Instructions For Priests
March 29, 2019
Commentary
The Lord gave Moses these instructions for Aaron’s sons, the priests: Touching a dead body will make you unclean (v. 1). So don’t go near a dead relative, except your mother, father, son, daughter, brother (v. 2), or an unmarried sister, who has no husband to take care of her (v. 3). Don’t make yourself unclean by attending the funeral of someone related to you by marriage (v. 4). Don’t shave any part of your head or trim your beard or cut yourself to show that you are mourning (v. 5). I am the Lord your God, and I have chosen you alone to offer sacrifices of food to me on the altar (v. 6). Don’t marry a divorced woman or a woman who has served as a temple prostitute (v. 7). You are holy, because I am holy (v. 8). And so, you must be treated with proper respect, since you offer food sacrifices to me, the God of holiness. If any of you priests has a daughter who disgraces you by serving as a temple prostitute, she must be burned to death(v. 9).
If you are the high priest, you must not mess up your hair or tear your clothes in order to mourn for the dead (v. 10). Don’t make yourself unclean by going near a dead body, not even that of your own father or mother (v. 11). If you leave the sacred place to attend a funeral, both you and the sacred place become unclean, because you are the high priest (v. 12). If you are the high priest, you must marry only a virgin from your own tribe (vv. 13-14). Don’t marry a divorced woman or any other woman who has already had sex, including a temple prostitute. In this way, your descendants will be qualified to serve me. Remember-I am the Lord, and I have chosen you(v. 15). The Lord told Moses to say to Aaron (vv. 16-18): No descendant of yours can ever serve as my priest if he is blind or lame, if his face is disfigured, if one leg is shorter than the other, if either a foot or a hand is crippled, if he is a hunchback or a dwarf, if an eye or his skin is diseased, or if his testicles have been damaged (vv. 19-20). These men may not serve as my priests and burn sacrifices to me (v. 21). They may eat the food offerings presented to me, but they may not enter the sacred place or serve me at the altar (vv. 22-23). Remember. I am the Lord, the one who makes a priest holy. Moses told all of this to Aaron, his sons, and the people of Israel (v. 24).
Application
God’s instructions to me in His Word are not an option but for me to obey.
Leviticus 21:1– 24 (NET)
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron—say to them: ‘For a dead person no priest is to defile himself among his people, 2 except for his close relative who is near to him —his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3 and his virgin sister who is near to him, who has no husband—he may defile himself for her. 4 He must not defile himself as a husband among his people so as to profane himself. 5 Priests must not have a bald spot shaved on their head, they must not shave the corner of their beard, and they must not cut slashes in their body.
6 “‘They must be holy to their God, and they must not profane the name of their God, because they are the ones who present the Lord’s gifts, the food of their God. Therefore they must be holy. 7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. 8 You must sanctify him because he presents the food of your God. He must be holy to you because I, the Lord who sanctifies you all, am holy. 9 If a daughter of a priest profanes herself by engaging in prostitution, she is profaning her father. She must be burned to death.
10 “‘The high priest—who is greater than his brothers, and on whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments—must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. 11 He must not go where there is any dead person; he must not defile himself even for his father or for his mother. 12 He must not go out from the sanctuary and must not profane the sanctuary of his God, because the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the Lord. 13 He must take a wife who is a virgin. 14 He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people as a wife, 15 so that he does not profane his children among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.’”
16 The Lord spoke to Moses: 17 “Tell Aaron, ‘No man from your descendants throughout their generations who has a physical flaw is to approach to present the food of his God. 18 Certainly no man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, or who has a limb too long, 19 or a man who has had a broken leg or arm, 20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or one with a spot in his eye, or a festering eruption, or a feverish rash, or a crushed testicle. 21 No man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical flaw may step forward to present the Lord’s gifts; he has a physical flaw, so he must not step forward to present the food of his God. 22 He may eat both the most holy and the holy food of his God, 23 but he must not go near the special curtain or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”
24 So Moses spoke these things to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites.
Illustration: Eldery Woman Requested no Male Pallbearers
An elderly woman died last month. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote, “They wouldn’t take me out while I was alive, I don’t want them to take me out when I’m dead.” (Pastor Tim http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh)