Published: April 3, 2025 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Leviticus - The Parable of Leviticus 2 - Part 7 | Scripture: Leviticus 14
Transcript
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So uh we come to chapter 14 of Leviticus where we read the Lord spoke to Moses saying this shall be the law of the and I'm going to say the meds your Bibles probably say leper as mine does
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in the day of his cleansing. Okay. Um, I've made this point before, but I want to I want to make it again because we're we're at that point in the
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text. But in chapters 13 and 14 where we read about the skin disease, the skin afflictions, there is an expectation of
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healing which is probably the strongest argument against the disease being what we normally consider to be leprosy for which we know there is no
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cure. There's treatment but there's no cure. So we
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start by realizing that the overarching expectation of both chapters 13 goes into 14 is of a recovery. So we go back then to the holiness
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spectrum that we talked about several weeks ago and looking at the the camp of Israel. This is not to scale by the way. Um, we know that the most holy place
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where God's presence dwells is the holy of holies and that is the most holy place on earth in the time
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of Israel because this is where the God of creation, the God of the universe has caused his glory, the shikina to dwell. And this is where he dwells in the midst
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of his people. And we've talked about how um drawing them near and yet keeping them apart through the two veils, the veil between the holy of holies and the
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holy place where the candalabra was and the table of showbread and the altar of incense. And then another veil when you would go back out into the tent of meeting and that would be the the brazen
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altar which is out here. So you you go the progression of holiness. We've looked at this
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degrees upward as you move in to that area. Those were the the uh the different the four zones, the camp, the tent of meeting, the holy place, and the holy of holies. Four
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holiness zones. But there was a fifth and that's outside the camp.
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Outside the camp of Israel. So all and I didn't draw this correctly because this was in the center but the the 12 I'm sorry the 11 tribes resided around around the tabernacle.
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Yes. That was the camp. Um that that was that was the holy camp because this is a holy priesthood as Exodus 19 verse 6
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says if if you will obey these things you will be to me a royal or a holy priesthood holy nation. And then he also sets up the Levitical priesthood and the ironic high priest. But out here, you
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know, we we said this is kind of zone five, but in reality, the the holiness
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content of this place outside the camp is camp is zero. This is the
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wilderness. Okay, this is this is the world. Um, it's very symbolic because of course what we're reading and when we're reading what
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we're reading, Israel is in the wilderness, the wilderness of of Sinai. They have not come into the land yet. They're not living in cities yet. And so
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this is this is symbolic. this doesn't um this is supposed to continue on in perpetuity, meaning that it's supposed to apply even when they're living in the
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cities of of Canaan, which they are not yet in Leviticus 13:14. Well, all of these chapters. So, this is kind of a symbolic world. It's a
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microcosm of of the world itself in the sense that
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um there are God's people and then there is the rest of the world and the rest of the world is is as the wilderness compared to God's people. Um, it's it's also symbolic
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of Eden. And that's going to become very important when we get to Leviticus 16, that not only are the temple or I'm sorry, the tabernacle furnishings and and the weavingings of the of the um
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coverings and the veil were they were symbolic of of Genesis of creation. We've also seen the illusion in the dietary laws for example and in other
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parts of Genesis 1 2 and 3 are alluded to and echo in Leviticus. So the creation motif, the
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Eden garden Eden garden motif runs throughout scripture. When we resume biblical theology, Lord willing, in our next study, we're going to be looking at how
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that motif really uh comes into a major uh role in Israel's call, in their commission, and in their history. But it
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it's all kind of, you know, the this whole thing here, the camp, the tabernacle, the tent of meaning, um, and then the the sanctuary, the holy place, and the holy of
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holies. This this is like [Music] um this this is like a Lego version of the universe and at the center of it is
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God. And so we have to keep that in mind because if you don't then the application of these things is purely historical and you can't you can't even really you have a real hard time even
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applying it to Solomon's temple and to the cities of of Bethada and Capernium and Jerusalem and you know they're not living in the wilderness in tents
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surrounding the tabernacle anymore. They're now living in the land. And yet all of these rituals, all of these ordinances, the priesthood itself
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continued into that. Okay. So, um we have to be uh listening and and looking for the symbolism that we we have in this whole setup. So the the the
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person, the person with Zarat, the Israelite afflicted with some skin disease that was active and active and visible was put outside the camp. And I
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mentioned last week that there was a camp outside the camp. That out of several million people, there's going to be a fair number of people who are in some phase of some form of uncleanness.
