Leviticus 21 Devotional

The Priest Who Has No Flaw

“He may eat the most holy food of his God as well as the holy food,”Leviticus 21:22 (BSB)

The priests are held to a higher standard than everyone else. They may not make themselves unclean for the dead except for close family, and the high priest not even for his father or mother (21:1-3, 11). Because they present the food of their God, they must be holy (21:6).

The hardest lines concern descendants of Aaron with a physical defect. They may not approach the altar or the veil (21:17-23). Yet the text does not call them sinful, and it does not cut them off from the priestly family. They still eat the most holy food along with the other priests (21:22). The rule concerns who may stand at the altar, guarding the holiness of God's sanctuary (21:23). Hebrews says Jesus is the high priest we truly need, holy and blameless, and raised higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26). And when the blind and the lame came to him at the temple, he healed them (Matthew 21:14). The perfection God requires, he has provided in his Son.

To think about: Where do you feel disqualified from coming near to God, and how does Jesus as your perfect priest answer that?