One of the most enchanting love stories in the Bible is framed by Leviticus, of all books! Last time we characterized Leviticus 14, the priestly protocols for the leper on the day of his cleansing, as a play of two acts. This play, as all plays do, tells a story. The storyteller is none other than Jesus Himself. Four clues tip us off that it’s a going home story. First, cedarwood. Cedar, one of the temple’s construction materials, imaginatively transports us like a time machine back to the Garden of Eden planted with stately and fragrant cedar trees. Cedar is an emblem of the Lord’s temple, His home. Second, the living bird’s release. The living bird was freed to return to the open field, its home. Third, the leper denied access to his tent. Unlike the live bird, the leper had to wait seven days to enter his tent, his home. That delayed gratification heightened anticipation for the homecoming on the eighth day. Fourth, the cleansed leper was brought to the door of the tabernacle, the Lord’s portable home. The curtain closes with an unresolved tension: the cleansed leper standing before an open door to the Lord’s tent. Which tent will he choose to be his home?
Now that we’ve caught on to the main plot, we move on to the character development of Act One. And, oh, what a surprising portrayal there is of Jesus the Bridegroom and His bride!
And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.
Leviticus 14:5 ESV
Act One, as we’ll discover in Act Two, is an acted out set of symbols. Each symbol contributes to the going home plot of the play. At this juncture, the leper has been wonderfully healed and has called for the priest to join him outside the camp to perform his prescribed duties. The first stage prop we’ll consider is the earthenware vessel, or clay pot, as I’ll refer to it. The clay pot and other items serve as props on the set. Simple and uncomplicated, they invite our imaginations to enter into a dynamic performance. What is this clay pot? How does it function in this drama with the two living birds?
The language “over fresh water” I found at first to be discombobulating. “Fresh” in the Hebrew is literally “living,” a common idiom for running water from a spring or river. The ambiguity of “over” perplexed me. Was that supposed to mean water spilling over the sides of the clay pot? Or did it mean the clay pot was held above running water? This best rendering in the context of this ritual seems that living water was poured into the clay pot. Some commentators pointed out that the small quantity of blood of the slain bird needed water to be enough to dip the live bird and sprinkle the leper seven times.
Now, the living water sitting in the clay pot would appear motionless, just like any water. But living water is an imagination invitation. We’re to envision a fountain of living water springing up within the clay pot! Does this ring a bell? When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, He promised to put within her a spring or fountain of living water. This living water, as John’s Gospel attests, is the Holy Spirit. So this stage prop of living waters is a symbol of the washing and renewing Spirit of God.
So what are we to make of the clay pot? Potter’s clay is a picture of fragility or weakness. For example, the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar’s exalted statue had feet of iron mixed with clay. Clay meant weakness intertwined with iron’s strength. The New Testament speaks of a clay container to aid our understanding. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2Co 4:7). Jars of clay is an allusion to the pitchers smashed by Gideon’s 300 man army. After the clay jars were shattered, the fire of the torches within shown out into the dark night, giving the Midianite hoards the illusion that 300 army divisions were upon them. The ruse worked; they all fled! The apostle Paul worked this clay jar metaphorically for our frail humanity, subject to affliction, crushing, perplexing, persecuting, and striking down (2 Co 4:8-9). In our brokenness, Light shines out into men’s hearts in saving ways.
The metaphor of a clay pot then is so apropos for our Lord Jesus, who suffered all these indignities at the hand of man and devil. “For he was crucified in weakness,” a jar of clay, a clay pot (2Co 13:4). So the clay pot imaginatively portrays Jesus, subject to all humanity’s weaknesses except for sin, containing living water, the Holy Spirit!
He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.
Leviticus 14:6 ESV
The living water had sacrificial blood added. This blood, of course, looks forward to Jesus’ blood that cleanses every sin. Together this blood and water washed and purified the live bird. The hyssop, bound to the cedarwood with scarlet yarn, was dipped in it for washing and purifying the leper. Now whereas Paul’s angle had the clay jar being shattered, our clay pot remains unbroken to highlight another perspective. Leviticus 14 omits any mention of the clay pot afterwards broken. Other passages indicate that a clay pot containing defiling contents had to be broken (e.g., Lev 11:33). That our clay pot was unbroken tacitly announces that its contents were holy, not unclean or defiling. So true! The blood of the Lamb and the living water of the Spirit are the cleanest entities in the universe!
And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.