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But this is about as far you can you can go is outside the camp. Um the only place after that is to be completely cut off and that usually meant some form of
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judicial execution. Um but that that was you know that was the most serious offense. But in terms of the purity laws and that was always for moral crimes.
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Okay. What we're dealing with here are ritual uncleanness and there was no capital punishment for ritual uncleanness. That that wasn't that wasn't the thing. Now, if a man was
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contaminated by a corpse, and I mentioned before, corpse uncleanness or corpse impurity was like the um what's the opposite of gold? Probably
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the the little poop emoji. It's the poop standard of impurity. It it is the most virulent impurity that is mentioned in
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scripture is corpse impurity. And yet even that is not as severe as Msura because the Metsura the the person
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with the skin
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zombie is a living dead. Whatever the skin affliction may have been, the appearance of it was symbolic of the process of really of putrifaction, though it wasn't. He
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wasn't dead, but he was treated as if dead. And yet the whole tenor of the chapters is that ex the expectation of
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recovery. So it wasn't a um a terminal disease nor nor was it a judicial death. The person was put out of the camp because of ritual
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uncleanness that was of a very highly contagious nature. But as I said before that contagion had nothing to do with the disease itself. It does not mean that
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the skin affliction was contagious. His uncleanness was uncleanness was contagious. And one of the things I think that helps me understand all of this is that
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contagion like contagion like sin is not a material substance. So we're not talking about a viral or a bacterial contagion here.
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We're talking about a spiritual contagion that infects without touching. Does that make
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sense? The writer of Hebrews calls it in chapter 12, I think it is, uh, a root of bitterness. He's not talking about an actual plant, regardless of ve
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vegetales, you know, rumor weed or whatever. uh that you know he's talking about something that is non-material and yet it will spring up and what defile many. I think he's all of Hebrews is
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just absolutely just absolutely uh steeped in Leviticus. Um and I think that's what's on his mind as he's saying this that that sin is not a material
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substance. It's a spiritual contagion. And and so uncleanness is the uh kind of the visible manifestation of
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corruption. Corruption due to sin. Not necessarily personal sin, but the sin that dwells in all human flesh. And so
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you have you do have a whole realm of ritual I'm sorry, moral impurity sins. But that's not what we've been talking about all this time. from
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Leviticus one on we've not touched upon except for when you defraud somebody. I mean some of the sins in Leviticus uh in the guilt offering you have to make
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reparation and and clearly you you very rarely accidentally defraud someone. It's kind of by the definition that it's malicious. U so yeah there are some sins
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but for the most part you even had sins of which the person wasn't even aware ignorant sins. Um, and then you have other offerings that that were just votive or peace offerings or uh free
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will offerings. And then when you get into these uncleanness, there's no mention of sin even to the point that whereas in the in the earlier ones where
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there was some um offense, even if it was unwitting or or ignorant, the priest shall make atonement and he shall be forgiven.
