Leviticus 21

No dwarfs allowed - God

In fact, we see in this chapter that the priest were not permitted to do many things. They could not approach anything dead. They could not marry a divorced woman or a widow. They had to let their beards grow. They were not to make bald spots (No monks allowed). Why does God have all these rules?

It comes down to two key words which are opposite of each other: consecrate and defile. To consecrate is to finish a process of being made holy (set apart or used of God). The moment of your consecration was when Jesus dies on the cross and said, "It is finished." You, at that moment, were made holy. The work was complete. Jesus did it.
To defile is to take something pure and take away its purity. Let us say I am allergic to apple juice. I can still drink orange juice. In fact, I can drink fruit punch as long as it does not apples. However, if one drop of apple juice gets in that fruit punch, the whole batch is ruined for me. Now think if it were poison. The whole thing would be ruined for everyone. It would be defiled of all its purity.

Maybe you are thinking, "But I have already been defiled. I sin everyday!" Let me encourage you now, you are pure in God's sight. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our High Priest. We, being His sons and daughters, are therefore priests. Do not become a defiled priesthood.

Hebrews 12:14 tells us, "Follow peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord;" Without Holiness you cannot see God! What consecrates our lives making it holy? The Blood of Jesus! Without His blood we will not see Him. The verse continues, "looking diligently lest any fall short of the grace of God, or lest any root of bitterness springing up disturb you, and by it many are defiled," Those who fall short of grace are those who have chosen to follow Jesus but have never loved Him at all. They love what Jesus can do for them. They believe in the idea of being saved from sin. However, they were never in love with Jesus. If you love Jesus, you know He has saved you from your sin. You also know that despite the fact that you mess up, again and again and again, you are consecrated (A finished holy product). Paul said, "For I do not do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not will, that I do." Paul, just a few verses later tells us that he delights in the law of the Lord. Paul knew that even though he messed up, he was going to heaven.


Priests, according to the law of love established by Jesus Christ, consecrated by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, live pure undefiled lives for Jesus.