Bible Commentaries

UNAVOIDABLE DISCHARGES (vv. 1-33)

Because leprosy speaks of the outbreak of positive sin, it required rigorous treatment. Nothing like this is intimated in chapter 15, but rather the frailty of the human body in suffering the effects of the contamination of sin through Adam, our first father. We are not in any way responsible for the sinful nature we have inherited by birth, though we are responsible for allowing that nature to manifest itself in sinful actions. The discharges spoken of here were not avoidable, but are intended as a reminder that we have inherited a sinful nature from Adam. Therefore the cleansing process was not as involved as in the case of leprosy.

We do not know how fully the people obeyed the orders given here, for in many cases the infirmity would be known only by the individual. Yet the instructions given as to restoration are of value to us today. Our very infirmities remind us that from our birth we have possessed a sinful nature, so that the birds being offered for cleansing insist upon the value of the sacrifice of Christ as the one means of meeting our sinful condition. Our infirmities need the compassionate grace of the Lord Jesus in order that we may be lifted above them. High priests taken from among men were “compassed with infirmity” (Hebrews 5:1-2 — KJV), but this was not true of the Lord Jesus, who is our great High Priest. Sin had no place whatever in His nature. Not only is it true that “He did no sin,” but in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5).