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That's that's kind of the formula in Leviticus 1-7. In 12-15, the formula is not that. It's the priest shall make atonement and he shall be clean. So that that's a very important
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distinction because you're forgiven of sin. You're cleansed from uncleanness, from impurity. And all of it is to remind us as we read it and certainly to
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remind the Israelites as they lived it that they were dwelling in the presence of an absolutely holy God. Okay, that that was really that's kind of the focus of the whole thing. So, one
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of the things I want to reiterate again because I feel like it's it's so ingrained in modern western especially fundamentalist interpretation of these
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rituals that we we have to somehow find uh a medicinal or hygienic reason. and like no that that's
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not in not in there. And and even if we were to make and we've talked about this before, um I'm not I'm not I am not saying that some of the things we read weren't just
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plain good plain good ideas. I'm saying that that's not the purpose here. That's not the point. And in this case when when we get to the idea of chapter 14, many commentators
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spend a great deal of time asking this
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question. How was he healed? There is no mention of how the man is healed. It simply says that when he is he is cleansed, the day of his cleansing. Now,
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that's an interesting word because he's actually not cleansed yet. In fact, in chapter 14, he will be declared clean three times. Okay? So, that goes back to
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this that that these terms that we like to think of as absolute are actually degrees. He's clean so he can come back into the
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camp but he can't go home. Then he's clean so he can go to the tent of meeting and then he's clean. So he's clean. He's clean. He's clean. All
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right. Now obviously that means there were three different authors that were stitched. Now I'm not kidding. That's exactly what the modern scholars say that this is proof that you have three idiot authors who couldn't put it
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together without sounding rep uh repetitious. Um, no, no, it doesn't. It means that the word clean, like the word saved, like so many words, is a concept that that can um
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well, even the word faith, it is susceptible to susceptible to degrees. Okay? While he's out here with the sat, he is
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unclean. There there's no there's no degrees. You know, the priest didn't go out every day and said, "Looking better. You know, you're only half unclean." No, no, you're unclean and you're outside
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the camp. But the clean the the clean designation is susceptible to degrees as he moves closer and closer to the center of it all, which for the for the average
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Israelite was the tent of meeting and the altar. And that was that was their that is as far as they could go. For the ironic priest, it was the holy place.
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For the high priest, it was the holy of holies. And we're that's where we're going as we work through Leviticus. We're going to Leviticus 16 yom kapore the day of atonement where we are going
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into the holy of holies. So um the whole progression of Leviticus is moving us in this direction. But Leviticus 14 takes us there through the rituals of the
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cleansing of the metsura the man with or the Israelite with the skin affliction. So, how was he healed?
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Well, most commentators look commentators look at the examples, and we talked about this last week, but they look at the examples of people who are afflicted
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with Zarat by the Lord. That would be Miriam, that would be Moses, that would be Uzziah. Okay, non can't be added
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there because we have no indication that his affliction was from Yahweh. But he can be added there because his affliction was cured through the intervention of a prophet as was
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Miriam's. Uzziah's wasn't cured at all. And so the conventional wisdom
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here you know that that phrase means wrong thinking. Okay. Conventional wisdom means the wrong thinking. It's kind of euphemistic. First of all
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zarat is divine punishment.
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And we talked about that last week. And that's confusion or a conflating. God can use a physical affliction as divine punishment. But that does not mean every evidence of that physical affliction is
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divine punishment. Jesus kind of put that to rest, you know, when he said about the tower that fell on th those people. Don't don't think it's because they're or or the blind man. You know, we talked about that last week. You
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know, was it he who sinned or was it his parents? Jesus answer was no. Your thinking is wrong.
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an analogy to this I mean yes it's it's noted because it was divine judgment but an analogy to this would be baronness was barren to her the day of her death because she mocked David as he
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rejoiced before the Lord that was a judgment But Hannah wasn't barren because of a judgment, nor was Sarah. So or or Elizabeth. I mean, so baronness is
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another one of those things that came to be considered as divine punishment. Okay. And this is also cultural too. Okay. So um this is again
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conventional wisdom. And then the other thing is only healed by divine intervention.
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Again, that just comes right out of like Naaman and also Miriam. Moses interceding for Miriam. Um, and they are healed. Of course, Miriam had to be outside the camp for seven days. God was not going to immediately
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heal her because of the nature of her rebellion, but because of those examples, we're we're applying them to all such situations. and and then of
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course the text that we're reading now is silent. There's no mention of how the the meds was healed. Okay? And so the conclusion is made is that the that that
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is a divine punishment. Well, that's wrong. There's no mention of that in the text and that the healing is is only from God. Maybe through prophetic
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intervention, but it's it's only from God. That's otherwise you're not healed. Well, there's no mention of that in the text either. Now, the the the
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uh the root of this kind of thinking has since the
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primitive peoples were just that they were primitive. They did not have medicine. that whatever their their physicians were were quasi shaman type people, medicine men
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um and and that they they mixed their their hygiene and their their medicinal science with their religion and their cult. And so we just
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apply that to Israel. And it's very often concluded then that what we do ha have here are the priests as
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physicians. There is no indication in the text the text whatsoever that the priest does anything more than diagnose that yes this is in fact an active form of zaharat. get out
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of dodge and then let us know when it clears up. Okay? There's no indication that he said, "Take two aspirins, call me in the morning." There's no treatment
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mentioned. There's no there's no immersion or bathing or or talc or anything mentioned until we get to the purification process and the person's
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already healed. Right? And so what goes on from this point, verses 1 and two, through the rest of the chapter has nothing to do with the actual healing of the man.
