Law of the Leper

[Lev. 14: 2] This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:
2-3 though quite convalescent, a leper was not allowed to return to society immediately and at his own will. The malignant character of his disease rendered the greatest precautions necessary to his re-admission among the people. One of the priest most skilled in the diagnostics of disease, being deputed to attend such outcast, the restored leper appeared before this official, and when after examination a certificate of health was given, the ceremonies here describe were forthwith observed outside the camp.
It was a command that once a priest declared the symptoms of leprosy or skin disease on an individual that they had to go through the purification process. The process included 7 stages:
1. The person had to buy a new bowl of 2 birds of identical appearance.
2. The priest would fill the bowl with natural spring water and kill the bird over it mixing the blood with the water,
3. The dead bird was then burned.
4. The Kohen or priest then took a piece of cedar wood, a hyssop twig and a string of wool died crimson red and tied all three together with another string of wool that was died crimson red.
5. The priest took these and the live bird and dipped both simultaneously into the bowl.
6. Then he used this to sprinkled the mixture of water and blood seven times on the back of the person’s hand seven times.
7. The second bird was then set free and the person took a complete haircut, (his entire body was shaved), and he immersed himself in a mikveh.
The malignant character of his disease rendered the greatest precautions necessary to his re-admission among the people. One of the priest most skilled in the diagnostics of disease, being deputed to attend such outcast, the restored leper appeared before this official, and when after examination a certificate of health was given, the ceremonies here described were forthwith observed outside the camp.
5-9 to immerse the body of another bird, it was mingled with spring water to increase the quantity necessary for the appointed sprinklings, which were to be repeated 7 times denoting a complete purification. (Ps. 51:2; Mat. 8:4; Lk. 5:14). The living bird being then set free, in token of the leper’s release from 2quarantine, the priest pronounced him clean; and this official declaration was made with all solemnity, in order that the mind of the leper might be duly impressed with a sense of the divine goodness, and that others might be satisfied they might safely hold intercourse with him. Several other purification had to be gone through during a series of 7 days, and the whole process had to be repeated on the 7th, were he was allowed to re-enter the camp. The circumstance of a priest being employed seems to imply that the symbolical ceremonies used in the process of cleansing leprosy would be explain. How far they were then understood we couldn’t tell. But they trace some instructive analogies between the leprosy and the disease of sin, and between the rites observed in the process of cleansing leprosy and the provisions of the Gospel. The chief of these analogies is that as it was only when a leper exhibited a certain change of state that orders were given by the priest for a sacrifice, so a sinner must be in the exercise of faith and penitence were he can enjoy the benefits of the gospel remedy. The slain bird and the bird let loose are supposed to typify, the one, the death, and the other the resurrection of Y’Shua; while the sprinklings on him that had been leprous typified the requirements which led a believer to cleanse himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to perfect his holiness in the fear of the L-rd.
After performing the seven steps listed in the last command, the person would count seven days and the priest would shave him a second time in the same manner as the first. Then the person would immerse himself as well as his clothes in a mikveh. By these immersions he was purified from contaminating others, but still wasn’t able to eat of holy offerings until he brought his atonement offering. These last six commands applied only to the Temple periods when the priests were familiar with these laws.
It was a command for anyone who wanted to be cleansed of any ritual impurity, or to enter the Temple, or to eat holy food to be immersed in a mikveh. The water of the mikveh had to be at least 40 se’ah (approximately 152 gallons) and had to be either rainwater or natural spring. Manually collected water or pipe drawn was forbidden. Many pious Jews, even today, immerse themselves daily in a kosher mikveh in order to remain in a state of purity at all times.
The final stage of purification process, when a person was cleansed of the disease, is to sacrifice 3 offerings. When the two male lambs were brought, one was a guilt offering, and the other was a burnt offering. The one ewe (female) lamb was for the sin offering. A meal offering accompanied each offering made up of a tenth of an epha of fine flour mixed with oil.
