This is the law concerning the leprosy in a house. Now that they were
in the wilderness they dwelt in tents, and had no houses, and therefore
the law is made only an appendix to the former laws concerning the
leprosy, because it related, not to their present state, but to their
future settlement. The leprosy in a house is as unaccountable as the
leprosy in a garment; but, if we see not what natural causes of it can
be assigned, we may resolve it into the power of the God of nature, who
here says, I put the leprosy in a house (v. 34), as his curse is said
to enter into a house, and consume it with the timber and stones
thereof, Zech. v. 4. Now, 1. It is supposed that even in Canaan itself,
the land of promise, their houses might be infected with a leprosy.
Though it was a holy land, this would not secure them from this plague,
while the inhabitants were many of them so unholy. Thus a place and a
name in the visible church will not secure wicked people from God's
judgments. 2. It is likewise taken for granted that the owner of the
house will make the priest acquainted with it, as soon as he sees the
least cause to suspect the leprosy in his house: It seemeth to me there
is as it were a plague in the house, v. 35. Sin, where that reigns in a
house, is a plague there, as it is in a heart. And masters of families
should be aware and afraid of the first appearance of gross sin in
their families, and put away the iniquity, whatever it is, far from
their tabernacles, Job xxii. 23. They should be jealous with a godly
jealousy concerning those under their charge, lest they be drawn into
sin, and take early advice, if it but seem that there is a plague in
the house, lest the contagion spread, and many be by it defiled and
destroyed. 3. If the priest, upon search, found that the leprosy had
got into the house, he must try to cure it, by taking gout that part of
the building that was infected, v. 40, 41. This was like cutting off a
gangrened limb, for the preservation of the rest of the body.
Corruption should be purged out in time, before it spread; for a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it
off. 4. If yet it remained in the house, the whole house must be pulled
down, and all the materials carried to the dunghill, v. 44, 45. The
owner had better be without a dwelling than live in one that was
infected. Note, The leprosy of sin, if it be obstinate under the
methods of cure, will at last be the ruin of families and churches. If
Babylon will not be healed, she shall be forsaken and abandoned, and
(according to the law respecting the leprous house), they shall not
take of her a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, Jer. li.
9, 26. The remainders of sin and corruption in our mortal bodies are
like this leprosy in the house; after all our pains in scraping and
plastering, we shall never be quite clear of it, till the earthly house
of this tabernacle be dissolved and taken down; when we are dead we
shall be free from sin, and not till then, Rom. vi. 7. 5. If the taking
out the infected stones cured the house, and the leprosy did not spread
any further, then the house must be cleansed; not only aired, that it
might be healthful, but purified from the ceremonial pollution, that it
might be fit to be the habitation of an Israelite. The ceremony of its
cleansing was much the same with that of cleansing a leprous person, v.
49, &c. This intimated that the house was smitten for the man's sake
(as bishop Patrick expresses it), and he was to look upon himself as
preserved by divine mercy. The houses of Israelites are said to be
dedicated (Deut. xx. 5), for they were a holy nation, and therefore
they ought to keep their houses pure from all ceremonial pollutions,
that they might be fit for the service of that God to whom they were
devoted. And the same care should we take to reform whatever is amiss
in our families, that we and our houses may serve the Lord; see Gen.
xxxv. 2. Some have thought the leprosy in the house was typical of the
idolatry of the Jewish church, which did strangely cleave to it; for,
though some of the reforming kings took away the infected stones, yet
still it broke out again, till by the captivity of Babylon God took
down the house, and carried it to an unclean land; and this proved an
effectual cure of their inclination to idols and idolatrous worships.