"A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, but if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food" Leviticus 22:10-11*
It may be difficult to appreciate the relevance of this passage, but there is so much grace packed into and foretold in these verses. If you aren't a Christian, this might be a new picture of the Gospel that you've never heard of or seen before. So bear with me while I share some incredible truths with you concerning things that God has put on my heart and mind this past week.
This passage is from Leviticus: a book of the law. This book is filled with law after law to God's chosen people, the Israelites. God is presenting His holiness in a really practical, dumbfounding way. If you read through the book, you would be shocked at some of God's requirements. While some may suggest that this is a character flaw of God's, that He could not possibly be loving if He has all these commandments and obligations for His people, I'm here to tell you that the very fact that He gave the Israelites all of these laws proves His love for them. His laws are truth (Psalm 119:160). And guess what? You can't have true love without truth.
If you're in a relationship, and your significant other tells you one hundred times a day how much he/she loves you, and they spend lots of time with you, and buy you nice things, and listen to your stories, and take you out on amazing dates, but they don't tell you the truth, how much do they really love you? This makes perfect sense in regards to truths about themselves: if they're cheating, if they have any major dreams or desires, if something hard is going on in his/her family. You most likely can see how withholding the truth would be unloving to you, and would make you feel both disappointed and hurt.
But more than that, I'm talking about the kind of truth that's hard to hear. That truth could be about you. You might be in this relationship that you think is the best thing to ever happen to you, and in the process, you lose sight of all other relationships, and you're rude to everyone around you. If your significant other realizes this and doesn't tell you, how much do they really love you? If they want what's best for you, they must share these truths with you, although it may be painful to hear.
This is why God's law is both grace and truth, wrapped up into one. And that's true about Jesus, too (John 1:14). And Jesus did what the law could never do:
"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:3*
God gave the Israelites the law, and allows us to behold it today, in order that all of humankind can understand God's holiness and truth, as they are so strikingly contrasted against our sinfulness and imperfections. But we can see glimpses of God's grace in this law alone, which I'll explain shortly, and even more so, we see God's grace and truth through Christ.
So back to Leviticus.
This passage, Leviticus 22:10-11, is one of God's laws. The priest's food is the priest's food. Of course, we now hold that slavery of any kind is immoral. Why is it immoral? Because it denies humans of their rights.
It is important to distinguish between slavery of the 19th century and slavery in the Bible. Often, bondservants in the Bible chose to continue under their master even after their allotted time of service was over because they loved their master. This sort of slavery was not the sort of dehumanizing servitude that was so prevalent in the 19th century. While the New Testament does not make explicit claims that slavery is a sin, it is clear that the slavery spoken of is under such terms as: masters are to treat their slaves "justly and fairly" and slaves are to obey their masters (Colossians 4:1, Ephesians 6:5).
We can agree that from this passage in Leviticus that slaves would not have the right to the priest's food. However, the priest could buy his slaves and make them part of his household, and they, and anyone else born in the house, could partake in the benefits of the priest. Totally undeservedly.
The practical significance of this Leviticus passage is this: the New Testament talks about how Jesus Christ is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16). And He chose to lay down His life for us, paying the price for our sins to make us His own.
To make us His own, or a part of His household. We are bought by and born of Him (1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:23).
We don't deserve any part in the benefits of this High Priest, especially. But God has chosen to extend His immense grace towards us, and Christ has redeemed us so that we are part of the household of God, if we have put our faith and trust in Him (Galatians 3:23-29). We were slaves to sin, bought by the Priest (Hebrews 2:14-15).
And now we get to partake in all that He is, and all that He has, and all that He offers.
When you are adopted, you get the incredible privilege of having an inheritance through that family. The same is true with being a part of God's family: we get to share in the inheritance of God's Son and along with the "saints in Light" (Colossians 1:12, Galatians 3:29). It is like we were born in that household, even though we were not. We were bought with a price.
As adopted sons and daughters in the faith, we have the freedom, opportunity, and responsibility to partake.
I want to leave you with this, until next week, when I'll talk about what it means to partake, from a spiritual perspective. The third article in this series will be on partaking in a secular sense, and also a practical one. Whether you are a Christian or not, how can you make partaking part of who you are? Besides embracing Biblical truths, where can the idea of partaking apply to the way you live your life? This will hopefully be relevant for Christians and Non-Christians alike.
(But if you're not a Christian, please read next week's article anyway. It'll help you understand the following week's.)
Dwell on the definition of partake in the meantime:
The definition in Koine Greek, as used in the original manuscript of the New Testament books:
"μετέχω metéchō, met-ekh'-o... to share or participate; by implication, belong to, eat (or drink):—be partaker, pertain, take part, use."
The Merriam-Webster Definition::
"1: to take part in or experience something along with others <partake in the revelry><partake of the good life>
2: to have a portion (as of food or drink)
3: to possess or share a certain nature or attribute <the experience partakes of a mystical quality>"
"At or to one side of, beside, side by side"; "Resembling"
Next week we're going to address these definitions and how we can make partaking part of who we are as members of the body of Christ.
*All quoted verses are in the ESV.
