Leviticus 14:19, commentary and pictures

This verse belongs to the ceremonial law concerning leprosy and cleansing, under which a Hebrew afflicted with leprosy was declared unclean, cut off from family and society, and excluded from the congregation of Israel. It required the healed person to go to the priest and present the prescribed offering for cleansing and restoration. That offering included the priest offering the sin offering to make atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness, and afterward killing the burnt offering, with the sin offering placed before the burnt offering in the rite.

The priest was not allowed to accept the offering until he had first thoroughly examined the man and publicly pronounced him entirely free from the infectious disease. That examination had to certify that he was in sound health and able to unite again with family and friends without endangering them, thereby confirming the cure and restoring him to fellowship. These ceremonial ordinances requiring sacrifice for cleansing from uncleanness were types whose full meaning became clear through Christ's death, when type met antitype.

Christ honored this law by sending the cleansed leper to be examined and to present the prescribed offering, even to the same priests who had banished him. In so doing He affirmed the law's authority until its types were fulfilled, and showed that His teaching, healing work, and direction were not opposed to the law of Moses or to the Jewish law. The man's examination, public certification as clean, and offering were for a testimony to the priests and people. They confronted the priests with irrefutable proof of divine power that they could not evade, and became a standing witness to Christ's healing power and love, so that when the man was pronounced clean great excitement followed because such a cure had never before been known.