If you'll open up your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, and we're back in the book of Leviticus tonight, we're going to be in chapter 14. When we look at this portion of Scripture, and you look at why in the world does God care about, and we'll see some of these things, what I think is this, is that God cares about every aspect of our lives. And to say that God cares about every aspect of our lives would really be a giant, massive understatement because it's very clear from Scripture that God cares about everything. He cares about our physical well-being. A lot in the Bible talks about that. He cares about our physical well-being. He cares about our mental and our emotional well-being. And He also cares especially about our spiritual well-being. So every aspect of our lives is important to God. Listen to how Paul the Apostle closes off his first letter to the Church of Thessalonica concerning God's care for the whole person. He said, May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it so what do we see in that verse that the Lord cares about spirit soul and body that the whole man would be sanctified or kept blameless until the coming of the Lord and we see this truth illustrated in the book of Leviticus very clearly as God is calling the nation of Israel to be a set-apart holy people. He's called them from all the other nations of the world to be His set-apart holy people, to be set-apart spiritually, to be set-apart mentally, emotionally, the soul, and then physically as well. So, Leviticus really is God teaching them what it means and how God wants them to live out following Him and having a relationship with Him in every aspect of life, in the everyday stuff of life, in the practical things of life. And so, we've seen here in the book of Leviticus how God has been teaching in really great detail how His people were to live for His glory. They were to live different than the nations around them. They were to live different than the world, even as we as believers today are called to come out from the world and to be a set-apart people. We're to live different than the world as well. And so, when we look at the teachings of the Scripture, the teachings of the Scripture not only teaches us what to believe, but how to live out that belief in a practical, in an everyday basis. Now, so far we've seen how to approach God in worship as God lays out for the nation of Israel, the sacrificial system through the priesthood, we've gone through that. We learned the kosher and non-kosher foods that the Israelites were to and were not allowed to eat. There were certain things that they could eat that was fine. There were other things that they were not allowed to eat. And so God cared about their diets and what they ate. We also saw that the Lord was concerned about the everyday things of life like having babies. And when the baby was born, what were they to do? And then how the baby was to be, if it was a male child, was to be circumcised. And how the women were to be purified after they had the baby. We saw the physical protection also against the infectious diseases that could be spread and how the priests were then set a call to set the people apart if they had any kind of skin disease. We went through that long chapter last week or a couple of weeks ago when we looked at the whole idea of leprosy. Now the word that's used for leprosy in the Hebrew language is the word sarot. And it means, it really, what's interesting about the word sarat in the Hebrew is it covers a wide range of skin diseases, of discoloration, of mold, even mold or mildew. It can mean funguses, it can cover dry rot, a whole bunch of stuff. So the one word covers a wide range of different things that can happen. whether it be through getting sick or something that could happen in your clothing. We talked about that. God even said, if you get mold in your clothing, take it out and burn it, you know. And there was all of these little details that the Lord was using to protect them and to teach them. And what's amazing is they really did have a lot of practicality about them because now that we live in this modern age of technology, we know that so much of what God was telling the nation of Israel would have been things that only God could have known back then in order to protect them as far as health kind of things. And so, there were a lot of preventative measures that were to keep them from getting sick, to keep them from getting diseases, or from things spreading when people got sick. Even today, when people get sick, a lot of times they catch it from someone else. I talked to a pastor friend of mine yesterday on the telephone and he sounded horrible. And I said, what's going on? And he said, oh, my daughter came home from school last Friday sick. And guess what? And so he caught it from her, you know. And so what we find in the scripture here is the Lord said, you know, if someone gets an illness that can be transmitted, and of course, The Lord would know that that's how it happened. They were to be taken aside and quarantined. And so we saw all of that. And all of that was for God's people's well-being. He had what was best in mind for them. Now tonight what we're going to do is we're going to get into what was to take place after one had already been quarantined. They had already been healed and they were going to then be readmitted or allowed back into fellowship with the people of God. They were allowed to come back to their homes, back to their tents, back into their tribes, and they were all separated into different tribes. And then they were allowed to come back into the temple and to worship God. They were allowed to come back into fellowship with God after being quarantined. And what do we see? We see the main source and the oversight of all of this was Aaron, the high priest and his sons who were in the priesthood. And so these priests were not only priests, but they sort of served as they had multi roles or they wore different hats, if you will. And the physician was one of them. And they sort of would take the people aside and they would examine if they had a sore or whatever and decide whether or not they needed to be quarantined. And so they had several different jobs and their task must have been a daunting one when you think about it, because basically the nation of Israel, when they left the land of Egypt and they wandered around the desert for 40 years, there were some 2 million of them, it's estimated. So that's a pretty large congregation to take care of. I can't imagine how much work it must have been continually for the priests and offering sacrifices for people's sins and all the stuff that they had to deal with all the time. It must have been a very daunting task for those guys. Let's go ahead and look at chapter 14 and we'll look at our text and we're going to kind of read it and we're going to comment as we go. