Context No. 3397 of 4322 · Leviticus

Leviticus 21:7-12: in context

7“‘They shall not marry a woman who is a prostitute, or profane. A priest shall not marry a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God. 8Therefore you shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. 9“‘The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the prostitute, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire. 10“‘He who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, or tear his clothes. 11He must not go in to any dead body, or defile himself for his father or for his mother. 12He shall not go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the LORD.

These laws set the priests, and especially the high priest, apart by a stricter standard of holiness, because they represented God to the people and the people to God. The high priest, marked by the anointing oil, was held to a consecration stricter still: he was not even to interrupt his service to mourn his own father or mother, nor to leave the sanctuary during his duties, for the crown of his God's anointing was upon him.

The point is not that a priest's grief did not matter, but that his consecration to God took precedence even over the closest natural ties. Set-apartness for God is costly; those who serve him closely are called to a devotion that may ask them to hold even good and natural things loosely. The anointing carried a weight of undivided dedication. And this points beyond the old priesthood to a people now called a royal priesthood, in whom the same principle holds: those consecrated to God are asked for a devotion that keeps him first, even above what is dearest.

Am I willing to hold my consecration to God above even good and natural claims, giving him a devotion that is truly set apart?

Sources

Leviticus 21:12: "He shall not go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him."
Leviticus 21:8: "You shall sanctify him... He shall be holy to you, for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy."
1 Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession."