Latest / Accidental Bible Scholar / Leviticus Ch 13 (leprosy)
Transcript
- Jeff Ward: Okay, welcome back to the Accidental Bible Scholar podcast. I have to pause when I say that. It's a mouthful, but we're going to talk about Leviticus 13 and leprosy today. And Randy's going to fill us in. It's one of his favorite chapters of Leviticus, I believe. It is. Okay. Thanks. You got it, Randy. It's probably my favorite chapter of Leviticus. Okay. Yeah. Outstanding. Probably. So we're talking about Leviticus 13. We're talking about a leprosy. I'm like, hey, everybody's favorite book, everybody's favorite topic I think you'll see there's up here a very surprising declaration of clean. There's a surprise in this. And then when we get that, we're going to look at that and what that means in our life and and what he's done for us. So let's go to Leviticus 13. If you'll read the first three verses there, please. Then the Lord spoke to Moses in air. When someone has a swelling or a scab or a bright spot on the skin of his body. that may become a diseased infection, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or one of his sons, the priests. The priest must then examine the infection on the skin of the body. And if the hair on the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of the body, then it is a diseased infection. So when the priest examines it, he must pronounce the person confidently. Okay, so we're talking about sore, one on the skin, okay? And there's some criteria there. First of all, he must be brought to Aaron. I bring that out because when we have somebody bringing somebody, when we have an unnamed servant or an unnamed worker that's in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, almost always that's a picture of the Holy Spirit. So we have the picture of somebody bringing somebody to the priest. It's a picture of the Holy Spirit drawing somebody to Jesus Christ. here, The decoration is going to be unclean, so it's not a pure picture yet. this man comes, or this person comes, and has one sore, and it's inspected by the priest. So the man is inspected by the priest. And if he finds ⁓ one sore to be of these certain conditions, then he declares him unclean. That's the result. The man has one sore. He's unclean. And we'll look at what happens to the unclean here in just a minute. Basically they're cast out of camp, ⁓ to be in contact physically with family or even socially with anybody except others like them. So one sore, it has these certain characteristics and he's deemed unclean. Okay. And the result. Now let's go to versus four through eight. And if the infection has faded and is not spread on the skin, then the priest is pronounced the person clean. It is a scab. So he must wash his clothes and be clean. If, however, the scab is spreading further on the skin after he has shown himself to the priest for purification, then he must show himself to the priest a second time. The priest must then examine it. And if the scab is spread on the skin, then the priest is to pronounce the person unclean. It is a disease. OK, so. This is just more of the process. So we got something that met some of the criteria, but not all the criteria of to be quarantined, but to be permanently made unclean and But actually we're going to quarantine him for seven days just in case. And we're going to subject him to another set of. of examinations. Then if he comes back, there's determination. Is he clean or unclean? And if he's still not sure, then we'll subject him to another seven days and then more examination. My point, there's a couple of points here. First of all, this is a picture of religion. requires constant self-examination. It requires actually self-righteousness because I'm going to either live or die in this religious framework by my own righteousness one way or the other. It's either righteous or it's not. It's a very self-centered. Religion is a very self-centered way of going through life because like I talked about in a previous episode, constant self-examination because religion asks the question, do I measure up? And so that's what's happening here is this person's being examined by the priest to go, does he measure up? Is he clean or is he unclean? And it goes through several of these iterations. The law or religion requires constant introspection, a self-focus to see if we measure up. And note that once you're done, you're not really free. mean, Hebrews 10, 2 through 4 talks about that this constant sacrificial system was a reminder of sin. So this thing goes on and on. You're constantly being inspected to see if you're clean or unclean. All right? But here, the new covenant is ⁓ Christ-centered. Remember, the New Covenant asked the question, does Christ measure up? And so it's an examination of Christ. A quick aside, I mentioned, I think, when we talked about the burnt offering, but I probably didn't emphasize it. Or if I did, I'm going to emphasize it again. Remember when we talked about all the different offerings? The lamb is brought to the priest. The lamb has to be a perfect lamb, and so the priest inspects the lamb. That's a picture of Christ. If the lamb is perfect, then the man or woman leaves The sinner comes and leaves right or righteous. But ⁓ sinner is not inspected. He's because he is a sinner. The lamb is inspected. That's where I'm talking about the new covenant. That's a picture in the old covenant of the new covenant of Jesus Christ is the one that was inspected and that we can every day go, does he measure up? Yeah, then I do. Yeah, that was the seven days prior to just a quick aside is the. The Passover lamb was kept in the household for seven days. It was inspected before a full week before it was sacrificed. Jesus came