But if the leprosy break out much in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of [him that hath] the sore, from his head even to his foot, wherever the eyes of the priest look,
A single spot of disease could shut a man out of the camp. Yet here the disease covers the whole body, and the verdict is clean — a reversal that shows how God deals with sinners.
The worst-looking case in the chapter gets the best verdict. One writer notes how strange this looked to the priest, and where the same principle appears at the cross:
Here the leprosy has broken out widely in the skin. It has covered the man from his head to his foot, so that before the priest's eye it has spread over his whole outside, and all is turned white. Yet, strange to say, the priest looked at this dreadful sight and had to pronounce him clean — and clean he was. Where sin abounded, grace went far beyond it. It is the denial of sin, and the claim of one's own righteousness, that cut off hope. Where there is no hiding, but the sin is out and the sins laid bare all over, God delights in saving. So it was that the cross displayed all the wickedness of man, and God's love to the uttermost. See in the criminal crucified beside Jesus a living picture of this principle: he hid nothing of his sins, and that day he went to be in Paradise with the Saviour.
The verdict rests not on how bad the man looks, but on what the whiteness shows.
I believe the great truth taught here is this: where everything is ruined, and plainly admitted to be ruined, the grace of God can and loves to bless… In the picture it is not leprosy at work, for if raw flesh appeared the person was to be unclean. It is the miserable effect the disease has left behind — all turned white. In the reality, this is the man who knows it is all over with him. He stops trying to establish his own righteousness and submits to the righteousness of God.
Once the whole body is white, the disease can spread no further. Another writer draws the moral parallel directly:
Sin defiles as long as it works beneath the surface. But when honest, thorough confession brings it fully out into the open, it stops defiling. In confession the sinner has judged himself, and that breaks the spreading, defiling power of his sin.
The verdict comes at the end of a slow examination. One writer shows both sides of it: God's patience, and His severity once the disease is proved:
There was no haste, and no indifference. God always enters the place of judgment with a slow and measured step. But when He does enter, He must act according to the claims of His nature… once He finds leprosy truly at work, He can tolerate it no longer. "His dwelling shall be outside the camp." How long? Until the disease comes fully to the surface… The very smallest speck of leprosy was intolerable to God. Yet when the whole man was covered, from head to foot, the priest pronounced him clean — that is, he was a fit subject for the grace of God and the blood of atonement.
The leper had to reach full exposure, not improvement. The same writer describes the painful delay before a person stops defending himself:
The moment a sinner is in his true place before God, the whole question is settled. Once his real character is fully out in the open, there is no further difficulty. He may have to pass through much painful exercise before he reaches this point. The pain comes from his refusal to take his true place and to bring out "all the truth" about what he is. But the moment God brings him to say, from his heart, "just as I am," the free grace of God flows down to him.
Clean is not the same as restored. One writer keeps the two apart:
Such a person was healed, though not yet cleansed. He was not brought under the benefit of the sacrifices, or restored to relationship with God inside the camp. In the picture, he is a sinner in the place of self-judgment before God. He is defiled by sin and knows it, but the activity of sin has stopped, because he is in the place of repentance… He is still a sinner, for though repentant, he is not yet under the benefit of the death and resurrection of Christ.
- Out, not hidden — the whiteness is the disease worked out to the surface, no longer active; raw flesh, the sign of sin still at work, brings back the verdict "unclean."
- Out, so it stops spreading — sin defiles while it works underneath. Honest confession brings it out and breaks its power to spread and defile.
- Out, so grace comes in — where everything is ruined and admitted to be ruined, God loves to bless. Where sin abounded, grace went far beyond it.
- Out, so self-defence ends — he stops establishing his own righteousness and says "just as I am." Then the free grace of God flows down to him.
- Out, but not yet home — clean here means self-judgment reached, not restoration. He is healed, but not yet cleansed or back inside the camp.
and the priest looketh, and behold, the leprosy covereth all his flesh, he shall pronounce [him] clean [that hath] the sore; it is all turned white; he is clean.
One spot of disease sent a man out of the camp. Yet a body covered head to foot gets the verdict "clean," and commentators read this reversal as one of the law's clearest pictures of how God deals with a sinner.
Chapter 13 sets out a careful diagnosis. The priest does not measure how much disease there is. He reads what one mark reveals about the condition underneath.
One spot with certain characteristics would decide the leprosy of the individual. One spot reveals an inward diseased condition, just as one sin comes from a sinful nature. How good God is in giving us such a vivid presentation of what sin is in His presence.
The same holiness that could not tolerate one speck now calls the fully covered man clean.
The very smallest speck of leprosy was intolerable to God. Yet when the whole man was covered, from head to foot, the priest pronounced him clean. That is, he was a proper subject for the grace of God and the blood of atonement.
The colour is the point. One writer reads leprosy as a picture of sin at work in a person.
In general, leprosy is sin acting in the flesh. So when the "raw flesh appears" (v. 14), it is a sign that sin is active, and the man was to be pronounced unclean. The flesh in this case has been at work, and the proof of its past activity is still there. But that activity has stopped. So, though a leper, he is to be counted as clean. Such a man was healed, though not yet cleansed. He was not brought under the benefit of the sacrifices, nor restored to relationship with God inside the camp. In type, it is a sinner in the place of self-judgment before God.
The next chapter tells how the leper was actually made clean, and it does not begin with him.
In the next chapter you find the various rites for cleansing the leper, to fit him for fellowship with God. The first thing, the foundation of everything, is the death and resurrection of Christ — for the leper outside the camp pictures the sinner.
Kelly applies the verdict straight to the sinner, and names the one thing that holds a person back.
When a sinner has got to his worst and felt it, he is forgiven. Instead of going about to set up his own righteousness, he submits to the righteousness of God and is justified by faith. When you see a man filled with a thorough sense of sin yet bowing to God, we may be sure of a blessing, and in full measure too. A man may try to excuse, cover, and correct himself instead of confessing his sins in all their seriousness. That only blocks his view of God's grace and keeps up uncertainty. Such striving only keeps empty hopes alive. It denies how far man's ruin goes, and shuts out the full delivering mercy of God.
One writer points to people in Scripture who had nothing good to say about themselves, and were cleansed.
It tells us of a poor sinner who has not one word of good to say about himself. We may see many lepers in the Bible who were all covered with leprosy, and all were cleansed. Look at Peter in Luke 5. He finds out for the first time that he is covered with leprosy. Hear him: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man" — that is, a man full of sin. If you have a cup full of water, you have no room for anything else in it. If you have a man full of sin, you have no room for any good in him.
Kelly makes the same point from the cross, where one of the criminals crucified beside Jesus hid nothing: "the cross displayed all the sin of man, and God's love to the uttermost."
One real case in Israel followed this rule. Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, turned completely white with leprosy.
According to Leviticus 13:13, this complete whiteness was exactly the condition for being pronounced clean again! So God's judgment struck Miriam, and yet right away a proof of His grace could be seen — grace that had her restoration in mind. She had to go outside the camp as an unclean person, and she had to cry out that she was unclean. But it was not forever. God wanted to receive her again after she had been shut out of the camp for seven days.
- Spot — one mark condemned. It exposed a diseased condition underneath, just as one sin comes from a sinful nature.
- Spread — while the disease was still at work, the man stayed unclean. The "raw flesh" of the next verse is sin still active.
- White — all white means the disease has spent itself and only its marks remain. That pictures a sinner judging himself before God.
- Sentence — the priest's word "clean" is God's grace meeting a man fully exposed; his actual cleansing rests on the death and resurrection of Christ.
- Snare — excusing, covering and correcting yourself keeps the blessing away. Confess the whole truth instead.