Leviticus 22:1 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak
unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things
of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name in those
things which they hallow unto me: I am the LORD. 3 Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all
your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the
children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that
soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD. 4 What man soever of the seed of Aaron is
a leper, or hath a running issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he
be clean. And whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the
dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him; 5
Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, whereby he may be made
unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he
hath; 6 The soul which hath touched any
such shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless
he wash his flesh with water. 7 And when
the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things;
because it is his food. 8 That
which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to
defile himself therewith: I am the LORD. 9 They shall therefore keep mine ordinance,
lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do
sanctify them.
This is pretty
straightforward and a continuance of the previous admonitions for the priests.
Leviticus 22:10 ¶ There
shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest, or
an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. 11 But if the priest buy any soul with
his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall eat
of his meat. 12 If the priest’s daughter
also be married unto a stranger, she may not eat of an offering of the
holy things. 13 But if the priest’s
daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her
father’s house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father’s meat: but there
shall no stranger eat thereof. 14 And if
a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall put the fifth part
thereof unto it, and shall give it unto the priest with the holy thing.
15 And they shall not profane the holy
things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the LORD; 16 Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of
trespass, when they eat their holy things: for I the LORD do sanctify them.
A stranger is a
foreigner, someone who is not a Hebrew. Immigrants to the land of the Hebrews
were to be welcomed and treated with kindness and even love because they were
foreigners in the land of Egypt.
There are several verses that make it clear that a stranger was a foreigner but a few where
it is very clear are Leviticus 17:15; 18:26; Numbers 15:30; and, of course,
this one from Ephesians;
Ephesians 2:19 Now
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
No Non-Hebrew, a guest of the priest visiting from another land,
or an employee of a priest, a servant that is hired rather than a slave shall
eat of the holy things set apart for the Lord. However, a slave he has
purchased and anyone born in the priest’s house may eat of what has been
offered to the Lord.
But, in verse 12 a point is made that if a priest’s daughter
marries a foreigner then she cannot eat of the holy things any more than he
can. I mentioned in my comments on Genesis how a wife joined the family of her
husband. If she is widowed or divorced and childless so that she is no longer
has a distinct family of her own without a son to take care of her, one might
presume, she may eat of the holy things.
The important thing is that the sacrifices to be eaten by the
priests (see chapter 6:26 & 7:6 and context) were not to be treated with
contempt or disregard. God reinforced the importance of separation of holiness
of a special treatment. This can be misleading for Christians who are not
versed in the Bible thoroughly. They may deny fellowship to people who are not
members of their church, deny the taking of the Lord’s Supper to people who
have not declared to them that they believe all things alike, or hold
closed-door meetings to shut out people who aren’t regular attendees. We should
be careful, though, and I am not commenting on anyone’s particular convictions
about closed or open Communion or closed or open Business meetings. I am just
warning you not to regard yourself as a twelfth century BC Hebrew under the Law
given to Moses for the religious and civil duty of the twelve tribes.
Still, this does cause us to reflect on keeping things in the
proper order in our heads, the profane and earthly from the heavenly and
spiritual.
No comments:
Post a Comment