Leviticus 13:21
But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and if it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days: But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and if it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:
The verse lays down the priest's course with a doubtful skin spot: when he looks and finds no white hairs in it, and it is not lower than the surrounding skin but is somewhat dark, he is to shut up the person seven days. It belongs to the laws regulating uncleanness and leprosy and to the examination of leprosy and other contagious or infectious diseases, reflecting precautions for an unsanitary condition. These instructions are especially good guidance concerning contagious disease and germs in buildings.
As one of the laws of sanitation given through Moses, it still stands at the head of sanitary law, the results of rigidly enforced modern sanitation proving its real value and its advanced character proving that divine inspiration guided Moses. It belongs to the law of cleansing that required a person to be visibly clean before the sanctuary's real cleansing by blood, so that physical uncleanness had to be removed first and the visible cleansing prepared for the sanctuary's reconciliation or cleansing through blood, though the sanctuary was defiled chiefly by moral uncleanness. Leviticus 13, including this verse, is part of the Levitical laws and services that typify Christ's priesthood and ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, whose yearly service culminated in the cleansing of the sanctuary, a work of judgment.
The verse belongs to the law by which Moses made leprosy a fitting type and prefigure of sin as mortal sin and a terrible moral disease that spreads and destroys. Like leprosy, sin never gets well of itself, is universal, affects not only outward acts but the heart's motives and desires, and cannot be cured by human means. Like leprosy, sin is contagious: the sinner contaminates the very atmosphere, introduces pollution where all before was comparative purity, and by his society leads others to sin, so his influence is more to be feared than the infection of the leper. Christ can cleanse those who repent and believe, and Jesus made leprosy a showing of his power to heal.
The verse's leprosy setting points to the need for sin to be removed through humility, with the old self dying and being put off and the new self put on. As one of the laws of cleansing given to ancient Israel, it is part of cleansing truths whose lesson Christians should heed rather than abandon, as an example of preparing clean vessels for God's Spirit. Leprosy in its utmost loathsomeness is as prevalent in the Holy Land now as in scriptural days, showing the diseases there remain of the same types and bear witness to scriptural truth.