Come and study the Holy Scriptures with us as Father Stephen DeYoung teaches verse by verse on the podcast, The Whole Council of God.

Father Stephen holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies, and it's an Orthodox priest serving at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Okay, chapter 21.

Now the Lord said to Moses, speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them,

they shall not be defiled by the dead among their people, except for their nearest relatives,

their father, mother, sons, daughters, brother,

and virgin sister near to him and having no husband.

For these he may be defiled.

Okay, so, well, so the idea here is,

and what we're getting here in, in chapter 21,

wherever chapter 20 ended with, okay, look, Israel, you need to have this higher level of holiness than the other nations, right?

So you've got commandments that are just addressed to you about that.

Now there's going to be this, he's starting this other layer

that's even above that.

So the priests,

the Israelite priests,

are going to be called to an even higher level of holiness

than the other Israelites.

Okay.

So the closer you're coming to God,

the higher level of holiness you're called to. Right. And so while

other people, right, it is a good thing to go and bury someone who has died, right? This is a good

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