Yesterday we took a look at some conditions that would disqualify a man from Aaron's family line from becoming a priest. These were conditions a man could not help, such as having a disability, and we discussed some possible reasons why the Lord issued such a prohibition. Today's passage deals mainly with things a man has control over that could disqualify him, either temporarily or permanently, for the priesthood.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane My holy name. I am the Lord. Say to them: For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person must be cut off from My presence. I am the Lord.'" (Leviticus 22:1-3) Earlier in Leviticus we looked at some things that could make a person ceremonially unclean, and we'll take a brief look at some of these things again today. But imagine how disrespectful it would be for a priest to know he has been defiled by something that makes him ceremonially unclean and yet he goes up to the tabernacle and performs his duties in the Lord's house anyway. The Lord says if he does that he is unfit for the priesthood and is to be "defrocked", as we would say in modern terms. This means he will be "let go, terminated from employment, relieved of his duties, dismissed".
What are some ways a priest might find himself in a ceremonially unclean condition? For one thing, if he has a potentially contagious ailment that he might pass on to the other priests or to members of the congregation. This would be an example of ceremonial uncleanness he might not be able to help or prevent, if he has unavoidably caught an illness. "If a descendant of Aaron has a defiling skin disease or a bodily discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is cleansed." (Leviticus 22:4a)
We talked about these types of things when we studied the hygiene regulations of Leviticus. If a person has what looks like a contagious skin disease, such as leprosy, or if a person has a discharge of bodily fluids from their genital area, they are ceremonially unclean until or unless their condition clears up. They must self-isolate until they are healed and must take special precautions in the home if they are living with other people. They cannot go up to the tabernacle to take part in anything there because that would expose others to their illness.
Another way a person can become ceremonially unclean is by having contact---intentionally or unavoidably---with something that causes him to need to self-isolate for a short period of time. "He will also be unclean if he touches something defiled by a corpse or by anyone who has an emission of semen, or if he touches any crawling thing that makes him unclean, or any person who makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be." (Leviticus 22:4b-5)
We've already learned that anyone who handles an actual corpse must self-isolate for seven days. This practice helped to prevent the spread of illness in the community. In ancient times a cause of death was not always obvious and they didn't have medical examiners who could perform autopsies and send things to laboratories or look at things under microscopes. A person might fall ill and no one would know for sure whether the illness was due to a viral or bacterial infection or whether it was due to something non-contagious going wrong inside the body such as cancer or heart disease or a stroke or organ failure. So suppose the dead person passed away of a very contagious virus. The people who prepared the body for burial and the people who buried or entombed the body might become carriers of the illness, either by coming down with it themselves or by going about the community asymptomatically carrying the virus. Isolating for seven days after handling the body would help to prevent them from passing anything to the community. In our section above we see that a person who handles anything touched by a dead body is also unclean. For example, perhaps a person didn't handle the actual body but comes in to clean up the room where the sick person died and removes the bedding and clothing. This renders him ceremonially unclean, but only til evening as we'll see below. This is because the risk of disease is much smaller if all the person did was handle things in the room but didn't handle the body itself.
"The one who touches any such thing will be unclean til evening. He must not eat any of the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water. When the sun goes down, he will be clean, and after that he may eat the sacred offerings, for they are his food." (Leviticus 22:6-7) The priest who became temporarily ceremonially unclean by handling an item touched by a dead body is to wash himself and change his clothes and wait until time for the evening meal, then he can go back up to the tabernacle and dine with the other priests. The same rules apply for any priest who has had contact with the other things listed in Leviticus 22:4b-5.
"He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, and so become unclean through it. I am the Lord." (Leviticus 22:8) We previously learned in Leviticus 7:24 and Leviticus 17:15 that the people are not to eat an animal that they find dead of natural causes or an animal that has been attacked and killed by a wild animal. It doesn't matter if this dead animal is on the kosher food list or not. If it has not been slaughtered in the proper way it cannot be eaten. An animal that dies of natural causes may be harboring a disease that can pass to humans. The meat of an animal that has been killed by another animal may be contaminated by a disease carried by the wild animal, rabies for example. It's not safe to eat the meat of animals that perished on their own or that were killed by another animal. Anyone who partakes of this meat is rendered ceremonially unclean for a time because he might pass contagion on to someone else after he has had contact with the carcass.
All the citizens of Israel have been told not to partake of this meat, but priests in particular must never disobey the Lord in this matter. Out of respect for the Lord and respect for the honorable office they hold, they are to keep themselves in a state of ceremonial cleanness as much as is humanly possible. Their job is to serve in the Lord's house and that means a big part of their job is to be ready to serve at all times. Just as a person whose job requires them to wear a uniform must come to work in that uniform, being ceremonially clean is a part of the priest's uniform. He is not considered properly dressed or qualified to serve if he is in a state of ceremonial uncleanness. If you were the manager of a fast food restaurant and an employee came in to work in their pajamas, you'd send them home, wouldn't you? You'd feel like they didn't respect you. You'd feel like they didn't appreciate their job. This is how the Lord views a priest coming to the tabernacle while ceremonially unclean.
Just as the prohibitions in yesterday's passage are both literal and metaphorical, the prohibitions in today's passage are both literal and metaphorical. The priests are literally to try not to become exposed to anything that will make them unclean. But metaphorically speaking, this is an example to them and to all of us that we are to try our best to avoid becoming unclean by doing and saying and watching and reading things that bring sinful thoughts or sinful acts into our lives.
We can't always avoid seeing or hearing something in public that's sinful. I honestly can't believe how often I'll be in public and overhear a conversation filled with swear words and profanity. We can't help it when we overhear stuff like that, but we can remind ourselves that we don't have to use sinful and disrespectful language just because a lot of other people do. As God's people we are given this instruction: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." (Ephesians 4:29) Profane language doesn't benefit anyone and the Christian is not to engage in it.
Likewise, we might not be able to altogether avoid seeing things that are sinful. Standing at the grocery store checkout we're faced with magazine displays that often have women or men (but usually women) in skimpy clothing. A person who is just innocently standing in line waiting to pay for their groceries can't help it that these images are right in front of them, but that person can turn their eyes away and look at or think about something else. And a person can definitely avoid pulling up pornographic images on their phones or computers. That's something we have complete control over. Nobody is making us look at such things and we have no business looking at such things, for the Lord Jesus stated, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27-28) This goes for men and women alike, because in our day there's pornography available to suit either sex and to suit any taste. We are to turn our eyes away from things that cause us to have lustful thoughts because the thoughts themselves defile us and because thoughts often lead to action.
These are just a couple of ways in which we can become ceremonially unclean in our minds and hearts, but we could go on and on. The main thing to take away from this is that we can be defiled by the culture around us. Some things we can't help seeing or hearing, but we still have control over how we react to what we see and hear. And we have control over what we deliberately choose to see or hear. As God's people we are to be in readiness to serve Him at any time and to give a testimony of faith to our fellow man at any time. To carry out the great commission (taking the gospel to the world) effectively, we are to be ready for action so we can honorably and respectfully serve our God and minister to others in a way that's capable of leading them to the faith.
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