A House of Leprosy

Let's let's pray merciful father your word was written for our instruction so that by steadfastness and by encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. Grant a sound interpretation of all scriptures that we may receive all their comfort and hope according to your Holy Spirit's will and intent.

Grant that we abide in this simple direct and useful exposition that is permanently and well grounded in your revealed will teach us to flee all abstruse and specious questions and disputations so that we reject and condemn all things contrary to your true simple and useful teachings through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. All right. Questions. Any questions. Yes sir. No I don't. It's it's it's in the Lutheran study Bible at the back of it. And I get that I get that. So so am I in error now for agreeing with the words that you so spoke that you just spoke.

Yes I will say this abstruse means difficult to understand obscure. So an interpretation that is difficult to understand or obscure would tend to lead towards error. So that that word I knew was a new vocabulary word for me as well.

I haven't heard that one. I've heard obtuse. Okay all right. We can work on that. I like sharing my vocab words. Mikey. Yep. Okay so we get this from the fuller context when you take the different Gospels together that we learn that the two people that Jesus is crucified between that they were thieves that that.

And so we learn that from other Gospels. Well it depends on what you steal. Right. So the Romans they let's just say crucifixion wasn't merely about punishing crime. Crucifixion was used by the Romans to make a statement.

It was a form of psychological warfare. Yes. So this is what happens to those who don't obey us break our laws or try to subvert our you know the Pax Romana and fight against the Emperor. And so the crucifixion was reserved for non Roman citizens whom the Romans wanted to make a public example of.

And in fact in our gospel text today in Luke it used the word spectacle which is the right way to put it. Public executions historically have been spectacles and which is one of the reasons why coming into the 20th century even the United States has shied away from and gotten rid of the public spectacle of executions.

Now they are done. You know in prisons behind closed doors and only certain people are allowed. But in the past you know when hangings would take place the whole town everybody would come to see. And oftentimes the people in the crowd at public executions would taunt and jeer and and mock and insult.

Just like and we know this has happened to Jesus as well. So that again. Yes that's right. That's right. Get your souvenirs here. Souvenirs here. Yes we have. We have a hangman's noose that you can bring home and play with your dollies.

And and here we've got the executioner's axe and a look look at this a guillotine that actually clips the ends of cigars. This is great. So yeah. Leviticus chapter 14. I. Yes yes live it live it is 14.

Leviticus 14 as Shadows of Baptism and Atonement

We are going to rework our way through the small portion that we have looked at and we're gonna know what is what is being described here as far as what is being created is a mixture of ingredients including fresh water for the purpose of declaring using on a leper who has been cleansed for the purpose of them being made clean.

And so let me find a text in the in the in the Gospels real quick here word is heifer and I want to do a gospel search. Hold on a second here. Maybe it's in the New Testament. Here we go listen to this from Hebrews chapter 9 if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of deviled defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh.

Now the reason I'm pointing this out is because in the book of Numbers there is a second cocktail that has a very similar has very similar ingredients and there's one ingredient that's just a little bit different so you'll have the hyssop you'll have the scarlet yarn.

You'll have the water but with the the one that's used in the book of Numbers the concoctions this that's made with the water it will also include the ashes of a heifer that had been sacrificed and that then is used for the purpose of declaring of you being used to make somebody clean who has touched or been in direct contact with a corpse.

And this was a necessary part this was a necessary thing for them to go from being unclean to being clean. And so you'll note then that this is all referencing something here and I think it's vital for us to remember what's going on here.

And let me do a little bit of work this way. Hebrews chapter 10. I'll work backwards in the book of Hebrews just to kind of reemphasize this point. For since this is Hebrews 10 1 for since the law and I'm gonna note here I'm gonna come over and take a look at the Greek in the Greek and I know this is all Greek to you it says ha namas ha is means the and so that's what.

That's your definite article. So so ha na ha namas it's talking about the Torah. We're talking about law in the sense not of a specific command but in the broader sense of this is talking about the Torah the first five books of the Bible.

For since the Torah has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities you'll note that's an incomplete sentence so far. But note then this is explicitly saying what we see in the Old Testament.

These are shadows these are types. I know I keep hammering on that but I want to kind of drive home this idea that the Bible teaches us this is how we are to read the scriptures. So people who have a difficult time making sense of the Old Testament and they and they're in a chapter like Leviticus 14 and they're reading why am I having to read about scarlet yarn hyssop and water and you being used to sprinkle leprous people so that they can be declared clean.

Why in the book of Numbers do we have a similar thing with a the heifer and all this type of stuff. Answer. Because according to Hebrews 10 here we have an interpretive key and that interpretive key tells us that these are shadows.

