How we thank the Lord for His wonderful and perfect redemption!
The Lord Jesus was willing to become lowly in His “becoming in the likeness of men” so that He might be near to man and become man’s Savior, and He did the will of God, shed His blood for our redemption, thereby being glorified in His resurrection and becoming the honorable and high King.
Thank You Lord cleansing us and healing us from our sins and rebellion through the application of all the things You went through and accomplished!
We have seen that we as human beings are all sick of one disease, which is leprosy, that is, we are sinful and rebellious. By nature we are sinful, and by default we rebel against God and His economy.
Many times even as believers we refuse to obey the Lord’s speaking and leading within, and we have a lawless nature in us. Therefore, the spiritual reality of Lev. 14-15 applies to us, for here we see a portrait of the rich, complete, and extensive salvation that God has prepared and accomplished for us in Christ.
Hallelujah, in this salvation Christ is the all-inclusive One who has passed through a number of processes and now He is everything that we need for our cleansing.
We all know that the Lord Jesus came and died for us on the cross, and His death was for our redemption, but in Leviticus 14 we see a rich type with many wonderful aspects of how Christ came and, in a very specific and detailed way, He accomplished redemption for us to cleanse us and heal us from our sins and from our rebellion.
What we see in Lev. 14:4-7 is a particular ordinance that involved two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet strands, and hyssop. All these typify something related to Christ.
One of the living birds was to be slaughtered in an earthen vessel over running water and the living bird with cedar wood and scarlet strands and the hyssop were to be dipped in the blood of the bird slaughtered over running water. Then the leper was to be sprinkled seven times and pronounced clean, and the living bird was to be let to in the open field.
All these details and the particular way of doing this cleansing was a type of Christ and how He died for our redemption, in a very specific way, to cleanse us from our spiritual leprosy.
How we thank the Lord for the all-inclusive salvation He has prepared for us, the salvation that not only washes us and cleanses us from sin but also inwardly heals us and makes us suitable members of His body to be part of His corporate expression on earth.
The Lord Lowered Himself to Become a Man of High Standard and Lower Status, and he Shed His Blood for our Redemption
Lev. 14:6-7 mentions a few specific items used for the cleansing of the leper, and these were the living bird, the slain bird, cedar wood, the scarlet strands, and hyssop.
Cedar wood – also mentioned in 1 Kings 4:33 – signifies the honorable and high humanity of the Lord Jesus, which enabled Him to be our Savior.
Hyssop, being one of the smallest plants, signifies that the Lord Jesus was willing to become lowly in His becoming in the likeness of men (see Phil. 2:7), so that He may be near to man and become man’s Savior (see Matt. 8:2-3).
Scarlet, which is a dark red color, signifies the shedding of blood, and it also implies kingship (see Matt. 27:28-29).
Here we see a bird, a piece of cedar wood, and one hyssop, with a scarlet strand which most likely ties them together; all these were dipped in the blood and sprinkled on the leper for his cleansing. This all is full of meaning.
All of this signifies that, in order to cleanse us from our leprosy, the Lord Jesus lowered Himself to become a man of high standard but of low status so that He may do the will of God and shed His blood on the cross for our redemption, thereby being glorified in His resurrection and becoming the honorable and high king (see Phil. 2:5-11).
Wow, what a Christ we have. He lowered Himself to be where we are, but He had a high standard of morality yet with a low status, and as such a One He did God’s will by shedding His blood for us to be redeemed.
Then, He was glorified in His resurrection and became an honorable and high king. Christ became our Savior and our King not by fighting but by dying, by being crucified. He was slain, crucified, for redemption and through redemption He became the King.
What a Christ we have, and what an all-inclusive salvation He gives us! What a wonderful and perfect redemption!
As those who have been healed from spiritual leprosy (Lev. 14:3), we still need to seek to be cleansed before God. As those who have been healed by the divine life within us, we still need to have our shortcomings and defilement dealt with before God so that we may be cleansed.
Our seeking to be cleansed before God of all our defilement and shortcomings is our cooperation with God’s grace and love.
We praise the Lord that we have experienced the healing of our leprosy, but we want to cooperate further with Him to be cleansed, so that we may experience the operative effectiveness of all these aspects of Christ applied to our being.
