Leviticus
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Leviticus Chapter 21

• Leviticus 21:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: 

This is showing the holiness of God and how those that served in the temple, the tabernacle in sacrifices and offerings were actually coming into the very presence of God and had to be clean and spotless. 

It shows us how serious it is to take God lightly and think we can approach Him in an unclean haphazard manner. He is holy, pure, righteous. He is an awesome God. 

The New Covenant offers us a better way to become clean before God so that we can boldly approach God but this was written years before the coming of God's Son into the world to redeem mankind back to God. 

They were unclean and impure. They could not just waltz in the sanctuary and begin to offer sacrifices for their sin. They had to be clean thereby pointing toward the time when the perfect sacrifice makes us clean from sin and made righteous before God. 

The sons of Aaron could not be defiled with those that have died except for close relatives in necessary situations. 

• Leviticus 21:2 But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,
• 3 And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. 

If his sister is married, the husband was in charge of her body if she died. God is making a way here to take care of necessary things that has to be done. After the fall of man, people begin to die and someone had to take care of the body to get it ready for burial. The priest who was in charge of making sacrifices and offerings for the sin of the people was not to defile himself with a dead body unless it was absolutely necessary in the case of a close relative who had no one closer than he himself.

• Leviticus 21:4 But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. 
• 5 They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

This was a heathen practice associated with heathen worship and idolatry. The heathen did these type of things to show a great mourning for the dead. Shaving off part of the head in a round circle or between the eyes was a heathen practice forbidden by the law of God. Cuttings into the flesh as a sign of mourning or marring the flesh was forbidden in the law. This also is believed to be  associated with the worship of idols. Perhaps an example would be the tattoos of today. Whether or not this would be wrong if not associated with idols, I do not know. Perhaps for heath reasons it was forbidden also since infection easily come from this practice. God always has a reason for His laws so this is a subject which requires further research.

• Leviticus 21:6 They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy. 

This is why the priest had to be very careful and clean because of the holy service and calling that was upon him. He was not to take God's presence lightly. He could not intercede and make offerings for the sin of people if he himself was defiled and unclean. 

• Leviticus 21:7 They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.

We have to remember that this is before the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the cleansing of our sin. When we repent of sin or turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ to remove and cleanse us from sin, we are made holy and made "just as if we never sinned" in the sight of God. If someone were to marry a whore today, if that so-called whore had come to Christ and was forgiven, she would no longer be a whore if she does not return to that lifestyle. Through Christ the sin is forgiven and it is removed from the soul. If one returns to the sin, that is one thing but if she remains free from sin, she is not a whore.

This though is before Christ and the priest could not intercede and do offerings for the people if he was unclean himself. He had to be careful who he married. 

Marrying a divorced woman or a whore would make him unclean. The ceremonial cleansing that he had to do for himself would do not any good if he lived in a manner forbidden by the law. Again this shows us the seriousness of sin and how holy God is. It shows us how much all of us need a savior from sin. There is no way we can become clean by our own merits and works.

• Leviticus 21:8 Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy. 

Sanctification is not only an act of being made clean from sin and the pollutions of the world but it is being set apart for the service of the Lord. 

• Leviticus 21:9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. 

We can be very thankful here for Jesus our Lord, for now one can be cleansed from these things if they just repent and trust in Jesus to save them from sin and the eternal consequences of sin. Any Christian religion that burns people at the stake now would be putting people back under the law and denying the power of Jesus Christ and His atoning blood to be able to cleanse a person from sin. 

Israel was a nation, not just a religion. They had to have government and that government was to be theocratic. They were chosen of God to be that kind of government to hold sin in check until the coming of Jesus the Messiah or Christ to give Himself as a final offering for sin. 

The law shows us the holiness of God and how badly we need to be cleansed from sin. A woman who had no respect for her father who was a priest, had to pay for her folly with her own life. After the coming of Christ she would have been forgiven and cleansed from that sin but only if she forsook the sin. This is the part of the gospel we are missing today.

To be saved from sin by faith in Jesus Christ, we must be willing to forsake the sin and allow God's Holy Spirit to abide within us. That is part of salvation. We are not saved from sin and covered by the blood of Jesus so that we can go ahead an sin and expect to be saved. 

If sin is what separates mankind from God, Jesus comes to remove and forgive us of sin and then we remain in the stuff, what kind of salvation is that? Sin is a bondage. Whoever or whatever we allow to control us is the one we are serving. 

