The priests were not to touch a dead body, assist in a funeral, or eat of a funeral feast. While this was a very literal command for the Old Testament priest, there is a strong lesson in it for us today. We should not become too linked to people, or develop too close a friendship with those who are walking in spiritual death. The New Testament tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:14 that we are not to “be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” When two very opposite kinds of people\u2019s lives become linked, someone will be changed. Either the live person will pull the walking dead toward life, or the walking dead will pull the live person toward death.<\/p>\n
The exception to this is the relationship that is specifically moving toward bringing a person to eternal life in Jesus Christ. That is why the Savior could eat with prostitutes and tax collectors, and touch diseased and even dead people. People were always left changed after being with Jesus.<\/p>\n
It is God’s design to leave us here for a time after we are born again, when it becomes our great privilege to represent the creator of the universe, to serve as His ambassadors. Paul wrote to the Corinthians of this honor in 2 Corinthians 5:20: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you<\/em> on Christ\u2019s behalf, be reconciled to God.”\u00a0So those who have surrendered to Him, who have been reconciled, are now His ambassadors.<\/p>\n An ambassador is a representative who speaks, not on his own authority or based on his own opinions, but on behalf of the one he represents. And we, as Christ\u2019s ambassadors, have been directed to say, “Be reconciled to God.” There is a huge truth here that we don\u2019t want to miss; we are not commanded to do the work<\/em> of reconciliation, because God has already done that work. We are simply to say to those who are walking in death, “Submit yourselves to God. Yield to the hands that were nailed to the cross for you, and be made alive.”<\/p>\n \u201cThank You, LORD, for eternal life. Help us to be Your ambassador this day in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leviticus 21 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people:\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0But for his kin, that is near unto him,\u00a0that is\u00a0<\/em>, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0But\u00a0<\/em>he shall not defile himself,\u00a0being\u00a0<\/em>a chief man among his people, to profane himself.\u00a0\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0made by fire,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0They shall not take a wife\u00a0that is\u00a0<\/em>a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>holy unto his God.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the\u00a0LORD, which sanctify you,\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>holy. 9<\/sup>\u00a0And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. 10<\/sup>\u00a0And\u00a0he that is\u00a0<\/em>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;\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>upon him: I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And he shall take a wife in her virginity.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane,\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Neither shall he profane his seed among his people: for I the\u00a0LORD\u00a0do sanctify him. 16<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0spake unto Moses, saying,\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever\u00a0he be\u00a0<\/em>of thy seed in their generations that hath\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.\u00a0\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0For whatsoever man\u00a0he be\u00a0<\/em>that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;\u00a0\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0He shall eat the bread of his God,\u00a0both\u00a0<\/em>of the most holy, and of the holy.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the\u00a0LORD\u00a0do sanctify them.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And Moses told\u00a0it<\/em>unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The priests were not to touch a dead body, assist in a funeral, or eat of a funeral feast. While this was a very literal command for the Old Testament priest, there is a strong lesson in it for us today. We should not become too linked to people, or develop too close a friendship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15927,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions\/15927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}