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In fact, until he is healed, he doesn't call for the priest. He's still unclean. Okay? So again, the argument is these were these
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were ancient people. These were primitive people. They really didn't know what they were doing. And so they they were superstitious people. And so they they developed a medicinal aspect
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to their religious cult. Well, that is true of a lot of ancient cultures, but it's also true of most ancient cultures that they had a distinct class of
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physicians who were remarkably good at whatever they did. whether it was herbal, they also performed surgery,
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dental surgery. There was quite a bit the ancients did that would kind of surprise us. Now, we wouldn't want to do it ourselves because they didn't really develop good anesthesia or or or
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sanitation, but you know, they they did amazing things in terms of of the physical human body and medicinal. Um it it's rather interesting and I won't get
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into the graphic details but if you look at the way the ancients and then the medieval world medieval world um diagnosed human
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health, we really haven't changed much. They may not have known exactly what it was they were looking at, but blood pressure was lowered when you bled someone. They also tended to check urine
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and stool, but we haven't come a whole lot further along. Okay? So, they they weren't really ignorant. And as believers, we need to we need to really
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settle our minds on that that God that man was created in the image of God. There was never a time when man was was an well, let me put it this way. Man in
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general was never an ignorant cavedwelling boob. cavedwelling boob. men in particular still are okay. I mean, you can find examples of
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barbarism and and lunacy and ignorance in every generation of of humanity. Okay? So, you got to be careful how you say that. And in societies, too, you can
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find primitive societies that have digressed back almost as as the psalmist said, like the beast that they're without understanding. They're like the beast that perishes. Lauren
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Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Some of them seem to be going backwards on that scale. that um but if you if you read ancient history and and archaeology has provided us with a lot of information over the past 200
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years um that has kind of disproved the whole notion that man was ever ignorant that he was ever barbaric and and and without any understanding of the world
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in which he lived. I have no doubt that Israel as a nation had physicians. I mean Moses grew up in the Egyptian court and the the ancient Egyptians were
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famous for their for their physicians. Okay. So we we have to just kind of this is another example of where the hermeneutic that we do
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select will have a massive input impact on the interpretation we arrive at. If we approach the dietary laws and and we approach these impurity law or these
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purity laws from a hygienic or a medical standpoint, I submit to you that we're going to miss the meaning of them almost entirely. I I just I just believe that.
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this person. No, I don't because to think that would be to go beyond what's written. I don't know. Maybe some of the priests were physicians. I I don't doubt that that's possible.
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people. I mean, as far as the data, I I'm not saying they didn't. I would hope they would have the compassion to pray for them their healing. I mean, I'm not saying they didn't. I'm just saying the text doesn't let us conclude that. All
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the physician is doing is determining whether a person is clean or unclean. It is the physician's pri or I'm sorry the priest's primary duty to maintain the
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cleanliness and purity of first the tent of meeting but then also the camp. So they're they're not medical
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professionals. They're kind of the cleanness to cleanness to Gustapo. They're they're supposed to keep the place clean.
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No, not not that I know of. I mean, that's a good question.
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Yeah. And and you have that in Mark five with the woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years that she had been to pretty much every physician. They had taken all that she had owned. Uh her life savings, she was no better. She was actually
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worse. And I don't know what degree of desperation. I don't know what her mind was, but you know, she came to the point where if I if I merely touch the hem of his garment. Okay.
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Um yeah, I'm sure there were there were uh shysters and charlatans and there were also honest um physicians
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um physicians u you know and and even Jesus says himself you know you will say to me physician heal thyself which which indicates at least in his day there were there were physicians and and so what
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I'm saying is that that was a whole different realm. We don't need to mix them because I think if we mix them, we're going to lose the point of what this is all about. This is all about a
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holy God dwelling in the midst of an unholy people and vice versa. That's what it's all about. And that's how the New Testament writers interpret it. That's what the parable of Leviticus is
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all about. Okay? It's not about this or that disease or healing or anything like that. It's about dwelling in the presence of a holy God when you are an unholy people. How can it be done? Okay.
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So, um you know, I I I know that it might be interesting to read the various theories about this or that dietary law or this or that impurity or what this disease
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was, but my point is is that honestly that is going down the wrong path. Um and and I think it will it will lead to
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lead to a a diminishing of the actual power of what it is we're reading. Because what we're reading, of course, if if what we're reading is culminated in
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Christ, then it must have a whole lot more meaning and power in it than we tend to see. If if he is the one um then then this must be a lot more significant
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than we realize. And and I don't and and again the the prosperity or the health gospel says that you know this proves that Christians should not be sick. They you know they have healing in the Lord.
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Uh that is not what the scripture teaches and that's not you can't really you can't legitimately get that from what we're reading. So the the point
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here then just to kind of summarize from from the from the notes, the emphasis of the purity law is that of the relationship of the
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individual Israelite to the community and to the cult centered on the tabernacle. So everything that we've been talking about, the dietary laws, the purpose of
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those was to make a distinction between the clean and the unclean. And then as soon as we get to chapter 12 and we start the purity laws, it's the same thing again. It's to make a distinction
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between clean and unclean. Blood of a certain type rendered a person unclean. Skin afflictions that were visible to the priest rendered a person unclean. If
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you were unclean, that meant you you were pushed back down this scale and possibly even outside the camp. Okay? Not always outside the camp.
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And sometimes you were only unclean until the evening. You washed your clothes, you took a bath, you were fine. When the sun went down, you were clean. Okay? Um, depending on how long you were
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unclean, you might have to actually bring a bring a sacrifice in order to regain the status of clean that all the camp enjoys
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because of the grace of Yahweh and him calling them out of Egypt. Remember, the normal position for the Israelite was not unclean but clean. Okay? They were not trying to get
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themselves clean. they already were and these were the things that could render them unclean and then followed by how to get back. Okay, so defilement there's the expectation of
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purification. Now if the person refused to be purified, I started this a few minutes ago. If he was contaminated by corpse impurity and refused to be cleansed, he
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was to be cut off from the people. Then it became moral. There's no longer ritual. Now the person is in rebellion over a matter of very deep significance
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and that is death. Well death is what we're dealing with here. The zaharat was essentially viewed in fact Aaron calls it that when he's referring and trying to intercede for
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his sister. He says you know may she not suffer this living death. Um and I I think that gives us an idea whatever this was it it must have
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must have been visibly very distressing probably physically as well. Okay. So Okay. So um the the point of all of this
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according to the text so let's what does the text say? Well what it says is the man is cleansed. It doesn't tell us
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how. So there are there are three possibilities. There may be more but the text says the
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says the mura is
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Now in verse two that must mean healed. It cannot have the context of the ritual cleansing because that is yet to come. So this is almost step one of four instead of three. The the first step
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being he no longer has the skin affliction. The priest comes out to investigate and says, "Yep, you look good and let's let's start the process." Okay. So what the text tells
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us is that he is healed possibly the passage of time. I think maybe it was viral. It
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just had to work its way through his system and it did. And with the passage of time, he no longer has the affliction. That's plausible because time passed during the diagnosis, right?
