©2022 Calvary Chapel Sweetwater
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