The Clergy, Coronavirus, and You -- what we need to remember.

The Preparation of the High Priest

Leviticus 16:1-5

Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died. ² The Lord said to Moses:

“Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. ³ Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴ He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. ⁵ He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. 

Thoughts on the Passage

Today, I am in my fourth day of a 14-day self-quarantine (at the request of our government) after having returned from the U.S. recently. I understand that YouTube has been inundated with churches scrambling to stream their services live since it is now forbidden for them to hold meetings of large numbers. In some states, they are limited to no more than ten people meeting together. Many clergy, pastors or priests, were neither prepared nor trained, for such a delivery. When the scare of Covid-19, the virus that originated in Wuhan, China late last year is all over, I wonder what the collateral damage to churches will be from the gap in live services they have had to undergo during this time. We’ll find out, I’m sure.

Leviticus 16 tells us how God prepared His priests in the Old Testament for their duties.  There is a stark difference between His approach and what we do today.

We note first that these instructions came after Aaron’s two sons had died trying to approach “the presence of the Lord” without proper invitation, instruction, and preparation. That’s important. No one should be choosing the priesthood – God should be choosing them, instructing them, and preparing them. What such a person should be doing is willing to be chosen, agreeing to being chosen, following the instructions, and applying themselves to the preparation.

Being a priest, clergy, pastor or minister of God is not a “career-option” that you can pick from a slew of choices. It is a true “calling”.  And yes, you better hear it, know it in your head, feel it in your heart, and revere it with every bone of your body. Especially once you commit to it. Woe to you if you get it wrong.

In this passage, God has clearly chosen Aaron to be the High Priest for the Israelites. But He tells Moses to warn him not to enter the “holy place” until God appears in the cloud over the mercy seat (verse 2).

And when he does enter at the appropriate time, he needs to be well equipped with two animal sacrifices (vs. 3). He needs to be properly attired and be properly bathed or washed – he needs to be clean (vs. 4).  All this, before he varies out the sacrifices (his role).

So, pastor, priest, clergy, minister, are you truly called? Are you equipped? Are you properly attired with the armor of God? Are you clean?

And lest we get to think the rest of us who are not so called to this kind of service for God, we need to remember that elsewhere in Scripture we are told we have all been made priests (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10).  So those same questions apply to us.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.