Weekly passages: Leviticus 14:1-15:33; 2 Kings 7:3-20; Matthew 8:5-17

Some of the least discussed passages of Scripture are those in the Old Testament relating to the control of mildew and infectious diseases. This may be because they do not seem relevant today. But are there truths hidden in these chapters that often get missed?

Clean or Unclean?

In Leviticus 14-15 (which naturally connects with Leviticus 13, part of last week's Torah portion), God institutes a pattern for dealing with infection and disease, which had both a physical and a spiritual purpose: physically, he was safe-guarding his people against contamination. Spiritually, he was keeping them and his dwelling-place pure (Lev 15:31). The regulations unfold thus: priestly examination of the infected person (or house!) led to careful diagnosis, which was followed by a period of quarantine, then further examination (and more quarantine if necessary) until a final decision was reached: clean, or unclean.

Depending on this final diagnosis, the infected person (or building) received a pronouncement of hope or despair, acceptance or rejection, consignment to life or to death. Those declared physically 'clean' were instructed on how to re-integrate into the community and what offerings to bring to God in order to become ceremonially clean again (for an extended discussion of ritual purity, click here). Those declared 'unclean' were ostracised, written off and consigned to a limited life 'outside the camp'. They were the spurned ones, the ones with no hope. Similarly, mildew-ridden houses that remained infected after every attempt had been made to cleanse them were condemned, torn down and their materials disposed of – again, 'outside the camp'.

For all that the Levitical Law provided regarding regulations for ceremonial cleanliness, it could not cure those who had been declared unclean. It gave instructions on ritual cleanliness to those who had already recovered, it instituted measures to prevent further spread of illness, but it offered no physiological solution for those affected.

God's Compassion

Did God not care about the lepers of old, those on whom society had given up? Far from it! In 2 Kings 7, four lepers were explicitly used by God to save the city of Samaria, which was under siege by the Arameans and in a state of starvation. It was the lepers' decision to embrace their consignment 'outside the camp' – to leave their place at the city gates and go into the enemy camp to seek an end other than starvation – that the Lord used to save Israel.

Just two chapters before, Elisha miraculously healed the leprosy of Naaman, an Aramean army commander - a man who was 'outside the camp' in that he was actually an enemy of Israel. The Gospels brim full of examples of Jesus healing the sick, including lepers, not fearing to go near them. Indeed, one of the key signs of the Messiah was to make possible the impossible (as only God can do), that lepers would be healed (Matt 11:5).

So yes, the Lord cares about lepers. He does not give up on people, even if society cannot cope with them. He delights to use those who have been labelled too weak, too repulsive or too unworthy to be of any earthly use - to the praise of His glory. No-one is beyond His reach – save those who willingly consign themselves to spiritual leprosy, choosing to allow sin to consume their entire beings, and rejecting God continually and wilfully, even to the end. This is the warning hidden in Leviticus 14-15 – sin must be isolated and dealt with quickly and deftly, not treated lightly or allowed to spread and have dominion.

The Purpose of the Law

What was true for Israel is true today. Perhaps mildewed houses are not our prime problem, but every generation has need of rules for health and hygiene – and deeper still, has need for the spiritual truths of holiness and cleanliness before God. Yet, however well we do in avoiding contamination, we always have need of God to cleanse us of sinfulness and perfect us. Just as a leper was an outcast from society, so we are all outside of the Kingdom until cleansed through faith in the power of the shed blood of Jesus.

Just as the Law could not heal those who had become leprous, so the Apostle Paul reminds us that the Law was never intended to be a cure for sin – it was intended to make us conscious of it (Rom 3:20): to draw attention to the problem, to make us uncomfortable about it, to warn us about its potential to spread and affect others, to make us aware of our real need of external help - to keep us humble about our shortcomings. The one true Solution has only ever been God Himself.

True Salvation in Jesus the Messiah

In Jesus, all of this reaches its fulfilment. In compassion, he reached out and touched lepers to heal them (in so doing making himself ceremonially unclean), "taking up our infirmities and carrying our diseases" (Matt 8:17; Isa 53:4) – physically doing what the Law was powerless to do. But instead of denying the Law or scoffing at its powerlessness, he fulfilled it, encouraging those whom he healed still to go to the Temple and offer the sacrifices instituted in Leviticus 14-15 - "as a testimony" (Matt 8:4).

Indeed, the detailed regulations for ceremonial cleansing in Leviticus (which require strange ingredients including hyssop branches, red yarn and birds) are all types and shadows of Jesus (and well worth a study in their own right), whose ultimate sacrifice made eternal atonement for our state of uncleanness before God, and overcame the power of sin once and for all.

In this, God's purposes are still the same as they always were: to keep his people and his dwelling-place - no longer a Tabernacle or a Temple, but our hearts - pure, undefiled and uncontaminated by sin. The requirement for seeing these purposes fulfilled in our own lives has only ever been faith.

In a divine paradox, Jesus shows us that the way to be restored from eternal rejection to eternal acceptance, from death to life, is to join him "outside the camp" (Heb 13:13-14). This was where he was taken for his final sacrifice on the Cross – the place of ultimate self-denial, worldly disgrace and rejection.

Paradoxically, this is the pathway to life in all its fullness – and everyone who is called to follow Jesus is called to take up their crosses, join him in his suffering and identify with him in his death. Somehow, the road originally allotted to the leper, who was to all the aroma of death, must also be ours if we desire to be the fragrance of life to those who need it (2 Cor 2:15-16). The glory of the Gospel is that those who were once 'white as snow' with the leprosy of sin, can be cleansed, healed and restored and made 'white as snow' with heavenly righteousness (e.g. Isa 1:18) - all through Jesus.

Author: Frances Rabbitts with Clifford Denton