Leprosy and the Two Sparrows
The dying leper hardly dared to hope that Jesus could help him. He knew he was "full" of the disease, for "its deadly poison permeated his whole body" (DA 266). He had been mourned as worse than dead by family and friends. And adding to this misery was the realization that no leper had been cleansed in living memory. Why hope? he might have agonized. But as he watched the noble Galilean cure other maladies his faith bloomed. At last, thrusting aside the sanctions of the law and the customs of society, he flung himself at His feet, crying, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean" (Luke 5:12-14). Touching his loathsome flesh Christ replied, "I will: be thou clean." "Jesus had no sooner spoken the words of life-giving power, than the half-dead body of putrefaction was changed to healthy flesh, sensitive nerves, and firm muscle" (Redemption I, 72, 73). The Lord then bade the jubilant man, "Go, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded." These inspired Levitical regulations we shall now study (Lev chapters 13 and 14).
Although Biblical students are uncertain of the precise malady intended by the law, we shall think of the leprosy there mentioned as including the disease known today by that name, and consider it representative of the entire class.
Leprosy
Leprosy was the most dreaded of ancient disease (MH 67). Heroditus suspected that it had originated in Egypt. From there Israel had probably been infected. As a type of oppression against God's people and defiance against God Himself (Rev 11:8), "Egypt" adds focus to Jehovah's promise, "If thou wilt . . . do that which is right, . . . I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians" (Ex 15:26; cf. Deut 28:27).
Leprosy develops in two stages, nodular and anesthetic (Negaim 1:1; 4:5; 6:1). At first the skin, stretched over rounded, firm cysts, presents a shiny surface. The sluggish circulation of blood then causes the complexion to grow pale until it appears as "white as snow," while underneath lurks rottenness. The nodules, becoming reddish brown, eventually ulcerate into "raw flesh." The surface nerves slowly cease to register pain, and this results in leprosy's anesthetic stage. This is its quiescent side. One might almost call it, its merciful side, when sensation and the power to feel disappear. Weakness and paralysis follow, and because he is conscious of no hurt, the leper grows careless, inadvertently allowing his extremities to bump sharp objects and thus break open. These wounds ulcerate, suppurating toxic "issues."
There are records of lepers' limbs being gnawed by rats, or burned during sleep, with no discomfort registered. The leper's mucus membrane and respiratory tract become affected. His voice coarsens, and, by Hebrew law, must be raised in mournful warnings, "Unclean! Unclean!" His hair grows yellow or grey (Hosea 7:9), and drops out. His bones soften, while his hard palate atrophies. Unable to masticate, malnutrition hastens his end.
"Deep-rooted, ineradicable, deadly, it was looked upon as a symbol of sin. By the ritual law, the leper was pronounced unclean. Like one already dead, he was shut out from the habitations of men. Whatever he touched was unclean. The air was polluted by his breath. . . . Away from his friends and his kindred, the leper must bear the curse of his malady" (DA 262, 266).
Leprosy Used as a Symbol
Leprosy thus presents a gruesome picture of what man is by nature, "a living death" (DA 566), corroded by his inner sinfulness, and exuding evil. Long ago the cripple Alexander Pope wrote in the bitterness of his soul of "that long disease, my life." Leprosy symbolizes the ultimate horror of humanity's condition, the long disease of his existence, dying piecemeal. The leper's limbs and features deaden and putrefy, and are slowly knocked off his body, still living. And like the leper, sinful man when facing the intolerable terror of the future of an empty, evil life, switches off all feeling, and refuses to allow his condition to obtrude on his daily activities.
Because the Jews considered leprosy to be a judgment from God, they termed it "the stroke" (MH 67; Isa 53:4), or the "finger of God" (DA 262). Isaiah described the Messiah as "stricken," an expression used of a leper. Jerome, Aquilla and Symmachus translated the prophet's phrase, "stricken with leprosy." On the basis of this, the Talmud called the Messiah "the leper of the house of Judah." Although He was innocent, Jesus suffered from the results of the "spiritual leprosy of sin" (4T 568; cf. MH 67). He did indeed symbolically assume man's "leprous" condition, and then, sinless still, bore his loathsome curse to the cross.
Inspiration mentions nine cases of leprosy, suffered by twenty one persons. Nine are in the Old Testament and twelve in the New.
Moses (Ex 4:6-9)
Miriam (Num 12:1-16)
Namaan (2 Kings 5:1-14)
Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20-27)
the four leprous men (2 Kings 7:3-11)
King Uzziah or Azariah (2 Kings 15:5; 2 Chron 26:19-21)
"a leper" (Matt 8:2)
"Simon the leper" (Matt 26:6)
"ten lepers" (Luke 17:12).
Leprosy Sometimes Inflicted by God
Let us now analyze the four Scriptural stories in which leprosy was inflicted by God Himself as a sentence against specific sins, and try to discover the symbolic significance of this malady.
Moses lacked insight into the true condition of his own character. He needed this knowledge before he was ready to serve God and his people. To help him to see himself as he really was, the LORD requested him to place his hand on his heart (Ex 4:4). In Biblical sign language "hand" represents man's daily work (Eccl 9:10), and "heart" the seat of his inner dynamics (Prov 4:23; Luke 8:15). Withdrawing it, Moses saw, to his consternation, that his hand had become leprous. This acted parable revealed to Israel's future leader the horrible quality of his heart's motives, and his need for inner cleansing.