Paul writes:

• Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 
• 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 

Peter writes:

• 2Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 
• 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 
• 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 
• 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 
• 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 
• 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly; 
• 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 
• 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds); 
• 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 
• 10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 
• 11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 
• 12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 
• 13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 
• 14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 
• 15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 
• 16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. 
• 17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest: to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. 
• 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 
• 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
• 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 
• 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
• 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 

If we love God though, we will not want to return to the old ways He delivered us from.

• Leviticus 21:10 And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes; 
• 11 Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother; 
• 12 Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD. 

Once he is anointed with oil for the service of the sanctuary, he is to have respect for that calling and not allow himself to be defiled in any way. Again as I said before, this shows us the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin and how much we need God to provide a permanent answer to the sin problem.

• Leviticus 21:13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity. 

The woman had to be untouched by any other man to qualify to be a wife of a priest. This shows us again the seriousness of his office he held. He had to make offerings and sacrifices to remove the sin of the people. It was a very holy service and he had to be clean from the pollution of sin. 
This also points us to Christ who came into the flesh and become one of us but without sin. He was as a spotless lamb who could bear our sins because He had no sin in Himself. 

• Leviticus 21:14 A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or a harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife. 
• 15 Neither shall he profane his seed among his people: for I the LORD do sanctify him. 

His seed or offspring could not be mingled with any seed that was considered unholy or given to idolatry. He had to be pure. The tribe of Levi was called for this service and they were not to intermarry with those outside of Israel.

Gentiles were considered unclean and defiled because they worshipped idols and did things that were evil in the sight of God which defiled them. They did things that were worse than ordinary sin that we know of. Things like offering children in live sacrifices to idols, using children as sex objects for their priests and such things we do not see in the open today but I do hear of it taking place occasionally among those that get found out. 

• Leviticus 21:16 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 
• 17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. 

This shows us again the holiness of God and that Christ who was the Son of God that came into flesh yet did not have one spot or blemish of sin so that He could die, the just for the unjust sinner. Any blemish could cause a priest not to be able to do the service of offerings and sacrifices just like any blemish of sin would have disqualified Jesus Christ from being our savior from sin. 

• Leviticus 21:18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
• 19 Or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, 
• 20 Or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; 
• 21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.

In today's world this sounds a little strange to us. It was sin though that caused the seed of mankind to become corrupt and we inherit diseases and such because of this sin. Even if the person who suffers the disease did not sin himself to cause the disease, sin was the original cause. Again and again we see this is showing us the seriousness of sin and the great need to be made clean. 

After Christ came we can be clean from sin from the inside where the sin really is. Even those who are sick, and has blemished in the flesh can be saved from sin. Before Christ those things were a picture of the defilement of sin. After Christ all of us are the same. Once we come to Christ, repent of sin and allow His sanctifying blood to cover our sin, we are all the same and none of us are unclean even if we did have a blemish in our flesh. 

Jesus came to fulfill the law and make a new and living way to justify even the sickest, wickedest one among us. It is a new and living way. Now we show compassion in leading all to Christ no matter what their present situation would be. No matter how they look, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are male or female, child or adult, Jew or Gentile, fat or skinny, blemished or fair, all can come to Christ and be saved. The blood of Jesus is that powerful.

• Leviticus 21:22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. 
• 23 Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them. 
• 24 And Moses told it unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel. 

He was to eat the bread of God after being made clean and not having any blemish. Partaking of the offerings and sacrifices was a way for the priests and his family to be taken care of since he didn't work a secular job in which to provide for his family.

This is a picture though of the bread of God offered through faith in Jesus Christ. When we partake of the bread of God we are actually partaking of Christ and receiving His word. This is believing and real faith. To really believe in Christ is to partake of His salvation, receive forgiveness of sin, receive cleansing from sin and receive the Holy Spirit. It is to believe and receive His word.

The Lord's supper is a remembrance of what Jesus did for us to provide this bread from heaven. The actually partaking of the Lord's supper does not bring salvation but brings the way of salvation to our remembrance. That is why we only partake of it after we have been cleansed from sin and have received Jesus Christ into our lives. It is a picture of the holiness of God and how we can't get to God without being cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ the perfect final sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

This of course only applies to those who receive Him. The ordinance of the Lord's supper though, is a remembrance, not the way of salvation. To partake of it is to have already partaken of the true bread of heaven.

When we partake of the Lord's supper we are remembering how Christ died for our sins and it is a symbol or remembrance. It in itself does not save from sin. We are saved from sin before partaking of the ordinance of the Lord's supper. Divine ordinances brings God's plan of salvation to our remembrance similar to the Jewish feasts representing holy events in their history.

The feasts or ordinances in themselves do not bring salvation. Our salvation depends on our faith in Christ and whether or now we have turned away from sin and received Him. DC

• John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: