The Priest’s Charge to Distinguish

Why is the leader’s place the heaviest? Because from the beginning, the task God gave the leaders of His people was to teach this very distinction.

The Priest’s First Job

Leviticus 10:10-11 and to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; and to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes (chuqqim חֹק khoke) which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses."

That was the priest’s charge: to make the distinction, and to teach it.

And when the priests failed to do it, the prophets did not hold back:

Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have done violence to my Torah, and they have profaned my holy things; between holy and common they have not separated, and between the unclean and the clean they have not made known; and from my Shabbat they have hidden their eyes, and I am profaned in their midst.

In the restored temple of the kingdom to come, the priests’ task is described in the same words:

Ezekiel 44:23 And my people they shall teach the difference between holy and profane, and they shall make them know between the unclean and the clean.

From the days of Aaron, through Ezekiel’s rebuke, and on into the kingdom, the task does not change. The people are to be taught the difference.

Yeshua and James place the same weight on those who teach:

Matthew 5:19 Whoever then breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whoever keeps and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter krima κρίμα kree'-mah(verdict).

Isaiah’s Picture of the Last Days

Now read one verse from the last chapter of Isaiah slowly:

Isaiah 66:17 Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves toward the gardens, behind one in the midst, who eat the flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr') of swine and the detestable thing and the mouse, together they shall come to an end, declares the LORD.

These people are not irreligious. They “sanctify themselves and purify themselves,” qadash קָדַשׁ ko'-desh and taher טָהֵר taw-hore'. They stand in a place of worship, doing what they believe makes them holy.

Then see how they do it: “behind one in the midst.” Someone stands in the middle, and the crowd eats as it follows him.

Is this only an old story about ancient Israel? The verses that follow tell us when it takes place:

Isaiah 66:18 And I—their works and their thoughts—the time is coming to gather all the nations and the tongues; and they shall come and see my glory.

Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, from new moon to new moon, and from Shabbat to Shabbat, all flesh (basar) shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.

It is the time when God gathers “all the nations and the tongues.” It is the time when “all flesh (basar)” comes to worship before Him “from new moon to new moon, and from Shabbat to Shabbat.” That is the setting. In that setting, people who call themselves holy eat the flesh of swine behind the one in the middle, and “together they shall come to an end.”

Zephaniah saw the same time:

Zephaniah 3:9 For then I will turn to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve him (avad עָבַד aw-bad') with one shoulder.

“A pure language.” The Hebrew is berurah בְּרוּרָה baw-rar', from barar בָּרַר baw-rar', to sift out, to purify. It is the same word Isaiah used when he said “be clean” in Isaiah 52:11, the verse Paul quoted to the believers in Corinth. When God gathers the nations, the worship He receives will come from lips that have been sifted and made clean.

What Follows from All This

What a person eats is not a condition for being justified. Justification is by grace through faith. But what a person eats is connected to holy places and holy things.

Remember that the New Testament was written while the temple stood. In that world, no one who read the Torah in the synagogue, served in the temple, or led an ekklesia ἐκκλησία ek-klay-see'-ah ate pork. The Torah said not to approach the holy while unclean. The New Testament called the community a temple and told it not to touch what is unclean. At the Lord’s table, some grew sick and some died. And teaching that distinction is the work of whoever leads.

The trouble today is that words written while the temple stood are read through the church of later centuries. Isaiah 66:17 is filed away as ancient history, while holy gatherings are led and holy words are preached in exactly the way that verse describes. Eating behind the one in the middle is not a private matter. And teachers will receive a stricter verdict.

That this question must be asked at all tells us something. In the ekklesia of the first century, no one would have needed to ask it. It must be asked today because eating pork has become so ordinary in the church that it is hard to read Leviticus 11 and Isaiah 66:17 and imagine that they could be speaking to us. That is why these pages have been written. They are not meant to condemn anyone, but to set the word before all of us so that we may look at it again, together.

Taking Off the Glasses

At the center of this part of the book stood a pair of glasses, a lens so familiar that we forget it is there.

If much of what we assume about the early church comes from translations that hide the original words, and from a separation forged in wars and councils long after the apostles had died, what else have we accepted only because we were following the one in the middle? And if we find such things, are we willing to pay the cost of taking the glasses off and reading the text as it is, even when what it says unsettles us?

The words of James are worth holding on to, whether you teach or not: “we will receive a stricter krima(verdict).” Read the text, let it speak, and let the glasses come off.