Miriam, envious of Zipporah the Midianite wife of Moses (Num 12:1-16), railed against her sister-in-law and criticized her brother. For her vindictive slander of the private life of the Hebrew law giver she was struck with leprosy. "The judgment visited upon Miriam should be a rebuke to all who yield to jealousy, and murmur against those upon whom God lays the burden of His work" (PP 386). Backbiting and envy are as deadly as leprosy.
Gehazi might have become Elisha's successor, as Elisha had taken up the mantle of Elijah. But years of association with the man of God failed to benefit his character. His lying to Namaan, and his attempts to mislead the prophet, revealed his covetousness and defiance against God's law. He sold his integrity for a dream of grandeur and two suits of clothes (2 Kings 5:20-27)! "For the deception practiced by Gehazi there could be pleaded no excuse. To the day of his death he remained a leper, cursed of God, and shunned by his fellow men" (PK 252; 5T 123; 4T 562; DA 566). Gehazi's incurable malady was the "leprosy of selfishness" (EGW 4T 562). Avarice, greed and materialism that lead to the practice of deception and fraud are as corrupting as leprosy.
Uzziah was one of Judah's great kings. When "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, . . . God made him to prosper." Then Inspiration wistfully added, "He was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he . . . went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense" (2 Chron 26:4, 5, 15, 16). God had clearly stipulated that only priests might perform this rite, and had demonstrated the importance of this rule during the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and the two hundred and fifty princes. Asserting that the laity now had equal rights, the king arrogantly brushed aside the remonstrances of Azariah the high priest, and persisted in his rashness until halted by God. "The sin that resulted so disastrously to Uzziah was one of presumption. . . . While standing there, in wrathful rebellion, he was suddenly smitten with a divine judgment. Leprosy appeared on his forehead" (PK 304; MH 278). Driving ambition for roles to which the Lord has not called, and high-handed attempts to do what He has not sanctioned, are as corrosive as leprosy.
Leprosy Illustrates Man's Nature
Leprosy symbolizes what man is by nature. The toxic "issues" which flow spontaneously from his heart are materialistic and arrogant, and point to sin breaking out of his necrotic soul. Leprosy paralyzes, defiles and destroys the body, as sin befouls the life, and dulls its awareness of guilt. The four major sacrificial offerings deal with what man has done, or left undone. The law of leprosy, on the other hand, is concerned with what man is, and what naturally oozes out from his inner self. The law of the four offerings procured judicial righteousness which was imputed to the repentant worshiper. The ceremonial laws dealing with leprosy applied only after the leper had been made whole, cleansed by the imparted righteousness of the great Physician, and brought to that condition in which he might regain covenant fellowship with God and social intercourse with man.
The Levitical law identified three areas in which leprosy might appear: (1) human flesh (Lev 13:1-46), (2) decaying garments (Lev 13:47-59), and (3) corroded homes (Lev 14:33-57). Each category is symbolic and eloquent with gospel truth. The regulations themselves provide clues by which these conditions may be identified, and then give methods for dealing with each of them.
Leprosy of the Person
Leprosy in the body depicts offensive sinful, human nature, and is God's hieroglyph for man's corrupt and corrupting heart (Eph 1:1-3; PP 82; 1SM 115; 1BC 1088). The person suspected of having leprosy was to be quarantined, and observed by the priest for twice "seven days." Should his condition remain unchanged, the ministrant was to pronounce him clean. However, should the affliction progress, he was declared unclean, and driven from the camp.
Two Biblical examples illustrate the stringency with which this rule of banishment was enforced. The four unfortunate lepers were obliged to remain outside the fortified city of Samaria in spite of the siege (2 Kings 7:3-11; cf. Num 5:2, 3; 12:14, 15). Even king Uzziah was expelled from his capitol, notwithstanding his wealth and power (2 Chron 26:19-23, margin; cf. v. 21). The leper must live alone in "a house of emancipation" (DA 262; MH 67, 68), This meant that because he was regarded as legally dead by his family and friends, he was exempt from civil and familial responsibilities.
Leprosy of Garments
Leprosy in a garment rustles with the effects of evil and seductive outward conduct. Adam and Eve sewed fig-leaf aprons, the first clothes ever designed by mankind, to conceal their nakedness, and to display the horrible truth that man's best efforts to hide his guilty self are but fig-leaf equivalents of "filthy rags."
Leprosy in garments was probably caused by various molds. Hugh Macmillan noted a century ago that these fungi are "ubiquitous, and grow as readily on clothing as on house walls, when left in damp, ill-ventilated, ill-lighted places. The reddish patches, however, seem to me," he continued, "to have been produced by the growth of the sporendonema, or red mold, very common on cheese; or of the palmella prodigiosa. This last mentioned plant is occasionally found . . . extending itself over a considerable area. It is usually a gelatinous mass with the color and general appearance of coagulated blood, whence it has received the famous name of gory-dew" (Ministry of Nature, 70, 71; cf. 51-59; Negaim 3:7; 11:4).
Leprous garments typify self-made cloaks of good deeds and benign feelings besmirched with ingrained and poisonous streaks of selfish uncleanness. The Levitical law provided no hope for such leprous clothing; it must be stripped off and destroyed. Only Christ's righteousness, a "robe woven in the loom of heaven, [with] not one thread of human devising" (COL 311), without speck of decay or stain of sin, can adequately clothe the penitent.