Day 31. Leviticus 8-11

A note about the vestments in which Aaron the high priest is clothed at his ordination. We encountered these items of special clothing in the Book of Exodus. The ephod is a sort of padded vest which was worn by the high priest when he was going about his ritual business. Its color, according to Exodus, was blue. The breastplate was worn over the ephod and was attached to it with cords. It was set with twelve precious stones in rows of three with the names of the tribes of Israel engraved on them. Inside the breastplate was a pocket which contained Urim and Thummim , the sacred lots that were used to foretell the future and to learn the will of God in certain cases. They must also have been used by the high priest in his role as judge.
The parts of the priest's vestments were symbolic and markedly different from normal clothing, which pointed to the uniqueness and holiness of the priest's calling. They were a uniform—a sacred costume. They tended to disguise the personality of the wearer and emphasize his function as the instrument of God. His business was to perform the rituals of atonement, not creatively or individually, but rightly—according to the LORD's instructions.
When the rituals were performed wrongly, terrible consequences followed. In Chapter 1O of today's reading we hear the story of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, who used "unholy fire" or "strange fire" to kindle the incense, and were themselves consumed by fire that "came out from the presence of the LORD" (Exodus 10:1-2). The meaning of "strange fire" is not immediately clear, but they apparently entered the sanctuary unprepared or unworthy and were destroyed for it.
Priests were no allowed the luxury of carelessness in their calling. An absolute scrupulosity was required of those who served in the tabernacle--and occasionally a heartless detachment from ordinary concerns. Aaron was forbidden by Moses to mourn for Nadab and Abihu because contact with the dead was the primary source of ritual uncleanness. Priests must not make themselves unclean, even at the death of their own family members. The good of the community came before individual feelings.
Priests were not to be impaired in any way in performing their ritual functions. That is why in 10:9 they are forbidden wine or strong drink. Their job was to distinguish the clean from the unclean and to perform the rituals in the right, prescribed manner. They must be absolutely sober. Nothing must get in the way of this function.
The distinctions made in Chapter 11 between clean and unclean animals will seem arbitrary to us—and they are. Every way of trying to explain them is fanciful. They just are what they are—the explicit command of the LORD. No why is offered.
The point of these rules is not logic, it is holiness. The dietary regulations set Israel apart from all other peoples. Keeping them was a sign of adherence to the covenant made with the LORD. The LORD is different from all other gods, and his people must be different from all other peoples. As the LORD says—"I am the LORD your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves. . . ."
We will have more to say about "uncleanness" as we go along. But it is important to understand that in the Law of Moses uncleanness is not a moral condition; it is a ritual condition. It is contagious—it can be passed along by touching another person in that condition or contracted by touching an unclean thing.
Ritual uncleanness is a hard idea for us modern people to grasp, but it was powerful one to the people of Israel. To be unclean was to be aware of not being holy, of not being what you should be, of being unworthy of the special relationship the LORD has with his people and outside the pale of his grace. Sometimes time would take care of it, sometimes special ritual measures—washing or sacrifice--were necessary to make people and things clean. But uncleanness was always accompanied by shame and a sense of being excluded from the community, and being a part of the community, as we have said before, was everything.