Priesthood - Leviticus 22

I guess it's kind of interesting getting back into things that I was doing before everything changed. I had a dog for 10 years that went to live with my daughter in February, and I just got him back a few weeks ago, and it's weird having him back, even though I had him for 10 years, I don't remember what life was like before but everything is different now. I don't know how he feels like things are, when he left, the house was full and loud and chaotic, but now it's just me and it's quiet and I bet that's weird for him. But just like going back to study the scriptures for this blog, like it's weird to go back to doing stuff I was doing before but in a new life. Hopefully this will be just as good, but we'll see. It might take some time to get back into it.

Chapter 22 is a continuation of chapter 21 which the IM describes as "special rules and requirements for the Levitical priesthood, especially the high priest." The instructions are things such as behavior restrictions, like "they profane not my holy name," the IM mentions that they can only marry a virgin, they can't "toucheth anything that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him." He has to be clean and can't touch "any creeping thing" and he can't eat unholy foods, but the remedy for these things are what TB calls a "wash and wait", the chapter says "unless he wash his flesh with water. And when the sun is down, he shall be clean." As we've studied before, there were certain sacrifices that could have been eaten by the priests afterwards, and there were even some sacrifices that could be taken home and used to feed a family. However, the important part of verses 10-16 is who exactly is included in the definition of "family" that can eat the sacrificial food. TB notes that these definitions of who counts as family are significant because this is the first time in the Torah where these definitions are given and they are used as a reference for who counts as family for the rest of the Old Testament. TB defines these categories as:

1. A Lay person - "also called an outsider" - The Hebrew word used for this category is "Zar". These are people who were staying with the priest for whatever reason but weren't blood related or involved in the priesthood in any way nor were they bound to the priest in some legal capacity, either as a guardian, servant, slave, etc. The priest had no legal obligation to care for this person beyond cultural hospitality, so they could not eat the food.

2. Bound or tenant laborer - The Hebrew word for this category is "Toshav". TB says the best translation for this person is guest worker" usually indicating a foreigner. TB says, "perhaps it can be a foreign friend of the family who is staying for a while. It can even refer to a person who is being FORCED to live with the priest's family, as a result of that person paying off a debt." So this would be the category that debt servants would fall under. We know that anciently traveling was long and dangerous and that people of most communities took travelers in to their homes as hospitality. I think that this is kind of what this category is. These people cannot eat the priest's sacrificial food.

3. Hired laborer - The Hebrew word used for this category is "Sakir". This is slightly different than the previous category, and could be seen as like a live in maid or a day laborer, they also could not eat the foor.

4. Purchased Slave - The Hebrew word used here is "Qanah nephesh". This is a tricky subject because I thought that slavery was illegal under Hebrew law but it turns out that only slavery of other Hebrews was illegal. It was legal to own slaves as long as they were foreigners and non-Hebrews. But what is interesting here is that this group of people WERE considered the priest's family and WERE allowed to eat the sacrificial food. Under the law, the priest who owned these slaves had the obligation to treat them as family, not abuse them, and to threat them well. TB notes, "under the law ALL slaves, no matter how acquired, or whether foreign or Hebrew... ALL slaves had to be treated decently and not abused, not starved, and not over worked." It would be fair to ask the question, "if the owners were required to treat them like family, why weren't they required to pay them or free them?" This is a fair question and perhaps an example of God working within our incredibly flawed human systems to slowly teach righteousness.

5. Person born into the priest's household - the Hebrew word for this is "yelid beito". This is a group for people that were born into the priest's household but were specifically NOT born to the priest's wife. This would include children born to purchased slaves, who were not blood related to the priest. These children belonged to the priest as well and therefore were considered family and were allowed to eat the sacrificial food.

There are a lot of pretty niche categories here, but TB says that these are all spelled out because "the situation was that for one reason or another every one of these categories of people reguarly wound up living in the home of a priest." There was another explanation in verse 12 which said that if the daughter of a priest were to marry a man that was not a priest, she was no longer eligible to eat the sacrificial food, but if her husband died and she didn't have a son old enough to take responsibility for her care, and she came back home to live under her father's suppervision, then should would be considered family again and be able to eat the food.

If there was a mistake made and someone ate the food who wasn't supposed to, it's not a super serious crime, they simply had to replace the amount of food that they ate plus 20% to the priests and they were good. There are a couple of interesting concepts covered in the "who can and can not eat the sacrificial food" discussion. First, eating the sacricical food wasn't just about being efficient with the offerings and not wasting any. The Israelites were operating under a belief that was widely held by their pagan counterparts which was that consuming something associated with God made you holy. TB quotes verse 16 saying, "For it is I, Yehoveh, who make them sacred." He further explains, "This is not a throw-in phrase, in my eastimation. I believe what is being addressed here is the standard pagan belief that you can make YOURSELF holy (even god-like) by doing certain things. And one of the standard things you could do was to eat the food of the gods. Ingest holy food, and PRESTO! you become holy... and the common element among all the pagan socieities of taht era was that the animals burned up on altars was ACTUAl food for their gods. Since it was holyfood, if one was to eat of that food, it would transmit holiness to the one what ate of it... God was telling Israel what he would have to tell them for decade after decade, and still so much of the Hebrew society didn't get it: HE makes holy. You can't sacrifice your way to holiness... you can't obey the laws well enough to attain holiness... and, in the current case, you can't EAT your way to holiness. You can only be DECLARED holy by the only one who has that authority, Yehoven Himself." This was a really long quote but I thought that it was pretty powerful and very applicable to us in our day. It's a tough and abstract concept of faith vs works, but it works in separate categories. The only reason why salvation is a possibility is because of the atonement, and only because of the atonement can we be saved. However, we won't really want to be saved unless we become like God, and the process of becoming like God is to be obedient and form a relationship with Him. It's an interesting concept and the idea here is to shift the mindset that the Israelites had that they themselves could do something to be saved because they couldn't, they couldn't get their own salvation, but if they focused on God and doing what He wanted, then they could do the work necessary to become like God. This is an advanced concept that can be difficult to fully understand, I surely don't fully understand it otuside of the bare bones, so it's understandable that it took so much effort to try to teach it to the Israelites. I wonder if they ever got it.

The second important concept here is that foreign slaves were considered family and granted the blessings of eating the sacrificial food even though they weren't born Israelites. This is similar to later in the chapter when the animals allowed for sacrifice are mentioned because foreign animals could be considered for sacrifice as long as they met the same standards as the Hebrew animals. TB referenced Paul a lot who took the gospel to the gentiles. Israel does not have exclusive access to salvation, it is for everyone, even anciently when it was MOSTLY restricted to Hebrews. The gospel and salvation is for all, which is interesting to think about considering 99% of people throughout human history have not had access to the gospel in their mortal lifetimes. So it begs the question, how can the vast majority of people not have access to the gospel when it is the only thing that can get them to salvation and God still say it's for everyone and that He is kind and loving? The only conclusion that I can come to is how important the next life will be in teaching and accepting the gospel for most people. This employs a forward looking, eternal perspective that this life is but a striving ground for the eternities.

There are just a couple more points that I want to discuss before moving on. First is that TB mentioned that the sacrificial animals and the sacrificing priests had to be without blemish and come from a certain group of people, just like Jesus had to be without blemsih and from a certain group of people. Interestingly, he said that Jesus "had to be the perfect pirest of a certain type (the order of Melchizedek RATHER than the order of Aaron)." This was interesting to me because this is the first time I remember seeing reference to the Melchizedek priesthood outside of discussing the man himself, but I don't really understand the context in which TB is using it here. Is he saying that Jesus had to hold the Melchizedek priesthood? And if so then how did he get it? From my understanding, the church had always said that they were the only ones who had any actual priesthood authority, and then it's the only place that I've ever heard of the Melchizedek priesthood being mentioned at all, so to hear it in this lecture was interesting. Maybe I'll see if I can find some contact information for TB and ask him some clarifiying questions about it.

The second interesting point that isn't necessarily about this chapter is when TB notes, "The principles we continue to learn throughout Leviticus and Torah are either referred to or repeated throughout the N.T.; more than half of the words of the N.T. are simply quotes taken directly from the O.T." I thought that was interesting, that half of the New Testament is just quotes from the Old Testament. That's interesting to me.

Finally, the last thought that I wanted to share was this TB that made me cry for a while. TB quoted 1 Peter 2:5 and 2:9 and Luke 14:26 and commented, "as a believer you are a priest; the only way one can be a priest is as a Beliver. There are no believers who aren't priests, and there are no priests who aren't belivers... Nothing but nothing can be above God; if it is necessary that you MUST be separated from everything you are closest to on earth in order to follow Him, then so but it." This hit hard because I have been completely separated from every kind of support, friend, or family that I had. I am completely alone now, and this was a brutual reminder that this is the plan. If we are going to say that we believe that God has a plan for our lives and that he knows us and loves us and nothing happens without his notice, and we praise him for all the good things that he brings into our lives, then we need to also admit when the bad stuff happens to that it is also part of his plan and it sucks so bad and I hate it but this is the plan and I guess the question is, what is the lesson?