We continue our chapter-by-chapter exposition of Leviticus 21 and the theme of royal priestly consecration. Many read this chapter and mistakenly conclude that these instructions for priests do not apply to us today. The fact is, if we are to come to God, have our sins forgiven, be accepted by Him, and be saved, we must have a High Priest, a sacrifice, and a priesthood.
Today, under the New Covenant, we have all three:
- Our High Priest: The Lord Jesus Christ is our great, eternal High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us. No new High Priest is needed.
- Our Sacrifice: Christ offered His own body once for all upon the cross; we do not offer any new blood sacrifices.
- Our Priesthood: Every true believer is a priest unto God.
The New Testament tells us that we come to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We offer our bodies as living sacrifices, along with our prayers, praise, financial offerings, service, and works of faith and love toward one another. Just as Israel offered daily morning and evening sacrifices under the Old Covenant, we gather on the Sabbath morning and evening to offer our public worship to God.
While all ceremonial laws were fulfilled by Christ and are no longer binding in their literal execution, the underlying moral and spiritual principles fully apply to us. In earlier chapters, we looked at basic holiness—the standards given to ordinary Israelites so they could draw near to the outer court. Chapter 21 presents an advanced, positive holiness—not given to Israel in general, but specifically to the priests who entered the Holy Place.
If you follow the Ten Commandments, you will enjoy God’s temporal blessings in this life. But if you truly desire the eternal pleasures and perfect joy of His close presence, you must learn the priestly holiness taught in these passages.
We will examine three distinct aspects of this advanced holiness:
- The Royal Priest’s Chief Priority
- The Royal Priest’s Family
- The Royal Priest’s Personal Body and Soul
1. The Royal Priest’s Chief Life Priority
The chief priority of a priest is the worship of God, taking precedence over every worldly relationship and obligation.
Priests entering the Holy Place were forbidden from attending general funerals or touching a corpse, except in the case of an immediate family member. Physical contact with a corpse rendered a priest ceremonially unclean, barring him from serving in the worship of God for seven days. For the High Priest, the standard was even stricter: while in service, he could not leave his duties to attend a funeral, even for his own parents, lest his sacred service be hindered in any way. All of this emphasized a central truth: the worship of God is the top priority for a priest.
This same principle is emphasized by our Lord in the New Testament. When a prospective disciple said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father,” Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” Your highest priority must be obeying Christ and worshipping God.
We must not allow anything to stand between us and our worship of God. As cleansed lepers who have experienced His salvation, we ought to resolve in our hearts that whatever comes and goes in life—rain or sun, sickness or health, prosperity or poverty—we will faithfully present ourselves as living sacrifices, morning and evening, just as sacrifices were offered daily in the Old Testament temple. That is royal priestly consecration.
If we claim to be members of a reformed church, this level of commitment must be taken seriously. The New Testament church, as revealed in Ephesians, is the body of Christ and His fullness—far more glorious than any Old Covenant shadow. Apostle Peter reminds us that we are a royal priesthood and a holy nation, called to be holy as He is holy. Worship is our highest calling.
2. The Royal Priest’s Family and Marriage
Leviticus 21 sets forth the highest standards for the priest’s household, beginning with marriage.
Priests were permitted to marry, demonstrating that marriage is a holy institution ordained by God. This stands in sharp contrast to the unscriptural asceticism of the Roman Catholic Church, which claims that compulsory celibacy for priests and nuns is morally superior. Scripture offers no support for mandatory celibacy in either the Old or New Covenants; historically, it was instituted to retain property and wealth within the institution of the church.
However, Leviticus 21:7 places distinct restrictions on whom a priest could marry: “They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.”
While these specific categories were not explicitly forbidden to the general Israelite population, a higher standard applied to the priesthood. Under the Old Covenant, the priestly bloodline had to remain pure, and the priest’s home had to be free from public reproach.
In the New Testament, there are no civil restrictions on who can be redeemed and join the church. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.” Yet, the principle remains clear: leadership and priestly living require exemplary moral integrity, keeping the household above reproach.
Leviticus 21:9 further reveals the seriousness of the priest’s home: if a priest’s daughter engaged in prostitution, she faced the severe judgment of stoning followed by burning. If an ordinary Israelite woman acted immorally, she brought dishonor to her family; how much more when it occurred in the household of a priest! Everything in a priest’s home was to be an example of virtue and moral purity. A priest’s home had to be a place of cleanness.
The standards were even stricter for the High Priest in verses 13–14: “He shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow or a divorced woman or one profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but his own people.”
An ordinary priest or even a king could marry a widow—as King David married Abigail, the widow of Nabal—but the High Priest could not. His wife had to be a virgin. Verse 15 gives the reason: “that he may not profane his seed among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.” This preserved the High Priest’s lineage beyond any doubt or dispute regarding paternity, ensuring that the bloodline pointing to God’s divine appointment remained untainted.
