Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20001018.htm

LEVITICUS: GOD'S CALL FOR A SEPARATED WITNESS
Part II: The Path Of Walking In Fellowship With God (Leviticus 11-27)
C. God's Revelation Of Handling Sins With Varying Degrees Of Contagion
(Leviticus 13:1-14:57)
  1. Introduction
    1. Acts of sin are not only destructive, but vary in degrees of influence on others than the sinner himself.
    2. In the Law, Leviticus 13-14 reveals how to handle varying sins with varying degrees of harmful influence:
  2. God's Revelation Of Handling Sins With Varying Degrees Of Contagion, Leviticus 13:1-14:57.
    1. Before viewing Leviticus 13-14 on serious physical diseases, we must recall that such ailments for people under the Law meant personal sin had led to one's being afflicted by them, Deut. 28:15, 21-22; Ex. 15:26.
    2. Accordingly, we apply the lesson of Leviticus 13-14 for TODAY only as it deals with sins that Scripture dictate require a break of fellowship to preserve the godly from its spread as in the case of 1 Cor. 5:9-13:
      1. Leviticus 13-14 refers to infectious skin diseases when applied to people, and to molds and mildews when applied to clothing or houses, cf. Leviticus 14:33-53, Bib. Know. Com., O.T., p. 192, 194.
        1. The word "leprosy" in the KJV is sara'at, refers to infections or spreading mildews and molds, Ibid.
        2. As such, we see the KJV word "leprosy" in this passage as a spreading contagion in general.
      2. Thus, these problems, resulting from sin and hence picturing sins today, were handled as follows:
        1. If a party had a contagion, he was to visit the priest and be pronounced unclean (as in Lev. 13:1-3).
        2. If there was there a question on the diagnosis, there would follow a time of quarantine or a repeated quarantine to make a diagnosis certain: an example is found in Leviticus 13:4-7.
        3. If diagnosed with a serious contagion, the unclean party was to demonstrate grief and cry "unclean, unclean" to others as a warning of separation from fellowship with him, Leviticus 13:45-46.
        4. There were judgments to be made on objects such as clothing that were infected with a spreading mildew or mold, Leviticus 13:47-59. The garment would be either burned if diagnosed with an incurable contagion (Lev. 13:55) or merely washed as necessary to salvage the garment, 13:58-59.
        5. If a party that had been pronounced "unclean" were to think he had been healed, he was to revisit the priest for reexamination, Lev. 14:13a: (a) if then pronounced clean, he had to offer a two-bird offering that resembled the nation's Day of Atonement two-goat ritual, Ibid., p. 193. (b) One bird would be slain, representing the death of Christ for sin, (c) and the other bird with cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop would be dipped in the blood of the slain bird. This was used for sprinkling on the healed party, with the remaining live bird being released in the open field to picture the removal of sin, Ibid.; Lev. 14:4-7. (d) The cleansed party had to wash his clothes, shave off his hair and bath his body in water to be clean prior to being reinstated in the community fellowship, 14:8. This pictured confession of sin. (e) After eight days, the healed party was to offer all four types of mandatory sacrifices (guilt, sin, burnt and grain offerings), Lev. 14:10-20. (f) Of note is the application of the blood of the guilt offering to the healed party's right ear, right thumb and right toe to picture total consecration, Lev. 14:14. (g) The poor could use birds in place of the more expensive burnt and sin offering animals, Lev. 14:21-32, Ibid., p. 194.
        6. The laws above related to garments also applied to mildew and mold problems in houses, with appropriate applications as to diagnoses and cleansing, Leviticus 14:33-53. The pronouncement of a house's cleansing involved a two-bird ritual much like that of a cleaned person, Lev. 14:48-53.
Lesson: Acts of sin that, in God's eyes that threaten to spread among His people are to be treated with a stricter degree of separation than other sins: either the sinner must confess them and forsake them, being PROVED in a time of "quarantine", or he is to be removed from the godly until he truly repents.

Application: (1) We must treat different KINDS of sins with differing DEGREES of DISCIPLINE due to their VARIATIONS of contagion! Scripture reveals what these are (1 Cor. 5:9-11; Tit. 3:10-11). (2) However, do to the degree of human suffering involved in excommunication, we must be SURE of one's guilt (via "quarantine") before passing judgment! (3) Also, we must be SURE of true confession and forsaking of one's sins before reinstating the excommunicated party, cf. 1 Timothy 5:22, 24-25.