"Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD." [Lev 21:12]
In Leviticus, The LORD gave commands to the Levites, the priests, as well as the high priest, with respect to His standard of holiness. Various laws were given to the priests, which were to separate them from the priests of false gods and from the other Israelites; as God said, “they shall be holy unto their God.” [Lev 21:6] Specifically, regarding the high priest, God said, “he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy.” [Lev 21:8] Earlier in Leviticus, God had said to all Israel, “and ye shall be holy unto me: for I The LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.” [Lev 20:26] It is God’s desire that all those who are His be holy; for He Himself is holy, that is, set apart, and therefore so should His followers, so should His children. From the very beginning, it is “in the image of God” which we were created; [Gen 1:27] and even as it is said in the New Testament, one of our chief purposes in life is to “be conformed to the image of [God’s] Son,” Jesus Christ and to, “exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God.” [Rom 8:29, 2 Cor 6:4] There should be little surprise then when we are confronted with high standards of holiness, the degree to which we must separate ourselves from worldly things and cling to Christ and His character – whether that is for the priests in the Old Testament, or for us in the New, who are called, “a royal priesthood” and “kings and priests.” [1 Pe 2:9, Rev 5:10] In regard to the high priest, there were many standards God required; a few of them, which are in the context of funerals and dealing with familial deaths, are where we draw our focus today. We read from Leviticus,
“And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes; Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother; Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD.” [Lev 21:10-12]
Take note of the command, “neither shall he go out of the sanctuary,” which was drastically and emphatically lived out in Aaron, the first high priest, when his presumably drunken sons “offered strange fire before The LORD” and were thus “devoured” by The LORD’s fire, “and they died before The LORD.” [Lev 10:1-2] For after they had done this, The Spirit records,
“And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people…And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses.” [Lev 10:6-7]
Here, we can see the stark reality of God’s command carried out. It is a stunning image of the grave responsibility which came with being high priest and is no doubt at least one reason why it is written of this position, “no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” [Heb 5:4] It a sense, it is very similar to our calling. We too, as true Christians, are called to an unending devotion to Jesus, one that far exceeds even that of familial love. As Jesus said, “if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” [Lk 14:26] For us, however, the true encouragement and strength comes not from meditating on the awesome race which is “being set before us,” [Heb 12:1] and to which Christ says, “no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God;” [Lk 9:62] but it comes from fixing our gaze upon Jesus Christ who is our True High Priest. Just as the earthly high priests were called into the position, as noted earlier, so too Jesus. And just as the high priest was to place his position and responsibility in God’s house as supreme, so too does Jesus – although, to a much higher degree. In Hebrews we are told,
“So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” [Heb 5:5-6]
And,
“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest is fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” [Heb 7:25-26]
It is a great encouragement for us to see Jesus as our high priest; and further, for us to see what was required of the earthly high priests, and to then compare or contrast it with our Lord. Here, we are comforted by contrasting the earthly high priest with Christ, but first, we must remember a concept which was laid out for us by Jesus which shall make the contrast all the more precious. He says, regarding anger, “ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…” [Mt 5:21-22] Notice here that Jesus takes the law: “thou shalt not kill,” and increases its standard. In the New Testament, in this era of grace, the law is no longer simply “thou shalt not kill,” but it has been exponentially increased, in so much that now those who are “angry with [their] brother without a cause” will even be in danger of the judgment required of the law – which punishment was death. Jesus goes on to do the same with adultery, showing to us the standard has dramatically increased far beyond the physical action to, “whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” [Mt 5:28]
Christ came not just to fulfill the superficial image of the law, but the heart of the law as well. Jesus came not just to live a life free of murder, but to live a life free from undue anger. Moreover, our Lord did not just live a life free of fornication but lived a life completely devoid of any lustful emotion or thought. Truly, as it is said, God’s “righteousness is like the great mountains,” [Psa 36:6] rising far beyond the scope of what we would normally view as acceptable living. And let us remember what Jesus said regarding His fulfilment of the law. He said, even before bolstering our definition of murder and adultery, “verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” [Mt 5:18] Therefore, when we contemplate the law regarding the high priest, that he was not to “go out of the sanctuary” even for a family death, (which ordinance was just a “shadow of things to come” [Col 2:17]), we come to the conclusion that Jesus’ fulfilment of such a law must be to a higher degree, going beyond the outward form to the inward desire and motive.
To those of us who belong to Christ, the Mediator and High Priest of the New Covenant in His blood, this is an excellent thing. For we see by this that Jesus’ heart is to always minister on our behalf. After all, as Hebrews says, “He ever liveth to make intercession for [us].” And again,
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” [Heb 9:24]
Jesus continually and always appears in God’s presence on our behalf. For He is our “advocate with the Father.” [1 Jn 2:1] The God who “shall neither slumber nor sleep…is [our] keeper;” [Psa 121:4-5] He is our eternal an unfading representative who always mediates on our behalf, who is always ready to hear our cries or comfort us in need. Not as those earthly high priests who were sinful and who took vacations and who departed from the sanctuary to their families when all the duties for the day were complete. No, but our True High Priest, Jesus Christ, does never leave God’s right hand, ever-seated in the Heavenlies and ever-present on our behalf, who does always “present [us] holy and unblameable and unreproveable in [The Father’s] sight: if [we] continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not dislodged from the hope of the gospel.” [Col 1:22-23]
Praise God who has offered us and ordained for us such an High Priest; one who is eternal and sinless, yea, one who is always in The Father’s house working on our behalf to present us as beautiful and blameless to His Father on that blessed day when we shall see His face. So then, because we have such an high priest, always available for us and to us, let us take the exhortation in Hebrews to heart,
"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus The Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the opportune time." [Heb 4:14-16]
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