Practical Lessons for the Family Today
For those who are unmarried and desire to live a priestly life devoted to God, you must be extremely careful and selective in choosing a spouse. Your primary requirement must be that the person is a true, faithful believer who holds fast to sound doctrine. Resolve in your heart and pray earnestly that you will not give in to societal pressure, personal loneliness, or youthful lusts, thereby compromising your devotion to God.
In the eyes of the world, it is easy to settle for someone who has a good career, wealth, a respectable family background, and good manners. But if they are not a true believer, they will gradually drag you down into a spiritually cold, prayerless life. Prior to marriage, a person might be fervent for God and active in the church; but after marrying an unbeliever or a worldly partner, that spiritual zeal often fades. They become irregular in worship because their spouse pulls them toward worldly pursuits, making personal comfort and family obligations higher priorities than God.
Even worse is marrying an unbeliever or someone tied to idolatry or false religion. A person who once professed the doctrines of grace can end up living a spiritually compromised life just to appease in-laws and maintain peace, sleeping through the Sabbath and abandoning spiritual growth.
If God and His truth are not at the center of a marriage, such a union spiritually lacks real life. We must pray and wait for God to provide a godly, believing spouse rather than compromising our commitment to Christ. Consider the dedication seen even in false religious systems, where people renounce worldly pleasures to live single lives as nuns; how much more should we exercise firm resolve to honor God in our marital choices? Marriage must be in the Lord!
For those of us who are already married, our duty is to pray earnestly for our spouses. If they are not saved, we pray for their conversion; if they are saved, we pray that they become increasingly godly, supporting one another to grow in holiness. We must also pray with tears for the salvation of our children, diligently teaching them God’s Word so that our homes reflect genuine godliness rather than hypocrisy.
3. The Priest’s Body and Soul
Leviticus 21:16–24 outlines physical restrictions for those serving at the altar.
Under the Old Covenant, a son of Aaron could not perform priestly functions in the Holy Place if he had a physical defect or deformity: “No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall come near to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire.”
This included afflictions such as blindness, lameness, disfigured facial features, birth defects, crippled limbs, hunchbacked condition, dwarfism, eye defects, severe skin diseases, or damaged reproductive organs. Any such physical blemish disqualified a descendant of Aaron from serving at the altar.
Yet, in God’s mercy, verse 22 notes that a disqualified priest was still permitted to eat of the holy and most holy bread: “He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy.”
Though his physical defect barred him from performing public altar duties, he was not cast out from God’s provision. This is similar to how King David treated Mephibosheth—Saul’s grandson who was crippled in both feet. Though Mephibosheth could not serve as a warrior or stand before the king in battle, David showed him great grace, inviting him to sit continuously at the king’s table.
Qualifications for Pastors and Elders
While every New Testament believer is a priest with direct access to God, there are clear spiritual lessons here for church leaders (pastors and deacons). In the Old Testament, priests were the spiritual leaders responsible for teaching God’s Word to the people. Today, while pastors are not priests in the Old Testament sense, they carry out the work of preaching the Word and directing the flock to the one true sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
For this reason, Scripture sets high qualifications for pastors and deacons in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1:
- Top Priority in Worship: Personal commitment to the worship of God must be the highest priority for church leaders, who are called to set an example for the congregation. Physical trials or exhaustion must not easily deter a shepherd from his calling. Even when suffering severe physical ailments—such as acute neck pain from spondylitis or physical exhaustion—a leader reflects the spirit of Paul, who, after being stoned, got up and went into the next city to preach, counting not his life dear to himself so that he might finish his ministry.
- A Well-Ordered Household: A leader’s home must be clean, orderly, and faithful. 1 Timothy 3:4–5 states that an elder “must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?).” If a leader’s children grow up in unrebuked rebellion or criminality, it demonstrates an inability to oversee the house of God, disqualifying him from office.
- Family Prayer and Instruction: This requirement highlights God’s concern for the spiritual health of every Christian family. Husband and wife must establish regular family prayer and instruction as an indispensable part of daily life. Many children who turn away from Christianity do so because they saw hypocrisy and spiritual apathy at home. It is our solemn duty to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, keeping our households godly and pure.
God as the Unremovable Portion of the Holy
A second key lesson highlighted in this chapter is that God Himself is the unremovable portion of those who are truly holy.
When God distributed the Promised Land among the twelve tribes of Israel, how much land did the priests, the sons of Aaron, receive as their inheritance? They were given no territorial allotment. While land was the inheritance of the other tribes, God declared to the priests, “I, the Lord, am your portion and your inheritance.”
This truth explains why the High Priest was restricted in how he mourned. For a priest to mourn as others mourned would imply that in losing earthly loved ones, he had lost everything—as though his entire inheritance had vanished. If the priests wept over temporal losses as if all were lost, their conduct would fail to testify to the faithfulness, sufficiency, and promise of God as their eternal portion.
As the representative of the people, the High Priest stood as a living demonstration that having God means having everything necessary to sustain the soul. If Jehovah is our inheritance, then every true need is satisfied in Him. When it is His sovereign will that a near and dear relative is taken away, His will remains sufficient. God Himself sustains us.
