Leviticus 21-22: The Perfect Priest, the Perfect Sacrifice

Leviticus 21 really bothered me for the longest time.  And it is a little disturbing to read through.  Once you finally come up for air after drowning in the sea of bodily discharge and nakedness (Lev. 15), you surface only to find that God is talking about refusing to allow any blemished or blind or lame or hunchback or dwarf come near to offer the LORD’s sacrifice on the altar (21:16-23).  In fact, it says

“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, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand…or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles…shall come near to offer the LORD’s food offerings” (19-21).

Come on, what’s the deal with this?

Every time I’d read through this I admit I struggle, “This is exactly why people get such a bad image of God through the OT. I mean, come on God, why’d You have to make yourself sound so mean?  It’s not as if a hunchback is a bad person, why are you purposely excluding them from offering sacrifices, and did you have to mention testicles for crying out loud?  And what’s wrong with someone having one long limb?? The atheists are going to love poking fun at this passage.” *Sigh* I didn’t get it.

And it still is a rough read. Again this morning I still struggle through it. There’s plenty in Leviticus to struggle through. But take heart.

We have to keep in mind that it wasn’t only these who were excluded from offering sacrifices, of course.  The vast majority were excluded. Only the priests (those descendants of Levi) were allowed to even be in the priesthood, and then only those apparently without these unfortunate conditions were allowed to approach the altar to offer sacrifices.  There were many other exclusions besides just these bothersome ones that I mentioned.  So we have to understand that the norm was exclusion.

The norm in this culture, for the nation of Israel was one of exclusion. Most were excluded from ever being able to approach God’s altar.

In the Old Testament God is communicating His transcendence.

God’s transcendence means that He is altogether above and outside of this world.  God is holy. That is the message of Leviticus. He is separate. He is far above. We would never understand the miraculous nature of God’s New Testament rescue mission unless we understand the immeasurable distance between God and man. We first had to understand how uncrossable was the chasm between us.  How ill-equipped we were to ever approach God’s throne. God is holy and perfect (Lev. 20:7) and that is the foundation of the gospel.

Therefore, this is what we must get: the book of Leviticus isn’t meant to be a little exclusive, it’s meant to be a LOT exclusive.  The message? God priests and his sacrifices must be perfect.  Chapter 22 verse21 says,

“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.” (emphasis mine)

A sacrifice must be perfect. A peace offering must be perfect.  There must be no blemish in priest or blemish in sacrifice.

That is the message of Leviticus and that sets the stage for the greatest news the world has ever known.

Christ is our perfect sacrifice, our pure and spotless lamb. And, Christ is our high priest, perfect and blameless. Christ is the ONLY sacrifice that was absolutely perfect and thus able to once and for all make peace between God and. The perfect sin offering, the perfect peace offering.  And not only is He the perfect sacrifice, He is the perfect priest.  The book of Hebrews sums it up like this:

“And every priest stands daily at [God’s] service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:11-14).

Not only is He the Perfect Sacrifice, He is also the Perfect Priest, and (here’s the really good news!!) “He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (v.14).

That’s YOU!  That’s ME!  By the perfect sacrifice by the perfect priest all those who put their faith in Him are being made perfect!  As we are sanctified here on this earth, Christ has already perfected us for all time.

Even if one arm is longer than the other.

Even if we have a “defect”, even if we find ourselves on that list (I do!) full of blemishes and shortcomings and imperfections. Even if we know we would never have made it into the “in” crowd of the Old Testament. Even though our sin had separated us from God.

While still remaining a holy God, set apart, above, transcendent, the message of the New Testament is God’s immanence.

God came down. He came near. He is made His dwelling among us (John 1:14) and we have seen His glory, and “from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16).

We have received grace upon grace.

See, friends–even Leviticus is part of the beautiful story of God.  He is perfect. Above. Holy.  We are hunchbacks–all of us!  But He is the perfect priest, the perfect sacrifice, and has perfected us all because everything He touches He makes beautiful.

That is grace upon grace. That is the gospel.