There Is None Too Low That God Will Not Cleanse Them If They Come To Him (Leviticus 14:21-32).
But many a skin diseased cast-off would find it difficult to provide three animals for sacrifice together with the accompanying grain and oil, and for them God has provided a substitute offering which he may better be able to afford.
“And if he is poor, and cannot get so much, then he shall take one he-lamb for a guilt offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil, and two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get, and the one shall be a purification for sin offering, and the other a whole burnt offering.”
If the person to be cleansed is poor then instead of two he-lambs and a ewe lamb he may offer one he-lamb and two turtle doves or two young pigeons. We note in this the centrality of the guilt offering. There can be no change there. The he-lamb for a guilt offering must be offered under any circumstance. The guilt of the sin that lay behind his condition must be dealt with at all costs, and it is a heavy guilt for there, in his case, even in his poverty, there can be no reduction in cost (contrast Leviticus 5:7-13). But the purification for sin offering and the whole burnt offering may be reduced to two clean birds, as with the normal whole burnt offering (1:14-17). Compare also Leviticus 12:8.
We are reminded by this that there was no alternative to the offering of the Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), to the offering of the suffering Servant Who was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7). Significantly the latter was also a ‘plagued, afflicted and rejected person' (Isaiah 52:14; Isaiah 53:3-5), a guilt offering (Isaiah 53:8 compare 53:10). For Isaiah 53:8 literally ends with ‘for the transgression of My people He was plagued'.
“And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting, before Yahweh, and the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before Yahweh, and he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest shall take of the blood of the guilt offering, and put it on the tip of the right ear of the one who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil which is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh, and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the guilt offering, and the rest of the oil which is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh.”
Exactly the same procedure is followed with the guilt offering as was described in Leviticus 14:10-18, only slightly abbreviated.
“And he shall offer one of the turtle-doves, or of the young pigeons, such as he is able to get, even such as he is able to get, the one for a purification for sin offering, and the other for a whole burnt offering, with the grain offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before Yahweh.”
But for the purification for sin offering and the whole burnt offering he can use ‘such as he is able to get' which he offers with a grain offering in the form of two clean, sacrificial birds.
“This is the law of him in whom is the plague of a suspicious skin disease, who is not able to get that which pertains to his cleansing.”
And this particular aspect of the Law is for the one who is unable to get the full provision as previously laid down. It is equally a law in parallel with the others.