Leviticus Chapter 13 Third Continued
We have been studying in the last few lessons about leprosy.
Leviticus 13:50 "And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up [it that hath] the plague seven days:"
The green or red spot in the garment, etc.
"And shut up it that hath the plague seven days":
The woolen or linen garment, the warp or the woof, or skins, and those things that were made of them.
We have discussed, over and over, that 7 stands for spiritual completeness. This period of time then is to see the truth about this person.
Is this person truly a sinner as it appears, or is he a true believer?
Leviticus 13:51 "And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin, [or] in any work that is made of skin; the plague [is] a fretting leprosy; it [is] unclean."
To see whether there is any alteration in it in that space of time.
"If the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in a skin, or in any work that is made of skin":
The green and red spot be spread more and more in either of them.
Whether the color remains the same or not, or be changed, the green into red, or the red into green.
Yet if there was a spreading, it was a sign of leprosy.
According to the Jewish canon, if the plague was green and spread red, or red and spread green, it was unclean.
That is, as Bartenora explains it, if it was red in the size of a bean, and at the end of the week the red had spread itself to green.
Or if at the beginning, it was green like a bean, and at the end of the week had spread itself to the size of a shekel, and the root or spread of it was become red.
"The plague is a fretting leprosy":
According to Jarchi, a sharp and pricking one, like a thorn.
Which signification the word has in (Ezek. 28:24).
Ben Gersom explains it, which brings a curse, corruption, and oldness into the thing in which it is; an old "irritated, exasperated" leprosy.
As Bochart, from the use of the word in the Arabic tongue, translates it. "It is unclean":
And the garment or thing in which it is.
The word fretting in this particular Scripture, means bitter, cause to embitter, or painful.
From the spiritual standpoint, our garments that we wear could perhaps mean the immediate surroundings.
Such as those of your own household, or those who live nearby.
We sometimes become embittered by these very people that mean the most to us. Sometimes we cause them to be bitter as well.
Nothing hurts as deeply as a loved one gone wrong.
There are so many things that embitter us, or cause us to embitter others.
We spoke of it in the previous lesson, but what we put into our brain affects our life.
A person could get caught in a job that was not morally sound, and it could embitter them.
I really believe the worst thing to embitter a person, to my recollection, has been people turned against the church because of hypocrites in the church.
It seems the bitterness of this sort is the hardest to stop.
Too many times we forget that the things we do might run someone away from God and make them bitter.
Leviticus 13:52 "He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in woolen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it [is] a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire."
That there may be no more use of it, nor profit from it.
And this was done without the city, as Ben Gersom asserts.
“Whether warp or woof, in woolen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is”. All and either of them were to be burnt.
"For it is a fretting leprosy" (see notes on Lev. 13:51). "It shall be burnt in the fire":
Which may teach both to hate the garment spotted with the flesh.
And to put no trust in and have no dependence on a man's own righteousness.
Which is as filthy rags, and both are such as shall be burnt, and the loss of them suffered, even when a man himself is saved, yet so as by fire (1 Cor. 3:15).
The sin of bitterness is possibly the hardest sin of all to get rid of.
This I believe, is what intended by burning this up, so there will not be anything left to spring up again.
Bitterness has even been known to cause crippling disease.
Hebrews 12:15 "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled;"
Bitterness destroys the person who is bitter.
Give it to Jesus, and let Him burn it out of your soul.
Leviticus 13:53 "And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin;"
On the seventh day as before, after shutting up.
"And, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin":
But is at an entire stay, that it may be hoped it is not a fretting leprosy.
So, when men do not proceed to more ungodliness, as wicked men commonly do, but there is a stop put to their vicious life and conversation, it is a hopeful sign of future good.
Leviticus 13:54 "Then the priest shall command that they wash [the thing] wherein the plague [is], and he shall shut it up seven days more:"
The priest did not wash it himself, but ordered others to do it.
And this was either the part in which the plague was, or the whole garment or skin in which it was.
Which may be typical of the washing of the garments of men in the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin (Rev. 7:14).
"And he shall shut it up seven days more":
The garment or skin in which the leprosy was, or suspected to be.
To see what alteration would be made by that time through the washing.
Whether the color would be altered, or whether it would spread any more or not.
This separation for the seven days is the same as in the other times it was mentioned.
The separation is to see if the washing will be sufficient to remove this sin.
We are told, if we have anything against anyone, to leave our gift and go and make it right and then come back and offer.
Matthew 5:24 "Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
It is a very dangerous thing to take communion with bitterness in our heart toward anyone.
1 Corinthians
We can see from all this; how serious it is to hold a grudge.
Leviticus 13:55 "And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and, behold, [if] the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread; it [is] unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it [is] fret inward, [whether] it [be] bare within or without."
That is, on the second seventh day, or thirteenth day from his first inspection of it.
"And, behold, if the plague has not changed his colour":
And the plague be not spread, it is unclean, thou shalt burn it in the fire.
If it remains just as it was at first, very green or very red, and has not diminished of its color at all.
Nor changed from one color to another, although it should not have spread itself, yet it is defiled, and to be burnt without the camp, as before.
That which spreads itself here and there, it is to be burnt.
"It is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without":
That is, whether it be threadbare on the wrong or right side of the garment.
The nap being eaten off by the leprosy; which shows it to be a fretting, eating, and corroding one.
In the Hebrew text it is, "in the boldness of the hinder", or "in the baldness of the fore part".
They are the same words which are used of the boldness of the back part and fore part of the head (Lev. 13:42).
The nap being off either of the outer and right side of the cloth, or of the inner and wrong side, made it look like a bald head, whether before or behind.
The best way to say this, in the spiritual realm, is to say we must crucify our flesh that our spirit might live.
Galatians 5:24 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."
Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
This bitterness from within must be destroyed.
Leviticus 13:56 "And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague [be] somewhat dark after the washing of it; then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof:"
Is become of a weaker color, either not quite so green, or not quite so red as it was.
Or is "contracted", and does not spread itself (see notes on Lev. 13:6); but is rather become less.
"Then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof":
That is, that piece which has the plague in it, and burn it.
As Jarchi says; that so the whole may not be lost, which is otherwise pure, and clean, and free from any infection.
The manner of expression confirms what I have observed on (Lev. 13:48).
That the warp and woof are considered as separate things, and as before they are woven together, or wrought into one garment.
This rending out may denote the denying of ungodliness and worldly lusts.
The parting with right eye and right hand sins, and having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
The explanation of this can be found in Jesus' own words when He said, if a member of your body keep you from God, do away with it.
Matthew
This seems so drastic, but we must not miss heaven at any cost.
Leviticus 13:57 "And if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it [is] a spreading [plague]: thou shalt burn that wherein the plague [is] with fire."
After the piece has been rent out, in another part of the garment, etc.
Where before it was not seen.
"It is a spreading plague":
Or leprosy; a flourishing one, as the word signifies, a growing and increasing one. "Thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire":
According to Aben Ezra, only that part in which the plague was.
But Jarchi says the whole garment; with whom Ben Gersom seems to agree.
Who reads the words, thou shall burn it, with that in which the plague is.
The whole garment, skin, warp, or woof, along with the part in which the leprosy is. I almost hate to comment on this.
If all efforts fail, then they are lost.
The fire of hell is the sure outcome of this individual.
Leviticus 13:58 "And the garment, either warp, or woof, or whatsoever thing of skin [it be], which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean."
After it had been shut up seven days, and viewed by the priest again.
If the plague be departed from them: upon a review of them.
"Then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean":
And so reckoned even thoroughly clean, and used.
This denotes the thorough washing and cleansing of sinners by the blood of Jesus (see Psalm 51:2).
This washing was by dipping; and so the Targum renders it; and Jarchi observes, that all washings of garments, which are for dipping, they interpret by the same word.
This washing certainly has to do with the washing in the blood of the Lamb.
We see in the Scriptures that it is by blood and water.
Both are to be washed in, to be Jesus'.
1 John 5:6 "This is he that came by water and blood, [even] Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth."
We see in this, that baptism in water is not enough, we must be washed in the blood of the Lamb and made white as snow.
This is when we repent (turn from our wicked ways), and begin a new life in Jesus.
We receive His robe of righteousness when He takes our sin.
We certainly get the best end of this trade.
Leviticus 13:59 "This [is] the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean."
“To pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean”:
The primary purpose of this legislation was to assist the priest in determining the presence of contagious skin disease.
The language of the passage indicates disease that affects the clothes as it did the person.
This provided more illustrations of the devastating infection of sin and how essential cleansing was spiritually.
The main thing that we must remember in this, is that these garments symbolize the flesh of mankind.
Our flesh is our worst enemy.
The lust of our flesh is the cause of our sin.
Sin is anything that displeases God, or the breaking of the law.
1 John 3:4 "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
This is not just any law, but the law of God.
God has given us a substitute for our sin, Jesus Christ the Righteous.
It is our own fault if we wind up in hell.
God made provision for us, but we must avail ourselves of it.
Leviticus Chapter 13 Third Continued Questions
1.How long is the one suspected of leprosy shut up?
2.What truth is trying to be determined by this time of separation?
3.What does the word fretting mean?
4.What is meant spiritually by the garments?
5.What is about the worst hurt that we feel?
6.What are some of the things that could happen to you and make you bitter?
7.Why are many people bitter toward the church?
8.What is to be done with a garment of fretting leprosy?
9.What does Hebrews 12:15 say about bitterness?
10.Who does bitterness destroy?
11.What is the washing in Leviticus 13:53 symbolic of?
12.What does Matthew 5:24 teach about bitterness?
13.What might happen to you, if you took communion with bitterness in your heart?
14.What does Leviticus 13:55 tell us we must do?
15.I am crucified with _________.
16.I live by the faith of the ______ ____ ______.
17.If thy right eye offend thee, _______ ___ _____.
18.If thy right hand offend thee, _____ ___ _____.
19.If all efforts fail to cleanse a person, then they are _______.
20.What did the 2 washings indicate?
21.How can we be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
22.What is the main thing to remember in this lesson?
23.What is our worst enemy?
24.What is the cause of our sin?
25.Sin is the transgression of the _____.
26.What law is this?
27.Who is our Substitute for our sin?