Scripture Daily

Context No. 3709 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 44:20-24: in context

20“‘“They shall not shave their heads, or allow their locks to grow long. They shall only cut off the hair of their heads. 21None of the priests shall drink wine when they enter into the inner court. 22They shall not take for their wives a widow, or her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24“‘“In a controversy they shall stand to judge. They shall judge it according to my ordinances. They shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts. They shall make my Sabbaths holy.

This passage lists the duties and disciplines of the priests, and one stands out as their central calling: they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish the unclean and the clean.

The priests were to be teachers of discernment, helping God's people tell the difference between what is holy and what is common, what pleases God and what does not. Alongside this, they were to judge disputes by God's law and to keep his Sabbaths holy. There is a lesson here about a lasting need among God's people: the need to be taught discernment, to distinguish the holy from the common, right from wrong, in a world that constantly blurs these lines. It is a mercy to have teachers who help us tell the difference and who model it by keeping God's ways themselves. And each of us, as part of a royal priesthood, is called to grow in this discernment, learning to distinguish the holy from the common in our own lives.

Am I growing in the discernment to distinguish the holy from the common in my life, and do I value those who teach and model God's ways?

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