WHAT a fearful disease was leprosy! and what a type and figure of that still more fearful disease, sin. When a man was infected with the slightest taint of leprosy, and the priest had pronounced him unclean, he was at once cut off from all social and domestic ties. The wife of his bosom, the child of his heart, the brothers and sisters who had played with him in infancy and grown up with him into manhood, the friend who had loved him as his own soul, all immediately cast him off. He became at once an outcast and an alien from family and friends, hearth and home. But this was not all. These indeed were keen, cutting strokes, but there was a keener and more cutting stroke still in reserve. He was driven from the chosen people of God, banished from the camp, and not permitted to draw near to the courts of the Lord's house. For him the altar had no sacrifice; for him the sanctuary had no incense; to him the gates of the tabernacle gave no admission. He was cut off from man and cut off from God, and as his disease generally was incurable, he had no prospect before him but to die a miserable death, the flesh rotting off his bones, and limb dropping from limb. Do we not see in this dreadful malady, and in its attending circumstances, some representation of that fearful disease sin as opened up in the heart and conscience of the child of God? Let the hand of God be upon you, let sin be laid bare in your soul, and the result will be—especially if the members of your family be unacquainted with vital religion, or be opposed to the discriminating doctrines of the gospel—that the very wife of your bosom will despise you: the very children who have grown up as olive branches round about your table will scorn you: the friends with whom you have walked in business or pleasure will cast you off; and the religious body with which probably you have been connected will renounce you as a brother, and consider you but a fanatic or gloomy enthusiast. Thus we find Job expressing this portion of his bitter trial: "He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. Yea, young children despised me, I arose and they spake against me. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me." So also said Heman: "Lover and friend hast Thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." Thus, too, complained David: "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off."
But besides this, however painful to the natural feelings, there is that which far exceeds all—the separation which sin makes between God and the soul.
Leprosy, then, as I was endeavouring to show this morning, is a striking figure of that fearful disease sin as opened up in the heart and conscience. But there are some points in which the type does not exactly correspond with the antitype.
1. Leprosy was, for the most part, incurable. Those who were cured, were cured by special miracle, but the generality miserably died. This does not hold in the antitype; for every one of God's family—and these are the only spiritual lepers—is cleansed. Not one of them dies in his leprosy; but all experience the healing hand of the Great Physician.
2. The ceremonial which was used for the cleansing of the literal leper was not to cure him; he was cured by special miracle before he was cleansed. Not so in the antitype. In the spiritual leprosy the cure and the cleansing go together; the same remedy that cures also cleanses.
3. The third point of difference is that the natural leprosy, when cured, was cured entirely. Not so in the antitype; that rather resembles the leprous house mentioned in Leviticus xiv., which had "a fretting leprosy" in the walls, ever breaking out in spite of all scraping and cleansing. The leprosy of sin remains in the child of God till the body drops into the grave, and the spirit returns to Him who gave it.
I was this morning endeavouring to describe somewhat of the nature and symptoms of that fearful disease leprosy, and to show how it was a figure of that still more fearful disease sin; and then I said that if we were spared to meet together this evening we would attempt to consider a little of the cleansing from this fearful disease.
We read: "This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing; he shall be brought unto the priest, and the priest shall go forth out of the camp, and the priest shall look and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, then"—-and so forth.
For the sake of clearness we may divide our subject into two general heads:
I. There were several needful preliminaries.
1. The first regards the person to whom the whole ceremonial was entrusted. The priest, as we showed this morning, was to be the sole judge of the malady; to him the supervision of the leper was specially committed; no earthly physician was to interfere, but it was left to the man of God to discriminate and to decide upon every suspicious case. To the same divinely appointed judge was it also left to determine whether the leprosy was healed.
2. The place where examination was made and the cleansing performed was without the camp. The man was not to be brought into the camp, lest haply some taint of the disease might still remain, and communicate infection to the people. The priest, therefore, was to go to him "without the camp". There is something very noticeable here for the ministers of Christ. They are under-physicians, and their cases lie much in the hospital; they have to visit the sick wards, and must have no delicate scruples about examining and handling ulcerated sores. "Condescend," says the Apostle, "to men of low estate". The servant of Christ must also know for himself the leprosy and its symptoms, that he may go without the camp and examine the cases of others: for it was out of the camp that the leper sojourned. There are many persons in this Metropolis and elsewhere who, we hope, are children of God, and though not members of churches, yet are regular hearers of the truth. Into all their various motives for continuing thus isolated I cannot enter, but one applicable to a comparatively small section of them I will mention-a feeling that they are too base and vile to have anything to do with the manifested people of God. These are lepers without the camp. The ministers, therefore, of truth must go without the camp to meet their case; not despising them because they are lepers, but remembering how many of the Lord's people are full of "wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores".
