Leviticus 14

21–32 These verses describe the offerings required of a poor person. Poor people still had to offer one lamb for their guilt offering, but in place of the other two lambs they could substitute two doves or two pigeons. The rest of the cleansing ritual was similar to that carried out for richer people (see verses 10–20).

Before we leave this section, it is well to reflect that before we believed in Christ we also were “outside the camp,” rejected, isolated, cut off from fellowship with God. But Jesus, our Priest, went outside the camp (verse 3), and came to us and restored us to wholeness and to fellowship with God. And He has commissioned us to go out and do likewise (John 20:21).

Cleansing From Mildew (14:33–57)

33–47 In this section the regulations for cleansing a house from mildew are given. These regulations went into effect only after the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, the “promised land” (verse 34), because before then they lived in tents, which could be moved and aired and thus were less subject to mildew.

Once again it was the priest’s job to examine any house where mildew was suspected and to determine how severe the mildew was. For the severest cases, the house had to be destroyed (verses 43–45). Living in a house with mildew was unhealthy for the occupants.

48–57 If the priest determined that a house no longer had mildew, the same ritual with the two birds was carried out that had been carried out for the person being cleansed from an infectious skin disease (see verses 3–7). However, in the case of a house, no sacrifices at the altar were required, because a house has no sin to atone for.

Why was God so concerned with mildewed fabric and mildewed houses? The reason: mildew was more than just a matter affecting physical health; it represented imperfection, decay and corruption. God had created a perfect world, but after that first sin of Adam and Eve, the world was subjected to frustration and placed in bondage to decay (Romans 8:20–21). The moral decay of humans is paralleled by the physical decay of creation as a whole. God desired wholeness, cleanness, and perfection in His creation; so through the Old Testament laws He made provision for the cleansing not only of humans but of their environment as well. But all these provisions were temporary. Only at the end of history, at the conclusion of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, will a new creation be ushered in—a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be no sin, no mildew, no decay, no death (Revelation 21:1–4,27).