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, and over and over what we find here is that the Lord continually giving Moses new instructions to bring and lay out before the priests and before the people. And so Moses was not making these things up. They were given to him directly from God. Verse 2, it says, This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priests And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him, and indeed, if the leprosy is healed." Now remember, it could have been leprosy per se, or it could have been a number of skin diseases or things like that. Leprosy, just in a spiritual sense, is always pictured in the Scripture as a type of sin. And what does sin do? It separates us from God. It alienates us from God. And so they would be separated from the camp, and they had to be outside of the camp. And so when the priest went out of the camp, he would then meet with the leper, or the person who had this skin issue, and they would meet, and the priest would then examine the leper to see if he was indeed healed. And so we look at verse 4, Then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed, two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop. So there was now to be a process by which the leopard was to be restored back into a right relationship with God and a right relationship with his family and to be restored into the camp. And so they were to get these two clean birds and to gather the cedar wood, the scarlet, the hyssop, and verse 5 it says, and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel overrunning water. So a sacrifice was to be offered on behalf of the person who had the skin disease and now has been healed. In verse 6, as for the living bird, so they have two birds, one is sacrificed, the other one's still alive. As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. So you get the picture now. There's one bird that's sacrificed, the blood is put in this vessel where running water is being put into it. then the live bird along with the hyssop and the scarlet would be dipped into the water where the blood was from the sacrifice bird. And then verse 7 it says, And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed. And so he takes that and he sprinkles onto the leper or the former leper who is cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean. and shall let the living bird loose in the open field." And so, seven in the Scripture is always a number of completeness. So, you would be sprinkled seven times. I remember growing up, and we don't do it here at Calvary Chapel, but when I was growing up, and I was an altar boy, I remember you kind of didn't like to sit right there on those seats because when the priest came in, he sprinkled everybody with water on the way in. I remember a few times just getting soaked, you know. Messing my hair up, and it was no good, so I learned to sit far away from the sprinkling But in this case what they would do is they would sprinkle with this sacrificial water and pronounce the leper clean and and then the bird that was alive that had been dipped into the blood was then set free and So one bird was symbolic of the death Or the escaped death that the leper experienced. He escaped death. The bird, in a sense, didn't escape death, but he escaped death. And then secondly, the second bird would then carry away, symbolically, the disease and would be set free. And so he would be set free from the disease. Verse 8, He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water that he may be clean. After that, he shall come into the camp and shall stay outside his tent seven days." And so, the next step after the sacrifice, he was then to wash everything. He was to wash his clothes, he was to shave off all of his hair. Interesting that this would happen and it happens twice, we'll see. He shaved off all of his hair and it was a picture of a new man or a new beginning. And so everything was going to start new. His hair was going to grow out new. Everything was going to start new. So he would shave, get all cleaned up. But he still, even though he was allowed into the camp, he still had to wait outside of his tent. He couldn't go into the tent with his family for seven more days, because it was sort of a precautionary watching to make sure that he truly was going to be completely healed, or he was completely healed. Verse 9 says, But on the seventh day, He, so he has to shave again. But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows. This time he's got to shave his eyebrows. So that must have, well, I don't know. I don't know. It just seems, I mean, look kind of funny without any hair at all. But the person would then shave their eyebrows and all his hair and he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean." So, after the period of waiting, then he would do everything all over again, and then he would be at that point declared clean. Verse 10, And on the eighth day, and the eighth day is symbolic of a new beginning in the Scripture. On the eighth day is always a new beginning. So on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one new lamb of the first year without blemish. Remember we talked about all the offerings that were given to God had to be the best. You always gave God the best. And so they would take the best lambs that were a year old or two and then they would offer, well it says here they would offer two male lambs without blemish. One new lamb of the first year without blemish. And they couldn't have any kind of flaws on them. The animals could not be sick. Sickly, they couldn't have a broken leg or anything like that. Well, we should offer that one because it's all messed up anyway. No, you couldn't do that. You had to bring God your best. And so they would offer that. And so they would bring that without blemish. Three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a great offering and one log of oil. Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean and those things before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meaning." So the next thing after the ceremonial washings and being cleaned and shaven, they then were to come to the tabernacle to offer to the Lord as sacrifice and he would be presented at the at the door of the tabernacle of meeting in verse 12 and the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering and the log of oil and waive them as a waive offering before the Lord. Remember, we talked about all these different types of offerings. They all have their own specific meanings. But all of these offerings here are to be brought before the Lord and before the priest as their offering on behalf of the leper who has now been cleansed. And so, verse 13, Then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering, and the burnt offering in a holy place. For as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy." So these were offered on behalf of the leper, and they were to be sanctified and set apart. Remember, the priests were allowed to eat some of the offerings, and apparently, in this case, the meat would go to the priest. Verse 14, "'The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, And the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot." Now we've seen this before. Remember when the priests were being anointed for the ministry? They were anointed in the same kind of way. And so here, it was done with the blood of the trespass offering. And the right ear speaks of the person's ability to listen and to hear the voice of God. We're called into a relationship with God. We're called to learn how to listen to His voice. And I'm encouraging you guys that of all of the most, one of the most beautiful and awesome privileges that we have as believers, is to learn how to listen to the voice of the Lord. Jesus said, my sheep, they listen to my voice and they follow me. And learning how to listen to the voices is it takes a little practice. And what I mean by that is we need to learn to get still and get quiet before the Lord and allow the Lord to literally speak to us, open up the scriptures, read his word, prayer, And then being still and being quiet and asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us. And so the ear is symbolic of listening. And then, of course, not only was the ear to be anointed, but on the thumb of his right hand. And the right hand, of course, speaks of service and of strength. And so we're to give our service and our strength and our best to God. And so the right hand was to be then anointed. And then on the big toe of his right foot, speaking about our walk and the lifestyle that we live. everything is to be set apart and given over to God. The way that we walk, the way that we live, the way that we speak, the way that we listen, everything, the way that we serve, everything is to be given over to God. So, the person now is being anointed or sanctified and set apart for God. Verse 15, And the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it onto the palm of his own left hand. So kind of follow. He pours some of the oil onto the palm of his own left hand. Then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in the left hand and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. So, once more we see the number seven, the number of completeness. And oil, in the scripture, is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. The anointing of oil was symbolic of the Holy Spirit. So, the person is being restored back in by the blood, cleansed by the blood. Then the oil of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that restoration of the reconnection of fellowship as he's been now being anointed with this oil. It says, And the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest, shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. So first he's anointed with the sacrificial blood, now he's anointed with the oil. on the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. And so then the rest of the oil was to be poured over his head. Today when we anoint people with oil, we have, you know, I probably have one here somewhere, but we have little bottles that we use, you know, and we brought them from Israel and they smell really awesome. And we anoint people with oil and we put, you know, usually like a little dab on their forehead and we pray over them. But back then when they anointed with oil, they literally would pour the oil all over you. You know, and so that's how they anointed with oil. So he was then to be anointed with the oil that was left over. And he shall put it on his head of him who is to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. Now, what's really neat about this? And I didn't know this until I studied this week. This is really, I thought was kind of cool, is that there are only in the Old Testament, there are only four groups of people that were ever anointed with oil. Because oil was symbolic of God's anointing on a person's life. The anointing of the Holy Spirit, the empowerment of God, or the consecration, or a person that was being set apart for a specific task. And those four groups of people that were anointed with oil were kings, they were prophets, or priests, or lepers. And, you know, you throw a leper in there, it's like, what? I can see, you know, the kings and the prophets and the priests being anointed with oil, but a leper? And what it really shows us is all of us that come to the Lord, we come sort of like lepers. We come in need of being cleansed, in need of being forgiven, in need of being washed, in need of being brought into a right relationship with the Lord. But even though we were once dirty and defiled and separated, now God draws us near, and we're anointed with oil. It's just a beautiful picture of the grace and the mercy of God, that He would anoint a leper with oil. And then verse 19 says, Then the priest shall offer the sin offering. and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Afterward, he shall kill the burnt offering." And so there are four different offerings that were mandatory that are shown here in this restoration of the leper and we talked about those those different offerings and some of them were voluntarily given and some of them were mandatory and these ones are all mandatory as the leper is now being brought back into a right standing in relationship not only with God but with his fellow believers. Verse 