in as his triumphal entry, went right to the temple, and was inspected that whole week the Passover lamb. And he was inspected, and he is pure and perfect. Therefore, our lamb is pure and perfect. Therefore, we are pure and perfect. But here, the man is the one being inspected. This leprosy. is forcing this man to be inspected constantly. let's continue 9 through 11 if you please. When has disease infection, must be brought to the priest. The priest will then examine it ⁓ and if a swelling is on the skin, it has turned the hair white and there is raw flesh in the It is a chronic disease on the skin of his body. So the priest is to pronounce him unclean. The priest must not nearly quarantine him for he is unclean. Okay. Not merely quarantine him. So he's quarantined, but not merely quarantined because now this man is pronounced unclean. going come back to verse 12 in a minute, but skip forward and read verse 45 and 46. This is what happens to the ones that are declared unclean. Okay. As for the person who has the infection, his clothes must be torn. The hair of his head must be unbound. He must cover his mustache and he must call out, unclean, unclean. Do you say 46? Yeah. The whole time he has the infection, he will be continually unclean. He must live in isolation and his place of residence must be outside the camp. So this man is cast outside. He has to, he's unclean and he has to look like it. He has to act like it. He has to live like it. He, it's a, it's an experience of continual great shame is what this man or person is put the middle of after being declared unclean. Alright, go back earlier and read verses 12 and 13. That's to me. And if the disease covers his whole body, he is to pronounce the person with the infection clean. He has turned all white, so he is clean. That's shocking to me. I remember years ago when I first read this, I went, I actually started back at verse one and read all 13 verses again. I'm like, wait a minute, I missed something. This guy's covered in it. This guy's covered from head to toe. And what? He's declared clean. And I actually went and looked at a different Bible. I was like, wait a minute. I missed Brent under some, I'm missing. That's startling to me. It's startling that this person who has one sore is declared unclean. A person has multiple sores is declared unclean. But this person that has the disease from head to toe is declared clean. And you're like, that's gotta be a mistake. It's not. It's a picture of me and you. And I'll explain that. So what does leprosy represent? In the biblical sin types, Leprosy is a picture of sin. So if you notice on all the others, there's some good skin, some raw skin or good skin or skin that's not diseased. This man has no. So my point is this. put it so if leprosy is a picture of skin, I mean of sin, infectious, deadly, and curable, what is the raw skin? And why is a person with raw skin unclean and a person with no raw skin but totally covered in leprosy declared clean? And so here's the thing, sin is not the problem here. Jesus Christ atoned for our sin. He took away our sin. He forgave us of all sin at the cross. So sin is not the problem. What's the problem? The problem is the good skin. Having a little bit of goodness. Have a little bit of goodness. What's the problem? Self-righteousness. What is not atoned for? Self-righteousness. Why would self-righteousness not be atoned for? mean, ultimately it is, but that it's a sin and that there was no sin not left undone. But self-righteousness does what? It keeps us from the cross. Grace and blessings have to be received. God's promises have to be received. Corinthians tells us, think in 1 Corinthians 1.20 maybe, plus or minus a chapter or book or two, is that we add our, all of God's promises are yes in Christ and we add our amen. NIV is the way I understand that the best in NIV. We have to add our amen. We have to receive it. In Philippians, he tells us to pray with thanksgiving. thanksgiving is the way we receive it. So if I were to hand you something of value, you'd say, thank you. That's how you receive it, and you take it. So the problem is not sin here. Jesus got that covered. The problem is self-righteousness that keeps you from coming to Jesus. The self-hope or the self-righteousness, I put there something to boast about. Can you imagine the guy that's got this much good skin going, dude, to the guy that doesn't have that much going, look how much good skin I got. And then as it shrinks, as the day goes by, he gets more and more jittery, more and more hopeless. But what he finds is that once that's gone, boom, and he's diseased from head to toe, then he can be clean. Because then salvation is available to him. Because then he goes, I need a savior. See, self-righteousness insulates us or us our need a savior. Because I got it. I got it. No, no, no, I got it. I'll keep working here. This is going to work out good for me. Right. You know, I don't need that, you know, but that's what keeps us from a savior. That's why if you'll notice, remember the law, one of the purposes of the law is to create desperation and to identify our need for a savior. That's why anytime in Jesus, anytime he comes into contact with a self-righteous Jew, he never offers them grace. Right. He always offers them a double-barreled shotgun full of law. take them out. I'm my goodness. So that's what's happened here. When there's no hope in self, there's no self-righteousness, there's nothing to boast about, then grace steps in, because grace is then received. There is no hope and I will boast only in the cross of Christ. That's amazing. Yeah, that to me, I'm like, ⁓ my goodness, this guy covered from head to toe accepted, approved, clean. Yeah. It's a picture of you and I coming to Christ with no self-righteousness. I can't do anything. I've tried. I've given up. I need you to come in. No redeeming qualities. have no redeeming qualities. Yeah, I've lost. I need you to step in and and be my savior. That's the man that's clean. Let's go read a few verses. Romans 10, one through four. Would you mind reading that when you get there? 