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seven days and then sometimes another seven days. So that whatever the skin affliction was, it was susceptible to
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There may have been uh herbalists, you know, and you know, take some wolf's bane and and and some nanoline and, you know, mix it together and put it on. That happened, you know, that
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happened in the ancient world, happened in the medieval world, still happening today. Homeopathic remedies. Okay. Um, you know, go to CVS and buy some Aino and take a bath. There there's no reason
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to deny that there there would have been some physician, some physical assistance that he might have been able to to make to avail himself of that in fact took away the skin affliction. And then of
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course there's always the possibility that God healed
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him. That's not a whole lot different than what we deal with today, is it? When we're sick. What is amazing is that there are many evangelicals who are too impatient for
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this one, have no time for this one, and expect this
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one, right? They have no money. Well, they have no no money for the second one either. Um yeah, I mean yeah, this it's that is true. uh although although
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frankly I don't know how true that is in our country honestly as I have had some some major medical procedures in my life at times when I did not have insurance so um I don't know that I can
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fully agree yeah it looks so terribly expensive and it really the numbers are are really amazing uh but what they do is also is also amazing I think uh personally
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So I I just what I what I'm trying to say is that this is a mentality that that we have applied to ancient Israel, but it's also one that we apply to our own lives in our in the the church
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today. And that is we we expect God to to just intervene and heal us when that has really never been his
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mo. We're being presumptuous to do that. And perhaps if we do not avail ourselves of medical professional assistance that
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we're also being somewhat presumptuous. Now, we may not be outside the camp, but we are kind of, you know, for example, if you know, if your nose
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is running like a tap and you're coughing all the time, we're going to put you outside the camp and we ask that you put yourself outside the camp, right? And forever long you're sick, you
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you are outside fellowship. Again, I'm I'm I'm stretching the analogy, but physical illness does
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separate medically. And we just assume you come back inside the camp as we hope you would as
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Like Aaron was saying, this is the last resort. you know, you're on death's doorstep and you finally call the priest. Um, yeah, I I appreciate that. I think I do think they are all interrelated and I think it's it's important to to point out as Jenny just
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did that that our physical bodies work to our own healing and that's of God. Okay? that even though the corruption of sin has made sickness and disease and
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death the common lot of mankind yet by God's grace we have white blood cells you know we have uh we have immunities we you know and we actually build up
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immunities so I'm not saying that the medical by no means is the medical profession infallible or inherent and and I think it's you know
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common knowledge that many physicians have god have god complexes and you know it's like okay but they also do kind of know more what they're doing than than I do and I think
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that we can we can look at this and say yeah it's kind of a it's kind of a whole package um and again I'm taking it into the medical realm where I didn't want to
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take it but the bottom line is at the end of the day the guy's healed okay now what he doesn't simply come back into the camp. And I think that's what's
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what's interesting about chapter 14. And this has been noted by a number of commentators. This is one of the most complex purification rituals that we
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read in the Old Testament. Okay? So it it's it ranks up there uh with the ordination and consecration of the priests which and it
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actually has uh several steps that are almost identical to the consecration of the priest. So the the complexity of chapter
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14 is is is very unique and I think by that it tells us something of the nature of the disease that has been healed. And like I said, I think it is a visible
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representation of death in the living. When someone was actually dead, you buried them out of your sight. They they did not continue to be visible.
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This is a person who while living is as if dead. And so he is put out of the camp because he represents death and death cannot be in the camp. Okay. So
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when we look at this
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now, we're looking again at the most complex ritual that we read about in the whole purity laws and that is the the purification of the healed metora. It is
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a um threestage um threestage process with two purifications. Okay.
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Okay. Now, when you read the English of your well, the English is actually a pretty good translation. Um, you see in verses 2 and three what appear to be a
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contradiction. This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now, he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. go out to to the
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outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look and if the infection of leprosy has been healed of in the leper, then he shall do the
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process. A lot of commentators like to point out that again the redactor was was pretty stupid. On verse two, he goes to the priest. In verse three, the
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priest goes to him. Um he doesn't go to the priest. He's un he's outside the camp. He can't just come into the camp. The what the phrase means is that
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his condition is brought to the attention of the priest. He he does not physically go to the priest. The priest goes to him because that would be shortcircuiting. For him to go to the priest would mean
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for him to go to the tent of meeting. He can't do can't do that. The priest goes out to him. So the first stage in the process is out here.
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Now what that means is that what is happening outside the camp is not a sacrifice. Even though there is death and there is blood, it is not a
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sacrifice. It's not being done in the tent of meeting and it's not being done in the camp. So it's it's it's not a sacrifice.
