Leviticus 21

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:32:04utc

Holiness in the Life of the Priests Ch. 21, 22

In these chapter we can distinguish five part that each start with the sentence: "The LORD said to Moses."

Ch. 21: 1-15 Uncleanness of the priests and the High Priest.

Vs. 16-24 Physical defects of priests.

Ch. 22:1-16 Physical impurities of priests.

Vs. 17-25 Perfection in sacrificial animals.

Vs. 26-33 Humane treatment of sacrificial animals.

a. 21: 1-15 Uncleanness of the Priests and the High Priest

Vs. 1-9 deal with the regular priests and vs. 10-15 with the High Priest. The command "make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die," is not clear. The Amplified Bible says: "None of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial]." In our Western culture we know very little of mourning practices as they are still observed among other cultures. It is clear from passages in Genesis[ 1 ] and Ecclesiastes [ 2 ] that among Israel there were elaborate mourning practices. The context suggests that those practices were accompanied by mutilation of the body. Among the Mountain Papua people of Irian Jaya, fingers of relatives were cut off in mourning. It could be that similar practices were common among the Israelites also. God wants His priests to keep their distance from this, at least in most cases. Mutilation of the body was always forbidden, not only for priests, but also for laymen.[ 3 ] We could ask ourselves why God did not forbid all mourning ceremonies; perhaps He planned to reveal more as the hope of the resurrection was revealed in the Old Testament. The mourning customs indicate that there was little understanding about life after death and even less of resurrection and a new life. In these prohibitions for the priests, we see the suggestion that God and death are enemies. Remember Jesus' majestic declaration about the Father: "He is not the God of the dead but of the living."[ 4 ] The priest was to render testimony to this fact in his attitude toward death.

The fact that the priests were, in a sense, responsible for the death of their fellow men, implied in the substitutionary death of the sacrificial animals, required that they, themselves, put death in its right perspective. God wanted them to understand the meaning of what they did and of who they were. The holiness of God's Name and the abhorrence of death are diametrically opposed to each other. Yet, the priests were daily involved in death in the killing of the animals. This paradox is resolved in the cross of Christ. There, God surrendered Himself to death in order to conquer death.

The prohibition in vs. 5, "Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies," undoubtedly, refers to the mourning practices also. Apparently, they were also part of idol worship. We read about the priests of Baal, "So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed."[ 5 ]

As we said before, this vision of death was related to their sanctification. Holiness and life go together. Any deviations would profane the Name of God. In this context, this means that their testimony would be affected. It amazes us that God would link His Name to the conduct of His servants and that when we stand on the Lord's side we are responsible for His testimony.

It is also noteworthy that, in this connection, the offerings made by fire are mentioned. This also contains a paradox. The offerings are the five sacrifices which are pictures of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the basis of our reconciliation and our victory over death. This is the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven which culminates in the annihilation of death as the last enemy.

Verses 7 and 8 reveal another precious mystery of the Kingdom: the purity of marriage. The marriage of a priest was to give a pure image of the reality which is expressed in every marriage, that is the fellowship of redeemed men with God. Every marriage is a shadow of the marriage of the Lamb. The woman he married had to be a virgin who never let herself be used by anyone else, whether once or repeatedly. These verses do not explain the problem of divorce, but they present it in a negative sense as something to be avoided. Celibacy is not even suggested. Just as in the New Testament, an elder of the church was to embody and example of a monogamous marriage in a polygamous society, so was the marriage of a priest to be a beacon to which Israel could look as a model for guidance.

In our eyes, it seems that the burning of a priest's daughter who lived an immoral life was a cruel and unusual punishment. It does not say, however, that she was to be burned alive. The execution was usually carried out by stoning. I suppose that the burning was in place of a burial. The implication is that holiness is not a private affair but that it pertains to the whole family.

The key to the understanding of the process of holiness is found in the last part of vs. 8, "I the LORD am holy-- I who make you holy." When God says: "Regard them as holy," it does not mean that the priest would never commit a sin, but that he was holy because of his relationship with the Lord. The relationship was more important than the acts. David's relationship with Saul was not determined by Saul's acts, but by the fact that Saul had been anointed by God. David said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD."[ 6 ] This does not mean that there would be no connection between the anointing by the Holy Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit. We have to be careful, though, not to judge people subjectively. It is of vital importance that a man agrees to become God's property. That is the essence of holiness.

The interesting part of the eighth verse is that God does not say: "Consider them holy, because I the LORD am holy-- I who make them holy," but "Consider them holy, because I the LORD am holy-- I who make you holy." What God does for the priest is intended for us; it is for our benefit. It is through the sanctification of the priests that we become holy. If we consider the priest holy, we do that for our own benefit. The author of Hebrews says: "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers."[ 7 ] So the priest becomes an image of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Vs. 10-15 deal with the High Priest. The striking feature of these verses is, first of all, the detailed description of those things that make the High Priest the highest among his brethren. He is the one who has been anointed and who wears the priestly garments. Both of those features are outward signs of holiness; they are not inner qualities of character. The unction and clothing make him the clearest image of Christ, but they do not make him the Christ. He knows the signs that make him an image, but he does not possess them inwardly. His holiness is borrowed. That is why these verses, with all their greatness and dignity, are a loud cry for Him who is to come, who is perfect forever, our Lord Jesus Christ. He possesses a holiness that is not borrowed but one that is His own. "For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever."[ 8 ]