These are types and shadows. But they do not have the true form of the realities. So over here we have this wonderful picture right now occurring in front of our very eyes here this plant is receiving this beautiful sunlight.

Right. So this is the true form this is the reality. But if you look on the ground you can see the shape kind of you can see the shadow cast by the reality. Does that make sense. So the Old Testament then the Old Testament is the shadows.

It's the show it's the sunlight and it's you look on the ground you go that looks a lot like the shape of Jesus. But you'll notice in shadows you missed all the three dimensions and things like that you can kind of make out the form.

I couldn't tell you what kind of plant that is by looking at the shadow. But the true form then is the plant itself. So note the sunlight against the flat is casting the shadow. This is the true form.

So Christ is the true form. And in the Old Testament the shadows are pointing back to him. Does that make sense. Okay I would say remember that all scripture is God breathed. Because the more I work in the Bible the more convinced.

There's no possible way any human beings could have put this thing together. The way it was put together it is so clearly inspired by God. So that not only do we have clear prophecies regarding Jesus like where he would be born that he would be born of a virgin that he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver you know.

And even his cry of dereliction on the cross is there in the Psalms. My God my God why have you forsaken me. I mean this amazing prophecies were specific details of the life of Christ that he fulfilled.

Were there things that he couldn't possibly have tried to fulfill if he wanted to stuff that you know that had to be fulfilled you know by by him passively. But on top of that then here in Leviticus 14 we're getting a shadow.

And we noted two weeks ago that the shadow was prefiguring the true reality which is going to be baptism. Baptism where the blood of Christ is mixed together with water and the word and that it is a washing for the forgiveness of sins.

So this prefiguring here in Leviticus 14 is a shadow of baptism. But let me keep reading then in 10 so a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year make perfect those who draw near talking about drawn near to the temple.

A little bit of a note here this part of the sentence this first sentence in verse 1 of chapter 10 notice that it's written with the assumption that the temple is still a thing that the temple is still going on.

What year was the temple destroyed. 70 AD. 70 AD. 70 AD. So this this epistle was written prior to 70 AD earlier than and you can tell by paying attention to the details. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers have once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sin.

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of goats to take away sins. It's impossible. So animal sacrifices do not take away sins. That's not the purpose of the Mosaic Law or of the of the sacrifices that we're reading about the purpose of these sacrifices is a reminder of sin.

And there are portions and we're a ways away from. There are portions of the book of Numbers especially near the end of the book of Numbers where it lists out all of these different sacrifices. And God piles on even more sacrifices that are required that there are certain times of the year there were so many animals being sacrificed first particular feast days in the temple that in the ancient world it was described as having a river of blood flowing from it.

That's how many the sacrifices were. And all of this then as a reminder of sin. Now coming back to Hebrews chapter 9 specifically I wanted to look at verse 13. But I'll start at verse 11. So when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come even through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is of this creation he entered once and for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption.

And then here's that reference. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctified for the purification of the flesh well how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself purify our conscience from dead works to serve living God.

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since the death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

For where a will is involved the death of the one who has made it must be established. And a will takes effect only at death since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool there it is again and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

And so then you'll note that here scarlet wool and hyssop make an appearance with the establishing of the old covenant. And so these ingredients as we look in Leviticus 14 we must consider them in light of their significance by virtue of the fact that they are shadows their shadows on the ground.

And the true substance is pointing us to something in the new testament the true reality. So Leviticus 14 Yahweh spoke to Moses saying this shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing.

And leprosy is used in scripture as a picture of the effects of sin. So you want it you want sin. And the fact that we are born with this condition of sin it's like leprosy you know it's this invasion and corruption of our bodies.

So when a leper is cleansed it is then a picture of somebody who is saved by Christ and who in you know and he's cleansed of their sins. So he shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall look.

Then in the case of the leprous disease is healed in the leprous person the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds cedarwood scarlet yarn and hyssop. And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.

He shall take the live bird with the cedar wood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop and dip them. And the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. Now you're going to note here our gospel text today the passion of Christ from Luke 23.

Barabbas goes free. Christ is sacrificed. And here with these two little birds one bird is killed and its blood is poured into fresh water in an earthenware vessel where you have cedarwood scarlet yarn and hyssop and you dip all of this together as well as the living bird in the blood of the dead bird.

Here are these tiny little birds you know show us again a picture of the salvation. The one is left free the other dies. Christ is crucified. Barabbas is free to go. So he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease.

This then this concoction of blood cedarwood hyssop and scarlet yarn is sprinkled then on the leper seven times. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.

Interesting. Same thing happens on the day of atonement with a scapegoat. Same thing. One animal is sacrificed the other is let free. He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes shave off all his hair and that will include eyebrows.

