STATUTES CONCERNING THE HOLINESS OF THE SANCTUARIES Certain statutes were presented concerning the sanctification of the people of God; And certain statutes were presented to commit the priests to adopt a holy life befitting to their ministry for the sake of the sanctification of the people. Finally He talks here about the holy sacrifice through which the people are sanctified, being a symbol of the slain Lord Christ, the Grantor of holiness. 1- Preparations to partake of the holy sacrifice 1 - 9 2- Designation of those who have the right to partake of it 10 - 16 3- Designation of the sacrifice itself before offering it 17 - 28 4- Eating the thanksgiving sacrifice on the same day 29 – 33 1- PREPARATION TO PARTAKE OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE: In these statutes proclaiming the holiness of the sacrifice, God warns the priests against eating their portion of it without preparation; saying to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, to deal carefully with the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not profane My holy name in those things they sanctify to Me; I am the Lord” (2). As though He says to the high priest and the priests, that what they enjoy of portions in the sacrifices is not a gift to satisfy their bellies or lusts, but rather a holy task they are committed to perform with a spiritual mind and special preparation; that they are committed not to profane His holy name by eating from the sacrifice without preparation. By saying “I am the Lord”, He means that He is jealous on His name and holy things against the slothful priests. If God in His love, chose from men those He made priests, who are privileged to get a portion of the sacrifice, counted as a portion for the Lord Himself; it is befitting of them as stewards of God, to pay His love back with holiness and awe, and not with slothfulmess and disregard. As to the preparation by which the priests of the old covenant were committed, to enjoy their portion in the holy sacrifice, it is: that the priest should not be a leper or has a discharge (Chapter 15), nor touch anything made unclean by a dead corpse (Chapter 21), nor touch an unclean animal, nor approached his wife … If the priest was defiled by any of those, he will remain unclean all the day long, will be denied practicing his priestly task, and enjoying his portion of the holy sacrifice, until evening, unless he washes his body with water (6). As the sacrifice offered on the altar came to be God’s portion, allowing the priests to partake of it refers to the fellowship, and the consummation of the reconciliation between God and man. As this fellowship or reconciliation is realized between the holy God and the man who becomes holy by, and in Him, the church committed her priest not to partake slothfully of the communion of the holy sacrifice; but to prepare for it spiritually and physically; through cleansing himself by tears of repentance, and confessing his sins with contrition, before approaching the altar of God with awe to receive the holy Sacrament. According to St. John Chrysostom: [Many believers, in great ignorance and slothfulness, approach to have communion in the holy Sacraments during the feasts, loaded with sins, and with unprepared souls; not perceiving that the holy communion is not limited by a feast, but by the pure conscience and the blameless life]. 2- DESIGNATION OF THOSE WHO HAVE THE RIGHT TO PARTAKE OF IT: It will be enjoyed by the priest, the one born in his house, and whom he buys with his money; No stranger shall eat from it; namely, any Hebrew who is not a descendant of Aaron; a foreigner; a slave whose ear has been pierced, until the year of the Jubilee (Exodus 21: 6); a guest sojourning in his house, a hired hand; or the priest’s daughter who married someone not a descendant of Aaron, unless she is widowed or divorced, and returned to her father’s house. This statute, to which men of the old covenant were submitted, is the Word of God, that would never become void in spirit, but would endure as a constitution of the church; as the Lord Christ presents His holy sacrifice to be received by both the priest who enjoyed the Sacrament of Priesthood, to practice the holy sacraments; or by him who has got the general priesthood in the water of baptism. He presents it to “the one born in the house”, namely, to him who has got the new birth in the water of baptism by the Holy Spirit; and to him who was “purchased with silver”, namely whom God acquired by “His Word, like silver purified seven times” (Psalm 12: 6). The church warns us against presenting the sacrifice to “a stranger”, namely to someone who sojourned from God, and rejected the fellowship with Him as a son; … to someone whose ear is pierced, to live as a slave, who does not seek the spiritual freedom; to the guest, … or to the hired hand.. For God seeks from us to live with Him on the level of perpetual fellowship, to live with, and in Him; not to encounter Him a temporary guests, nor as hired hands who seek a wage; but as children who seek their Father, Himself. As to the daughter married to a stranger, she is the soul who, after receiving the new birth, got back to attach herself to a stranger; namely to another god, that might be the lust of the belly, the pleasures of the body, the love of money, or seeking a temporal honor…. How miserable is such a soul, who denies herself by herself, the enjoyment of the holy sacraments, through an evil union; I wish she divorces the sin, I wish she is widowed from her man (the evil), to return to her father’s house anew; to find that he prepared for her the holy banquet, to rejoice in her, and she in Him. 3- DESIGNATION OF THE SACRIFICE ITSELF BEFORE OFFERING IT: In our study of Chapters 1 to 7, we saw how the believer is committed to offer the sacrifice without blemish… Here He warns us against offering “the blind or broken or maimed, or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs, or has any limb too long or too short, what is bruised or crushed or torn or cut” (22-24). Needless to say that God does not seek in the sacrifice, abundance, but quality; on account of that it represent the Lord Christ, Himself, who is without blemish; who, alone, is capable of bringing us back to His Father, to take any blemish away from us, granting us the holy life in Him. “When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall be seven days with its mother; and from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to the Lord” (27). The wisdom behind that is probably because, many animals grieve bitterly if their suckling is taken away from her in the first days after birth, which shows how God is compassionate even upon the animal mother, not to cause her grief through offering a sacrifice to Him. And as the Jews believed that the suckling animal is not fit for eating during its first week after being born, What is not fit for man, would not be fit to offer to the Lord. … Finally leaving the suckling seven days, to be slain on the eighth day onward, refers to sanctifying it by through a Sabbath. “Whether it is a cow or ewe, do not kill both her and her young on the same day” (28)… The wisdom behind that is to make His people compassionate to animals; as it came in the proverbs: “A righteous man regards the life of his animal” (Proverb 12: 10). And He probably intends to exhort them to care for the blood relationships, even concerning offering animal sacrifices to Him. 4- EATING THE THANKSGIVING SACRIFICE ON THE SAME DAY: We have already studied this topic in our interpretation of the seventh chapter of this book (Leviticus 7: 15)
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