Yet, the image also speaks of joy and life. The High Priest was not allowed to mourn or be sad. The outward signs of mourning, such as letting his hair become unkept or tearing his clothes were not allowed. When the High Priest, Caiaphas, tore his clothes in the court case against Jesus, he sinned against this commandment.[ 9 ] Or, maybe, without realizing what he did, Caiaphas gave back the garments he had borrowed to the real High Priest who stood before him. It was not the only thing he did without knowing the significance of what he was doing. John says: "Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, 'You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.' He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one."[ 10 ]

The High Priest was not allowed to attend any funeral service, not even for his own father or mother. It is very interesting to note that Jesus never attended a funeral. It is supposed that Jesus began His public ministry after Joseph died, but we do not actually read this anywhere. It is difficult to prove anything in the absence of evidence. We do know, though, that in the three incidents when Jesus was confronted with a dead body, that is Jairus' daughter,[ 11 ] the son of the widow at Nain,[ 12 ] and Lazarus,[ 13 ] He raised the dead. We, furthermore, understand that Jesus entered the priesthood after His own resurrection.[ 14 ] So in this law, according to which the High Priest had to keep his distance from the dead, we see the picture of Jesus as the Lord of Life. This law expresses a longing after the resurrection.

We read in vs. 12 that the High Priest was not allowed to leave the sanctuary. Whether this is meant literally, we do not know. It is clear, however, that he was limited in his liberty to move about. Whenever the people wanted to consult the High Priest, they had to come to the sanctuary. In connection with this, we think of the beautiful words of the psalm: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion."[ 15 ]

There is also a dark side to this picture. The priests' routine and lack of freedom to move about must have made for a frustrating condition, especially afterwards, when the cloud was no longer a physical indication of the presence of God. But if the High Priest came to the place where he was really able to quiet his heart in God's presence and lead a life of praise and adoration, he would become a source of refreshment to his people. The above quoted Psalm declares that: He would "make the Valley of Baca into a place of springs."

The High Priest was a picture of Christ. And yet, because he was only an image of the reality, he knew less than we, who have received the Holy Spirit Himself do. "He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."[ 16 ]

The requirements for the marriage of the High Priest were the same as for the priest, with one exception: the High Priest was specifically forbidden to marry a widow. His marriage had to reflect explicitly the union between Christ and the church.

In this case, God considered all forms of sexual relations, within the bond of marriage and outside, as impure. The virginity of the church is proof of her pure dedication to the Lord, both in the spiritual and in the moral sense. It is difficult to explain the physical proof of virginity. It is a strange phenomenon. If one adheres to the theory of evolution, the virginal membrane must be a complete mystery that, actually, refutes the theory. If it does not have a moral connotation, it is senseless, and human life is not senseless. Sometimes young Christians struggle with the question as to why pre-marital sex is morally wrong. We see only the right perspective if we understand the reality of which marriage is the image. Just as the marriage of a High Priest had to be the expression of the spiritual reality, so should the marriage of every child of God be. Marriage is holy matrimony because God is holy and the relationship between God and man is holy. Our relationship with God sanctifies us and our marriage and our children.

b. Physical Defects of Priests 16-24

The verses 16-24 seem to be a discrimination against physically handicapped persons. The idea is repulsive to us, as Christians, because, on the basis of the Gospel, we consider people with a physical handicap no less the object of God's love and grace than anybody else. In some cases God even assumes the responsibility for human handicaps. God said to Moses: "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"[ 17 ] These verses, therefore, seem to present us with an unfair paradox. We have to realize, however, that this section does not deal with God's love or the lack of it toward the physically handicapped but with the purity of the image as compared to the spiritual reality which it represents. The true High Priest, Jesus, is the perfect Son of God. To insinuate that His role could be played by someone on earth who is physically handicapped is an insult to the perfection of God. Handicaps are the result of sin; they are a distortion by the devil of God's perfect character.

God does not consider the physically handicapped to be ritually impure; this is obvious from the fact that they were allowed to eat of the sacrifices that were the priest's portion. The presence of the Lord sanctified them just as much as anybody else. Vs. 23 says specifically: "I am the LORD, who makes them holy." The point was not discrimination against the physically handicapped, but the keeping pure of the image of God.

[ 1 ] Gen. 50:10,11

[ 2 ] Eccl. 12:5

[ 3 ] Deut. 14:1

[ 4 ] Matt. 22:32

[ 5 ] I Kings 18:28

[ 6 ] I Sam. 24:6

[ 7 ] Heb. 2:11

[ 8 ] Heb. 7:28

[ 9 ] Matt. 26:65

[ 10 ] John 11:49-52

[ 11 ] Mk. 5:22-24,36-43

[ 12 ] Luke 7:11-16

[ 13 ] John 11:1-44

[ 14 ] See Hebr. 4:5,6

[ 15 ] Ps. 84:4-7

[ 16 ] Matt. 11:11

[ 17 ] Ex. 4:11