Key verse: YOU ARE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE HOLY AND THE COMMON, AND BETWEEN THE UNCLEAN AND THE CLEAN; AND YOU ARE TO TEACH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL ALL THE STATUTES WHICH THE LORD HAS SPOKEN TO THEM BY MOSES (10:10-11)
It was God’s initiative to save his people from the slavery of Egypt… And he did, it is God’s responsibility to feed over a million people in the desert on their way to the land he promised them… and he is. It is this very God who initiates a relationship with these people and in that relationship, he wants nothing less than him being their God and them his people…and this continues from the Old Testament throughout the New Testament to to-date
To do this, he needs a plan, that we saw in Exodus 25-40, he needs a mediator who is none other than Moses (his mouthpiece) and he also needs a middleman and this is going to take the whole tribe of Levi from which we get the Priests (who are going to function as his earpiece)
While Moses the mediator does not have to go through all the ritual baths etc. The Levites who are to be priests must go through all that… If not for any other reason for this:
PRIESTHOOD is about dealing with spiritual dirty laundry of individuals, groups, communities and nations. For someone to do this, however, they need themselves to fix their’s before they attempt that of others.
Leviticus chapter 8 and 9:1-7 are all covered in Exodus chapters 28-29. What we see in these chapters are two major issues concerning the idea of a priest. 1- Priesthood is God ordained and 2- Priesthood is God consecrated.
Let me deal with the first one, priests could only come from the tribe of Levi. So it was by birth not by education or talent, or any special ability or devotion of an individual. You had to be from the tribe of Levi…this birth idea the Bible wants to teach our generation that a priest is not determined by any institutional policy and beaurocracy, not by age, or talent etc but by a God who is behind our birth. Priests (pastors) are born not made or just trained. Going to a theological seminary, having a doctorate in ministerial studies, or a degree in the holy sport etc (mention all the letters) does not make you a priest to God. You can be a good pastor to your church institution and actually to the people, but God knows who was born purposely to serve him. This is the essence of having priests exclusively from the tribe of LEVI.
If you were born a Levite priest, many people might be more popular and powerful than you are, but one thing for sure is that they will not outlive you… Just because, they were trained to do that and you were born for that.
Let me now look at the second point of Consecration. It was not enough for one to be born a Levite if he was to be a priest. Culturally the sex of the Levite mattered. They had to be male, not female…you have to understand that the foundational difference between men and women in the Old Testament are based on two factors:
- Origin Tradition
- Bodily Excretion differences.
The primitive Ancient Near East most cultures believed that women were naturally and physically inferiors to men and that is how our Bible ends up with two creation account the second one emphasising how a woman is a by-product (but not equal) of man [Genesis 2]. Upon this women were segregated, stereotyped and treated as minors in the community. So this origin tradition is instrumental in the appointment of a priest, even though God knows man and woman can equally serve him and actually some women are born to be priests, he has to bow down to a primitive culture until it is illuminated and civilised enough to accommodate the truth.
Again while both men and women were unclean due to their bodily excretion, and therefore regular ritual baths were required, the case of woman uncleanness was more advanced due to their natural menstrual cycle. What made the menstrual cycle so obnoxious to a primitive culture that God deals with in the OT was that women oozed nothing but BLOOD. now blood meant everything in the religion of Judaism and most of all it stood for LIFE. so for a woman to be releasing blood every month was more of being an anti-life agent.
As you can see, no woman would dare be a priest, women, by the way, could lead in some incidental occasions but not in any official office permanently dealing with Yahweh.
It is absurd that in the 21st-century institutions still think likewise about women.
Even though one was born a male Levite he still did not have to be with why health (physiology) defect. He had not to be lame, blind, skin disease or internal organ injury (Leviticus 21:17-23). He could not marry just any woman (Leviticus chapters 21-22). One’s gender was not enough but his physical and social status mattered too. He had to be consecrated ritually. He had to have his unblemished body washed and clean (8:5-6). His dress code was important (8:7-9,13). Ritual anointing oil had to be poured on his head (8:10-12), the bull and the ram had to be killed every day of the consecration week (8:33) and the four major offerings of Israel were offered (9:1-7) to make sure the priests are clean enough to help others be cleaned too.
Because the Biblical primitive culture is alcoholic including the saints we know, God is very particular with the priests and asks them not to take any alcoholic drinks (10:8-9). The priesthood is not a DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, it is exclusively a DON’T DRINK DRIVING OR NOT. God did not forbid Priests alcohol because it would mess up their ministry at the Temple, he forbade them alcohol because they were priests. Period.
Consecration is not done in some committee somewhere before a few select people, but the priests of the people are consecrated before all people at the door of the tent of meeting (8:3-4)
This is what I draw from all this:
- God is not against people with defects in ministry but he minds the attitudes of people a lame minister, ministers to. And all the technicalities you have to go through in visitations etc.
- God wants you as a priest to learn how to clean your body before you help the flock clean theirs. Imagine a pastor with halitosis due to poor mouth health.
- Women and Men were created in the image of God and before God they are equal. And yes some women like some. Men are born to be priests, but the civility levels of particular anthropologies matter a lot in deciding whether the gender of the senior pastor.
- A Priest is equally a sinner like the members of his flock, apart from the fact that his sin is not equivalent to an individual sinner of his flock but equal to the sin of the general assembly (Leviticus 4:3-12, 13-21). So while a Priest must expect the same Grace to his sin like any other ordinary sinner, he/she must expect to be held responsible for his sin more than any other ordinary sinner (8:33; 9:1-7).
- How a priest dresses matters and here we must supply too much attention. Some choose what I call Ritually Cultic Dress codes. Like the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox etc Churches do. Some. Pentecostal churches emphasise plain dress… and many more cults. Others are strict on the western suit and tie, but all this withstanding. God is interested in a Priest dressing DECENTLY and TIMELY. By decency, I mean maintaining all the basics of dress and ensuring the quality of the cloth fabric. Not exaggerating a thing neither putting up anybody feature exhibition. By timely I mean, that the priest must appeal to his generation’s fashion psychology. He should in the dress not be odd and not be them, and also not neutral but pointing to the ideal as opposed to fashion and style missions.
- A priest must mind who they marry. You don’t marry for any other mission but exclusively for your career. It does not matter how they look, what matters is whether they can help your career
- As a priest what you eat and drink matters not just for your health but for your message.
I wish I could continue but apart from the truth that there are people born to be priests, all Christians like you and myself are a priesthood of Jesus Christ. And I hope you now understand what that means.
God bless you, I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH
Pr. ITM White
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 