Which is weird. Okay. So you ever seen anybody without eyebrows. I mean it just does not look right. So it just doesn't look right. So all the hair goes. He's to be cleansed. He shall shave off all his hair bathe himself in water and he shall be clean.

And after that he may come into the camp but live outside his tent for seven days. And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head his beard and his eyebrows. You know in case he said do i have to shave my eyebrows.

Yes. He shall shave off all of his hair and then shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and he shall be clean. You know. It just makes me wonder. You know this kind of hearkens to small babies.

Although some babies are born with a lot of hair you know. But you know and a lot of babies are bald when they're when they're born. So so on the eighth day. Eighth day is the first day of the new creation.

Remember six days god creates the heavens and the earth rests on the seventh. Christ is raised on the eighth day always. That eighth day is in one way or another symbolic a shadow of the first day of the new creation.

On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish to you. At one you lamb a year old went without blemish. A grain offering three tenths of an ephah fine flour mixed with oil. One log of oil.

And you'll note here grain offering hearkens to bread. And i would argue that when it comes to unleavened bread there is no greater unleavened bread than unbaked bread. You see what i'm saying. It hasn't been baked yet.

It's it's fine flour at this point. And it's mixed with oil. That oil is hearkening to the anointing of christ. Each of these elements you can kind of connect back to jesus. So the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed.

And these things before yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting the priest shall take one of the male lambs offer it for a guilt offering along with the log of oil wave them for a wave offering before yahweh.

He shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering in the place of the sanctuary. For the guilt offering like the sin offering belongs to the priest it is most holy.

So this means that the priests get to consume the sacrifice. The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand on the big toe of his right foot.

So we got lobe thumb big toe. Yeah i've heard conflicting ways in which to understand this. That's why i'm not. I don't know i'm not quite sure what to do with this. I would note this. I like to always pull it back to christ.

That christ has the crown of thorns pressed into his head his hands and his feet are nailed. And so i think in some ways it's taking the wounds of christ and putting them on that person. So then the priest shall take some of the log of oil pour it into the palm of his own left hand dip his right finger in the oil that it is in his left hand sprinkle some oil with his finger seven times before yahweh.

Some of the oil that remains in his hand the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who's to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot again. That's a clear reference to christ.

This is an anointing. And on top of the blood of the guilt offering and the rest of the oil that is the priest's uh hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. Then the priest shall make atonement for him before yahweh.

And you're going to note here notice the passive nature of making atonement. And this is this is an important aspect of this. Christ is our high priest. He has made atonement for us. The person offering the sacrifice is not making atonement for themselves.

That's not how that works. So it's the priest then who fulfills the function and he makes atonement for the person. So then the priest shall offer the sin offering make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness.

And afterwards he shall kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him. And here we go something prefiguring the atonement uh the uh the absolution.

And he shall be clean just like when the sacrifices are made. And he shall be forgiven he shall be clean. The sacrifice is done for him. The sprinkling occurs on him and is done to him. And now he shall be clean.

A little type and shadow a picture of our being cleansed from sin. Now of course you'll note that the ingredients for some of these things some of the sacrifices may start to cost a wee bit of money. And the one thing we know about lepers especially if they've been lepers for a long time um they don't exactly get to go to work every day and work at the office or at a job.

They have to live outside the city. And they have to say when people come by i'm unclean i'm unclean i'm a leper stay away right. So um how they make their money then is probably through people giving them alms.

And it has to be done in the distance. So lepers are not known for having padded bank accounts far from it. So what then if you have a leper whose god has cleansed of his leprosy and he can't afford these sacrifices.

Do not despair. He's poor and cannot afford so much. Then he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering to be waived to make atonement for him. And a tenth of an ephah fine flour with oil for grain for a grain offering and a log of oil.

Also two turtle doves or two pigeons which are not worth much you know best pigeon is a dead pigeon. That's what i always like to think anyway. I don't particularly care for those birds. They're like rats with wings anyway.

So two turtle doves two pigeons whichever he can afford one shall be a sin offering the other burnt offering. And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting before Yahweh.

And the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering and the log of oil. And the priest shall waive them for a wave offering before Yahweh. And he shall kill the lamb for the guilt offering. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering put it on the lobe of his right ear of him who is to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.

And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. And he shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh. And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot in the place where the blood of the guilt offering was put.

And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed to make atonement for him before Yahweh. And he shall offer of the turtle doves or pigeons whichever he can afford one for a sin offering the other for a burnt offering along with a grain offering.

And the priest shall make atonement before Yahweh for him who is being cleansed. This is the law for him who is a case of leprous disease who cannot afford the offerings for his cleansing all right types shadows reminders of sin.

Ultimately the substance the root the true form is found in Christ. We continue. Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron saying when you come to the land of Canaan which I give you for a possession and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest this by the way sounds a lot like a mold infection.

What's going to be described here. Your house can get leprosy. It's a kind of a broad category and there seems to be that in there there seems to me to be some case of disease in my house. Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease lest all that is in the house be declared unclean.

And afterwards the priest shall go in to see the house and he shall examine the disease. If the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots and if it appears to be deeper than the surface then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house shut up the house for seven days.

I want you to consider this for a second just by way of like hygiene certain molds if they get into your house they will kill you. They will flat out kill you. Now we don't have that much of a problem here in this climate due to this fact the winters are Sahara desert dry here and in order for molds you know really the toxic kinds to really get going you you you need a very humid climate now.

I'm not saying you can't get mold up here but that's not what I'm saying but move down to Florida. Move down to Florida. You live in a house that doesn't. You know the basement doesn't empty properly or things like that.

And now the house is like humid. All you know 24 7 you're going to get mold in that thing. It's going to get into the walls. It's going to get into the rafters. And there's only one solution. Once it gets to a particular point you got to take the house down because living in it it'll kill you.

It will kill you quick. It'll kill you faster than cigarettes. Now that being the case consider then what's being described here are homes that have a mold infection. We even got the colors of these molds which means we could probably backwards engineer this and figure out which molds are being talked about here.

And so as an Israelite now God has said in the types and shadows your house can get leprosy. Your house can get leprosy. And if it does your house can be declared unclean. And the result of this is is that you have to be cognizant of what's going on in your house.

Oh what's that. What's with the greenish splot splotches on the walls here. Uh we better call the priest. Priest says your house is unclean. But by going by doing this you're saving people's lives. Isn't it fascinating that God chose to use mold as a type and shadow of sin and uncleanness.

And by this little procedure now Israelites who couldn't even begin to tell you how mold does what mold does and how dangerous mold is they just know. God says you got to be looking out for this thing.

And if your house has this your house could be declared unclean. The priest has got to make. He's got to make the call. The priest comes in says yeah your house is unclean. You got a leprous disease in here.

They're being spared. Their lives are actually being spared in the days before we understand how microbes and things like that work. So the priest shall go out of the house shut the door for seven days.

The priest shall come again on the seventh day and look if the disease has spread in the walls of the house then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which the disease and which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city and he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around.

And the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones and he shall take other plaster and plaster the house.

If the disease breaks out again in the house after it is taken out after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it then the priest shall go and look if the disease has spread in the house it is a persistent leprous disease in the house it is unclean.

And he shall break down the house its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house and he shall carry them out of the city to an unclean place. Moreover whoever enters the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening.

And whoever sleeps in the house shall wash his clothes. And whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes. Isn't that fascinating. So you've just spent time inside of an unclean house with a mold infection and you are then required to wash your clothes.

Isn't that interesting. But if the priest comes and looks and if the disease has not spread in the house after the house was plastered then the priest shall pronounce the house clean for the disease is healed.

And for the cleansing of the house he shall take two small birds with cedar wood scarlet yarn and hyssop. Now your house gets to be baptized right and shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over the fresh water and shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn along with a live bird dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times.

Thus she shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water and with the live bird and with the cedar wood and the hyssop and scarlet yarn. And he shall let the live bird go out of the city into the open country.

So he shall make atonement for the house and it shall be clean. Houses need to have atonement made for them. Why would that be. Is my house a sinner. Truly sinners live there. I'm gonna. I'll agree with you that let's take a look at romans 8.

We'll get there we'll get there. My goal is to like drag it out as long as possible. Yeah. We're gonna be in chapter 14 for the next three more weeks.

So two to one odds.

Listen to what paul writes in romans 8. I'll start in verse 18 for our context. For i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the of the revealing of the sons of god for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of god.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies.

So you'll note in romans 8 it makes it very clear that the creation itself has been subjected to futility and corruption. Do you know that there are no weeds. No weeds in the new earth. None. There will be no mold in the new earth that will destroy houses.

This is the impact of sin. So think of it this way. Then christ bleeds and dies for the sins of the whole world and his atoning sacrifice will have the ultimate effect of redeeming a sinful fallen creation including us.

And we're all going to be saved. Then through death and resurrection the creation itself will pass away. It will die. It is being impacted severely by our sin. And everything that you see will be destroyed and god will resurrect the creation itself.

And there will be a new creation. So it is not a superfluous weird thing that houses can be declared unclean because houses are made up of the stuff of the earth of the creation and they are subjected to futility.