Leviticus 14:12

14:10-32 The cleansed leper was to be presented to the Lord, with his offerings. When God has restored us to enjoy public worship again, after sickness, distance, or otherwise, we should testify our thanksgiving by our diligent use of the liberty. And both we and our offerings must be presented before the Lord, by the Priest that made us clean, even our Lord Jesus. Beside the usual rites of the trespass-offering, some of the blood, and some of the oil, was to be put upon him that was to be cleansed. Wherever the blood of Christ is applied for justification, the oil of the Spirit is applied for sanctification; these two cannot be separated. We have here the gracious provision the law made for poor lepers. The poor are as welcome to God's altar as the rich. But though a meaner sacrifice was accepted from the poor, yet the same ceremony was used for the rich; their souls are as precious, and Christ and his gospel are the same to both. Even for the poor one lamb was necessary. No sinner could be saved, had it not been for the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God with his blood.

And the priest shall take one he lamb,.... One of the he lambs brought by the leper for his offering: and offer him for a trespass offering; for though the leprosy itself was a disorder or disease, and not sinful, yet the cause of it was sin, a trespass against God, and therefore a trespass offering must be offered: which was typical of Christ, whose soul was made a trespass offering, Isaiah 53:10; where the same word is used as here: and the log of oil; See Gill on Leviticus 14:10, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord; heaving of them up and down, moving of them to and fro towards the several parts of the world, east, west, north, and south, even both the log of oil, and the he lamb for the trespass offering, and that alive, as Jarchi observes, and so says Maimonides (o). (o) Hilchot Mechosre Capharah, c. 4. sect. 2.

Verse 12. - The log of oil, amounting to something more than half a pint, is waved by the priest, together with the lamb for the trespass offering, as a wave offering before the Lord, in order that a special consecration may be given them. They thus become qualified for the purposes for which they are presently used. Leviticus 14:12

Leviticus 14:12 . A trespass-offering — This being the first time of the leper’s appearing in the assembly for God’s worship after his recovery, it was proper he should pay this public testimony of homage and gratitude to his deliverer, beginning with an act of humiliation for sin, which is the source of all those pains and diseases to which mankind are obnoxious.

12 . and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord ] The offerer usually took part in the waving; according to some, this act took place where the leper stood, and that he assisted in the ceremony; another view was that it took place before the altar, and the leper did not assist. See Appendix IV (Wave-Offering), pp. 183 ff.

This trespass-offering, with its blood and the oil, must be regarded as the main feature in the ceremony: no alteration being permitted even in the case of the poor Leviticus 14:21-23 . There appears to be no other case in which an entire victim was waved (see Leviticus 7:30 ) before Yahweh. The Levites are spoken of as "a wave offering," Numbers 8:11-15 (see the margin). The man in this case, represented by his trespass-offering, was dedicated as a Wave-offering in like manner.

10-20. on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe-lamb of the first year without blemish—The purification of the leper was not completed till at the end of seven days, after the ceremonial of the birds [Le 14:4-7] and during which, though permitted to come into the camp, he had to tarry abroad out of his tent [Le 14:8], from which he came daily to appear at the door of the tabernacle with the offerings required. He was presented before the Lord by the priest that made him clean. And hence it has always been reckoned among pious people the first duty of a patient newly restored from a long and dangerous sickness to repair to the church to offer his thanksgiving, where his body and soul, in order to be an acceptable offering, must be presented by our great Priest, whose blood alone makes any clean. The offering was to consist of two lambs, the one was to be a sin offering, and an ephah of fine flour (two pints equals one-tenth), and one log (half pint) of oil (Le 2:1). One of the lambs was for a trespass offering, which was necessary from the inherent sin of his nature or from his defilement of the camp by his leprosy previous to his expulsion; and it is remarkable that the blood of the trespass offering was applied exactly in the same particular manner to the extremities of the restored leper, as that of the ram in the consecration of the priests [Le 8:23].

The parts sprinkled with this blood were then anointed with oil—a ceremony which is supposed to have borne this spiritual import: that while the blood was a token of forgiveness, the oil was an emblem of healing—as the blood of Christ justifies, the influence of the Spirit sanctifies. Of the other two lambs the one was to be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering, which had also the character of a thank offering for God's mercy in his restoration. And this was considered to make atonement "for him"; that is, it removed that ceremonial pollution which had excluded him from the enjoyment of religious ordinances, just as the atonement of Christ restores all who are cleansed through faith in His sacrifice to the privileges of the children of God.

(12) And offer him for a trespass offering. —As leprosy was a Divine punishment for sin, the restored leper had to bring expiatory sacrifices. There is, however, a striking difference in the ritual of the leper’s trespass offering and the ordinary trespass offering described in Leviticus 5:6 , &c. In the case before us, not-only did oil accompany it, but both the trespass offering and the oil were waved by the priest, which did not take place on any other occasion in connection with the trespass offering and sin offering. Indeed, in no other case was the entire victim waved before the Lord.

The second act ( Leviticus 14:9-20 ) effected his restoration to fellowship with Jehovah, and his admission to the sanctuary. It commenced on the seventh day after the first with a fresh purification; viz., shaving off all the hair from the head, the beard, the eyebrows - in fact, the whole body, - washing the clothes, and bathing the body. On the eighth day there followed a sacrificial expiation; and for this the person to be expiated was to bring two sheep without blemish, a ewe-lamb of a year old, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a meat-offering, and a log (or one-twelfth of a hin, i.e., as much as six hens' eggs, or 1562 Rhenish cubic inches) of oil; and the priest was to present him, together with these gifts, before Jehovah, i.e., before the altar of burnt-offering. The one lamb was then offered by the priest as a trespass-offering, together with the log of oil; and both of these were waves by him. By the waving, which did not take place on other occasions in connection with sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, the lamb and oil were transferred symbolically to the Lord; and by the fat that these sacrificial gifts represented the offerer, the person to be consecrated to the Lord by means of them was dedicated to His service again, just as the Levites were dedicated to the Lord by the ceremony of waving ( Numbers 8:11 , Numbers 8:15 ).