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one. For the man to come back into the camp, there must be the shedding of blood because blood is uh one author actually calls it a ritual
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detergent. Water is as well but not as powerful as blood. Now the way this works outside the camp is unique in in of any of the um
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rituals. Okay. So let's look at this step one. Here's the ritual. Two
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free birds. Is that Led Zeppelin or is that who is that free? uh um two. Now what this means is these
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are birds that are not domesticated and they they are not the standard necessarily the standard birds
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of sacrifice. If you look at the text, there's no mention of it being turtle doves or doves or pigeons. Actually, there's actually no mention that they have to be clean. Now,
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it's kind of assumed that you would not, you know, take a couple of eagles and do this, but you would take two essentially wild birds. Then you would take, now this is
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only mentioned one other place in scripture. You will
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cedarwood, scarlet thread or cord and hissup. The other place where these three are mentioned is in the process
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of creating the purification water from the red the red hepher where these three are actually thrown into the fire that consumes the
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red hepher and that there therefore they combine with the ashes that are then mixed with water and are used to cleanse somebody of corpse uncleanness. Okay, that's very very odd
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ritual that the writer of Hebrews actually refers to in chapter nine along with the yom kapor sacrifice. He throws in the the the red hepher uh and I don't
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know that I mean that's that's a very strange ritual but it's the only other place that we read of the cedarwood the scarlet thread and the hissup. Now,
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hissup we read quite a bit because it's often used to sprinkle the blood on the sancta of the tabernacle and then later the temple. Um, it's kind of funny to
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read the rabbis say which hissip you can use and which hissip you can't use. Um, where okay you no name brand. No. Yeah. That's very Jewish. Oh
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dear. No Greek hissup and no Roman hissup. And then there's several other hissups that you're not allowed to use. Uh and don't really know there were that many hissups. But
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um generally this is viewed as um the cedar is a is a red wood. Scarlet obviously is obviously is red. Hup
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isn't. Then what happens next? It seems like the hissup and the um cedarwood are tied to one of the
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birds by the scarlet cord and then that bird is bird is killed. He's killed over running water which is collected in a bowl. Now
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by running water that means water that has come from either a stream or an or an artisian well u but not not not from a sistern not stagnant water not water
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that was collected. So that's it's literally it's living water. Okay. So this is all this is what the priest is doing. He's killing he's tying up this bird with with h with hissup and cedar
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wood and then he's killing it and the blood is
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collected. The live bird is then taken and dipped in the blood. Let me let me go ahead and and read it because this this is a very odd procedure that goes on here. on here. Um then the priests shall give orders to
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take two live clean okay clean birds I'm sorry uh that it is does say clean birds and cedarwood and a scarlet string and hissup for the one who is to be
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cleansed. The priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthn well vessel over living water. As for the live bird, he shall
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take it. Oh, I'm sorry. He's the one who gets the I I'm sorry, I get this backwards. He's the one who gets everything tied to him. He is to take that and the scarlet and the hissup and the cedarwood and dip them in the blood
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of the bird that was slain. And he will shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy. So, we just read up above that
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he is cleansed and he calls for the priest and now he's to be cleansed. So you see the progressive nature of this. Um I don't think there's I' I've not
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read any good explanation of what this ritual stands for or what it means. One of the birds is dipped in blood and then used to sprinkle the
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other the the man who is healed. That's his first step of cleansing. What is significant here if if you're you know if you've let scripture interpret scripture you still sometimes don't come
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up with an answer the cedarwood the hissup and the scarlet are only used together with regard to the red heer there doesn't
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appear to be any connection between the two except that both are purity rituals. That's the only connection is that they're both purity rituals.
