Clean

Today’s Bible Reading: LEVITICUS 12:1-14:32

Lev 13:17 And the priest shall examine him; and indeed if the sore has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean who has the sore. He is clean.

Leprosy was a debilitating and destructive disease that plagued the people. It was easily spread and had to be held constantly in check. Those who contracted the disease would be pronounced unclean and were sent outside the camp to recover or die. As long as the infection persisted, they remain removed. If the defilement was cleared, they would be declared clean and could reenter the camp.

Those who were infected were exiled from the company of God’s people and excluded from communion in God’s presence. Their doom or deliverance was determined by their disease. If it remained, they were removed from the camp. If it was removed, they could reenter the camp. Their place with the people of God and the presence of God was dictated by their condition.

There was no physical cure for leprosy. There was nothing that the leper themselves could do to cause a change. Their path was certain, death was inevitable. Apart from their healing their situation was hopeless and helpless. The only hope they had was in the pronouncement of the servant of God and the process of the sacrifice to God.

Regularly the priest would come to examine those exiled. He acted as God’s appointed public health consultant to determine the action that was to be taken upon an infected person. He would examine the infected areas to determine their condition. The priest alone could conclude if they were contagious or cleansed. The leper was completely passive in the process. Their healing was not in their hands. They were at the mercy of divine intervention. Healing was in God’s hands. He was their only hope and help.

This text speaks of more than the condition and cleansing of leprosy. It speaks of man’s sin. Leprosy is a Biblical anti-type of sin. The condition, constraints and cleansing for the leper paints a portrait of that of the sinner. As with the leper, so it is with the sinner. The leper is in a deplorable condition. The sinner is as well. The leper is exiled from the people of God and excluded from the presence of God. It is the same with the sinner. The leper has no hope of healing in their hands, neither does the sinner. Apart from divine intervention death is certain for the leper. It is likewise for the sinner, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). As with the leper, the sinner’s hope for change and cleansing comes from another. The leper’s only hope is in God’s servant and sacrifice, so it is with the sinner.

Jesus is the sinner’s hope for change. He is their high priest that pronounces them cleansed from the “disease” of sin. His blood sacrifice secures their salvation. By His death they are delivered from their depravity. It is His work, not their efforts that allows them entrance among God’s people and access into God’s presence. He alone changes their condition and removes the constraints caused by sin. We are no longer isolated, but included. By His death we are delivered from death. By Christ we are made clean.

The leper had to believe the priest and the process. He had to believe the pronouncement of the priest when he declared him clean. He had to believe the process of the sacrifice that secured his cleansing. He had to act upon that belief and come into the camp. From exile to entrance, he had to respond. So, it is with the sinner. Jesus pronounces us clean; we need to believe that we are. Jesus’s sacrifice secures our salvation, we need to have faith that it does. We too must respond to this redemption. We too by faith are welcomed to enter in.

Today rejoice in the redemption that we are offered in Christ. Renew your trust in His work of redemption on your behalf. Rekindle the hope you have in Him. Thank the Lord for the truth of His word that gives us deep abiding insight into His work on our behalf. Thank Him that in Christ we are pronounced clean.