Leviticus 21:1-22:16--Holiness and the Priests

Leviticus 21:1-22:16
English Standard Version

Holiness and the Priests
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, 2 except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3 or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). 4 He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. 5 They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. 6 They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. 7 They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. 8 You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy. 9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

10 “The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. 11 He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. 12 He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. 13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity. 14 A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people, 15 that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. 18 For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, 19 or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, 20 or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. 21 No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. 22 He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, 23 but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” 24 So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name: I am the Lord. 3 Say to them, ‘If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. 4 None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an emission of semen, 5 and whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or a person from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be-- 6 the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. 7 When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food. 8 He shall not eat what dies of itself or is torn by beasts, and so make himself unclean by it: I am the Lord.’ 9 They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

​10 “A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, 11 but if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food. 12 If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things. 13 But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and has no child and returns to her father's house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food; yet no lay person shall eat of it. 14 And if anyone eats of a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add the fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest. 15 They shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, 16 and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”

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We just finished a little section about what the priests are supposed to teach the people about holiness among the people and the laws they are supposed to enforce regarding cleanliness and holiness (not just regarding hygiene and health, but also moral purity to abstain from becoming "unclean" by worshiping other gods, practicing necromancy, sorcery, witchcraft, or fortune telling, and to be sexually pure which falls into both the "heath" and "moral" categories of being clean.

Now we are going to turn our attention back to the priests, the sons of Aaron, to make sure they do their jobs correctly so that they can continue to represent the people before God and represent God to the people.  They belong to the LORD and cannot conduct themselves any way in which they want.  For example, they are not to mourn the loss of anyone in the community other than a close family member--they should not even mourn for their sister if she has been married and no longer lives with them.  When they do mourn, they are not to shave their heads or cut off their beards or cut themselves as part of their grieving or as a means of trying to communicate with the dead or influence their path in the afterlife like the pagans did.  There is no sacrifice or action that be taken on the part of the living to affect the destiny of those that are dead--"It is appointed to man once to die, and after that, the judgment."  (Hebrews 9:27) That means you must make your choice that will determine your eternal destiny.  After death, the dead cannot change their destiny, nor can the dead return to speak to the living (see Luke 16:19-31 where the rich man begs God to go back and warn his family and God refuses), nor can the living do anything for the dead--in fact, they are specifically prohibited from doing so in this passage and others.

The priests are allowed to marry, but may not marry a prostitute, a woman who has been defiled (probably referring to rape) or anyone who has been divorced.  The woman must be a virgin so that the priest will not be defiled (most likely here this command is to prevent the priests from being infected with sexually transmitted diseases and infections--if you only ever have relations with one woman and you were both virgins before getting married, and you both remain faithful to each other, then it should be impossible in the days before blood transfusions and the like to catch or spread STD's or STI's).  Even the daughter of a priest who commits sexual sin by becoming a prostitute makes her father unclean, and the daughter is to be burned with fire--while this is a unique punishment I think it again has something to do with God knowing that this was the best way they had to deal with any issues for sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

The high priest is not even allowed to mourn for his close relatives by letting his hear down or tearing his clothes that were common signs of mourning among the people (it appears that he'd also be forbidden from wearing sackcloth or putting ashes on his head because he could not do that while at his post and such outward signs of mourning were forbidden while a priest was serving in the Tabernacle).  He can get no bereavement period--he must always serve before the LORD, making atonement for the people.  We saw this already when two of Aaron's sons died and God instructed Aaron not to leave his post and to let the nation mourn for him and his family, but that he must not leave his station and must continue to make atonement for the people.  God makes the command a little stronger for who the chief priest can marry by also forbidding marriage by the high priest to any widow (not forbidden for the regular priests) and my making doubly-sure they understood it was commanded that he marry a virgin--this is said twice so there is no missing it.