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Um, some say it's because the cedar wood is red, the scarlet is red, the blood is red, and hissip is a good thing for it's like a sponge. So, it's it's good for um
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sprinkling. I I don't know. But what is significant? Aaron,
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Yeah, it it it's that's another strange ritual that they're they're actually taking an oath before the Lord. Um and the death of the hepher is is to stand. It's kind of like
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um like cutting a covenant that they're they're they're almost saying that that if we're lying, his blood be on our head. Um and so yeah, there
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obviously these things are are associated with with with death. The bird is the one bird is killed and its blood is used to sprinkle. But this is not a
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not a sacrifice to Yahweh. It's not being done in any sense like the the ones that we've read about in chapters 1-7. And it's not even being done in the camp. But but what is
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interesting about this is that when this ritual is done, the live bird is released to fly away over the field. Now, one one thought that I thought was
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plausible was that one of the reasons that these were were wild birds is so that the bird would not return to its dove coat, that it wouldn't come
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wouldn't come back. So, there does seem to be some transference of something, if that makes sense. We're going to see this. Where else do we see something released into
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the wilderness? the wilderness? Yeah, the goat. Okay. So, what we have here is kind of a scape bird, right? A the bird that got
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away. Uh, right. No kidding. I'm hoping they untied it.
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untied it. Fly. Um, so the the next step is the live bird is set free.
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Now, I don't know that that we can understand this ritual in the light of the scapegoat of
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Leviticus 16. But I think we might be able to better understand that one in the light of this ritual.
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Well, he's clean now. Yeah. Um, that that's that's that's a reasonable thought that is it the transference or or is it just the symbolic transference of his of his uncleanness and and so that it does not
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come back into the camp because this is all this all has to be done before he crosses the line into the camp. Okay. So, I think that's a good thought that something's being transferred here and
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the reason it's being transferred and released into the wilderness is so that it doesn't come into the camp. Okay? Because it's all being done outside which is
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which is unique among you know what's done outside the camp is the burning and disposal of carcasses and the burning of the dead. Good things don't happen outside the camp. So this is a very
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unusual procedure here that's being taken being done outside the camp. So let's conclude provisionally that it's
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the transfer of
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bird who then goes free. All right. As I said, I don't know that I can understand this process. Light
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from Leviticus 16 doesn't really it just that the two are similar. One's a bird and one's a goat. But what happens to them is is the same. But I think it's
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very significant that okay normally we think we have this idea that if sin or uncleanness is transferred to something then that thing becomes
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unclean but this is set free as is the goat. Okay. So I I don't know whether
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there's that that this bird is now unclean. Doesn't say that it is. But what we do know is that whatever is transferred to this bird through the
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sprinkling for the dipping in the blood, whatever is transferred to this bird doesn't come in the camp. And I think that's the same thing in terms of the scapegoat. Okay? that whatever I think I
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think Anna you're you have a good point there is that whatever h is
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jealousy for the purity of the camp is a concept that the church could learn a great deal from. I really do. I think we have often in the church in
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history we have created architecture of purity. normally are church buildings and there are places within the cathedrals for example that you w you
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you cannot go past the screen you know in into what is that place called up there uh the altar uh or the nave what up the apps okay you can't go there if
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you're just a regular parishioner so we create holy space and and that's what we consider um uh sanctified and um uh
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there's another word that was sacred basically that you can't defile it. But but what this is telling us is it this is not the only holy place. This whole
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camp is camp is holy. And so uncleanness could not be brought in. In fact, even if there was no uncleanness left, the symbolic
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uncleanness that made the man go outside the camp in the first place has to be transferred and set free. Now I'm going to suggest a preliminary
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idea carrying it into the moral realm. I'm going to suggest that what we're talking about here is the two-fold aspect of what we call
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justification. And that is the removal of sin's stain and guilt's power.
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There there are two aspects of of human corruption due to sin and that is the penalty and the the guilt. Okay. So again this is
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provisional but if we look at the sprinkling of the blood on the man that would be the cleansing of of his defilement. But then we can look at the
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freeing of the bird as the removal of any guilt. Now in this case, I'm not saying that he was sick because of guilt. Not at least not his
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guilt. But we can always tie any affliction back to original sin. We can any sickness, any disease, and certainly death itself is the wages of sin.
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So it may not be the the ultimate cause of his uncleanness but it is it is certainly a cause of uncleanness. So again just provisional that we have the
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the freeing this deals with guilt. Now, having said that, I I say that because I think this is projecting forward on Leviticus 16, that what we're
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seeing here in Leviticus 14 is an odd ritual that we really can't explain, but it has such similarities to one that is much more well-known, and that is the
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scapegoat, that I think they they must have similar