Day 8

Leviticus 19-21

A DEFILED PRIESTHOOD

Speak to the priests…none shall defile himself for the dead – Lev. 21:1

            Except for near relatives, Old Testament priests were to avoid contact with the dead.  To touch a dead body was to become defiled and profaned.  Holiness is the key emphasis in Leviticus.  Priests of God were to continually distinguish between the holy and the profane.  This was done through rituals, ceremonies, and outward observances.  Holiness was symbolized by external practices.

            In the New Testament holiness may be manifested externally but is experienced inwardly.  Holiness is still required in priests, but New Testament priests are different than Old Testament priests.  The word “Leviticus” comes from the word “Levi.”  Levites were the priestly tribe, and all priests descended from Aaron the High Priest.

In the New Testament believers are referred to as a holy and royal priesthood (I Pet. 2:5, 9).  If you are a Christian you are a priest.  As God’s priests we are to avoid defilement.  Remember, one of the ways to become defiled was through contact with the dead.  Contamination comes when we court the dead.  When we are saved we are passed from death unto life.  Except for bringing life to the dead we are to avoid the ways of death.  We bring life to the dead by our verbal and non verbal witness.  There is a difference in bringing spiritual life to the spiritually dead and being defiled by the influence of our old cemeteries.  We are to shed the grave clothes and walk with the living.

Defiled priests don’t bring others to God.  They wear the stench of death.  There’s an old saying, “When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.”  When Christians lounge with death they wreak of defilement.  As a royal priests God has called us out of the darkness into…light.  We can’t point others to the light when we are as black as death. 

Let’s give the world an undefiled priesthood,