The Types of Redemption
86
In Leviticus 14, beginning in verse 1, it says, “And the L
ORD
spake unto Moses, saying, This
shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: And
the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of
leprosy be healed in the leper; Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be
cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: And the priest shall
command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: As for the living
bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and
the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: And he shall
sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him
clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.”
Sadly, so many Christians don’t even read these things, and the ones who do, do so as an act of
duty and say, “Oh, man, blood and birds and wood and water... I’m glad we don’t have to do any
of that anymore.” They just look at it as insignificant, as a ritual.
But there’s nothing insignificant in the Bible, and there’s nothing that the Lord told them to do
that was without reason or without purpose. This is a type of Jesus. We should already be able to
see some things by just reading through it: cedar wood, blood, water—every one of these.
This whole process is over a healing. This man had been leprous. “Leprosy” describes a number
of different diseases, some different than what we talk about today, but it is terminal and called a
“living death.” They lost feeling in their skin and body. There are stories of people who had their
hands in the fire and were burning them up but couldn’t even feel it. People would break an
ankle and just keep walking on it because they couldn’t even feel it. It has to do with your flesh
actually dying while you’re still alive; part of you is dead. When a person was this way, it was
considered contagious, and they were put outside of the city, there on their own out in the bush
until they died. It was horrible.
But here comes a man who’s been out in the bush for who knows how long. He’s leprous,
terminal, with no cure. It was a death sentence. And he yells to the watchman on the wall,
“Hey!”
He answers, “What?” “Hey, aren’t you a leper? Go back in the bush!”
“Jehovah has healed me!”
“Say what?”
“I’m healed. Jehovah has healed me.”
“You’re not playing with us?”
“No, I’m healed.”
“Well, stay right there.”
