Bible Commentaries

The Law of Leprosy

Leviticus 14:30

This is an incidental revelation of the considerateness and mercy of God.—All men could not procure the same kind of sacrifices. Some men were rich and others poor, and God determined the nature of the sacrifice by the social condition of the man. God never omitted the sacrifice: however poor was the worshipper, some degree or form of sacrifice he was bound to supply.—This shows that the true sacrifice is in the spirit rather than in the offering which is made by the hand.—God has always acted upon the principle that every man must confess his personal sin.—Now that One Sacrifice has been offered for all, this law of personal offering is still in operation. It no longer refers to the sacrifice on account of sin, for that has been offered once for all by the Son of God; it now refers to the daily sacrifice of homage, service, profession, and general conduct.—What a variety of offering is even now found upon the Christian altar!—Some men have laid upon that altar the greatest genius ever created by divine inspiration: others have laid upon that altar the humblest mental attributes; the rich man has piled up his gold, and the widow has dropped in her mites; but throughout the whole discipline of consecrated life no man is exempted from the operation of this beneficent taxing. We are to give as God has prospered us. The master and the servant must operate in various degrees; not the master narrowing himself by the circumstances of the servant; not the servant complaining because of the larger prosperity of the master; each worshipper is to bring "such as he can get."—This same law applies to work.—All men cannot publicly preach; all men cannot make public testimony of allegiance to Jesus Christ; all men cannot give money; some men have next to no time to give, so heavy are the demands of labour; but in some way, and in some degree, and at some time everyone can show that he has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and has in him the new heart which spares nothing within its possession from the altar of the Cross.—How long will men be in learning the variety of gift, the variety of opportunity, and the variety of responsibility, connected with Christian life? We are too prone to betake ourselves to ruthless judgments of one another through not distinguishing between differences of capacity, opportunity, and all those circumstances which constitute the situation of life.—This kind of law has an educating influence upon the individual conscience.—It does not reduce the necessity of giving, it multiplies the opportunity of donation.—It is not for any one man to say that some other man should have brought a higher gift or tribute: to his own Master every man standeth or falleth: God will judge righteous judgment herein as in all other things.—Still the general inquiry may be put, leaving every man to apply it to himself, Who has given his very best to the Cross? Who has spent every possible moment of time in the service of Christ? Who has not spared some one indulgence or possession for his own gratification? These are questions sharper than any two-edged sword, and they are not to be brandished about by any official hand, they are to be whispered rather than thundered, and every man is to make his own reply to the solemn and inevitable inquiry.

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"When ye be come into the land of Canaan."— Leviticus 14:34

The people were far enough from Canaan at this moment, yet a law of regulation was laid down for their conduct when they came into possession of the land. This is another revelation of the method of divine government.—Laws are made in advance.—The law is not always given merely from day to day; the details of that law may be, so to say, announced morning by morning; but the great law itself is laid down from eternity, and therefore it covers all times and occasions, never altering in its spirit though continually adapting itself to varying conditions and institutions without losing one spark of its righteousness.—This is the great law of God.—The moment a man comes into the world the whole law is prescribed for him. There is a law of childhood, full of forbearance, pity, and hopefulness; a sublime accommodation of the Infinite to the helplessness of earliest years; there is a law of youth, having in it a touch of discipline and even severity, passion being curbed, and impatience being restrained greatly to the trial of the restricted spirit; there is a law provided for times of prosperity, so that every man knows what to do with his gold, and how to deport himself in plentiful harvests; there is also a law for the time of poverty, affliction, pain, and sorrow of every kind and name.—In this way a man is permitted to look a long period in advance.—He may not anticipate providences, but he can study the whole law which involves and determines every aspect and issue of human life.—It is beautiful, too, to notice how an instruction of this kind acts as a stimulus upon human thought and conduct.—It was well again and again to mention the very name of the promised land.—So now it is well for us amid the cloud and tumult of life to hear about heaven and rest, about the pure land of eternal noon and the tender music of supernal harmony.—We need great words mixed up with our little terms; as we need a great sky over-arching and blessing our little earth.—It is wonderful how near the words of comfort are laid up side by side with terms of law and discipline.—The Bible is a book of solaces.—It does not give comfort for the sake of enervating men but for the sake of stimulating and strengthening them; every time Canaan is mentioned it is to stir up the soul to nobler duty and harder service: so every time we hear of heaven and its ineffable rest we should spring at earth's duties and toils with a new energy and a deeper determination.—The laws of heaven are fixed.—Its law is a law of righteousness, and because of the perfectness of its purity is the absoluteness of its rest.—God never allows us to suppose that entrance upon a higher state of life means exemption from law or rioting in the wantonness of licence.—Heaven contains the fuller law, and because of our enlarging capacity and sanctified will, the amplitude and grandeur of that law will not deter us from heavenly service or cause us to become weary in all the solemn study of eternal thought.—Let us cheer one another with these words.—Again and again at the close of the weary day let us say to one another, "When we come into the land of Canaan."—Hymns about the heavenly land may be so used as to rouse us to completer service in the field of battle or in the quieter field of unknown but needful suffering.