10, one through four. Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation. For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth. For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law. with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes. Paul is explaining why the nation of Israel as a whole missed their Messiah and it was because of self-righteousness. He said, go ahead. it says for ignoring the righteousness that comes. So God's like, here's righteousness. And they're like, I got a little bit already. Yeah. I'm good. I'm going to seek it through the law. Yeah. ⁓ this law thing, I got it figured out. I'm going to righteousness through the law. And that's great for the religious leaders. They had a chance. I mean, they thought they had it under control. Yeah, but they didn't. was saying, ⁓ if I got that here, I read that somewhere else recently. But Jesus says, I think I read here to Matthew 5, if your righteousness to make it to heaven has to be greater than the Pharisees righteousness, that would have blown people away listening because they're like, ⁓ I give up. But what's that do that creates a need? He's right. Because Christ's righteous is real righteousness that makes the Pharisees look like filthy rags. We have that here too. And coming out and getting myself. And he says, your rights has to be more than that. And they would have made me thought, well, I got to do what the Pharisees do plus more. Yeah. I go, I don't want to do what the Pharisees do now. Yeah. But what he was talking about was his righteousness. I put here, they were they? Why? They missed their Messiah. Was it because of zeal? No, they buckets full of zeal, right? It was because of self-righteousness. They chose righteousness through the law. Romans 6 33, me back up, Matthew 6 33, Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. We blow right, that's one of those verses that we just wrote right past. Whose righteousness do we seek? His. His righteousness. Many times I read that for years ago. Oh, I got to go seek God and his kingdom and go be righteous. It doesn't say seek God, his kingdom and his righteousness, go. not my righteousness, His righteousness. It's a picture of the New Covenant and as a gift, righteousness as a gift away from the law. That's what Jesus is talking about. I put here Adam and Eve sought the law. They sought the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to know both, right? But they couldn't handle the knowledge of evil. They thought they could, but they couldn't. They exchanged the tree of life for the tree of knowledge of good and evil because they were deceived. That's what Romans 10, one through four is saying. And I put here, and we've been doing it ever since. Our flesh wants to justify itself. That's part of the flesh of fallen man is the desire to justify ourselves, to show our rightness, to show our righteousness by something that we've done. I put here, that's why we make excuses. We bend the truth so we look better, we judge others, we automatically rank ourselves and others according to paycheck, according to our IQ, according to race. according to culture, according to gender, according to any other number things that we choose to somehow ourselves of. It's this need justify ourselves, ⁓ to made righteous by our own doing. And that's what all the lepers that were declared unclean represent. But the one that has no hope and nothing to boast in, no self-hope, no self-righteousness. I got nothing to boast in. Boom, he's made clean. I've got here, this leper was totally helpless and he understood his need for a savior. Isaiah 64, 6, we've read it before so we won't go there, but it says, even our good deeds are filthy minstrel rags before God. That's our good stuff. Isaiah 64, 6. Matthew 5 is what I was talking about earlier. See, the Pharisees had taken the law and they had this bar that's the law and they'd moved it down where they can jump over the bar. Now they didn't want it too low because they didn't want the average guy to be able to jump over it, right? They wanted to create this fleshly ranking among religious folks. But they brought the bar down and they go, okay, don't commit adultery. Well, I've never slept with another woman. I'm good. Don't kill anybody. ⁓ I've never killed anybody. I'm good. Many of them have, by the way. But anyway, that's a different story. They were corrupt. But Jesus said, no, the bar you've lowered at the bar is up there at the moon. Because if you've lusted after a woman, it's no different than committing adultery. If you've hated somebody, it's no different than committing murder. He goes, hey, it's your heart. Your motives have to be pure, not just your actions, but your inner motives behind what you do must be pure. That's the reason. You can't do a righteous act unless you're already righteous. People that want to say, ⁓ righteous is that's for the great by and by somewhere when we get to heaven. But right now we need to act righteous. No, no, no, no. If I've got to do anything, then I need something in return. It can't be righteous. So if I'm helping you with something because I need righteousness, so therefore I think I'm going to do a righteous act. It's not a righteous act because my motives are selfish and self-centered. Only when I'm fully righteous can I then go. be righteous and do righteous