Commentary - Leviticus 14:33-57

Bird's-eye view

We come now to a portion of the law that modern readers are tempted to skim, assuming it is little more than an ancient building code for dealing with mildew. But to do so would be to miss the point entirely. God is not a celestial health inspector; He is the Holy One of Israel, and He is teaching His people that His holiness is to permeate every aspect of their lives, right down to the stones and plaster of their homes. The home is the basic unit of society, a little kingdom, a sanctuary for the family. As such, it too must be clean. This passage shows us that sin is like a leprous corruption; it is invasive, it defiles, and it requires either radical cleansing or utter destruction. And most gloriously, it shows us that God has provided a means of atonement, a cleansing ritual that is a stunningly beautiful type of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The blood of the sacrifice is not just for people; it is for their houses also. Christ's redemption is cosmic in its scope.

Outline

Commentary

Leviticus 14:33-35

The Lord speaks to both Moses and Aaron, the civil and the religious heads of the nation. This law concerns the whole of Israel's life. Notice the timing: "When you enter the land of Canaan." This is a law for a settled people, a people who possess homes. This is a promise wrapped in a law. But then notice the agency: "and I put a mark of leprosy on a house." This is not a random outbreak of fungus. God Himself claims responsibility. This is a providential sign, a divine chastisement, a summons to attention. When something goes wrong in our homes, our first question should not be about the humidity levels, but rather, "Lord, what are you saying to us?" The homeowner's duty is then straightforward. He is not to cover it up with a fresh coat of paint. He is not to ignore it. He must go to the priest, the mediator, and make a confession: "Something like a mark... has become visible to me." This is the beginning of all true repentance: acknowledging the visible corruption and bringing it to God's appointed authority.

Leviticus 14:36-38

The priest's first action is one of practical mercy. He has the house emptied before he goes in to make his official inspection. Why? "So that everything in the house need not become unclean." The official declaration of uncleanness by the priest is what changes the status of the contents. Until he pronounces on it, the furniture is just furniture. This is a principle of due process. God is not eager to condemn. He seeks to preserve all that can be preserved. Only after this precaution does the priest examine the mark. The criteria are objective: greenish or reddish depressions, appearing deeper than the surface. This is not based on a feeling or a vague suspicion. God's law deals with realities. If the signs are present, the priest does not immediately condemn the house. He quarantines it for seven days. This is a period of testing. Will the corruption spread, or will it recede? God is patient, giving time for the true nature of the problem to reveal itself.

Leviticus 14:39-42

On the seventh day, the priest returns. If the mark has spread, action must be taken. And the action is not superficial. The priest commands them to "tear out the stones with the mark in them." This is a picture of radical repentance. You do not merely treat the symptom; you cut out the source of the infection. The infected stones are cast into an unclean place outside the city, a type of the place of judgment. Then, the entire inside of the house is scraped down, and all that plaster is also discarded. This is thorough. After the corruption is removed, the house is repaired with new stones and new plaster. This is a beautiful illustration of mortification and vivification. We are to put to death the deeds of the flesh, tearing out the sinful patterns, and then we are to be renewed, putting on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Leviticus 14:43-47

But what if, after all this work, the mark breaks out again? This is the test of true cleansing. If the corruption returns, it reveals that the problem was not just in a few stones, but in the very foundation and structure of the house. The priest comes and looks, and if it has spread, the diagnosis is terminal: "it is a leprous malignancy in the house; it is unclean." There is no more remedy. The entire house must be torn down, every stone, timber, and bit of plaster. And all of it must be carried to the unclean place outside the city. This is a terrifying picture of final judgment. Some corruption is so deep-seated that the structure itself must be destroyed. This is what God did to the Canaanites; their iniquity was full, and the land itself had to be cleansed by their removal. This is also a picture of those who are given over to a debased mind (Rom 1). Furthermore, the uncleanness is contagious. Anyone who even enters the house during this time is unclean. We are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.

Leviticus 14:48-53

Now we come to the gospel climax of the chapter. What if the priest returns and finds that the plague has not spread after the replastering? He shall pronounce the house clean. The remedy has worked. But the house, though healed, still needs to be ceremonially cleansed and brought back into fellowship. It needs atonement. And the ritual for cleansing the house is the very same as the ritual for cleansing a person from leprosy. This is profoundly significant. God's redemptive plan includes our possessions, our structures, our homes. The priest takes two birds, cedar wood, a scarlet string, and hyssop. One bird is killed in an earthenware vessel over running water. This represents Christ, in his humanity (the vessel), having his blood shed, mingled with the living water of the Spirit. The living bird, along with the cedar (representing incorruptibility), the scarlet (the blood), and the hyssop (the instrument of sprinkling), is dipped into the blood and water. The priest then sprinkles the house seven times, the number of perfection. The house is cleansed by the blood. Then, the living bird is let go into the open field. This is the result of the atonement. The first bird dies, representing Christ's substitutionary death. The second bird, stained with the blood of the first, flies away free, proclaiming that the penalty has been paid and life and liberty have been secured. "So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean." This is the gospel for your living room.

Leviticus 14:54-57

The chapter concludes with a summary. This is the law for all these various manifestations of corruption. And what is the purpose of this law? It is "to instruct when they are unclean and when they are clean." God's law is our teacher. It reveals the nature of sin's defilement and the path to true cleansing. It trains our consciences to recognize corruption and to flee to the remedy that God Himself has provided. This is not an arbitrary set of rules; it is a gracious revelation of the holiness of God and the path of life for His people.

Application

First, we must see that God cares about the details of our lives, including our homes. The home is a central theater of our sanctification. We should be diligent to identify and root out the "leprosy" of sin in our families, whether it be bitterness, strife, impurity, or idolatry. We cannot simply paint over it with a veneer of respectability.

Second, we must follow the divine pattern for dealing with sin. It requires honest confession to the proper authorities, objective evaluation according to God's Word, and, if necessary, radical surgery. We must be willing to tear out the "infected stones" of sinful habits or relationships, scrape the walls clean, and rebuild with the new materials of righteousness.

Third, and most importantly, we must recognize that our only hope for cleansing, for ourselves and for our homes, is the atonement provided by God. Our houses, our families, and our own souls are all defiled. But Christ is both the slain bird and the living bird. His blood, shed in a human body, mingled with the living water of the Spirit, is what cleanses us. He died our death, and then was released from the grave to proclaim our freedom. It is by His blood, applied to our hearts and homes by faith, that we can be pronounced clean. The gospel is not just for saving souls for heaven; it is for making our homes on earth clean places, fit for the presence of a holy God.