Perfect Priests

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I 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. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. We're at Leviticus chapter 21, second half of the chapter. Why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll jump into God's Word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to come to you, to hear from you. I pray that you would please teach us about you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so we are at Leviticus chapter 21, the second half of the chapter. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, by the way. It was good around here. But let's go ahead and get back into our routine of coffee and devotions. Leviticus chapter 21, beginning at verse 16.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, saying, No man of your descendants in succeeding generations who has any defect may approach to offer the bread of his God. For any man who has a defect shall not approach. a blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long, a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch, No man of the descendants of Aaron, the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect. He shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy, Only he shall not go near the veil, or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest he profane my sanctuaries, for I the Lord sanctify them. And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel." Well, we need to ask ourselves our three normal questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So, what's this passage about?
Well, simply said, Aaron's sons, if they're going to be the high priest, they must not have any defects. No eczema, no scabs, no eunuch, none of that type of stuff. If they have a hunchback, if they have one leg that's too long, if there's something wrong with that person physically, they're not to enter into the holy place. They're allowed to eat the bread. They're even allowed to eat the most holy bread. They're allowed to partake in the sacrifices, they're allowed to help the Levites, things like that, but they're not allowed to actually enter into the Lord's sanctuary.
This is a prescription by the Lord. Why does he do this? His sacrifices must be blemishless, they must be perfect, and so must the priest be the closest to that, physically speaking, possible. doesn't mean that God is being mean and just arbitrarily pushing. It's meant to be that God is giving a picture that to approach the holy, holy, holy God we must, somebody must, the high priest must come perfect.
We're going to get to seat qualling in a second, but what's the best verse to summarize this section? That, in my mind, is verse 21. No man of the descendants of Aaron, the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offering made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. So, I think that's a good summary of this section.
Let's see calling. What are we called to do? I think this is calling us to recognize we ourselves don't have the right just to come to God however we want. To be honest with you, I think a lot of us would say, I'm not perfect. I'm not physically perfect, I'm not morally perfect, I'm not perfect in my thinking, I'm not perfect in my feeling, and so how can I approach God? This is the whole point, that God sent us a better mediator, a high priest, Jesus Christ, not of the order of Aaron, but of the order of Melchizedek, of a better priesthood. And he has ripped open the veil. This is the beautiful thing, right? If you had any defect, you weren't allowed to even come near the veil. Jesus has ripped that veil.
And now we are bid, we're told, come, enter into his presence with thanksgiving. go boldly to His throne of grace. We are given access by our perfect High Priest, Jesus Christ, who intercedes daily for us, who went into that holy place, the holy of holies of place, in the heavenly tabernacle, and there sat down, because He's the King and our High Priest and He's our mediator.
And so we get to go to God directly. We get to worship Him, we get to have access to Him, because of the perfection of Jesus. This is the beauty of what the New Covenant was saying, that it's a better covenant, it's a fuller covenant, because it's a covenant in Jesus' blood. So, go to God, through the Son, by the Spirit. You can go to your Father who is in Heaven, and He welcomes you. Beautiful, let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for sending us Jesus Christ. We thank you for giving us our great high priest. Lord, we thank you that it doesn't depend upon our perfection, but you have sent your perfect one, your Son, Jesus Christ, who has a better priesthood, and who has better sacrifice, and makes better intercession. Thank you that you have told us to come near to you. We pray that we would, that we would dwell in your presence and love you all of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. May God bless you. May you rest in the peace that comes through Jesus Christ as you stand before your Father and marvel at his grace. I'll see you next time. 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.