I'm the kind of person that really likes the New Testament and doesn't tend to spend much time in the Old Testament. This is partly because I sometimes have trouble understanding parts of the Old Testament, more than I tend to with stuff from the New Testament, and partly because I just enjoy the New more. Because of that, I've been trying to get into some more of the Old Testament these last few days/weeks. I've been coming across lots of amazing stuff, some confusing stuff, and once in a while, some things that are just plain weird. The last few days I was in Leviticus, and I came across some stuff that I loved, and wanted to share.
If you've never read it, Leviticus is the third book in the Bible, and it's full of rules, regulations, and instructions that the people of Israel were supposed to follow in their worship of Yahweh. It can be a little... dense... at times. But there's some gold in there if you dig into it, which I've been trying to do a little lately. Jesus said that He didn't come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. That means that everything in Exodus through Deuteronomy was fulfilled, and therefore points towards Jesus—both the crazy and amazing stuff, and the boring and weird stuff. So, I want to know what some of that stuff is!
One of the things that I came across and was thinking about when reading through Leviticus was the role of the priests in the system that the Law describes. It's fascinating!
If you were a priest in the Old Testament, there were some super strict limitations you were under. You had to be of a particular bloodline—specifically, you had to be a Levite and a descendent of Aaron; you were restricted in who you could marry, and what your social life could look like (whose funerals you could attend, what kind of haircut you could have, etc.). In Leviticus 21 there are even more restrictions listed. Here they are:
The Bible says that Jesus lived a sinless life, and so He followed the Law perfectly during His life on earth. What's interesting about this, is that there were a few laws which He was a little bit... well... "funny" with. One of these is the law concerning uncleanliness and people with skin diseases. Under the Old Testament law, if you touched someone with a skin disease (like leprosy or certain rashes), you received the uncleanliness of that person. Legally speaking, you were the same as them, until you were cleared through ceremony.
Now, when it came to this law, Jesus played by different rules. In Luke 5, it says there was a leprous man that came up to Jesus, and asked Jesus to heal him.
What did Jesus do? Verse 13 says that He "stretched out His hand and touched Him".
By the Old rule of doing things, Jesus became ceremonially unclean! But is that what happened in reality? No. The leper was healed and became clean.
Instead of causing Jesus to become unclean, the opposite was true. The unclean was made clean!
What's this have to do with the priests mentioned before? Well, Jesus liked to play by different rules—better rules—than how the Law had been interpreted for centuries. In 1 Peter, It says that we, His Church has become "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession", and Hebrews talks about how He's been made chief priest of a new priesthood, that supersedes the Old Covenant priesthood.
That leads us back to Leviticus 21.
In the Old Testament, you had to be physically perfect if you wanted to be a priest for Yahweh. However, in the New Testament, because of what Jesus did, He brings us into His priesthood, and makes us perfect so we can be His! In 1 Peter 2, it says that His wounds have healed us. When He died for us, He paid for us to be perfectly spotless and without blemish.
That means that the limitations we read about in Leviticus 21 about who can be a priest in the Old system are in fact promises and invitations to liberation to us who are the Royal Priesthood in the New system.
Do you have sight defects? Once, if you needed glasses to see properly, you couldn't serve the Lord. Now, you can serve the Lord because your perfect eyesight has been bought with Jesus's blood.
Injury in your hands, feet, or back? Before, if you had anything wrong with your body physically, you were disqualified from the Lord's work.
But we don't play by those rules anymore!
We who belong to Christ are now part of a New Priesthood. Our imperfections are not disqualifiers from His presence anymore, because Jesus has paid the price to set us free from them, and free into His perfection.
I thought that was cool.
If you've never read it, Leviticus is the third book in the Bible, and it's full of rules, regulations, and instructions that the people of Israel were supposed to follow in their worship of Yahweh. It can be a little... dense... at times. But there's some gold in there if you dig into it, which I've been trying to do a little lately. Jesus said that He didn't come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. That means that everything in Exodus through Deuteronomy was fulfilled, and therefore points towards Jesus—both the crazy and amazing stuff, and the boring and weird stuff. So, I want to know what some of that stuff is!
One of the things that I came across and was thinking about when reading through Leviticus was the role of the priests in the system that the Law describes. It's fascinating!
If you were a priest in the Old Testament, there were some super strict limitations you were under. You had to be of a particular bloodline—specifically, you had to be a Levite and a descendent of Aaron; you were restricted in who you could marry, and what your social life could look like (whose funerals you could attend, what kind of haircut you could have, etc.). In Leviticus 21 there are even more restrictions listed. Here they are:
“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.One of the things I love about the Bible is that Jesus's life changed the way that the Old Testament affects us. Once, these things were restrictions—only certain people who fit into the box could experience Yahweh's presence—but when Jesus came, He established a brand new system. Let me show you what I mean.
The Bible says that Jesus lived a sinless life, and so He followed the Law perfectly during His life on earth. What's interesting about this, is that there were a few laws which He was a little bit... well... "funny" with. One of these is the law concerning uncleanliness and people with skin diseases. Under the Old Testament law, if you touched someone with a skin disease (like leprosy or certain rashes), you received the uncleanliness of that person. Legally speaking, you were the same as them, until you were cleared through ceremony.
Now, when it came to this law, Jesus played by different rules. In Luke 5, it says there was a leprous man that came up to Jesus, and asked Jesus to heal him.
What did Jesus do? Verse 13 says that He "stretched out His hand and touched Him".
By the Old rule of doing things, Jesus became ceremonially unclean! But is that what happened in reality? No. The leper was healed and became clean.
Instead of causing Jesus to become unclean, the opposite was true. The unclean was made clean!
What's this have to do with the priests mentioned before? Well, Jesus liked to play by different rules—better rules—than how the Law had been interpreted for centuries. In 1 Peter, It says that we, His Church has become "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession", and Hebrews talks about how He's been made chief priest of a new priesthood, that supersedes the Old Covenant priesthood.
That leads us back to Leviticus 21.
In the Old Testament, you had to be physically perfect if you wanted to be a priest for Yahweh. However, in the New Testament, because of what Jesus did, He brings us into His priesthood, and makes us perfect so we can be His! In 1 Peter 2, it says that His wounds have healed us. When He died for us, He paid for us to be perfectly spotless and without blemish.
That means that the limitations we read about in Leviticus 21 about who can be a priest in the Old system are in fact promises and invitations to liberation to us who are the Royal Priesthood in the New system.
Do you have sight defects? Once, if you needed glasses to see properly, you couldn't serve the Lord. Now, you can serve the Lord because your perfect eyesight has been bought with Jesus's blood.
Injury in your hands, feet, or back? Before, if you had anything wrong with your body physically, you were disqualified from the Lord's work.
But we don't play by those rules anymore!
We who belong to Christ are now part of a New Priesthood. Our imperfections are not disqualifiers from His presence anymore, because Jesus has paid the price to set us free from them, and free into His perfection.
I thought that was cool.
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