Leviticus 14:7 ESV
We see here the vital connection between the living bird and the cleansed leper. The living bird is dipped into the blood and water; the cleansed leper is sprinkled with the same. The live bird and leper are united by blood and water. This unity doesn’t end with purification, though. The living bird, as the play continues its story line, represents the leper. The living bird and the leper are one. In other words, the living bird is the leper as an imaginative symbol. The leper was too big to be dipped into the clay pot, so his representative, the living bird, did that for him. When the leper watches the bird fly home, it’s his own promise of returning home that he must patiently wait for. So bird and leper are united symbols. The live bird tells a condensed story of the leper, which is expanded upon in Act Two. More importantly, the cleansed leper pictures you and me. To see our story, we must fix our eye upon the journey of the cleansed leper.
So the live bird is dipped, immersed, baptized, into the blood and living water. The hyssop, bound by the scarlet yarn to the cedarwood, is dipped into the blood and water and sprinkled on the leper. Seven times is the Bible’s way of saying complete cleansing or complete purification. Then the living bird, still wet with blood and living water, is released to fly to home, the open field.
Here’s where the stage props of Jesus’ play become breathtakingly, dazzlingly beautiful! Pause here a moment to recall who is speaking here. As great a prophet as Moses was, these are not his words. “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing’” (Lev 14:1-2). These are the Lord’s words! This law of the leprous person, like every word of the Law, has fulfillment in the Lord Jesus who pronounced them. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Mt 5:17-18). In other words, Jesus is the lead actor in fulfilling the law of leprous person for the day of his cleansing. Moses’ words present Jesus as the focal point to whom we’re to trust. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (Jn 5:46). Let’s now view these symbols in light of those precious truths coalescing in our Lord Jesus.
The bird was dipped in blood and water inside the clay vessel. It was then taken out of the clay pot to be allowed to fly free. Like the living bird, we were dipped inside Christ, baptized into His death! That baptism cleansed us completely of all our sins and washed us thoroughly in the regenerative life of the Holy Spirit! The apostle John notes this liberation: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev 1:5-6). As the live bird was freed by the blood of the slain bird to go home, so much more has the blood of Jesus freed us! As the play develops Act Two, we’ll see how this freedom involves the Lord making us priests.
This dipping and sprinkling with blood and water is unique to Leviticus 14. Nowhere else in Leviticus, the Torah, or even the whole Old Testament is there any mention of sacrifices involving both blood and water. Only here. Now, in the New Testament, it’s alluded to. “For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people,” Hebrews 9:19 asserts, “he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people.” Hebrews connects the sprinkling of blood and water on “all the people.” The cleansed leper symbolized all the people being cleansed, healed not from skin deep disease but from the soul’s innermost depths of sin.
It seems the Holy Spirit safeguarded and reserved blood and water exclusively in the Old Testament for the cleansing of the leper. Where else do we see sacrificial blood and water? At the cross!
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”
John 19:34-36 ESV
“For these things took place.” What things? The immediate context is the blood and water flowing out of Jesus’ spear-pierced side. Along with none of His bones being broken, the blood and water from the Lord’s side took place “that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Which Scripture? Well, it’s what we’ve been looking at in Leviticus 14, at least in part. John’s unique detail of blood and water from Jesus’ side hyperlinks to the blood and water dipping of the live bird and sprinkling of the cleansed leper. Within our Lord Jesus’ clay pot humanity, breakable and weak, was the living water and the blood.
Remember how blood and water came out of the clay pot. First, the blood and water inside the clay pot came out on the live bird dipped in it. “At once there came out blood and water.” Second, the blood and water inside the clay pot came out upon the hyssop, bound to cedarwood with scarlet yarn, to sprinkle upon the leper. “At once there came out blood and water.” So whereas the Gospel of John supplies the eye witness testimony of blood and water coming out of Jesus’ side, Leviticus 14 supplies the meaning of it. As the precious Psalms (e.g. Ps 22, 69) color in the Lord’s emotions at Calvary that the Gospels pass by without comment, so our Leviticus play adds its own rainbow hued brushstrokes. There was a reality with the eye, what John saw, and there was a reality with the heart, what Moses’ words revealed to the eye of faith. John’s natural eye witnessed the blood and water that flowed from the Lord’s spear-pierced side. Moses’ eye (really Jesus’ eye) penetrated beyond the visible to the invisible, spiritual realities occurring right then. It opens the curtain to show it as a link in a progressive chain of a divine romance. The blood and water that came out of Jesus’ side was not a period but a comma, a story to be continued by the live bird flying home and the cleansed leper being pronounced clean!
“Not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law [of the leper] until all is accomplished.” “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” This blood and water from Jesus’ pierced side accomplishes what Leviticus 14 imagines in symbol and shadow. Jesus, the Prophet of Leviticus 14, opens the curtain to behold what John could not perceive right in front of his face. Now let’s train our eye on the living bird this time:
He shall…dip…the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water…Then he shall…let the living bird go into the open field. (Leviticus 14:6-7 ESV)
So the live bird was dunked in blood and living water in the clay pot. Then it was lifted out of the clay pot and flew away to its open field home. John could see the blood and water that came out of the Lord’s side, but couldn’t see the living bird that flew home. Leviticus 14 connects a lot of exciting dots in the New Testament! John’s Gospel makes many allusions to the creation narrative of Genesis. I’ll cite only a couple to illustrate. It opens with “in the beginning,” Light, creation, and seven days. After the resurrection, Jesus breathed on His disciples like Yahweh did to Adam. From Adam’s side came a woman, Eve. The venerable commentator Matthew Henry, though apparently not fully persuaded himself, reports many who affirmed:
When Christ, the second Adam, was fallen into a deep sleep upon the cross, then was his side opened, and out of it was his church taken, which he espoused to himself.
Matthew Henry
So the blood and water from Jesus’ side that John witnessed point back to the opening up of Adam’s side from which Eve came. Act One has the unique privilege of marrying Genesis 2 and John 19! It ties the bow of holy matrimony between bride and bridegroom motif of Genesis and blood and water motif of John’s Gospel. Act One integrates these motifs such that we see with better clarity the Bridegroom’s romance for His bride. Other prophets may not have understood their own prophecies (1Pe 1:10-11), but that couldn’t be said of the Son of God. He understood perfectly all events past, present, and future, especially concerning the apple of His eye, His bride. He is the all knowing One, who declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isa 46:10). Moses didn’t know how this play would fit into the overall plan of redemption, but the Author and Finisher of our faith sure did! The living bird taken out the clay pot to fly home and the new Eve taken out of the new Adam’s side elegantly coalesce in this heartrending scene (pun intended)!
The Lord’s play features one bird dying so that the other bird could be washed, cleansed and set free to return home! Now when we put all the pieces together, this going home theme frames the beauty and excellency of Jesus’ love for His bride! The images in the play, when superimposed on Adam and Eve, point to this bride and bridegroom relationship. We’ll look at one more knot tying together the living bird and the new Eve.
The emphasis in Act One is not on the kind of bird but on the life that bird has. The kind of bird, which Leviticus narrows down to dove or pigeon (1:14, 14:22), was skipped because the emphasize is on life. Interestingly, the phrase “living bird” occurs only in Leviticus 14. Though birds abound in the heavens of Scripture, “living bird” exists only in its natural habitat of Leviticus 14. “Living” for “living bird” is the same word (ḥay (khah’-ee)) that’s used for “living” in “living water.” With our Jesus lens on, we see that the life of this bird shares the life of the living water—eternal life, the perennial fresh quality of life that the Spirit possesses. Note, too, that the live bird is a sky creature. As a symbol of the leper (and us) it’s representative of the heavenly life that we’re to have!
Drawing our attention to the bird as a living bird is a subtle finger-pointing once again to Eden. Adam named his wife “Eve,” for she was “the mother of all living.” The Hebrew word for Eve has ḥay in it, the same ḥay of the living bird. So the living bird sings a faint melody of Eve, the mother of all living. This living bird is a symbol of the new Eve!
The living bird, still wet with blood and living water, is released to fly to home. The life is in the blood (Lev 17:11) and living waters are the water of life, the Holy Spirit. The living bird had been immersed in symbols of life. What does this mean for you and me? This living bird, a symbol of the new Eve, the bride, is alive now with a new quality of life that it had received in its baptism in the clay pot, the new Adam! We as the bride of Christ are to live by this new life of God! In Act One this life is expressed in cleansing, washing power. But cleansed to what end? To discover that purpose, Act Two, which expands upon and elucidates Act One, provides the answer. To Act Two we will proceed.
I encourage you to revisit Act One (Lev 14:1-7) with fresh eyes, seeing yourself in both leper and living bird. Yield yourself to the ministry of the Holy Spirit to enter into the imaginative world of Leviticus 14. Permit the Spirit to lift you up to behold Jesus with fresh eyes! Gaze on Christ as the bird sacrificed for your freedom and as the clay pot that offered you His blood and the living waters of His Spirit to wash you. Allow your amazement and thanksgiving to soar in how He’s freed you from your sins to let you fly free and go home! Love Jesus, your Bridegroom, with renewed zeal and vigor as you see from yet another perspective what He did for you to set you free. Though this is not your typical passage for the communion, I’ve found it a meaningful way to remember the Lord’s broken body and shed blood with it. So satisfyingly fitting! Let your heart soak up its Jesus-glories, gathering up the lilies of New Testament truths to adorn the plain visual imagery of this play. I’ve touched on but a few; there’s so much more!
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 