Emotional Self-Control in Times of Trial
While outward customs such as disheveling the hair and tearing garments belonged to the ceremonial culture of ancient Israel, the underlying spiritual principle remains fully relevant today.
1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8 instruct that an overseer in the church must be temperate, sensible, and self-controlled. This requirement means that a leader must exercise spiritual composure even in the face of dark providences, such as a severe financial loss or the death of a beloved family member.
When deep tragedy strikes a pastor’s home, sudden emotional grief and tears are natural and appropriate—even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. However, if a spiritual leader responds to trial by falling into despair, publicly questioning God’s goodness, or doubting the very truths he has preached, the faith of the congregation can be severely shaken.
As Matthew Henry observed, God’s ministers are called to be examples of patience under affliction, especially regarding the death of close relations. Because they understand the biblical reasons why believers do not sorrow as those without hope, they ought to remain spiritually composed so that they may comfort others with the comfort they themselves have received from God.
Even when we mourn the loss of a loved one or experience the pain of a fallen world, we must not grieve like the heathen with uncontrollable anguish. In all trials, we must bow to the wisdom, goodness, and sovereign will of God. If gospel ministers, elders, or teachers leave the impression during heavy trials that God is no longer in control, good, or faithful, they bring dishonor to His name before others.
Physical Wholeness as a Symbol of Moral Holiness
The restrictions concerning physical defects in Leviticus 21 emphasize that no descendant of Aaron with a deformity could serve at the altar. Physical wholeness served as an outward symbol of moral holiness. The concept of holiness implies wholeness and completeness—everything functioning rightly as God intended. In the ceremonial era, God illustrated this principle by appointing men without physical flaw to serve in the sanctuary, just as He required sacrificial animals to be without spot or blemish. A lame bull, a blind lamb, or a diseased goat was unacceptable for sacrifice because it lacked wholeness.
New Covenant Applications
These ceremonial regulations point directly to major truths in Christology and Ecclesiology:
1. Christology: Our Perfect High Priest
Leviticus 21 is a type pointing to our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. He alone possesses a character that is completely without defect. 1 Peter 1:19 states that we were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish (momos) and without spot.
Christ demonstrated this absolute perfection in both His active and passive obedience:
- Active Obedience: He perfectly fulfilled the moral law of God and lived with complete priestly consecration. At His baptism, the Father publicly declared, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
- Passive Obedience: He submitted Himself entirely to the Father’s will, yielding Himself to death upon the cross.
Knowing that the Old Covenant shadows pointed to Him, Christ initiated their fulfillment during His earthly ministry. When He touched the dead girl in Jairus’s house, touched the funeral bier of the widow’s son at Nain, or healed lepers, He was not defiled by uncleanness; rather, His holiness cleansed the defiled. The ceremonial shadows fell away as the reality arrived.
In His moral integrity and spotlessness, Christ perfectly fulfills every requirement of the Levitical priesthood. Having finished His earthly sacrificial work, He entered heaven with the names of the elect engraved upon His heart and hands, ever living to intercede for us.
Scripture reassures us in Romans 8:33–34: “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Christ intercedes continuously on behalf of His people. The perseverance, grace, and spiritual protection we experience each day flow from His unending intercession. As Romans 8 asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Nothing in creation can separate us, because our High Priest ever lives to pray for us.
Hebrews 7:25 declares: “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” To be saved “to the uttermost” means that Christ’s intercession will ultimately bring every believer to full glorification—resurrected with a glorified body free from defect, pain, and disease, and a soul completely purified from sin. Our security rests entirely in the hands of this faultless High Priest.
2. Ecclesiology: The Pure Bride of Christ
Under the Old Covenant, the High Priest was required to marry a virgin. This regulation prefigures the relationship between Christ and His church. Corporately, the church is the bride of Christ, called to moral and spiritual purity.
Though believers come from checkered backgrounds, they have been cleansed by the blood of Christ. Revelation 21 depicts the church coming down out of heaven from God, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Through His redemptive work, Christ makes His church glorious and beautiful in the eyes of the universe.
This positional truth brings a direct practical command: as the bride awaiting her Bridegroom, we must actively keep ourselves pure. In ancient Jewish customs, a bride would prepare her wedding garments at dawn and remain ready throughout the day, ensuring her dress remained unspotted until the groom arrived. Similarly, the church must guard its conduct and remain unspotted from the world until Christ returns.
In 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul expresses this concern: “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
We are called to avoid false teachings, moral compromises, and sinful habits. If the Old Covenant shadow required the High Priest to marry a pure virgin, we must not presume to indulge in unrepentant sin while claiming to be the bride of the heavenly Bridegroom. True faith produces a heart that seeks purification, for without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
Just as physical deformities disqualified an Old Testament priest from service, spiritual deformities of the soul hinder our walk as a royal priesthood. Let us examine our lives privately and publicly, relying on God’s grace to live holy, whole, and faithful lives before our Savior.