then the priest shall look, and if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease; it has all turned white, and he is clean.
One spot of disease sent a man out of the camp. Yet a body covered head to foot gets the verdict "clean," and commentators read this reversal as one of the law's clearest pictures of how God deals with a sinner.
One Spot Was Enough to Condemn
Chapter 13 sets out a careful diagnosis. The priest does not measure how much disease there is. He reads what one mark reveals about the condition underneath.
A. J. PollockOne spot with certain characteristics would decide the leprosy of the individual. One spot reveals an inward diseased condition, just as one sin comes from a sinful nature. How good God is in giving us such a vivid presentation of what sin is in His presence.
The Paradox of the Verdict
The same holiness that could not tolerate one speck now calls the fully covered man clean.
C. H. MackintoshThe very smallest speck of leprosy was intolerable to God. Yet when the whole man was covered, from head to foot, the priest pronounced him clean. That is, he was a proper subject for the grace of God and the blood of atonement.
Why "All Turned White" Means Clean
The colour is the point. One writer reads leprosy as a picture of sin at work in a person.
The Christian's FriendIn general, leprosy is sin acting in the flesh. So when the "raw flesh appears" (v. 14), it is a sign that sin is active, and the man was to be pronounced unclean. The flesh in this case has been at work, and the proof of its past activity is still there. But that activity has stopped. So, though a leper, he is to be counted as clean. Such a man was healed, though not yet cleansed. He was not brought under the benefit of the sacrifices, nor restored to relationship with God inside the camp. In type, it is a sinner in the place of self-judgment before God.
From Healed to Cleansed
The next chapter tells how the leper was actually made clean, and it does not begin with him.
The Christian's FriendIn the next chapter you find the various rites for cleansing the leper, to fit him for fellowship with God. The first thing, the foundation of everything, is the death and resurrection of Christ — for the leper outside the camp pictures the sinner.
What Blocks the Blessing
Kelly applies the verdict straight to the sinner, and names the one thing that holds a person back.
William KellyWhen a sinner has got to his worst and felt it, he is forgiven. Instead of going about to set up his own righteousness, he submits to the righteousness of God and is justified by faith. When you see a man filled with a thorough sense of sin yet bowing to God, we may be sure of a blessing, and in full measure too. A man may try to excuse, cover, and correct himself instead of confessing his sins in all their seriousness. That only blocks his view of God's grace and keeps up uncertainty. Such striving only keeps empty hopes alive. It denies how far man's ruin goes, and shuts out the full delivering mercy of God.
People Who Were "All Covered"
One writer points to people in Scripture who had nothing good to say about themselves, and were cleansed.
G. C. WillisIt tells us of a poor sinner who has not one word of good to say about himself. We may see many lepers in the Bible who were all covered with leprosy, and all were cleansed. Look at Peter in Luke 5. He finds out for the first time that he is covered with leprosy. Hear him: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man" — that is, a man full of sin. If you have a cup full of water, you have no room for anything else in it. If you have a man full of sin, you have no room for any good in him.
Kelly makes the same point from the cross, where one of the criminals crucified beside Jesus hid nothing: "the cross displayed all the sin of man, and God's love to the uttermost."
A Worked Example in Israel's History
One real case in Israel followed this rule. Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, turned completely white with leprosy.
Truth & TestimonyAccording to Leviticus 13:13, this complete whiteness was exactly the condition for being pronounced clean again! So God's judgment struck Miriam, and yet right away a proof of His grace could be seen — grace that had her restoration in mind. She had to go outside the camp as an unclean person, and she had to cry out that she was unclean. But it was not forever. God wanted to receive her again after she had been shut out of the camp for seven days.
Summary
- Spot — one mark condemned. It exposed a diseased condition underneath, just as one sin comes from a sinful nature.
- Spread — while the disease was still at work, the man stayed unclean. The "raw flesh" of the next verse is sin still active.
- White — all white means the disease has spent itself and only its marks remain. That pictures a sinner judging himself before God.
- Sentence — the priest's word "clean" is God's grace meeting a man fully exposed; his actual cleansing rests on the death and resurrection of Christ.
- Snare — excusing, covering and correcting yourself keeps the blessing away. Confess the whole truth instead.