3. But the priest was commanded to "look"; he was not to take the matter for granted. I fear, greatly fear, that this injunction is in our day much neglected. Churches, for the most part, have too wide a door; nor is there strict supervision enough exercised. Into many so-called gospel churches almost anybody with a fluent tongue and a well-furnished head can find admission. Not so in the injunction before us. The priest was to "look," to examine, to investigate, and see whether it was a real cure. But if the plague of leprosy was really healed, and the priest was well satisfied in his own mind that the man was sound and whole, he was then to proceed with certain ceremonies, which are highly typical and very instructive if we can enter into their spiritual purport.
II. We will now consider the appointed ceremonial with its spiritual meaning.
Is there not something very significant in his taking the birds? Heaven is, as it were, their home; the air, the pure air, is their abode; they are scarcely denizens of the earth; they light upon it for a few moments, but their mansion is the sky: Does not this beautifully set forth the Son of God coming from heaven? When He was in the world He was not of it; as the bird that lights upon the soil is not of the earth, though on it. He said, therefore, in the days of His flesh, "The Son of Man which is in heaven." Why two birds were selected I shall presently show. But these birds were to be "alive". This we may well understand spiritually and figuratively of the life of Christ. "In Him was life." This is His mediatorial life as distinct from His self-existent life. "For as the Father bath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself" (John v. 26). Of this also He speaks, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "Because I live, ye shall live also." "When Christ who is our life shall appear." The birds then were alive to signify this mediatorial life. They were also "clean". No hawk, nor owl, nor falcon, nor vulture—no unclean bird had admission here. These clean birds represent the perfect human nature of the Lord Jesus, in which there was neither spot nor blemish—a nature altogether immaculate. Two birds were appointed because the type otherwise would have been imperfect; for the one bird represented the death, and the other the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And as the slain bird could not live again but by special miracle, two were selected because the natural representation was so far necessarily imperfect.
But with the birds there was to be taken "cedar wood". This is an emblem of two things, incorruptibility and fragrance. You have heard, perhaps, of the far-famed gates of the temple of Somnath in India. These gates are made of the Deodar cedar, that beautiful tree now getting common in this country; and though above a thousand years old, are said to be entirely free from decay, or even the mark of a worm. Cedar wood was therefore selected to signify the incorruptibility of the human nature of the Lord Jesus, for His body knew no corruption. But cedar wood also is especially fragrant, and when burned gives out a most powerful and acceptable odour. Was not this the case when Jesus was burned, as it were, in the flames of divine wrath? Was not that as the smell of sweet incense in the nostrils of Jehovah? Thus there was a singular beauty and appropriateness in selecting this highly odoriferous wood.
But "scarlet" also was to be taken. The meaning of this is plain at once. What could it point to but the scarlet blood of Immanuel? So the house of Rahab was marked by a scarlet thread as a sign of delivering blood. And so we read that Moses "took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people"—scarlet being the appointed emblem of that precious blood of Jesus which cleanseth from all sin. The "hyssop", too, that little herb which grows upon the wall, was used especially for the purpose of being dipped in blood and sprinkling it, as in the case of the Israelites in Egypt upon the lintel and side posts. "Purge me with hyssop," cries David, "and I shall be clean". Does not hyssop evidently refer to "the blood of sprinkling"? Are not all these things highly significant? Do they not all point in the clearest manner to the Lord Jesus?
But one of the birds was to be killed. O how this prefigures Immanuel's dying upon the accursed tree! And to be killed "in an earthen vessel"—that the blood might not be spilt in vain; that every drop might be caught; that it might not fall upon the ground and mingle with the dust. O how valuable, precious, unspeakably precious is the blood of the Lamb, for by it sin is cleansed and washed away, and all the ransomed family reconciled to God! Particular redemption is the blood in the vessel; universal, the blood in the dust. But it was to be killed "over running water". This seems to connect it with the gracious work of the Spirit; for we know that "running", or "living", water is the usual type of the blessed Spirit. "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive."
