Biblical Leprosy

The fact that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all demonstrated their God-given powers by healing Biblical leprosy in specific instances, suggests that the healing of this disease pictures how God will deal with sin in the human race. The redemption of this sin is illustrated in both Leviticus and Numbers chapter five. In Leviticus, we see a universal prophetic description of the redemptive process.

Three Times of Healing

However, the full release from sin does not occur until the eighth day, after the test at the end of the Millennium. On the eighth day, the leper brought an offering of a lamb, oil, and meal. The blood of the lamb was then sprinkled on his right big toe, his right thumb, and his right earlobe. This was similar to what occurred when the priesthood was consecrated to God and His service. The three appendages were then anointed with oil. Finally, the remainder of the oil was poured upon his head. This shows that mankind’s ability to walk, to work, and to communicate, will be redeemed with the blood of the Lamb and given grace through the unction of God’s spirit.

This was the procedure found in Leviticus 14. So why, then, does the Numbers chapter five account expel all "lepers" from the camp? The key to understanding this strange pronouncement of God to Moses is to realize that Numbers chapter five is a picture of the Christian age. It suggests that during the time that the Church is in the flesh, many people in the world have serious, visible sins. These are simply not able to be dealt with within the church. For the church to admit all the unregenerate, unconsecrated people into the intimacy of the Christian community would endanger the body of Christ. "A little leaven, leavens the whole lump," as Paul put it.

Does this authorize a judgmental attitude on the part of the faithful? Absolutely not. These regulations use clearly definable, public maladies to illustrate the kinds of gross examples of sexual infidelity, lying, and fraud that would scandalize a wholesome assembly of believers. And when Biblical leprosy — the grosser forms of sin — make an appearance in the church, it must be dealt with lovingly but decisively by the congregation.

The Bread of Restitution and Payment of the Priests

Verses 5 to 10 of Numbers chapter five can also be best understood as a picture of Gospel Age activities within the church.

Whenever a person in the community — that is, in full fellowship of the Tabernacle or church arrangement — commits a sin, it requires a set of offerings to be made. Let us suppose the sin is theft. Now, in the larger laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, most thefts involve a repayment of double the amount stolen. In the case of armed robbery, four times the amount stolen. But those would be gross, willful sins, and in the context of a Christian community the Numbers chapter five account focuses our minds on thefts that are actually unintentional.

Yet, even though unintentional damage has been done, the command of God is that 100% be repaid to the individual who was wronged — plus an additional 20% to be paid to God and the community through the office of the priests. Even if the injured party be dead, and there is no next of kin, God calls on the repentant sinner to give the full repayment to the priest as God’s representative.

What does this teach us?

It shows that ultimately God is the one whom we are serving. When we sin against any human being, we are sinning against God. When we sin against God, we are hurting our community of believers.

It also shows that the church, here represented by the priests, has the responsibility of officiating whenever we commit sins, no matter how unintentional they may be. Repentance and restitution must be part of our daily life. It is our growth process. When we add that 20% extra payback for the few of our sins that we actually discover, we begin to appreciate the tremendous grace that God and our brethren in Christ are giving us at all times.

When anyone prays for us, intercedes for us, administers spiritual food to us, washes us by splashing living water our way, lights a candle in the darkness of our loneliness or pride, or holds a curtain open for us to enter the fellowship of the spirit, we need to bring our freewill offerings for these other brothers and sisters to gain the strength they need. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself " (Proverbs 11:25). In so doing, we are able to serve God by building up his inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18).

The Law of Jealousy

From the deeply symbolic message of Numbers 5:11-31, we see a beautiful picture of the impact that ecclesia trials can have on the growth and ultimate victory of Christ’s church.

It appears strange, then, that the regulation of Numbers chapter five would not include a similar protection against infidelity on the part of the husband. Why would the man be indulged if he had suspicions of unfaithfulness? Are not women more likely to be cheated on in the male-dominated world? Either the Bible is a human creation that reflects the culture of its times, as critics suggest, or the Numbers chapter five account is meant to be a spiritual lesson for the Church.

Judgment through Ordeal

In this passage God prepares Moses to handle a very realistic problem: a husband is fiercely angry with his wife, suspecting her of adultery. But he cannot prove it. Even if she were to become pregnant, in the days before genetic testing there might be no way to know if the wife had been faithful.

The priest then held up the earthenware cup with its hazy, unappetizing potion, and dipped the parchment that had been written by her husband — dissolving the ink. Now the parchment was clean, but the water was contaminated by the dissolved ink.

The priest then held the cup to the woman’s mouth, and asked that she drink the bitter water of jealousy. It was at this moment that the woman, by her decision to take the possible poison, declared her innocence to the priest, and entrusting her fate to God.

Finally, in the manner of all wave offerings, the woman held the offering of meal over the flames of the altar, supported by the arms of the priest. Back and forth they carried the weight of the bread of life until the priest decided to release it into the flames, where it was consumed.

And then they waited. The husband’s anger was diverted from the woman to God’s appointed means of redemption, and the two were then sent on their way to await God’s manifestation of the woman’s guilt or innocence. If she developed no visible health problems, and eventually bore children with her husband, she was exonerated before the entire community. The stigma of suspicion was completely wiped away by the evidence of God’s blessing in their lives.

If, on the other hand, "her belly swells or her thigh rots," [9] she was exposed by God as being unfaithful. Her husband then divorced her and she became a curse.

This strange procedure is a beautiful depiction of the realities of life within the church throughout the Christian era.

The husband pictures Christ, who like Solomon in the Song of Songs, is both our brother and our husband. In that picture, as in the Apostolic references of Ephesians chapter five, we are already married. We have covenanted to give all our affection to "the chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:10, 16).

And yet, we have constant need of the metaphorical washing. Though grateful to be "comely" and desired by our groom, we are also conscious of our blackness the swarthy, fleshly imperfections of our fallen estate. As Numbers chapter five reveals, our groom may have legitimate cause to wonder where the allegiances of our heart really lie.

In the Numbers chapter five account, the one whom we as members of Christ’s bride have given our troth, has noticed that we have spent times secluded with another. Perhaps it is our work, or unfruitful pursuits, or the world system. Perhaps it is our "activity" in religious matters that our rightful husband and true savior recognizes are really just efforts to justify and advance ourselves — as though our deeds or correct beliefs will save us.

Whatever the source of our infidelity — and the possibilities are legion — our bridegroom now senses that our loyalty is divided. He wants, and has a right to expect, "none of self, and all of Thee."

Of course, in reality our savior in heaven knows the truth. He knows our heart. But part of his body is still in the flesh, and those human hands and feet of the Savior, not yet directly connected with the Head, may be excused for not being omniscient about what truly dwells in our heart. Whether the questions about our virtue be true or false, they must be expressed — and we must go through the ordeals of bitter water that come our way. We must listen to the complaints of another, even if we know we are innocent.

The priest, who once again pictures the living members of the body, cannot and should not try to judge us. God will manifest His judgment. Here is where it gets interesting. The priest — our fellow members of the body — serves up dust and dirt along with the living water of Truth. Then he makes the potion even more bitter by the ink containing the specific accusations against us.

How fitting this picture is! There is a lot of "dirt" in Church life. Hypocrisy, hidden sins, the soil of spiritual pride, the dust of insensitivity, the pathogens of misguided leadership, etc. Even those who attempt to refresh us with the clarity of truth can make it muddy by the flawed ways they serve us.

The unavoidable tendency in the face of these affronts is disillusionment. As Jesus described it in Matthew 24:12, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will wax cold."

Numbers chapter five tells us that our faithfulness will be revealed by our ability to drink that muddy water without getting sick. We must learn to keep walking, keep working, keep forbearing one another, keep forgiving each other, keep praying for and serving the other members of the body and trusting the healing and saving power of God to protect us from lasting damage. Despite of the pain and loneliness that fills us with sadness and righteous anger.

