Chapter 22
Continued instructions to the priests.
6 the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. [Lev 22:6 ESV]
This is addressed to all the priests and their sons through all generations. The parts of the sacrifices that were given as food for the priests were holy. Holy things cannot be given to those who are unclean. So if a priest had become unclean by touching something or someone who was already unclean, the priest was unclean also, and had to refrain from touching holy things, including sacrifices, until the evening, and until he had washed his body in water. Water is always about doing away with the sin or uncleanness that pollutes us in this body. This uncleanness must be removed before we can partake of what is holy. Until the washing, these priests could hang around, but they could not really commune until they were washed. It is easy to see analogy to our baptism today, though we do it only once.
2023 - This just makes a lot of sense in context both to John's baptism, for remission of sins, and to the baptism in the church. It is a SYMBOL of removing sin/uncleanness from ourselves. It is a symbol of washing away the bad, leaving only the holy, so that we may directly serve our God. We do it because we are now our own priests, under the New Covenant. So our "one time only" baptism primarily symbolizes the ordination washing of Aaron and his sons for service that first time. For them, there was just the one ordination washing. But it looks to me like getting baptized again - washed again - if we become extraordinarily tainted with the sins of this world, would be entirely acceptable to God. That is an idea I ought to think about. I certainly did not understand baptism when I was baptized in Joaquin, and look at all the filth that I have accumulated by my wandering off the road since that time. Surely I need a good washing. I will consider this.
All sacrifices must be without blemish, deformity, or injury. Burnt offerings had to be male.
2025 - I noticed the phrase "I am the Lord" repeated over and over in this chapter. This phrase occurs 49 times in 49 verses in the book of Leviticus. That's seven sevens. It occurs 10 times in this one chapter. I believe, today, that God was preemptively answering the question of why these things were not acceptable. Why can't a lame man be a priest and offer sacrifices? Why can't a priest go near a dead body? And the answer is "Because I said so". You can spend all day debating the why's and wherefores and maybe find something acceptable to you, and it is fine to do that. But in the end your reason pales in comparison to the simplest and best and only really necessary reason. Because He said so. Accept it as a child accepting instruction from a parent He didn't say it to your harm but to your help. He knows more than you. Just do as he says. Bonhoeffer again.