Leviticus 21:22-23:2
In the last chapter we spoke about the special responsibility of one who is a leader, and we would like to mention how this should exercise each one of us. One who was born into the priestly family had to watch against defilements and other things which would hinder his service. We, too, have to be watchful, especially when we are young, that we do not get mixed up in some association or relationship which will hinder our usefulness in later years. How many a young believer has, through carelessness, taken some step which has made him a “lame priest” the rest of his life. Oh, may the Lord help us to walk humbly and in dependence upon Him so that we may be kept! His Word says, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Then, because of this, the prayer of the dependent man is, “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust” (Psalm 16:1).
Holiness in God’s House
We notice that care must be taken as to who would eat of the holy things. It would remind us that holiness always becomes God’s house and that we should confess our sins at once, as believers, and be restored. We cannot enjoy communion with the Lord when there is unjudged sin in our lives, any more than the priests in Israel could eat of the holy things when defiled, but how good to know that when we have judged and owned our sin before the Lord, we are restored at once.
Giving the Best Wholeheartedly
Another thing we notice in our chapter is that nothing with a blemish was to be offered to the Lord. The sacrifices had to be without blemish, for they typified Christ, and God would ever uphold the glory of His Son. He was the holy, spotless Lamb of God, and anything that typified Him must be spotless too. No doubt there is also another lesson for us in these instructions, and that is that we should not keep the best for ourselves and offer the rest to the Lord. A young man (or young woman) who uses the best years of his life living for self and self interests, and then gives the Lord the end of his life when his health is broken and his energy gone, is doing something like this. Or perhaps when going to school to give the best of one’s energies to school and studies while neglecting the Lord’s interests is surely offering the lame to the Lord. What a privilege it is, on the other hand, to be saved while we are young, and to spend the best years of our lives (humanly speaking) in living for and serving so blessed a Master — even the One who gave up all for us. The children of Israel were therefore reminded of what the Lord had done for them in bringing them up out of the land of Egypt to be near Him as His people.
The next chapter is one full of instruction for us, but we will only be able to speak of it briefly. It gives us, in type, an outline of all God’s ways up to the final bringing in of blessing on the millennial earth. It begins by telling us of the Sabbath — a picture of the rest yet to come. Immediately it begins again with the Passover, typical of the redemptive work of Christ, the true Lamb of God, as the ground — the beginning — of all blessing, whether for Israel or for any creature of Adam’s race. We will, with the Lord’s help, go through these feasts in the chapters that follow.
For Further Meditation
1. Why were offerings with blemishes prohibited?
2. Our Lord gave us a perfect example of how to wholeheartedly give the best. In what ways can you show from the gospels how He fully served God, giving the best in all things?
3. An excellent, brief and conscience-challenging book presenting both holiness and whole-heartedness is Living Wholly for God by J. G. Bellett.