Bird's-eye view
In these two verses, we are given the grim diagnosis and the subsequent sentence for the one found to have a leprous infection. This is not simply a matter of public health, though God in His wisdom certainly provided for that as well. No, this is a profound, living parable of sin. Leprosy in Leviticus is the premier audiovisual aid for the nature and consequence of sin. It is a walking death. The regulations here are designed to illustrate what sin does to a man. It defiles, it isolates, and it ultimately exiles him from the presence of the holy God who dwells in the midst of His people. The prescribed actions of the leper are not arbitrary; they are the outward signs of a spiritual reality, a public confession of a state of death-in-life that can only be cured by a direct and miraculous intervention from God.
The entire ceremony forces the leper to act out the part of a mourner at his own funeral. He is, for all intents and purposes, dead to the covenant community. His separation is total. This stark picture of sin's effect is meant to drive us to the conclusion that we cannot deal with our own uncleanness. We need a high priest to declare us clean, and more than that, we need a savior who is willing to touch the untouchable and reverse the curse. This passage, in all its severity, prepares the ground for the good news of the gospel, where Jesus Christ takes on our uncleanness and is cast outside the camp on our behalf.
Outline
- 1. The Leper's Public Demeanor (v. 45)
- a. The Garments of Mourning (v. 45a)
- b. The Cry of Confession (v. 45b)
- 2. The Leper's Exiled State (v. 46)
- a. The Duration of Uncleanness (v. 46a)
- b. The Location of Exile (v. 46b)
Context In Leviticus
Leviticus is the book of holiness. Its central theme is how a sinful people can live in the presence of a holy God. The Lord has come to dwell in the Tabernacle, right in the center of the camp, and His presence radiates a demand for purity. Chapters 11 through 15 deal with the laws of cleanness and uncleanness. These laws are not primarily about hygiene but about holiness. They create categories that teach Israel the difference between the sacred and the profane, the clean and the unclean. Leprosy, detailed in chapters 13 and 14, is the ultimate symbol of uncleanness. It represents a corruption that comes from within and makes a person unfit to draw near to God or His people. The regulations in our text are the culmination of the diagnostic process. Once the disease is confirmed, the consequences are enacted, demonstrating in the starkest terms the separation that sin creates between man and God.
Key Issues
- Leprosy as a Type of Sin
- Ritual Mourning for the Living Dead
- The Public Confession of Uncleanness
- Exile from the Covenant Community
- Christ, Our Scapegoat
Commentary
Leviticus 13:45
As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’
The diagnosis has been made by the priest, and now the sentence is carried out by the leper himself. He is required to adopt the posture of a mourner. Tearing one's clothes was a common sign of deep grief or distress, as when Jacob heard the news about Joseph (Gen. 37:34). An uncovered head was likewise a sign of shame and mourning. The man is grieving, but he is grieving his own death. Leprosy was a living death, a slow decay of the body, and the law required him to treat himself as though he were already dead and buried. Sin is precisely this. It is a spiritual leprosy that brings about a living death, separating us from the life of God.
He must then cover his upper lip, or mustache. This is a gesture of shame. He is, in effect, muzzled. His uncleanness makes him unfit to speak freely among the people of God. What a picture of sin's effect on our worship and fellowship. It brings a proper shame that ought to silence our proud boasts. Out of this shame, he has only one thing he is permitted to say. He must cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" This serves as a warning to others to keep their distance, lest they become defiled by contact with him. But it is more than a warning; it is a public confession. He is the walking embodiment of defilement, and his words must match his condition. This is the confession that sin wrings out of a man. There is no hiding it, no pretending. He is unclean, and he must own it.
Leviticus 13:46
He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his place of habitation shall be outside the camp.
The condition is not temporary. As long as the infection remains, his status as unclean remains. The text emphasizes this: "he is unclean." It is not just something he has; it is what he is. This is the biblical doctrine of total depravity in a nutshell. Sin is not just a series of mistakes we make; it is a condition, a leprous infection of the heart that defines our standing before a holy God. We are, by nature, unclean.
The result of this condition is twofold: isolation and exile. "He shall live alone." Sin atomizes. It destroys fellowship, first with God and then with man. The sinner is ultimately, desperately alone. And this isolation takes place in a specific location: "his place of habitation shall be outside the camp." The camp was where God dwelt with His people. To be outside the camp was to be cut off from the covenant community, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and the manifest presence of God. It was to be in the wilderness, the place of demons and death. It was a picture of excommunication, a picture of hell itself.
And it is here that we see the glory of the gospel shine most brightly against this dark backdrop. For what is the cross but Jesus Christ, our sin-bearer, being declared unclean on our behalf? He was taken outside the camp, outside the city of Jerusalem, to Golgotha (Heb. 13:12). He bore our leprosy, our sin, and He endured the isolation and exile that we deserved. He was cut off from His Father so that we, the truly unclean, might be brought near, cleansed, and welcomed into the holy city, the camp of the saints. He touched the lepers and, instead of becoming unclean Himself, He made them clean (Mark 1:40-42). He reverses the curse. This law in Leviticus shows us the utter hopelessness of our condition, so that we would look for the One who is our only hope of cleansing.
Application
The modern Christian is tempted to read a passage like this and thank God we are not under such a harsh system. But this is to miss the point entirely. The principle here is abiding. Sin is just as defiling today as it was then. It still isolates and exiles us from the presence of God. The difference is not that God has lowered His standard of holiness, but that the sacrifice of His Son has met that standard perfectly on our behalf.
This passage should therefore do two things in us. First, it should cultivate a profound hatred of our own sin. We must see our sin for what it is: a spiritual leprosy that makes us odious and unclean before a holy God. We should learn to cry "Unclean!" not as a public spectacle, but in the quiet of our own hearts in confession before God. We must not trifle with sin, but see it as the living death that it is.
Second, it should cultivate a profound love for our Savior. Jesus was willing to be cast outside the camp for us. He took our defilement upon Himself and exhausted the curse of the law. Because He was exiled, we are brought home. Because He was made unclean, we are made clean. The severity of the law of the leper is the backdrop that makes the grace of the gospel shine with unspeakable brilliance.
Furthermore, the principle of being "outside the camp" remains in the New Testament in the practice of church discipline. The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the camp of God. Those in unrepentant sin are to be put out (1 Cor. 5:13), not as a vindictive act, but for the purity of the church and with the hope that this taste of exile will bring the sinner to his senses and lead him to repentance.