And a priest's daughter who is [married] to a stranger may not eat of the heave-offering of the holy things.
This chapter draws a tight circle around the holy food — the portions of Israel's offerings that belonged to the priests. Verse 12 tests that circle at a tender point: a daughter born inside it marries a man outside it.
The loss is real, but it need not last.
The law also provides for special cases. If the priest's daughter married a man outside Aaron's family, she lost her right, for the time being, to eat of an offering of the holy things. But suppose she became a widow, or was divorced, had no child, and was back in her father's house as in her youth. Then she regained her right, and might eat of her father's food. She was no longer a forbidden stranger.
Commentators differ slightly: Kelly points to the marriage, another writer to where she now lives.
No stranger from outside the priestly house could eat of the holy things. Neither could the priest's daughter, once she was married and living outside the priestly household.
No one negotiated this line. Not even Israel's leaders decided who ate.
It also sets out who in the priest's house might eat of the holy thing. Nothing of this was left to man, to Aaron, or even to Moses, to decide. Jehovah alone settled such questions... God guarded the privilege of communion with Him so carefully that He defined by law who shared in such a favour... Birth, or being bought into the house, gave the right to eat with him of the holy things, and nothing else could.
The daughter does not stop being her father's daughter. The same distinction holds for every believer.
Every child of God is a priest... He may be very ignorant; but his position as a priest is not founded on knowledge, but on life. His experience may be very shallow; but his place as a priest does not depend on experience, but on life... He became a priest by birth... Do not confuse the capacity to enjoy a position's privileges and carry out its duties with the position itself. Always keep the two distinct. Relationship is one thing; capacity is quite another.
So what can be lost is not the relationship itself but the enjoyment of it.
To be a child of God is one thing; to be in the enjoyment of priestly communion and priestly worship is quite another. Sadly, many things get in the way of that enjoyment. We let circumstances and associations act on us with their defiling influence... Saved we are, through the free grace of God, on the ground of Christ's perfect sacrifice... but salvation is one thing; communion is quite another. Sonship is one thing; obedience is quite another.
Her household changed, and so did what she could eat.
There were things only the priests could eat, along with those of their families who kept priestly separation. It is the same with us. There is spiritual food of Christ, offered to God. We can feed on it only as far as the heart is truly separated to Him by the power of the Spirit.
Mackintosh applies the chapter's warnings point for point to Christian living:
Nothing can ever rob us of these privileges. But our communion may be marred. Our worship may be hindered. Our holy duties may go undone. The sons of Aaron were warned about ceremonial matters in the section before us, and those warnings have their counterparts in the Christian era. Did they have to be warned against unholy contact? So do we. Did they have to be warned against unholy alliance? So do we.
One writer takes this rule about holy things straight to the Lord's table.
Holy things have to be used in a reverent and holy way. The same principle holds good in the New Testament. We may well think here of the Lord's table... Coming to the Lord's table to remember Him calls for self-judgment.
- Birth — her place in the priestly house came by birth, never by achievement. A believer too is a priest by life, not by knowledge, experience, or capacity.
- Boundary — God alone fixed who could eat. He guarded that line so carefully because the privilege inside it is communion with Himself.
- Bond — marrying outside the family cost her the holy food, not her place as his daughter. Relationship stands; enjoyment is lost.
- Barrier — our associations still act on us with defiling force. Some spiritual food we can feed on only so far as the heart is truly separated to Him.
- Back — widowed or divorced and home again in her father's house, she ate once more. She was no longer a forbidden stranger.
But a priest's daughter that becometh a widow, or is divorced, and hath no seed, and returneth unto her father's house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food; but no stranger shall eat thereof.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.