10-20 the purification of the leper was not completed till at the end of seven days, after the ceremonial of the birds (14:4-7) and during which, through permitted to come into the camp, he had to tarry abroad out of his tent (14:8), from which he came daily to appear at the door of the Tabernacle with the offerings required. The priest that made him clean presented him before the L-rd. And hence it has always been reckoned among the pious people the first duty of a patient newly restored from a long and dangerous sickness to reappear to the church to offer his thanksgivings, where his body and soul, in order to be an acceptable offering was to consist of 2 lambs, the one was to be a sin offering, and ephah of the fine flour (two pints equals one-tenth), of oil (2:1). One of the lambs was for a trespass offering, which was necessary from the inherent sin of his nature or form his defilement of the camp by his leprosy previous to his expulsion; and it is remarkable that the manner to the extremities of the restored leper, as that of the ram in the consecration of the priest (8:23). The parts sprinkled with this blood were then anointed with oil - a ceremony which is supposed to have borne this spiritual import; that while the blood was a token of forgiveness, the oil was an emblem of healing - as the blood of Y’Shua justifies, the influence of the Spirit sanctifies. Of the other tow lambs the one was to be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering, which has also the character of a thank offering for G-d’s mercy in his restoration,. And this was considered excluded him from the enjoyment of religious ordinances, just as the atonement of Y’Shua restores all who are cleansed through faith in His sacrifice to the privileges of the children of G-d.
21-32 a kind of considerate provision for an extension of the privilege to lepers of the poorer class. The blood of their smaller offering was to be applied in the same process of purification and they were as publicly and completely cleansed as those who brought a costlier offering (Acts 10:34). 34-48. This law was prospective, not to come into operation till the settlement of the Israelites Canaan. The words, AI put the leprosy, has led many to think that this plague was a judicial infliction from heaven for the sins of the owner; while others do not regard it in this light, it being common in Scripture to represent G-d as doing that which He only permits in His providence to be done. Assuming it to have been a natural disease, a new difficulty arises as to whether we are to consider that the house had become infected by the contagion of leprous occupiers; or that the leprosy was in the house itself. It is evident that the latter was the true state of the case, from the furniture being removed out of it on the first suspicion of disease on the walls. Some have supposed that the name of leprosy was analogically applied to it by the Hebrews, as we speak of cancer in trees when they exhibit corrosive effects similar to what the disease so named produces on the human body; while others have pronounced it a mural efflorescence or species of mildew on the wall apt to be produced in very damp situations, and which was followed by effects so injurious to health as well as to the stability of a house, particularly in warm countries, as to demand the attention of a legislator. Moses enjoined the priest to follow the same course and during the same period of time for ascertaining the true character of this disease as in human leprosy. If found leprous, the infected parts were to be removed. If afterwards there appeared a risk of the contagion spreading, the house was to be destroyed altogether and the materials removed to a distance. The stones were probably rough, unhewn stones, built up without cement in the manner now frequently used in fences and plastered over, or else laid in mortar. The oldest examples of architecture are of this character. The very same thing has to be done still with houses infected with mural salt. The stones covered with the nitrous incrustation must be removed, and if the infected wall is suffered to remain, it must be plastered all over anew.
Even the stones of the house could be infected with the disease. This phenomenon was not held in any other nation except the Jewish people. Tradition seemed to indicate also that if a sin was committed and not repented of, the disease would spread from the house to the clothing and then to the owner’s body. 48-57. The precautions here descried show that there is great dander in warm countries from the house leprosy, which was likely to be increased by the smallness and rude architecture of the houses in the early ages of the Israelites history. As a house could not contract any impurity in the sight of G-d, the atonement which the priest was to take for it must either have a reference to the sins of its occupants or to the ceremonial process appointed for its purification, the very same as that observed for a leprous person. This solemn declaration that it was clean, as well as the offering made on the occasion, was admirable calculated to make known the fact, to remove apprehension from the public mind, as well as relieve the owner from the aching suspicion of dwelling in an infected house.