Leviticus 21:1 - Meaning and Application

It had already been appointed that the priests should teach the people God’s laws about what is clean and unclean (Leviticus 10:10, 11). Here God also requires the priests to live by what they teach. Those who have the duty to instruct others must back up their words with their lives (1 Timothy 4:12).

The priests were to come nearer to God than the rest of the people, and they dealt more closely with holy things. Because of that, they had to keep farther away than others from anything that made them unclean or lowered the honor of their priesthood. This was true especially in the matter of mourning for the dead. Mourners usually came near a dead body, and often touched it. The Jews said that even coming within about six feet of a dead body made a person ceremonially unclean. Numbers 19:14 says that anyone who enters the tent where a dead body lies becomes unclean for seven days.

For that reason, priests were not to put themselves in a position that would keep them from the sanctuary for seven days, except in the case of their closest family members (Leviticus 21:1-3). A priest could mourn for a parent, child, brother, or unmarried sister, and likely also for his wife, though that is not stated here. Ezekiel, who was a priest, would have mourned for his wife if God had not specifically forbidden it (Ezekiel 24:17). God’s allowance showed honor to natural affection, and He let His servants pause from public duty while they grieved for their own close relatives. But that exception could not go further. Their sorrow must not keep them from the work of the sanctuary for long.

This permission did not extend to the death of anyone else, not even, as some read it, a chief man among the people (Leviticus 21:4). They were not to defile themselves for the high priest either, unless he were one of those close relations. Even if a priest had the nearest and best of friends, he was not to give that person the same exception unless they were family. If such grief were allowed for one person, others would expect the same, and the priests would often be pulled away from their work. At the same time, this rule reminds us that there is a special affection due to those who are near to us by blood. When they die, we should feel the loss deeply and let it remind us of our own death and our need to be ready.

Priests were also not to make their mourning wild or extreme, even for their dearest relatives (Leviticus 21:5). Their grief was not to follow heathen customs, such as cutting the hair or wounding themselves to honor the dead. The nations around Israel used such rites in worship of false gods, imagining that these acts might help their dead loved ones. Even though those funeral customs showed that people believed the soul lives on after death, God still forbade the rites because they were tied to false worship. Yet the law did allow proper and decent grief for the bodies of the dead, which shows that we are not to think of them as simply lost.

Their mourning was also not to become passionate or out of control. God’s ministers should set an example of patience in suffering, especially when the loss is very close and painful. They know, or should know, better than others why we must not grieve like people who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). They are meant to stay calm and steady so they can comfort others with the comfort they themselves receive from God. Since the common people were already forbidden to use superstitious funeral practices (Leviticus 19:27, 28), it would be even less fitting for priests to do so.

The reason for this careful conduct is given in Leviticus 21:6, because the priests offer the bread of their God, that is, the offerings made by fire. These offerings were the food of God’s house and table, in a figure. Since their calling was so honorable, they must not stain that honor by giving way to their passions. They were always engaged in sacred service, so they must not be pulled away from it or made unfit for it. If they defiled themselves, they would dishonor the name of the God they served. If servants behave badly, people think poorly of the master. In the same way, those who offer or eat the bread of our God must live holy lives, or they profane the very name they claim to honor.

Priests were also to avoid lowering themselves by their marriages (Leviticus 21:7). A priest must not marry a woman of bad reputation, one known or suspected to be sexually immoral. He must not marry a prostitute, even if she claimed to have repented, and he must not marry a woman who was loose in her behavior. He also must not marry a divorced woman, because divorce suggested there had been some fault. These marriages were allowed to others, but not to the priests.

This rule protected both their present ministry and the honor of their families. If a priest married badly, it would bring shame on his work, encourage the careless in their sin, and trouble sincere believers. The New Testament gives similar guidance for ministers’ wives, that they should be serious and trustworthy, so that the ministry is not discredited (1 Timothy 3:11). It would also pass shame to the priest’s children, since the priesthood was to continue in the family. People do not seek the good of later generations when they ignore the importance of marrying a woman of good character. If someone wants godly children, he must first seek a godly wife and avoid corrupting the family line (Malachi 2:15).

Leviticus 21:8 adds, “You shall sanctify him, and he shall be holy to you.” This means not only that Moses was to make sure these laws were kept, but also that all Israel was to do everything possible to preserve the honor of the priesthood. The priests themselves must do nothing to damage it. Since he is holy to his God (Leviticus 21:7), he must be treated as holy by the people too. We should honor those whom God honors.

Gospel ministers are to be held in very high honor because of their work (1 Thessalonians 5:13), and every Christian should feel responsible to protect that honor. Their children must be careful not to do anything that would bring shame on them (Leviticus 21:9). If a priest’s daughter became a prostitute, her sin was especially serious, because she would not only defile herself, but also profane herself. Other women did not have the same honor to lose, but she did, since she belonged to a priest’s family and had shared in holy things. She would also disgrace her father, because people would blame him and ask why he had not taught her better.

Sinners in Zion would mock and say, “Look at the priest’s daughter.” Her punishment had to be unusual: she was to be burned with fire, as a warning to all priests’ daughters. The lesson is clear. The children of ministers should be especially careful not to do anything shameful, because such sin is doubly disgraceful in them, and the jealous God will judge it accordingly.