Leviticus 21:1–15

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2023 Lord willing we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you this morning. Why don't we have some coffee?
We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word Let's pray Father we thank you so much for this day Thank you for your word Father, we pray that we would understand it now. We pray that you would please teach us. Father, please teach us what it means and what it means for our lives. We need your spirit to help us. We pray in Jesus's name, amen.
So we are at Genesis, or sorry, Genesis, Leviticus chapter 21. Now, Leviticus 21 and 22 is a whole bunch of times that the Lord says to Moses, tell these things to Aaron. And so, But we're gonna, it's all one kind of section, but we're gonna break it up into different parts so that way these videos aren't crazy long. So let's go ahead and go to Leviticus chapter 21 and we'll read the first 15 verses.
And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, None shall defile himself or the dead among his people, except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother. Also his virgin sister who is near to him, who has no husband, for her he may defile himself. Otherwise he shall not defile himself, being a chief among his people, to profane himself.
Let's go ahead and just stop there, right? This is the first regulation for the priest, not defiling themselves for the dead, right? What is this about? This is the chief priest or the priest when they are consecrated in that office. They're not to be going and touching dead bodies, right? So a dead body defiles the person. And so he says, nope, not for anybody and everybody, only for your nearest of relations. So father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your children.
If you had a sister who's unmarried, that's the type of person that you can, Go but but everyone else you can't There's this regulation on who they're able to be defiled by verse 5 to 9 They, that being the priests, shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire and the bread of their God. Therefore, they shall be holy. They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband.
For the priest is holy to his God. Therefore you shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the Lord who sanctify you am holy. The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. He shall be burned with fire." This is pretty serious stuff, right? These are the regulations for the priest. The priest is to be holy, right?
Not only is he not allowed to defile himself with dead bodies, the first nine verses here, but in these verses, He's not to take on the pagan things of the world around him. He's not allowed to shave the edges of his beard or make cuttings in his flesh. He's not allowed to profane the things of God because he's the one who handles the fire that God lit the altar with. He's the one who handles the sacrifices. He's the one that offers the bread. He's not to defile himself with a harlot. Some people will see this last verse here and they'll say, really? If his daughter plays a harlot, she has to be burned with fire? Well, we need to understand a little bit of the background context of this, right?
In the ancient Near East, and not even just that, and even in the Greco-Roman world, sometimes when you would go to a temple, there would be temple prostitutes. And those prostitutes were often the priestesses or the daughters of the priests. And they would do divination and this horrible fertility type worship by the girls playing the harlot in the temple.
And he said, that's not how my temple is going to operate. And if that's the type of stuff that's going to be engaged in, then there's a death penalty for that. And it seems harsh, but that's because the Lord is holy. He says, that's not how you're going to profane my name. That's not how you're going to profane my temple. That's not how this is going to happen. And then lastly, verses 10 through 15.
He who is the high priest among his brethren, on whose head is the anointing oil, was poured, and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor tear his clothes. Nor shall he go near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother. Nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God. For the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him.
I am, pardon me, I am Jehovah. And he shall take a wife in her virginity, a widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot. These he shall not marry, but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife. Nor shall he profane his posterity among his people, for I, Jehovah, sanctify him.
So this is now talking about the high priest. And all the priests he's been talking about, but now specifically the high priest, there's an extra heavy burden on him. Did you notice what it says? He's consecrated. He's not to uncover his head. He's not to tear his clothes. He shall not go near any dead body, as verse 11 says, neither defile himself, not even for his father or his mother. Your mom dies, you go to the funeral, you can't touch the body. Your father dies, the man who raised you from the time you were a boy, you can't touch his dead body.
The high priest, this comes with a lot of stipulations. Not just that, but even who the high priest takes as a spouse is regulated. Can't be a widow. Can't be somebody who's already been married. Can't be a harlot, right? So you have to think as you're reading this, Rahab is in the congregation. I mean, there's like legitimately things that are going on here. Well, no, Rahab's not in the congregation yet. They haven't gotten there yet. Sorry, take that back, rewind that. But these are the types of relationships the high priest isn't allowed to engage in. So as we've looked at these three different paragraphs, we have to ask ourselves, okay, what's this about? Well, these are regulations for the priests, and then a regulation for the high priest. But what are the regulations about? Well, there's multiple times that it's written down here.
He shall be holy to you, for I am the Lord who sanctify you. I am the Lord, for I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore, they shall be holy, right? I have these underlined in different verses throughout this section, right? The priests are to be holy because the Lord is holy and they are representing him. They are the mediators between God and the people. So I think that's what this is about. That's what I have underlined as the best verses of this. What does this call us to do now?
Well, we are a kingdom of priests. We are a nation of priesthood, a holy nation, and so we also must be holy as He is holy. Now these regulations, these ceremonial regulations that we find here have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We don't have to follow these ceremonial laws. We don't have a high priest other than Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and makes intercession day and night for us. Those have been fulfilled in Christ. But we must still think about one who Christ is, in his high priestly office, but also in our lives, not to defile ourselves.
Now, we're not worried about defiling ourselves with dead bodies in that sense, but do we defile ourselves with our actions? Do we defile ourselves with sexual immorality? Do we defile ourselves with gluttony? Do we defile ourselves with anger and rage and malice and slander? Do we defile ourselves with lying and with bitterness? There's all sorts of ways in which we can show ourselves to be defiled.
We know that we also have Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, who can never be defiled. He has a priesthood better than Aaron. He's of the order of Melchizedek. And he's ministering in a tabernacle not made by human hands, but in heaven. And he is holy.
Thank God we have a perfect high priest. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you that you are our God. Father, we love you. And we struggle with passages like this today because we don't have a tabernacle that we can see with our hands. We don't have a high priest that we can see with our eyes. Father, we pray that you would please let us know the reality of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would keep us from defiling ourselves.
Lord, we thank you. for the love you have shown us in Jesus Christ. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Oh, hold on. We're going, it's, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. We're going to be off for four days. So I'll see you on Monday. Hope you have a great day. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.