Scripture Daily

Context No. 3692 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 13:1-8: in context

1The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2“When a man shall have a swelling in his body’s skin, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes in the skin of his body the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. 3The priest shall examine the plague in the skin of the body. If the hair in the plague has turned white, and the appearance of the plague is deeper than the body’s skin, it is the plague of leprosy; so the priest shall examine him and pronounce him unclean. 4If the bright spot is white in the skin of his body, and its appearance isn’t deeper than the skin, and its hair hasn’t turned white, then the priest shall isolate the infected person for seven days. 5The priest shall examine him on the seventh day. Behold, if in his eyes the plague is arrested and the plague hasn’t spread in the skin, then the priest shall isolate him for seven more days. 6The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day. Behold, if the plague has faded and the plague hasn’t spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is a scab. He shall wash his clothes, and be clean. 7But if the scab spreads on the skin after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall show himself to the priest again. 8The priest shall examine him; and behold, if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy.

This law lays out the careful process by which a priest examined a suspected case of leprosy, isolating the person, watching over several days, re-examining, in order to distinguish a serious, spreading disease from a passing rash. To modern eyes it seems clinical, even harsh, but there is real care in the caution.

The priest was not to condemn hastily, but to observe patiently before pronouncing anyone unclean. The disease that would separate a person from the community was serious, and so the judgment was made carefully, with time and observation, not on a single glance. There is a principle worth drawing out: serious judgments about people should be made with patience and care, never rushed. And in the deeper picture, this careful diagnosis of what defiles points ahead to Christ, who did not shrink from the leper but reached out and touched and cleansed him. The law diagnosed the disease that isolated; Christ came to heal it and restore the outcast.

Do I make serious judgments about others with patience and care rather than in haste, and do I marvel at Christ, who did not avoid the unclean but touched and restored them?

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