Priestly Clothing, Holy Space, And What Matters More Than Sacrifice

Linen Clothes — And Why What You Wear to Worship Matters

The book of Leviticus opens the second portion "Tzav" with instructions about the clothing of the priests. For me this is an important topic. Those who are going to be serving God had a special code of dress. The material of their clothing was specified — linen. They had a hat, and they had to change clothing when they moved from one type of service to another. Different clothes for preparing the altar. Different clothes for removing the ashes outside the camp. Every task had its proper dress.

Today with the electronic tools that each one of us carries, we have lost the borders of time and space, and we have made everything flat and equalized. By elimination of the importance of space and time, everything is the same — there is no holy space, nor holy time, nor holy occasion where you have to be dressed accordingly. Especially when we are going to a place where we expect to show our devotion and worship the Creator of the Universe and our Lord and Savior Yeshua, and fellowship with fellow saints. Should we not give that time and that space an honor that is deserved to our Lord, to God's Word, to the Holy Spirit? To be a priest and a servant of God, you had to know the seriousness of your position. You had to delineate the time and place, and honor it with being dressed in the same way that you would prepare if you were going to have a meeting with the prime minister of your country.

I see the communities of the Orthodox Hasidic Jews in Jerusalem. Each Hasidic court has their own style of clothing: hats, socks, shoes, and special Shabbat and holiday clothing. Even the kind of rope-belt that they use around their long coat (kapote) has to be the same as their rabbi wears. They know by the clothing to which Hasidic group their neighbors belong. I personally would be happy even if the young people would come to the fellowship dressed honorably and modestly — not necessarily like the orthodox women in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, but just modestly giving honor to the Lord and to each other.

Sacrifice Is Built Into Us — But Without Love It Becomes an Abomination

In every ancient religion — pagan or true worship of the Lord — sacrificing to the object of worship is a universal practice. But in the Word of God, sacrificing to God is not the main and most important form of worship. Here is what the prophet Jeremiah declares:

The idea that sacrifices are not the main interest of God from His children is found in the prophets — Isaiah 1, Hosea 6, and even in 1 Samuel 15, when Samuel states that hearing (obedience) is more important than sacrifices. But let us not belittle sacrifices — because the way that we express our love for anything is by how much we are willing to give and sacrifice for the people and the things that we love!

Here is what the Apostle Paul says about the relationship between sacrifice and love:

Our need to give and sacrifice and bless others and bless God is a built-in need, an instinct. However, if it is not done with love, in place of becoming a blessing to others and to us, it becomes an abomination. The Lord bless us with the desire to sacrifice our time and talent and money for the Kingdom of God — with love and gratitude that we have such an opportunity to express our love for the Lord and for each other.

The Mixed Signals — And What God Really Wants

The issue of the sacrificial system is one of the most complex issues to understand in the whole Bible. What makes it so difficult is the mixed signals that the Word of God gives us on this subject. We have clear commands and great details to sacrifice animals on the one hand — and on the other hand we have instruction that God doesn't need or even want our sacrifices. The blood is at the center of the commandment:

And yet the prophets and Jeremiah and Isaiah and Hosea all make the same declaration: what God wants is not the animal — what God wants is the relationship, the obedience, the heart. The Essene community from Qumran also condemned the Temple cult in Jerusalem for the same reasons. The desire of the Lord according to Isaiah and Jeremiah was not to cancel the sacrifices — it was to put the worship and the sacrificial system into a perspective built on the relationship of the worshiper with the Almighty God of Israel. The sacrifice God seeks is not merely a gift in our hands, but a heart surrendered to His will.