Leviticus 21 focuses on the holiness of the priests. While all of the Israelites were called to be holy, the priests were held to an even higher standard because they represented God before the people and the people before God. This chapter emphasizes that those who serve in God’s presence must reflect His holiness. Today, Christians do not follow these ceremonial priestly laws because Jesus fulfilled them. However, the principles behind them still teach us about God’s holiness and point directly to Christ. God instructed priests not to become ceremonially unclean by touching dead bodies except for their closest family members. The high priest had even stricter requirements. Jesus came to conquer death itself. Although Jesus touched dead people (like Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus), instead of becoming unclean, His holiness brought life to the dead. Under the Old Covenant, death made someone unclean. Under Jesus, His power overcomes death.
The priests were also forbidden from adopting pagan mourning practices or living immoral lives. They were to be examples of holiness because they offered sacrifices to God. The Israelites needed priests whose lives reflected the God they served. Jesus lived a completely sinless life. He perfectly fulfilled the holiness that every priest was supposed to display. Jesus Christ is the perfect High Priest whose life was completely pure. The high priest could not mourn publicly like others, he couldn’t leave the sanctuary, he had stricter marriage requirements, and he was completely devoted to God’s service. This showed that his relationship with God came before everything else. Jesus is now our eternal High Priest. Everything about His life was devoted to doing His Father’s will. He never abandoned His mission, even when it led Him to the cross. The hardest part to understand about this chapter is what it has to say about the priests in Aaron’s family who had defects. God says that a priest with certain physical defects could still eat the holy food, belong to the priesthood, and live among God’s people. However, he could not perform the sacrificial duties. This was not because God loved him less or viewed him as spiritually inferior. Rather, the sacrifices pointed to perfection. Since the sacrifices symbolized God’s perfect holiness, those who performed them also had to outwardly reflect that perfection. The emphasis was on the symbolism of the office, not the value of the individual. Jesus is the only truly perfect Priest. Every Old Testament priest had limitations, Jesus has none. He is morally perfect, spiritually perfect, and eternally perfect. The physical perfection required of priests foreshadowed the complete perfection found only in Christ. As Jesus Christ fulfilled these symbols, believers are no longer accepted by God because of outward perfection, but because we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness through faith. Love y’all! Have a great day!
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