The brethren whom God has brought into our lives may have both valid and unfounded complaints against us. We must learn to live with the bitterness of church life, and relentlessly strive for righteousness, all the while acknowledging our imperfection, trusting the power of our advocate and the unshakable love that He provides. In spite of having our coworkers "unloosen our hair" (verse 18), in other words, disgrace us as though we are unfaithful to our husband — we must not leave God’s arrangement. We must not give up on the redemptive process we have been called to enter.

While we may always broaden our fellowship, we should guard against pulling away from any of the Lord’s people, no matter how accusatory or hypocritical they seem. We should ask the Lord for the strength to pray for our enemies in the body, and to look for the goodness in our brethren. If they trust Christ, and live in obedience to Him, we owe them our love. We should avoid the tendency to fellowship only with those who agree with us, and hear or serve only those who like us.

Strange as it may seem, the dirt from the floor of the Holy is sacred soil. In spite of its pathogens and the bitterness it brings to our taste, we must continue to drink it if we wish to hear from God the "well done, good and faithful servant" which we aspire to hear upon graduation from this most difficult course a human being can take. Paradoxically, the dirt of the church builds our resistance to it.

The lessons of Numbers chapter five revolve around our experience with sin — in the world around us, in ourselves, and in the Church.

We are not to attempt to bring the world into the church: the unregenerate with visible sin, those in contact with the dead, and those who are bleeding in their daily struggles. For them, we as priests should meet folks where they are — outside the church — and tenderly help them understand the nature of their malady and the means by which it may be dealt with — now, by faith in Christ, or on the seventh day, in the kingdom of Messiah.

Numbers chapter five also helps us understand that we are to relentlessly pursue our own sins, and offer restitution with compensatory offerings to God — not only by our words, but by our tangible gifts to God’s people, the priests who are our fellow brethren in Christ. Let us make sure we do all we can to water and feed those who are trying to water us.

And when accusations of our faithfulness arise, as they inevitably will, we must accept the muddy water of redemption. That is our ticket to a glorious entrance into the heavenly salvation God has so graciously provided for us.

(2) www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud _0002_0012_0_12153.html — thanks to the Judaica virtual library for this helpful summary.

(3) For the allusions in this paragraph, see the prophecies of Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 6:1-8; and the life of Samson as a type of the Church, Judges 16:21-30.

(4) There is no clergy or laity in the true church. All believers are pictured by priests, and play a role in carrying out the activities pictured in the Holy of the Tabernacle: eating and serving the bread of truth, lighting, fueling, and trimming the wick of the lampstand whose seven stems represent the seven stages of the church. They mingle their own blood, as pictured by the blood of a goat given in sin offering, with the incense of their lives of prayer with coals from the altar put upon the Golden Alatar in front of the vail od death (Leviticus chapter 16). Their activities are thus focused on the spiritual duties that no one in the world ever sees. But in the Numbers chapter five picture, they are shown meeting, and providing counsel regarding the progress of the diseases of the human soul which must be addressed by the cleansing water of the laver before admittance can be granted to the privileges of the Holy.

(5) In Babylon, Egypt, Rome, and Greece, women were punished by drowning, stoning, or fire for any sexual act outside of marriage; men only if they slept with another man’s wife. Adultery was only considered a crime against a married man, and men were permitted to consort with slaves or prostitutes.

(6) For example, Genesis 1 through 3 contains almost two dozen examples of the equality of the two before God, including their shared accountability for disobedience in Eden. For a treatment of the role of women in God’s word, see the excellent work by Phillip Payne, "Man and Woman, One in Christ," Zondervan, 2009.

(7) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_ordeal

(8) According to some Rabbinic authorities, the man is not even allowed to make a charge unless he has direct evidence that the woman had time and opportunity in seclusion with another man.