Man son of Aaron who has a deformity or disability of any kind was fit to serve as a priest.  This included anyone with a blemish (possibly a birthmark, though maybe even something as small as a scar), no one who is lame, no one who is blind, and not even the person who has a mutilated face or limbs of different size (maybe referring to an amputee, but there are also conditions where one leg is significantly than the other and makes the person gimpy).  Like the sacrifices that they offered, those that served as priests were to be spotless, pure, and without imperfection or blemish as well as being free from deformity and disease, for they were to represent the one that was go come to be the better Priest, our Great High Priest, who would offer Himself as a sacrifice for His people as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The list continues of diseases and conditions that would disqualify one of Aaron's suns from serving as a priest--an injured foot or hand, a hunchback, a dwarf, any defect in his sight (maybe something as small as being colorblind, but I'm sure referring to blurry vision, double-vision, being nearsighted, farsighted, losing peripheral vision in one or both eyes, losing straight-forward vision in one or both eyes, cataracts, etc.), nor can anyone serve who has a rash (itching disease), scabs, or crushed testicles (probably referring to someone who has been castrated or sexually impotent my mutilation or birth defect).  All of these things would be disqualifying in the same way that these issues would disqualify an animal from being brought before the LORD for sacrifice.

God then tells Aaron and his sons and other family members to take special care to abstain from touching the things that are dedicated to the LORD's service--the holy things--when they are unclean.  Such a priest who approaches these holy things while he is unclean will be cut off from the Lord (unable to serve before Him).  The priests were forbidden from eating in the sacrifices or the Showbread, or other other holy food that was meant for them if they were unclean with leprosy or any bodily discharge, but they may eat of them again once they are clean.  The same prohibition is in place for any priest who becomes unclean by touching someone or something else that is unclean--touching a dead person or animal, an unclean animal, a discharge of semen (or other body fluids as described in the Law before).  He must wait until evening and bathe and wash his clothes as required by the laws we talked about earlier and be pronounced "clean" before he could partake in eating of any of the holy things of the Lord.

The priests are only to eat of the sacrifices that are made on the altar of animals that are pure and without blemish.  They are not to eat of animals that have died of natural causes or have been killed by other animals.  These animals are not fit for consumption by the priests--they may only eat of the portion of the holy sacrifices brought before the LORD's altar.  Any priest who disobeys these commands and thereby profanes the name of God risks God striking him dead when his uncleanliness comes in contact with God's holiness, for sin and impurity cannot coexist with the holiness of God.  God's holiness will win every time and will eliminate the threat His purity.  This is why the wages of sin is death.

No one other than the priests (no "lay person") should be allowed to eat of the holy sacrifices or from the Table of Showbread.  We will see later in the Bible that David breaks this command when he and his men are starving and they go to the Tabernacle and ask the priests to give them the break from the Table of Showbread that they may eat and not die.  Jesus will later reference this in HIs "Lord of the Sabbath" argument in Mark 2:23-28 to defend his disciples plucking and eating grain that was along the roadside when they were hungry on the Sabbath day.  We'll get to both of those stories later as we study the Old Testament and the New Testament more fully.

Any member of the priests household, including a slave the priest has purchased, may eat of these holy things, but if the daughter of a priest marries a layman, she is no longer considered a member of the priest's household.  She is now part of the household of her husband and is no longer allowed to eat of the food that is for the priests and their households.  However, if that daughter becomes widowed or divorced and returns to her father's house to be taken care of as she was in the days of her youth (she becomes his dependent once again), then she will once again be permitted to eat the holy things that are meant for the priests and their households.

If anyone unintentionally eats of the holy things (I'm not quite sure how this would happen, but God makes provision for it), they are to give back the holy thing to the priests and add one-fifth (20%) to it to give to the priests.

The things of God are to be treated with reverence and honor, not only because of the nature and character of God and wanting to keep His name from being profaned (that's a big part of it), but also because it was by these things that God provided the means for atonement and sanctification for His people.  Look at Leviticus 22:15-16, "15 They shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, 16 and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”  God's concern through most of the passage has been about not profaning His holy name, but here God says that if the people profane His holy things, they risk bearing their own iniquity and guilt because these are things by which God sanctifies the people (makes them holy and clean).  Yes, the laws were there to protect God's name and reputation, but they were also there to protect the people.

As you look forward to how Christ fulfilled the roles of the priesthood, the sacrifice, and was the true Israel, how do you see Him fulfilling the righteous requirements of these laws?