20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean. But if he is poor..." Now I love this because the Lord does not push anyone away. even if they were poor, it didn't matter if they were rich or poor or whatever, everyone could come to God. And so God made a provision if you were too poor to offer these sacrifices, that didn't mean that you couldn't come then. There was still a way, a provision made for you if you were poor. So verse 21, but if he is poor, and cannot afford it, then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waived, to make atonement for him one-tenth of an ephaph of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, a log of oil. and two turtle doves or two young pigeons. And so, always you see that whenever someone was poor, they were allowed to offer them the birds because they were the least expensive. Two turtle doves, two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford. One shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. Instead of bringing a cow or whatever, just bring a bird. Verse 23, He shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day for his cleansing. to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord." So we see the Lord was very orderly in how He did stuff. And, you know, very specific in what they were to do and how they were to do it. Verse 24, "'And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. Then he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, the blood of the lamb, and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed. And so the process starts again. On the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot for the same reasons we mentioned before. And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, then the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord. And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed on the thumb of the right hand and on the big toe of his right foot on the place of the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed to make atonement for him before the Lord. So this whole process happens once more on the eighth day now. Verse 30, And he shall offer one of the turtle doves or young pigeons such as he can afford Such as he is able to afford the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering with the great offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before the Lord. This is the law for one who had a leprous sore. who cannot afford the usual cleansing. So God made a provision for those that could not afford much. Now we go on to something that's pretty interesting, I think as well, is your dwelling place. We talked last time about if you had clothes that were moldy or clothes that were unclean, you literally had to take them and burn them. And now, notice what happens if that happens in your home. What's interesting to me about this whole idea of mold or mildew or fungus or dry rot or any of this stuff, which this could mean, is that these things become health hazards. I was just reading a few weeks ago a pastor in California who his whole family kept getting sick. And they couldn't figure out what was wrong. And they were just getting sick and sick and sick. And they couldn't get over it, it seemed like. And it was just going on and on. And finally, they had someone come in and inspect their house and they found black mold or something in their house. And they literally, it was so full of mold that they had to leave. The house was considered too dangerous to live in. And they literally had to go and move and find a whole new place. This is sort of what we see here. And this is amazing because You know, we know this happens nowadays, we understand this, but this happened, the Lord is giving these instructions as a protection for His people. This is really neat. It says, verse 33, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When you have come into the land of Canaan, now remember, they were still wandering through the desert at this time. they had not come into the land yet but the Lord is saying when you do come into the land which I give you and I love that because there's a lot of controversy today about the land of Israel when in fact if you just read the Bible it shouldn't be controversial at all because the land was given to them, deeded to them by God and so he says the land which I give you as a possession And I put the leprous plague in a house in the land of your possession. So now when they get into the land, they would literally not be living in tents anymore, but be living in houses now. And once they got into their houses and they were living in the land, in their houses, the Lord says, if I put a leprous plague in the house, which of course didn't mean necessarily leprosy per se, but many things could be, like I said, mold, mildew, fungus, dry rot, all these things come under the one name for leprosy, sarat. It says, and he who owns the house comes and tells the priest saying, it seems to me that there is some plague in the house. And so if they begin to discover that there was something weird going on and there was mold or something, then it was the duty of the house owner to go to the priest and bring it to the priest's attention and tell him something's going on in the house. Verse 36, then the priest shall command that they empty the house. before the priest goes into it to examine the plague, that all that is in the house may not be made unclean. And afterward the priest shall go in to examine the house." So, if there was something going on in the house, and there was mold or whatever, they were to take all the furniture, everything in the house, and take it outside completely to get it away from the issue that was happening in the house, then the priest would at that point come in to examine the house, verse 37, and he shall examine the plague, and indeed, if the plague is on the walls of the house with ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish, which appear to be deep in the wall, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house for seven days. So once more we see the number seven and the house was to be sort of quarantined for seven days to see what was up with this whatever was happening on the walls or whatever and so they would then shut up the house no one was allowed to go in. Verse 39 and the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look And indeed, if the plague has spread on the walls of the house, then the priests shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague, which is the plague, and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city." So, if indeed the stuff was spreading, they were to go in and they were to do a renovation in the house. They would take out all the infected stones or whatever they were to take them out, knock those walls down or the portion of the wall and take those out and throw those out into a place outside of the city, the dump or whatever. Verse 41, And he shall cause the house to be scraped inside all around. So they brought in a construction crew at that point. They came in and they scraped the walls And the dust that they scape off, they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. So literally they came in and just cleaned it, scraped it, tried to get everything out of there as much as possible. And then they would take all of the dust and all of the stuff that they scaped off, they would take that and they would dump it outside at the dump. Verse 42, Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar and plaster the house." And so they were then to cover over the area that they fixed and get it all plastered back up again. And it says in verse 43, now if the plague comes back and breaks out in the house after he has taken away the stones, after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered, then the priest shall come And look, and indeed, if the plague has spread in the house, it is an act of leprosy in the house. It is unclean. So, we're going to see what happens next, and this is so practical because God says, look, if the stuff isn't getting fixed, it doesn't go away, and all the stuff that you tried to do to fix it didn't work, the next step to take is this. Verse 45, And he shall break down the house, its stones, its timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them outside the city to an unclean place." And that's probably where they would take them to the dump and burn everything there. It says, moreover, so the whole house was to be torn down and everything was to be hauled off. All the materials were to be hauled off. Moreover, he who goes into the house at all while it is shut up shall be unclean until evening. And he who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes." So they were to be cautious about getting any of that infection on their bodies or in anything like that so they were to be washed and cleansed. Verse 48, But if the priest comes in and examines it, and indeed the plague has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. Then he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. And He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird and dip them in the blood of the slain bird in the running water and sprinkle the house seven times. So we see that the same process that was used to cleanse the person with leprosy is now used to cleanse the house as well. And the sacrifice was made and they were sprinkled and all of that. Verse 52, and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and the running water and the living bird with the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet. Then he shall let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field and make atonement for the house and it shall be clean." We don't do this today. Today, you know, if you have mold or whatever, you can try to get rid of it and there's a whole bunch of things you can do, but it can be very dangerous, obviously. But, you know, it's interesting that they would pray for, in a sense, and sanctify the house. And we've had, I don't know, over the years, we've probably had two or three phone calls where we've been asked to come and to pray over a house or to anoint the house with oil because the people that live there felt that there was demons in the house. And I'm telling you, whenever you get one of those phone calls, you know, whenever I get one of those phone calls, I'm real tempted to say, oh, you can talk to Nils about that, you know. And then Mills is like, no, you can talk to Joseph about that. Then we'll call Marshall. Marshall can come over. But it's just one of those things that's very uncomfortable. But it's interesting that the house itself was to be sanctified. And I think it's a good thing to pray over our homes and to sanctify our homes and to say, Lord, cleanse this place of anything unclean in this house and be willing to do that and to do a house cleaning spiritually. And so they were to do that. They were to make atonement for the house itself. So the house would be clean. So this is a law for any leprous sore and scale. And for the leprous of a garment and of a house. Leprosy of a garment and of a house. So it could be different things. It could be a person's body. It could be garments. It could be a house. This is the process that they were to go through as God was giving these instructions to Moses. For a swelling and a scab and a bright spot. To teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. And part of the job of the priests was to do that. To teach what is unclean and what is clean. And it's interesting because as a pastor I get those kinds of questions sometimes. Is this okay to do this? or not? Is this clean or is this unclean, if you will? And I think part of having the discernment of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to teach us those things is important to know what is good in the eyes of God and what is not good in the eyes of God. And so this is a law of leprosy. And so God wants us to be, we see, protected. God wants us to be set apart. and to be sanctified and holy to Him, given over completely to Him in every aspect of our lives, in our clothing, in our homes, in our bodies, everything, to be given over to God completely. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for Your Word in this time and in tonight, Lord, and seeing, Lord, these things that You care about, Lord, that the details of our lives are important to You. the everyday elements and aspects of life. Lord, You care about our health, our bodies, our homes, our clothing, everything, Lord. And so help us, Father, to be conscious of that as New Testament saints. That Lord, that we are to be set apart for holy use in every aspect of our lives. Even the things that we wear. Even the things that we own. they really belong to you. So help us to have that mindset. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.