as to the living bird -- he shall take it, and 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;
The cleansing of a healed leper begins with a strange scene: one bird killed, and a second bird dipped in its blood and set free. Why two birds rather than one, and why bind wood, dye and a common herb into the ceremony at all?
The two birds are not two sacrifices. They are one picture in two halves.
The two clean birds set forth Christ dead and risen — the one killed, the other let loose into the open field. But there is far more here, for the bird that was to die was killed in an earthen vessel over living water. How plainly this points to Him! Through the Eternal Spirit He offered Himself spotless to God, willing to be crucified in weakness. So Christ was given up for our offences and raised for our justification, as the apostle says (Rom. 4:25).
Two details fix where the bird died: a clay pot, and fresh running water.
One bird was killed in a clay pot over running water. That is of course the death of Christ come in the flesh — the clay pot — and it cannot be separated from the living water of the word. Birds belong to the sky, so a case like this one calls for the highest thought of His being and His person.
The dipping ties the two birds together. The living one does not just outlive the other; it carries its blood.
The priest takes the second bird, the living bird, along with the cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop. He plunges them all under the blood of the dead victim. He then sprinkles the leper seven times from it. This identifies the man in the most solemn way with everything that has happened. He then lets the living bird loose in the open field, and the leper is pronounced clean. The meaning of all this is very plain. It is the death and resurrection of Christ. In the slain bird He is delivered for our offences; in the freed bird He is raised again for our justification. It is liberty out of condemnation... the bird being dipped in the blood of the slain one is identified with it. It is in a sense the same bird.
Where the blood goes next also matters.
The bird that was released was first dipped in the blood of the slain bird, and so was identified with it. Two birds were needed in the type to set forth Christ in death and in resurrection. As the released bird soared into the heavens it carried the blood not into the sanctuary but into the heavens. This was the basis of all that followed.
Three ordinary materials go under the blood with the bird.
Notice too that the cedar wood, the scarlet and the hyssop were to be dipped into the blood of the slain bird. The cedar is the most majestic of trees, hyssop is the humblest of herbs, and scarlet speaks of the glory of men. The death of Christ has stained the pride of all human glory. It has stained all that is natural to this first creation, from the greatest things to the least.
So what became of the three materials themselves?
He was to see all that was of nature, and the glory of the world, dipped in the blood of the slain bird. In the same way now, whatever answers to those emblems should be viewed through the cross. The cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet were not destroyed. When dipped in the blood they appeared in a new light, and so should it be with us.
Through all of this the man himself does nothing. He is present, but the priest acts.
On the face of it, the work was first of all done for the leper, not in the least degree by himself.
Only afterwards does he act, and his washing follows the cleansing:
So the leper stood by while the bird was killed for him, and he was sprinkled with its blood. But once this service was done, he was able to act. The first thing he did was wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, so that he might be clean. After that he could enter the camp.
- Two birds, one Saviour. One killed, one released — the same life seen through death and out the other side, "in a sense the same bird."
- Dipped, therefore joined. The living bird is bound to the slain one by its blood. Death and resurrection are one picture, not two.
- Blood that flies. The blood does not go into the sanctuary but into the open sky. That ascent is the basis of all that follows.
- Cedar to hyssop. The highest and the lowest of nature go under the blood, and scarlet for human glory with them. The cross leaves nothing in the old creation untouched.
- Done for him. The leper only stands there while it is done; his washing comes after the blood, never instead of it.
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.
In this verse a leper stops being unclean, and he does none of it himself: the priest sprinkles, the priest speaks, the priest lets the bird fly. What made him clean, who could say so, and why did one bird go free?
How much leprosy a man had made no difference to where he stood:
The leprosy might be great or small, many spots or few, long-standing or recent. Still the leper was unclean. He was utterly unclean, unfit for the camp of Israel, until the priest sprinkled him with the blood of the sacrifice. Every other washing was useless, every other remedy pointless. He could go here or there, do this or that, cover his spots and hide his sores — he was still utterly unclean. But the moment the priest sprinkled him with the blood, he pronounced him clean. It was the blood that made the difference.
The count of seven carries its own message:
The priest then sprinkled the blood seven times on the leper, and when this was done he pronounced him "clean." Seven tells of the perfect application of the blood, for "the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7)... sprinkling the blood seven times was enough for the priest to pronounce him clean.
The verse hands both the sprinkling and the verdict to the priest, never to the man:
It belonged to God, and to Him alone, to plan and carry out a work that could cleanse the leprosy perfectly. And it belonged to God, and to Him alone, to pronounce the leper "clean." So Scripture says that the priest shall sprinkle, and "he shall pronounce him clean." It does not say, "the leper shall sprinkle, and pronounce, or imagine, himself clean." That would never do. God was the Judge — God was the Healer — God was the Cleanser... There is the most precious connection between the three things in verse 7: the blood is sprinkled, the leper pronounced clean, and the living bird let loose. Not a single syllable tells us what the leper was to do, to say, to think, or to feel.
The same writer turns this on anyone who waits to feel forgiven:
So many are troubled by the question of feeling it, realising it, and making it their own. They fail to see what the leper's case shows: the sprinkling of the blood was as independent and as divine as the shedding of it... The plan of deliverance was divine; the provision of the sacrifice was divine; the shedding of the blood was divine; the sprinkling of the blood was divine. The record of the result was divine. In short, it was all divine.
Only after the blood and the verdict does the second bird go free:
We could hardly have a more perfect picture of the resurrection of Christ than the living bird let loose into the open field. It was not let go until its companion had died. The two birds stand for one Christ in two stages of His blessed work — death and resurrection. Ten thousand birds let loose would not have availed for the leper. It was that living bird, rising into the open heavens, carrying on its wing the sign that atonement was finished. That is what announced the great fact: the work was done.
Where that blood was carried is itself part of the picture:
The priest first dipped the living bird in the blood of the slain bird, marking it as one with it... As the released bird soared upward, it carried the blood into the heavens, not into the sanctuary. This was the basis of all that followed.
The blood touched more than the man:
The cedar wood, the scarlet and the hyssop were also dipped in the blood of the bird that was slain, and this has a worthy meaning. The death of Christ has pronounced, for the one who is cleansed, death on everything man deals with here. The chosen emblems of the highest in nature and of the lowest, along with that which pictures the conventional glory of the world, were dipped in the blood... every evil is counteracted for the believer in Christ's atoning death.
The verdict is not the end. Washing and shaving follow in verses 8 and 9:
It may seem strange that the priest pronounced the leper clean in verse 7. Yet this is the sure and cheering ground on which he begins the practical work of cleansing himself in verses 8 and 9. God's own verdict gives the highest assurance. It does not cancel the moral cleansing the LORD calls for in every respect. On the contrary, it gives priceless encouragement to start on every detail and work it through.
- Blood — no washing, no cover-up and no improvement touched leprosy. The sprinkled blood alone made the difference between unclean and clean.
- Seven — seven sprinklings mark the cleansing as perfect. Nothing had to be added to it.
- Verdict — the man never sprinkles himself or calls himself clean. The plan, the sacrifice, the shedding, the sprinkling and the record all come from God.
- Flight — the freed bird carries its companion's blood up into the heavens. It pictures the resurrection, announcing that the work is done.
- Then walk — the verdict of verse 7 does not replace the washing of verses 8 and 9. Being called clean is the ground on which practical cleansing starts.