Leviticus 21 - Priests and Widows and Buddhist Bands

It's a brand new day and a new day of Tabernacle Talk. We are in Leviticus 21 today, and we're gonna be looking at some interesting stuff.

We're gonna be seeing the priests, and as I mentioned, I think at the very beginning of the book, everything in Leviticus kind of works like a pyramid, like working up to a center point, and that center point in kind of the literary structure is the

Day of Atonement. And so it starts off with sacrifices in the priests, and then it goes into the ceremonial law, things of clean and unclean that aren't sins, but that would kind of affect, it's the effects of sin.

It's don't touch a dead body, don't eat something that a chameleon's walked on. It's not a moral thing, it's a kind of ceremonial thing of, this is ritually impure or unclean.

So priests and sacrifices, ceremonial uncleanness, the Day of Atonement, then actual like sins, that kind of morally unclean or impure.

And then now we're going into some more of the like, priests and sacrifices and holy days, that kind of stuff at the end of the book.

But in some different topics than at the beginning, where before it was, okay, here's how you put together the grain offering, and here's what it entails. And don't put any yeast in it, make sure that all the fat goes to the Lord.

Here's like the right leg and the right, you know, thing goes to the priest that's offering the sacrifice. And you gotta make sure that you eat this within three days of offering it, all that kind of stuff happens.

Now we're looking more at the lives of the priests themselves. And many of these things are ceremonial uncleanness or impurity. So these are the ritually unclean things.

Most of these or many of these are not a moral judgment as I'll highlight as we go through.

There'll be a couple of things that we see that we go, huh, that's really weird that God would like view that as a sin and it's because a few of these are not sins. These are just positionally with where the priests are.

They have to interact with the world in a different way because they represent God to the people. So some of their actions, reactions, some of their habits are unique from other people.

It's not that they have maybe one level of moral law that they're called to that no one else is called to. They're all called to the same moral law. But here, on the ceremonial plane, there's something different about how they interact.

So let's look at some of these.

Leviticus 21 and verse one, Yahweh said to Moses, speak to Aaron's sons, the priests, and tell them, a priest is not to make himself ceremonially unclean for a dead person among his relatives, except for his immediate family, his mother, father, son,

daughter, or brother. He may make himself unclean for his unmarried virgin sister and his immediate family. He's not to make himself unclean for those related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.

So here, ceremonial uncleanness, that you would do the whole shredding of clothes, be clothed in sackcloth, put dust and ashes on your head, kind of those cultural symbols of, hey, I'm grieving, I'm mourning, and it's obvious, like I am very sad

about the death of this family member. God says, I only want you to do that for those that are closest to you. So for extended family or like, hey, my sister-in-law or something, he says, don't do it for those.

He says, the way you interact with death and the way you mourn death needs to be different than how just everyone else interacts with death.

And I think even of Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 4, where he tells the believers there, I want to comfort you so that you do not sorrow like those who do not have hope.

And then he goes on to talk about the resurrection and the fact that we have that hope for ourselves and also that those that go before us, they're with Jesus, they're in His presence, even as Philippians 1 and some other places would talk about.

So here he says, I want you to grieve differently. Then verse number 5, priests may not make bald spots on their heads, shave the edges of their beards or make gashes on their bodies.

They are to be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, for they present the fire offerings to Yahweh, the food of their God, and they must be holy.

So here are some things that were highlighted a chapter or two ago in regards to, it's the same section as talking about tattoos, of don't consult a witch, don't make gashes on yourself, don't round the corners of your beard, don't put any tattoo

marks, hear this specific statement of don't do things to identify with the wickedness and the godlessness, and really not godlessness, like the false gods, don't do anything to identify with them and with their worship and with their priests, it

says be totally different in how you interact. And man, that would be very true. Don't do anything that would identify you as like, oh yeah, he must be a Muslim, or if you can help it, maybe not make yourself appear to be a Mormon, maybe in how you

interact or how you act. Obviously, there are some things that are just genuinely neutral across the board that kind of everyone does this type of thing, and so it doesn't set them apart as, oh, this person must be from this religious group or this

belief thing. But as much as we can avoid looking just like the worshipers of false gods, let's attempt to do so. Let's stand out.

I think even of Christian music is one of those really, really interesting things because you don't have the same emphasis on music or congregational music or even various music styles in other religions like you do in Christianity.

