Reading
SAA Notes
This chapter has some similarities to the passages in the New Testament that teach about elders and deacons – Titus 1:6-9 and 1 Timothy 3:1-12. Priests had to mirror Christ in holiness and separateness from sin. Like the sacrifices they had to be without blemish! Samuel and Kings reveal how blemished the priests were – the cleansing from sin that is eternal had to come from another priestly source!
SJA Notes
* God of Love and Light, please show us how to walk the narrow road today from Your word.
“He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother.”
We know from the law that the stench of death made those who came into contact with dead bodies unclean.
The High Priest was to do nothing that would make him unclean, and that definitely included being near dead bodies.
What of Jesus though?
As our true and lasting great High Priest, Jesus showed the power of His indestructible life with respect to death and dead bodies.
In Mark ch 5 we read of the little girl who died,
“Taking her by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha cumi’, which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.'”
Was Jesus made unclean by making contact with a dead body?
No!
His life-giving power was not sullied or dirtied by death. In fact, it was Jesus’ power that _unsullied_ the death of the little girl!
We see that Jesus was the only high priest who could interact with the dirty and make it clean.
Hebrews ch 7 tells us, of Jesus,
“… Who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.”
Death is no more, de-fanged, powerless in the face of the indestructible life of the Messiah.
This is our King, our Saviour – Praise His Name!
* Great God Above,
Please cleanse us today from the much and dirt of the world, the sin that surrounds us as we walk this road.
Please forgive us today Lord God.
Thank You for Jesus, our great high priest, who won the victory over death.
Thank You for Your grace and mercy to us, that through Jesus we can be clean!
Amen.