Leviticus 14:33-57 ~ 20160911 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

09/11 Leviticus 14:33-57; Cleansing the House; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20160911_leviticus-14_33-57.mp3


Chapters 11-15 of Leviticus deal with what makes a person unclean, unfit to enter God's presence, and how a person can be cleansed and restored to fellowship with God. Chapter 11 deals with categories of creatures that were or were not permitted for food, and the consequences of contact with the carcass of an animal. Chapter 12 addressed the issue of uncleanness resulting from the blood involved in childbirth. Chapters 13-14 deal with various skin diseases and how to be cleansed. In addition to human skin ailments, Chapter 13 also deals with diseases in leather or fabrics. Chapter 14 also deals with diseases in the stones of a house. That will be our focus today. Then chapter 15 deals with normal and abnormal bodily discharges. We plan to take that up next week.

Leviticus 14:33 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 34 “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, 35 then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘There seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.’

As we have seen so often, Leviticus is a word directly from the Lord. 'The LORD spoke, saying...' 'All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness' (2Tim.3:16).

May we find here today appropriate reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.

Notice this section looks forward to the time when Israel will be settled in the land. So far, all the other instructions had the flexibility to apply equally to Israel in the wilderness camped around the tabernacle and Israel in the promised land with the temple in Jerusalem. But this section specifically addresses 'when you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession.' This deals not with tents camped around the tent of the Lord, but with houses of stone and timber and plaster in the land. As a side note, this is a confirmation that Leviticus was written early, spoken to Moses and Aaron before Israel left Sinai.

God the Sovereign Source of Blessing and Disaster

This is a confirmation of God's promise. Not 'if you come into the land of Canaan,' but 'when you come into the land of Canaan.' God takes credit. You will enter in, because I will give it to you for a possession. God is reminding them here that every good thing comes from God. Every good thing is a gift from the Lord.

But this is also a sobering reminder that bad things also come ultimately from the Lord. 'And I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession.' God takes credit for both good and bad. God will bring his people into the land. God may also put a disease in a house, and it may lead to the house being condemned and destroyed as a complete loss. Nothing is said here why God would do this. Could it be discipline for sin? Perhaps... Perhaps not. We are not told. We tend to look for reasons. Why did my car break down? Why did my sewer back up? Why cancer? Why has disaster overtaken me? What did I do wrong? What did I fail to do that I ought to have done? Is God angry with me? Or is this the evil one attacking me? Notice the common denominator of these speculations is a desire to justify oneself. Did I do something wrong and God is upset, or did I do something right and the devil is upset? And the focus is on me and my comfort. This text says that God might cause something really disastrous to happen to you, and it doesn't say why.

In Isaiah 45, God is calling the Persian king Cyrus to rebuild his temple in Jerusalem. God says:

Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity [ra; evil], I am the LORD, who does all these things. (cf. Lament. 3:38; Amos 3:6)

God is shifting our focus from us to him. We are concerned with our own well-being. I want things to go well for me, and I want to avoid calamity. God is lifting our eyes from ourselves to himself. 'I am the LORD, there is no other. That people may know across the globe that there is none besides me; I am the LORD and there is no other.' I am sovereign over sickness, over sorrow, over suffering, over disease, over disaster. I am the great Creator and I have rights to do what I will with my creation. 'I am the LORD, who does all these things.'

Of course, it is wise to ask 'is God trying to get my attention? What am I supposed to be learning from all this?' But it is not necessarily about me. It might be bigger than me. We get that kind of bigger perspective from the book of Job. Horrible, unimaginable things happened to Job. He lost all that he had in a single day. His 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys were stolen by the Sabeans and all his servants were killed. Fire from heaven fell and burned up his 7,000 sheep and all his servants attending them. A Chaldean raiding party stole his 3,000 camels and killed those servants. A great wind collapsed his oldest son's house and killed all 7 of his sons and his 3 daughters. Only four servants, one from each disaster scene survived to bring him the news. Why? What did he do? The book introduces Job as a man 'blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.' Then it must have been a Satanic attack! Yes, that is true, to an extent. It was a Satan who 'went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job.' But we could also say that the LORD incited and then allowed Satan to attack. 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?' In chapter 2, God again says to Satan 'have you considered my servant Job? ...He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.' This time Job was struck 'with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.' Job's response? 'Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?