So while oftentimes people can fight about specific instruments or musical styles in Christianity, it is something that sets us apart from many of the other religious groups.

You don't really have a Muslim equivalent of Chris Tomlin or you don't really have perhaps a Buddhist equivalent of, you know, casting crowns or something.

And so it is interesting that you can do things that or involve yourself in things that set you apart as a Christian that they'd go, oh man, well, yeah, so-and-so would never do that.

Even as you look at the life of Jesus, as he's seen what the Pharisees are doing and he's interacting with people, he's loving tax collectors and publicans and sinners. And they're like, what in the world is he doing?

This is so unlike the religious people in our group. And so let's do things that with the kindness, with the love of God set us apart, that we're not just like the world.

We don't just follow all of their religious things, that we have a different way of following our God. Okay, verse number seven. The priests are not to marry a woman defiled by prostitution.

They are not to marry one divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You are to consider him holy, since he presents the food of your God. He will be holy to you, because I, Yahweh, who sets you apart, am holy.

So here, even who the priests could marry, there was a ceremonial cleanness or uncleanness in it. I do want to mention here, this is not something that was morally right or morally wrong. If someone has been a prostitute, you cannot marry them.

Or if someone has been divorced, you cannot marry them. How, why would I say that? That's shocking.

It's because in certain places, God specifically prescribes this for people. Hosea, who is a prophet, and he says, hey, I want you to take a wife who's going to...

It's somewhat unclear in the text whether she was already a prostitute or whether God said, I want you to marry a woman who's going to become a prostitute. And obviously Hosea then buys her back, shows God's amazing love.

But the initial design that God has is, I want even the marriages that happen with the people that represent me, I want them to be entirely pure marriages.

I want them to be something that pictures my dedication, my love, my desire for here, God in Israel. As we would read about in Jeremiah 3, God says, hey, I divorced Israel because she broke my covenant.

And then obviously in the New Testament and Ephesians 5, now God has this new bride, which is the bride of Christ, the church. And so some of those things are interesting, but I want to be clear on, okay, what is God saying here?

What is he not saying here?

Also I've noticed that one of Jesus' ancestors is Rahab the harlot, who married, I think it's Salman is the name of the guy, as you look through the genealogies, the one that married Rahab the harlot from Jericho and her descendant Boaz and then Ruth

and on down to David and on down to Jesus. That God works wonderful things through stories. It's not that God says, all right, well, if you've had a sexually promiscuous past, like no one can be with you anymore.

You can even look at the list in, it's either 1 Corinthians 5 or 2 Corinthians, I think it's 1 Corinthians 5, where he gives the list of like, hey, here's all of these like former acts that the people that do these things, they don't inherit the

kingdom of God, some of which are people that are sexually immoral. Or like I mentioned, I think it was yesterday, those that engage in same-sex actions. God says these people don't inherit the kingdom of God.

And he says, and this described some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, that what we were no longer defines us. We are defined by Jesus, by his redemption and by his cross.

And what a comfort that that is, that even our big failures, God is able to restore and to redeem. Verse number nine, if a priest's daughter defiles herself by promiscuity, she defiles her father, she must be burned to death.

Here a very harsh sentence that's laid out. This is God in his cosmic justice. Same thing as with all of the other elements that we look at in Leviticus.

When you are in God's presence, sin, unrepented and un-atoned for, it's deadly to you that God's holy presence will wipe out all evil, as we saw even with the ordination of the priests. And I believe the names were Eliezer and Abithar.

I might have those names wrong, but from chapter 9 or 10. So here, heavy sentence that's laid out.

As we would look back at Israel's history, this isn't something that's ever highlighted as having been done, but it does show us how does God view this immoral action? How does he see this?

Also listed in here with promiscuity, there's a note here in the Bible, it might specifically be stating prostitution as well.

And this would be something that how you lead your children is important, and many of the things that would happen with God's leaders, whether kings or priests or prophets, would be that they would not lead their children in a good way.

They would never tell them no, and as a result, they would go off into all sorts of sin.

And you can look at the priest Eli and his two sons and what happened to them and how God highlights like, hey, they are doing awful things that I told you should not be done in the temple or in the tabernacle.

