Prepare
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for this gifted day. When our hearts are cold and reading becomes ritual, enliven us by your Spirit, strengthen us in the discipline of your Word, and teach us to love you. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Ritual for Cleansing Healed Lepers
14 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest. 3 And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper, 4 then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. 5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. 6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. 7 And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. 8 He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days. 9 But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows—all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean.
10 “And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil. 11 Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 12 And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. 13 Then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. 14 The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. 16 Then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. 17 And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering. 18 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord.
19 “Then the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. 20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21 “But if he is poor and cannot afford it, then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, a log of oil, 22 and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford: one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. 23 He shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day for his cleansing, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, before the Lord. 24 And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. 25 Then he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26 And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. 27 Then the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord. 28 And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering. 29 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the Lord. 30 And he shall offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, such as he can afford—31 such as he is able to afford, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before the Lord. 32 This is the law for one who had a leprous sore, who cannot afford the usual cleansing.”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Le 14:1–32.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
God provides a detailed way for a healed person formerly declared unclean to be cleansed, atoned for, and restored to worship and community, with affordable offerings even for the poor.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Leviticus 14:20
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan does not explicitly choose a best verse in the complete transcript. Verse 20 summarizes the completed offerings, atonement, and declaration that the restored person is clean.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Trust and love Jesus Christ, the righteous Advocate who did not wait for sinners to cleanse themselves but cleanses, redeems, and restores them to relationship with God.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
hey hey good morning good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2023 Lord willing we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus so glad to be with you today let's have some coffee we'll pray then we'll get into God's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day it's a gift from you but Lord we confess to you that often we will come to your word and sometimes our hearts are cold sometimes this is just a ritual and we know that that's not pleasing to you so father we pray that your spirit would enliven us that you would give us strength even as we go along this discipline of being in your word we pray that your spirit would make it alive in our hearts we pray father that you would teach us to love you in Jes Jesus's name amen all right here we go we are at ex Leviticus chapter 14 where are my glasses there they are Leviticus chapter 14 and we start with a new section on not just how the leave or how the priests were to categorize and figure out if somebody was clean or unclean Pure or unpure but what happens if you were in Israel and you were declared unclean was there any hope for you well chapter 4 14 answers that here we go then the Lord spoke to Moses saying this shall be the law for of the leper for the day of his cleansing he shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall examine him and indeed if the leprosy is healed in the leper then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean Birds Cedarwood scarlet and hup and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earth and vessel over running water as for the living bird he shall take it the cedar wood and the scarlet and the his up and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water and he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleanse from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird loose in the open field field he who is to be CLE cleansed shall wash his clothes shave off all his hair and wash himself in water that he may be clean after that he shall come into the camp and shall stay outside his tent 7 days but on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows all his hair he shall shave off he shall wash wash his clothes and wash his body in water and he shall be clean so we see that there's this whole ceremony of the taking of the two birds one of them is killed one of them is alive killing it under the water letting the blood go take the water and the blood and the sprinkling of seven times this picture of completeness and then that second bird is taken out into the field as a symbolic action of of letting that impurity leave and it's gone he a shave and wash and this this whole picture of Purity then in verse 10 and on the eighth day he shall take two male Lambs without blemish one U lamb of the first year without blemish three1 of an epha of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering and one log of oil then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean and those things before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle of meeting and the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering and the log of oil and weigh them as a wave offering before the Lord then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering in a holy place for as the sin offering is the priests so is the trespass offering it is most holy the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand on him on the big toe of his right foot and the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the pan palm of his own left hand then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and shall sprinkle some of the oil with the finger seven times before the Lord and the rest of the the oil in his hand the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed on the right thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot on the blood on the blood of the trespass offering the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed so the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord then the priest shall offer the sin offering and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his unclean this afterward he shall kill the burnt offering and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar so the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be clean so we find In this passage what's this section talking about talking about the man is essentially bringing three different offerings a sin offering or purification offering I don't doesn't really matter what you call that the uh guilt offering as well as or sorry the burnt offering as well well as the grain offering so a purification offering grain offering and a purification offering brain offering and a burnt offering so you have he has three different offerings he's bringing to the Lord or she's bringing to the Lord to present themselves as clean and that blood again applied to them on the on their heads on their ear on their hand on their foot from head to toe they are clean washed away from them what happens if you're a poor person right if you're if you're poor and you're outside the camp you're not allowed to come in cut off from society cut off from your family cut off from your friends but you can't afford two Lambs I mean this is expensive stuff how are do you have any hope of being clean or you just stuck well Lord makes provision for that in verse 21-32 but if he is poor and cannot afford it then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waved to make atonement for him one tenth of an epha fine flour with oil as a grain offering and a log of oil two Turtle does or two young pigeons such as he is able to afford one shall be a sin offering the other a burnt offering he shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day of for his cleansing to the door of the Tabernacle of meeting before the Lord and the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord then he shall kill the Lamb of the trespass offering and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who has to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on his big toe of his right foot and the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand then the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is is in his left hand seven times before the Lord and the priest shall put some oil some of the oil that is in his left hand on the tip of his right ear of him who is to be cleansed on the right thumb and on the big toe of his right foot on the place of the blood of the on the place of the blood of the trespass offering the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who has to be cleansed to make atonement for him before the Lord and he shall offer one of the two one of the turtle does or young pigeons such as he can afford such as he is able to afford the one as a sin offering the other as a burnt offering with the grain offering so the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before the Lord this is the law for one who has who had a lepos sore who cannot afford the usual cleansing so see even if you're poor there is a way that you are brought back into the congregation from being unclean so what's this whole section about this about people after they have been declared unclean having a way to be brought back into fellowship with God back into the closeness of worship back into relationship with Society back into loving relationships with their family God was not just interested in cutting people off this was not some type of divine Eugenics but this was the Lord saying there's there's impurity but that can be removed this is exactly why when we talk about first John it assumes that we understand these types of passages that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness see Jesus is our trespass offering Jesus Is Our Hope Jesus is the one who brings us back into relationship with God back into relationship with Community back into relationship of Love through his blood he is that sacrifice for us that lamb who was slain and so we come to this passage knowing that we have hope that God didn't wait for us to be clean but he cleanses us we can't act as if we don't have any sin that makes God a liar but when we do sin we know that we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous one and so we trust in him and love him let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and for your love we thank you for the work of Jesus Christ for us Lord we thank you that you have brought us back into relationship with you you have redeemed us us and you have cared for us father please by your Holy Spirit make us love you and follow after you in Jesus's name amen well may you be motivated by love and gratitude and reverence as you serve the Lord with all your heart mind soul and strength may you love him well today I'll see you next time bye thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon RPC org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10:00 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 60th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless bless you this [Music] week