We want to experience His cleansing us, that is, His divine life doing a continual work of healing and deliverance in us. We need to see who our Christ is and what He has accomplished, and we need to enjoy Christ as such a One for our continual cleansing.
Lord Jesus, thank You for lowering Yourself to become a man of high standard but of low status so that You may do the will of God and shed Your blood on the cross for our redemption. Thank You, Lord, for shedding Your blood to redeem us and cleanse us from our sins and our rebellion. We come to You, Lord, to experience and enjoy You and Your redemption, so that we may be fully cleansed. Wash us and cleanse us from all our shortcomings and defilement, Lord, and deal with anything in us that is unclean, defiled, and rebellious. Lord Jesus, we need You and Your cleansing.
The Lord’s Perfect Redemption causes us to be Cleansed and to Experience Christ
The earthen vessel over which the bird was slain signifies the humanity of Jesus (see 2 Cor. 4:7), and the flowing water signifies the living and eternal Spirit of God (John 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1). One of the birds was slain in an earthen vessel over running water (Lev. 14:5).
Here the Hebrew word for running literally means living. This shows us that through the death in the flesh the Lord Jesus offered Himself to God through the eternal and living Spirit to cleanse us and heal us (see Heb. 9:13-14).
The earthen vessel signifies the Lord’s humanity; the living water signifies the living and eternal Spirit of God; Christ was killed in His humanity filled with the living, eternal Spirit.
When He was on earth, Christ was filled with the Spirit; on the cross, He offered Himself to God through the eternal spirit (Heb. 9:14).
This is the fulfilment of the type in Lev. 14, showing us that on the cross Christ, the reality of the living bird that was slain, offered Himself to God in His humanity (the earthen vessel) through the eternal Spirit (the living / running water) which filled Him. Hallelujah!
All the things recorded in Lev. 14:6-7 signify that the Lord’s perfect redemption not only causes man to be cleansed objectively in his position (from the world and into the church), but it also causes man to experience subjectively, in the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s suffering in the shedding of His blood in His honorable, uplifted, yet lowly humanity, and to experience His death, resurrection ascension, and glorification (see Eph. 2:5-6; Phil. 3:10, 21; Col. 3:1-4). Wow!
All these things are implied in the significances of the two birds, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet strands.
These types in Lev. 14 tell us that the Lord’s salvation, His cleansing, requires all these aspects of Himself, all the processes of Himself, from His incarnation to His living, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and even His glorification; and all these are for our cleansing.
How great is our need, and how thorough and complete is this work of cleansing! We are not only washed by the blood of Jesus, but through all these things we are cleansed thoroughly!
Through the Lord’s perfect redemption we not only experience His cleansing objectively, thus being made clean before Him and qualified to be in His presence, but we also are caused to experience subjectively in the Spirit the Lord’s suffering in shedding His blood in His noble, high, and lowly humanity, and to experience His death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification.
The blood of Jesus Christ, who offered Himself through the eternal Spirit to God, purifies our conscience to serve a living God. Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord Jesus for offering Yourself to God through the eternal Spirit so that we may be cleansed and purified in our conscience and serve the living God. Thank You Lord for being not only put to death in the flesh but also offering Yourself to God through the eternal Spirit which filled You! Amen, Lord Jesus, we praise You for Your perfect redemption which not only cleanses us objectively but also causes us to experience You in all your processes. Thank You for the cleansing of Your blood and for the application of all that You are and have passed through to our being.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 42 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 5, The Cleansing of Leprosy.
- Hymns on this topic:
# For us Thou on the Cross wast pierced, / And blood and water streamed; / That life divine be giv’n to us, / That we may be redeemed. / Thy precious blood has made us clean, / That we accepted be; / Regenerated by Thy life, / We now are one with Thee. (Hymns #116)
# Through the eternal Spirit, Thou / Offeredst Thyself to God. / This sacrifice can ne’er grow old; / Timeless is Thy dear blood. (Hymns #1090)
# God’s redemption, full salvation, / And His resurrection pow’r, / Sanctifying, glorifying, / All transcending every hour! (Hymns #542)
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