But now for the living bird which, I said before, typified the resurrection of Christ. There was a necessity for two birds, because the one that died could not be raised as the Lord Jesus Christ was, except by special miracle, which was needless merely to carry out a figure. There was, therefore, another bird provided, which the priest was to take, and with it the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. What a representation is this of the union and connection which there is between the blood, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus! The living bird was to be dipped in the blood of his fellow, so that when he spread his wings and flew abroad in the open sky, he carried with him the blood of his slaughtered companion. So Jesus when He ascended up on high, went into heaven wearing our nature; and as the high priest, on the day of atonement, entered within the veil not without blood, so the Lord Jesus presented before the Father the merits of the blood which He shed here below.
All this was to be transacted before the leper's eyes. Because he had been a leper, and was now cured of his leprosy, he was interested in this divine ceremonial. Every minute circumstance to him had a voice; he saw all, heard all, felt all. Is not this applicable spiritually? Did not the leper's eyes see the priest kill one bird, and dip the other in the blood of his fellow? And was not there a secret witness in his bosom as he beheld this solemn transaction, saying: "All this is for thee; the bird which dies, dies for thee; the bird which, bearing blood upon its head and bosom, mounts heavenwards, flies thither for thee. This is for thy cleansing; this God has commanded that thou mayest be restored to the sanctuary." So when there is a view by living faith of the blood, death, sufferings, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus; when we see Him, as Paul speaks, "crucified before our eyes", as the healed leper saw the one bird dying in agony, and the other mounting upward in liberty, there accompanies the view this inward testimony, "He died and rose again for thee."
2. But the priest was to do something more. He was "to sprinkle the blood upon him that was to be cleansed seven times", and then "pronounce him clean". Aye! we have something here very significant. The priest was to sprinkle the leper seven times with blood. There was not only to be a sight of the blood, but an application of it. The leper was not merely to see the blood fall drop by drop from the slaughtered bird, but to be sprinkled also with it seven times. How clearly does all this point to "the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel"—the application of atoning blood and dying love to the soul!
The man was now virtually clean, for we read, when he had been sprinkled seven times (a perfect number), "the priest shall pronounce him clean".
3. But was the whole now finished? Was the cleansed leper now restored to the courts of the Lord's house? No; not yet. More still remained to be done. "And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days" (Lev. xiv. 8).
(i) He was "to wash his clothes". This I explained in the morning, to signify the cleansing of the life and conversation. "Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word" (Psa. cxix. 9). "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Col. vii. 1). This was indispensable. When he had been cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood his clothes were to be washed. He was no longer to wear the rent garments and filthy tatters of the leper, but to wash his clothes and manifest by his life and conduct what God had done for his soul.
(ii) He was to shave off his hair also, and he was to do it upon two separate occasions. First, when still without the camp, and again on the seventh day, the day before he was presented before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. On the first occasion the command is simply that he should "shave off all his hair", but on the seventh day that he should "shave all his hair off his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows". This utter removing of the old hair that there might be a fresh growth of entirely new, seems to represent the passing away of old things and the becoming of all things new. When the now cleansed leper shaved off his eyebrows, his beard, and his hair, it was not a partial clipping off, but a thorough removing of the matted and tangled, leprous and tainted, weather-beaten beggar-locks which sorted well with the old rent garments, that there might be a fresh young growth of new hair from the very roots. The cleansed leper is renewed in the spirit of his mind; he puts off the old man, and puts on the new; he walks in newness of life, and serves God in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. He lives in a new world, reads a new Bible, has within him a new heart, worships God with a new spirit, and lives a new life unto and with Him who saith, "Behold, I make all things new."
(iii) But he was also to wash his flesh in water and be clean. This seems to signify the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, as the Apostle speaks: "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." The body washed with pure water does not mean, I believe, the ordinance of Baptism, but the washing of regeneration, as the Lord speaks of being "born of water and of the Spirit".
4. But was this all? No. We have not exhausted this subject. It is still pregnant with instruction if we can get at it. There is a blessed vein of gold in the Scriptures deeper than any Australian mine, and richer than any Californian "digging". "The stones of it," as Job says, "are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen." The cleansing of the leper had three distinct stages. First, the ceremonial without the camp, comprising the killing of the bird, the sprinkling of the blood on the leper, the shaving of his hair, and the washing of his body and clothes. Secondly, what he did when restored to the camp, and still tarrying abroad out of his tent, viz., shaving again on the seventh day all his hair, beard, and eyebrows, and washing his body and garments. And, thirdly, what the priest did on the eighth day to him at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. To this point we are now come.
