Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 22

Verses 1-33

Instructions already given are now repeated with greater detail and wider application. Not only must the priest himself be free from blemish and defilement, he must see to it that all that which he offered was to be of h e same character. Yet again, he was not to exercise hospitality toward those who were unclean or strangers to the covenant of the things which pertained to the House of his God.

These stringent instructions closed with a reaffirmation of the reason, which had been given in other connections, "I am Jehovah . . . I will be hallowed among the children of Israel." Thus these people were never allowed to lose sight of the fact that the deepest purpose of their existence was the manifestation of the truth concerning God. All the degradation existing among the nations was due to the false ideas of God which characterized their life and worship. Jehovah is the God of holiness because He is essentially the God of love. These are the profoundest things that nations can learn. A people created for their manifestation must share in that holiness and in that love. Hence the absolute necessity for entire loyalty in personal life and relative conduct of the men who are to interpret to the surrounding nations the truth concerning God.