Priestly Duties

Leviticus 6 

While reading about the different sacrifices that Israel needed to do we see that there needed to be a sacrifice for every aspect in their life. Chapter 6 is about offering a sacrifice for the guilt offering to make atonement for a matter regarding a neighbor.

We all have neighbors. Throughout my life we have had some pretty good ones where they were generous as well as very hospitable. When Alyssa and I were married we moved to the location where we live now and there was a problem with a neighbor. We both never had to confront a neighbor about being loud, but we did this one time. They were having a party that day and it started at 6:00 A.M. and went tell 1:00 A.M. They had all the other neighbors mad for their lack of respect. We had to ask them to turn it down in which they did not and so the law had to get involved. The neighbor problem that is being talked about in Leviticus is if you deceived your neighbor or broke the commandments against your neighbor then there were consequences for those actions. If you realized that you were like that to your neighbor and then you would need to offer up a guilt offering in which the priest would make atonement for you.

Jobs of the Priests

The priest was obviously a very important person in the tabernacle because they were the ones conducting the sacrifices of the people. In verses 8 to the end of the chapter deals with how the priests will need to conduct themselves with the different sacrifices. We need to realize that they were the ones that needed to usher in the proper respect as they were the mediators between God and the people. Each sacrifice required some special attention. The burnt offering needed to stay on the altar until the morning and then needed to be cleaned a certain way. The peace offering needed to done a certain way. The grain offering needed to be done a certain way and the priests were able to eat a portion of the sacrifice. The sin offering was to be done a certain way. They were commanded to eat that of the sin offering. This was how the priests were able to eat. A priest did not have any other profession outside of taking care of the tabernacle and operating the sacrifices. If the priest splashed blood from the sacrifice on their clothes they must clean it because the clothes were representing their purity and the blood would tarnish the clothing. 

In reading this we can think of how overwhelming these details are and that it would be a hard thing to be a priest. I agree that it would be a big responsibility to be a priest because you would have to take everything seriously and have the right heart the whole time. But I also think, how important it is for us to take our Christianity seriously. We sometimes think that it was the one time thing and we can go on living our own lives like we did before. Paul said, should we keep on sinning so grace can abound more (Romans 6:1). The answer is no. We should not have the attitude that I can do anything and everything to break the commands of God because I know I am saved by grace. Our true respect should be that I do not want to sin anymore because I am saved by grace. Our Christian walk can be challenging and that is why we need to make sure that we do not get caught up in legalism.