And they are doing these things, and because you haven't told them no, I'm going to take the priesthood from you. It's going to go to this other descendant of Aaron. And Samuel is going to kind of take the nation forward spiritually.

You and your line are kind of done for. And so it was a serious thing. Have a care about how you raise your kids or how you raise your grandkids.

Don't just sign off on everything they do and go, Yeah, it's great. You should keep on doing that, even if it's against the Word of God. You have a responsibility.

You can't make their choices for them, but you can make the choice on what you allow to happen. Maybe in your home or under your roof, you're able to set the consequences of, if this happens, then this will happen.

It doesn't mean that I don't love you, but I don't want to be one that would be responsible for you just careening off into a terrible path because I didn't say anything, because I didn't try and stop you from going down a path that is destructive to

your soul. So here you have kind of the chief priest, and here one specifically that has the anointing oil on, like we would read about in chapters nine and 10, or eight through 10.

Here is the actual statement that says, okay, here's the types of things that you can and can't do.

And he says, when you've got that anointing oil on you, when you are really in that place at that moment in time, that you're in the sanctuary, you're doing your course of worship, he says, don't leave it.

Like you are for that moment, for that amount of time, you are entirely gods, and you do not leave that place until your time of service is done.

And then when it's time to switch out whoever's working in the tabernacle or the temple at the end of a day, a week, or a couple weeks or something, then you can go about your business that you need to.

But God says there is a seriousness to when God has given you a mission, when God has given you a purpose. Don't leave it, even for things that other people might understand.

If you leave off serving God for this particular thing, obviously here is not a statement on don't care about your family.

We would read in 1 Timothy 5, where Paul told Timothy if someone does not take care of his own household, like doesn't provide for his own family, he's denied the faith and is worse than an infidel, than an unbeliever.

So many things that you could think about that or read in that. I would encourage you even look at the book that I've connected every time if you want some more information on that. Verse number 13, he is to marry a woman who is a virgin.

He's not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people so that he does not corrupt his bloodline among his people, for I am Yahweh who sets him apart.

Here again, something that is unique to the priests and something that is not for everyone everywhere, and this is also not something that God views as a sin to marry someone that's not a virgin, or as a sin to marry a widow, or a sin to marry a

divorced woman. Again, as you look at Christ's lineage of many of these people and types of people, even Ruth is a great example of a widow, and Boaz marrying her is not from God's people. He is a widow, when he was not a virgin.

And yet, God writes this incredible story about her, and puts her in Christ's lineage, puts her in David's lineage, that he uplifts her as, hey, this is a good story.

This is a wonderful love story of God and his love for his people, and how he brought, you know, from disaster and sadness, he brought life and the line of David.

Also of note is the other story in Scripture of Queen Esther, that she marries a divorced man, that God specifically put her there in that time for that purpose, so that she would be able to save her people, as we would even read in the book.

So again, here's something that's unique to the priesthood, that he says the way in which even you marry and who you marry is different than everyone else. And it's to go, well, what's different about the priests?

Are they just like so much more righteous? No, no, no, no. It's because God is holy.

And so they are showing him, hey, here are the best of qualities in perhaps the world that God has designed. Here's the way he set it up to work. Not here's the only way it can work, as we see outlined by God.

But he says in God's perfect design, here's how it looks. And so this is not a condemnation of those that maybe have gone through some of these things that are mentioned in these verses. God's not saying like, oh, how dare you?

You are always to be looked down on and downtrodden. That's not the case at all. The case is in God's perfect design, in his new creation, in his Eden, what did it look like?

What was the plan? And so this is the plan, not how God works through when the plan goes awry. Verse number 16.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, Tell Aaron, none of your descendants throughout your generations who has a physical defect is to come nearer to present the food of his God. No man who has any defect is to come near.

No man who is blind, lame, facially disfigured or deformed. No man who has a broken foot or hand or who is a hunchback or a dwarf or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs or a crushed testicle.

No descendant of the priest Aaron who has a defect is to come near to present the fire offerings to Yahweh. He has a defect and is not to come near to present the food of his God.

He may eat the food of his God from what is especially holy as well as from what is holy. But because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar. He's not to desecrate my holy places for I am Yahweh who sets them apart.

Moses said this to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites. So here as we come to this section, especially with our 21st century sensibilities, we go, Whoa, that seems really messed up.

