Who will know?

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not profane My holy name by what they dedicate to Me: I am the LORD.’”

Leviticus 22:1–2 (NKJV)

Common sense dictates that if you come down with some kind of sickness, it is best to stay home. We like to spread love, but not disease.

In a similar way, the priests had to separate themselves. If they touched something unclean then they would become unclean. They were no longer fit to touch the holy things—either the holy offerings that were presented to the LORD or their portion of the sacrifices that were given to them to eat.

Now a priest could defile himself and no one would know about it except him and God. For example, he could touch a dead beetle and be ceremonially unclean. Who would know? But while he was unclean, he had to separate himself from touching any holy thing. To disobey this commandment could be fatal.

Thankfully, we do not live under the Old Testament law, and many of these ceremonial laws don’t apply to us. However, we can all relate to being defiled by something we’ve seen, heard, said, or done. These things can corrupt us and make us unfit to serve God or to touch the holy things of God.

The way of restoration is through repentance, forgiveness, and abiding in Christ. The Lord is the Master of restoring His failing ones. Just look at how He restored Peter after he denied Christ three times (John 21:15-19).

If sin is in our camp, we may need to separate ourselves from the holy things for a period of time. But our “quarantine” period should not last any longer than necessary. We should always pray that God would be merciful and restore us in His time and His way. Even if we cannot do what we used to do, Christ will always find a place for us in His body. After all, He is the Redeemer!

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’”

Hebrews 8:12 (NKJV)

Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash