(Concluded from page 40 )

The subject of healing and cleansing in connection with leprosy must now command our consideration. It should be noticed that there is a distinction between these two things. Healing is not by cleansing, nor is cleansing by healing. It is the healed one who has to be cleansed.

Healing is that work of God in the soul that results in confession and self-judgment. The place of judgment is frankly accepted as duly required by the holiness of God. When the leper is thus healed, the fact of his healing must be clearly ascertained, and this is something for priestly discernment. His own profession is not the evidence. The priest must "look." His state of soul must be ascertained. The evidence of the healing will be that the spiritual life has asserted itself and opposition to God. has ceased. The acceptance of the place "outside the camp"- the place of judgment, not by profession merely, but as unreservedly submitting to God and His word will be proof of healing.

But now that the leper is healed he yet needs cleansing, and this is by priestly exercise. The priest sprinkled the healed leper with the blood of a sacrifice seven times. Typically, this sprinkling of blood upon the leper speaks of the ministry of the truth of the believer's association in heaven with the One who died for him, rose again, and has gone into heaven to appear there for him, and that as thus linked with Christ in heaven he is not alone delivered from the due of his sins, but also himself dead with the Christ who died for him to the world in all its extent. This had been forgotten, but by priestly activity it is now afresh ministered to the purification of the conscience. Thus restored to the enjoyment of the truth of association with Christ in heaven, the priest declares he is clean. A moral and spiritual purification by priestly service has been effected in the heart and conscience, and he is clean. The priest's declaration that he is clean is that priestly service by which under the government of God pardon is administered. This is a remission of sins which is committed to us to grant.

This will result in a purification of another kind. The work of recovery thus far effected will enable the one being cleansed to solemnly review his life in the light of the word of God and accept that word as applying both to his walk and to himself. This is what washing "his clothes" and "himself" and "shaving off all his hair " speaks of. It is his cleansing himself according to the word of God.

Now he finds liberty to take his place among the people of God, to "come into the camp." He is restored to the place of privilege and fellowship. But though clean for this, there is yet further recovery to be effected. After coming into the camp, we read, he "shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days." This suggests the need of practical intercourse with the people of God, the enjoyment with them of the portion and privileges that are theirs. This is progress in practical recovery, which results in his cleansing himself still more fully according to the truth of the word of God. This "seventh day" cleansing of himself is the effect, the fruit, of holy occupation with divine things in the practical enjoyment of them with the people of God.

Then on the "eighth day" he is by priestly ministry presented "before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." Sacrifices, all of which speak of Christ, are offered; and the blood applied to the "right ear" the "thumb of the right hand " and the " great toe of the right foot." Then after sprinkling the "oil seven times before the Lord," the oil is put where the blood has been put as also upon "the head." As thus sprinkled with blood and anointed with oil he stands at the door of the tabernacle, while priestly service goes on at the altar. All this clearly speaks of priestly ministry by which there is recovery to communion with God in His thoughts about Christ and His atoning work, and this too as realizing, what again had clearly been forgotten, the divine claims, on the ground of the blood of Christ, to ear, hand, and foot, and dependence on the Spirit of God to meet those claims, and preserve the mind in holy occupation with God's interest and joy in Christ and His sacrifice. It is this that completes not only the recovery, but also the cleansing. . While priestly service goes on at the altar and an odor of a sweet smell (the acceptability of the sacrifice of Christ) is delighting the heart of God, the recovered and cleansed leper stands before God with heart and conscience fully purged, to realize the blessedness of his portion as in communion with God. How much is thus implied in the words, "And he shall be clean"! He has got back to God to find with Him a happy dwelling-place. Into "his tent " he now goes in the realization that he is dwelling with God.

What a change this, from insubjection to God and perverse opposition to His will, to participation with God in His joy in Christ! But what grace in God to thus recover and cleanse one who has allowed his sinful, corrupt nature to have sway. But few words are needed to bring before us the cleansing of the garment in which the plague of leprosy has been healed. We have seen already that the garment has been washed. The specified waiting time has passed, and priestly discernment finds no evidence of leprosy being present in the garment, The simple instructions are, " then it shall be washed the second time and shall be clean."A second sub-mission of our ways and habits to examination by the light of the word of God will confirm us in ways that are suited to God, and thus are clean ways, May we welcome the scrutiny of our ways by the eye of God as we find how that holy eye looks upon them in the Scriptures which tell so perfectly what His will concerning us is.

The cleansing of the house in which there has been leprosy now demands our attention. We find that the same priestly ministry that was carried on to cleanse the individual leper, immediately after the priest looked on him and found him healed, is employed to cleanse the house. This teaches us that there is need of the ministry of the truth of association with Christ in heaven-the Christ who has died out of this world. Whether we apply the house to the home of a believer or to the local assembly, the need is the same. The ministry of such truth is clearly priestly work. The result of such priestly service is the recovery to, and enjoyment of the truth of identification with Christ in the possession of heavenly things. The effect of such recovery will be seen in a firm maintenance, of the claims of God on the ground of this identification. It is a moral change-a cleansing.

We have seen thus something of the teaching of the Spirit of God in connection with leprosy. Shall we take it to heart ? Shall we seek to conform ourselves to His mind and ways? It most surely is deepest blessing to do so. The admonition, the instruction, the solemn warnings are for our good. Shall we miss the good that is thus intended for us?

May God in His blessed grace grant us both to hear His voice and be subject to it. Let us seek to realize, as He surely desires that we should, that whether it be ourselves personally, our habits and ways, our homes or the assembly, He has claims upon us, by the death of Christ for us, that we should hold the sin that is still in us under the condemnation He has put upon it. May we remember He has "condemned sin in the flesh;" and this we shall always need to do if we seek to escape becoming leprous. C. Crain