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Leviticus Chapter 21: What God Wants You to Know About Priests – Part 1

Leviticus 21:1-9 Laws Concerning Priests

Today is the 19^th day of our self-isolation and/or social-distancing due to Covid-19. After two weeks of self-quarantine we can now go out but only if absolutely necessary. Until now, those terms remain definable by the person thinking of venturing away from his/her residence. We went for a walk (over ten kilometres; 2.25 hours). We saw very few people and they were definitely keeping their distance. A small majority wore masks. I imagine the majority of those that didn’t were not able to find any.

Back at home we continue to do things around the house, listen to inspiring music recommended by friends, and playing Scrabble (my wife leads our series 19-14). I am continuing my study in Leviticus.  Thanks for joining me.  Read on.

The Passage

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, ² except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother, ³ also for his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself. ⁴ He shall not defile himself as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself. ⁵ They shall not make any baldness on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, for they present the offerings by fire to the Lord, the food of their God; so, they shall be holy. ⁷ They shall not take a woman who is profaned by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy. ⁹ Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

Thoughts on the Passage

After God finished telling Moses what commands He had for His people, He then commenced His order for His priests. Chuck Smith reminds us to view this and the next chapter as parallels to the guidelines that God provides us for bishops in the New Testament. Also, as Paul tells Timothy (in I Timothy 4:12), “Be thou an example unto the believer,” so we too are to consider the laws for priests as examples to the extent feasible, for us.

The very first instruction here, “no one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people” requires some explanation. You will remember that touching a dead person made one unclean and they remained so until the next day. Here God is reminding priests that they are not to touch any dead person, lest they defile themselves. The exceptions are then provided in verses 2 to 4.

Verse 5 forbids a priest to shave his head or his sideburns, or to cut his bodily flesh in any way. Simply put, God wanted the priests’ bodies to be unblemished. They were in a sense standing before God, Who wanted them to be whole, as He had created them. I believe God wants that of us as well.

In verse 6 God tells us priests are not to swear or “profane the name of their God”. They need to realize that as they are presenting the offerings, they are in a sense presenting the food of their God, and so they need to be holy.

Verse 7 tells us that priests can only have women who have not been harlots, or affected by harlotry, or divorced. David Guzik says priests were only allowed to take virgins for wives, symbolic of their commitment and purity that was required of them. In all aspects of their lives, they were to seek purity.

Verse 8 requires the people to consecrate the priest for the priest is holy to the people.

And finally verse 9 provides a very strong penalty for a daughter of a priest who profanes herself in harlotry – she is to be burned with fire. While this was covered under the laws applicable to the general populace, it is repeated here for emphasis. There seems to be a special responsibility on priests to keep their daughters pure, but perhaps also on the children of priests to remain pure, recognizing the role of their family before God.

This passage yields two good questions for us today. First, do we expect our clergy to follow all these laws of God today? With the exception of not touching dead people (as some are required to when performing services among the very sick or in a war zone) and the burning of daughters of the clergy, I can see no valid reason why these things are not to be the norm for our pastors today.  Sadly, I see many pastors breaking one or more of these. So much for being examples to us as Paul called on Timothy to be.

Secondly, regardless of how our clergy are behaving, what about us? I believe the above laws could easily be adhered to by many more of God’s children. There are exceptions of course because of what God’s Son has done for us. So, I would consider it perfectly acceptable for a Christian to marry someone who is not a virgin. But that does not mean as a Christian who is a virgin, one can now go out seeking to lose their virginity outside of marriage.  Also, it would be acceptable to have tattoos and become a Christian. But these verses suggest it not okay to be a Christian and actively seek to get a tattoo because you feel you are free in Christ to do so.  God does not change His view of such things.  There is no verse in the New Testament telling you to go out and cut or mark up your body. You get the idea. Still, having said all of that, our God is a big and forgiving God.  His grace and mercy are immeasurable. And even when we fail in that way, He loves us and keeps us in His arms. 

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

God Had Certain Commands for the Israelites. Which ones make sense today? -- Study in Leviticus continues.

Leviticus 19:19-28 – Social Order Basics Part IV – Miscellaneous Orders

Day 14 of our 14-day self-quarantine. It is cold outside, but the sun is so bright (hadn’t seen him for a few days). I’m looking forward to carrying out some necessary errands tomorrow. Can’t wait. Today, there’s more work to do inside plus my continuing study of Leviticus. Read on.

