Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace
The Representatives of Life
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Pentateuch
Genre: Lessons with Q & A
Lesson: 50
Track: 50
Dictation Name: RR172AA50
Date: Early 70s
Peace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Let us pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee for the mercy with which Thou doest daily surround us. Thou art good unto us who so often cannot be good unto ourselves. We thank Thee that Thou knowest us better than we know ourselves and are yet merciful unto us, hast redeemed us, hast made us Thy people and hast given us such great promises in Jesus Christ. And so we come, in gratitude and in joy, to thank Thee for Thy mercies. In Christ’s name, amen.
Our scripture is Leviticus 21:1-9. Our subject, “The Representatives of Life.” Leviticus 21:1-9,
“1 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:
2 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,
3 And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled.
4 But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
8 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.
9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.”
These laws have to do with laws of mourning. In antiquity, and in many parts of the world still, it has been customary at the time of a death in various ways, to indicate that one has in a sense died also, that a part of one’s life is dead. And so people would not only tear their clothes, shave off a part of their beard, make cuttings in the flesh—all different ways of saying we have also to a degree died. This, however is not to be the method, the means of God’s priests.
How are we to understand this law and what is its meaning? Well, first of all, let’s turn away and look at law generally. Babylonian Law had a characteristic that we find in many cultures and supremely again in 18th Century English Law. Law existed essentially for one purpose: to impose penalties for all offenses against property. There were over two hundred penalties of death in England in the 18th century for offenses against property. But Biblical Law, while protecting property, reserves capital punishment for certain offenses against man, the family, and God. It is important to understand therefore, that legal systems focus in on a particular fact. They have a framework. Biblical Law has a framework. It is God-centered, family-centered, life-centered. Gordon Wenham has said concerning the premises of punishment in God’s Law that they are of five varieties:
1. The offender must receive the just penalty for his offense and the penalty must correspond with the criminal act.
2. The punishment has as its purpose to “purge evil from the midst of you,” as the Law says again and again. If justice is not done by the civil government, guilt then rests upon both the land and the people. And this is why judgment now rests upon the whole earth, because justice has not been done, and when civil governments refuse to implement God’s justice, God judges them, the land, and the people thereof.
3. The punishment must function also as a deterrent.
4. Punishment is, in scripture, a form of civil atonement to affect justice and to reconcile the offender to society.
5. There must be a recompense to effect this reconciliation, this civil atonement. There must be restitution.
Now, there are forms of restitution that are ungodly. Babylonian Law required restitution, but to the State. Today also, restitution (if it exists) is to the State, not to the individual, although in one or two states, Christian Reconstructionists have been able to pass laws making restitution to the individual optional if the judge so rules. In scripture, of course, restitution is to the offended party.
There are in scripture also, three main types of punishment:
1. The Death Penalty
2. Cutting off or excommunication
3. Restitution
There is no sentence to prison in the Bible. The closest thing to that was the City of Refuge where a person could reside until the High Priest died.
Now, all this relates to Leviticus 21:1-9. What we’ve had before this are laws relating to life, no laws to limit our lifestyle, but laws to make us live. Because to transgress these laws, means death. Twice in Proverbs (in Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25), we are told “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” The Law warns us against the ways of death. Sin always leads, sooner or later, to death. And death is the ultimate insult to man. It is the ultimate insult to his body.
I think it’s ironic that the clergy, who are called—and this is the meaning of these laws in Leviticus 21:1-9—to be the representatives of life, have instead presented the image of death, both among the rabbis of later Judaism (at the time of our Lord and since), among the Catholic priests and among the Protestant clergy. There have been all kinds of rules and regulations to impose a somber, unhappy image upon them. At times they have been forbidden to attend weddings because there will be drinking and dancing. They’ve been forbidden to attend banquets except to pronounce a blessing or benediction or a prayer, and then very quickly to leave before things get too happy. Now, this is contrary to scripture.
The old inter-testamental practice (that is between the Old and New Testament Eras), of the strict Jewish Sabbatarians which went to all kinds of extremes as to how many steps you could take in a day, and so on, nonetheless said you could drink until you had a glow on you. That was legitimate, because it was a day to rejoice. Now perhaps they went too far sometimes in stressing happiness through, uh, a little too much wine, but nonetheless, they still had the spirit of the Law. Namely, that the clergy supremely are to be the representatives of life.
Now they are to be the people of life, and therefore they are not permitted to take part in mourning, except if it be the immediate member of their family and then to a limited degree. The believers are all the people of life, and the priest in particular, they must not be marked by the symbols of death. Langey noted, “But the laws which regulated the priesthood of the chosen people had a deeper basis. They had to administer a law of life. St. {?} truly observes that the Hebrew priests were the instruments of the divine will for averting death, that all their sacrifices were a type of the death of Christ which swallowed up death in history. And it would’ve been unsuitable that they should have the same freedom as other people to become mourners.”
It’s sad that in the church, we no longer speak of the Law of God as the Law of Life, which it is to the believer. It is a death sentence to the ungodly, but it is the way of life to the believer. Thus, mourning for the dead, except for the immediate family—and then to a limited degree, was forbidden to priests. They were to be restrained even then in their mournings since they represent the Lord of life.
The meaning of the “priests” here, the word, is in verse 1, ‘sons of Aaron,’ but elsewhere in the Law and in Ezekiel and in Deuteronomy, we recognize that it commonly includes the Levites. The Levites are spoken of very often as priests. Now, I make this point because the Levites were the instructors of Israel (Deuteronomy 33:10 and elsewhere). Thus, the term “Levites” today is inclusive of Christian teachers and scholars and in our time must be seen as describing ministers, teachers, writers, scholars of the faith. This means the Chalcedon Staff. We are Levites. That’s the plain meaning of scripture. That was the way the Early Church saw it. We are a priestly class, representing the Lord and life.
Now, our Lord echoes these very verses and their meaning, Leviticus 21:1-9, which forbid the representatives of life to be preoccupied with death and mourning, when on an occasion with a summary statement He says, “Let the dead bury their dead.” Now, He was not saying that a man should not bury his relatives. What He was saying is you cannot preoccupy yourself with death and with mourning.
The people of Christ, and in particular His Levites, His teachers, must have a life-orientation in every area. Marriage of course, is a central one, and hence verse 7 as a part of saying you are a representative of life, says that the priestly man cannot marry an ungodly woman, nor the guilty party in a divorce. Marriage must not be a profane one. At this point, Calvin makes a comment which I think is worthy of note. No one else has ever made his point. In speaking of the impure or profane marriage, Calvin insisted that it included marrying a girl very much younger than oneself. And he wrote, “The decrepit old man falls in love with a young girl; it is a base and shameful lust. Besides, he will defraud her if he marries her. Hence too, will jealously and wretched anxieties arrive, or by foolishly and dotingly seeking to preserve his wife’s love, he will throw away all regard for gravity. When God forbad the High Pries to marry any but a virgin, He did not wish to violate this rule which is dictated by nature and reason, but regard being had to age, He desired that modesty and propriety should be maintained in the marriage, so that if the priest were of an advanced years, he should marry a virgin not too far from his own age, but if he were failing and now but little fitted for marriage on account of his old age, the law that he should marry a virgin was rather an exhortation to celibacy, than he should expose himself to many troubles and general ridicule.” There is more of this sort of thing in Calvin than most people realize.
At any rate, in verse 9, we have the death penalty for any priest’s daughter who in Moffett’s rendering, degrades herself by playing the harlot and thereby she degrades her father. The Bible is emphatic in this connection. The girl who degrades herself is degrading her father. This is a public and a psychologic offense. And this point is made in other ways, in other laws.
Now it is worthy of note that while prostitution is spoken of repeatedly in scripture as evil, it is not the subject of legislation. The only other law relating to the subject is Deuteronomy 22:13-21, which some believe had reference to prostitutes who married and passed themselves off as virgins to their husbands. But in this instance the penalty is a severe one because the act of prostitution is seen as an offense against authority. The greater the responsibility God gives us, the greater our culpability. In our Lord’s words, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required, and to whom men have committed, of him they will ask the more.” Thus, not only the person who has great authority, but the family members thereof, because they are in the family of authority have a greater culpability in their sin; what they do, what they say is all the more important and can get a greater blessing and a greater judgment from God.
Now it is essential to remember the broad meaning of priest. It is inclusive of all who serve the Lord as a part of a Levitical kind of ministry—teaching, instruction, learning. It is also essential to remember that Biblical Law gives us case laws apart from the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn, we are told, means the laborer is worthy of his hire, and they that labor worthily in the ministry of the Word are worthy of double honor. What is said here applies to all the family of an authority and leader in the faith: the wife, the daughter, the son, the grandchildren of all such persons have a greater culpability before God and man for their sins. Those who are associated with the Levitical ministries can thus more readily incur the penalty of death by harming that calling and also gain greater blessings by furthering that calling.
Let us pray.
Thy Word oh Lord is truth, and Thy Words speaks plainly to every condition and to every area of life and thought. Bless us oh Lord so that we hear and obey, that we be the people of life, showing forth that our Lord is life—the Lord of Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Make us ever mindful of who Thou art and what we are in Thee. In Christ’s name, amen.
Are there any questions now about our lesson?
Yes.
[Audience] The modern practice of clergy conducting funerals appropriate in light of this scripture, and if not who would be the biblical {?} for funerals?
[Rushdoony] A very good question. What about the clergy and funerals in our time? The kind of message that must be conveyed at a funeral by the clergy—and they have a duty there—and especially in the Christian era, it is a Christian service. Why? Because they have this witness to make: our Lord is He who is in the resurrection business. What He does is to destroy the power of sin and death and that blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. So that it is an opportunity to proclaim victory. And this is what a Christian funeral service must be; a proclamation of victory. And too often, this is forgotten and it’s turned into a somber event.
Any other questions or comments?
Yes.
[Audience] Many times at funerals now, especially for public people, it turns into a sermon about the person who’s dead, praises him and leaves God out completely.
[Rushdoony] Yes, exactly. Well, for many of these public persons, the only way you could mention God is to mention His judgment, so that’s the way they do it. Those are pagan services essentially.
Yes.
[Audience] Well, the Irish wakes were fairly cheerful!
[Laughter]
[Rushdoony] Yes! Yes, you can say a lot more for them than, uh, a great many services, and it’s ironic! Uh, after the counter-reformation, the Church did everything it could to, uh, destroy the wakes, to abolish them, and never succeeded. Never did.
Yes.
[Audience] I was just going to ask, {?} death should be on the minds of all those as a, if you’re, if you’re future-oriented, death should be on your mind, shouldn’t it as far as what you’re leaving behind, the Christian child, his wealth that he will gain from you, all those things should be on your mind, though, shouldn’t it?
[Rushdoony] Yes, but not in a morbid sense.
[Audience] No, I don’t mean….
[Rushdoony] Yes, in a healthy sense, yes. We are told in scripture that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children.
Any other questions or comments?
[Audience] Your earlier remarks we’ve mentioned something about scripture making no mention of prisons. One of the great civil problems in this country and elsewhere are these {?} problem of prison overcrowding and Bibles in prison and so forth. Could you just expand on that real quickly?
[Rushdoony] Yes. There are two or three references to prison; they were places where you kept somebody briefly pending a trial. Then, they were sentenced to restitution which could include bond service. They had to work it off as a bond servant. It could include outright payment if they had it to pay immediately, or in minor cases, a corporal punishment, flogging, where restitution didn’t work.
What we have done is this: uh, we did have Biblical Law to a degree, even when I was young. On the third or fourth offense as a habitual criminal, people were executed. This was in terms of the law of an incorrigible child. A habitual criminal—incorrigible—you executed him. The last state having such a law had it overthrown by the Supreme Court in the 70s. So what we have done is to keep alive a criminal class and maintain them at considerable expense so that they are expanding. Whereas in terms of Biblical Law, you eliminate the criminal class. They cannot continue, cannot endlessly be a problem. So we have created this problem of overcrowding because so many of those people are people who should’ve died, people who are repeaters of murders, and all kinds of offenses where death should be the penalty, or are incorrigible, habitual criminals. The net result is their victims get the death penalty in many cases, and they do not, and the average term is less than seven years. Of all murderers; between six and seven years. So it has proven to be a failure, and Biblical Law protected society. Now the law too often protects the guilty, the criminal.
In fact, one recent court decision, Supreme Court decision forbad any reference to the damage done to the family of a victim, what it had cost them. This was, I believe within the past week. So that you cannot say this person who was murdered, this is what’s happened to their family to lose, say, their support. This is the problem it’s created for them. You cannot make mention of the consequences of a crime. Now, all you have to say is the court has become criminal!
Any other questions or comments?
Yes.
[Audience] I just wanted to add{?} this is going to sound funny, I know, but believe it or not, the jails today are working as a deterrent of keeping kids out of, out of jail. Let me just explain that. They, at one school I work at down South, a portion of the students have been convicted twice of felonies, and on the next conviction, they will be put into an institution. They are segregated from the regular student body but they have been run by a correctional {?}.
They are so frightened of being in the jail today. The jail is the worst form of punishment today because of the rape and the pain, physical pain that, especially the young person goes through when he’s put into an institution. Any… and, and this sounds like an old story, but it is the truth. I talked to some of these kids and I talked to the fellow that runs the whole thing down there, he says, they’re scared to death of the jail above all. They’d rather the police shoot them down than to be put in that jail in some cases. They’re really frightened.
[Rushdoony] That’s very true, but the fact is that fear alone cannot deter us from doing wrong. There has to be a positive force, a godly faith, so that it is true, this is working in some places they’ve taken young offenders and put them in jail briefly, in a cell, surrounded by other criminals in adjacent cells and they cower in fear in a corner, some of them throw up. But it doesn’t make them good; it just scares them half to death. Fear alone cannot make us good.
[Audience] It’s like the fear of AIDS certainly doesn’t seem to be stopping …
[Rushdoony] No!
[Audience] …the spread of homosexuality.
[Rushdoony] Right. Well, our time is about up. Let us conclude now with prayer.
Oh Lord our God, we thank Thee that Thy Word is truth and Thy Word stands and all who offend against Thy Word fall, so that the years bring forth only Thy purpose, and it is Thy Word and Thy will that shall prevail. Make us strong in Thy Word, by Thy Spirit, and resolute in the service of Thy kingdom. And now, go in peace. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.