Leviticus 13:17
And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the plague be turned into white; then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean. And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the plague be turned into white; then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean.
Leviticus 13:17 belongs to the laws in Leviticus 12-15, especially chapter 13, regulating uncleanness and leprosy. Those were laws of cleansing and sanitation given through Moses to ancient Israel. They include sanitary instruction concerning contagious or infectious disease.
The verse describes the priest examining a person with skin disease and pronouncing the afflicted person clean when he sees that the plague has turned white. Leprosy is a horrible disease and a fitting type, picture, and prefigure of sin. As a type of sin, it presents sin as a terrible moral disease embracing every kind of evil, including mortal sin.
Like leprosy, sin spreads, destroys, and pollutes the inner life as well as the outward person. Like leprosy, it never gets well of itself, and no human means can cure it. Like leprosy, it is contagious, contaminating the very atmosphere around the sinner, introducing pollution where all before was comparative purity and leading others into sin. Its influence is therefore more to be feared than the infection of the leper.
The pronouncement of cleanness belongs to an image of healing from sin, which Christ alone can give to those who repent and believe. Jesus' healing of leprosy showed his power to heal. Receiving that healing from sin requires pride to die and the old self to be put off.
The verse is part of the Levitical priestly service that served as a type of Christ's priesthood in the heavenly sanctuary, though what its specific instruction about pronouncing a person clean means in that connection is not further specified. The visible cleansing made the person fit for the sanctuary's later ritual cleansing with blood, since physical uncleanness had to be removed before the sanctuary was reconciled or cleansed. As sanitary instruction about contagious or infectious disease, the law still stands at the head of sanitary law.
Observing it with rigid enforcement has real value for preserving health and preventing death from disease, bringing marked results. Bodily cleanliness and obedience to health principles in these laws of cleansing present a cleansing work that must not be abandoned, preparing people to receive God's Spirit. The enduring excellence of Moses' sanitary laws is conclusive evidence of the divine inspiration that guided him.