(i) On the eighth day the priest was to take "two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil...". Now these three lambs—two males and one female—were selected, the first for a burnt offering, the second for a trespass offering, and the third for a sin offering. The two males for the burnt and the sin offering, and the female for the trespass offering. This brought before the eye and the heart of the cleansed leper at what a cost he had been redeemed. The lamb offered whole as a burnt offering represented the Lamb of God burnt in flames of divine wrath. As then the smoke and flame ascended up to heaven, the cleansed leper would have a view of the sufferings of Jesus. He would see how Jesus gave His soul an offering for sin, and would view the displeasure and anger of God visited on His sacred and spotless head; he would, in spirit, sympathise with and mourn over Him, and would grieve and groan on account of the sins that put Him to such torture. When he saw the trespass offering, he would see how his inward sins deserved the burning flame; for in the trespass offering, not the outward body and limbs, but the inward parts, chiefly the fat round the kidneys and the entrails, was burnt in the flame of the altar. As then the smoke and flame of the burning fat of the trespass and sin offering ascended in the sight of the leper from the brazen altar, he would see what his sins had deserved; in the crackling of the fat, as it melted in the fire, he would view the wrath of God due to him; and as he saw the smoke ascend, he would see how the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus was acceptable to God, and was as a sweet smell to offended justice.
(ii) But there was to be "a meat offering" also of one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil. This was to be a thank-offering, to be presented by the priest for his cleansing, and represents the thankful heart of the sinner for that most undeserved mercy which is experienced in the cleansing from sin.
(iii) But there was something more to be done still. We have not yet exhausted our subject, if I have your patience and my own strength. The blood of the trespass offering was to be taken and applied in a very special manner. It was to be "put upon the tip of the right ear of him that was to be cleansed, upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the great toe of the right foot". Application still! No pardon without application! No peace without the blood of sprinkling! And where was the blood to be sprinkled? Where was the application to be? First, the tip of the right ear. This seems to represent the application of atoning blood to cleanse our thoughts. What an inlet the ear is to the mind! Some have discussed the question whether it were better to be born blind or to be born deaf. It is a mercy that this is never put to our choice. But in some respects it is a greater privation to be born deaf than to be born blind, because through the ear enters language, without which there can scarcely exist any knowledge or any definite ideas. How unfurnished, how utterly unfurnished would our minds be, what a wild waste blank, were the ear, that channel of communication with the outer world, utterly closed! But it is a channel for evil as well as for good—a sad, sad inlet for sin. Can we walk the length of the street without being conscious of it? We cannot help hearing the oath of the blasphemer, or not to speak of such gross abominations, what carnality, frivolity, gaiety and worldliness meet our ear on every side! How many incentives to evil enter through the ear! A word, a whisper, what a fire it may kindle within! Hence the blood was to be applied to the ear to represent the cleansing of our thoughts, the application of atoning blood to wash away the guilt and filth of a polluted imagination. "I hate vain thoughts," says David: and again, "In the multitude of my thoughts within me." Aye, they are a "multitude", for every one which enters through the ear may be the parent of a million; and all, all need to be cleansed by the application of atoning blood.
Next came the application of the blood of the slaughtered lamb to the thumb of the right hand. Ah! does not the right hand need cleansing? O how much the hand has to do in buying, selling, trafficking, writing, etc.! How hard to hold the scales betwixt the thumb and finger of the right hand always correctly! And how hard when we grasp the pen with the right thumb and fingers—and I know something of pen work—always to scrawl our thoughts aright! The hand seems to signify especially actions and dealings between man and man. And does not this want cleansing? How, then, is it to be cleansed but by atoning blood? Then there is the great toe of the right foot. And does not that represent the walk, conduct and conversation? The great toe of the right foot is to receive the applied blood as its most prominent portion—first and foremost in the path. Who can say that he does not want a daily, hourly cleansing of his walk, life, conduct and conversation? The Lord alludes to this when He said to Peter, "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet." These want constant cleansing.
(iv) But was this all? No. Something further yet. The priest was to take a log (that is about three-quarters of a pint) of oil, and to pour some of it into the palm of his left hand, in order to dip his right finger into the oil, and apply a portion to the same places to which the blood had been previously applied—the tip of the right ear, the tip of the right thumb, and the top of the great toe of the right foot. You will observe, the oil was to be upon the blood. Is not this deeply significant, pregnant with instruction'? Does it not point to the sanctifying operations of God the Spirit'? Oil, we know, is specially used as a type and figure of the Holy Spirit. "The anointing that abideth in you is truth, and no lie" (1 John ii. 27). For what is anointing but ointment, and what is ointment but oil?
