Leviticus 21: 1-9, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy. They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy. And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.”
The priests had an important role to play because they represented the Lord to the people and the people to the Lord. They had to take care that they didn’t pollute the office by their behaviour. The priests were not allowed to come in contact with the dead and, hence, become ritually unclean. If they became unclean they were not allowed to carry out their duties. This is the main reason that they had to keep away from dead bodies except for close relatives. The priests were not to show signs of despair when a person died. The heathen, who lived in the Land before Israel, would often show signs of extreme distress by cutting themselves or doing other things when a person died. The priests were regularly in contact with the Lord of heaven and earth in the process of their duties. If a person was in the presence of the Lord then they had not real reason to show despair for the Lord is always in control of our circumstances (compare Deut 8: 16, “Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;”) The older religions of the Land were fertility religions and the people would participate in these religions by using prostitutes as part of their religious devotion. The priests of the Lord, and their families, were to be very careful not to show any kind of behaviour that might take them back to those times. It was these fertility religions that debased the Land before Israel came and caused the people to be destroyed. Every priest had a duty to be holy to the Lord during his time of service and this included taking care in marriage. At a much later date, king Solomon worshipped other gods because he married wives from other places. (1 Kings 11: 4, “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.”)
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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