The Book of Leviticus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God addresses the priests, the sons of Aaron, with a holiness that reached into the most tender parts of life. A priest was not to defile himself for the dead by handling a corpse, except for his nearest kin; he was not to adopt the pagan mourning customs of shaving or cutting the flesh; and he was to be careful whom he married, for the honor of his calling. The reason is given plainly: "They shall be holy unto their God... for the offerings of the LORD... they do offer: therefore they shall be holy." Because they handled holy things, they had to be holy people. And God sealed it with grace: "I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy." The standard was high, but the God who set it was also the God who makes His servants holy.

Gospel Focus

Those who handle holy things are called to a special holiness. The priest could not live like everyone else, because he stood between God and the people. Under the New Covenant every believer is made a priest, "an holy priesthood," and this call rests on us all: we handle holy things, the word of God, the name of Jesus, the gospel itself, and so we are to be holy. There is a particular weight here for those who lead and minister, whose lives can either hallow God's name or profane it before watching eyes. A careless servant of God does more damage than a careless stranger, for he drags the holy down to the common. Yet the same grace that steadied Aaron steadies us: "I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy." We are not left to manufacture our own holiness. The God who calls us to handle sacred things is Himself the one who makes us fit to handle them.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The high priest, "upon whose head the anointing oil was poured," was held to an even higher standard than the other priests. He was not to show the outward signs of mourning at all, not even for "his father, or for his mother," and he was not to "go out of the sanctuary" to attend a death, lest he profane it, "for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him." He could marry only a virgin of his own people. His whole life belonged to God so completely that even the deepest natural grief could not pull him from his sacred post. This was not coldness; it was consecration. The one who represented the whole nation before God, who alone entered the most holy place, had to be set apart above every other man, his consecration outweighing even his sorrows.

Gospel Focus

The high priest, crowned and consecrated, wholly given to God, points beyond himself to our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every rule that set Aaron's successor apart was a shadow of the perfect consecration of Christ, "for such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). Aaron's holiness was outward and imperfect, guarded by rules; Christ's was the flawless holiness of His own nature. And where the earthly high priest could not leave the sanctuary for the dead, our High Priest came out from the sanctuary of heaven to enter fully into our death, and by it conquered death for us. The crown of oil on Aaron's head is a faint picture of the true Anointed One, the Christ, on whom the Spirit rested without measure. When we look at the demanding holiness required of the high priest, we are meant to look through it to Jesus, the perfectly consecrated One, who alone could stand for us before God.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God gave one more requirement for the priests who ministered at the altar: a priest "that hath any blemish" was not to "approach to offer the bread of his God." A list follows of various physical impairments that set a man aside from the altar service. We must read this carefully and rightly. This was never a statement that people with disabilities are of lesser worth to God, for Scripture everywhere affirms the dignity of every person made in His image. It was, rather, a matter of picture and shadow. The priest at the altar was a living symbol, pointing to the perfect, unblemished Priest and the spotless Lamb who were to come. Just as the sacrifice had to be "without blemish," so the one who offered it had to present an unbroken image of perfection. The requirement was about what the ministry was foreshadowing, not about the value of the man.

Gospel Focus

The unblemished priest and the unblemished sacrifice together point to one flawless person, Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb "without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19), and He is the High Priest "holy, harmless, undefiled." In Him alone, perfect offering and perfect offerer meet. No son of Aaron, however whole in body, could truly be without blemish, for all were blemished by sin within; the outward requirement pointed to an inward perfection only Christ possessed. And here the gospel turns the whole picture inside out with wonder. Under the law, the blemished could not draw near to offer; under grace, it is precisely the blemished, all of us, broken and marred by sin, whom Christ draws near and makes His own. He presents His church "holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27), clothing our flaws in His perfection. What we could never be in ourselves, He makes us in Him. The law's demand for an unblemished priest is not our despair but our signpost to the One who was perfect for us.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

After the sober list of blemishes comes a beautiful word of grace. The priest with a blemish could not go in to the veil or come near the altar to offer, "because he hath a blemish." But he was not cast out, forgotten, or left to starve. "He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy." He still belonged to the priestly family. He still shared in the holy portions. He still ate at God's table. His impairment kept him from one particular service, the altar ministry that had to picture perfection, but it did not sever him from God or from the fellowship and provision of the priesthood. The very chapter that demanded flawless wholeness at the altar took tender care to keep the blemished priest fed, honored, and near.

Gospel Focus

That the blemished priest still ate the holy bread is a window into the heart of God, and it is fulfilled and widened in the gospel. In Christ, the very ones the law would set aside are drawn near and given a place at the table. God delights to use exactly what the world counts weak and broken: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). None of us comes to God unblemished; we come marred by sin and often broken in body and spirit, and yet He feeds us at His table and makes us "accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Our acceptance never rested on our own wholeness; it rests on the perfection of Christ, who was without blemish for us. So no one who feels too flawed, too broken, too disqualified should ever believe there is no place for them with God. The law kept the blemished priest fed at the holy table; grace seats the broken sinner as a son. Come and eat the bread of your God, for in Christ the blemished are welcomed home.