Leviticus 13:8, commentary and pictures

The priest was to examine the skin, and if he saw that the scab had spread he was to pronounce the person unclean, for it was leprosy. That dreaded and incurable disease is a fitting picture of sin in its exceeding evil as a terrible moral sickness embracing every kind of wickedness. Like leprosy, sin is inwardly rooted, outwardly shameful and destructive, never healing of itself and incurable by any human means, and it spreads its pollution to others through influence and example. Cleansing from such a malady is no less than a miracle, wrought only by the great Physician, whose blood cleanses all who repent and believe.

Priest's Examination and Setting

The priest was to examine a scab in the skin, and if he saw that it had spread in the skin he was to pronounce the person unclean, identifying the condition as leprosy. The spreading of the skin disease was the decisive sign requiring that declaration of uncleanness. The law belonged among Israel's laws concerning uncleanness and cleansing instructions given to ancient Israel.

The verse stands within the full directions of Leviticus 13:1-14 concerning the plague of leprosy, an acknowledged incurable disease. That chapter in turn stands within the broader cleansing law of Leviticus 12-15. Under that law physical uncleanness had to be removed first and the object made visibly clean so that people would call it clean, to prepare it for its real cleansing and reconciling with blood by atonement. Defilement of the sanctuary in God's sight was moral rather than physical, though it did become physically unclean.

An enlarging white eruption and a whitening eyebrow are the kind of spreading signs that would cause fear of this diagnosis of uncleanness as leprosy.

Leprosy as Type of Sin

The horrible, dreadful skin disease examined in this law is a fitting type, picture, and object lesson of sin, displaying its exceeding sinfulness. It shows sin to be a terrible moral disease embracing every kind of evil thing, including mortal sin. As such a disease, it marks a condition from which people need to be healed, and it points to Jesus Christ's power to heal.

Like this spreading uncleanness, sin is widespread, rooted within, destructive, and a source of outward shame. Like leprosy, which was acknowledged as an incurable disease, sin never gets well of itself and is incurable by human means. Like leprosy, sin is infectious and contagious. The sinner contaminates the very atmosphere, introduces pollution where all before was comparative purity, and leads others to sin by his society, so that he is more to be feared in his influence than the infection of the leper.

Only the great Physician can cleanse from sin. His blood cleanses those who repent and believe. The leper's complete cleansing from the dread malady was considered no less a miracle than raising the dead, a matter of faith in the cleansing power of the Author of these ceremonies, so faith in Christ is shown in these rites of the Levitical law.

Sanitation and Cleansing Lessons

Leviticus 13:8 belongs to sanitary instructions and laws of sanitation dealing with leprosy and other contagious or infectious diseases. Those laws require proper precautions to be taken even though God is the healer. The directions of the chapter are unusually good guidance for such diseases and for germs left in buildings. The laws of sanitation promulgated by Moses still stand at the head of sanitary law. Their enduring supremacy proves the divine inspiration that guided Moses.

The verse is part of the cleansing instructions given to ancient Israel concerning uncleanness, under which when the priest saw that a skin scab had spread he was to pronounce the person unclean. Those cleansing instructions carry a lesson for the remnant not to turn away from cleansing truths. That includes the health reform.