things. Because now I help you not wanting anything in return. Right. Not needing anything back. And it's Matthew 520. I think I got it right here. I got it. Okay, Matthew 520. Where I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. There you go. He just laid it out. Everybody in his son's voice go, well, what? Again, he's taken self-righteous people and he's applied the law to it. Double-barreled shotgun full-law going, you can't, cause then he explains about murder and adultery. And he goes, you can't get there from here guys. But I've got some righteousness that will make the Pharisees righteousness look like what it really is, which is filthy rags. Interesting. Yep. Yep. Romans when you get chance Romans 5 I'll let you stay in Romans. I'm gonna go to the feedings. Romans 5, 15 through 17. Okay. But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, multiply to the many? And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment resulting from the one transgression led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. For if by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one. How much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ? Okay, God's righteousness a gift by the obedience of Jesus Christ. So what that says, see most of us think I'm a sinner because I sin, and that's not true. I sin because I'm a sinner. Why am I a Because Adam sinned. So we all come into this world sinners because of Adam sinned and then we earn it fair and square. Our resume supports it. But then something steps in, someone steps in and now we are declared righteous as a gift because of Jesus' obedience. So we're no longer sinner because of Jesus' obedience, we are now righteous. But we have to receive it. It says, because of those who receive the gift of righteousness, the gift of, receive his grace and his gift of righteousness now reign in life. So we have to receive it. That's that's the leopard that's got no hope. He receives it. That's what we're said there. We have to receive what Jesus has done for us. And now we go from sinner to saint, holy one. Saint means holy. We still sin, we're not controlled by it. We don't sin near as often and we get less and less. Our motives change, go from self-righteous motives to motives of love because we're fully loved, fully approved, fully accepted, right? So that's what... That's what this leper who's got no hope in himself now becomes clean as a gift. All right, let's go to, where are you still in Romans? Romans 3.27, flip over to 3.27, read that if you don't mind. Okay. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what principle of works? No, but by the principle of faith. Okay, no works. It's all a gift. And then go to skip forward to 4.2. 4.2. And five. And verse five. What a description of God. We would never do that description. You and I would declare the godly righteous. describes himself and says, what I do is I declare the ungodly righteous. That's a great verse. don't have it on my notes, but going down to 4-8 is another one. Happy is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin. many church for years we go in and go, God will never count my sin against me. You'd be dog piled or thrown out. Yeah. But that's, that's a direct quote from Romans four eight. Happy is the one who gets in the Lord will never count sin. Ephesians two eight nine. For by grace you are saved through faith and this is not from yourselves. The leper covered in head and toe is not of him, not over yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not from works. so that no one can boast. can't boast. got a dude, I got a little bit of good skin here. Na na na, I got more than you do. Okay, you're unclean. But as soon as you got no hope, you were clean. Ineglacian's tooth, I'll read it, tooth 21. I do not set aside God's grace because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing. So if we're going to walk around bragging about the law, bragging about our righteousness in self, we're actually saying Christ died for nothing. Right. He didn't need to. He didn't need to because I had it figured out. I'm done except for I just want to read these last pages as far as the righteousness, some of the benefits the righteous. you have any questions or thing you want to go to first? No. You know, when you take the Old Testament and the Old Testament talks about righteous, you can plug yourself into that because you are in fact righteous. Right. not going to be righteous someday. You're not kind of righteous. You're not weak weak, sort of righteous, but not really. You are fully righteous. The New Testament uses no other word to describe you in this regard. You are right before God. There's only two people the planet, those who are right before God and those who are not right before God. And 13 would teach us that we're only right before God when we realize that we got nothing to contribute to being right before God. And that in Christ makes us right God. And I think you said before that if you think you're not righteous now as a Christian, what act in the future or what event is going to make you righteous? What more can happen? there are believers that will tell you that I'm not righteous, I'm, you know, Someday that's, that's for the, I'm not ending just what you said. So what event, what future event is going to make you righteous? And we talked about that. The two answers that I would give to that or I see people given to that would be well when I die I'll be righteous. I'm like so Christ's death didn't make you righteous but your death is going to make you righteous? Are you sure about that? Sure. And then you go well no I won't be that one okay no that doesn't make any sense so it's when I get to heaven I'm like okay wait a minute let's just back up the righteous go to heaven. Sinners don't go to heaven. Wearing, there's no car wash that you go through that makes you righteous you go into the door of heaven. That's not anywhere in scripture. You're righteous because of Christ now, or you're not righteous because ⁓ you've your faith in yourself. and you got no hope. So yeah. Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 through 15 is the blessings of those who obey continually the law of Moses. 16 through like 68 or so plus or minus is the curses that come on those who disobey the law of Moses. Christ obeyed on my behalf so I can take and plug in and read those blessings belonging to me and my family. do the same anywhere where says righteous. When James says, talking Elijah, talking about the righteousness of a... prayer of a righteous man is powerful or avails much. So I can myself, so what I did here is I went, okay, let's go look at the Proverbs just as an example of a place in the Old Testament, we can go back and look and let's plug in righteousness and see what the righteous get in Proverbs. And then we can go, that's mine. I'll add my amen to this promise because I'm in fact righteous. And here's, let me just jump through them. Chapter two, seven and eight. God guards the paths of the righteous. Verse 333, his dwelling, the righteous dwelling is blessed. 418, his path shines brighter and brighter. 10.3, he will not go hungry. 10.6, blessings are on his head, his or her head. Talking about the righteous. In verse 10, finally just, chapter 10, I just gave up doing the verses and just put, because there's so much, but the memory of the righteous is sweet. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. The wages lead to life of the righteous. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. The lips of the righteous feed many. The righteous, their desire will be granted. They are established forever. Their hope brings joy. They will never be removed. The righteous, their mouth brings forth wisdom. Skip into chapter 11, verse 8 and 9. The righteous is delivered from trouble. Verse 11, 21, the righteous, their children will be delivered. Verse 23, their desires lead only to good. Verse 28, they will flourish. Verse 30, their fruit produces life. Chapter 12, verse three, the righteous cannot be moved. The righteous, their household will stand. Verse seven, verse 13, the righteous escapes trouble. 13, verse nine, their light shines brightly. Verse 21, in chapter 13, the righteous prosper. Chapter 15 six in the house is abundant wealth of the righteous in the health of the righteous in the house of the righteous is abundant wealth. Sorry, I stumbled over that one. That's when I shouldn't stumble over because people will scoff that one, but it's it's scripture. Proverbs 1529 the Lord hears the righteous. Here's their prayer 24 verses 16 when he falls, he gets up again and the last one he is confident as a lion verse 28. Chapter 28, verse one. That's what the righteous of God is and what it brings. And it's just a small segment of that, right? But it's to be in complete right standing before God. That's what Jesus did on our behalf. And now we put our faith in him. He pronounces us righteous. It is a judicial declaration of you are right before God. since it's based on the blood of Jesus, it is permanent. His sacrifice is finished, it's done, it's complete. Boom. We have been completed or perfected in love before him in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So that's a little bit of why, why Levitics 13s. That's really good. It really just startled me and I've just gone back to it a lot and through that and going, yeah. We got nothing. We got nothing to bring. We want something, right? But our faith is, he's the author and the finisher of our faith. the Baptist baptized him with the baptism of repentance. Why? because I need to. I can't even repent on my own. Paul talks about praying for these individuals in the church that have started off in God and done the will of Satan. ⁓ It pray for them that they might, They might be granted repentance. I'm like, oh my goodness, even my repentance is granted. Yeah, you can't do anything because you're a knucklehead. But no longer am I a knucklehead because I've been changed by grace. I have been bought, purchased, made new, created as one that's righteous and holy. good makes life easy you have to figure it out you're you don't have to bring anything you don't have to do anything you have to compare yourself you don't have to happy is a one against I guess from the Lord never counts in yeah yeah I mean meditate on that for a week and see if you can get that sink in yeah that's not what you'll hear from most pulpits or many pulpits right many pulpits think guilt and shame is the way to keep you in line if that kept you in line Jesus would not have taken our guilt and shame If guilt and shame were a good thing, would not have been placed on Christ and he would have not taken it away. That's true. And nor is the point even our behavior or our. Am I trying to say it's not a self-improvement book? Yeah. I've said it's just fixes itself when you bask in his love for you. Yeah. And his ⁓ you righteous. Everything else just fix itself and deny yourself. Right. Yeah. That's what that's all. All this is is going. Okay. Yeah. I receive it. Yeah. But what about, don't give me the but what about, yeah. I it. It is the only way to become like Christ. Whether you're talking about morally or you're talking about walking in power, or you're talking about walking in wisdom. all about... deny yourself and put everything you got in him. Awesome. Good stuff to ponder. All right. Anything else, Randy? No, sir. Thank you.