Leviticus 13:32
And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if the scall spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in sight deeper than the skin; And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if the scall spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in sight deeper than the skin;
On the seventh day the priest looks on the scaly patch to determine whether it has spread, whether there is any yellow hair in it, and whether it appears to be deeper than the skin. It belongs to the law of cleansing in Leviticus 12-15, under which the object had to be visibly clean before it could receive the sanctuary's cleansing with blood. It belongs to the laws concerning leprosy and related skin conditions, giving Moses's instructions for examining leprosy in its utmost loathsomeness.
The leprosy in the verse is a fitting type and prefigurement of sin as a terrible moral and mortal disease. Like leprosy, sin is universally prevalent, infectious and contagious, inwardly rooted, humanly incurable and never well of itself, corrupting and consuming its victim, and it is rebellion against God and his law. Like a leper, the sinner contaminates the very atmosphere, introduces pollution where all before was comparative purity, and by his society leads others to sin, so there is more reason to fear his influence than to fear infection from a leper. The leprosy laws point to sin as a dreadful disease from which people need healing; the gospel offers cleansing and rescue to those who repent and believe, and its healing shows Jesus Christ's power to heal.
The leprosy it describes still prevails in the Holy Land in the same form as in scriptural days, bearing witness to scriptural truth. It is part of admirable precautions for health, cleanliness, and sanitation that are connected with health reform and the cleansing of God's people; although God is the healer, he required his people to take proper precautions. The sanitation laws promulgated by Moses still stand at the head of the sanitary laws understood and rigidly enforced by up-to-date physicians. Their value in preventing disease and preserving life was shown by what was accomplished in the Panama Canal Zone, where August 1913 passed without a single death from disease in the American colony, and this enduring superiority is conclusive evidence of the divine inspiration that guided Moses.