Good Morning.
Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.” (Leviticus 10:8-10)
As we discussed in the previous devotion, it was the duty of the priests to be able to “distinguish between clean and unclean, holy and common.” Holiness means to be set apart and anything or anyone who was regarded as such was not to be contaminated by things that were not clean and holy, especially as it related to service in the Sanctuary. To come into the Presence of the Holy One with contamination was a potentially deadly prospect.
While some might get bogged down in the notion that Israel had to jump through a lot of “legalistic” hoops in order to serve God, the real message is this: God is strong and holy while we are frail and fallible. Yet, He still desires to have fellowship with us, indeed, making certain allowances for us in our fallen state. He simply asks us to respect the fact that He is holy and that He will not be contaminated by our inability or unwillingness to acknowledge this distinction. This is a concept that He has been teaching humanity literally from the beginning.
To learn this and to express this to others is among the eternal duties of those who minister unto the Almighty. We must understand and teach the difference between light and darkness, clean and unclean and right and wrong. Thus the Almighty said , concerning those who were to be His priests, “They shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23). So then, let us be about our Father’s business and share His holiness with all that those He brings into our lives.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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