The Passage

¹⁹ ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.

²⁰ ‘Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free.²¹ He shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord to the doorway of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. ²² The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him.

²³ ‘When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten. ²⁴ But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ In the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying. ²⁷ You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

Thoughts on the Passage

The passage starts right off reminding us that we are to keep God’s statutes or commands. Then He gives us his next one and it has to do with mixed breeding – of animals, of plants, even of the clothes we wear. Last time I looked we seem to be doing all of those things. In the case of animals and plants, man is attempting to improve what God created. Matthew Henry reminds us also that when God made animals, etc., He made each “after their kind” and we are to keep them that way. Robert Jamieson suggests that there were physical reasons for this as mixing seed resulted in a weaker product, and perhaps even an unhealthy one.

Verses 20-22 deal again with sexual relations. One is not to have relations with another person’s slave that has not been given his/her freedom. Both are to be punished, but not to the point of death because the slave is to be returned to her/his owner. The other party is to make the appropriate offerings to the Lord, and he/she shall be forgiven.

Verses 23-25 deal with the appropriate way to plant a new orchard, but it also teaches us to be patient. In fact, God says, not having that patience and eating early of the fruit newly planted is totally forbidden. And if you wait the required time, the fruit becomes holy and an offering of praise to the Lord. Then you may eat, and in doing so, its future yield will increase for you. And I love that again God adds the reminder, “I am the Lord your God”. He is saying, “Trust me. There’s no other way.” I wonder if there isn’t some kind of investment lesson that we as Christians can take from these three verses. Matthew Henry writes extensively on this:

·       1. Some think this taught them not to follow the custom of the heathen, who, they say, consecrated the very first products of their fruit-trees to their idols, saying that otherwise all the fruits would be blasted.

·       2. This law in the case of fruit-trees seems to be parallel with that in the case of animals, that no creature should be accepted as an offering till it was past eight days old, nor till that day were children to be circumcised; see chapter 22:27. God would have the first-fruits of their trees, but, because for the first three years they were as inconsiderable as a lamb or a calf under eight days old, therefore God would not have them, for it is fit he should have everything at its best; and yet he would not allow them to be used, because his first-fruits were not as yet offered: they must therefore be accounted as uncircumcised, that is, as an animal under eight days' old, not fit for any use.

·       3. We are hereby taught not to be over-hasty in catching at any comfort, but to be willing with patience to wait the time for the enjoyment of it, and particularly to acknowledge ourselves unworthy of the increase of the earth, our right to the fruits of which was forfeited by our first parents eating forbidden fruit, and we are restored to it only by the word of God and prayer [I Tim. 4:5].

Finally, verses 26-28 here are commands regarding our own bodies. The no blood eating command is repeated, and because of its association with idolatry, it is grouped with the commands against practicing divination (seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means) and soothsaying (the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means; fortune telling, foretelling, divination. prophecy, vaticination or prediction, prognostication - knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source). We cannot have fellowship with Christ while at the same time having fellowship with the things of the devil – yet, many of us try.

In verse 27, there is a strange command with respect to how (men, at least) trim their sideburns and the edges of their beards. Chuck Smith suggests this may have to do with not intentionally shaving our heads, perhaps like the Hare Krishna do. Perhaps that is why, David Guzik reminds us, that the Orthodox Jewish men have long, curly locks down the sides of their heads today.

In verse 28, the Israelites were forbidden to cut their bodies, especially in mourning for the dead. As one pastor I heard said, “it really doesn’t do the dead any good.” We also don’t need to wail at funerals like many of my own people from Europe do. But the verse goes on to command that we do not make any tattoo marks on our body – something that many Christian, including some pastors have ignored under the argument that all those laws in Leviticus were only for Israelites.  Perhaps they were, but also perhaps, the Creator, also had His own reasons for not wanting us to do certain things. We with our own wisdom, have chosen to think of ourselves as wiser.  We do so at our own peril, because as He reminds us at the end of this passage as He did at the beginning, “(He is) the Lord.”

So, what are the take home lessons here for us? These are real issues that each Christian today has to deal with him-/herself. They can cause division for sure. The secret is that they should not divide our own self. We need to decide for ourselves, what we will do and how we will view these matters.  And we are not, in my opinion, to expect everyone to adopt our thinking. We must, however, be free to share our thinking and to listen to the rationale of others. Be right with your God.  

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