Again, here is God saying in the Tabernacle and then later in the temple with the actual offering.

When a person kills the offering, puts it on the altar or puts the grain offering on the altar or goes into the Holy of Holies to present the sacrifice before God once a year, God says everything needs to be perfectly according to the original design

of what I had set up in our world. And to us, we go, okay, but God, aren't you the one that forms a person? Aren't you the one that makes a person a hunchback or a dwarf or you make someone blind or lame?

Absolutely, in the sense that he has allowed our genetics, our choices, our fallen finite nature to have those effects on us and that it's not merely an accident.

It's not just a genetic accident that people have particular sicknesses or illnesses or deformities or disabilities.

But God, in His kindness, has made us that way so that we would glorify Him, so that it would affect the way in which we interact with our God. That is a really, really, really tough truth for some people.

I have some dear friends that they've got family members with severe deformities.

And I know from hearing them speak that they have seen God work and they have understood more of who God is and how He sees us through interacting with that family member.

And that they have, they deeply understand that what is being talked about here is not, oh, it's a sin, and God just doesn't want the lame or the deaf or the blind or the deformed.

That's who Jesus spent so much of His time around when He was on earth, and He cared for people, and He gave them their sight back and all these little foretastes of what will one day happen in full when He returns.

Like we read about in Zephaniah chapter 3 that in the day that Christ returns, He's going to take all of the lame, all of the disabled, and He will lift them up and they will be exalted.

I want to go over to that chapter real quick just because when I had read it before, it was just very meaningful. He says, Yes, at that time, I will gather those who have been driven from the appointed festivals.

They will be a tribute from you and a reproach on her. Yes, at that time, I will deal with all who oppress you. I will save the lame and gather the outcasts.

I will make those who were disgraced throughout the earth receive praise and fame. And God values those that in this life encounter many of these difficulties. One great child of God that has been an encouragement to me has been Joni Erickson Tata.

And if you have never heard her testimony, quadriplegic, and she through her teaching, I think she's written poems, some different things. It's just been a huge encouragement to me, would encourage you to look at her story and how God has worked.

I can think even of a few years back, there was a movie Soul Surfer.

And I think it might have been based off of a book that was from a young lady that had, I think it was her arm bitten off by a shark in Hawaii or in California, and how she gave glory to God through it.

And so here God's saying, it doesn't prohibit someone that is a descendant of Aaron or a descendant of Levi from enjoying the food that's given. They can still eat.

He says, it's not that I don't want them to live, but he says for the offering of the sacrifices, everything that needs to go into my presence has to be absolutely holy, perfect, washed clean, atoned for, everything exactly as how I initially

designed it. So what's our takeaway today? As we look at many of these things and we realize, man, I'm not perfect.

I don't maybe line up with some of those marriage things that were mentioned or I don't line up with some of those physical things that were mentioned and I don't really know what I'm supposed to take from this.

Realize this, Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of all of this.

Jesus is the one that though we are imperfect, though we are sinners, though we are flawed, He came and He offered the sacrifices and He made a new priesthood that was not like the old priesthood, that we're not under these laws anymore.

Instead, Jesus has made us a kingdom and priest to our God, that those that maybe were promiscuous instead of being burned with fire are now completely forgiven and given the charge to bring the gospel to everyone.

Those that maybe were divorced or didn't marry virgins or were widowed, they're not prohibited from bringing sacrifices. Now they can bring a sacrifice of praise.

Now they can maybe enjoy communion with the saints and with our Lord, that everything that was under this old covenant has now been made completely new and reworked because of Jesus. So how do we think about it? We think about it with gratitude.

Thank you, Jesus, for what you have done for us and the fact that you have made everything new. Thank you that I'm not under condemnation.

I'm not even under ceremonial cleanness or uncleanness, but now I have a freedom to live according to the law of grace and freedom that's in Christ.

That it's a very different, when you look at the New Testament, it's a whole different list of things than some of the things that we've been going through in the Book of Leviticus. That we don't have to worry about chameleons anymore.

Now we worry about how we talk to people, how we treat people. And I think that's a great encouragement to our hearts, or it can be if we allow it to. So thanks for tuning in today, and we'll be in Leviticus 22 and maybe some more tomorrow.

Thank you for watching.