Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.’ – Leviticus 21:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 19, 2012): Leviticus 21

In James Michener’s book The Covenant, written about the interactions between the different cultures in South Africa from prehistory until the 1970’s, there is a scene regarding a would be priest. He found himself in the undesirable position of knowing, in spite of how much the man desired to be in the priesthood, that he would forever excluded from it. The problem was that the man had a physical deformity, in this case a lazy eye, and the deformity was enough to exclude him from ever being a man of the cloth. I have to admit, when I first read the story in Michener’s book I was a little surprised, and shocked, by the sub plot. I mean, why would a God who judges the heart of men care about the outward appearance of a man?

But the answer is found in this verse in Leviticus – and the instruction proceeds from the very mouth of God. Any man with a defect is automatically disqualified from the most intimate duties of the priesthood. The defect takes precedence over both the lineage and the gifting of the man. And the question that we need to ask is – why?

And the answer is actually found in the nature of the sacrifice that was to be brought into the presence of God. The sacrifice that was to be presented to the priest had to be perfect. Any defect in the sacrifice meant that it was unfit for presentation at the altar - and if the sacrifice had to be perfect, why not the one who was offering it?

Maybe it is best understood as modeling the idea of giving only our best to God. Good enough just is not good enough. God deserved the best of our efforts, and he deserves the best of the people ministering for him. In other words, he deserves us in the places where we can give him our best.

Understanding our gifting is not just something we do to feed our own ego. It is something that we do so that we can offer only our very best to God – without defect because he is the one that gifted and called us into a position. And there we have a chance to  make our world a better place.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 22