The book of Leviticus provides the Israelites with specific details on how they can properly worship the one, true God. Four areas of worship are discussed throughout the book including offerings/sacrifices (Leviticus 1:1-7:38), priestly duties (Leviticus 8:1-10:20), uncleanness in worship (Leviticus 11:1-16:34), and individual holiness (Leviticus 17:1-27:34). Obedience in these areas would bring God’s blessings upon the nation of Israel, but disobedience would result in the judgment of God upon the individual. The guidelines of proper worship found in the pages of Leviticus would also distinguish Israel, God’s chosen people, from all the other pagan nations surrounding them. Individual holiness, the current area being studied, helped each person maintain a pure heart before God and others. Individual holiness includes topics such as sacrifice and food (Leviticus 17), sexual behavior (Leviticus 18), relationships to friends and family (Leviticus 19), capital punishment (Leviticus 20), behavior of priests (Leviticus 21-22), religious festivals (Leviticus 23), ceremonial/moral regulations (Leviticus 24), and laws regarding special years (Leviticus 25). Leviticus 21-22 provide instructions for the priests, those who assisted the Israelites in worshiping God. These standards for priests were high because God expected them to model holy conduct before the nation of Israel.
Several matters of conduct are defined for the priests in these chapters. First, priests were to avoid touching dead bodies except in the case of a close relative such as a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or virgin sister (21:1-4). Priests were also to keep themselves separate from understood pagan rituals of the culture (21:5-6). There were restrictions on who priests could marry. Prostitutes and divorced women were not to be taken as a wife by priests (21:7-8). If the priest’s daughter became a prostitute, she must be burned by fire in order to maintain purity of the home (21:9). Leviticus 21:10-15 simply restates the instructions just given. In the next several verses, the Lord speaks to Moses and demands that any priest who assists the worshiper with sacrifices must not have any physical deformities (21:16-24). Deformity in the priest may distract the worshiper and would not represent the wholeness of God. Although a physically deformed priest could not help in matters of sacrifices, he was permitted to eat of the holy and most holy food from the sacrifices (21:22).
In Leviticus 22 the Lord gave Aaron regulations for the priests to remain ceremonially clean while performing any of the priestly duties (22:1-2). Any priest who performs duties while unclean was to be “cut off” from the presence of the Lord (22:3). Leviticus 22:9 indicates that performing priestly duties while unclean could result in death. The Lord listed some of the things that would make a priest unclean, but also described how he could again become clean (22:4-8). Some of the things which would render a priest unclean were skin disease, contact with a dead body, having an emission of semen, touching an unclean animal, or touching someone who is ceremonially unclean. God also provides further instructions regarding the people within the priest’s household who were able to eat of the sacred offerings made by worshipers (22:10-13). Anyone who ate of the sacred offering but was not permitted to do so was required to make restitution and then pay an additional twenty percent (22:14-16).
The concluding verses of Leviticus 22 define acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices. If a burnt offering (Leviticus 1; 6:8-13), peace offering (Leviticus 3; 7:11-36), or any special offering was made to the Lord, the animal must be without defect (22:18-21). Any defect or deformity in an animal used for sacrifice would not be accepted (22:22-25). Furthermore, animals younger than seven days were not be used as a sacrifice (22:26-27) nor should a new mother be offered as a sacrifice (22:28). The Lord also reminds the priests that a thanksgiving offering was to offered properly and the entire sacrificial animal was to be eaten on the same day it was offered (22:29-30). Obedience to these instructions was to be observed because God had delivered them from Egypt and expected them not to profane His name through disobedience (22:31-33).
Dear God, You’ve delivered me from sin and now I pray that You would make me obedient to Your ways.
