Thy Strong Word – Leviticus 21 & 22 — Be holy as the LORD is holy: The LORD sets us apart.

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Rev. Scott Adle of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church & School in Collinsville, IL joins host Rev. Brady Finnern to study Leviticus 21 & 22.

The LORD is one who makes us holy. The hard truth is that the LORD has no place for sin in His presence. He sets apart His priests to not only give atonement to the people, but to be holy themselves. In grace, He set guidelines for the priests to make sure that they would be able to enter His presence without the same fate of Nadab and Abihu. The LORD is one who makes us holy which is why we stay close to His holy things (Word and Sacrament). “Lord God, You are holy and we are not. Make us clean by Your holy blood so that we may reflect HIs love back to You and to one another. In Christ, Amen”

Thy Strong Word reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations.

Thy Strong Word is hosted by Rev. Brady Finnern, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Sartell, MN, and graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

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Leviticus 21 & 22

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ² except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³ or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴ He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ⁵ They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord‘s food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ⁷ They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy. ⁹ And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰ “The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹ He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ¹² He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³ And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^[a] 14 A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin^[b] of his own people, ¹⁵ that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸ 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, ¹⁹ or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. ²¹ 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. ²² He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, ²³ but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries,^[c] for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name: I am the Lord. ³ Say to them, ‘If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. ⁴ None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵ and whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or a person from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶ the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. ⁷ When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food. ⁸ He shall not eat what dies of itself or is torn by beasts, and so make himself unclean by it: I am the Lord.’ ⁹ They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹⁰ “A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, ¹¹ but if a priest buys a slave^[d] as his property for money, the slave^[e] may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced and has no child and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; yet no lay person shall eat of it. ¹⁴ And if anyone eats of a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add the fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest. ¹⁵ They shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, ¹⁶ and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”

Acceptable Offerings

¹⁷ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the Lord, ¹⁹ if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. ²⁰ You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. ²¹ And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. ²² Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar. ²³ You may present a bull or a lamb that has a part too long or too short for a freewill offering, but for a vow offering it cannot be accepted. ²⁴ Any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut you shall not offer to the Lord; you shall not do it within your land, ²⁵ neither shall you offer as the bread of your God any such animals gotten from a foreigner. Since there is a blemish in them, because of their mutilation, they will not be accepted for you.”

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as a food offering to the Lord. ²⁸ But you shall not kill an ox or a sheep and her young in one day. ²⁹ And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ³⁰ It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it until morning: I am the Lord.

³¹ “So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. ³² And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, ³³ who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.”

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org