Leviticus 13:38 - Meaning and Application

Here we have two safeguards, so that neither a freckled skin nor a bald head should be mistaken for leprosy (Leviticus 13:38-41). Every deformity was not to be treated at once as a ceremonial defilement. Elisha, the prophet, was mocked for his bald head (2 Kings 2:23), but the shame came from the children of Bethel, who did not know God’s judgments and turned his baldness into a reproach.

If leprosy did appear in a bald head, there was a clear mark of it: “The disease is in his head, he is completely unclean” (Leviticus 13:44). If the leprosy of sin takes hold of the mind, if judgment becomes corrupt, and if evil ideas that support evil behavior are accepted, this is a deep uncleanness. Few are ever fully cured of it. Soundness in the faith keeps this leprosy from the head and keeps conscience from being shipwrecked.

The law also gave directions for what had to be done with the leper after the priest carefully and officially declared him unclean. First, he had to say it about himself (Leviticus 13:45). He had to take the place of a mourner and cry out, “Unclean, unclean.” The leprosy itself was not a sin, but it was a sad sign of God’s displeasure and a heavy affliction. It brought shame, stopped his work, cut him off from his friends and family, sent him into exile until he was healed, and kept him out of the sanctuary. In practice, it destroyed every comfort he could enjoy in this world. Heman seems either to have been a leper or to be speaking from the sorrow of such a condition (Psalm 88:8 and following).

He was therefore to humble himself under God’s mighty hand. He must not keep claiming he was clean after the priest had declared him unclean. Instead, he was to justify God and accept the punishment for his sin. He showed this by tearing his clothes, uncovering his head, and covering his upper lip, all signs of shame and deep sorrow. These actions picture the self-hatred and lowliness that should fill a repentant heart, a heart that agrees with God’s verdict. So we must take to ourselves the shame that belongs to us and, with broken hearts, call ourselves by our true name: unclean. Heart unclean, life unclean, unclean by our first sinful nature, unclean by our actual sins, and therefore worthy to be forever shut out from fellowship with God and all hope of happiness in him. We are all as one unclean thing (Isaiah 64:6), and undone unless infinite mercy steps in.

He also had to warn others to keep away from him. Wherever he went, he had to cry out to people at a distance, “I am unclean, unclean, take care not to touch me.” The leprosy itself was not contagious, but touching a leper made a person ceremonially unclean. So everyone had reason to avoid contact, and the leper himself had to make the danger known. This was all the law could do, since it was weak because of human sin. It taught the leper to cry, “Unclean, unclean,” but the gospel gives lepers another cry (Luke 17:12-13). There we find ten lepers crying with a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” The law only shows the disease. The gospel shows the help we have in Christ.

Then he had to be put out of the camp, and later, when Israel lived in Canaan, out of the city, town, or village where he lived. He was to dwell alone (Leviticus 13:46), keeping company only with others who were lepers. When King Uzziah became a leper, he was driven from his palace and lived in a separate house (2 Chronicles 26:21). See also (2 Kings 7:3). This pointed to the purity that should be kept in the gospel church, by the solemn and proper exclusion of scandalous sinners, those who hate reform, from the fellowship of believers. “Put away the wicked person from among yourselves” (1 Corinthians 5:13).