But you will observe that before the heart can be sanctified by the Spirit of God it must be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Sin must be pardoned before subdued. The conscience must be cleansed before the heart, lip and life can be sanctified. Blood precedes oil; justification precedes sanctification. The conscience is purged from dead works before the living God is served: the soul is married unto Christ before it brings forth fruit unto God. Do we not want the one as much as the other? And the one is never given without the other. If there is justification, there is sanctification. If there is Christ, there is the Spirit. If there is blood, there is oil. See how needful it is to have the oil applied to the ear, to have the thoughts sanctified. Aye, a drop of oil on the right ear makes good hearers. Those whose ear has been sprinkled with blood and touched with oil are not wayside, stony-ground hearers, but have judgment, experience, discernment, life and feeling. They know what they hear: and as the oil sanctifies the ear, so also it opens it to receive instruction. Do you bring with you an ear sprinkled with blood and sanctified with oil? Do you know what you hear, feel what you hear, believe what you hear? Does your spirit fall under it? Do your affections embrace it? Does your conscience twine around it? Do you feel it come into your very spirit with a sanctifying, softening, and humbling effect? That is being a good hearer. Such are not the generality of hearers, who have no judgment, no experience, no feeling, no discernment. We must have oil upon the ear to make good preachers, too, as well as good hearers, for without it we cannot hear the voice of the Spirit speaking in the Word of God.
And then there is the oil upon the thumb. You tradesmen, when you are holding the scales behind the counter, does not the thumb want oil upon it sometimes to make the balances right? In buying and selling, trafficking and carrying on daily employments, does not the thumb want oil upon it? And if blood and oil be upon the thumb, will not matters be right between God and conscience? Blood without oil would but make an Antinomian; oil without blood would but make a Pharisee; blood with oil, oil upon blood, makes the manifested child of God. They are not, they never can be really separated. How I, too, who write so much, need oil on my thumb! Does not the foot, too, need the oil, to have the walk, life and conversation sanctified by the grace of God? O, if there were oil daily upon the toe, what different lives we should lead ! How the oil upon the toe would keep us out of things into which we so heedlessly run, bring us near to God, out of the company and spirit of the world, and preserve us from ungodly practices, and every kind of sin. With the oil upon the toe we must needs walk in the fear of God tenderly, solemnly, feelingly, reverentially, believingly, to the honour and praise of His great Name.
I think time will hardly admit of our entering more fully upon this subject. We have had to-day the leper sick and the leper well; the leper diseased and the leper cleansed; the leper out of the camp and the leper in the camp; the leper banished and the leper restored. We have seen—those at least who were here this morning—some of the symptoms of the malady, and we have seen something, I hope, this evening of the cleansing and restoration. Now comes the important question, How far our experience corresponds with these particulars? I hope that you will give me credit for having this day kept close to God's Word: I have endeavoured to do so, and close also to the experience of God's family. Now can we find in our experience anything agreeable to this? One remark I would drop. The leprosy—as I was showing this morning—was a disease that gradually spread. It was not at the worst at first. There may be those here this evening who know a little, but not much; in whom there is a beginning, but the disease is not widely, deeply spread; but it will be so if you have the beginning. At present you know little of the remedy, because you know little of the malady. And can we know the one without the other? What were all these ceremonial rites to any but the leper? Could any but the leper understand them, realise them, enter into their signification, feel their weight and power, or have any personal interest in them? None, absolutely none! They were for the leper, and the leper only.
Those who are not lepers, who have not been struck with the deadly malady, and had sin opened up in the heart and conscience, know nothing of what we have been speaking. Ask an experienced and tried child of God if he could get at these things very easily? Ask him if these pearls lie upon the surface of the water? Whether they do not lie deeply, and whether he has not had to go down to the bottom to get at them? The reality of these things is by most passed over. They are not lepers, and therefore they know little either of the malady or the remedy. But these things do not alter facts. Realities are realities, whether known or not; and there are those who know them to be realities, who enter deeply both into the malady and the remedy, and know something of both the blood and the oil. It is a mercy to know anything really of God. One grain of grace is saving. There are times and seasons when the soul would be glad to be certain it had half a grain; but one grain of grace will make a believer. The natural disease began with what seemed to be a little spot; it was but a grain, but it spread and spread till the man was infected throughout. So with God's people. They must have deeper and deeper discoveries of the leprosy till their entire being is leprous throughout, that they may prize the remedy which God has devised and provided—blood and oil, grace and mercy, pardon and peace—for these things must not be merely shut up in the pages of God's Word; their reality must be felt in the soul, and brought into our own possession by the power and work of the Holy Spirit.