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The cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14 portrays the rich, complete, and extensive salvation God has prepared and accomplished for us in Christ; in this salvation Christ is the all-inclusive One who has passed through a number of processes and is everything we need for our cleansing:
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"The priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet strands and hyssop be taken for the one who is to be cleansed. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet strands and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it on the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times and shall pronounce him clean. Then he shall let the living bird go into the open field" (vv. 4-7):
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The two living clean birds are types of Christ, who is clean, without any defilement, and full of the life that is able to fly above the earth; the birds here signify that Christ came from the heavens and that He belongs to the heavens and transcends the earth.
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The bird that was killed signifies the crucified Christ, who died for us that our filthiness might be taken away (1 Pet. 2:24).
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The second bird, which was let go into the open field, signifies the resurrected Christ, who rose from the dead for us that we might be delivered from our weakness by the power, strength, and energy of His resurrection life—the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God (Rom. 8:2).
Morning Nourishment
Lev. 14:4-5 Then the priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet strands and hyssop be taken for the one who is to be cleansed. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered in an earthen vessel over running water.The matter of [the] cleansing [of the leper] is the all-inclusive salvation God has prepared and accomplished for us. Here we see a Christ who is all-inclusive. He has the blood, the Spirit, and everything we need to be cleansed. In Him we have the rich, complete, and extensive provision of God's salvation. We all need to know this cleansing, this salvation, and experience it in full.
The leper being brought to the priest [in Leviticus 14:2] signifies an unclean person being brought to the Lord. In preaching the gospel we are actually bringing unclean persons, sinners, to the Lord. (Life-study of Leviticus, p. 365)
Today's Reading
The priest going outside the camp to examine the leper (Lev. 14:3a) signifies the Lord Jesus leaving His original place and humbling Himself to be nigh to the sinner....This is portrayed in Matthew 8. "When He came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And behold, a leper, coming near, worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can cleanse me. And stretching out His hand, He touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed! And immediately his leprosy was cleansed" (vv. 1-3). This leper should have been isolated, excluded, from the people of God. He should not have been touched by others, lest the contagious disease be passed on to them. Nevertheless, having sympathy in love for the leper, the Lord Jesus came nigh to him and touched him.In Leviticus 14:4-9 we see that the leper who was to be cleansed needed to seek for cleansing before God. This signifies that the one who is sick of the sin of leprosy, although he has been healed by the life within, still needs to have his shortcomings and defilement dealt with before God that he might be cleansed.
Cleansing from leprosy requires not only the action from God's side but also the coordination from our side. As lepers, as sinners, we need to seek for cleansing. Our seeking is our cooperation with God's grace and love.
The one who had been healed of leprosy still needed to be cleansed. To be healed is one thing, and to be cleansed is another. The process, the procedure, of cleansing includes many items which we shall now consider.
"The priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet strands and hyssop be taken for the one who is to be cleansed" (v. 4). These two birds, which are clean and full of life, are types of Christ. Christ is here typified by the bird life, the life that is able to fly in the air above the earth.
Birds are able to transcend the earth. The birds in verse 4 signify that Christ came from the heavens and that He belongs to the heavens and transcends the earth....The live birds signify that Christ is full of life. He is living because He is full of life....The clean birds here signify that only Christ is clean and is without any defilement. In this matter, Christ and we are opposite. With us everything is unclean; with Him everything is clean. We are uncleanness, but He is cleanness.
The two birds signify, on the one hand, that Christ died for us that our filthiness might be taken away and, on the other hand, that He rose for us that we might be delivered from our weakness. Christ died on the cross to take away our sins. This is typified by the first bird. Christ rose from among the dead for us that we might be delivered from our weakness by the power, strength, and energy of life. This life is the resurrection life, life in resurrection. It is also the divine life, the eternal, uncreated life of God. We receive this life from the resurrected Christ, who is typified by the second bird. Hence, these two birds signify two aspects of Christ—Christ in crucifixion and Christ in resurrection. (Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 365-367)
Further Reading: Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 42