Why is leprosy talked about so much in the Bible?

Leprosy was a common disease in Israel, and was brought with them, it has been said, from the bondage of Egypt. Apart from its seriousness as a disease of the body, the law of Moses imposed upon. it additional seriousness by the ceremonies of that economy. Other infirmities and diseases receive brief mention only, but the instructions having reference to leprosy occupy a considerable section in the priests' guide book (Lev. 13, 14). The priest, acting as the representative of Jehovah in the midst of His people, examined the symptoms of a suspected case, and decided accordingly whether the patient was a leper or not; and if so, condemned him to dwell alone in the place of uncleanness without the camp. The priest only was empowered to decide whether the plague of leprosy was healed in a given case, while a series of ceremonies was prescribed before the healed man could be again acknowledged as one of the congregation of worshippers of Jehovah.

We now come to the law (13 — 14) relating to leprosy, which was stringent and precise. It was stringent, for the Lord would have the camps in the midst of which He dwelt cleared of every leper (Num. 5:1-4). It was precise in the directions for determining the presence of the disease, for a person's social position was affected, and his ecclesiastical privileges remained in abeyance all the time that he was afflicted with it. Animals, it would seem, were not subject to it. Only man, and what was immediately connected with him, as garments and houses, were liable to it. Now the disease we learn was not unknown till after the Exodus (Ex. 4:6, 30-31). Nor was it peculiar to the Israelites, though to them only did God give instruction about it. And never were they to forget those instructions, or to ignore them. In the wilderness, as we have seen, they were to put them in force. In the land, too, they were to observe them (Deut. 24:8). Those which regard man, and garments are recounted in chapter 13; whilst the cleansing of the leper, and of the house is set forth in chapter 14

Leprosy in a person (13:1-46) 2. The infected garment. (13:47-57) 3. The cleansing of the garment (13:58-59)

The entire chapter treats of leprosy. It has been argued from the side of critics that the disease described here is not the one we know as leprosy, but only a similar disease of the skin. The arguments advanced to support this objection are silenced by Matthew 8:1-4. The man who came to our Lord had leprosy. The Lord told him "show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." From this we learn that Leviticus 13 and 14 speak of the real disease, so loathsome and, from human side, incurable. The twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Leviticus are closely linked together. Inherited sin is the theme of the preceding chapter. Its cure is also indicated in circumcision and the offering. Leprosy is the type of indwelling sin and its awful corruption. This horrible disease was chosen by the Lord to typify sin on account of its vileness. Like sin it is progressive and eventually affects the whole being; it is hereditary and incurable. As the disease progresses the victim becomes more and more insensible to his dreadful condition and is even content with it.

"In view of all these correspondences, one need not wonder that in the symbolism of the law leprosy holds the place which it does. For what other disease can be named which combines in itself, as a physical malady, so many of the most characteristic marks of the malady of the soul? In its intrinsic loathsomeness, its insignificant beginnings, its slow but inevitable progress, in the extent of its effects, in the insensibility which accompanies it, in its hereditary character, in its incurability, and, finally, in the fact that according to the law it involved the banishment of the leper from the camp of Israel --in all these respects, it stands alone as a perfect type of sin; it is sin, as it were, made visible in the flesh." (S.H. Kellogg, Leviticus.)

We now come to the subject of leprosy, which is treated at length. As the most inveterate and loathsome of diseases, so slight in its beginnings, so sure in its retentive hold and in its power to spread both within and around the unhappy subject of it, so awful in its end, it is used as the fit type of the corruption of sin. God Himself therefore takes it into His own hand, as indeed the only One competent to deal with it, and with whom alone its cure was found. All researches into its nature, which have been many, have proved of singularly little help in the interpretation of the Word, which is (as ever,) sufficient for itself. The spiritual meaning is really the whole thing — what even for Israel God had in mind always; and now fully opened — or lying open — to us, "upon whom the ends of the ages are come." Thus, if there is no natural remedy given or hinted at for this disease, for the spiritual malady we shall surely find it in the ordained means for cleansing the leper.

This loathsome and, for millennia, incurable disease is often mentioned in scripture. Some persons were smitten with leprosy as a direct judgement from God, as were Miriam (though she in grace was subsequently cured), Gehazi, and Amaziah; in the case of Gehazi the disease was to descend also to his seed. God's power alone could cure the leper, as seen in the case of Naaman the Syrian, and in the many lepers that the Lord cured when on earth. Amaziah dwelt in a separate house, and the lepers were enjoined to proclaim their own condition by calling out, "Unclean, Unclean." Lev. 13:45.

Leprosy is a vivid type of sin, and its insidious working, producing an unclean condition. Lev. 13 and Lev. 14 treat of the way it was to be discovered and dealt with by the priests as those having the mind of God. The instruction in Lev. 13:12-13, though seemingly paradoxical, is significant: when the leprosy covered all the skin, the priest was to pronounce the man clean: "it is all turned white: he is clean." That is, the leprosy, instead of striking inwards, had worked itself out, typical of a man truly confessing his sin; then the effect only of the defilement remains.

Man in his loathsome, sinful condition, is portrayed by the leper, whom the Lord alone can cleanse. In Leviticus 14 we read of “the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing” (verse 2). When the Lord was upon earth we read of Him cleansing lepers, and He also revealed that there were “many lepers…in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:27). It needed divine intervention to cleanse lepers.

" 1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a swelling, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes in the skin of his flesh a stroke of leprosy, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests. 3 And when the priest looks on the stroke in the skin of his flesh, and the hair in the stroke is turned white, and the stroke looks deeper than the skin of his flesh, it [is] the stroke of leprosy; and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean. 4 But if the bright spot [be] white in the skin of his flesh, and look not deeper than the skin, and the hair be not turned white, the priest shall shut up [him that has] the stroke seven days. 5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh day; and, behold, in his sight the stroke remains as it was, the stroke has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days a second time. 6 And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day, and, behold, the stroke [is] become pale, the stroke has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it [is] a scab; and he shall wash his garments, and be clean. 7 But if the scab have spread much in the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen again by the priest; 8 and the priest shall look and, behold, the scab has spread in the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it [is] leprosy" (vers. 1-8).

Even in the type it was a holy rather than a medical question. Leprosy was not a malady so much as a stroke or plague; and the priest looked on the suspect with minute direction from Jehovah. It was not the diagnosis of a physician. As the consequence was most serious to an Israelite, the most scrupulous care was due in the priest. Uncleanness from birth was a fact patent, and there Jehovah spoke to Moses for what concerned every mother and child. For leprosy He spoke to Moses and to Aaron. The leper represents, not a Christian but man in the flesh, Israel under the first covenant. Sin works and manifests itself; but haste to pronounce on evil when manifest or at work, is as far from God as indifference to it; both the reverse of grace. The priest, or spiritual man conversant with the presence of God, judges according to the written word.

Doubtless, each form of disease was typical of some special manifestation of sin,the demon possession suggesting the power of Satan, as fever did the false energy of an activity not of the Spirit. Here, the leprosy speaks of uncleanness and therefore unfitness for the presence of God. Such was the condition of Israel, as well as that of every sinner.

The necessity for absolute purity, both in nature and practice, is seen in the provisions made in connection with birth, and the plague of leprosy (Lev. 12 — 14) . Leprosy indeed is a complete type of sin, and so is gone into in marked. detail, with the rules for its detection and isolation, and the rites connected with the restoration of the leper after his cleansing. It must suffice to say that it requires priestly discernment to detect the disease, sometimes under an apparently harmless blemish, and at other times suspected where it does not really exist. Banishment from enjoyment of communion with God and His people is the necessary treatment for this loathsome disease, and it is only divine power which can heal the leper. Leprosy doubtless is a type of sin in the believer as well as in one who has never known God. Indeed, sin is sin wherever manifested, and if we go back far enough, there is but one remedy for it in saint and in sinner alike.

The Old Testament shows us that the leper had to be put outside the camp, he was not fit to be numbered with the redeemed people. He was like a sinner unfit for the presence of a holy, sin-hating God.