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The Types of Redemption
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The Lord had told them exactly what to do. The priests come and examine him. They look at
where the sores were. They shave his head and shave the hair off his body, then they close him
up for several days. They examine him again, and if in fact he has been healed, and he is clean,
then they did this ceremony.
Glory to God. Here comes a man... He’s got his life back. As soon as he goes through this
ceremony, he can go back home. He can go back to his wife and his kids. He can go back to his
job. He can worship in the sanctuary again. He’s got his life back. He’s been healed. Healed!
He’s cleansed and probably shaven, and they take him in, and verse four says, “Then shall the
priest take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood…” Is there
any wood involved in redemption? The Master was hung on a tree. He was nailed to wood.
“…and scarlet…” Matthew 27:28 says they put a scarlet robe on Him, and they spit on Him and
slapped Him and mocked Him. “…and hyssop…” Hyssop was used like a brush to apply
something. We just read in Exodus 12:22 that they used a hyssop branch to put the blood on the
entry way. Hyssop was used as a cleansing tool. Is there any cleansing in redemption?
You know, they took a sponge and lifted up vinegar to the Master on the Cross. We were not told
what that material was made out of, but notice what else it says: Cedar wood, scarlet, and
hyssop. Verse five continues, “And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an
earthen vessel…” It was killed in an earthen vessel. That’s what the Master did. He was born
into this earth in an earthen vessel, and He was killed. The Bible says they were to kill that bird
over clean, fresh running water, as opposed to stagnant water. They took this bird and killed it,
and the blood ran out into the water. One bird is dead. This was done inside an earthen vessel.
The other bird is still alive. They were to take this other, remaining bird in their hand with the
cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop, and plunge them underneath the blood and the water. Then they
bring them up with the blood and the water dripping off of them: a live bird, a piece of cedar
wood, a scarlet cloth, and hyssop. They sprinkle the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy
seven times and say, “You’re clean.” Then they go out to an open field, just in a wide-open
space, and take that cedar wood, and that scarlet, and that hyssop, and they let that bird go free,
that water-washed, blood-washed bird that’s alive because the other bird died, and they watch
him fly away, free. Glory to God!
There was a clean One who was born into the earth in an earthen vessel. He did die. He shed His
Blood on the cedar, on the tree, after He was mocked in the scarlet. They pierced His side, and
blood and water flowed out. The price was paid, and judgment was satisfied. Redemption was
purchased, and reconciliation was made. Now anybody who will look up from their dirty,
broken, sick, and dead condition and say, “I believe on Him! I’m seeing Him as Lord of my life,”
and will let Him, by the Holy Spirit He will put His Great Hand on them and combine them with
the work of the Cross, with the work of redemption and the cleansing of the Holy Spirit, then
take them—Blood-washed, bought, and water-washed—and set them free, to rule and to reign in
life by Christ Jesus.
Is this a type of Jesus? Why were they doing it? Why were they even having this ceremony?
They were having it because somebody got healed from a physical condition, a death sentence