Job 1:20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job understood that 'the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away' and that in the midst of it all, God is worthy of worship. 42 painful chapters later, Job says:

Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ...5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

Sometimes it doesn't help to ask why. We need to simply trust and rest and cling to the LORD. We can confidently and expectantly hold on to Romans 8:28.

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I can be confident that whatever difficulty I face today, God is in complete control, and he is working in it for my good. For those who love God, for those who belong to God through faith in Jesus, for those who are called according to his purpose, we know that all things work together for good.

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

So if God puts a case of leprous disease in your house and it is condemned and destroyed, you can trust that God is in control and he is working even in that for your good.

A Diseased House

Leviticus 14:34 “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, 35 then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘There seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.’ 36 Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, lest all that is in the house be declared unclean. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. 37 And he shall examine the disease. And if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface, 38 then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. 39 And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, 40 then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. 41 And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. 42 Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other plaster and plaster the house. 43 “If the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it, 44 then the priest shall go and look. And if the disease has spread in the house, it is a persistent leprous disease in the house; it is unclean. 45 And he shall break down the house, its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them out of the city to an unclean place. 46 Moreover, whoever enters the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening, 47 and whoever sleeps in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

Deep, Spreading and Persistent

We have been looking at skin diseases in Leviticus. Chapters 13 and 14 deal not only with surface issues on people, but also on cloth or leather articles, and on houses. As we have seen, the priest is to inspect the issue to see if it is a serious issue, if it is something that makes one unfit to enter the presence of the Lord. The evidence of a serious issue is 'if it appears to be deeper than the surface' and 'if it spreads'. The priest is looking for deeper issues, persistent issues, things that tend to spread and grow. The diseased house is to be evacuated and sealed up for a week, and re-inspected. If the house is ultimately condemned, it is to be destroyed and none of the building materials are to be reused. The danger of an unclean house is that it hinders the ability of the one who has contact with it from entering the presence of the Lord.

The Kindness and Patience of God

Although this is a very serious issue, notice the kindness and patience of God. First, all the belongings are to be removed before the house is inspected. This allows the homeowner to keep his possessions out of quarantine and ultimately from being destroyed. And at the first sign of an issue the house is not immediately condemned and destroyed. A waiting period is established. The house is re-inspected Then the least invasive means is employed with the intent of preserving the home. Infected stones are removed, the house is scraped and re-plastered. Only if all this fails to resolve the issue is the entire house condemned.

Verses 48-53 give instructions almost identical to those earlier in the chapter for the curious ritual of cleansing a leper for making atonement for a house that has been cleansed, and then verses 54-57 serve as a concluding summary of chapters 13-14.

Jesus The Great High Priest and the House of God

I invite you to look with me to Jesus, our Great and Gracious High Priest. Let's look at some of Jesus' actions through the lens of Leviticus.

In John 2, after Jesus' first miracle at the wedding at Cana, at the beginning of his ministry, we are told:

John 2:13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Jesus, if you will, as our Priest, is inspecting a house. It is the temple, which he calls his Father's house. And he finds it diseased. So he scrapes the inside of the house. He drives all that is corrupt out of the house. And he leaves. But he does not shut the house up. Instead he returns and fills the house with his teaching. For over 3 years he is in and out of the house, spreading healing and his life giving good news. Then we pick up the story in the last week of his life,

Luke 19:37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives— the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. (cf. Mt.21:12-16; Mk.11:15-18)

Jesus came back to inspect his Father's house. The disease had returned and spread. It was indeed deeper than the surface. Once again he scraped the house clean. But instead of submitting to the authority of the Great High Priest, the chief priests and scribes were seeking to kill him. The next day,

Mark 13:1 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (cf. Mt.24:1-2; Lk.21:5-6)

The house is condemned. It must be torn down and destroyed. There was a persistent disease in the house.

A New Temple

But Jesus will build a new kind of house. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells the church, those blood-bought believers from every ethnicity that you are:

Ephesians 2:19 ...members of the household of God 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Peter tells those who have been born again through the living word of God that:

1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Paul tells the Corinthian church:

1 Corinthians 3:9 ...You are God's field, God's building. ...16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

We as Christ's church are being built together into a dwelling place for God. And God still cares about the purity of his temple. From the seven letters to seven churches in Revelation, we see that Jesus is still inspecting his church. Jesus is involved, aware. Jesus is patient, he is gracious. But he will purify and perfect his church.


Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org